Social Media Releases: The New Press Release?

As an education major, I don't have much experience with either press releases or social media releases, so before I began writing this post I did some research. I was curious about the differences (if any) between press releases and a social media releases. Here's what I found...

According to http://www.entrepreneur.com/, a press release is "a public relations announcement issued to the news media and other targeted publications for the purpose of letting the public know of company developments." That seems simple enough. In other words, it's a concise way to let people know about important news that pertains to your company or organization. The same website where I found a definition also offered some tips about developing a press release:

1. Make sure you have a reason for sending a press release.

2. Make sure your release is targeted for the publication you're sending it to.

3. Limit your press release to one to two pages.

4. Follow standart format (typed, double spaced, white letterhead with a contact person's name, title, company, address and phone number in upper right-hand corner).

5. Add a brief, eye-catching headline in bold type.

6. Don't embellish the information.

Those seem like simple rules to follow.

Now that I've learned all about press releases, I want to know what a social media release is and how it differs from a press release. According to http://webprpro.com/prglossary, a social media release is "a new format of writing press releases that incorporates web-based tools for people to share and discuss the information of the release with one another." That makes sense to me. Instead of catering to traditional journalists and news outlets, social media releases are developed for web-based news outlets. The rules for social media releases seem to be similar to the rules for press releases (and I guess they would be because they're basically the same thing only in a different format). Several websites even offer templates that you can follow when developing a social media news release.

So, the confusion has been made clear!