Want to drive social media’s attention towards a promotion you’re running? As with traditional media, press releases are an excellent way to get the social gears running. Problem is, social media are a whole other beast, with different rules as to what’s interesting for their audience. If you want your message to reach that hip and savvy audience, you can’t rely on traditional charms.
Take a look at the boring headers (it’s sad, but even the best writing software can’t help you become more interesting) many press releases usually come with:
1. RandomWare Announces Product One
2. RandomWare Releases Financial Numbers
3. RandomWare Plans New Venture
4. RandomWare Wins Award
Unless the product, award or venture is of particular note and highly-awaited, there’s not likely to be that much interest in even opening that email. While product releases, financial stats and such information can be newsworthy, they’re hardly the fodder that attracts the “shiny and new” mentality that pervades the viral web.
Buy Our Crap
Most press releases can be summarized this way: buy our crap. Sure, I can write about that in a niche news blog. But getting people excited and buzzing about it? No way, man.
Find an angle, solve a problem or teach people something new – these are the things that grab the social web’s attention and gets its followers talking. Be the biggest, tiniest, fastest, slowest or ugliest “something” in the world, but don’t be another company trying to get their hands on my money.
