How to Use Twitter and Facebook for Press Release
Posted: November 18, 2010
Press Releases play a vital role in the public relations regime in any business. In today's age of social media, Twitter and Facebook are natural supplements to traditional press releases.
In the past, I’ve written interesting pieces about how Twitter is revolutionizing the PR world and how a business can get the best of both worlds from social media & PR. Press Releases play a vital role in the public relations regime in any business. If you sign up a new customer or enter a new partnership alliance, why not tell the world about it? After all, it brings good publicity to your business.
In fact, I’m pretty much a PR fanboy who looks forward to reading press releases in order to know about product launches and exciting announcements from businesses. Print media has been the most popular traditional media to publish press releases and it continues to hold fort in today’s age of social media.
Using Twitter to distribute press releases
Using Twitter for distribution of press releases is no longer a fluke. NASA, 10 Downing Street and BBC News are some of the big names who are using it to good effect and the list keeps growing every day. Further, Twitter press releases are not just limited to new product launches and announcements, they also cater to several other needs such as fundraising, covering live events and campaigning.
Gartner provides an interesting case study of “Four ways in which enterprises are using Twitter”. The research giant predicts that by 2011, enterprise microblogging will be a standard feature of 80 percent of social software platforms on the market. Therefore, there is no doubt that Twitter is going to play a crucial role in the PR industry in the years to come.
Facebook and Press Releases
Facebook Fan Pages and Groups are natural allies for traditional press releases. It not only helps a business reach out to a wider audience but it also provides customers to exchange their opinions with each other.
Further, unlike print press releases which have a publishing-lag, Facebook distributes press releases in real time.
Social Media and Traditional Press Releases – Made for each other
I’ve always maintained that social media is meant to compliment traditional PR rather than replace it. A business should use its social media presence to extend the reach of its traditional media press release. Though some social media enthusiasts believe that traditional PR is now old-fashioned and dead, I beg to differ.
Despite being a Twitter and Facebook loyalist, I strongly believe that they will never replace a print press release. A large chunk of the global population is still yet to join the social media bandwagon so it would be foolish to ignore them in favor of social media-only press releases.
On the contrary, I’ve come across several old-school PR professionals who strongly oppose the notion of using social media for press releases. They believe “It’s all noise and no substance” and is a move that can back-fire. It’s an interesting debate which isn’t going to end any time soon.
I strongly believe that Twitter and Facebook are natural supplements to traditional press releases in today’s age of social media. Do you believe Twitter and Facebook are effective tools to distribute press releases? Or do they represent a culture clash with old-school PR world?
Biz Tip Source: Smedio
About the Author: Douglas Idugboe is a New Media and Social Web Evangelist, Bestselling Author, Marketing Strategist, Speaker and Trainer. You can find Douglas on Twitter.