Not Dead, Just Badly Burned
Much like Mustafa here, it's going to take a lot to kill the
venerable press release. The press release now has its own Dr. Evil
- the industry that created it - and its own pit of fire - social
media. But that's not enough to keep the press release from meeting
its maker. In fact, the press release now has even more friends -
embedded links, multimedia attachments, optimization services, RSS
feeds, et cetera that are helping breathe new life into it. Not to
mention its old frenemies - reporters - who hate to admit it but
they've gotten pretty used to having these handy guys around, and
they still need to file stories longer than 140 characters.
We can certainly admit that over the years, the release has been
overused and abused. But rather than dig its grave, let's revive it
and make it more relevant. We all know some things aren't
release-to-the-media worthy, so let's do better in convincing our
clients of that the next time we are asked to announce somebody's
move from half cubicle to full sized cubicle. A release can provide
many benefits without contributing to a reporter's Inbox log jam.
It can help with SEO, provide web site content, and boost employee
morale. As long as we know how to use it, a press release can and
should be a useful communications tool. Here's a
great article with some helpful hints to keep the release alive
and well.