Special Delivery

I’m at work, slowing plodding through the social media plan provided to the college by Yellowseed. Our department requested a very large overview of what our institution could be doing, in terms of social media outreach. Based on Yellowseed's suggestions, we are to pick and choose what will work best for us.

I came to the public relations section of the plan that suggests I should join CNW, PRWeb, and a few others, in order to distribute our press releases. I went to their sites and then I laughed. On average, each press release costs $100+ to send out, depending how far and how wide I want to go.

Sure, the release would get to where I want it to go, without me slogging around the internet, individual blogs, etc…but the reality is that I have no budget. Seriously, my PR budget is under $3000. Does Horton give a Hoot about what I have to say for a minimum of $100 a pop? Do you think I could talk my boss into it? While I’m at it, I may as well ask for a clipping/media tracking service, and an internal communication specialist, and a web marketing specialist, all of which I currently have my hand in.

Then I came across the only thing I want for Christmas this year: a Social Media Release Template. I was about to scribe a fancy letter to my IT department, which had a lot of whining in it, and then I stopped to think.

Last week, I sent out a press release – the traditional kind that apparently don’t work anymore – with two photos attached. Approximately half of the emails sent out came back to me because the organizations did not have enough room on their servers to handle the two photos! In fact, I’ve been told that I can’t send out PDFs because some of them can’t open them, and I’m not allowed to use Windows 2007 because many have not upgraded! Can you imagine what would happen if I sent out a press release as an html based social media release?

Once again, Rural Communication 1.5 comes back to haunt us. Sure, we like the technology, and the gorgeous things it does and can do. But, can we handle it? Are we ready for it? Would I get more coverage if I did things that way?

Not yet.