*I'd like to point out I realise for broadcast and for topical stories that you try and 'piggy-back' there is a need, but for pre-planned releases and announcements.
As some background to this, I think I should explain what brought up this question. As you know I work for a PR agency and we’re developing a digital and social media product for our clients. Now I’m not sure how many of you have seen a social media release before, so here is a rough template of how they look:
And some live examples:http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_012709.html
http://www.realwire.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=11186
In short it’s a one-stop shop for all content a journalist or blogger might need to put together an article, without clogging up their inbox as its hosted online on the clients website. It also serves a whole other purpose by being online 24/7 and available to customers directly, not just influencers such as journalists, analysts and bloggers.
Such new fangled approaches to delivering news and content do potentially remove the need for journalists to speak to your client spokespeople and customers/case studies. Especially if there is an intelligent, impartial VOD or podcast of them being interviewed available online.
If PR is getting with the times (and I know a lot of agencies already provide these releases), is it shooting itself in the foot too by providing all the information upfront?
This point really excites me because it leads us on to another topic I love, showing the value of PR to your client. We all know that PR influence doesn’t begin and end at getting print coverage in a newspaper or magazine. The Internet revolution made sure of that. Now with so many publications having daily news feeds and posting articles online, bloggers and other influencers writing online only, we’ve taken electronic clipping onboard - even if some clients can’t see past getting in the FT!
Should we now be educating our clients and telling them that its not just about an article appearing in print or online. Its about whether a journalist discusses them in a tweet, saves a press release in del.icio.us, signs up for their direct RSS feed, how much time they spend on the clients website having looked at a social media news release (click throughs etc) and of course where they are placed by Google in their search rankings. I whole heartedly believe we should. At Octopus we are already beginning this process.
In the last week I had two clients quoted / mentioned on twitter by BBC journalists. I was chuffed to bits and the clients, when I explained, were over the moon too. Especially as I pitched one of the briefings via a DM on Twitter!
So when we start using these new technologies, I think we need to accept we’re not going to get 5-10 press briefings with a spokesperson for instance. A journalist with little spare time (i.e. most at the moment!) isn’t going to want to speak to a spokesperson for comment if they’re already able to get a canned comment from a social media release. Or are they? Let me know what you think…
Going back to press releases and social media news releases for a minute, I tweeted about a similar point a month ago and asked, ‘how do you like to receive press releases and information?’ I received some really mixed responses from some journalists, including:
A technology journalist replied with: @jwarnette Press releases: all the text in the body of the email. Meaningful subject line. No PDFs, no pix, no Word docs to open. Simple
A media/webdesign journalist responded: @jwarnette Include the full release, make sure it's plain text, and never - I repeat NEVER - just put 'See attached Word document’
A national consumer journalist wrote: @jwarnette short email with link but please don't call to check that I got it!
A business writer added: @jwarnette brief, scannable email with a link, but needs to be enough info in the email to help me decide if I want to click.
To any journalists reading this, I’d be interested to know what you think of social media releases. If you could spare two minutes, please click the link below:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Vhdb5ef0Ttfx0omuHo_2f7FA_3d_3d
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2 comments:
James, it would seem that a social media release is an obvious attempt to extend the life of a communication relic from a bygone era of marketing communications.
In the 21st Century, do we really need to reference executive quotes that the person never made, and often couldn't explain when asked to elaborate on the quote?
My point: the notion of a social media press release is like the term "horseless carriage" -- it's a way for legacy-thinking marcom people to attempt to embrace the future that they don't fully understand.
Clearly, the future of authentic and meaningful business communications can't be found by looking back through a rear-view mirror at what has worked in the past.
The press release concept will die a natural death, as soon as the tough decision is made to take it off life-support. Be brave, pull the plug, and move on.
That's my perspective...
Thanks for your comment, David. What do you think is the best way forward?
I'm all for new suggestions, especially from someone with your background!
From the conversations I've had with journalists, they don't want the wheel re-invented, they merely want it to be evolved.
As for executive quotes. I think thats one hell of a generalisation. I'm sure your comment is founded on your experiences, but its not the case from what I've seen.
I look forward to your response. Thanks again for posting, J
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