PR Tools: Social Media Press Releases
Posted in: The Biz
Image: Flickr user Ivan Walsh
Oh joy—another PR Tools discussion! Last we spoke, I argued for the importance for the press release in the PR industry. I still stand by my statement that “the press release is the foundation of any earned media campaign,” but just as one must adapt to live, one must also accept change to survive in the PR industry.
In the last eighteen months, Twitter and Facebook and other social networks, such as Chatroulette, have taken off. In order to exceed the status quo we (and other PR professionals as well) have had to adapt our styles, techniques and tools to maintain our audiences’ attention.
So how long do we have to maintain someone’s attention? According to Wikipedia, the average adult will only focus on something for eight seconds unless the person engages in a sustained focus—the act of actively concentrating on an object or task at hand for twenty minutes or more. This means that we have less than ten seconds to seduce our readers into an uninterrupted focus on our press release. Catchy headlines and sub-headers are nice and dandy but what better way to tempt our readers than to include pictures, slideshows, etc. in the press release? Websites like PitchEngine (an ELISE favorite) allow for graphics and videos to stream while the viewer reads or skims the release. Since publishing our NCIIA March Madness for the Mind 2010 release on PitchEngine it has been viewed over 300 times.
As society begins to rely more heavily on visual news rather than the written word, the PR industry must be malleable and willing to conform to new practices and techniques that will emotionally entice the reader and motivate them to read about the story. It isn’t enough to have a well-written story any more; graphics and visuals are necessary. How will you incorporate them into your next PR campaign?







