How to Write a Social Media Press Release

 Strapped with a small advertising budget, Blendtec's marketing director Jeff Robe, took a chance in trying to change the brand's reputation. Blendtec was largely known as a commercial manufacturer of high-end blenders for restaurants, Starbucks franchises and more. Robe created the Will top social media marketing companies It Blend? video series, hosted by company founder Tom Dickson and aimed at showing the powerful ability of Blendtec's Total Blender for home use, priced at $400. Dickson put everything from an iPhone to hockey pucks and a toilet plunger to a World Cup vuvuzela in to the blender. Over 100 episodes and millions of YouTube views later, the Will It Blend? video series is one of the great examples of viral sharing and marketing success in the era of social media. According to the company, home sales of their blenders have increased 700% since November 2006 to August 2010. A truly viral success story, social media changed the perception of the Blendtec brand. While not every social media campaign can be as successful as Blendtec's, it's often the way that the message or product is shared that determines its success. Advertising and public relations can be extremely effective tools when used properly, but they are, by definition, one-way forms of communications. Social media, on the other hand, is defined by the ability of both sides to converse and share information. And despite the change in technology, the press release remains one of the best ways social media marketing network to get your message out. But writing a press release for social media is not like writing a traditional press release. Before digging in, however, it is important to note that social media press releases do not replace traditional releases, they complement them – much in the same way that social activities and campaigns work best in conjunction with traditional PR initiatives.

How to Write a Social Media Press Release: What is a Social Media Press Release?

Regardless of whether you are writing a press release for traditional mediums or for social media, if your audience doesn't find the content informative, useful or helpful, it doesn't matter how hard you try or what the format is—you simply will not succeed. Noted social media blogger Brian Solis wrote the definitive guide to social media releases in 2008, and his definition still stands true: "A social media release should contain everything social media marketing consultant necessary to share and discover a story in a way that is complementary to your original intent; but, the difference is, how they find it and the tools they use to share and broadcast. Social media is one big extension to the web, except it promotes voices, along with content, in a way that focuses on people and their social networks." The advancements of the Internet and of social channels has made the traditional format of a press release less effective as journalists, press members and readers crave small chunks of succinct details that incorporate social media, linking and multimedia to make it more digestible and relevant. The quicker, easier and more creatively you can get your point or message across, the more likely it is to be picked up, shared, re-tweeted, or more. And one thing you should not social media marketing for dummies overlook is the use of keywords. It will help your search engine optimization and get your point across quickly yet effectively. "The pivotal change is that the consumer owns as much of the message of your brand as any traditional vehicle," Turner notes. "Whereas PR professionals used to target journalists to get a story placed, a social media press release is about targeting three different people: journalists, bloggers and most importantly consumers. It needs to make sense to all of them individually."

Measuring Engagement and Following Up After the Release

It's next to impossible to measure success of a social media press release without setting up a type of measurement, which needs to be done before you send out the release. Turner recently wrote a post on Mashable about How To Calculate The ROI of Your Social Media Campaign. In essence, there are three types of measurement to focus on in any social campaign, those being qualitative, quantitative and ROI. For marketing directors, they should be most social media marketing los angeles focused on ROI. But for public relations professionals, it's really the other two that matter most. "In terms of PR, you want to know not only who is sharing the information that your release provides, but how they are sharing it," Turner adds. "So in terms of quantitative, it's all about raising the number of Facebook likes, Twitter shares, and more. From a qualitative measurement perspective, it's really about what they are saying about your information. For example, are they calling your product cheap or inexpensive? From a branding perspective, those two words have a considerably different meaning, so you sometimes need to help guide the conversation." And Turner's final point there is one of the biggest things you must do as a PR professional when writing a social media press release—engage. Just as you want your customers, journalists and bloggers to actively share the product and come back for more, the key to social is making it a two-way conversation. If someone asks a question about the campaign, respond quickly. If they want to know where they can find more information, write them a message or direct them to the social media marketing degree company website. "No customer wants to call a 1-800 number anymore," Olson adds. "Everyone wants to take their question and post it on the company Facebook page or tweet about it and then receive an instant response. So as a PR person, you need to make the consumer feel like a VIP in a way by giving them that personal touch. Because in a way, social media campaigns can be less expensive than traditional advertising and it can be a great alternative for smaller companies to try and compete with larger brands. But if you don't concern yourself with engagement, it can really hurt you and you could lose a customer."