A press release’s main objective is to create a buzz for your brand so you can gain coverage. One of the best ways to achieve this is through this age’s most widely used channels–social media.
Remember, there are currently around 4.88 billion social media users in the world. That’s over half of the world’s population.
This article will explain the value of a social media press release in modern public relations communication. I’ll also discuss tips to ensure your social media press release attracts and engages your target audience. But first:
What Is a Social Media Press Release?
A social media press release represents the more dynamic and interactive evolution of traditional or regular news releases.
As the name suggests, it’s meant to be shared on your social media accounts. It can be posted on a website for easy social sharing or published directly on the social platform. A social media press release is designed to be more engaging than its traditional counterpart, with its use of different content forms, from video to captivating images.
Overall, social media press releases can convey information in a way that resonates with their external audiences, boosting their potential to go viral.
Why Social Media Press Releases are Essential
There are various reasons why social media releases are essential. Below are some benefits for a brand:
- Enhanced Engagement: A social media press release enhances audience engagement, thanks to its multimedia elements and features for real-time interactions. The increased engagement helps you foster deeper brand connections.
- Wide Reach: These releases leverage the massive social media user base to share news and announcements swiftly. Your release has the potential to reach a global audience within seconds. To maximize your reach, leverage excellent third-party PR services that also have established connections outside these social platforms.
- SEO Benefits: Well-crafted social media releases can help significantly boost your search engine optimization efforts. That’s because as I’ve mentioned, social media press releases can live on a company’s website. By including relevant keywords in your release, you can boost your search engine rankings, which then increases your reach and brand visibility.
Note, too, that social media channels and website analytics generate detailed data that make it easier to measure your press release’s performance. The result is that you can identify improvement areas to work on to ensure more effective press releases in the future.
Differences between Social Media and Traditional Press Releases
Both traditional and social media press releases aim to disseminate a company’s official statement or other company-related information. We’ve talked a bit about some of their differences. Let’s take a deep-dive into each:
Technology
While traditional press releases mostly rely on print and email distribution to traditional media like TV and newspapers, social media press releases require digital platforms that allow digital integrations and real-time interactions for dissemination.
As I’ve said, social media press releases can be shown on a website for easy social sharing (see above) or posted directly on social media. Meanwhile, regular press releases are stuck in email pitches or even just on paper. Social releases are, therefore, easy to link to and find through an online search.
Style
A social media press release takes the form of an interactive article or video. A traditional press release, on the other hand, is more rigid. This, as you’ll see in the next point, is due to the main difference in the target audience groups.
Audience
Traditional press releases target a more traditional readership, typically composed of journalists, industry professionals, and stakeholders. A social media release, on the other hand, is written for direct customers, which explains the need for integrating interactive elements for any type of announcement.
While an audience of, say, journalists judge a release by facts and figures, customers will rarely pay attention to a release that’s not visually appealing.
5 Tips to Follow for Effective Social Media Press Releases
You can’t just “wing” your social media press release creation. Here are tips you should follow to ensure your final output is effective:
1. Craft a Catchy Headline
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing acquisitions press releases or partnership press releases. If you’re writing your social media press release, you need a headline that’s catchy enough to draw in your readers and encourage them to keep reading your newsworthy story.
Make your headline creative and informative enough, but don’t resort to sensationalism or craft outright misleading headlines. Such headlines can easily hurt your brand’s reputation and erode customer’s trust.
A great headline should also pique curiosity, enticing readers to want to learn more. So, consider using compelling questions and intriguing statements that highlight a specific benefit or value. These are more likely to encourage readers to read your full release.
On social media, brevity is key. So ensure your headline is brief and concise. Aim for a headline that is less than 60 characters in length. This ensures that it’s easily scannable and shareable on various social platforms.
This will also help ensure your entire title shows up in search results. Remember what I said about social press releases being meant to be found through an online search? Google generally shows between 50–60 characters of a headline, completely re-writing or truncating those longer than that, as shown below.
Finally, integrate relevant keywords into your headline. Doing this not only aids in SEO but also helps your audience quickly identify the topic and context of your release.
These may seem like too many demands to fit in a 50-character copy, but they’re not unachievable. You can always consider using generative AI solutions that will help you create a catchy headline for your press release in seconds.
2. Include Compelling Quotes
Including compelling quotes in your social media press release adds more credibility to your entire content and a more human element to your release story.
However, they’ll only be compelling if you choose the right source. So, first, choose a spokesperson or figure within your organization who is relevant to the news and has authority on the subject.
This could be the CEO, founder, or even manager for a limited-edition product launch press release or a release on the company’s financial highlights. Ensure you include the name and title to ensure transparency and credibility, like the Ambi Robotics press release example below does.
