The Skinny on Online Press Release Services

Posted onSeptember 5, 2008 
Filed under Communications, Internet, The Press, social bookmarking and tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Some of you have emailed me asking about online press releases and the companies out there that provide this service. I have done some research, but let me preface this by explaining that many of these companies primarily serve corporations, tech companies and agencies. While I have seen some online press releases created by non-profits, they are in the minority. And these companies tend to be on the expensive side — fair warning.

An alternative to spending big bucks for the services of some of these companies is to simply create your own online press releases, placing them on your web site (if you have a site with a content management system), inserting some social media code that permits readers to give your release more visibility, adding links to any other relevant sites for research purposes, and emailing the local media with links to your releases.

I have just begun doing that, and urge you to see one small example here. This particular example includes related links and I have added a sharethis button for promoting the release on social bookmarking sites. Sharethis is easy to obtain by simply going onto their website and saving the code for their button.

Now, let’s talk about online press release services and the companies that provide them. If I don’t provide a price, it’s because I couldn’t find a price on their website — a sure sign that you might be spending serious bucks:

1. PRNewswire — one of the big players in the online press release business, PRNewswire is used by large companies around the world.  Although I understand their prices are pretty steep, PRNewswire provides a “Nonprofit Toolkit” that you can purchase.

2. eReleases — Another pretty extensive service, which can include writing your press releases, sending them out via database distribution to media outlets, and submitting them to social media. eReleases claims a national press release distribution list of 17,500 sources. The cost? A mere $399 for a press release of 500 words or less.

3. PRleap — A much less extravagant distribution site, which provides many of the services offered by the more well-known companies at an affordable cost — $49 per release.

4. i-Newswire – Finally, an actual free press release website. You can use their template to enter a press release, but understand that you cannot include links in the basic release. For $25 per release, you can upgrade to publish “featured” releases with all the bells and whistles.

5. PRBuzz — For $99 per release, you can easily get online press releases, complete with links, onto this site. PRBuzz also has subpages just for Education releases.

6. OpenPR — This is a fully free press release website that features an easy content tool to enter press release information. With 47,000 releases on the site, it’s one of the smaller players. But you’ll find some Education releases on the site, mostly from education service companies and some colleges.

Remember that some of these sites do offer regional press release distribution services, whihch will drastically reduce your price. If you’re strictly zoning your releases for local distribution, inquire about this option.

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Objections to Social Media at Your Job? Walk This Way…

Posted onSeptember 4, 2008 
Filed under Internet, Journalism, Public relations, The Press, Web 2.0 and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment

Gannett Co., Inc.Image via Wikipedia

Although I’m just getting to this post at ReadWriteWeb, I think it’s so important to read it. Writer Marshall Kirkpatrick lists Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond. I hear these objections a lot — from colleagues still getting to know this stuff, from superintendents who don’t want to blog because of the reactions they might elicit, from adult students who say they just don’t have the time. But Kirkpatrick says that anyone using this media now should be ready to meet these recalcitrant objections with a handy list of responses. For example, when they groan that “our clients don’t use this stuff/it’s too geeky,” let them know nicely that:

Many of these tools provide value vastly disproportionate to the literal number of people they reach. These are like high-value focus groups where you’ll gather information and preparation to engage with the rest of the world.

Editor and Publisher also featured a story earlier this year that looked at how newspapers need to seriously consider making cultural changes, including more use of social media and the web. (I just heard recently from a handful former newspaper colleagues who’ve suddenly found themselves out of a job, and I’m personally losing money on my Gannett stock.)

For me, as a public relations professional with work in the public education sector, I find myself always urging people to get on board this online media train. I hope they begin to robustly use the tools the web offers them to communicate and to promote their fine schools.

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Lessons Learned: The Gustav Information Center

Posted onSeptember 1, 2008 
Filed under Communications, Internet, Maps, The Press, collaborating, education, video, wikis, youtube and tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

A lesson for your classes this week — the power of the Internet during a crisis or catastrophe.  The latest example of how the Web joins in to get vital information out is the Gustav Information Center, a wiki created on Ning by Andy Carvin. This wiki, which I joined (see my widget at the bottom of my sidebar), is providing news updates, weather maps, photos, forums and videos. Teams of people are working on getting the word out to families, pet owners and others on a minute-by-minute basis.

