Meet the Influencers - Josh Rehrer, Business Wire

It’s that time again – another Sounding Board Amplifier. I recently had a conversation with Josh Rehrer, Director of Sales at Business Wire and got his thoughts on the evolution of press releases and the emerging trends of SEO. Think you know all the tricks of the trade when it comes to putting your news over the wire? Take a look at Josh’s comments and you may surprise yourself.

- Mary Evans

There has been much PR industry talk about the proclaimed 'death of the press release.' What's your response? How has the press release changed in the past few years?

A well-written press release is a tremendously effective tool in an organization's communications efforts. In today's very fragmented audience environment, the press release provides a great platform to break news, inform, reinforce marketing messages and drive audiences to additional information and dialogue. Our press releases serve as a mini portal for the company or organization more than ever before. Releases now include sharing links for popular social media services, photos and multimedia in a variety of formats for traditional journalists, bloggers and consumers, hyperlinked keywords to provide additional information and background for various audiences and search engine optimization (SEO) features, including back-end coding (XHTML language - an advanced version of HTML) and copy optimization.

Beyond the various features designed to provide relevant information for journalists, investors, analysts, consumers and other audiences, Business Wire both distributes news to key media, news systems, disclosure destinations and individuals but it also licenses with content providers, sites and portals to post in full-text, often with multimedia, to services that directly reach audiences that pre-Internet would not have seen a press release.

So, the press release is a tremendously valuable starting point for dialogue with audiences.



Earlier this year, Business Wire was the subject of posts by some high profile bloggers, after proactively claiming that companies and marketers can use Business Wire's reach to bypass journalists and bloggers to get into key news outlets like Techmeme, and to boost search engine rankings - a nod to the power of optimization. How has SEO, in your opinion, changed news announcements?

There was a blog post on a Business Wire ranking highly in Techmeme but it was a bit off the mark. Business Wire always considers journalists a critical part of our network and a vital component in vetting news and information. But, we have long-recognized that the roll of the press release has changed from being a closed communication between a company/organization and a journalist. Since 1996 or so, Business Wire has been posting press releases on our website and other information services, available to all. And prior to that, we had contracted with Dialog, Nexis-Lexis and other information platforms to make releases available to researchers and the financial community.

So, we've long been an advocate of increasing the reach and the role of the press release so that it effectively reaches consumers, investors and others. Not every press release is reported on by media and even when they are, much of the information in the press release may not be included in the reported story. Having the company press release widely available helps more people access the company's information. And because we post releases in so many different locations, the press release will often show up alongside reported news.

Any specific tips for press release optimization?

Write with an eye towards your audience and do some homework to determine the keywords and phrases that are being used to find your service, your competitors' services and your industry. There are a number of optimization tools that can help with that. Work those phrases into your press release, taking care not to over-stuff with terms. The release has to strike a balance between containing appropriately placed keywords/phrases and being a compelling story to a human reader. Include relevant links to pages on your company's site - helps drive traffic and the reinforcing information on your site helps authenticate what you are saying is relevant for search engine algorithms. Unless you are a well-known brand, avoid using your product names and instead provide more descriptive, commonly used terms that someone unfamiliar with your company might use in a web search.

Business Wire was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway just over two years ago. Have you met Warren Buffett? If so, what's he like?

Yes, I met him when he came to our 2006 international conference. After a two hour Q&A session, he came to our awards dinner, picked up a ukulele and sang a couple of songs.

Are there any emerging trends you're keeping your eye on?

Tools to share press releases, measurement, advanced language technology - XHTML and XBRL, which open more doors to more sophisticated content being used in more advanced ways by information services, portals, engines and individuals.