I was having lunch the other day with Sylvia and John Todor, a couple of PRWeb clients when our conversation turned towards the social media release.  Sylvia was describing an anecdote in which a friend of hers’ had created a story around her musical practice, framing it as a solution to the negative emotional effects of dealing with winter, and distributed the story through PRWeb.

The release had been tremendously well-received and facilitated numerous connections (with both media and non-media) for her friend.   Sylvia communicated her perspective that the success of the release largely was contingent on its delivery, as a compelling narrative that actually spoke to the readers.

I couldn’t help but think that if the form the release had taken was simply a bulleted list of facts and quotes, it would have lost its visceral aesthetic and not had anywhere near the impact it ended up having.

I think it boils down to the audience.  The current structure of the ’social media release’ is well suited to meet the expectations and needs of media producers because it is a vessel of information - but what it lacks is the tone and emotion present in a more narrative form, that is more compelling to a broader audience.

In many ways, the current formulation of the social media release is actually less social than a more conventional narrative.

That being said, some of the most important contributions offered by the social media release are the shortcomings it points out in traditional press releases - the spin, text-based form, lack of acknowledgment for the ongoing nature of social media.  I remain in fundamental agreement that the SMR’s departure from these vestiges of the traditional media cycle is a good thing - but I still think there is a clear role for the narrative form in news releases.