Startup BizCast #7 – Online News Release Tips from PRWeb (Jiyan Wei)

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I talked in episode #5 about the best places to distribute your online news release. Now it’s time to talk about how to structure your release and how NOT to structure your release, so you get the most bang for your buck. As I mentioned in my episode preview, I hadn’t planned to talk about news release distribution again so soon, but when I was given the opportunity to interview this week’s guest, I jumped at the opportunity.

The online news release distribution business is booming, as more and more business owners are realizing that distributing online is a great way to let potential customers know about their services and increase their search rankings. In episode 7 of Startup BizCast, a podcast with small business advice provided via interviews with small business owners and other experts, I’m very excited to interview Jiyan Wei. Jiyan is a PRWeb Product Manager for VOCUS, and a great guy. PRWeb is one of the top online news release distribution companies, and is owned by VOCUS. During the interview, Jiyan gives us some “dos and don’ts” for writing and distributing releases online, and also discusses an entirely new type of news release, the social media release.

Links to sites mentioned in this week’s episode:

Information on Shift Communication’s Social Media News Release
Shift Communications’ Social Media News Release Template (PDF)
The blog post that launched the social media release
PRWeb
PR Newswire
PR Log

[Updated 8/5/07: I added to the list of links above the original blog post by journalist Tom Formeski that launched the social media release initiative]