Yesterday I had an opportunity to speak to a group of graduate students earning their degree in Strategic Public Relations at George Washington University. I focused primarily on the Social Media Press Release and what steps they can take as PR professionals to create shareable, interactive news releases.

Here are two questions from the class:

My Answer:

Sure, if you felt it would be well received you could include an SMPR as an HTML document in the body of an email; however, each journalist or blogger will vary on how they prefer to receive press releases.

What’s your answer?

How would you think organizations should email SMPR formatted news? In an email, a link…?

Question #2

My Answer:

I am not sure how many journalists or bloggers are publishing the full text press release to begin with? Of course there are certain news sites have automated, full text postings of the press release in which the SMPR may or not be retained, depending on technical limitations of the news site. In general, I would venture to say that the SMPR does not lend itself to full text re-posting, but rather- it seems to lend itself to well-reasoned and well informed reporting, thus encouraging the journalist or blogger to use the facts presented to craft their story.

Please feel free to leave some comments and help answer the questions from these students.

Mike Toner

Mike Toner is a freelance web designer from Arlington, Virginia. During the day he works as a Web Content Manager for CSC. By evening, he’s a husband, dog owner and runner. Toner writes about Social Media, SEO and overall online visibility as well as digital marketing trends.