Free Social Media Marketing Tool: Press Release Grader

Mar 19, 2010

Free tools for social media marketing are popping up everywhere. For a huge list of free and paid social media monitoring tools, there is the Wiki of Social Media Monitoring Solutions. The Press Release Grader from Hubspot is a tool of a different sort, in fact, in addition to checking for basics like contact information, it’s more about search optimization than anything else.

Free Social Media Marketing Tool: Press Release Grader

Unlike monitoring tools, Press Release Grader is not about gathering information and figuring out what to do with it. It’s an instructive tool that runs your press release through a checklist, giving you feedback about things like the readability level (high school, college, graduate school), overused words and words used most often.

One of my favorite features is a link checker that inspects the number and quality of links you include in the body of the release. Since many press releases will wind up on the Web, links are especially important. You need to be sure to include good links: think about the pages you are linking to and whether you have included keywords in the links.

Press Release Grader is an instructive tool in another sense: it teaches the user how to optimize content. Many of the same principles apply to all Web-based publishing. It’s also likely that this tool will improve as Hubspot gets feedback from users. There are search engine optimization tools that do the same thing, Hubspot and Optify are two notable providers.

Press releases are not dead. They are still a valuable way to get the word out and build inbound links. So, as long as you are going to use them, you should take a few minutes to check them over with a tool like Press Release Grader.

WordPress Tutorial – How to Upload and Insert an Image Using WordPress

Mar 17, 2010

WordPress Websites Tutorial by Mark McLaren – How to Upload and Insert an Image

This video tutorial replaces my earlier “How to Insert an Image” tutorial for WordPress that was done using screen captures, text descriptions and WordPress version 2.1 or so, which is a bit outdated today.

Some people prefer text tutorials with screen captures. My “How to Make a Text Link” WordPress Tutorial is still a straight-forward explanation of the process, which hasn’t changed.

Questions About WordPress? Ask Them Here!

Mar 17, 2010

If you’ve got questions about WordPress websites or blogs, Seattle’s McBuzz Communications has answers!

This page is now so long that the comments no longer work. (Old theme. I’m working on it! “Cobbler’s son has no shoes.” You know, that kind of thing.) Come on over to the latest WordPress questions page: WordPress Q&A: More Answers to WordPress Questions and post your question in the comments there. I’ll answer ASAP. The cost? Free!

P.S. If you’re into WordPress, follow Mark McLaren on Twitter for free tips and howto’s.
And if you are in Seattle, check out the Seattle WordPress Meetup on Meetup.com.

Social Media and Social Transformation via the Internet: The Cluetrain Manifesto

Mar 5, 2010

On the “Reading Social Media” Book Club Blog, Veronica Sopher and Maya Bisineer have posted my summary and review of The Cluetrain Manifesto. The Cluetrain Manifesto is a social media classic that was written before the term “social media” even existed: way, way back in 1999-2000. It says everything that’s now familiar to us social media types. But it’s not written as a book on marketing or business; it’s about the Internet and its implications for the way humans – mainly humans in corporate America, but really all humans living in industrialized countries – communicate.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Summary and review of The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
by Mark McLaren