If you're involved in PR and social media you've probably heard people talking about social media releases, social media news releases or even social media press releases and the accompanying acronyms.
In the olden days, journalists were called 'the press' (an example of synechdoche) because the primary form of media was the newspaper, which was printed on
If Google trends is anything to go by, the majority of people still think that those releases that go out on the wire are called 'Press Releases.'
However, most modern-day communicators will probably agree that this is an antiquated term, and that we should be calling these 'News Releases' or 'Media Releases' instead.
So, that gets rid of the term 'Social Media Press Release' and its ugly acronym "SMPR."
We're now left with Social Media Release and Social Media News Release, and I'm going to argue that the former is better than the latter.
I'm fine with calling a traditional release a News Release or a Media Release, and I think you'll agree with me that calling it a Media News Release or a News Media Release is a little bit redundant (and referring to it as just a 'release' sounds odd unless you're talking to people from the industry).
So why do we need to refer to PR's hottest new tool as a Social Media News Release? Yes, it has a bunch of fancy Web 2.0 features that enable it to be easily shared. That aspect is covered by adding "Social" to the front of 'Media Release.'
I'd actually be happy with either Social News Release or Social Media Release, but I think that the latter sounds better.
So, can we agree to standardize the name as Social Media Release?
-Parker
image courtesy of vivid tangerine on flickr