A new book, SMART News: how to write press releases that get found in search and shared on social media, walks PR professionals, marketers and business owners through the steps to produce digital content that meets the current needs of the media and the public.

1. SMART NEWS
How to write press releases that get
found in search and shared in social media

3. Search
If your news content
is not optimized for
search – both news
and web search – it
probably won’t be
found and read by
interested journalists,
bloggers and
members of the
public.

4. Social
• Social media fuels traditional
media
• Journalists and bloggers
watch sites like Twitter,
Reddit and Pinterest for
content about for breaking
news stories
• They dig through LinkedIn for
experts and sources
• 25% of Americans between
18 and 29 rely on social
media as their primary
source of news

5. Multimedia
• A story with an appealing
image or interesting
video gets more
views, comments and
shares
• A press release with
multimedia can get up to
9.7x more views
• Forbes called the rise of
visual content a breakout
trend

6. Attention
• People are bombarded
with messages all day
long
• Your content has to be
discoverable, interesting
and relevant
• Know what interests
them right now
• Know what will get them
to share it with others.

7. Research
• Monitor relevant
conversations
• Look for trends
• Current news hooks
• Keyword research
• Rising searches
• Hashtags

8. Trust
• People engage with
brands they feel they
can trust
• Journalists need
sources they can trust
• Use reviews and
recommendations from
friends and ‘people like
me”
• Provide good quality
content consistently

9. Now available:
A step-by-step guide to writing
and distributing content in the
digital age
Amazon Kindle
Print
McNallyJackson