After analyzing thousands of press releases, the study shows that while more press releases are shared on Facebook, each share on Twitter results in 30 percent more views.

Their findings also indicate adding multimedia elements to your press release such as photos and video can increase your engagement up to 3.5 times. See infographic from PR Newswire and Crowd Factory below

That is the question. And AP finally has a contemporary answer for us.

The AP Styebook, otherwise known as the journalist’s Bible, has finally updated its guidelines for usage and changed “e-mail” to “email” – losing the antiquated hyphen for the abbreviated term “electronic mail.”

Maybe it’s just the die-hard English-major-nerd slash former journalist in me, but this is definitely BIG news! OK, I concede that most people wouldn’t notice such stylistic minutiae.

However, if you’re a blogger, marketer, publicist, or entrepreneur who works with or is hoping to work closely with media outlets, it may behoove you to take note of this change and implement immediately.

Trust me, from the perspective of the editor or reporter’s desk, it could be tedious and irksome to have to remove a bunch of hyphens from a press release, calendar listing or other content submission when you’re on a tight deadline.

Plus, in addition to showing how media friendly you are, AP is a good place to look for grammar and punctuation standards when conquering the Wild Web!

How about “Web site” or “website”?

Last year AP also officially changed “Web site” to one word “website.”

AP also released social media guidelines in the 2010 edition of The Associated Press Stylebook, introducing a separate section for the social web along with the acceptable usage of “fan,” “friend” and “follow” as both nouns and verbs.

AP releases its new Stylebook each spring. In the meantime, you can send your suggestions to AP here: http://www.apstylebook.com/?do=social_media http://www.apstylebook.com/?do=social_media

Just don’t ask them to include standard usage for “Winning!” or anything else from The Charlie Sheen Dictionary.

Consider these 3 FREE tips:

1. Share your news AND increase communication
Use tools you already have (and are best of all, FREE) to boost your credibility. Find out how adding a straightforward news section to your existing website could accomplish this. And for the icing on the cake: increase your search engine rankings!

2. Write Your Own Press Releases to Generate Local Buzz
You can get your share-worthy news out by writing your own press releases. By using keyword-rich content (i.e. strong local key phrases) you will boost your local search engine visibility. Learn how to to boost your business with easy local PR tips.

3. Distribute, Distribute, Distribute for FREE
Now that you have a great press release, don’t let it get stale by sitting in the file cabinet or to-be-lost-forever in one of the many folders on your computer. Get your news out there! Submit press releases to local newspapers, stations and other local channels, like online event calendars. This is a healthy win-win media relationship: you get your news out and papers get to hear from you (you’re doing them a favor, they’ll love you). Consider all your options – like local TV or community services websites.  WMT has a free eBook with tips on how to distribute your press releases for free or read an easy blog post written by The Marketing Therapist on how to distribute your press releases for credibility and visibility.

For more info and examples, read our “Boost Your Local Business with Free Online PR” FREE eBook or take a 6 minute video journey where Lorrie Thomas talks about how PR can attract traffic to your website!

Follow Web Marketing Therapy’s healthy doses of web marketing tweets at www.twitter.com/webmarketing_rx

PJ PR - it is OK to try this at home!

WMT has a FREE ebook called PJ PR – How to Generate and Distribute Your Own Press Releases that you can download (we will NOT try to sell you stuff post download! It’s truly free content to help you boost business) The PJ PR eBook will help you brainstorm, create, and distribute your own press releases so that you can use the most of what you have to get what you want!  The eBook has a list of links that give you best places to distribute your news through easy-to-use online press release distribution websites to further spread the word out for your exciting news and promotions.

One of my favorite online PR distribution tools that is mentioned in the PJ PR eBook is PitchEngine.  I was reminded of this tool when I saw a client’s great online press release this week.  We blogged about PitchEngine last year, but I wanted to re-share to keep healthy marketing momentum moving.

One of the biggest pieces of the PR puzzle is getting your news releases out via the web.  PitchEngine can help you create social media release templates that integrate social networking and multimedia elements into your news releases.   Emilia (WMT’s Client Treatment Specialist) and I especially love the super-social “Twitter pitch” function- that makes it easy for users to tweet out your release in just a few clicks….aaaand, control freaks like me LOVE that you can pre-set the Tweet so the exact message you want to send is ready –all a person has to do is click the social media widget and viola, instant “word of mouse” marketing!

After you create an account with PitchEngine (there is a free version) enjoy:
–That your news release goes out through their Pitch Feed to over 6,000 users
–The ability to upload multiple images in addition to your logo
–Easy ways to set additional website links and keyword tags (for traffic to your site and more SEO)
–A social-savvy way of sharing your PR content with your team, media contacts, consumers, and investors, via social sites like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter
–The neato Twitter Pitch function so you and others can spread your release via word-of-mouse
–That your social media press release via PitchEngine has all the social media tools for sharing build into the release!

The only downside to PitchEngine is that if you do not pay to play, your release will expire.  If you buy an account, then your release will have a longer visibility shelf-life.

Get PJ PR ready, tap the free How to Generate and Distribute Your Own Press Releases eBook and check out PitchEngine – it is a healthy addition to your web marketing arsenal.

And if you are in Santa Barbara February 11th and want to learn about PR from a traditional PR expert and a Wild Web Woman “PJ PR” pro (yours truly), come see me at the University Club.  8am February 11th, University Club – Learn PR from the Experts Business Leaders Breakfast Meeting

Who’s ready to rock online PR with us??

Showcase your news to help attract journalists as well as consumers to your website.

As David Meerman Scott has pointed out in the The New Rules of Marketing and PR, press releases aren’t just solely intended for reporters anymore. We’ve blogged about how you can write your own news, build your own social media news release, and use local PR to increase your traffic. In addition to creating great PR content, we also highly recommend pimping out your online news room to help attract journalists as well as consumers to your website.

An online news room can do so much more than just house your news releases – it can also help drive traffic and boost your natural search visibility while enhancing your credibility and exposure!

Thanks to David Meerman Scott for this great resource: Online Media Room Best Practices.

Here are the top 10 must haves for your website’s news room:

1.  Provide resources in an online press kit that make it easy for reporters to cover you.

2.  Offer online content for all stages of the media consideration cycle (including basic and extensive information).

3.  Encourage browsing by making it easy for readers to navigate.

4.  Highlight your media inquiry contact info in a prominent place above the fold.

5.  Make logos, images, charts, etc. available for download in different resolutions and download sizes.

6.  Showcase both your press releases and your media plugs.

7.  List all appropriate public speaking appearances and conference participation.

8.  Integrate social media tools to make it easy for users to share your content.

9.  Add an RSS feed so media professionals can sign up for news alerts.

10. Implement page-specific meta-data for SEO to help search engines and users find your news.

An online news room helps journalists, reporters and bloggers who are looking for a story (your story!) while providing additional information to serve the needs of prospective clients and investors who are looking for your product or service.