White paper: Has the Social Media News Release (SMNR) finally come of age?

Guest blogger Nathan Greenhalgh introduces the results of research he carried out for Liberate Media to identify the issues around the traditional Press Release format and development of the Social Media News Release as an alternative. Director Wendy McAuliffe guided Nathan in the scope of the research and collation of the data, acting as mentor/editor for the production of the White Paper.

Pressitt launched in public beta last April, and to coincide with its re-launch and coming out of beta this month, we decided to carry out our own research into current perceptions around the traditional press release, and its successor the SMNR. Our findings are presented within our white paper entitled: Has the Social Media News Release (SMNR) finally come of age?

We hope you will find the time to download and read the white paper, which brings together some of the main industry arguments for and against the SMNR. However to entice you, here is an overview of our findings…

1)      The rules have changed and the traditional press release is no longer adequate. Increasing pressures on journalists, coupled with the rise of the “online citizen journalist” indicates that there will be more demand for a greater range of information than just text.

2)      Our research found that while general press releases are still useful, and up to now the vast majority of journalists have been happy to receive them by email, new pressures on time mean that they also need quick access to images, video and links.

3)      The style of information and formatting is crucial - that means no PDFs as the only source of information. Video is increasingly important, as are embeddable links and links to other sources.

4)      The SMNR has been sitting in the wings for a few years now, not quite managing to make the most of its potential. It would appear however that journalists could finally be coming round to making the most of the advantages SMNRs offer over the traditional press release.

Regardless of whether you are a Pressitt user or not, we would welcome your views on the subject. If you are new to the SMNR, we invite you to give Pressitt a go.

Download the white paper: (PDF) Has-the-social-media-news-release-finally-come-of-age ?

— Andy Merchant @andymerch

Below is the next in the series of Pressitt help videos. This screencast shows you how to create your SMNR and get the best out of Pressitt social media news release creation and publishing service.

Other help Pressitt videos include RSS feeds and boilerplates/company information.

We hope you find these videos useful.

If you think a particular element needs explaining better within Pressitt please let us know and we’ll add it to our list of updates.

Regards,

The Pressitt Team

— Andy Merchant @andymerch

We are actively trying to incorporate user feedback into the Pressitt site. Something that we’ve received a number of requests for are help and features videos.

So here are are first two.

The first is all about RSS within Pressitt. The video goes through how to get the best from the eight RSS enabled categories and brand RSS feeds on the final SMNR release.

The second is about how to add company information and boilerplates to your Social Media News Release.

We hope you find these videos useful.

If you think a particular element needs explaining better within Pressitt  please let us know and we’ll add it to our list of updates.

Regards,

The Pressitt Team

— Andy Merchant @andymerch

Social Media News Release (SMNR) service Pressitt today launches in public beta, following a successful month of private beta testing.

Developed by digital PR and social media consultancy Liberate Media and web development firm Best Served Cold,  Pressitt has already been trialed by an impressive list of high-profile and challenger brands and organisations. These include Johnson’s online parenting community BabyCentre, the Government’s Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, online music provider Napster, digital creative agency Collective, digital entertainment and internet solutions firm iBAHN, digital engagement agency Kerb and LED lamp producer Greengage Lighting.

In just over a month, the service has already secured a Google PageRank of four, and attracted a significant level of private beta interest.

Pressitt enables PRs and businesses to create their own SMNRs (also known as a Social Media News Release) and publish to an online community of journalists, the blogosphere and the general public. A Pressitt release contains all of the core information found in a traditional press release, but it is presented in a more digestible format along with images, video clips, links to previous Pressitt announcements and other relevant online information such as homepages, social media profiles and downloadable presentations or PDFs, ensuring all story assets are saved in one central online place.

Based on early user feedback, a range of service updates will also be launching to coincide with the public beta launch. These include brand-specific RSS feeds, enabling individuals to easily keep track of Pressitt releases published by companies of interest, and a tool called Twitter pitch which allows Pressitt releases to be shared via Twitter easily. Screencast videos are being developed to provide additional guidance on how best to use Pressitt, and A new homepage design is also going live in direct response to the feedback of private beta testers.

The service is currently free to use, and a premium paid-for version with enhanced functionality will go live later in the year.

Additionally, Pressitt is also unveiling a bespoke version of the service, which enables organisations to have a customised SMNR template designed to reflect the colours, style and branding of their organisation. Those wanting to take it one step further can show-off their bespoke releases in a Social Media News Room, offering a completely branded environment housing all of their corporate SMNRs. A Social Media News Room can be a part of a company’s existing website or hosted via Pressitt.

