A social media release is a media/press release which is optimized for effective distribution and adoption in a social media enabled world.

Another way of putting that is to say that a social media release reshapes and reconfigures the traditional media release so that it works effectively in a world transformed by Twitter, Facebook, blogs and all the tools, platforms and networks we lump together as "social media"?

Some History

The first reference document

Over three years ago, in February 2006, on Silicon Valley Watcher, Tom Forenski created a stir with his blog post Die, Press Release! Die, Die, Die!

Press releases are nearly useless. They typically start with a tremendous amount of top-spin, they contain pat-on-the-back phrases and meaningless quotes. Often they will contain quotes from C-level executives praising their customer focus. They often contain praise from analysts, (who are almost always paid or have a customer relationship.) And so on…

He proposed instead:

Deconstruct the press release into special sections and tag the information so that as a publisher, I can pre-assemble some of the news story and make the information useful.

The second reference document:

In May 2006, Shift Communications Principal Todd Defren produced and made freely available a social media release template:

SHIFT Communications believes that journalists and bloggers are now fully adapted to using the World Wide Web for research purposes. The “Social Media Press Release” merely facilitates their research by using the latest tools (social bookmarking, RSS, etc.) to provide background data, context and on-going updates to clients’ news.

In April 2008, Todd Defren produced an updated, version 1.5, social media release template.

The Challenge

So not long ago we knew the theory of a social media release. The reality was that there was such a degree of difficulty in putting the whole thing together that even some of us who "knew better" could still be found producing more traditional media releases, with only superficial dressing up as social media releases. They were more in the way of "social media enabled" media releases. And especially for those of us without a lot of people working for us, the business of collating and arranging the elements of a social media release was daunting.

Then along came Pitch Engine

As the Pitch Engine blog explains, Pitch Engine is “a way to package all of your PR assets (like a press kit) in one concise, easy to share package - the social media release (SMR) - that you can edit and make changes to even after it’s been made live.”

With PitchEngine, users can easily create and share Social Media Releases (SMRs). Unlike the rigid, printed press release of old, SMRs offer both creator and reader far more flexibility. Users can incorporate embedded video, images, powerpoints and more into a hosted “microsite” or SMR, that can easily be shared via the social web using apps like Facebook, Twitter and more.

What's more, it's amazingly economical. Starting with free - try the fully functional free account and then see if you want to upgrade to the paid version with extra features and seriously hard to believe economy in pricing.