According to a YouTube Video compiled by Webitpr and Big Button Media, a social media news release (SMNR) is a new kind of press release that takes advantage of the online and social media tools in order to communicate the message more effectively to a broader online community. A SMNR often includes traditional video, social networking videos, like YouTube, hyperlinks, images and audio. It offers an exciting and creative way to share news. An important feature of the SMNR is its appearance in search engine results, promoting maximum exposure.
The SMNR has its advantages and disadvantages. Fortunately, the advantages are greater in number. A SMNR presents news in a more factual manner and includes more rich content for journalists. It also creates a platform for open discussion for bloggers. SMNRs offer the ability to share content in various ways using social media, a feature not available in a traditional press release.
SMNRs have their disadvantages too. Poor construction and social media overload can serve as a major turn-off to not only journalists, but all audiences alike. Including too many hyperlinks, videos, or images creates chaos and can be a major disadvantage. Using poor quality images and videos that load slowly also causes release quality to suffer. The greatest issue arises when social media is used in a release to hide the fact that little actual content exists.
Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques offers several tips in creating a SMNR.
- Place terms in key positions like headlines and first paragraphs.
- Distribute a release through a service that carries hyperlinks to downstream sites such as Yahoo!Finance, AOL News, and Netscape.
- Use high-resolution multimedia that can be easily used.
- Don’t use all tools, all the time. Focus first on the message. Use the bells and whistles to complement the campaign.
- Don’t go link crazy. Too many links will confuse journalists and draw attention away from key messages.
The following sites are helpful resources in constructing SMNRs:
Click here to view a SMNR from Marketwire.
Posted by Lindsey Bowers on November 30, 2010 at 6:07 PM
I also found this template when doing research on Social Media News Releases and found it to be very helpful. Another youtube video I found was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD_mYKc20OY. It also provided information on why Social Media News Releases are important in today’s Public Relations world. I agree that the advantages of SMNRs are greater than the disadvantages. I actually had a really hard time finding any disadvantages at all other than SMNRs do not reach computer-illiterate audiences. You provided great links and a great overview of Social Media News Releases!