Business Wire’s free award-winning webinar series adds an investor relations twist to its roster this month, as we feature a special webinar devoted to social media and investor relations.

The webinar joins the series of presentations on press release tips and how-tos. July’s schedule starts with a primer on press release optimization, moves on to a tutorial on social media basics and how they apply to press releases for public companies, and includes a session on getting press releases found, seen and shared online. To Tweet or not your press release is another featured topic.

“When investor relations and social media meet in the context of press releases, it makes for lively discussion,” says Monika Maeckle, Vice President of New Media for Business Wire. “In this webinar we’ll try to answer questions on everything from Twitter and Facebook to Regulation FD.”

The free webinars, attended by thousands of professional communicators since the series inception last year, are archived at Business Wire’s website.

Business Wire’s upcoming webinar schedule follows:

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Press Release Optimization: Build Your Press Release Like a Pro

10 AM Pacific / Noon Central / 1 PM Eastern

In this webinar we'll dig deeper into the relationship between your company's overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Press Release Optimization (PRO) strategies and provide keyword selection tips using our new Press Release Builder tool. The goal? Increased online traction.

Hosts: Maria Van Wambeke, Product Development Manager, Business Wire

Michael Toner, New Media Specialist and Account Executive, Business Wire

RSVP: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/485649441

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Press Releases: How to Get Them Found, Seen and Shared

7 AM Pacific / 9 AM Central / 10 AM Eastern / 3 PM London

Hosts: Clint Howell, Senior Account Executive, Business Wire

Monika Maeckle, Vice President of New Media, Business Wire

RSVP: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/795966944

Join us for a pragmatic how-to session loaded with tips on getting your press releases found, seen and shared. We'll touch on keywords, links and multimedia in press releases, and talk about sharing press releases on social networks.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

To Tweet or Not to Tweet Your Press Release? And Other Frequently Asked Questions

10 AM Pacific / Noon Central / 1 PM Eastern

This webinar is for those trying to figure out how Twitter, Facebook and other new media applications and tools apply to press releases. Taken from the most frequently asked questions posed during our award-winning webinar series.

Hosts: Monika Maeckle, Vice President of New Media, Business Wire

Joseph Miller, EON Product Manager, Business Wire

RSVP: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/605237065

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Press Releases, Public Companies and Social Media: What to Do?

10 AM Pacific / Noon Central / 1 PM Eastern

How should public company communicators use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube? In this session, we'll explore how Reg FD and the call to engage social media create special challenges for publicly traded companies in today's new media swirl. What role do press releases play?

Hosts: Malcolm Atherton, New Media Specialist and Account Executive, Business Wire

Aaron Nye, Account Executive, Business Wire

Michael Becker, Global Disclosure & Financial Reporting Services, Business Wire

An Investor Relations Officer TBD

RSVP: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/631661993

To watch the archived webinars, click on the links below:

Build Your Press Release Like a Pro

http://tr.im/pUg3

Desperately Seeking Google Juice: Crafting Web Friendly Press Releases

http://tinyurl.com/5e2m4c

Happy News Release Resolutions

http://tinyurl.com/cmcyfd

Case Study Insider: Behind the Scenes of Successful Press Releases

http://tr.im/pUfq

About Business Wire

Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is utilized by tens of thousands of member companies and organizations worldwide to functionally enhance and communicate investor relations and public relations content to target audiences. As a recognized disclosure service in the United States, Canada and a dozen European countries, Business Wire facilitates the simultaneous flow of market-moving press releases from corporations to financial markets and their audiences, including regulatory authorities, media, investors, financial information systems and consumer news services. Business Wire also handles XBRL tagging, document formatting and regulatory filing into EDGAR, SEDAR, FSA and other systems.

Communications professionals turn to Business Wire to optimize and issue press releases, photos and multimedia to news organizations, journalists, trade publications, search engines, and individuals, with full-text posting to web sites, online services and databases. A range of distribution options enables members to target by geography, industry, news theme and audience demographics.

Founded in 1961, Business Wire has dual headquarters in San Francisco and New York, with 30 bureaus in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Brussels, Tokyo, Toronto and Sydney and reciprocal offices throughout the world. Business Wire's patented NX data platform supports XML, XHTML and XBRL code that enhances news release interactivity, social media sharing and search engine optimization. More information about Business Wire and its services is located on its website at www.BusinessWire.com.

Visit the EON: Enhanced Online News Resource Toolshed on Delicious: http://del.icio.us/eon_resources

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=5997161&lang=en