Going back in time, I somehow missed a reading from a couple weeks back.
Until I read "The Social Media Release as a Corporate Communications Tool for Bloggers" I never realized what a social media release was. Now I know what I am actually "liking" on facebook.
The concept of a social media release is an interesting one, to compliment press releases a business, or even a person can for example create a page on facebook. On that page they can post status updates that go out to people who have liked the page. Those status updates are really nothing more than press releases. The beauty of an SMR is that a business can bypass the press and go directly to the people it is targeting with an SMR.
On facebook I belong to multiple pages that release SMRs. Some of them are large corporations. My employer is one of them. Press releases that at one time were only released locally are now released nationally. The downside of this though is that people can comment on the press releases. In one recent SMR that my employer sent out they stated that they had donated one-hundred computers to the Madison Metro School District. Many comments were favorable; however, there were multiple comments asking why a different school district was not chosen or why did the company not give to a poorer district. Some of the comments were quite vulgar in their tone. Which leaves the administrator in a bind, do they delete the negative comments and be accused of censorship, or do they leave them out their for all to see?
I many cases SMRs are a great way for artists to get the word out about themselves. I “Like” several local bands on facebook, Aaron Williams and the Hoodoo, Faces for Radio and Cherry Pie just to name a few. They all use SMRs effectively to keep their fan base up to date on upcoming shows, CD releases, videos of them playing or even free downloads. To be able to get that kind of press from the traditional media would be an impossibility for local bands prior to the availability of social media websites.
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