Thanks to Yahoo! News, one of Business Wire’s many members got a great first-hand look at the fact that not only is the press release not dead, it can be used effectively in a social-media-powered news world.
Yahoo! yesterday led their news page for part of the day with a story about some Michigan daycare regulations affecting moms who babysit for their neighbors. An eagle-eyed Yahoo! editor must have been monitoring his or her Business Wire feed that day, because right next to the headline was a link to a press release from Gather, a social network for moms, and Mom Central Consulting, a mom-directed marketing firm, about moms’ use of social networks to maintain friendships.
Thanks to the great placement, not only did the release receive hundreds of views, but 29 readers submitted it to Yahoo! Buzz, Yahoo’s story recommendation system.
Even better, Gather received more than 2,700 click-throughs (so far) on the various links in their press release, including links to their website, their Moms social network, and their Twitter feed.
Just goes to show you: Even in a media world driven by Facebook pages and Twitter tweets, a well-written, timely press release with good, relevant content is still one of the best tools in the box.
