This Isn’t Your Father’s Press Release: Social Media Changes a Historic Element of the PR Game
by Emily Bernard
As the media landscape continues to shrink, journalists are challenged with covering more news with fewer resources. They don’t have time to waste — they need pertinent information now, and they need it fast. The stories we pitch for our clients must be clearly relevant to what they’re writing about and must provide information quickly and easily.
To be successful, interactions with the media must be dynamic and conversational. Reporters are looking for rich content that provides every element of a story for them in one place so that they don’t have to waste time researching information that’s already available. They want a conversation —not a sales pitch.
So how do you continue to grab media attention with press releases?
We recently watched a Bulldog Reporter webinar that discussed the effectiveness of a social media release. In layman’s terms, a social media release (SMR) is a digital, concise and interactive news release. It invites reporters to click on external links to learn more about a product or story through a variety of communication channels. What sets SMR’s apart from the typical press release is that the content is minimal, with only a few bullet points describing the announcement, and maybe a company quote or two. Most importantly, the content is dynamic. With a SMR, you don’t have tell the reporter a story – instead, the links allow reporters to actually see the story for themselves.
This type of communication emphasizes the story-telling aspect of a news release, engaging the journalist and sparking a dialogue. SMR’s include content like photos and videos, links to social sharing sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), tags and RSS feeds.
Need a visual? Check out these great SMR’s:
While each social media release is different, all three examples incorporate rich content that engages the reporter in an authentic and passionate way. You’re not telling the reporter a story — instead, you’re making the reporter a part of the story.
So how can you benefit from a social media release? Social media releases help you:
· Reach a wider audience — Social media releases are one way to touch all groups -journalists, bloggers and the public.
· Develop a two-way dialogue — Social media releases are interactive. You can take comments, track who’s using the content, monitor what people are saying and embed content from platforms like You Tube or Flickr.
· Enhance communication and shelf life — SMRs give your story more credibility, evolving it from something static into something dynamic. You’re not telling your audience something – you’re showing them.
· Stay in front of your audiences — With a longer shelf life, your release and information will be picked up by search engines for weeks, months, even years after its been released. This helps your search engine optimization and keeps you ranked higher on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
While social media releases are just one way to stand out in the crowd, they are an effective alternative to “traditional” press releases. The new wave of media calls for interactivity, transparency and authenticity – all of which a social media release can demonstrate. Are you ready to answer the call?