NEE NAW NEE NAW! THE FIRE BRIGADE ANSWER… : "SMRs. Worth the paper they’re printed on?"

By , January 7 2010, 8:26 pm 18 Comments

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Social Media Releases (vsn 1.0 : example) have had a bad rap, a good rap and every other type of rap inbetween (sans MC Hammer – amen).  Myself, I’m willing to use them (Rec: Pressitt or SMR alternative Drop.io) if the client doesn’t have active SM channels already set up (they can be a good stop gap) but really it depends on the subject / topic.  They’re clearly no bandage for bad content or poor strategy.  The Fire Brigade were certainly opinionated…   

“It doesn’t seem a necessary tool when you already have an active and interested community around you and a way to effectively broadcast it.”  
- Chantelle Karl / Yelp


“Social media releases have only had a limited take up because they’re not a shortcut to heaven. Good PR teams mix and match between the two different concepts every day.”  
- Mark Pack / Mandate Communications

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“If content is King then distribution is the Queen.  Regardless of format, it’s about quality of content, not quantity of eyeballs. If you don’t have focus then no release is worth the paper it’s printed on.” 
- Kristi Lee-John / CrossRoads PR  

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“If the story’s rubbish, no. If the story’s good, yes. JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN PR. Social media is not a magical way in which to polish fecal matter.”      
- Matt Muir / Hill & Knowlton

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“Save the paper, shoot the bird. Tweet.  Save the rest of us from reading your business jargon with no more than 140 characters.”

- Stephanie Yang / BetaWave   

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“SMRs seem to currently be dominated by wire services which get everyone awfully excited but offer poor value for money. Compared to building a personal relationship with a blogger or journalist, these wire services soon look expensive – who wants to pay a hundred pound for a hundred page views?!“ 

- Jonathan Welsh / Biss Lancaster

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  • http://www.twitter.com/meggiepoo Meghan Sager

    I stopped dealing with “social media releases” once I figured out they were either 1) A Word doc with hyperlinks and photos or 2) A website hosting your release that does not push it out to anyone. Sorry, but I can do either of those on my own for free. I think people who created the social media release term and product were trying to capitalize on the changing industry but didn’t put much thought into if this product would work or if it was even necessary.

  • http://maneydigital.com Mike Maney

    I just looked up the definition of ‘social media press release’ in Funk & Maney’s Dictionary (which would have been on everyone’s desk if it wasn’t for the monopolistic Webster’s). Here’s what it said: “A social media press release is, well, it’s a web page. Now move on.”

  • http://www.adamzand.com Adam Zand

    Thankfully, innovators in the space developing more useful social media pitch template with pull down menus for leverage/best of class/scalable/integrated/end-user/solution.

    Social media agency RFP is on the way too so we can engage/join the conversation/influence the influencers with hyperlinks.

  • http://www.blackmagic-design.com Terry Frechette

    No. Not even the cheap, five times recycled paper you can get at Target and Walmart (which are fine fine stores of course.) Although I should first define what I consider to be what people say a social media news release is. They are a dizzying array of bullets, bolds and hyperlinks all thrown together by PR folks. Like a PR Christmas tree that exploded.

    At an academic level, yes, adding in ways for your readers to react with and build discussion around your news is great. Using Digg, Tweet this, photos, etc. are all useful and they should be in a release. But bullets and hyperlinks are useless if you are not actually telling a story. This is where 99% of the social media releases I read fall down.

    What is worth it is a concise release that maintains the inverted pyramid style we all learned. Paragraphs are your friends. Add in the bells and whistles at the bottom of your release (and if it goes more than a page and a half, go find a Strunk Elements of Style and beat yourself roughly.) That should what a real social media release should be, not just a hodge podge of bullets.

    And if you really want to have a social media release, do up your newsroom like a blog and let people comment on each release.

  • http://www.jacksonwightman.com Jackson Wightman

    Top 5 reasons why SMR’s ARE worth the paper they’re printed on

    5) SMR’s are “cool and sexy” and make people who are not either cool or sexy feel as though they are.

    4) SMR’s are a fabulous way to hide the fact that a product a) sucks, b) is superfluous, c) does nothing to better the existence of any sentient human being. In this regard, the SMR is kinda like the PR equivalent of the lipstick that goes on a pig.

