Reaction
As a Cleveland sports fan, I’ve had more than my share of heartache. Growing up, I remember crying when Jose Mesa blew the World Series and Art Modell moved the Browns. I also remember having to wait until the next day to talk about it with my friends at school.

Last night, however, thanks to Twitter, I didn’t have to wait to find out what my friends thought of the decision. Twitter has allowed us to instantly react to news and work through the Five Stages of Loss much more publicly. Last night, we definitely made it to Stage Two: Anger.

@MattKeough: Modell > LeBron
@KurtKrejny: Lebron you will never surpass Jordan now. You are no longer the king… you are one of three Musketeers. #somuchforloyalty #lebrondecision
@mmazzone29: I mean really Lebron? Throw salt in the wound.

Rumors
Dozens of new LeBron rumors have popped up every single day for the past two months. Unconfirmed reports on subjects ranging from LeBron’s house hunting trips to his mother’s boyfriends have spread like wildfire thanks to Twitter. Now, any juicy rumor, regardless of its validity, can be retweeted thousands of times, spreading to the news feeds of millions of Twitter followers in a matter of minutes.

@JaredDudley619: Breaking News!!! My sources tell me Lebron will announce that he will be goin to the NY KNICKS tomorrow on ESPN.. This is serious.. WOW!!!!
@usweekly: Looks like LeBron James is def going to Miami Heat. Sources confirm he planned a big wknd party at W South Beach!

Reporting
One thing that has become clear through the Summer of LeBron is that the same qualities that make Twitter great for spreading rumors also makes the site a reporter’s dream come true. Updates can be posted much faster than a traditional news story can be written, giving reporters  a coveted tool to help them scoop each other or simply report tidbits too short for a full story.

The problem with this is that so many people are posting rumors attributed to unnamed “sources,” that it can be difficult to separate the rumor from the news. That’s why, while I enjoy reading rumors, the only Twitter reports I’ll trust are from reporters like the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Brian Windhorst (@PDCavsInsider) who are more concerned about getting the story right than getting it first.

@PDCavsInsider: Newsday has reported LeBron has decided on Heat. Only a couple of people can truly confirm this. None have to me at this point.
@PDCavsInsider: Multiple police cars are protecting the witness billboard in downtown CLE.

Humor
Twitter’s 140-character limit allows users to post hilarious commentary on up-to-the-minute current events. LeBron’s free agency has provided fodder for some of the funniest tweets I’ve ever seen.

@ConanOBrien: I don’t care where LeBron James ends up… As long as it’s not at 11pm on TBS.
@LeBronsElbow: The real reason LeBron is calling this press conference? To announce if he is Team Edward or Team Jacob.

Interaction
This week, after years of refusing to touch social media, Lebron James set up a Twitter account. Yesterday morning, he asked his 300,000 followers to submit questions via a hash tag for his ESPN special last night. Thousands of responses poured in, and ESPN used some of the best (or safest) questions on the air.

@KingJames: Good Morning! It’s your chance to ask me a question about my decision, use #lebrondecision to submit and I’ll answer them tonight.

When you’re creating your social media strategy, don’t lose sight what Twitter is capable of. If you’re using your Twitter account for just one purpose, you’re probably missing some powerful opportunities.

They were only supposed to tell the story of the XYZ Company merging with the ABC Company, or how a new product that hit the market would change our lives forever…or not. My opinion of press releases changed a couple of weeks ago when I attended a webinar presented by Janet Thaeler, author of “I Need a Killer Press Release-Now What?” Ms. Thaeler is an Internet marketer and blogger who knows her stuff. In 2009, she won the “Social Media Content Guru” Award from the Social Media Club. She is also an online PR and online press release expert at OnlinePRBook.com.
I discovered that press releases don’t have to be dull. In fact, you need to make them interesting and unique in order to grab the attention of your target audience. You also want to make sure that your topic is actually noteworthy. It’s a good idea to focus on something that:

• happened recently
• is happening now
• will happen in the future

Another thing I learned is to call upon the oracle of Google Trends when you’re having a hard time coming up with press release topics. Google Trends allows you to enter up to five topics of interest and see how often they’ve been searched for on Google over time. You can see the geographical regions where people have searched for the topics the most.

When writing your press releases, don’t be afraid to tell the story of the people who were affected by your news. Share a story about how a product or service that your company offers impacted a customer’s life. Or, share helpful, industry-related tips. Doing this keeps your audience engaged and also piques their interest in your company.

Finally, use social media to promote your press release. Facebook, Twitter and other social media portals are great for online promotion. But don’t bog people down with information in your post. An intro sentence or two with a link to your release should be sufficient.

The writing team at Fathom SEO can help you make the most of your online press releases.
Learn more about our Search Engine Optimization services today.

Image provided by Bennigan on Flickr

Fathom SEO’s Kurt Krejny assembled a comprehensive piece that’s being showcased on Marketing Pilgrim. It’s called Sure-fire Strategies to Pounce on Negative Search Engine Results.

It’s packed with tips, tricks, insights and resources.

Check it out.

When we set out to build our own version of the social media pressroom, we couldn’t find a WordPress theme that suited our needs, so we designed our own. When it was completed, the feedback was so positive that we created a generic version for anyone to use.

All of us at Fathom SEO realize how easy it is to talk about how important social media and online PR are (and will be) as part of a marketing strategy. We hope that our newsroom and the WordPress theme actually shows how invaluable social media and online PR can be.

Fathom SEO’s media pressroom template is available for distribution under a Creative Commons license (“Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported”). The work may be copied, distributed, transmitted, and adapted with proper attribution and distribution under the same, similar, or a compatible license.

Think we missed something? Let us know, perhaps we’ll add it in the next version or a completely new template altogether. This is a first for us, so we’re looking forward to seeing the results.

Contact us at pressroom@fathomseo.com

Here in Cleveland, the entire city is abuzz today about 23-cent pizzas at area Papa John’s stores. Papa John’s announced that 86 stores in Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Youngstown are in on the deal, each prepared to sell more than 900 pizzas today.

Papa John’s agreed the deal as an apology to Cleveland Cavaliers fans after a franchisee in Washington, D.C., made T-shirts calling star James a “crybaby.” While all the goodwill was said to be a PR/marketing coup after threatened boycotts, it is becoming apparent that chain may have overlooked how hungry our fine city is.

The Plain Dealer is reporting more that more pizzas are being sold than anticipated. One news station even has a live video cam at the Papa John’s store in Euclid where police are on the scene to reduce line jumping and direct traffic for the estimated 1,200 people. One of our own fine employees drove by to see a line of over 200 people at the Garfield Heights store before 11 a.m.

So for all the kudos, what happens if stores run out of pizza or has to close early? Jim Sweeney from Sweeney Public Relations summed it up best in a story in today’s Crain’s Cleveland Business:

Looks like Papa John’s shouldn’t be congratulating themselves just yet.