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05.18.09 Breathing New Life Into Press Releases  By Brian SolisThe press release is over 100 years old and for the most part, its evolution is mostly stagnant for the majority of its lifespan. However, the press release has evolved more in the last decade than it has over the century thanks to the proliferation of the Internet and most notably, the Social Web. The press release is over 100 years old and for the most part, its evolution is mostly stagnant for the majority of its lifespan. However, the press release has evolved more in the last decade than it has over the century thanks to the proliferation of the Internet and most notably, the Social Web. The tired and oft disregarded press release is finally tasting reinvention as it transforms to chase the new channels of influence as well as adapt to the rapidly shifting behavior of content discovery, consumption and sharing. We are witnessing the modernization of an aging communications tool and the distribution networks that connect them to the outside world of influencers and consumers. While the Web is serving as the catalyst for this regeneration, we can also look at innovating the template for traditional press releases as well, starting with the very documents and HTML pages on existing corporate newsrooms that serve as their primary source of PR and corporate presentation. It's about time we breathe new life into the press release template. Over the past few years I have been a vocal supporter and committed practitioner of Social Media Releases (SMR) because they offered the ability to share stories in a more palatable and meaningful format, supported by the media content that helped reporters and bloggers retell the story using the media building blocks that contextually framed it. Social Media Releases also served as a hub for connecting disparate media elements across multiple social networks serving as a frame of reference for distributed videos on YouTube, pictures on Flickr, supporting documentation on DocStoc, market reports and information bookmarked on Delicious, etc. SMRs represent a new and promising opportunity to renew the dialog around improving the foundation for the communication of news, information, and events that left most immune to its overdue potential. Sometimes in order to embrace innovation we need to blend it with existing methodologies and processes (what we know and how we do it) to eventually propel change, technology and comprehension across the bell curve of adoption.
As you know, I'm a strong proponent for change, where change is merited. It must serve a purpose and not associate with hype or shiny objects. In an online world, where both media and communications are altering how content is produced and distributed, the information we share and how we share it must match the correlating workflow and production processes. At a minimum, they must align with the reader's persuasion, provide the tools and services they need to retell your story their way (links, video, images, bookmarks, etc.), and also provide a mechanism for inviting feedback, and also encourage sharing through a myriad of services that sends information across the social graphs. In 2000, PRNewswire released its MultiVu multimedia release (MMR) service, the first industry-wide modernization of the press release since the creation of the video news release. The MMR was to the online world what the VNR was to the broadcast industry. Over the years, PRWeb, BusinessWire, MarketWire, among others, debuted online multimedia friendly press release hosting solutions that adapted to the Web's migration from 1.0 to 2.0. In 2006, Todd Defren introduced us to the concept of a Social Media Release, which connected online media to social networks. To this day, Todd and I continue to collaborate on the advancement of the Social Media Release in conjunction with many visionaries across the communications and Web marketing communities. Shortly thereafter, Shannon Whitley developed PRX, the first automated system for building and distributing Social Media Releases. Read the rest of this article About the Author: Brian Solis is principal at FutureWorks PR, an award-winning PR and Social Media agency founded in 1999. FW PR bridges the communications gap between companies and their customers, and between products and their specific benefits for their target markets. Solis blogs at PR2.0, http://www.briansolis.com, and regularly contributes to many industry trades. He is also frequently quoted in articles relating to technology trends and Marketing/PR strategies. |
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