Marketing and PR managers in many industries remain skeptical, but the rise of social media offers great potential for businesses looking to increase their visibility. Whether you’re a true believer or not, “new media” has changed the rules. And as marketing communications professionals, we need to change, too.

Press releases are one of the easiest places to experiment. Why? First, optimizing your press releases makes them easy to use and therefore more likely to be picked up by the increasing number of new media outlets as well as traditional media. Second, online press releases aren’t just for reporters anymore. They’re read by customers, competitors, researchers, potential hires, thought leaders, and anyone else who’s interested in your business. They’re easily emailed, copied and shared.

Tweaking your PR content in a few simple ways can increase your visibility and effectiveness:

Make it media and search engine friendly
This means keeping your news releases under 400 words-and making those words count. Aim for brevity and an appropriate density of relevant search terms or keywords. That goes double for headlines.

Make it user-friendly
Consider linking to relevant survey data, background information, company boilerplate or related products for starters. Add links and quick buttons that encourage readers to bookmark your release, share it through social bookmarking sites like Delicious or Digg, or share with a colleague.

Release more news
Issuing short, newsworthy messages on a regular basis helps manage your company’s message. In an interactive social media environment, you can’t control the conversation, but short bursts of regular information, can keep your message out in front and keep people talking.

Get creative
Could you embed a coupon into your press release and track its use back to your campaign? Add video or audio? Links to previous coverage or reviews? Using a social media press release template can spur creative thinking (drop me an email and I’ll send you one to get started).

How are you adapting your press release strategy to a social media environment? Please feel free to share what’s working for you here.

Sally Anne Giedrys is the founder of artisan communications, an independent copywriting and communications consultancy that works with businesses and nonprofit organizations to craft compelling marketing and PR messages. For more than 15 years, Sally has been making businesses “sound good” in print and online through a potent combination of great writing, savvy strategy and high integrity communications. Learn more about artisan’s services at www.artisancopy.com. Or reach Sally directly by clicking here.