Wendy McAuliffe, director of Liberate Media and Pressitt, says: “The private beta phase has been incredibly successful, and we’re delighted to be coming out of it after just one month of testing. The Social Media News Release has been a hot topic within the global PR industry for a while, and we’re pleased to see that businesses and brands of all sizes are eager to trial this up-to-date press release format. Early user feedback has been constructive and encouraging, and we’re making service updates as quickly as possible to ensure we’re continually innovating and responding to the needs of our users.”

Greg Doone, managing director of Collective, adds: “We’re proud to have been one of the first organisations to trial Pressitt, as we’re keen for our company news to be as ’social’ and shareable as possible. We develop a wide range of multimedia assets for high profile brands such as Honda and EA, and Pressitt provides us with the perfect environment to showcase these to our blogger and journalist targets in one central online location.”

— Andy Merchant @andymerch

It’s been a great start for the Pressitt Social Media News Release (SMNR) creation and publishing tool, and so we’re keen to showcase what this early Beta version of Pressitt can currently do.

The homepage is split into two halves:

Homepage configuration

Top half of homepage

* Introduction to Pressitt

* Eight RSS-enabled key categories, which all SMNRs will get filed into by date after being released

* All latest SMNRs available via RSS feed subscription

* Pressitt Twitter account feed

Bottom half of homepage configuration

* 10 most recent SMNR releases will be highlighted with by their logo and overview, giving them homepage exposure.

* The most rcent SMNR will secure the highlighted number one spot until the next SMNR is published, and it will then slip down the homepage until it is no longer in the top 10 releases on the homepage.

* Latest news from the Pressitt blog

Final published SMNR

The individual components, from top to bottom.

* Company logo: (attached to the boilerplate that sits at the bottom of the release)

* Overview of release: a brief introduction into what the release is about

* Core Facts: individual section displaying each key point about the product/news (you can have as many core facts as you like but we suggest 1-5)

* Contacts: used for enquires or to set up interviews/demonstrations. Each contact is also able to include their own social profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook). Users can add as many contacts as needed.

* Videos: users just copy and paste the video URL into the specified video box and Pressitt does the rest. This functionality currently only supports YouTube, but more will follow (you can have as many videos as you like)

* Images: Pressitt allows you to upload up to eight hi-res or low-res images. Pressitt shrinks the images on the actual press release. The end user can download the final original size image.

Pressitt supports, jpeg, gif, tif, bmp, png and a maximum file size of 4MB can be uploaded for each image.

Uses for images could be: company logos, profile pictures, pictures of products, people quoted within the release, or anything else related to your release

* Other file uploads: Pressitt also gives you the option to attach supporting documents to the SMNR. These could be a PDF brochure of other products, an Excel spreadsheet of timings, or a Word document of supporting evidence

* All documents are downloadable from the release and highlighted via text and file extension symbols

File supported are: .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .pdf and a maximum file size of 8MB per document.

(Upload up to 4 documents to support your release)

* Quotes: Pressitt allows you to add quotes from industry experts, company figureheads, developers, or anyone with authority linked to the story

* Related links: Pressitt allows you to add any number of related links to the story, to enhance the release. You add the link and descriptive text and we add a thumbnail of the links for added visual appeal

* Previous releases: Pressitt gives you the opportunity to easily add your related existing Pressitt releases to your current release

* Social bookmarking: Pressitt has all the social sharing and bookmarking features you would expect

Other features of the final Pressitt release

* Print now feature: hit the logo to receive a printed version of Pressitt

* Commenting: Only registered Pressitt users can comment on blog

* RSS feeds to your company’s Pressitt SMNRs

Other Pressitt Features

* All SMNRs are searchable from the homepage

* The releases stay on Pressitt for good

Editing help guidance

* When writing your SMNR, informative help sections are available above each section to guide and steer you

Your profile section

Once signed in each user has his/her own profile page - This page consists of:

* Create a new press release

* View, edit and delete releases

* Mange you identities/boilerplate: if you are an agency with multiple clients you can upload and write as many client identities as you like. Upload a client logo and then write the boilerplate to go with the logo and one identity is complete

I hope this gives you a flavour of what Pressitt can do, and we will keep you updated on the full open Beta launch plans and other extra enhancements coming soon. We really want to make Pressitt the best it possibly can be, so the more ideas and feedback we receive the better the final product will be, we want to take a collaborative approach with Pressitt.

— Andy Merchant @andymerch

Pressitt has now launched and this blog will be updated with plenty of news relating to the site and the future of the social media news releases in general.

— admin