Not the Social Media Press Release…but the Social Media Video Release

January 28th, 2008 by Andy Merchant

At Liberate Media we have been closely watching the progress of the social media press release (SMPR), but after an initial debut by Shift Communications, progress has been slow with only few notable exceptions.

As part of our ongoing social media research and development, we recently came across a site called Asterpix, which we felt offered lots of potential for PR. Asterpix has a wealth of sharing options, such as the ability to embed your interactive video directly into your website or blog, use the ’share’ button on the player or website, and functionality to copy and paste the video URL link into an email or instant message. This makes it a perfect social media platform.
The premise of the site is to make videos interactive, so the user clicks highlighted links embedded at relevant points in the film, which open in a new window (additional information). This we felt was the next stage for the SMPR.

We decided to test the concept of a Social Media Video Release (SMVR) on our new company website, which launched last week. Each of the company directors filmed a video biography, and sourced additional online links referencing the credentials they talk about. These resources included visual cues for Flickr and LinkedIn, as well as downloadable photos that we hosted, and a PDF script for accessibility and fact checking purposes.

Their profile videos were filmed with a basic handheld video camera, and edited using open-source software. This was to show that the process is accessible to any one with a little imagination.

Our trials were so successful that we pitched the idea to our client iCrossing (formerly Spannerworks in the UK) for their re-brand announcement. They very much liked the idea but wanted a more polished finish, and more in-depth additional information. The resulting video is here.

We are monitoring the results of the iCrossing SMVR very closely, which we will feedback through our blog, so look out for a case study to follow. We are also asking journalists for feedback. Please take a look at the videos and let us know your thoughts. All feedback is welcome to take this inventive idea to the next step.

                              

Tags: icrossing, liberate media, social media press release, social media video release, spannerworks

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Blog, Social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.