The Society for New Communications Research recently released a study on the changing role of off and online press releases.  Based on a survey of both small business owners and PR and marketing employees of larger corporations, the Society found:

  • New Goals and priorities for press releases are emerging - In addition to reaching the press and announcing news, releases are increasingly being used to directly reach customers, add to corporate visability and improve search engine optimization. 
  • Bloggers have joined traditional media as key press release targets - a bit over two-thirds of survey respondents said it was important or very important to reach bloggers with press releases.
  • Measurement Continues to be a Challenge - PR has always been hard to measure and the same is true for online press releases. 

As this survey shows, a growing number of small businesses are using online press releases to accomplish a mix of marketing goals.  Often small businesses are not doing a traditional press release, but instead simply posting the release on their site and sending it directly to bloggers, online news sites and customers.  This is not only cheaper, but helps with search engine optimization and provides more online website content. 


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