We are always looking at innovative ways to help you to make the most of Pressitt, and with this in mind we have produced a document that will help pre-plan and create your Social Media News Release before publication to our site.

The  editable PDF document  will guide you through the creation process, allowing you to create your release in draft before adding it to the site. You can also  add notes with ideas for images and documents that you would like to see on the final SMNR.

We hope this will help you to plan the detailed elements of your release and also achieve sign-off from clients and internal teams as required.

The downloadable and editable PDF pre-release document can be found on your profile page or here.

We would love to hear any feedback on the document or recommendations to enhance it further.

We look forward to viewing your Pressitt SMNRs.

— Andy Merchant

Pressitt the Social Media News Release service is searching for a talented web developer to learn the Pressitt system and help develop the platform further.

If the first project goes well there is plenty more updates/concepts/user feedback to be integrated into the current platform.

The Role: freelance/short term

To develop and improve Pressitt.com on a freelance basis or short term contract, as and when required.

Working closely with our lead developer and front end coder, you’ll be responsible for coding various parts of the site, including bespoke and custom newsrooms from basic php functions within Code Igniter down to in-depth classes.

Built on Codeigniter, Pressitt is a fully featured site with combined client-side and server-side technologies allowing users to create rich and detailed news releases.

Required Skills

• Object Orientated Programming
• Model View Controller/Frameworks
• Linux Systems Administration
• Content Management Systems
• Social Networking (Web)
• Internet usability
• Accessibility (Web)
• Front end coding and javascript

Required Products

• Codeigniter
• PHP
• MySQL
• jQuery
• XHTML/HTML
• CSS
• LAMP
• Wordpress (not essential)
• Zend Eclipse (not essential)

So, if you can deliver on the above, live preferably near London/the South East, are hard working and able to work to strict schedules, please get in touch via email at andy@pressitt.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

— Andy Merchant

As you may or may not be aware, Pressitt, the Social Media News Release creation and publishing platform, is very much a part of Liberate Media and its partner Best Served Cold.

What is Pressitt?

Pressitt allows you to create and publish a rich multimedia asset-assisted news release. Your release acts as a hub of information, giving Journalists, bloggers, and your online community more information to easily research your brand.

Once you have created your release it’s then up to you to use it as part of your blogger/journalist outreach campaign. We are not a newswire. We are a platform to create and distribute content in a relevant and useful manner.

Once published, your release is made available via RSS, categorised and searchable via tags. It is also tweeted via the Pressitt account, indexed by Google news and all other major search engines.

Coming soon

We are currently in the process of adding an exciting new string to the Pressitt bow. The new element has been driven by the large amount of positive user and fan feedback we receive.

At this stage, I don’t want to give to much away, but all I will say is that this new element will take Pressitt to the next level and help brands further engage with target audiences. Watch this space!

Get involved

We are committed to furthering the Social Media News Release format, so if you like Pressitt, want to get involved, have feedback, or would like to talk to us about any potential partnership opportunities please get in-touch by emailing andy@pressitt.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

— Andy Merchant

Today I wanted to highlight the fact that the SMNR is not a ‘fire and forget’ tactic. It’s not a newswire either.

The SMNR is useful because it opens up conversation and allow brand owners to engage with online users and vice versa. The conversation shouldn’t end after a few hours, days or weeks.

The beauty of the SMNR concept is that you can keep the conversation alive by re-visiting your SMNR and updating it with fresh content and then re-publishing and re-engaging with your audience. It’s the start of the conversation, not the end of your news.

Ideas to update you Social Media News Release:

• New quotes or updated quotes
• Fan videos/images
• Additional links to other news coverage or user generated content
• Update on the announcement
• New findings/research
• or even just to update your contact details
• Updated product shots
• Expert commentary from other sources

Standard newswires would charge to do this, but Pressitt allows you to make any amount of edits for free.

I hope this small snippet of advice allows you to use the social media news service of your choice more effectively, if you have any further queries, please get in touch.

— Andy Merchant

Maddie Grant published a great post over at Social Media Today offering her thoughts on creating a compelling social media news/press release. She goes on to say:

A social media release has 4 elements:

• Good headlines – write for 3 audiences / 3 readers (human readers first). Use subtitles (helps SEO). Short and to the point. Keywords up front if possible. Think to yourself, if it appeared on Facebook, would I click it?
• Body copy – 3 audiences / 3 readers – tell a story. No bullets, no PR or marketing speak. Write like a person. Write like an article, not an announcement. Write for diagonal readers (lots of scanning, 10 second readers – headlines / section titles / bold / links / pictures/ graphs / summaries). Use humour.
• Additional content elements- related content, multimedia, links to related articles, social media sharing, easy to email/print, moderated comments.
• Technical considerations – search engine ready, RSS ready, sharing ready.

All of which are very good pieces of advice, the third bullet rings especially true for Pressitt, which utilises them all of the key points listed and more.

Here are some additional useful links to help you understand more about the Social media News/Press release.

How to Write a Social Media Press Release

Social Media Releases - Everything You Wanted to Know

Why Use Social Media With Your Press Release?

Blogger Relations vs Social Media News Release (SMNR)

More about Pressitt

If you would like to discuss the benefits of Pressitt or the Social Media News/Press release format in general, please contact andy@pressitt.com

— Andy Merchant

We all know the traditional press release is still a staple communications tool for the PR professional, and although there has been much discussion surrounding the demise of the text-based press release, it is still used by many agencies and brands.

The social media news release offers additional links to content relating to the news announcement, core facts rather than spin, as well as images, video, and sharable elements that make the news live for the reader, as below.

