The emergence of the social media release calls for new skill sets to create compelling content

Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with a colleague about finding people to create content for social media releases.

Actually, on reflection that’s not quite accurate as to what was said, more a post factum interpretation and glossing by me.

What we actually talked about was finding someone to write press releases or media releases.

Which is quite a different thing from what we would more usefully have been talking about, i.e. creating content for a social media release.

Sure there are people producing what are really traditional press releases and then hanging a few social bookmarking buttons on and calling it a social media release. I have on occasion, in a hurry, probably been guilty of that myself.

But with PitchEngine at your disposal it’s a shame not to use the resources to produce a fully social media optimised release.

There is an example of a social media release at this link (it’s the site shown in the screenshot above).

So are writing skills no longer needed? Far from it.

If anything, high quality writing skills will still be needed to get messages through.

The difference is that writing skills alone will no longer cut it.

Welcome to the world of PR evolved.

From now on, people offering to provide media release services will have to compete with others who are not only capable writers but are also social media savvy and know how to marshall their skills to create effective social media releases.

I don’t know what opportunities may come up, but I am interested in knowing about freelancers with that kind of skill set. For Australian and New Zealand PitchEngine subscribers we could assume a natural preference for local, in-country people, but I’m open to hearing from people from elsewhere. Just get in touch – details on the Contact page here.