What is a social media news release?

by Josiah Mackenzie on March 02, 2010 7 Comments

Mary emailed me a great question after reading my Hotel Marketing Ideas guide:

“Your information is very helpful. I have a question for you: You talk about Press Releases and Social Media Releases. What is a Social Media Release? Is it written differently then the Press Release and is it distributed differently?”

Yes, it differs in both ways.

A social media news release uses the proven concept of building awareness through sharing news. But it’s based on the premise that traditional media organizations do not control information anymore. Because of this, these releases are optimized for the way social media networks operate.

An important part of a Direct-to-Consumer news release is the style in which it is written. Some of the best releases I’ve seen read like a compelling story.

I was first introduced to the concept by David Meerman Scott, in his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR:

“The media have been disintermediated. The Web has changed the rules. Buyers read your news releases directly, and you need to be speaking their language. Today, savvy marketing and PR professionals use news releases to reach buyers directly.”

He goes on to provide specific recommendations:

  • Don’t just send news releases when “big news” is happening — find good reasons to send them all the time.
  • Instead of just targeting a handful of journalists, create news releases that appeal directly to your buyers.
  • Place links in releases to direct potential customers to landing pages on your website.
  • Drive people into the sales process with news releases

The other key factor of these news releases is that they are optimized for findability. Their purpose is to be found easily in search engines, so they include important keywords throughout.

A social media news release not replace the traditional press release, but supplements it – as Brian Solis says in his balanced guide.

I also like this Copyblogger article on How to Write a Social Media News Release



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Article by Josiah Mackenzie // March 02, 2010 Josiah helps hospitality organizations use technology and the social web to provide better service and generate more profits.

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Comments

 
  • David Meerman Scott // March 2, 2010 @ 6:18 am Reply

    Thanks for referencing my work here. I wrote a free ebook on using a press release strategy to reach buyers (although I wrote it before the concept of the social media release was popularized). Here is the link (no registration required).

    The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly
    http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/New_Rules_of_PR.pdf

    Best, David

  • Mitaroy Goa Hotel // March 8, 2010 @ 11:52 am Reply

    OMG, what a coincidence. David, I am just reading your book right now, just borrowed it from the British Library !!!

    I’m halfway through and it’s great but I am still not clear on one thing. You keep saying content is king and even if a Concrete company can blog about its work, then others should have it easy.

    But, how do I find keyword rich information to blog about my Goa Hotel ? I mean, it’s not as if exciting things happen here everyday…

    Cheers
    Mihir

  • Mary van den Heuvel // March 8, 2010 @ 2:18 pm Reply

    Thank you Josiah, for replying in detail to my question about the social media press release. I get the point of how to write it but I must say that at this point, I am still not completely clear on how to distribute the social media press release. We definitely post this type of information in our blog and refer to the blog through links from Facebook, Twitter and various travel-related forums but I wonder if there are other ways to distribute these social media releases.
    Josiah, your other articles were very useful too. I love the Twittersheep and the “why to use email in your blog” article had good information too.
    David, thank you for your link too. I will make sure to check that out.

  • Josiah Mackenzie // March 8, 2010 @ 10:23 pm Reply

    @Mihir – I can seem difficult at times, but I think as hotel operators we’re bless with a wealth of topics to write about. Try to put yourself in the mindset of someone who has never visited your area before. What would they want to know?

    @Mary – Thanks for clarifying your question. You’ve given me the idea for another blog post – “How to distribute a social media news release” :)

  • Mitaroy Goa Hotel // March 9, 2010 @ 7:26 am Reply

    So I only write about area specific stuff ???

    That sounds great for the search engines but what about those who have already visited Goa or aren’t going to visit Goa in the near future ?

    At the moment, I haven’t got a single referral from a search engine. Most of my readers are from Facebook (and a few from Twitter).

    Should I continue to write for them or write only location specific and risk losing my current readers ?

    Cheers
    Mihir

  • social media news // May 22, 2011 @ 4:49 pm Reply

    I am still not completely understand on how to distribute the social media press release. please guide me about this

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