Press Release Tip 69

Use hashtags and Twitter handles

Tweet4Toys is a campaign sponsored by Social Media Tulsa to benefit The Salvation Army in Tulsa by collecting toys for Tulsa’s forgotten angels.

This type of campaign is perfect for sharing on social media. Cheryl Lawson had great success when she used the headline “#Tweet4Toys Taps Twitter in Social Media for Social Good Campaign” in the press release she distributed through PRWeb. 

She used four tactics to promote the event and encourage others to promote it:

1. She created the hashtag #Tweet4Toys and used it in her press release and through her promotions.
2. She made sure the popular Twitter tips and tools account, @TweetSmarter posted this tweet to their 220,337 followers: “Tweet4Toys helps the Salvation Army help kids: http://j.mp/fMUvtu“
3. Tap11 partnered with Social Media Tulsa and The Salvation Army Tulsa to track all tweets containing the #Tweet4Toys hashtag. “With Tap11’s Buzz Monitoring feature, we are able to see how many times the hashtag is mentioned, who the key influencers are, and which tweets containing the hashtag are most impactful,” said Adam Zbar, CEO of Tap 11. “This will provide the Tweet4Toys program with invaluable insight around their campaign.”
4. Within the press release, Cheryl included two paragraphs encouraging people to retweet the promotion:

   “To help spread the word, we are asking everyone who views this release to post the link to his/her Facebook wall and to send out the official tweet,” explained Social Media Tulsa founder, Cheryl Lawson. “We’re hoping that the generosity of the Tulsa community, combined with the power of social media, will help us collect more toys so that no child is without a toy on Christmas morning.”

   The official Tweet is, “#Tweet4toys helps The Salvation Army help kids @SalArmyTulsa http://j.mp/fMUvtu“

Opportunity #69 to write a press release: Research you’re conducting, or results

Starting a research project for your company, non-profit or class? Write a press release to let people know. Write another release when you announce the results. If you’re an author and you’re doing research for your new book, you can write a press release and let people know you’re looking for sources to interview..

Next: Your press release SEO checklist.