Valley PR Blog

A look at social media releases (SMRs) three years later

By Linda VandeVrede on August 17th, 2009 In Social Media

It seems appropriate to take a look at the social media release (SMR), which was created in August 2006.   Has it helped?  Are PR professionals in Arizona using the format?  Is it successful?  What do journalists think of it?

I asked 3 people to weigh in – Amanda Vega of Amanda Vega Consulting, Malcolm Atherton at Businesswire, and Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher, whom most people agree started the whole discussion about press releases and press release formats.

Amanda says her PR firm started using the template created by Todd Defren (see example in this graphic) awhile ago. Most of the response they received from the media, however, was that they didn’t know what half of the information was for, or why it was relevant. Sadly, she says, many high profile media that PR people are pitching today still do not understand or participate in social media. Another pushback they have seen is in the actual formatting. Journalists don’t like the boxes. They think it is too much information and most of the time PR agencies are giving them links to self-serving advertisements rather than thoughtful insight into their client or product.

So what Amanda’s company does is a marriage of the traditional release and the social media release. Their best results have come when they have cut out some of the fluff in the release (usually the third, “page anchor” paragraph) and added in a list of links at the bottom to the relevant social media locations for more information. The key is to add the links for things that help further your cause. Link to a specific post, comment, photo or conversation flow on a Facebook wall that pertains to the pitch you’re making. Indicate next to the links what journalists/bloggers can find on that link: quotes, additional products back and photos, bios of stakeholders, latest 10K filing, etc. That helps the person you are pitching find what they want without having to dig for it.

Her assessment of SMRs?  “It doesn’t take a fancy template. And it doesn’t take an added cost optimization. It just takes you getting back to what you do best – communicating information about your client.”

 Malcolm Atherton is the account executive at Businesswire here in Phoenix, and has some strong opinions about the social media release and its applications.  He feels that the format of the release isn’t nearly as important as the content, particular the headline, as that is the making or breaking point for release.

He pointed me to an eye-opening Arketi Group survey that shows that social media releases are still somewhat unknown.  The survey polled business journalists and found that:

• 43% did not know what a social media release was
• 57% knew what it was
• Of that 57%, 2% found it very useful, 23% found it somewhat useful, and 32% found it not useful

Since wire service releases appear differently in so many places, Malcolm thinks it’s better to use the wire to reel people in and then put a prominently placed link that will drive someone to the more media-rich SMR version hosted on a company website or third-party sites such as EON.bw.com.  Other services such as Pitchengine or PR Web don’t allow you to embed links, he says, or limit the amount of links you can integrate.

“I think the name social media release is silly because nothing is a social media release unless it is shared. And it’s not the format or layout that is going to dictate that. It’s the content that will dictate whether someone will tweak it,digg it, Facebook it, etc.  All wire services include icons on the page to help facilitate the sharing of releases on social platforms. Any release can be an SMR in this case so it really comes down to writing the best possible content in a way that will satisfy the targeted audience.”

I’m sure Tom Foremski is about sick to death now of being asked about the “press release is dead” and “social media release” topics, but he was gracious enough to reply to me.   He explained that he originally called for the death of the press release in the older traditional format, which had not changed in decades. He feels that a press release should incorporate the media technologies that we currently use. It should have links, offer video if it is available or appropriate, and photos, etc. It should offer the media resources that are available that other publishers might want to use to write a story or post so that little work is needed to hunt down photos, videos, background material.  “It’s a very simple plea to enable me, as a journalist, to do my work more efficiently. It’s no more than that. There is no need for a specific social media release format, although one might be available in the future that would allow machines to format and publish information.”

 So where do you stand? Do you 1) still write and distribute the pre-2006 way and find it successful?  Do you 2) write copy in the traditional format but use social media platforms to promote it and link to it?  Or do you 3) create SMR templates that would leave Todd Defren salivating with uncontrollable jealousy? 

If you have any corporate samples of what you’ve created that you think would be helpful to ValleyPRBlog readers, please post links in the comments.   We can all learn from you.

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