The News Release
in the Social Media Era
Shel Holtz, ABC
IABC World Conference
June 9, 2009

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Agenda
• Is the press release really dead?
• SEO and the news release
• The social media release

The most basic purpose of the machinery of
press releases is the identity authentication
that wire services provide. We can replace
that with something more open, less oligarchic,
and more 21st century. The rest of the junk
surrounding press releases is just that: junk.
Fake quotes (or even real ones, pulled from
context), a disembodied third person voice,
and a sensationalist, superlative-dripping
style: let's please drop the whole edifice,
fix the identity verification issue, and move on.

Press releases are nearly useless. They typically
start with a tremendous amount of top-spin,
they contain pat-on-the-back phrases and
meaningless quotes. Often they will contain
quotes from C-level executives praising their
customer focus. They often contain praise from
analysts, (who are almost always paid or have a
customer relationship.) And so on...
Press releases are created by committees, edited
by lawyers, and then sent out at great expense
through Businesswire or PRnewswire to reach the
digital and physical trash bins of tens
of thousands of journalists.
This madness has to end. It is wasted time and effort
by hundreds of thousands of professionals.

Traditional press releases
• Written for print
• Distributed over wires
• Mainly for compliance
• Have they run their course?

Previously, the SEC held that corporate
websites could only be used as part of
the disclosure process, but with the new
guidance corporate websites or blogs can
now be the sole means of disclosure.

So why bother?

Mainstream media still matters
• Newspapers, TV news still highly credible

Online, press releases deliver
• Increased visibility and credibility
• Reach customers/consumers directly
• Ready access to online content
• Reach bloggers
• Enhance thought leadership
-- SNCR/Vocus study:
ROI of Online Press Releases

Evaluating online press releases

Online press release tactics

Use new media to raise awareness
• Mayo Clinic News Blog

Use new media to raise awareness
• Mayo Clinic News Blog
• USDOL on Twitter

SEO and press releases
• Descriptive headline containing key words
• Link key words to relevant web pages
• Incorporate multimedia
• Avoid jargon
• Focus on first 250 words and optimize
• Add tracking links to unique pages
• Test your press releases

And they work!
• Southwest Airlines had previously only
optimized releases around corporate
nickname “Southwest”. Upon optimizing for
“Southwest Airlines”, and implementing
tracking pages, they were able to account for
approximately $2.5 million in ticket sales.
-- Online Marketing Blog

So what’s the Social Media Release?
• An ongoing effort
– Started with Tom Foremski’s post
– Todd Defren developed a template
– Chris Heuer started a working group
(through Social Media Club)

So what’s the Social Media Release?
• An IABC initiative
– Sponsors the working group
– Working group membership includes
• All major wire services
• Representatives from PR agencies
• Journalists
• Technical experts
– IABC announced involvement with a Social Media
Release!

So what’s the Social Media Release?
• A source of much controversy

Core ideas
• One stop shopping for info, resources,
and digital assets related to news
and announcements
• Simplify online reporting process
• Augments but does not replace a traditional
release
• Published to the Web rather than distributed
– Linked from traditional release, other locations

Social Media Releases
• Geared to online reporters
– Journalists
– Bloggers
– Whatever
• Make it easy to tell your story
– Cherry-pick content

Social Media Releases
• Should contain everything necessary to share
and discover a story in a way that is
complementary to your original intent
-- Brian Solis

Core Facts

Multimedia

Quotes

Research Aids

Contact Info

Boilerplates

Links to Sharing Sites

But wait! There’s more!
• Tag clouds
• RSS feeds
• Comments
• Downloadable documents

The hRelease Tag Structure
• Tags are machine-readable
• SMR uses XHTML schema hRelease
• Goal: Tags built into all SMR utilities
– A consistent approach to finding and using
content from social media releases

Examples of tags
• Location
• Contacts
• Created and Expires
• Dates
• Places
• Quotes
• News-body
• Quotes
• Multimedia

How might it work?
• hRelease is for bloggers and the media
– Identify and pull only what is needed.
• hRelease is for consumers
– Modern tagging structure enables browser and
desktop tool integration.
• hRelease is for release distributors
– The release contains meta-data (information about
itself) – (Example: geocode for applicable regions)
– Import and transfer release data based on a common
format.

hRelease is for bloggers and the media
New tools help authors find exactly what they need.
The release “parts” have been predefined.

hRelease is for consumers
• The code behind the release identifies actionable items.
•Schedule an event.
•Call a contact.
•The consumer’s computer reads the release code and picks the right tool (Google,
Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc.).

hRelease is for release distributors
A release can be reformatted to
meet the needs of specific
distribution points using templates.
The same release – multiple views in
a single mouseclick.

Who’s issuing SMRs?
• Ford Motor Company
• Symantec
• Electrolux
• Coca-Cola
• WebEx
• Nutrisystem
• Cisco Systems

From Scratch?

Questions?
• Shel Holtz, ABC
Phone: 415.367.3820
Email: shel@holtz.com
Web: www.holtz.com
Blog: blog.holtz.com
Podcast: www.forimmediaterelease.biz
Skype: shelholtz
Twitter: www.twitter.com/shel
FriendFeed: shelholtz
2nd Life: Shel Witte
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