FINAL–Social Media News Releases
09 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Personal
A social media news release(SMNR) is a press release format designed for the online media world. The SMNR was written with just the press in mind, but in the online world SMNR’s need to be told in a format that is relevant to a broad variety of people – journalists, bloggers, publishers and the public at large (http://www.realwire.com/servicesSMNR.asp). The Karcher Group defines SMNRs by saying that “Social media PR attempts to neatly package your message into pieces of information that can be quickly disseminated on the Web, including video, photos, audio files, bulleted lists, quotes, resources, links, and more. This allows users, whether they be journalists or bloggers, to reassemble or disassemble the information however they want and share it on the web.” I found several different definitions for SMNR’s online, but essentially they all say that a social media news release is a press release for the online community (http://www.tkg.com/social-media-pr-template).
The executive vice president of Business Wire, Michael Lissauer, told PRWeek, “The most important thing to our clients is seeing their news release on these search engines. They know consumers go there. If they write a news release effectively, they can bypass the gatekeepers, journalists, who always had the opportunity of interpreting the release how they wanted.” Basically saying, the SMNR has expanded the audience beyond just the traditional media outlet (http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/product/Public-Relations-Writing-and-Media-Techniques/9780205648283.page).
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/0205648282?tag=internationallis&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0205648282&adid=12YXJ96FXRGEGE1E5TM3&)
The content of an SMNR can be produced in the traditional narrative style or be deconstructed so that the core facts, quotes, and contact details are all separated into different sections to allow readers to move its various elements. Social media news releases can contain images, audio and video (including embedded social media video including YouTube) as well as links to relevant websites and coverage of resulting online conversations (http://www.realwire.com/servicesSMNR.asp).
Social media news releases seem like they are pretty simple and are very accessible to find online. Social media news releases “takes advantage of the linking, multimedia and social media capabilities of the Web to make releases more reader-friendly and useful.” It also is optimized for search, conversation, and sharing, while it tells the entire story through multimedia. The only disadvantage about SMNRs is that it is harder to reach people who are not very computer-literate (http://socialtraining.wetpaint.com/page/Social+Media+News+Release).
There are several different websites that you can access that will help you create a SMNR. One website that I found to be very easy to understand and very helpful creating one was, http://www.pitchengine.com/. http://www.prxbuilder.com/x2/ is another website that helps you create SMNRs. There are also several youtube videos explaining what SMNRs are and how to create them. Here is a youtube video giving a little more information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD_mYKc20OY.
- 5 to 10 Tips About Writing SMNRs
1. Watch your length. Since you’re SMNRs are online, you want to get your story across quicker than you would if you were writing for a paper. Short and sweet and to the point.
2. Try and choose a strong title to capture your audiences attention. If your title is not appealing, very easy for your reader to overlook and move on to the next one.
3. Use quotes, pictures, and videos as much as you can. If there is nothing but words in your SMNR it is going to be hard for someone to stay focused long enough to know what your story is. You need to accent it with things that will catch the readers eye and better explain your story.
4. Keywords are very important.
5. Make sure that your message is getting releases to the right audience. If your message isn’t getting across to the right people, then it could really hurt you.
Social Media Releases are beginning to be used a lot more than they have in previous years. It’s very important to know how to format them and how to get them out to your audience! There are several sites online that help with creating SMNRs and also several sites with helpful tips! All of these sites are very important for PR professionals!!