    3) SMR’s have a comment feature so that companies who produce crap can be told so in a fast and efficient manner by a whole host of irate stakeholders

    2) SMR’s allow bored PR people to create all kinds of useless jazzed up content thus ensuring the continuation of their inflated paycheques

    1) SMR’s save TREES cause they ain’t printed on paper. (I wonder if Greenpeace has taken to using the exclusively)

  • http://www.twitter.com/munkyfonkey Paul Armstrong

    Thanks for all the comments – keep them coming! This is exactly what THE FIRE BRIGADE is for – touching nerves, righting wrongs and generally getting issues out in the open.

  • http://www.publiside.com Gail Sideman

    Social Media Releases worth all the trees they save. Short, sweet and good for the environment.

  • http://www.lohad.com Craig Peters

    What does that mean? (No, not the paper part.) A release about a new social media thingamabobble? A release issued via social media? (That could be as simple as a tweet with a URL.) What’s a “release” anymore, anyway? A “release” is too discrete (as opposed to discreet) a thing; social media is a continuing line (i.e. collective interaction), not a bunch of dots (i.e. push-issued releases).

  • http://www.wakefieldresearch.com Nathan Richter

    If you’ve had a bad experience with social media releases blame the carpenter, not the tool. Social media releases are effective assuming that 1. You don’t have your own online assets 2. The content is newsworthy 3. The content is appropriate for your target audience. 69% of Americans believe that social media is a permanent fixture of American life, and that number will continue to grow, so writing off this tactic is about as good as an idea as dismissing the fax machine circa 1983.

  • http://willoughby-pr.co.uk JANE AINSWORTH

    If the client can’t see why a social media release is worth the paper it (isn’t) printed on, it isn’t worth it for us either. Can’t help but think they are just a nice looking gimmik when there are cheaper, quicker, more personal ways of getting your message across.

  • http://www.twitter.com/munkyfonkey Paul Armstrong

    Thanks Nathan – great point – we are but users of tools. It’s up to us as much as anyone to make them work for us not against us. There are free tools out there and paid for services – both offer value and will be right for different clients.

  • http://www.mccluskeyinternational.co.uk Ian McKee

    Why not use SMRs? There are free services out there that do the job, so no cost, your release needs to be online, so why not make it rich with content (video etc) and easy to share? I’ve used Pitchengine’s free service and seen hundreds of views. Now use our own site in a blog format so people can share and comment, and use Pitchengine occasionally when I need extra SEO juice (launching a client blog/site, for eg).

    Not saying it’s a substitute for building relationships with bloggers or journos, but it can be a means of doing so – if you see one blogging/Tweeting something relevant to your story, you want something to throw at them quickly – SMRs are good for that.

  • http://thecastlegroup.wordpress.com/ Mark O’Toole

    Long live the press release (as long as it has links and is optimized for search). But can’t we just call them press releases instead of SMRs?

  • http://www.blackmagic-design.com Terry Frechette

    Well said Mark.

    And I don’t get the trees comments. Who prints out traditional releases anymore anyway? Plus, a tree fell on my pool last year, so I feel they are out to get me.

  • http://www.pkware.com Ann Krauss

    Traditional paper press releases w/ old school outreach = can be pricey w/ho-hum results
    SMR w/ multi-dimensional media engagement potential = priceless & often stellar results

  • http://www.wakefieldresearch.com Nathan Richter

    Blame the carpenter, not the tool. Social media releases are effective assuming that 1. You don’t have your own online assets 2. The content is newsworthy 3. The content is appropriate for your target audience. 69% of Americans believe that social media is a permanent fixture of American life, and that number will only continue to grow.

  • http://www.twitter.com/jozimek John Ozimek

    SMRs are a stopgap between something that does a better job than the tired old press release – which, let’s face it has been hijacked by so many non-news, ego-rich companies over the years that it’s become an almost pointless way of delivering real information – and something that is exciting, engaging and collaborative.

    I think that the handful of SMR templates that have been created have (in my experience anyway) been too far from the comfort zone of most clients – and at the end of the day, it’s their interests and tastes which drive our business. But my hats off to everyone that’s at least trying.

    If nothing else, SMRs are a solid example to more traditional clients on how PR is adapting to the digital world.

  • http://www.twitter.com/munkyfonkey Paul Armstrong

    Great points John and Nathan – I agree it’s good to try everything and experiment to optimise. If they don’t work for one client an SMR might work for another. In an age where there are free options for most mechanics out there – you often lose nothing but time.