May 24, 2006

Revamping Press Releases for the Arts

I've received thousands of press releases over the years and I've read very few of them. They tend to be filled with lots of hype that don't shed much light on anything. There are usually a few meaningless executive quotes along with effusive customer praise.

But everybody continues to send out press releases in the traditional manner because that's the way it's always been done.

This approach to press releases is especially counterproductive for artists and arts organizations. Dance and the other arts are obviously about the visuals - pictures, videos, the spoken word and other multimedia elements. So if the standard press release is all text and the visuals are an afterthought, its tougher for artists to deliver their message in a compelling manner to writers.

Well, PR firm Shift Communications, with offices in Boston and San Francisco, has taken a shot at revamping the traditional press release into what I think is a much better approach.

Todd Defren of Shift Communications wrote a post in his PR Squared blog yesterday announcing the debuts of what he calls a "Social Media Press Release." (Click here to view PDF version of this new approach to press releases). Defren says that he was inspired to create this new format after reading a rant about the inanity of press releases by Tom Foremski in Silicon Valley Watcher.

If you examine the PDF template for the Social Media Press Release, you'll notice a number of new elements:

- New types of contact info. have been added - Skype #/IM address/blogs

- Bullet list of facts goes up front so that writers/journalists know what the press release is about. Writers just need facts and, as Foremski says, can add their own spin to the story.

- Link to purpose-built del.icio.us page and its corresponding RSS feed. (This is a mouthful. This means that the company that creates a press release also creates a list of relevant links on a dedicated webpage on the del.icio.us bookmarking site. So when reading a press release, a writer can click on the del.icio.us link and be taken to a single page of links that pertain to the focus of the press release.)

- Direct links toward the top of the press release to all multimedia content. So, for example, there are thumbnail images that link to pictures, audio files, graphics and videos.

The direct links to pictures and video I think are one of the most helpful elements of this new press release format. If a writer or journalist opens a press release with colorful pictures that link to multimedia content, it will be much easier to grab their attention. This is better than the standard text-only format that has a message at the bottom of the release that says "pictures available upon request." Even if a writer makes it to the bottom of your press release, it is too much of a hassle to contact you to get pictures when you can just as easily post them to the web for immediate download.

You can see an actual example of a Social Media Press Release by accessing the press release for this new type of press release.

Trackback Pings