StoryCrafter & Social Media Releases: the press release of the future?
There’s little doubt that public relations must adapt for the digital age. At heart PR is about communication and the way we communicate is certainly changing at a heck of a pace.
A number of trailblazing professionals have been looking at the future of the press release. Now Edelman, a public relations giant boasting 2,200 employees in 46 offices worldwide, has unveiled StoryCrafter, a web-based tool for publishing social media news releases. The ambitious aim is to replace the humble press release.
Sadly while I think this a great effort, I’m not convinced by StoryCrafter. It’s worth keeping top of mind that a press release is essentially an article submitted for publication and a well written press release is one that the target publication (which could be a blog as easily as a local newspaper or trade journal) can run without having to rewrite. StoryCrafter deconstructs the press release into ‘core news facts’, ‘quotes’, ‘multimedia’, ‘links’, ‘RSS’ et cetera.
While the StoryCrafter software makes life easier for public relations consultants, it creates work for the journalist who is presented with something that is no longer designed to be fit for publication.
And that’s not the worst thing about the StoryCrafter approach. Journalists hate being on the receiving end of press releases distributed by scattergun. They love asking those who telephone to ask if their news is to be published whether they actually read the publication they hope to appear in. StoryCrafter aims to output a press release to suit any medium, but actually produces press releases nobody can publish as is.
In a multimedia world the one-size-fits-all approach to press release production, which has always been weak, is unlikely to survive. StoryCrafter is unlikely to endear its users to editors. Taking the trouble to understand what a particular media outlet defines as news and what they want and need from public relations professionals will always be the best route to success.
Contact Stephen Newton
Comments (One comment)
I tried out a very similar fomat for a couple of my clients in Q406 and was not at all happy with the results. Sure, it might make it easier for social media sites to pick up on the news (although that’s up for debate as well), but in speaking with journalists who are familiar with the company, they HATED the new format and begged me to do away with it. This wasn’t just one journalist either, but many.
Becky / January 9th, 2007, 2:02 am / #
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