The Evolution of the Social Media Press Release
The Evolution of the Social Media Press Release – How a Single Release Can Generate Likes, Shares, Tweets & Comments
You’re probably familiar with the concept of a press release. When you have something newsworthy to announce, you write a press release and hope that the news media picks it up. Media coverage can do a lot to help a business grow. However, press releases have evolved over the years. Driven by new technologies, press release distribution has become as easy as clicking a button. Your release is suddenly available to hundreds of thousands of people and news sites around the globe. The evolution hasn’t stopped. The newest approach is the social media press release.
What is a Social Media Press Release?
A Social Media Release or SMR integrates traditional press release elements with elements that support sharing on social media. These elements include but aren’t limited to:
- Video clips
- Bookmarks
- Graphics/infographics
- Citations
- Internal quotes and quotes from external experts
- Blog posts
- Multiple links
- External resources
- Tags
- RSS feeds
The social media release provides media outlets and your audience with the ability to use and digest the content in a manner that best suits them. For example, a blogger may prefer to share a video clip from the release and a journalist may prefer to Tweet about the story. It provides users with a variety of content formats to utilize.
The Variability Benefits You
As a business owner, a Social media press release provides you with the potential to reach a much wider audience. Because others can pick and choose what they share, you’re able to cater to individual needs.
If someone tweets about your release then you’ll see a surge in Twitter traffic from the original tweet and retweets. If someone shares a video from your release, you’ll see an increase in YouTube and Facebook traffic. All of these shares and tweets boost search engine rankings, inbound links, and website traffic.
A Few Considerations
All of these wonderful social media release features and benefits don’t mean that you can skimp on the quality of your release. In fact, because it can be so rapidly shared around the world, it’s even more important that you ensure your release is top quality. That means that it fits the standards of a traditional press release. It’s well written and proofed for all errors.
When distributing your press release, look for distribution sites that feature social media tabs and social sharing icons. Press release writing and distribution has come a long way over the years. It’s now more powerful and useful than ever.
