Press Releases are a great source of content to use in your offsite optimisation efforts. If you have a PR person or copywriter writing a press release for distribution, don't waste that content by keeping it offline. Not only can the internet help you reach a much wider audience, it can also point straight back at your website with embedded links, helping increase site traffic and SEO efforts.

The release should be written in a slightly different way for online, so make these adjustments first;

• Have at least one link - it may or may not be allowed to have anchor text depending on the site you are submitting it to, (obviously anchor text is better), but you at least want people to be able to find your site.
• Make sure the headline includes keywords that people in your industry or target market would use and search for (e.g. don't use the word fragrance for perfume).
• Apart from a href tag, try not to use html, because the release might be syndicated to many different sites, and you can't be sure it will end up being displayed properly.
• Similarly to html, don't use foreign characters or accents which might not be transferred to syndicated sites intact
• Don't include your email on the publicly available release because spammers can get a hold of it

Once you have your release ready for readers (edited and checked for errors), you can start distributing it online. Keep track of all the sites you distribute to and see how often they actually get published, whether links stay embedded and how long they stay up. The best sites you can then use again for new releases.

Look at press releases from other companies, and search for a snippet of their press release in Google. Where has it been posted? Post yours there too!

Unfortunately, I didn't, so I don't.

Yesterday there were a few stories circulating the web hinting that today Google would release a new feature for Gmail which was touted as being either a Twitter-killer, or a Facebook-killer, depending on which one you read.

I held off writing a piece about that, because until an official press release comes out you never know who to trust, and there were no reliable sources discussing it anyway.

Today, the Gmail blog (and Google blog) both published an article announcing Google Buzz, an add-on to Gmail, which is being rolled out over the next couple of days.

Yesterday I was sceptical, because to be honest, I don't like Gmail all that much. Other Google products in the social sphere have also been disappointing, like Orkut (only big in Brazil) and Wave (which is not yet out of beta, and which I also dislike anyway).

The big obstacle in the way of Buzz being a Twitter killer is that it is integrated into Gmail, which puts it behind the 8ball because gmail is such a user-unfriendly interface, whereas Twitter is so simple.  I suspect it would have been better to introduce a new, simple product with a nice interface rather than try to staple something on to Gmail.

What is Buzz?
Buzz, which you can kind of get from the name, is Google's next attempt at entering the social media sphere. It uses your current social network (i.e. your Gmail contacts) with new functionality to help you ' talk with them about things that are interesting you at the time'. Google is touting it as a new way to organise the social web.

It seems to be using a bit of the Google Wave technology, where you can easily share photo's, video's and links with a group, and any responses to things you post will get sent to your email where they are not 'static emails'  but rather ' live conversations' (like they tried to do with Google Wave).

You can also make things 'available to the whole world' if you want, by opening up your privacy settings.

Like Twitter you can follow people and find out what they are doing and sharing online, and like Twitter it uses @replies.


Why Did Google Do It?
Google is basically built on ad sales, and with more people spending time on non-Google social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, this is reducing their ability to advertise.  With this new tool they hope to get a piece of the addictive-pie that is social media, and therefore be able to sell more ads on Gmail.

It is integratable with Twitter and Flickr already, with other sites likely to be introduced in the future, so basically it is hoping that you will stay on a Google site to view all your other social media information.

Interesting Features
Their mobile version is not just the small screen friendly version of the normal site, but also has an addition to the "what are you doing now"  status update, you can add a ' Where were you when you said that'  kind of thing. That is awesome if you are a Facebook stalker, you can take it to a whole new level.

My prediction
This is not a Twitter or Facebook killer.

If Google were a cake, would it look like this?

(photo's courtesy of ladyironchef.com and herecomesthefood.com.au).

Yesterday I visited the Adriano Zumbo patisserie in Balmain (made famous by MasterChef) and found this delicious looking Google-named cake. For those interested (and who wouldn't be), it is a passionfruit and banana cream tart.

For those working in online marketing, see if you can expense it like I did (kidding!).

Remember this (excellent) post I did about offline marketing inspiring online? It showcased some really creative ideas for advertising outside, and I commented how this could be used as 'buzz' or PR online to direct people to your site.

Today there was a post on Searchengineland along a similar vein, it was about outdoor advertising which can be integrated into Google maps (online).

The one I found the most intriguing was where Google Maps could replace the content on billboards (for example in Times Square), with new ' virtual ads'  in its streetview. Apparently, Google has already been granted a patent to do this (although the link in that story doesn't go the relevant patent).

Other ideas for getting advertising in Google Maps was to use land advertising (e.g. huge sand impressions), sky writing, rooftop advertising or even sponsoring a town to rename their town to your brand name! (crazy).

I have one to add to their story though - how about your fleet vehicles? If you knew where Google car was going to be, wouldn't you place your fleet vehicles there? E.g. like how I Google Street Viewed Covent Garden, and I got this:


This kind of Google Maps advertising wouldn't be suitable for all Google advertisers obviously. It would be suitable for those advertisers who want more branding opportunities - and due to the fact that maybe your customers aren't necessarily using Google Street View - I think you would have to do it hand in hand with some quirky PR campaigns.