The Dual Future of the News Release
Right now the battle (such as it is) in the PR world is between the “Social Media Release” and the boring, text-only, narrative and puffed-up “Traditional News Release.”
It’s the wrong battle to obsess over.
First off, the Social Media Release will win-out over the Traditional version. I’m not just saying that cuz I invented the Social Media Release, it’s simply a matter of evolution.
As the multimedia Web and Social Media grow in importance, the SMR format will become more popular. And with a recent Nielsen study suggesting that Social Media is a bigger driver of Web traffic than EMAIL or SEARCH — well, c’mon. The SMR will eventually win out.
Still, there are other dynamics at work. I foresee a fork in the road of the News Release’s evolution.
Down one path? The SMR. Services like Pitchengine are doing a superior job of atomizing the press release elements so that readers can find, use and share them (or bits of them, e.g., the “twitpitch”) just as they like. Meanwhile, my personal programming hero Shannon Whitley is continuing his promising work with the IABC on a technical standard for SMRs, applicable to all the wire services.
The OTHER path?
The mainstream media is in rapid decline. With ever-diminishing outlets for distribution/publication of their news, corporations are increasingly turning to Content Marketing principles. In other words, they are publishing their own stuff. To heck with the media. Increasingly, that stuff won’t just be video and podcasts, etc., but will also include WELL-WRITTEN news copy about their latest offerings.
The good news about this trend is that the overstuffed press releases of yore will slowly go the way of the dodo. The bad news is that it could get harder to differentiate between news announcements and “advertorial” copy.
You’ll either see bulletized, atomized, media-choked releases or deftly written newsy narratives that seem as if they were drafted by a professional journalist.
— Which could well happen, as my friend David Meerman Scott and The Conversation Agent herself, the lovely Valeria Maltoni, wrote recently. (Both did so quite eloquently, too, so please go visit their sites if you’re intrigued by this concept!)
What do you think? How much longer will the Traditional Release survive?
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People get used to reading news in a certain style. It’s called habit. That is the driver, not whether the new format in social media is far more friendly or not.
But yet in the long run run social media reports will drive out the traditional releases because the number of people used to these traditional releases will decrease.
Further devices like Kindle are going to make things easier for social media marketers and releases.
SMR services like Pressitt and Pitch Engine are free alternatives to often expensive newswire services. They are my preferred way of stimulating online conversation around your news. SMRs can be packaged up in on neat capsule, giving your viewer all the info they need to re-publish your news. It’s the way forward!
Todd is right, here’s why.
The format of a press release was designed to be republished and easily typeset into print publication. It was the “plug-and-play” of its day, more than 100 years ago. To utilize social media, PR practitioners must rethink the process, not squeeze old tech into new tech.
The biggest misconception by people today is that you can make a press release social by adding a video or some sharing links and that’s missing the mark completely. Those who understand social media know that it’s not another “channel” to send stuff to. It’s a new way of communicating which requires new context. To share directly with our brand’s influencers, which can include consumers, bloggers and journalists, we must talk with them, not at them. So, the content we provide needs to be framed differently for the social web.
A press release cannot be dual purpose, which is why I believe the press releases days are numbered, even for over regulated, publicly traded companies. We don’t communicate in heavy-text word documents anymore, we communicate in text messages, tweets and other more efficient technologies.
The disconnect that I see with most enterprise-driven SM is that it’s typically delivered one-way – the “hey look, over here, buy this!” approach. That’s been the driver for most press release campaigns, too – not that sales, or attention, is a bad thing, mind you. It’s the approach that’s a clunker.
Now that business can speak directly to its customers, given the erosion of mainstream media outlets that formerly served as gatekeepers, they’ve got to acquire some communication savvy. News stories are called “stories” for a reason – a great story won’t be a laundry list of features and benefits.
Sadly, having a voice doesn’t mean anyone’s listening. That’s the challenge now – and when that Google app that Lyle Closs alludes to comes down the pipe, I’m in!
What frustrates me is that the wire services are overcharging our agencies/clients for the SMR causing us to use the SMR less and less. It is annoying when a SMR is PERFECT for an announcement but the client can’t cover the added costs…
Get with the program wire services!!
Hi Todd,
I would love to ask you some questions about the progress and future of Social Media Releases. Would it suit you if I send a few (!) questions through? If you were fine with this I would be keen to publish this as an article to my site.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Lucy