Science Factory's Official Logo
from www.pitchengine.com
“It’s important to understand that the Social Media News Release is not intended as a replacement for the traditional news release... With 50+ percent of consumers now creating and sharing content online (Pew Research), it just makes sense to democratize access to corporate news and multimedia assets to anyone (reporters, bloggers, laypeople) who might be interested, and, to create a forum for community and context that – to date – has been unavailable via old-world press releases.” -Todd Defren
Even as SMRs are not intended to replace traditional news releases, they should still be written in hard news style with usable information. According to Dr. Tiffany Derville Gallicano, assistant professor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, an SMR, like a news release, should be written in inverted pyramid style with a hard news lead. Both reporters and bloggers are busy. They are not interested in spinning your story the way you pitch it to them. Instead, they need atomized content, with information that they can use quickly, to write a story on their own terms. The best way to make a reporter happy with your release, and therefore more likely to pick it up, is to write directly: eliminate the fluff.
SMRs are different than traditional news releases because they allow content to be atomized and broken down. They also allow reporters and bloggers to converse online about content within the release. Furthermore, this format allows official logos and photos to be downloaded for the reporter's use. Another bonus to the SMR is that it can be tagged on your delicious page with links to other relevant online material. Shift Communications came out with the first SMR template; the diagram shows how content is easily rehashed by the user to create unique, relevant news stories.
Several SMR sites have popped up as of late. Just this evening I gave pitchengine a try. Visit my SMR for Eugene's Science Factory here. It is somewhat like a traditional release: The main part of the text is written nearly the same as a traditional release would be. However, it does offer atomized content with its news facts list to the right as well as extensive sharing capabilities online. Given that more than 50 percent of consumers are online, as Todd Defren points out, I would have to agree that it makes sense to offer an online version of the traditional news release.
Bloggers have indeed become an outlet for pitching your stories to. What better way than on their own platform?
Even as SMRs are not intended to replace traditional news releases, they should still be written in hard news style with usable information. According to Dr. Tiffany Derville Gallicano, assistant professor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, an SMR, like a news release, should be written in inverted pyramid style with a hard news lead. Both reporters and bloggers are busy. They are not interested in spinning your story the way you pitch it to them. Instead, they need atomized content, with information that they can use quickly, to write a story on their own terms. The best way to make a reporter happy with your release, and therefore more likely to pick it up, is to write directly: eliminate the fluff.
SMRs are different than traditional news releases because they allow content to be atomized and broken down. They also allow reporters and bloggers to converse online about content within the release. Furthermore, this format allows official logos and photos to be downloaded for the reporter's use. Another bonus to the SMR is that it can be tagged on your delicious page with links to other relevant online material. Shift Communications came out with the first SMR template; the diagram shows how content is easily rehashed by the user to create unique, relevant news stories.
Several SMR sites have popped up as of late. Just this evening I gave pitchengine a try. Visit my SMR for Eugene's Science Factory here. It is somewhat like a traditional release: The main part of the text is written nearly the same as a traditional release would be. However, it does offer atomized content with its news facts list to the right as well as extensive sharing capabilities online. Given that more than 50 percent of consumers are online, as Todd Defren points out, I would have to agree that it makes sense to offer an online version of the traditional news release.
Bloggers have indeed become an outlet for pitching your stories to. What better way than on their own platform?
Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnother free SMR service you could trial is Pressitt social media news release creation and publishing tool which has just come out of private beta.
ReplyDelete