So I’ve never really considered the whole ‘press release vs. social media release’ debate an either/or situation. The way I see it, there’s arguably utility and merit in both formats, as there are gaps and drawbacks. Frankly, I’m not convinced either approach is really the best way to think about news distribution on the web, and well, maybe for that reason alone, I think there’s still room for experimentation.
With this in mind, the Voce team did an experiment of our own recently, something we’ve been calling the “press release page.”
Conceptually, it’s pretty simple: We “announced” a partnership two weeks ago. There was a press release which we distributed over the wire, as well as an accompanying web page (i.e., the press release page) we created to augment and contextualize this news. I’ll explain both things here…
The Press Release
It was 175 words (less than this blog post). It captured the top-level news and highlighted the type of info the reader might find helpful on the accompanying press release page. It was a functional teaser of sorts, that’s it. The goal was to pique interest and pull attention to the press release page for more information — and, well, looking at our stats among other things, it more than accomplished that.
Now, did the format of the release really matter here? Not really. Did we encounter any wire distribution headaches? No, none whatsoever. If it had been a “true” SMR, by all the standards, would it have spread further across the web? I don’t know, maybe. Was it expensive? Nah, it was less than $100 bucks, although your milage will vary, depending on the wire service and the distribution circuit you pick.
The Press Release Page
It was a simple web page we created with WordPress, the same platform that runs our company blog. We did some minor CSS and HTML customization, but nothing radical by any means. Again, the whole purpose of the press release page was to augment, color and contextualize this announcement with copy and content – basically, the very same stuff that would have torpedoed the attention and economic gains of our press release had we tried to shoehorn a fraction of this into what went across the wire.
Now, could we have made this press release page a little more dynamic? Could we have enabled comments? Yeah, and we should have, because *this page* is where the value of conversation bears real fruit, longer term, for us and those that trip across it with future web searches, it’s not, however, the press release, which will steadily and inevitably disappear online.
And therein lies one of my biggest gripes with focusing so much energy on the release format.
There’s been too much fuss over the wrapper, not enough focus on the package.
Again, I make no claim to this being anything other than an experimental approach, an experimental alternative to news distribution on the web. One that that I think has real practical potential for an increasing number of companies that are already deploying corporate blogs and could very easily squeeze more PR value out of those platforms, by extending their scope and purpose a bit.
Mike Keliher 5:57 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink
Well done. In this line of work, nothing is more important than stripping away the bullshit and focusing on the substance, which you seem to have done - both in the release and on the “news release page.”
Robert French 6:34 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink
I like it. We’ve used it before, too. Kind of like the page linked to a Facebook ad campaign, for instance. Built similarly to a social media release with multimedia, more info (bullet points), links to to all the aspects of a media/press kit, too. We enabled comments, etc. as well. I think it works and expands the offering of information better than just a release or social media release.
Mike Manuel 7:01 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink
@Mike and @Robert, thanks. There’s nothing revolutionary here, in fact, it’s painfully simply, but maybe therein lies the appeal of this approach….
Andrew Fowler 7:49 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink
Or how about get rid of the press release all together! I’ve been testing out a related approach that supplants the press release entirely and has PR people complete a news vetting process instead. You can check it out here: http://www.newsvetter.com/submitnews. You’ll have to register to access the template and workflow. I’ve tested it out with a few reporters who have found it far superior to the standard press release. Reporters can also rate and comment on each vetted news item.
Mike Keliher 8:37 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink
Andrew, I’m sure that’s a useful tool - one I’ll likely check out - but part of the point with this discussion of “social media releases” and “press release pages” and whatnot is that reporters are only part of the picture. In fact, sometimes they’re a small part of the picture, especially when it comes to distributing news and information on the Web. We’re going for consumers, people searching on Google for things we’re selling.
When it comes to reporters, I have my set of media contacts, and they get direct communication. When we’re talking news distro on the Web, there’s more to it than that.
Todd Defren 1:08 pm on February 27, 2008 Permalink
Heya Mike -
First off, you know I am always open to exploring the alternative approaches.
To my way of thinking, your “press release page” is kind’ve a brochure, no? There’s multimedia but no clear way to share it, and on the page itself it’s not clear that “this is news.”
That doesn’t mean that a “Content Page” devoted to items mentioned in a release is a bad idea - not at all. And it doesn’t mean that this is not a relevant, good approach.
I guess where I am confused is in the “integration” of the press release and the “press release page”?
My latest thinking on the SMR would probably represent a hybrid/combo of your actual release with the subsequent “press release page,” and, yea, ideally with more interactivity in terms of making the content shareable and “commentable.”
.02
Mike Manuel 2:40 pm on February 27, 2008 Permalink
So could a page like this be more dynamic? More share-able? Yeah, absolutely (and very, very easily), via any number of sharing, tagging, commenting, tools we pick.
