News - Social Media Releases

Integrated Marketing Agency Creates New Social Media Release: Template Reflects Social Media, Public Relations and SEO Best Practices

CHICAGO, Aug 26th, 2009 – Vivid Ascent (http://www.vividascent.com), a fully integrated marketing agency located in downtown Chicago, today announced it has created a new template for Social Media Releases. The new template was designed in-house, and demonstrates the agency’s unique understanding that media assets like video and images enhance reporting by giving the media a variety of tools to improve the way they deliver the news. Vivid Ascent will use this new release as a complement to traditional press releases to dramatically expand awareness for their clients within influential blogs, forums and social networks.

Vivid Ascent’s new Social Media Release template includes:

• A video summary of the news release’s content
• Links to the subject’s presence on influential social networks
• Digital images with titles and tags that attract search engines
• RSS feeds
• Links to other relevant online sources, such as blogs and forums
• Interactive contact info (not just phone and email anymore!)
• Share buttons
• Follow-me buttons

“When looking at Social Media Release templates on the web, many lacked what we viewed as essential components to make them more valuable to reporters and more easily found by search engines” said Vivid Ascent CEO, Dan O’Brien. “Search engines are heavily weighting images and video content in organic search results, and incorporating them into social media initiatives is critical to reaching audiences more effectively.”

Vivid Ascent, formed by the early 2009 merger of Strategics and Brand Clariti, has been providing strategic input to its clients on how to best leverage social media. In April, the company helped online brokerage trade MONSTER become the first broker to integrate its platform with Twitter. Trade MONSTER’s Twitter feed currently enjoys a following of over 2,300 people as the brokerage continues to grow.

Vivid Ascent plans on using Social Media Releases (SMR’s) in the coming months to expand coverage for its clients using tools that open new media channels. This is an important complement to existing PR best practices and will define a more effective and efficient means to communicate with important constituents.

About Vivid Ascent
Vivid Ascent is the first integrated marketing agency to apply strategic search engine optimization in the design and execution of all marketing programs. The company is led by 30-year public relations veteran Ray Carmichael and Dan O’Brien, a former global advertising executive for Accenture.

Media Contact:
Dave Carlson
Direct: (312) 346 2006
E-Mail: dcarlson@vividascent.com