"If I Could Change One Thing about the Social Media News Release"
It’s been 19–odd months since we released the Social Media News Release template. As has been exhaustively discussed, adoption of the SMNR across both corporations & the wire services – while not without hiccups and slow spots – has been pretty awesome overall.
The SMNR template took on a life of its own and for a long time we didn’t see any need to consider a Version 2.0. But we’ve got some new ideas to share that will soon result in a new PDF to pin to the wall.
Before we publish the new template, though, I want to ask for your final bits of feedback on version 1.0.
If you could change just one thing about the current SMNR template, what would it be?
Please leave it in the comments of this post, or reach out to me directly. If you’re a PR/marketing blogger, I’d love it if you asked your own readers, too.
If we get any input that results in a change to the 2.0 template that’s already mocked-up on my hard-drive, I’ll be sure to give that person credit!
P.S. – Please don’t bother to use this opportunity to snarkily dismiss the whole concept of the SMNR. I know there are doubters. I also know that there are plenty of folks who embrace the idea of updating the 101–year old news release for the wired age.
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Comments
One quick suggestion (and you may have already addressed this with the next version): as companies provide more multimedia components to their SMNRs, particularly video, it's important to also provide the *code* needed for bloggers to embed that content directly into their posts. Some of the more savvy companies are doing this in the releases, but from what I can see, it's really hit or miss.
Posted by: Kari Hanson | January 14, 2008 11:53 AM
I'm less about format and more about applying the overall concept and tailoring it for one's business. The sharing and multimedia features are very important and now my company, EMC, is even using it, which is excellent.
It's important to note that the wire services all have different standards and companies each have a different way of presenting press releases.
The main benefit of what Todd has done is raise awareness, increase adoption and spread a best practice that I think all of PR should abide by.
Nice job!
Posted by: Dan Schawbel | January 14, 2008 12:51 PM
It's looking good from here. Its great strength is flexibility - as long as that stays I'm a happy camper.
Posted by: Andrew | January 15, 2008 05:14 PM
Appreciate your continued efforts to advance our profession, which desperately needs innovation and vision.
Posted by: Paul Roetzer | January 16, 2008 05:58 PM
I second the comment on code. There are a lot of industry pros who are not all that savvy -- making the SMR as easy to assemble as possible would help.
Posted by: Marijean Jaggers | January 16, 2008 07:54 PM