I guess one of my bigger points is that “socializing” this press page is a lot easier, more efficient, cheaper, and (longer term), more valuable for the company hosting this sort of thing than a press release can ever be.
Another point to be made is this:
The press release (and the social media release) are incapable of being “complete” reflections of the news. It’s just a limitation of the medium. You have time (attention), cost (money) and distribution (reach) factors handicapping this process from the onset.
It’s frustrating to watch people in the industry pretending these limitations don’t exist, by either over writing and over developing the copy, to the point where it’s just too dense to digest or over complicating the copy (and sadly, their story) through over contextualization.
I’ve always thought a news release, be it traditional or otherwise, is at its best a functional teaser of sorts. It’s the bait, to be completely crass, that prompts action (e.g., to pick up the phone, to send an email, to click on a link, basically, to get more information).
I’d like to think the press release page frees folks up a bit, by focusing less energy on the release and the wires and the formats and the costs, and more on just making sure the release is a simple (functional) bridge back to the larger news page…which can be as rich and dynamic as your announcement requires…
Josh Hallett 6:40 pm on February 27, 2008 Permalink
In response to Todd, I’m not sure that adding a set of ’share this’ links makes something shareable?? If somebody is a user of delicious or digg, are they more likely to use the icons on a page, or the built-in bookmarklets they already have?
Shel Holtz 7:08 pm on February 27, 2008 Permalink
Hey, Josh. I think a “share this” link make does make it shareable, but the idea of the SMR is to make it easy to snag elements and add them to your own blog (or online news article) the way you want to. The embed code enables that.
Content and substance certainly have to come first, and I don’t think anyone ever envisioned every social media release adopting the same format. How dull. But one of the goals of the SMR is to tag the release and its elements so news from within a specific industry can be found using a search engine, or quotes from a certain executive. Helping people make sense of all the data out there wasn’t an issue when everything was in print. Now that it’s all digital and (as David Weinberger would say) any leaf can hang on multiple branches, a certain level of agreement on some core standards doesn’t hurt!
By the way, Canada News Wire just announced a do-it-yourself multimedia press release service that automatically codes your information in NewsML.
Mike Manuel 10:25 pm on February 27, 2008 Permalink
The way I see it, if tagging the release aids and accelerates its discovery - and that in turn generates more views/visits/interest/etc of the press page, I mean, nuff said, just do it (and we did do this, btw, if you look at the bottom of the release on MarketWire).
Now could we have also tagged and made the page itself more share-able? Yeah, sure, but in two weeks time - without *any* optimization or social-ization - this page has become the #3 search result for “social media monitoring.”
This factor alone is pretty interesting when you consider the marginal cost(s) of this approach; also when you consider that several companies on this very same search result page are forking out good money (more money) for sponsored ads for this same topic…
Todd Defren 8:10 am on February 28, 2008 Permalink
However this all shakes out, isn’t it GREAT that the 100-year old press release format is being debated at all? God bless the anarchists. ;)
Shel Holtz 10:01 am on February 28, 2008 Permalink
Incidentally, one of the goals of bringing the major wires into the working group is so they can agree to overcome the obstacles you referenced in your comment, Mike, making it as easy to incorporate multimedia elements into a release today as it has been to distribute an ASCII release.
Shannon Whitley 10:43 am on February 28, 2008 Permalink
Hi Mike,
Great conversation here. I like your approach and think we’ve been promoting the same process on PRX Builder.
Developing a standard template or using a tool like PRX Builder can really streamline the process. Even when using plugins, I’ve seen quite a few people have issues with social media links, video, and image integration. PRX Builder will take care of that for you and generate the code that Shel Holtz described for making your release more discoverable.
One of the distribution options in PRX Builder allows you to post directly to your blog. Using your “teaser” newswire release with a link back to your HTML news release seems like a great plan to me.
Laurie Smith 10:02 am on March 3, 2008 Permalink
Thanks for the mention, Shel – much appreciated. CNW did indeed just make a new product announcement, but I’m afraid your earlier comment squashes a few things together into one.
That’s our fault for not fully briefing you yet.
Access CNW, our new product, is a do-it-yourself client service portal that gives CNW clients hands-on control over the traditional news release distribution process at no extra cost.
We do offer a Multi Media News Release service (analogous to a social media release product) and have since 2005. We used it for our Access CNW announcement: (http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/mmnr/access_cnw2008/).
In addition, we do also offer a NewsML distribution system which is capable of pushing out rich information to users capable of receiving it.
We don’t (currently) offer all of those services bundled into one product, but thanks to conversations like these, we’re working on it.
-Laurie (from CNW Group)
Brian Edwards 12:22 am on March 7, 2008 Permalink
This seems like a reasonable and doable approach and I plan to recommend to clients. I would think it makes sense to update the NR page with trackback and coverage links so it becomes a more useful reference over time, and probably more searchable.
While this is a good discussion, I’m not sure I see how this is hugely different from a traditional virtual press room, but with some social media fairy dust. Still worth playing around with.