Pressitt would like to take this opportunity to thank all the brands, agencies, government departments and everyone else who has used Pressitt’s free, SMNR platform so far.

At this stage we would like to ask for your help to showcase the positive effect a Pressitt Social Media News Release has had on your campaign or organisation.

What Pressitt is looking for:

• Any case studies using Pressitt as part of your social media outreach campaign
• Any feedback from journalists or bloggers as a result of being presented with a Pressitt Social Media News Release
• Feedback from clients that you have produced a Pressitt Social Media News Release on behalf of
• Anything else of interest related to Pressitt.

Anything you can offer will be greatly appreciated, please email andy@pressitt.com with any evidence.

We look forward to viewing your next Pressitt SMNR.

— Andy Merchant

Pressitt the Social Media News Release service is searching for a talented web developer to learn the Pressitt system and help develop the platform further.

If the first project goes well there is plenty more updates/concepts/user feedback to be integrated into the current platform.

The Role: freelance/short term

To develop and improve Pressitt.com on a freelance basis or short term contract, as and when required.

Working closely with our lead developer and front end coder, you’ll be responsible for coding various parts of the site, including bespoke and custom newsrooms from basic php functions within Code Igniter down to in-depth classes.

Built on Codeigniter, Pressitt is a fully featured site with combined client-side and server-side technologies allowing users to create rich and detailed news releases.

Required Skills

• Object Orientated Programming
• Model View Controller/Frameworks
• Linux Systems Administration
• Content Management Systems
• Social Networking (Web)
• Internet usability
• Accessibility (Web)
• Front end coding and javascript

Required Products

• Codeigniter
• PHP
• MySQL
• jQuery
• XHTML/HTML
• CSS
• LAMP
• Wordpress (not essential)
• Zend Eclipse (not essential)

So, if you can deliver on the above, live preferably near London/the South East, are hard working and able to work to strict schedules, please get in touch via email at andy@pressitt.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

— Andy Merchant

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

Over the next few weeks Pressitt will be offering you some tips and tricks blog posts to help you create your SMNR more effectively. The first in our series looks at the relevant links section of your release.

The relevant links section of the creation process gives you a great opportunity to show your viewers other parts of your brand. Ideas for relevant links could be a link back to your: Company Twitter account, YouTube page, Facebook group, blog, website, other coverage around your news and any supporting research. Here is a recent example of best practise from the ‘Women cyclists benefit from noseless saddle solution to riding-related health problems’ SMNR.

Here is another example: ‘Celebrate Asian music, dance and fashion at The Mela at The Mall 2009‘, notice here some of the social media profiles are highlighted with visual logos, which updates automatically when you add the link.

We hope this gives you a few more ideas when adding links to your SMNR in the creation process. Come back soon to see the next Pressitt SMNR tips and tricks post.

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— Andy Merchant

The Pressitt social media news release team are always striving for ways to get PRs, brands, small businesses, and anybody else interested in the SMNR format, to share knowledge about this increasingly popular communications tool.

Today, we are pleased to announce a new social network: Pressitt SMNR Best Practice – that allows you to share best practice and helpful tips when creating your Pressitt SMNR. We hope Pressitt’s new social network will help to crowd source knowledge from those that create SMNR’s and feedback into the community with best practice, helpful tips, advice and any other thoughts. Of course the Pressitt team will be fully involved in the network, adding relevant links, new forums topics, user examples and generally answering your social media news release questions.

So, if you use Pressitt regularly, or want to find out how to create SMNRs, please get involved and share your thoughts, recommendations and ideas.

Pressitt Team

To get the latest Pressitt SMNR’s please follow us on http://twitter.com/Pressitt

— Andy Merchant

As a big advocate of the Social Media News Release (SMNR), and someone who has spent many hours over the last few years researching the subject for my own benefit and that of Pressitt’s, it’s worth noting where we’re up to with the SMNR concept.

On the plus side we have great vocal and influential supporters such as Brian Solis, who every year creates a huge resource-focused blog post to invigorate the SMNR bandwagon (hats off to the guy), other SMNR stars such as Todd Defren who frequently blogs and comments about the release, and there have been a few nice examples of the SMNR in action such as my own personal favourites - the Standard Bank cricket efforts, and of course all the good work carried out by Digital Snippets for Ford.

Other services like the fantastically successful Pitch Engine have been quick to realise the potential of the SMNR and have done a good job of creating a place to stimulate online conversation - something that Pressitt, our UK-based SMNR and creation service hopes to achieve and emulate.

On the downside, ask many non-digital and even some digital journalists what a SMNR is, and they still won’t have a clue! It’s not just about the journalist though, as SMNRs are also aimed at bloggers hungry for news, microbloggers and social communities (the social masses). These people need to be educated and helped to understand the benefits of the SMNR format. PRs and marketers are slowly getting there but there is still a massive education job to do.

Two rather worrying points that I’ve also noticed are:

- The Social Media Release blog has not been updated since the 7th of March 2008.

- The IABC assumes a Social Media Release leadership role, but they don’t seem to have taken a very proactive approach.

To sum it all up, in the three years since Todd Defren’s ground breaking SMNR template, not as much has happened as could have been possible. At Pressitt we are optimistic that in 2009 the SMNR will reach its tipping point. It’s going to take a lot of hard work from all of the people mentioned in this post as well as ourselves and others, but I really hope we can help to prove that the SMNR is a great way of creating and sharing news socially. I’ll be shouting about the SMNR from the UK rooftops!

Here are some of the better SMNR links I have discovered over the last three years:

— Andy Merchant