Free (Or At Least Affordable) Distribution

Your Social Media News Release (SMNR) is the linchpin of your Social Media Marketing Campaign, but maybe your budget demands you seek out free distribution.  This value is available at a multitude of news release distribution sites. Each distribution service, however, has advantages and disadvantages.  Ultimately, it will be up to you to determine which one is the best outlet for you and your brand. Two of the more popular free distribution sites are PRLog (www.prlog.org) and i-Newswire (www.inewswire.com).

You’ll want to research what’s included in the free distribution service and find out what types of flexibility you have with customizing your distribution list.  This will help you get your SMNR into the hands of the right journalists and bloggers. For instance, if a site informs you that they distribute to all the major national newspapers or certain trade publications, you should ask if they have distribution points to journalists who focus on specific content areas (e.g., health, technology, finance, etc.).

Moral of the story — be sure to tell your story…online.  There are plenty of places to do so without breaking the bank.

Most of the following sites offer free press release distribution, with fee-based upgrades available.

24-7PressRelease.com (www.24-7pressrelease.com)—Free release distribution with ad-support.  Multi-channel distribution network helps corporations and organizations disseminate their news to consumers, editors, journalists, bloggers and websites.

1888PressRelease.com (www.1888pressrelease.com)—Free distribution, paid services gives you better placement and permanent archiving.  Distribute releases to search engines, newswires and websites to help increase awareness of product, company, or self for free. For a small fee, upgrade submissions for maximum exposure.

ClickPress.com—Distributes to sites like Google News and Topix.net, Gold level will also get you to sites like LexisNexis.  ClickPress is a property of Pressventures, a provider of free tools and websites to media professionals around the world.  Once news submitted to ClickPress has been approved, it is available not only to visitors to our site, but also to major web and news search engines. All submissions are free and news releases will remain in our searchable archives indefinitely.

eCommWire.com (http://ecommwire.com)—Focuses on ecommerce and requires you to include an image, three keywords and links.  EcommWire is a free press release service for news about ecommerce-related business.

Express-Press-Release.com (http://express-press-release.com)—Free distribution company with offices in 12 states.

Free-Press-Release.com (www.free-press-release.com)—Easy press release distribution for free, more features for paid accounts.  Targeting global audiences with submitting press releases by country and industry.

Free-Press-Release-Center.info (www.free-press-release-center.info)—Distributes your release, offers a Web page with one keyword link to your site. Pro upgrade will give you three links, permanent archiving and more.

FreePressIndex.com (http://freepressindex.com)—Vocus Online Press Release Distribution Service.

i-Newswire.com—Allows for free distribution to sites and search engines, premium membership differs only slightly in adding in graphics.

MediaSyndicate.com (http://mediasyndicate.com)—Free press release and newswire posting website that enables small- and medium-sized businesses to get information out to the general public in a fast and efficient manner.

NewswireToday.com (www.newswiretoday.com)—All the usual free distribution tools, premium service includes logo, product picture and more.  Helps companies gain recognition and grow through media exposure, strategic investor relations, interactive campaigns, dynamic marketing.

PR.com (www.pr.com)—Not only will they distribute your press releases, but you can also set up a full company profile.  A one stop shop business marketplace, PR.com is a cross between a public relations and advertising entity.  A directory of businesses, products and services, a press release distribution service, job search website, and online publication of articles, reviews and interviews.  With a full company profile, each business listed on PR.com has a means by which to generate leads as well as gain worldwide and local exposure for all of their products, services and other business information.

PR9.net (www.pr9.net)—Press release submission, distribution service – ad supported.

PR-Inside.com (www.pr-inside.com)—European-based free press release distribution site. A website for the free submission of public relations distribution, news, and press releases.   HelloArticle.com.

PRBuzz.com – $299 USD to distribute unlimited press release distribution to search engines, news sites, and blogs for a single year.

PRurgent.com (http://prurgent.com)—Not only distributes your release, but attempts to teach you how to write one, and even offers downloadable samples for you to work with.  Promote news releases with a separate page dedicated for individual news releases with SEO content along with URL links and keywords to increase link popularity with search engines. RSS/XML feeds also available for syndication to other third-party sites. Popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN frequently visit the PRUrgent.com site to index posted news releases.

PressAbout.com (www.pressabout.com)—A Free Press Release Distribution service in the form of a blog. This unique service allows you to distribute press releases to search engines, newswires and websites to help increase awareness company or personal products and services for free. Service aims to help you reach the public directly and improve visibility in search engine listings, so you can get the most publicity possible.

PRLeap.com—Pay-per-release starting at $49.  Distribution to search engines, newswires, and RSS feeds. Fee-based bumps get you better placement.  Publishing platform makes it easy to package your story and leverage SEO, Social Media and our distribution network to spread your message and engage.

PRlog.org (www.prlog.org)—Free distribution to Google News and other search engines.  PR Log is an online free press release distribution and free press release submission service. Founded to help small, medium and large businesses and organizations in their online activities. Currently, the website offers following services – press release distribution, press room hosting, business directory, job listings, product directory, expert directory.

PRzoom.com (www.przoom.com)—Free press release submission and PR distribution online service.  Free press release distribution to Google News.

PressReleasePoint.com (http://pressreleasepoint.com)—Free press release distribution website.  Post press release to 50+ free press release websites.  Send to 100+ online publications.

TheOpenPress.com (http://theopenpress.com)—Free distribution for plain formatted releases, fees for HTML-coded releases.  Press release w/stars – Starting at $10.

Contact Digital Eye Media for information on how to Create and Manage your Social Media Marketing Campaigns: P: (949) 900-3017; sales@digitaleyemedia.com.