Social Media Press Releases – tool or trend?
Jul 08, 2009
Recently at zu, we dialed our marketing efforts into the 2.0 frequency of social media press releases [SMPR]. Our good friends at Marketwire provided us with an opportunity to test drive their latest Social Media 2.0 Press Release model.
What’s all the buzz about SMPR?
You could say that the SMPR began as a mere glimmer in the eye of content sharing and voting websites, social media networks, podcasts, and blogs. In layman’s terms, SMPRs are designed to drive news stories to online conversation forums and get the conversation going; they provide readers with the ability to disseminate information and multimedia along with bookmark and sharing tools. They are multimedia press releases that function more like a webpage than a static text document. SMPRs often contain images, video, links, and have distribution through online networks outside the traditional press wire.
Making a case for SMPR
Until recently, our marketing department channeled PR efforts through the traditional media streams of newspapers, magazines and radio—and like most organizations, we’ve garnered positive attention to our business developments by posting news releases on our website. From the outside looking in, there really wasn’t anything lacking in our existing marketing strategy that would give cause to jump on the SMPR bandwagon—except that my marketing DNA would win the battle and have me try anything bright, shiny and trendy.
Baiting the hook
I decided to bait the hook with the recent success and recognition of zuLabs TimmyMe and BucksMe iPhone apps. My involvement with production of the actual Marketwire SMPR was minimal; I crafted a text-based, traditional news release and sent it off to Jay, our Account Executive at Marketwire. I had to package up a few other details in order to build the SMPR, including creation of the following:
• keyword cloud
• video clip
• images
• Technorati tags
After a few emails back and forth, I proofed the document and it was distributed through Marketwire’s traditional and online networks. Access to the online networks is really the strongest benefit the Marketwire SMPR service provides.
Just the numbers
I set up Google Alerts and watched our SMPR take effect: we generated two interviews [including CBC Radio] and 18 online news stories in only a few days. We also observed a 60% increase in TimmyMe downloads during the two weeks following distribution of the SMPR. Collaborating with our resident SEO experts, I initiated some statistical research surrounding the traffic that was generated to our website via the online SMPR during a specific time frame: one month after distribution our unique visitor traffic stats increased 75% compared to our monthly average.
At the finish line
I would have to say that the SMPR is the BMW of news release distribution—it looks sexy and it performs. If you’re anything like me I fuss constantly over brand presentation and lead generation results, and the Marketwire 2.0 SMPR gave me both, loaded with options like: text, audio, video, bookmarking and tagging tools, content voting and sharing portals, keyword-optimized text and images. With one click, the reader can submit the SMPR to Digg, Deli.cio.us, Technorati and other social media content portals. The list of social media aggregation features in the Marketwire SMPR is long and impressive, including a social media newsroom that receives visitor feedback directly from a comment box in your press release.
There are cheaper entry point SMPRs on the market like PRWeb and PitchEngine that package up nicely with all the social media bells and whistles [I will leave the cost analysis discussion for another time], but from a marketer’s perspective, I believe the SMPR has more reach, is more functional and makes it easier for media people, analysts, bloggers and consumers to compile information for the articles they research or want to write. The SMPR facilitates this functionality by breaking down the content into logical sections in a way it can be easily scanned and used.
In my mind, the SMPR is not going to replace or kill the traditional press release any time soon. The SMPR is a tool, not a trend. And it simply improves upon the traditional press release layout, evolving and adapting to the 2.0 revolution. More people are accessing their news and information through web channels, so it only makes sense to meet them there.
Jay Cloutier
Jul 09, 2009 11:44
Thanks for the post Michelle, and the kudos. Good to hear zu’s experience with our social media release was simple, smooth and above all else, successful. Your stats speak for themselves, and it’s encouraging to read that you grabbed the attention of BOTH traditional and social media audiences with this release — a marketer’s dream come true.
There are several points in your post that I’d like to reiterate, because they are key to understanding a) what an SMPR does, and b) why SMPRs need to be thought about differently than more traditional releases in the eyes of PR and marketing folks:
1. SMPRs are multimedia press releases that function more like a webpage than a static text document. Because they are *distributed* differently than traditional releases, they live and breathe online, taking on a life of their own. You can point back and reference the SMPR via other elements of a PR or marketing campaign, and drive traffic to the release to let media and consumers take and share your content with others.
2. Client involvement in preparing and distributing SMPRs is simple. Text and digital assets like photos or video clips are sent to our Editorial team and they do the work formatting the elements into the SMPR template. Easy-peasy, as they say.
3. “The SMPR is a tool, not a trend. And it simply improves upon the traditional press release layout, evolving and adapting to the 2.0 revolution. More people are accessing their news and information through web channels, so it only makes sense to meet them there.” Michelle, no need to comment further – you’ve said it perfectly here.
Looking forward to your continued success – onward and upward.
Jay.
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