It would be a great class lesson to examine the online efforts of individuals and groups to get the message out instantaneously during events like hurricanes, tornados, natural disasters or large-scale violence.

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Textbooks and iPods and Facebook — Oh My!

Posted onAugust 28, 2008 
Filed under Communications, Internet, collaborating, education, facebook, google, wikis, youtube and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment

This Special Report in Businessweek this week takes a fascinating look at how technology — from iPods to professors’ Facebook pages — is changing the face of your average campus.

I especially like this quote from a researcher in the story:

Cara Lane, a researcher who studies learning and scholarly technologies at the University of Washington in Seattle, says all that time spent searching for Hannah Montana videos on YouTube can help make teens better at searching the databases, including Lexis-Nexis and J-Stor, they’ll need for academic research—those IMs, texts, and status updates are a primer for participation in online forums related to classwork. “Students usually arrive not knowing how to use education-oriented technology tools,” Lane says. “But they quickly surpass their instructors in their ability to use them effectively.”

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New York — The Virtual Learning Backwoods

Posted onAugust 26, 2008 
Filed under Communications, education and tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment

Utah Education NetworkImage via Wikipedia

I received an email today from Rich Finlinson, Public Relations Specialist for the Utah Education Network, who attended my NSPRA Gold Mine Session in Washington, DC, in July. The session, “School PR and Social Media,” focused on using social media in doing public relations for schools.

Rich wanted some advice about online press release creation and distribution sites, which I’ll get to in another post, probably tomorrow.

But in communicating with him, I decided to check out the Utah Education Network online and was blown away not only by the agency’s website but by the educational programs the state of Utah offers its kids. Most notable was the Utah Electronic High School, that state’s version of online high school courses as an option for students.

I recently heard Susan Patrick, President and Chief Executive Officer of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL), speak about virtual schools at the staff development meeting of our Lower Hudson Regional Information Center.

Patrick spoke about the growing presence of virtual schools, online courses and distance learning in the U.S., with state education departments jumping on this bandwagon with zeal. Patrick’s organization, NACOL, is an international K-12 nonprofit association representing the interests of practitioners, providers and students involved in online learning worldwide. You can see the lengthy list of institutional NACOL members (schools) on their site.

The Utah Electronic High School has been in operation since 1994, and provides a wide variety of courses to Utah students. Courses are added each year as interest and funding permit. The Electronic High School courses have been developed by master teachers and are correlated to the state of Utah’s core standards and objectives.

Students enrolled at the UEHS are able to work at their own pace until the class is completed. Most students, they say, spend about 200 hours on a full-credit course, and all courses are rigorous.

This is the case in many states, but when Ms. Patrick showed us a map of the U.S. depicting states either with government-funded virtual school programs or with partially government-funded programs, New York was one of a handful of states without either. How entrenched and backward is the state I live in?

The public approves our public school budgets, except in the state’s large cities. So most New York boards of education are under pressure each May, during the budget vote season, just to get a bare bones budget past the voters. I work for school districts where every penny, from textbooks to salaries, is picked apart by taxpayer groups sick and tired of paying high local, New York, and federal taxes. Property taxes alone in my neck of the woods run anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 a year.

Unfortunately, I don’t see virtual schools making their mark in New York, unless they’re privately funded, the state overhauls the public education financing system, or the voters decide to be gracious. Or none of the above.

And the sad thing is, our kids will be the beneficiaries of this sad, backwoods legacy.

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Syllabi for the Millennial Student

Posted onAugust 26, 2008 
Filed under Blogger, blogs, education | Leave a Comment

The Millennial Professor, whose site I visit now and then for ideas, had a post today about her syllabi for Millennial students — you know, the kids who do nearly everything electronically and are plugged in 24 hours a day. (I’m so jealous of this generation, remembering with horror the late nights I spent in my dorm room, using WiteOut and an IBM Selectric typewriter, praying the ribbon didn’t run out of ink at 4 a.m., which it inevitably did.)

So here’s the checklist the Millennial Professor uses in assembling her syllabi for courses. It’s great to use these ideas as you plan your own courses, college or K-12, for the year.

1. She includes a photo of the textbook the class will be using. I’m sure this comes in handy when students are in the college bookstore trying to sort out their purchases, or ordering online, when a photo of the book might be useful. For K-12 teachers, this might be useful information for parents.