However, we would love to know more about how the SMNR is impacting on the daily lives of journalists of all types. For example, are you seeing more SMNRs from brands and agencies? If so, are they useful? Do you prefer traditional text-based press releases?

Any feedback we receive will go towards the ongoing development of the Pressitt SMNR platform.

If you can spare a few minutes to provide your feedback in the comments section below, or get in touch directly via team@pressitt.com we would be most grateful.

View the features of a more helpful style of release below.

— Andy Merchant

Anchor House the hostel and life skills centre for homeless adults has recently undergone a website update including a Social Media Newsroom and bespoke news template provided by Pressitt, the Social Media News Release and publication platform.

The Anchor House Newsroom can be found at http://anchor-house.pressitt.com/ and will now act as a hub for all the Anchor Houses press release and news. The Pressitt newsroom will help Anchor House to engage with bloggers/journalists and other interested parties with its deconstructed approach to sharing news across the blogosphere. All Pressitt news is indexed by major search engines and Google News.

Anna Richardson, marketing consultant for Anchor House comments “Anchor House is a forward thinking organisation that believes it is vital to embrace new communication tools. Tools such as Pressitt help us to widen our audience reach and engage our community with relevant and useful content. We are extremely pleased with the newsroom and the work carried out by Pressitt”.

Pressitt is currently the only free Social Media News Release Service in the UK and is being utilised by a wide variety of organisations from UK start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

— Andy Merchant

The Pressitt team have put together some  key points to help you fully appreciate what Pressitt Social Media News Release service has to offer:

• It’s free to sign up and free to use - no strings attached!
• There is no advertising on your SMNRs.
• All SMNRs are indexed by Google News, all major search engines, the Pressitt Twitter feed, and the Pressitt site via its categories and tags.
• Brand logos will feature prominently on your SMNR-  next to your title.
  
• Each brand/identity has its own unique RSS feed.
• Your releases doesn’t expire after 30 days - it only expires when you delete it!
• Easily edit your release after publication.
• You can add up to 8 images to each release, all of which are easily downloaded by the user.
• You can add as many YouTube video as you like to support your SMNR.
• You can add as many contact details as you need, with the addition of social contact profiles.
• All previous releases are visible on each SMNR.
• You have the option to add relevant files to your SMNR to support your release.
• Easy to follow relevant links section.
• Digestible format: introduction, core facts, main text, quotes, press contacts, previous release, relevant links, images, videos and tags are all clearly defined for ease of use.
• Help and tips throughout the creation process.
• Search boxes with auto complete.
• Accessible social sharing icons.

I hope this gives you a taste of Pressitt’s functionality and watch out for more upgrades coming your way soon.

Click here to see some user examples.

— Andy Merchant

How to get started and build your first Pressitt Social Media News Release.

1.       Register for an account, it’s quick, free and easy.

Getting to know Pressitt

First view the Pressitt features, examples and editorial guidelines

Building your first SMNR

Once you have signed in you will be taken to your Profile page, this is where the fun begins.

1.       First you need to create a brand identity; a brand signifies who the release is from. Without adding a brand identity your SMNR will not feature on the home, loosing maximum viability.

2.       Once you have added your brand identity it’s time to move on to creating your SMNR. Choose your brand identity from the drop down menu.

3.       Choose up to 3 categories that best suit your SMNR to sit in on the Pressitt site. If you don’t see a suitable category let us know. hello@pressitt.com

4.       Add a title, overview, body text and core facts; core facts are key nuggets of information about your release.

5.       Fill in your contact details, and also add your social contact details, so interested parties can contact you via social networks and micro blogs.

6.       At this point SAVE and CONTINUE onto the next editing page

7.       Next you can add YouTube videos to your release just copy and paste the page URL to the given space.

8.       Add quotes from industry experts to back up your release content.

9.       Add relevant links; this is a great chance to give viewers of your Social Media News Release additional information on your brand, link to your company social media profiles such as Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. Also link to any research used in your release and even other coverage your release has attained.

10.   Click the previous release check button to have other SMNRs from that brand featured on this release.

11.   At this point SAVE and CONTINUE onto the next editing page

12.   Add images and document to supports your release. Images play an important part of the visual aspect of your release.

13.   Add descriptive tags.

14.   At this point SAVE and Preview your release.

15.   On the preview screen check you are happy with the end result, go back to element you wish to correct but make sure you SAVE the edit.

Publish and share your SMNR

1.       After viewing your release click publish to make it LIVE, your SMNR will now feature on the Pressitt home page and its pre selected categories.

2.       Use the social bookmarking icons to submit your SMNR to social news sites such as DIGG and MIXX, micro blogs such as twitter and of course you can also email a link of your release to all your friends and contacts.

3.       Don’t worry if you forget to do this we will send you a helpful email reminder.

For further help please check out our Help page

We look forward to viewing your next Social Media News Release.

The Pressitt Team

You can download the PDF version of the Pressitt SMNR quick start guide here.

— Andy Merchant

Just in case you missed it over the last few weeks, Pressitt has been going through a number of changes, most noticeably with a site makeover. In the midst of all these changes was the news that all Pressitt releases are now syndicated to Google News.

This development will ensure higher visibility and greater traffic to your release, we hope you notice the difference.

However, this is not an invitation to spam us with un-newsworthy releases and as a consequence Pressitt will be monitoring and moderating its SMNRs more closely than ever before.

If you’re not sure what Pressitt does and doesn’t allow in terms of content, please read our editorial guidelines before you submit your next release.

We look forward to viewing your Pressitt Social Media News Release.

— Andy Merchant