Gus Fosarolli and Deborah Jang talk Social Media 2.0

Many thanks to MarketWire for hosting a talk on social media press release product: Social Media 2.0 for the marketing communications committee of IABC's BC Chapter on Feb. 17 in downtown Vancouver, BC, Canada. IABC BC is going to use Marketwire's social media newsroom to update members on events and opportunities, market to potential new members, and raise the profile of our industry and its award-winning communicators.

Picture the social media press release as one of many tools in a press kit.

"It won't replace the traditional press release," Gus told us. "It's just an added component... but the trend is that everything's going online."

The SMPR is a single web page with the press release headline, core news facts in bulleted form, links to other press releases, stories about the organization in the news, embedded video on YouTube, podcasts, photos, the organization exec's LinkedIn profile, and many other choices for connecting. Not all press releases are suitable for this format - depends on the audience, your story, your goal. Social Media 2.0 uses a template into which clients enter their own... stuff (for lack of a better word!)

"It's bypassing the media and going directly to your stakeholders," says Gus, adding that SMPRs are as short as possible, using minimal words, written in a blog style. "Make it a conversation, but lose the 'spin'... and make sure it is easily shared."

If you are curious to find out more, Marketwire is holding a free webinar: "LEARN THE "SECRETS" OF OPTIMIZED PRESS RELEASES" on Tuesday, Feb. 24 from 10 to 11 a.m. PST.

The invite reads: "If you are looking for visibility in the search engines – and who isn’t – understanding optimized press releases and social media press releases is a must. An optimized press release, when written using relevant keywords, may get you page-one results in search engines."

Marketwire also offers a four-part webinar series starting in March featuring local social media experts : "Each 90-minute session builds upon the previous one to help you create a complete, actionable social media plan that will measurably boost your organization's ROI."


Technorati tags

social media press release
IABC
Marketwire
Web 2.0
Vancouver
webinar