Amplifying your Marketing Communications Plans with Social Media Releases

After interviewing two successful and knowledgeable social media marketers from the United Service Organizations, I have found that some businesses are relying less on press releases and more on social media releases. Why is that you may ask? Well, look where people get their news – social media.

Brian Solis has evaluated the new theories and ideas on writing a social media release (SMR) and brought up many interesting and crucial points that all public relations specialists should know and thoroughly understand before getting on the bandwagon.

First and most importantly, not everyone is fit for SMRs. Like Solis cleverly noted, PR practitioners still have the “used car salesmen” reputation and no one would like that to continue into social media releases. So for those involved in “selling rather than talking, spinning rather than explaining, blasting instead of focusing, and most importantly not understanding the venues publications, blogs, sites, etc. or who they reach before spamming them,” SMRS are not for you.
Social media and social media releases will not fix a company’s whole marketing plan, but should be used in conjunction with traditional releases, company blog posts and if you’re lucky, releases written by customers, posted online, that tell a story of their experience. Using Twitter, in this case would make the most sense.

In general, just like social media in general, a release should be able to get a conversation started. Whether it’s a picture or news story that evokes emotion, re-tweets, tags or Diggs, your overall goal should be to get people talking and get people to take action- if that’s what your goal is. To beat the misconception of a used car salesmen, social media releases should be honest, up front and told in a timely manner. Think transparency.

Social media releases, in my opinion, may soon take over the typical release. After all, it only makes sense to start sending releases, written in short brief sentences to the most influential writers and websites out. Whether we want to admit it or not, online news is where most go to get their information these days. So in this case, the influencers may not have a journalism degree but share the same power as those with the degree.

Public relations companies and employees should take this into consideration. In doing so, consider who you’re sending the message to! Solis brings up a good point to only send the information out to those who you follow online already and those who have some correlation with the information you are trying to convey. Personally, if I was a blogger and some random person tried sending me information that did not apply to what I write about or what I am affiliated with, I would make sure to disconnect them from any of my networks. And if that ends up being the case, the company really won’t get their message out.

I compare press release, both traditional and social to a cover letter. If you are applying for a job, you cater the message to the company you want to work for. Otherwise, you just look like a fool who is too lazy to switch a few words and names here and there. A good job applicant and a good press release writer will look at who they are sending the message to and tailor it to them. After all they are your business just like the company you are applying for could possibly be your source of income. So watch what you do. Perception is everything.