Press release & Newsrooms turning digital? New PR tools to meet needs of Web 2.0

The internet and development of Web 2.0 have changed the way that people acquire their information. Most noticeably it has decreased the power of the mainstream media, such as newspapers, whilst increasing the development of citizen journalists, such as bloggers, and interaction between people through social media. It is also claimed that it has increased and facilitated two-way communication between companies and their publics and changed the model of communication for mass audiences to a network system. These developments mean that the PR industry can no longer rely on traditional tools such as press releases to get their message out. Social media release and the social media newsroom have been present as possible alternatives.
What’s new about the social media release and newsrooms?
Both these tool do more that put their traditional counterparts online. They are designed to incorporate elements of social media and interactivity. They use elements of multi-media to make the content more intriguing and present large amounts of information in user–friendly ways. This helps to ensure that a variety of audiences can obtain relevant and in-depth information.
Key Elements
The Social Media Release

The Social media release

• Multimedia content e.g videos, podcasts

• Includes variety of quotes & Bio’s
  
• Links to pages of other documents
  
• A range of user friendly viewing types
  
• Incorporates link to social media; Twitter etc
  
• Comment facilities
  
• Links to the social media newsrooms

The Social Media Newsrooms
 

The Social media Newsrooms
• All Social media & traditional new releases
  
• Media coverage link or pdfs
  
• Downloadable content like press kit & financial reports
  
• RSS feeds for different sections
  
• Links to social media; Twitter feeds etc
  
• Bios of company with social media contacts
  
• Interactive elements
  
• built del.icio.us pages

Are these the Solution for  the PR industry ?
There are many advocates for both these tools in the PR industry. They claim that they provide a means for companies to interact with their stakeholders directly and utilise their social media network. It is also claimed that the format is easier to decipher for both online bloggers and traditional media channels therefore these formats will help to make the message more appealing and user friendly.
Many companies have developed platforms for organisations to use which provide a varying service such as realwire, pressfeed and Shift Communications. These different services have been rated and “how-to” service has been developed to support companies which use these tools. This may help the organisations to decide whether to adopt these tools.
Main ways that these tools are solution for Web 2.0

• Aims to reach a larger audience than just media
• Move to communicate with all internet users, rather than just communicating with mediators
• Use RSS feeds, Newswire and can be personalised
• Can easily share though other sites twitter, Facebook
• Interactive elements both embeded and though links to other sites e.g blogs
• Provide content that can be easily deconstructed for other online tools and media
• Extra information easily available
• Easy to decipher multi- media
• Standardisation for all new content

However, there has been little research into how effective these tools are, apart from  P.Steyn et al (2010), which suggests that social media releases are seen as useful by some bloggers which suggests they may be the way forward.
However, not all bloggers are aware of these platforms, and many advocates are companies that provide these services. This makes me sceptical about how effective these tools are, and how wide an impact they have had.
Some problems
These tools do not come without problems. People are able to interact with your message and this means that the meaning can be very easily changed. So these formats can be used to create negative coverage.

• Feedback might be inappropriate or unconstructive
• Seen by all users
• Content can be used by other online users in detrimental way
• Interactivity can mean no control
• Content changed when reproduced

It can be expensive and time consuming.

• Needs constant updating
• Not just website: Facebook, Blog, twitter
• May need more staff 

Tool still needs visitors for it to be successful
How interactive?
It's claimed that these tools are a move away from one-way communication as they contain interactive elements. But they do not really use this to create two-way symmetrical communication as content is still controlled and users mostly just comment. This means the tools do not create full conversations or really build long-term relationships.
Another problem that occurs throughout social media use in public relations is that many practitioners do not use the internet platforms to their full potential. They frequently use them as an alternative media medium and treat them accordingly.

Source
Video from
http://youtu.be/R4LQWhwK89E
http://youtu.be/EKT7SBh80R4
http://youtu.be/kQ_68U128ag
Other sources
http://www.socialmediapower.com/2007/06/23/what-is-a-social-media-newsroom/
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/Social-Media-Newsroom-presentation.pdf
http://smr.newswire.ca/en/
http://www.realwire.com/servicesSMNR.asp
http://youtu.be/cD_mYKc20OY
http://www.press-feed.com/services/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6W5W-4XMTFFK-1-1&_cdi=6581&_user=241825&_pii=S0363811109001702&_origin=browse&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F2010&_sk=999639998&view=c&wchp=dGLbVlz-zSkWb&_valck=1&md5=d0ffcc2e05021d8936214762c30506b2&ie=/sdarticle
http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/02/22/news-release-distribution-review-2010/.pdf