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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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The Social Media Release: What’s in a name?

During yesterday’s FIR call-in episode dealing with PR spam, the issue of the press release arose—not surprisingly, since so much PR spam arrives in the form of traditional narrative press releases. Stowe Boyd—whose contribution to the panel discussion was invaluable—reiterated a point he’s been making for a while: He’d rather just read a blog post about an announcement.

This an other ongoing resistance to the idea of the Social Media Release have led me to wonder if all this negative views might have been avoided altogether if we had just opted to call it a Social Media Press Kit.

After all, one of the principle benefits of the Social Media Release is one-stop shopping for all of the information and assets you might want to use in your online reporting. This includes news facts; quotes (real, not made up, since by separating them from the rest of the release, fabricated quotes are much easier to spot); images, audio and video (embeddable into your own blog or news story); and links. It also includes tools to aid in your research, such as Technorati tags and links to other coverage of the news. It also includes social media tools you can use yourself to share the information with others, such as links to Digg, del.icio.us, and the like.

(As far as I know, nobody has talked about putting widgets into a Social Media Release, but why not?)

Who would want to read all that in a blog post? Ideally, the CEO, the product manager, and anybody else in the company who wanted to blog about an announcement (as well they should) would use the Social Media Release as a resource, just like anybody else who wanted to write about it.

In some regards, the Social Media Release is more like a press kit than a press release. God knows how many press kits I have put together in my career, stuffing folder pockets with backgrounders, different versions of press releases, fact sheets, photos, specification sheets, diagrams and other resources.

So is it really a matter of semantics? Because people view press releases as something pushed at them, the Social Media Release has earned its share of detractors, but if we’d labeled it a press kit all along, would the concept have met with the same degree of negativity?

06/12/08 | 3 Comments | The Social Media Release: What’s in a name?

Comments

  • 1.Shel,

    I think you may have hit the nail on the head. Great post.

    Patrick

    Patrick | June 2008 | Dallas, TX

  • 2.Language matters obviously, but I guess what strikes me about the whole thing is that I don't see the press release as dead or in need of dire replacement. A press release serves an important, if limited role. It is best used to broadly disseminate information.

    Are plenty of press releases poorly written? Yes. Are there far too many unnecessary press releases sent out? You bet.

    To me the issue is misuse of the press release, not a question of revising it or finding a new format. Fundamentally, a press release works best when it is a) required for disclosure purposes, or b) is about something of such significance that the organization releasing it couldn't possibly communicate with all interested parties personally.

    The vast majority of people who complain about the current press release do so because they are being targeted by people who are desperate for coverage of their product, service, or idea. In this case, a press release isn't your best bet. Nor is a SMR or SMPK. It requires a personal touch to make the connection.

    Now, for companies that have identified and communicated individually with journalists or bloggers, it then makes sense to have some sort of a regular communications stream. That could be a blog, an email, or anything else that works for that audience. But they key is for the PR person to understand the people they are working with and communicate effectively.

    Of course, it all fundamentally comes down to substance though, doesn't it? Most of us don't complain about a poor outreach effort if we are truly interested in the message. Mostly we don't want to be hit -- in any way -- by irrelevant or uninteresting stuff.

    End rant.

    Chip Griffin | June 2008

  • 3.Shel . . . I agree wholeheartedly. For my end-of-semester project for a Public Relations Writing course at Georgia Southern University, I gave my students the option of creating a traditional media kit for their clients, or creating a Social Media Press Release using PRX Builder. So, in a way, I have been equating a SMPR to a media kit all along.

    Barbara B. nixon | June 2008 | Statesboro, GA

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