Katie Hyzy’s Blog

Most people are familiar with press releases on some level- they’ve existed in printed ubiquity for over a century. However, in today’s digital economy, press releases have found their own unique niche on the Internet as well. There is a cornucopia of PR related sites such as PR.com, 1888release.com, and AddPR.com that make the promotion of a good or service cheap and easy.

PR websites are one thing, but these days Web 2.0 sites that offer a more interactive approach to all the Internet has to offer. This is where Social Media Press Releases are beginning to find their home. A Social Media Press Release is essentially a traditional press release with additional bells and whistles to add to the experience of the consumer. While somewhat non-traditional and variable, Shift Communications offers an excellent template for those interested in this multi-media approach. 

Generally speaking, the Social Media Press Release (SMPR) includes traditional information such as contact info, headline, newsfacts, relevant quotes and whitepapers and boilerplate statements. However, the SMPR also tends to include links to Del.icio.us pages, RSS feeds to relevant blogs, technorati/Digg tags and perhaps most importantly photos, videos and mp3s/podcasts created specifically for the release. 

The option to include photos, videos and a whole host of interactive media are really what make this release unique and user-friendly. What better way to educate the consumer about the product you are trying to sell than by letting them play with relevant content?

Currently, we are working on creating a SMPR for Social Harbor. The release will include a video, RSS feeds to the Social Harbor Blog, multimedia links to whitepapers, links to our purpose built Del.icio.us page, Digg tags as well as all of the traditional information included in a press release. I will post a link to the release as soon as it is up and running!

Until then….