How to Write a Social Media Friendly News Release

One of the best ways to get real attention and activity from your news release is to share it on social media. However, the traditional new release format won’t get you the results that you want. Sure, it’s fine for distribution and for sending to hand-picked media representatives. However, if you want good results on social media, you’ll have to write a social media friendly news release.

• Your Headline Matters – Sometimes a news release can get away with being a little bit boring. It still gets results because your news is important. However, on social media you have tons of competition. Your headline has to not only announce your news, but do so in an attention grabbing way.
• Tag it – Social media releases are more readily found when you place keywords and hashtags in the content. These words and phrases help your audience search for and find your content on social media.
• A Clear and Usable Logo – Social media friendly releases have images. On social channels, videos and visual content are shared and engaged with more often than any other type of content. Your visual content starts with your logo. It helps people recognize your brand, which strengthens awareness. It may also be used by the media when they cover your story. If your image is clear and readily resized for any type of medium, it will be shared and used.
• Images – We just mentioned that social media content is more readily engaged with if it’s visual. Add video to your news release. Add infographics to your news release. And add photos and other sharable images to your release. Make sure they’re sharable. Someone reading your release should be able to share your infographic on social media. They may not share the entire release, but they will share the images. That also means including a link in your images so that people can continue engaging with your business after they’ve viewed the image.
• Links – Add links to your content. Some recommend adding links in every paragraph of your news release. This may not be necessary, but a number of relevant links will help readers take the next step with your business.
• Social Sharing Functionality – Make it easy to share your news release on a variety of social channels. If you have an audience on Pinterest, for example, then make sure people can pin the images in your release.
• Formatting – Finally, make sure your release is easy to read on social media. That means short paragraphs. Bold, underlined and bullet points also help organize the content. The easier your content is to read online, the more people will read and engage with it.

To capitalize on social media in your news release marketing strategy, you want to take advantage of the tools available to you. That means leveraging social media friendly tips, tactics, and technologies to ensure you reach the most people possible.

Call us today to speak to one of our PR specialists: 1-800-713-7278

Anthony Santiago

Anthony Santiago is Director of Marketing at Newswire. With over a decade of experience in PR, he helps ensure that clients understand the value of brand messaging and reach.