Bullets Over Bullshit
Just another post about the Social Media News Release, folks. On this outing we'll discuss "Bullets vs. B.S." Specifically, we'll answer the question, "Why does the Social Media News Release use bulleted 'news facts' instead of the standard PR malarkey?"
First: there's no official reason for replacing that ol' PR malarkey. The use of bulleted "news facts" vs. the standard PR text, in my opinion, is NOT one of the central tenets of the Social Media News Release.
I like the bulleted news facts for the simple reason that, if we have the opportunity re-invent the Press Release, let's make it simpler to understand for ALL readers. People (and especially reporters) are busy. They like it when you get to the point. People tend to skip malarkey and look for the bullet-points, anyway; they seek out succinct, straightforward information.
Still, many PR pros prefer the use of malarkey: they like to see the PR text pasted verbatim into a "legitimate" article. Because many reporters (especially at smaller publications) are busy, this happens fairly often and the wise PR professional never complains when an article appears that is 100% "on message."
Personally I don't like when this happens --- to me it is a sign of editorial laziness. I'd prefer that the reporter take the time, if possible, to analyze a client's news vs. paste it whole-cloth into their journal. Certainly, most bloggers who take the time to post about a company are more likely to add their two cents than to cut & paste some PR malarkey into their blog. They're more likely to ridicule our PR malarkey than regurgitate it without further comment.
But use the malarkey if you care to; it certainly does not preclude the installation of a "Digg" button and Technorati Tags, etc., in your Social Media News Release. Go for it. To me, the only "central tenet" of the Social Media News Release is that there are no central tenets. There are no rules.
Tags: social+media+news+release, PR, public+relations, marketing, digg, Technorati, press+release
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Comments
The bullets idea makes sense to me in some ways, but it really depends on the type of story you're pitching. Calling a narrative press release "malarky" is a little reductive, in my opinion. In some cases, bullet points can't convey the reason that the story is interesting in the same way that a well-written release can.
My two big problems with the bulleted list approach are that unless you have a really news-heavy story (as opposed to a human interest / entertainment story) you lose the essence of what you're pitching, and I'm not entirely sure what's gained. Sure, you can make up the interest in the pitch - but when we start talking about newswires and national distributions, are we really pitching every single reporter personally?
The second thing is blogs. I have had releases reproduced in their entirety on several major blogs (with the byline rewritten). Yeah - I would have rather they called and interviewed my client and really dug deep, but if they didn't have a prewritten story, would they have even bothered?
Just my two cents... I'm sure there are situations where it works very well... in my own attempts at making it work, I've had much more success with a narrative approach. We are, after all, storytellers.
Posted by: Ryan Anderson | July 24, 2006 02:58 PM
Love this post's title. Very to the point.
Posted by: Andrea Weckerle | July 24, 2006 03:30 PM
Ryan - Ya zinged me with the "reductive" line - you are right, I am taking an extreme stance here.
But the macro point is - I have actually *agreed* with you, in this post (smarmily, granted).
Bottom-line: if the narrative approach works, use it - I just wouldn't want people to think that the use of the "narrative approach" short-circuits opportunities to apply Social Media principles.
Posted by: Todd Defren | July 24, 2006 04:37 PM
Todd ... thanks for this post. It clarifies one of my main "criticisms" of social media releases (the fact that they make it impossible to run as written).
As a side note, it's important for us to remember that just because something is written in bullet-point format doesn't mean that it's malarkey-free!
Posted by: John Wagner | July 24, 2006 06:05 PM