Social Media Release...the wave of the future?

PR professionals have traditionally relied on one type of news release to deliver information to the media and journalists. But recently, a new type of news release, called a “Social Media Release” has begun attracting more attention.

Shift Communications, a mid-sized independent PR agency, created the social media release in 2006 as an innovative means of simplifying information in a news release. Inspired by Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher, Shift Communications believes that the social media release “merely facilitates [journalists and bloggers] research by using the latest tools (social bookmarking, RSS, etc.) to provide background data, context and on-going updates to clients’ news.” The company made the template available for free distribution to any interested PR practitioners.

The benefit of the social media release is that it taps into online techonolgies by incorporating online and social media tools into the news release, and allows information to be communicated more effectively to the online community. It incorporates videos, social networking videos, images and hyperlinks into the release. This is a great way to distribute information to bloggers!

I am currently an intern at an advertising and PR agency in Dallas, and a couple months ago we watched a webinar explaining the functions and meanings of the Social Media Release. The agency recognized that although this release is not currently distributed by many PR firms, that it may be play an integral role in the future of PR.

With its user-friendly template, and wide-spread distribution I have yet to determine why the social media release has not yet taken off. My only guess is that the industry as a whole is afraid of change. Journalists are used to receiving the traditional news release, and PR agencies are used to distributing the traditional news release. I am interested to see if agencies will utilize the social media release in the future, and how journalists will respond to it.

Check out this awesome video on the social media release.