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Social Media Release January 7, 2009

Posted by Angelia Chandra in Research data, Social Media, Social Media Release, YouTube Videos.
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We all know press release is the basic yet important tool in PR. Has press release died after the emergence of Web 2.0? Of course not. In fact, press release has relived and transformed into a PR 2.0 platform so called the Social Media Release (SMR).

I recently read the book “PR 2.0: New Media. New Tools, New Audiences” by Deirdre K. Breakenridge and here are some useful information on what to include in a SMR according to him:

  • Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds (direct news feeds on content related to the subject matter as well as links to content).
  • Photo libraries with high resolution images. (These images are for download into a print publication.)
  • MP3 files (a digital audio encoding method to reduce the size of an audio file for easy download) or a podcast.
  • Video footage for Video-On-Demand (VOD).
  • Links to previous coverage on a topic with the ability to use del.icio.us or Digg for social bookmarking. (Journalists can tag their favourite information by locating, classifying, and ranking noteworthy references and resources.)
  • Technorati is a leader in “what’s happening on the World Live Web.” Because bloggers commonly link to other blogs, Technorati searches and organises blogs, and tracks how blogs are linked together (by recording the relevance of the links to your subject matter).

Therefore, press release is now more than just a page of paper filled only with graphics and texts. Now, journalists can get more data from SMR in shorter time period. Journalists can download materials that are useful in the publication such as pictures, videos, podcasts directly from the SMR. All of these information could also help journalists to cover news completely as more and more journalists go online to retrieve news. The “2004 Media in Cyberspace” study described in an online article by John V. Pavlik Ph.D. (p.5) discovered that:

  • 76% of reporters go online to find new sources and experts.

  • 73% of reporters go online to find press releases.

  • 81% of reporters go online daily to do searching.

  • 92% of journalists go online as part of their story research.

Furthermore, the other important aspects of SMR is that it is not only for use by the journalists. It is also for bloggers who are interested in writing about a certain company or subject matter. Consumers or public who are online could also gain access to the SMR. As such, SMR also helps the company to communicate directly with its consumers.

Here is a useful SMR template from Shift Communications – a known PR agency in the USA. Shift Communications claimed to be the first one to create a PR 2.0 SMR template. This template is free for download from their website:

smr-template

Click for Original PDF Document

You’ll notice that some basic press release rules are still there. Contact person, headline, main facts, quotes and boilerplate statements are still important in SMR. So don’t forget the 5Ws and other rules in writing a traditional press release even though we are now living the Web 2.0 world.

I also found one video on YouTube about Social Media Release by WebitPR agency. It is quite useful to help one understands SMR even though the agency is promoting itself with the video ;-) Put that aside, take an unbiased look at it here:


“The New Rules of Marketing and PR” – by David Meerman Scott December 22, 2008

Posted by Angelia Chandra in PR and Marketing, PR and Web 2.0.
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Book Cover

These days I’ve been reading this book. It is definitely one interesting book and I learn quite a lot from it. This book is very accessible as it is written in blog-style which makes me feel like I’m reading a story book. It also provides a lot of examples and links so I can then find out more about a particular topic from resources on the Internet.

The first chapter starts with an interesting title: “The Old Rules of Marketing and PR Are Ineffective in an Online World”. It struck me that I’ve got a lot to learn to work in the new media as all the old rules applied in the traditional media that I have learnt are not applicable in the case of new media.

So what are the new rules that we all have to know then? According to Scott, these are the new rules of Marketing and PR:

  • Marketing is more than just advertising.
  • PR is for more than just a mainstream media audience.
  • You are what you publish.
  • People want authenticity, not spin.
  • People want participation, not propaganda.
  • Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it.
  • Marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the Web.
  • PR is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It’s about your buyers seeing your company on the Web.
  • Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. It’s about your organization winning business.
  • The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media.
  • Companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content.
  • Blogs, podcasts, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate.
  • On the Web, the lines between marketing and PR have blurred.

I second his thought on those rules, especially the following rules. First, the rule – “Blogs, podcasts, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate” - is similar to the statement from the video I posted here previously that “PR should engage people when, where and how they want to be engaged”. I think this is one advantage of Web 2.0 which was hardly done in the traditional media because we didn’t really have as many ways in sending our messages across. Nowadays, with Web 2.0, we can send our messages by using the media that is mostly appreciated by the targeted public. Of course we should do some research to determine which platform is the appropriate one. It’s about sending the right messages in the right time, at the right place, with the right way.

Secondly, with regards to the rule that says – “On the Web, the lines between Marketing and PR have blurred” – I do think that actually, be it on the Web or in real life, Marketing and PR should work hand in hand with each other anyway. It is ideal to work within an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) concept. It would be good if Marketing and PR are supporting each other. The messages would be addressed and understood better by the public. However, I realise that in the real life, it is hard to practise IMC for reasons that we all know well.

Later on at the part three of this book, there are lots of “How To” tips which are very useful. A must-read book for PR practitioner who is interested in new media!

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