This Element is an excerpt from Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR (ISBN: 9780137150694) by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge. Available in print and digital formats.

Social media releases: what they are, what they aren’t, and how to make the most of them.

PR’s latest “new shiny object” is the social media release (SMR). Originally introduced by Todd Defren in response to Tom Foremski’s call for the death of press releases, it represents a new socially rooted format that complements traditional and SEO news releases by combining news facts and social assets in one improved, easy-to-digest tool.