“To Press” or Not “To Press”
7th April 2007 by Eric Bergman, ABC, APR
As the adage goes, old habits die hard. When Gary Schlee, ABC, a professor at the corporate communication program at Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, first saw a template for an interactive news release for our modern electronic world, he was a bit surprised to see it initially called a “social media press release.”
“The word ‘press’ tends to mean print media,” he explains. “With all the new media channels — you’ve got bloggers, you’ve got podcasters — the word ‘press’ becomes even more irrelevant. I was kind of surprised to see that the social media template for a release was initially called the social media press release.”
Whatever you call it, the idea behind a social media news release is to create an interactive document that consists of more than words alone. By including mp3 files, video files, graphics, photos and links to additional information, an interactive release provides journalists with a wider range and depth of information.
The objective is to make it easier for journalists to do their job. “Newsrooms are smaller than they used to be,” Gary explains. “It’s harder for them to dig for as much information as they might have in the past. I think they welcome a way to corral the multi-media resources together in one place where shopping for the relevant information for their story becomes a little easier.”
The release itself should be short and succinct, with the main information in bullet points. Ideally, reporters should be able to subscribe through really simple syndication (RSS) feeds.
The concept is still a work in progress and there are a variety of templates in circulation. However, Gary believes the template will settle to a fairly standard format. “It’s already moved away from the concept of it being a release to being an online newsroom resource,” he says, “(which) would be organized in a more deliberate and consistent way to help journalists find the information they need.”
The social media news release is not a magic bullet for organizations that don’t have something newsworthy to say. It’s still important to adhere to fundamental principles of effective media relations, in which the organization carefully matches its information to the needs of appropriate journalists. Does Gary ever worry that people will forget those principles in their excitement over the new technology?
“Well they often forget that with the old technology,” he says, laughing. “There are lots of releases that go out that simply aren’t news or don’t have really genuine content to them. I would hope that people won’t lose sight of those principles.”
Gary believes there is another dimension to the online newsroom that is emerging as an important element of media and public relations. “It’s not just for the media,” he explains. “Astute organizations know that many of the people who come to their online newsrooms aren’t just journalists. This is an important dimension to how you tell your story. Although the focus is still thinking about the media, there are other audiences that weren’t necessarily available in the past.”
Bottom line? Do your homework and make sure that the information you send journalists will interest them and, most of all, the audiences they serve.
“All the tools keep changing,” Gary says, “but good news sense, good content and good writing don’t.”
April 7th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Are there perhaps half a dozen for instances to which we could be directed so we can have a clue what this is all about?
Since I wrtie about public relations, would this social media template stuff yield for me, for instance, a PR afgency web site where I would find a secotion called news room in which I would find a picture that moves of the top consultants, along with words I can hear, in their own voices, where they describe their approach to serving their clients, or coming up with fresh ideas, or their idea of why advertising is wasteful compared to PR?
And then I could cut and paste from thes pictures that move and words that I can hear, and drop them intoto an article I write for, say, O’Dwyer’s PR Daily (which is a web-based publication)
Any samples?
BAK
April 7th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I hit “send” before I notd that it is hard enough to just find the names of people, let along titles, let along bios, let alone pictures that’s don’t move.
If “old mendia” web based news rooms are so awful, why would we expect new ones to be any good?
BAK
April 8th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Brian,
Social media newsroom concepts are still new enough that it’s tough finding examples out there.
Ironically, it was only last month that Tom Foremski — the guy whose article, Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die! launched the foray into dragging the news release into the digital age — acknowledged he had yet to receive his first social media release. He told the NewComm Forum in Las Vegas that the reason might be that he doesn’t always read his e-mail. Even if he did, I suspect he wouldn’t find many, or any, interactive releases coming his way.
Some of the information you’re looking for isn’t typically forthcoming on current web newsrooms. Enhancing the format won’t make much difference if there’s still precious little content.
Some places to look for social media newsroom developments include:
The original Social Media News Release developed by Tod Defren:
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf
The follow-up Social Media Newsroom from Defren:
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smnewsroom_template.pdf
An early limited-to-links release in the Toronto area from Rob Clark at The Elusive Fish:
http://www.waterworkscanada.com/articles/the-water-works-plumbing-inc-will-better-the-city-of-torontos-65-rebate-for-toilets/
A Weblog release developed by High Road Communications:
http://www.weblo.com/pr6/
An Edelman release last week about its acquisition of Vancouver’s Karyo agency. This release uses Edelman’s in-house Story Crafter template:
http://edelman.com/news/storycrafter/EdelmanNews.aspx?hid=192
April 9th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Hi Brian,
The social media newsroom evolution is really about packaging, not content. If an agency is not providing desired material online now, there’s not much hope that the new formats will change that. Social media creates more opportunities to provide the media and public with info in a form most useful to them. As always, content will determine how effectively this is actually achieved.
Here’s one example of an agency using a social media template. Edemlan used its in-house Story Crafter format last week to announce its aquisition of Vancouver’s Karyo agency.
http://www.edelman.com/news/storycrafter/default.aspx?hid=192
Here’s another one developed by High Road Communications for Weblo:
http://www.weblo.com/pr6/
The templates developed by Tod Defren for releases and newsrooms are:
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smnewsroom_template.pdf
April 9th, 2007 at 7:41 am
Brian,
Here are a few links relating to social media newsrooms and releases.
Last week, Edelman used its Story Crafter template to announce it acquisition of Vancouver’s Karyo agency.
http://www.edelman.com/news/storycrafter/default.aspx?hid=192
High Road Communications used one for Weblo:
http://www.weblo.com/pr6/
Tod Defren has floated two formats for reaction:
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smnewsroom_template.pdf
April 12th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Gary, our apologies.
I was just looking through the Media Relations Commons’ spam filter, and I discovered these messages, which had been sitting there, misclassified.
I suspect the filter has a phobia about too many URLs being included in a single post, but I’m not sure.
Anyway, here are your comments, a couple of days late. Thanks for contributing.
April 28th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Gary, sorry I have not been paying attention here. Thanks for the comments.
I went and looked.
And I thought of DAvid Letterman, and his spot on the show called something like, “Is this anything?” or “Is this something?”
You may have seen it. The curtain rises and some Ed Sullivan Show act performs — one was a woman who uses a grinder to generate sparks off her metal bra and panties (she became a regular — and then Dave and Pual decide whether of not “it was something.”
From the samples I looked at, the literate PR person is replaced by a list maker. On my computer, connected to high speed Bell, the Edelman comment was going to come to me in over five minutes. The other guy was only a minute forty.
Id social media was on The Lte Show With David Letterman, Dave and Paul would offer thumbs down.
Two of the three Edelman photos were very good, though, and the third one wasn’t bad. These would be easy enough to attach to any old fashioned news release.
The world of PR would be better served if people spent their time just trying to do the basics right instead of promoting point form writing in news releases.
How about an international campaign to take “leading” and “leader” out of the first paragraph of nine out of ten news releases?
BAK
May 8th, 2007 at 8:12 am
test two.