About Pressitt

Intro

Love it or hate it, the press release has for years been the PR industry's loyal friend. But as journalists and bloggers increasingly turn to social networks and the blogosphere for their research and information, this text-heavy, one-size-fits-all format is increasingly falling on deaf ears and no longer serving the purpose it used to.

In 2006, former FT journalist Tom Foremski famously pronounced "Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!" calling for a demolition of the press release as we know it, to be replaced with a deconstructed format where information is divided into special, more useable sections... and hence the Social Media News Release (SMNR) was born.

The team behind Pressitt

Pressitt launched in public beta in April 2009, founded by Liberate Media PR and Social Media consultancy and its web development partner Best Served Cold.

Liberate Media believed strongly that the time had come an accessible-to-all SMNR service to be made widely available within the UK market and beyond, to raise awareness of the SMNR among PR agencies in particular and help encourage take-up.

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What is Pressitt?

Pressitt allows you to create your own social media news release (SMNR) - also known as a social media press release (SMPR) or social media release (SMR), and publish it to an online community of journalists, the blogosphere and the general public.

Many journalists use the Internet as their primary research source when compiling a story. Pressitt SMNRs are designed with journalists and bloggers in mind. A Pressitt SMNR encapsulates all the information, multimedia and images needed to prepare a story, while offering contact details for more information, all without the usual PR fluff.

The Pressitt SMNR template offers all of the core information found in a traditional press release, but additionally takes advantage of linking, multimedia and Web 2.0 shareable features. It allows users to host downloadable hi-res images within their releases, along with PowerPoint presentations, and PDFs - YouTube videos can also be embedded. Each brand using the service is assigned its own RSS feed, and press contacts can be reached via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Additionally, up-to-date bookmarking and sharing icons are presented including Posterous, Yammer and Sphinn.

Once created your SMNR can be published to the Pressitt platform and shared to social networks or via an email link to your contacts and colleagues.

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Early Pressitt adopters

Most notably, Pressitt has enabled the UK government to make its first foray into the SMNR. The Digital Britain Final Report was also released via Pressitt, the Department of Health used the service to distribute a major Swine Flu announcement, and the Department for International Development revealed its new poverty action plan. The Commission for Rural Communities has also been an early advocate of Pressitt:

"We have been delighted with our first foray into the exciting world of SMNRs, and Pressitt has made life very easy for us. It's straightforward and intuitive to use and help is at hand if it's needed. We're also really pleased with the feedback we've had on our first release, and again it's thanks to Pressitt for starting the ball rolling via Twitter."

A wide range of brands have appeared on Pressitt from UK start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Respected brands using the service include Coca Cola, Orange, Johnson's online parenting community BabyCentre, AVG, Sharp, BT, Logitech and Daim bar. Additionally, PR agencies that have been quick to utilise Pressitt for their client announcements include Munro Forster, Golin Harris, Fishburn Hedges, Midnight Communications and Immediate Future.

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More about Liberate Media

Liberate Media

Pressitt is a service conceived by Liberate Media, a specialist PR and social media consultancy.

Liberate Media blends online PR with offline PR expertise to form a uniquely positioned social media agency.

We bring together senior experts in PR, journalism, social media and web development, from a variety of industry sectors. Our consultants are experienced at helping brands to reach and connect with their audiences through a creative fusion of traditional and social media PR techniques.

Read more about Liberate Media

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More about Best Served Cold

Best Served Cold

From the initial design through to the development of the web software, Best Served Cold have worked with Liberate Media to produce Pressitt.

We specialise in creating simple, easy-to-use websites and develop new ideas online. Our approach is to work with our clients and partners to produce content-rich, accessible and usable websites.

Our online experience extends from major corporations to challenger brands; with each one we find the best solution to make their site work for them.

Find out more about Best Served Cold

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