Dump your press release!
The press release is dead. RIP.
Blogs and Twitter should replace press releases now. The blog post is the new press release and if it is not interesting and relevant to your stakeholders it will not get passed on and shared. Which is how it should be.
News is no longer a product in a paper or a magazine. It is a process. It is continually changing and being distributed in lightening speeds across the web, with people jumping in and adding comments.
From an organisational perspective, the key is to manage this process by building a community of core stakeholders around your social media platforms and providing your key information to them. Building such a community is an art and not something that can be done overnight. It requires serious personal attention and considered thought and a proper understanding of the fast-moving, democratic, non-hierarchical, highly personal, open and honest social media culture.
Most of the newspapers now have Twitter feeds and most of them have blogs. So anything that is useful and interesting and in the paper is quickly spread online through a host of networks and vice versa. Some companies don’t even see this because their IT systems have firewall practices which prevent their communications executives from freely roaming the web.
Many companies have created models for handling traditional media and that is how they are staffed and structured; and often they are supported by PR agencies with traditional media mindsets.
Smart organisations are realising though that the world is changing fast. Traditional media is dying on its feet, social media is transforming the production and distribution of news. New communications practices are required.
Blog posts are the new press release but they require a different tone of voice and a different style. Simply channelling traditional media communications through new social media platforms is not guaranteed to work. Especially if no attempt has been made to understand what is being said online about the particular issues those communications are addressing.
Some (not all) heads of corporate communications like to think that social media does not affect them….as the tide slowly goes out and they realise that false distinctions of B2B and B2C mean nothing on the web, they are going to leave themselves and their organisations vulnerable. Social media is messy and does not need approval or sign off from a head of communications before it acts. It is acting right now whether you like it or not, and press release are not going to have any long term meaningful effect on that process.
For more background on these developments go here.