2. She includes an explanation of her virtual office hours. Because many teachers and professors  don’t have virtual office hours, this simply helps to explain what this is. Millennial Professor includes her Yahoo instant messaging user name and describes how her virtual office hours work and might help them. Virtual office hours — via email and instant messaging — provide an alternative to in-office hours, particularly for students who need a quick answer or explanation.

3. She uses her syllabus to remind students that laptops are not allowed in her classroom, except on designated days. Because her lectures are in Powerpoint and she makes them available online to her students, laptops generally aren’t useful in the classroom and deter from class discussions.

4. She includes a “Best Practices” section in her syllabus. Today’s students want to know how they can make a certain grade, so she provides examples of best practices so students will know exactly what they need to do to make a satisfactory grade. For K-12 teachers, posting your class rubrics would be a viable alternative.

5. She includes her attendance policy, because she always takes attendance. Her students are allowed to have two to three absences without an explanation.

Bloggers Unite on Nov. 10th

Posted onAugust 26, 2008 
Filed under Communications, Writing, blogs, collaborating and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve signed up to participate in the Bloggers Unite initiative on Nov. 10. This worldwide initiative will benefit Refugees United with information, which leads to empowerment.

Refugees United is a non-profit organization that helps refugees relocate family and friends through the use of the internet. It provides refugees with an anonymous forum to reconnect with missing family members. By registering with nicknames, scars, former locations and other markers only identifiable to family and close friends, everyone can remain ‘invisible’ to all but their relatives.

The Refugees United search engine is the first of its kind. Visit Refugees United to see how it works and to learn more about the work that Refugees United is doing. You can also read the Refugees United blog.

Here’s what Bloggers Unite says about this effort:

It is very difficult to reach refugees in remote areas. By advancing the power of blogs, bloggers are effectively placed in a position to fulfill a job that could not be done without the power of the internet and the skills that bloggers possess to quickly and effectively raise the necessary awareness and aid about critical social causes. We hope you will join us, as together we harness the expression of the blogosphere to reunite family members who have been separated from each other.

Bloggers who participate will blog about any refugee issue to help shed light on the plight of refugees and the hardships they endure around the world. If you have a blog, join the effort.

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Pbwiki Ready to Help Public Schools

Posted onAugust 25, 2008 
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Dave Nagel over at TheJournal.com is reporting that collaborative technology developer PBwiki has announced $25 million in new grant programs for education, offering free upgrades to its hosted wiki service and other awards.

Back To School Challenge will allow up to 100,000 teachers and librarians to earn a free gold-level PBwiki account, which usually costs about $250. Other prizes include a $1,000 gift certificate for purchasing school supplies, Lego educational products, and games.

The Partner Program for Education allows districts and associations to offer free PBwiki gold accounts to members.

“With schools and libraries feeling the pinch of the slowing economy, PBwiki wants to make sure educators can still afford the tools they need to make 2008-2009 the year of collaborative learning,” said PBwiki CEO Jim Groff in a statement released this week. “Giving away 100,000 premium wikis lets us help out and spread wiki-based collaboration to an even wider audience.”

Both programs are open now through Oct. 31. Go for it!

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Technorati, Here I Come!

Posted onAugust 23, 2008 
Filed under blogs, social bookmarking | Leave a Comment

20080823-IMG_5263-1Image by Barack Obama via Flickr

So I’m finally being listed on Technorati, after many false starts and apparent system problems on their end. I hope some of you will visit me over there and I hope to get a Technorati button on this blog soon. Check out my
Technorati Profile.

A Back-to-School Wakeup Call

Posted onAugust 23, 2008 
Filed under Internet, Teens, collaborating, education, facebook, google, video, youtube and tagged , , , | 2 Comments

I am a major fan of Dr. Michael Wesch, professor of digital ethnography at Kansas State University, best known for his video, The Machine is Using/Us, which went viral on YouTube.
Because I just dropped off my two college students for another year of learning, and because the public school year is about to begin here in New York, I thought I’d provide this gift to you of another Wesch video, which serves to remind us who our students are. The video was made after 200 students collaborated on the topic: “A Vision of Students Today.” Enjoy — it’s an eye-opener.

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