Not using the social media news release?

Might want to consider it.

A study by RealWire found that social media news releases (SMNR) achieved three times the coverage as traditional releases. Here are the results:



Important to note: RealWire is an online service that helps companies distribute press releases.

(CEO Adam Parker, who was also mentioned in a PR Daily story yesterday, talked about the results of this study on the podcast For Immediate Release.)

A SMNR contains elements attractive to bloggers or journalists working online, such as embedded video, audio files, images, and links. They exist in a company’s online newsroom or a dedicated blog, or they're hosted via a third-party service. You can distribute them by simply e-mailing a reporter or blogger a link to the page, or by tweeting the link.

There are several nuances to creating SMNRs, which have been covered in blog posts and webinars. For instance, Copyblogger wrote a how-to piece on SMNRs; PR pro Brian Solis published a “definite guide” to them; and PR Daily offers a webinar (for purchase) by Shel Holtz on how to produce them.

Here are five examples of SMNRs that brands have used. Unless otherwise noted, they appeared on the companies’ websites. I pulled several of these examples from the Social Media Training wiki, a useful resource for PR and media pros. Click on the title or the image to see the full SMNR.

Southwest Airlines Takes Blogging to the Next Level (Southwest via Marketwire)




Abu Dhabi Inspired Bespoke Phantoms Debut (Rolls-Royce via RealWire)




Winter on ITV2 (The U.K.’s ITV2)




Cisco Connected Life Contest (Cisco)




Momentum Continues to Build Behind SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 (Novell via PRNewswire)