Are Multimedia News Releases the Future of PR?

Multimedia news releases serve as a comprehensive resource for giving journalists detailed information about a story and for engaging consumers. These news releases can contain embedded (and downloadable) video, images, links, audio, social bookmarking, and more. Many PR experts and journalists believe multimedia news releases are quickly replacing the traditional press release, and some bloggers and journalists are even saying traditional press releases are already dead.

The last point is one I disagree with. However, I do believe multimedia news releases are something we should be paying close attention to.

Why? Here are just a few of the benefits of multimedia press releases.

• It creates a deeper story – With a written press release, you have a very specific press release length you need to meet. You need to keep your words to a minimum so journalists can quickly get an idea of what your story is about.

Now, the multimedia news release lets you include a video, links to additional resource pages, or other media to tell more of the story. This gives the journalists and other readers more information, allowing you to communicate your message more effectively.

• Journalists aren’t your only audience – With online press release distribution, journalists are no longer your only audience. In addition to sending your press releases to key influencers, you can also publish them yourself on PR distribution websites, blogs, and other online medium. Here, your customers will read your news releases.

By adding video and social bookmarking to your news releases, you let your other audience interact with your content and share it online with their friends and social networking connections. This helps you spread your message further, educating more people about your company, products, and services.

• It lets the journalists find new angles for the story – In the post I linked to earlier, the author did make one point I agreed with: Too many press releases today are full of nothing but spin and “pat-on-the-back phrases.” By sending out a multimedia press release with a brief description of your announcement/story, you give the journalists the additional information they need to put their own spin on the story. Like Mr. Foremski says in his post, “The journalists are going to go with their own spin on the story anyway …” so you might as well give them all the tools they need to do it.

In this way, the multimedia news release is like a bunch of building blocks. The journalist can view all the different pieces-videos, links, charts, pictures, etc. – and arrange them in a way they determine builds the best story.

What are your thoughts on multimedia news releases? Do you use them?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases (http://www.ereleases.com), the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab your free copy of the Big Press Release Book – Press Releases for Every Occasion and Industry here: http://www.ereleases.com/press_release_samples2.html