Once
upon a time, a Public Relations (PR) professional relied solely on black ink
and paper to issue a client press release. These press releases would mark an announcement
or expansion of a product or company, an event or other organizational happenings
that were considered to be “news worthy.” With the rise of social media,
however, and two-way interactivity, the scope on press releases expanded. A
social media release is a “web-based” press release that not only provides all
of the details of a regular press release but also allows for that
interactivity in which this generation of “internet dependents” has become accustomed.
A
social media release includes a headline, subhead (if applicable), overview,
body, any relevant facts, contact information and a boilerplate as with a
regular press release. The differences between the two are social media
releases also provide media links such as videos or photos. Often times Twitter
and Facebook links are provided along with a Twitter message built into the
release for automatic “re-tweeting.” And two-way interactivity is gained
through the ability to either bookmark, comment or share the release.
The
advantages of a social media release over a traditional print media release
seem obvious. Unlike with a traditional press release, a social media release can
not only speak to journalists but also consumers and bloggers. They are
optimized for search engines because of the ability to add tags, and they are
easier to pass along and share over the Internet. A social media release also offers
more visually pleasing elements with a little more flexibility in the format of
the release.
In
a traditional release, the format is pretty standard and archaic. There are
paragraphs of facts and text that explain the purpose of the release. A
journalist usually needs to read the entire release to gather all of the facts,
and this can be tedious.
In
a social media release, the content is not only more engaging but the facts
provided are “scannable.” A journalist does not need to read the entire release
to figure out what the PR professional is asking of them. Also, as mentioned
earlier, a mix of multimedia is provided to help engage the consumer,
journalist or blogger. And though the formula with a social media release can
also be standard, there are a few different layouts that cater to that formula.
This allows for a little differentiation between the styles of a social media
release.
Another
advantage of a social media release is it can evolve with the change in social
media. The social media websites that were popular when the first social media
release was created are no long the main sites utilized in today’s media
release. This will almost certainly be the case five years from now as well.
And a social media release is flexible enough to flow with that change. It really has become the most functional form
of a press release when so much of PR can be done over the web and through
social media anyway. And over time, the social media release has the ability to
banish the traditional release completely. It will, without a doubt, become the
“new” traditional release as more and more PR efforts are taking place online
as well.
Sources:
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