Warning: The following blog post may contain a splash of surliness with a pinch of shameless crowing. Reader discretion is advised.

Over the past few years I have noticed many in the social media spectrum proudly proclaiming the death of the press release. Their reason, you ask? That social tactics such as blogging, Twitter and Facebook offer not only immediacy, but a larger and broader reach. Their claims, while cute, are not grounded in years of case studies and research, but rest on the fact that traditional mediums make them pee their pants.

Many social media experts (and I use the term “experts” loosely) have made it their mission to create this illusion that traditional forms of media such as press releases and print ads are costly and ineffective simply because—and I mean this in the nicest way possible—they don’t understand them.  Anyone who says that a press release serves no purpose within social marketing has obviously never integrated the two.

In fact, we successfully infused a press release into a social media campaign we launched last month. The client, a consumer electronics manufacturer, has a broad base so we were looking for ways that we could quickly get our message out. The ninjas and gurus would tell you to write a blog and take it to Twitter. This would prove to be an effective method… if you were Ashton Kutcher.

The client decided to launch a social media campaign because they weren’t happy with their current presence on Facebook. Promoting the campaign solely through social media is not only stupid, but ineffective. In order to drive traffic to their social platforms we had to reach out to the consumer using other forms of media. E.g. a press release.

So, what was the result? After we uploaded the release to PRWeb, our social platforms were inundated with not only new users, but users that were excited and engaged. Within 30 days the client’s Facebook fan total and daily interaction more than doubled. This happened because the press release was picked up by hundreds of industry related blogs, news sites and forums—each of which brimming with our target consumer.

While I am a huge proponent of extending your brand in the social sphere, a press release, when utilized properly, is still a valuable tool for any company. Sorry ninjas.

At Kolbeco, we help businesses tell their story. We develop creative, personal marketing messages that not only increase brand awareness, but show results!  If you want to share your story with us, please feel free to drop us a line. We’re all ears!