Will Big Companies Adopt the Social Media News Release?
Today our new client, Novell, put out a Social Media News Release. As you know, Novell is a billion-dollar company whose flagging fortunes have begun to re-ignite thanks to their innovation and focus on enterprise-grade Linux solutions.
Check out the release. Anything you'd want to view, nab, comment on, or re-post is there for the grabbing, including everything from broadcast-quality video advertisements, to product box shots, etc.
There are tons of quotes from partners, customers, analysts and execs: a journalist or blogger can cut&paste any that fit their need. A writer from AdWeek might just want the quote about the new advertising campaign, while an eWeek reporter may want the H-P executive's quote...
There are links to Novell executives' blogs. There are del.icio.us links. Where new Novell programs are announced, links are included that direct readers to sites containing more in-depth information...
Traditionalists will complain that this release would print out to 7-odd pages. To which I say, "Yeah? So?"
It's ONLINE. The bytes are itty-bitty and the benefits --- providing content that fits any need, and a context-rich news experience created via the use of hyperlinks and custom del.icio.us sites --- far outweigh the "length" issue.
Will this format catch on with other big companies? It depends, in part, on y-o-u. Check out the release, link to it, savage it, love it, just react to it. If the Social Media community rallies around these pioneering efforts, more and more CMO-types will take notice and dip their toes into the Social Media pool.
Tags: novell, suse, linux, open+source, public+relations, pr, pr+2.0, social+media, press+release
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Comments
I'll have to disagree with one point. The lenght of a press release does matter, even online. Especially when content extends "beyond the fold" forcing the user to scroll down. In this particular case, there are plenty of quotes but I'm guessing only a few people will include them in blog posts or news articles.
We could include the quotes and hide them with simple css and javascript. Still showing two or three of the most relevant.
Users and search engines would still access the content and the whole document would become more user-friendly.
Posted by: Bruno Amaral | August 15, 2006 03:53 PM
Bruno, I don't necessarily disagree with you, but would point out that the "good stuff" is all above the fold (news bullets and multimedia).
You do make good, interesting points, though, and yea, sure, I would have liked the release to have been a bit shorter.
Posted by: Todd Defren | August 15, 2006 04:58 PM
I am too tired to do it right now, but I will take a look at this in the am and see what i can glean. On first glance I am overwhealmed by the info, then again, it's almost midnight here. :-)
Posted by: Kami Huyse | August 16, 2006 12:46 AM
I kinda found the release hard to read. Visually speaking, there's no focal point that attracts and holds my eye. The text was difficult to read quickly--probably based on size, line spacing and font. This is often true about a lot of electronic documents, of course.
Additionally, I first thought the stuff on the right was actually advertising (not samples of ads) and not part of the release. I'm not sure how you might overcome this. Also, it would be nice to see the headshots as well as linking to them.
Content-wise, it's great!
Posted by: Daniel Waldman | August 16, 2006 10:38 AM
Interesting release. I have to agree with Bruno though, I'd like to see fewer quotes. One of the things I like about the SMPR is that it is very clean and forces the user to provide the most relevant information. That's done here, but producing less, but more relevant content is key. A good press release will help shape coverage of a story because it highlights the most important messages that bloggers, media and others communicate.
Less is more in my opinion.
Posted by: Fard Johnmar | August 18, 2006 06:59 AM