Social Media News Release – Separating Fact From Fiction
Of the many motivating factors for the use of social media press releases, there are two driving forces that stand out: The changing needs of the end consumer and increasing ease of use for the media.
Due to the increasingly social and sharing nature of the web and the increasing importance of press releases as direct to consumer communication tools, it is important for marketers and public relations professionals to adjust their message format and delivery to correspond with the needs of today’s web savvy audience.
Another motivator for using social media with news releases is that editorial resources at many publications are running thinner than ever and expected to do more with less. Social media press releases provide links to additional resources that are helpful for story research and they also package information into formats that are easy to use for quotes and citing references/statistics. Images, audio and video also add impact to the release.
Facilitating news distribution and consumption by utilizing social media elements provides the social media savvy Internet audience with information in a format that is familiar and more functional than a traditional press release. Encouraging the sharing of news via social bookmarks, social news, image and video sharing as well as subscribing to news via RSS provides the news publisher multiple options for meeting the information consumption needs of consumers as well as the media.
In essence, a well written and produced social media press release will make it easier for a journalist to write the story they are tasked with and in a format that is increasingly popular with end consumers.
A few examples of social media press releases:
With video (from Eric Ward)
Anasoft Introduces an All New 3-D Screensaver Just in Time for Halloween
An interesting use of PRWeb
Chevy Presents a Great Opportunity to U.S. College Students
And the one that started it all:
SHIFT Communications Debuts First-Ever Template for “Social Media Press Release”
While additional media and formatting improve the impact these releases can have, the real opportunity with social media press releases is the integration of SEO tactics. As a robust and “social” source of information, the social media press release is of great value, but optimizing that release from a keyword and content perspective provides a distinct competitive advantage.
Think of it along the lines of making a great looking web site. If no one can find it, it’s not worth much. By optimizing the web site to make it easier for searchers to find, you maximize the medium. If you create a robust press release using social media AND you optimize for news search engines, then you’ve made it easy for both the media and end consumers to find your news. That’s the one two punch of social media and optimized press releases.
