The Social Media News Release
With the emergence of social media in PR and the ever-increasing dependence on long-range networking via blogs, forums, and email, practitioners are looking at new ways to approach traditional PR methods. Some of these approaches include podcasts and webinars, both proven efficient tools in this small but dispersed community of communication professionals. One new controversial approach to traditional PR has been the redevelopment of the media release. For several years now, proponents of social media have been pushing for a social media news release. A staple in the PR professionals duties, many feel the traditional media release is outdated and unable to survive the new technological and economical pressures that media is faced with today.
There are many benefits to the social media news release. First, and most important I think, is the speed with which such a document can be communicated. Email is more accessible than telephone or fax. Also a key feature of such a document is the ability to link users to additional information on the topic. No longer is there the need for wasteful backgrounders and fact sheets. Memebers of the media can be directly linked to company websites, videos, podcasts and contact emails directly through the document itself. In short, the social media news release offers what great PR professionals aspire to achieve in their writing: concise, accurate and informative material.
Ofcourse, what makes this document controversial is that it also has some shortcomings. Mainly, the PR community has yet to establish a universal template for such a document. SHIFT communications was the first to develop a social media news release template, and while it is widely regarded as a forerunner in the race, it is far from an industry standard. Tom Foremski, the man responsible for the development of this template, notes that while “we have podcasts, vidcasts, a multitude of media at our disposal… press/news releases rarely have more than one link in them.” The neccessity for such a tool is there, says Foremski, though he notes the biggest problem with its acceptance is the inability of competing firms and practitioners to agree on a standard format.
Other professionals in the field are sitting on the fence. Brian Solis, CEO of FutureWorks, believes that social media news releases can complement the tradtional kind. What this form of news release stands to offer is the “socialization” of the news release; it’s “about connecting content across social networks and the people looking for it.”
As PR establishes itself among other “legitimate” professions, there is an ever-increasing need for the development of industry standards. It becomes difficult to influence the outside world of our professional status when we are unable to agree within our own realm. Indeed, tools like the social media news release stand to strengthen the link between journalism and PR. In an age of downsizing and efficiency, the need for quick access to information has never been so high. I encourage the new PR professional to consider revolutionary new ideas like this. We are the catalyst for change.
Good post, Brandon. I like that you focused on the possible need for standardization of the SMNR. I haven’t seen a lot of similar discussion.
But, it made me think… Is there a standard for the traditional news release? Sure, there are organizations like Canada News Wire that churn out releases in its own format. But, if a company is responsible for getting its releases into the hands of journalists, my bet is that few of them look the same.
I think the look and feel of a release (social media or traditional) depends on personal/business preference. After all, isn’t content the most important thing?
Just as there are general rules for news releases, there are shared beliefs on the functionality of the SMNR. If this is the only factor standing in the way of some professionals adopting the practice, I simply don’t agree.
Rayanne,
you make a valid point, and one that Mr.Solis does address. Our job is not simply cookie-cutter; creativity is highly valued. The problem with the SMNR not being standardized, at least to a degree, is that social media is still an unfamiliar realm for many people in both PR and journalism. Without some sort of general format, we run the risk of counteracting the purpose of this new endeavour (i.e. to improve the functionality and efficiency of the news release).
On another note: I too cited SHIFT Communications in my post – Todd Defrens’ blog is quite dynamic and informative. Have you visited? I love to go back to 2004 and read the posts, it’s really interesting to see the format of blog posts and how they’ve evolved. I’m thinking that the format of the SMNR may change in the near future just to keep up with evolution of social media. Just a thought.
Keep up the great work.