9 Tips for Enhancing Your Social Media Press Release
Social media press releases are a powerful way to share your story with a larger audience. While the material in a social media press release is still about being newsworthy, it should complement a traditional press release style with added tools to share and broadcast your information. Because there are additional elements for an effective press release, let’s take a look at some tips to help you enhance your social media press release.
1. Bite Sized Pieces – Your material needs to be quick and easy to absorb. Keep in mind that your audience is likely reading your release on their mobile device. Each piece of information should be delivered in small chunks. The more efficiently you can get your message across, the more likely it is to be shared.
2. Don’t Overlook Keywords – With social media press releases, don’t underestimate the power of keywords. Keywords help people search for your information, including journalists. It will also help your search engine optimization.
3. Use Bullet Points – Make it easy to glean facts quickly by using bullet points for your information bytes. This makes them easier to see, read, and share.
4. Powerful Overview – Your overview is a brief summary of the information in your press release. It’s a critical component of your press release success. The goal of the overview is to hook your reader. It needs to be no more than two short paragraphs, with keywords, so your reader knows the information is relevant to them.
5. Multimedia Link Positioning – Your multimedia links are a key component to a social media release. They’re the difference maker. They should include videos, images, RSS feeds, infographics and more. Your links need to be bulleted and positioned near the top. Readers shouldn’t have to scroll too far down to reach your links. (Make sure to test all your links before you publish your release.)
6. Additional Links – Use the power of a social media release to achieve your marketing goals. For example, you can add a call to action that invites readers to view more multimedia links. You can also include a call to action that promotes your lists, products, or services. One consideration is to position your call to action after the overview. Give people the opportunity to take action early.
7. Clear Tagging – Make sure your tags, including social sites, hashtags, and social bookmarking sites, are all easy to see. You might position them at both the top and bottom of your press release to make sure your reader has every opportunity to share.
8. Don’t Forget to Interact – Publishing a social media release is different than using a distribution service. There’s an opportunity to interact with your social media release. Monitor your release. Answer questions, respond to comments, and start conversations.
9. Make Sure You Know Who You’re Talking To – Before you write and distribute a social media press release, make sure you’ve identified your key audiences and make sure they’re actually present on social media.
Make your social media press release more effective. Start with a goal and a plan. And don’t forget to monitor your results. You can learn a lot about your audience by the way they respond to your release.
