Last week I read a post by Sarah Hartshorn on SocialMediaToday about the Social Media Press Release (SMPR). The old press release converted to a modern digital message. Containing not only the headline, introduction and body of the message, but also (multimedia) links, tags and more.
The SMPR is supposed to be send to media and blog contacts via fax or post (!), email or as a link on your website. You can also make use of (free or paid) distribution services.
Not Right
To me, SMPR does not feel right. It is a step back. It is a half-baked solution that holds on to old ways of working. It ignores the new possibilities that we have available or makes only partly use of them.
Now everybody is (getting) used to the new media and social platforms and we are changing from interruption marketing to permission marketing. SMPR just does not fit into that picture.
Build relationships
We don’t send information out of the blue to people that we don’t know. What we should do is build relationships and ongoing flows of information that go two ways.
That does not only concerns the way we communicate with customers. It is also the way we have to interact with journalist and bloggers and everybody else that may be interested in publishing our information.
- Make a list of people who may be interested in using your information for publishing, in print or on the Internet
- Contact these people to find out whether they are interested in your information (or not)
- Start communicating with these people on a regular basis, invite them to join your
network(s)
- Make it an equivalent relationship that benefits both
Do you agree it is better to forget about the Social Media Press Release ?
Related links:
> How To Write A Social Media Press Release on SocialMediaToday
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As one of the founders of Prezly, a social media press release service, I might be biased concerning this topic but I disagree.
It’s up to the person sending out the press releases to build the relationship. To make sure that a targeted group of interested people receive your message. Don’t just spam.
Moreover, sending out the press releases via a SMPR tool allows you to track who actually reads your messages and who clicks further to read your content. You can even track who talked about your message and follow up accordingly. If anything, a service like ours allows you to strengthen your relationships with your press contacts.
Combine that with the easily shareable format of a SMPR (images, video, quotes,..) and you can offer your contacts valuable content for them to reuse.
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