Rethinking The Traditional Press Release For The Digital Age
Posted: Tuesday 17 April, 2012
Jessica Ward
New and exciting ways of communicating stories to the press are on the rise, along with other aspects of digital communication including social media, with some journalists now only accepting news stories from PRs via a Tweet (take a look at #journorequest to find out more).
Of course, traditional aspects of PR such as the press release are far from extinct, but there are various ways in which we as PRs can adapt to these changes in the industry, including communication through social media, online outlets and blogs.
Integrating social media as part of a PR campaign can generate fruitful results, especially considering that social media itself is now one of the most preferred and efficient ways of sharing news. As highlighted above, a select number of journalists now only accept news stories via a Tweet, which is limited to only 140 characters of information, forcing PRs to include only the most relevant information. Other ways of using digital to replace traditional include pitching stories to online outlets, as online publications are becoming even more popular, as print naturally declines due to advertising budgets being cut. Blogs are another way of potentially increasing outreach, as many bloggers will include a website link and/or links to social media sites within posts. Blogs are also more likely to reduce the size of a traditional press release, which also enables PRs to limit their word count to make it as interesting and engaging as possible.
Although the reported decline of traditional PR is by no means something to panic about, it is somewhat of an obvious factor as society continues into the digital age. It is also helpful to establish new and exciting ways in which stories can be pitched to the press, even if this is simply to set yourself aside from the rest and make an impact as opposed to replace traditional PR techniques entirely.