Then ensure the quote aligns with your press release message goal and captures the emotional depth of your announcement. For instance, if you have a product announcement or a product update, the featured quotes should evoke excitement and hope about the item.
You can integrate the quote seamlessly into the press release. Alternatively, have it as a standout element, by creating a pull quote or graphic, to draw attention to it. The pull quote version is also more shareable as a social media post, which could help you boost your message’s reach.
Finally, since social media press releases are promotional tools meant for customers, the quote should speak directly to them. So your quotes should answer the question “How is this news going to affect them as users or customers?”
3. Post Your Press Release alongside Your Blog Posts
You can publish your written social media press release in your online newsroom as is before sharing it on your social platforms. But to get more website readers, why not publish it along with your other blog posts instead?
After all, it’s usually only the media who access a company’s online newsroom. Meanwhile, blog posts are accessed by practically everyone.
Besides, if you publish your social media release as a blog post, you can further increase engagement. Readers can leave comments on your company anniversary, or ask questions about your other newsworthy topics right underneath the release if you enable those settings. You can also respond to comments.
To ensure your blog post is effective, include relevant multimedia resources that make it more interactive and support your point. For instance, say you are sharing news about a product launch. You can share images of the new product that showcase its unique features and benefits. To get the maximum benefit out of a press release consider using real-time collaboration and social media management tools in your editing process.
You can also incorporate video tutorials into your post, like Shopify did here:
Not all readers will read through an entire blog post. Therefore, it’s important that you make it scannable, allowing readers to skim through and easily find the content they’re most interested in. To make your blog post scannable, write in short paragraphs, use clear subheadings, and release bullet lists.
You can also include social buttons to facilitate sharing on Facebook, Instagram, among others.
4. Go Live on Social Media
Who says your social media press releases have to be always primarily in written form? This type of communication can take the form of stand-alone videos, too. Why not go live on social media to share your announcement?
There are various benefits you stand to gain from hosting live sessions.
First, live broadcasts enable direct interaction with your audience. Viewers can ask questions, provide comments, and offer real-time feedback. This interaction fosters a sense of community and also generates a buzz around your news.
Besides that, going live adds an authentic and human touch to your news. These sessions showcase real people presenting real information, which helps build trust and credibility with your audience.
Most social media platforms also prioritize live content in their algorithm, ensuring it shows at the top of your followers’ feeds or story bar. A platform like Instagram will also notify users that you are going live beforehand, helping you attract a larger audience.
To ensure your live broadcast successfully promotes your news, announce it ahead of time to build anticipation. After the broadcast, save it to continue attracting engagement long after the live event.
You can also create short snippets of the key highlights of your live discussions and share them on other channels. For instance, if you are promoting a software launch, you can have your SaaS content production team convert the highlights of your live session into blog posts or other common types of content.
5. Ensure Mobile-Friendliness
A majority of people access social media on their mobile devices. For instance, according to Statista, over 98% of active Facebook users access the social platform on mobile devices. Therefore, your social media press release should be mobile-friendly.
To ensure this, use a responsive design for your press release, whether it’s a stand-alone video or in primarily written form. This design allows the layout and content of your release to adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes and orientations, including mobile devices.
Avoid having too many or large media files, since they can slow down page loading times on smaller screens. Instead, optimize images or even implement lazy loading for essential elements to increase your press release’s load speed. For videos, keep them to 15 seconds or less.
Make sure your navigation menus and action buttons are easily accessible and touch-friendly. Use larger buttons that are easy to tap with a finger, and leave enough spacing between different elements to prevent accidental clicks.
Mobile phones tend to have more distractions than any other device, so use the inverted pyramid style to ensure readers get your point without reading the entire press release or watching your entire video. Here’s a great illustration of the inverted pyramid style for social media releases.
The inverted pyramid prioritizes content based on its importance. So you’ll have the 5W and H details showing up first, additional critical information next, and the rest of the content in the end.
Finally, ensure your mobile-friendly design complies with accessibility standards, such as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). These guidelines ensure that your social media press release is inclusive and can be accessed by users with disabilities.
Final Thoughts on Social Media Press Release
Social media press releases have revolutionized PR communication and how brands generally share news. With benefits like wide reach, increased engagement, higher search engine ranking, and measurable performance you can’t afford to miss out on this powerful PR tool.
To create an effective social media press release follow the five steps I’ve discussed above. Craft a catchy headline, post your press release as a blog post, make your release a live video, include compelling quotes, and ensure your release, whether in written or video form, is mobile-friendly.
Practice my five tips today and your social media press releases will generate loads of attention for your brand. All the best!