Google recently acquired MetaWeb.
Interest was piqued in the tech industry press.
For instance Giga Om’s Liz Gannes tried to explain why the big G picked up this relatively unknown semantic web service:
The Register also picked up the news, gleaning information from a YouTube video on MetaWeb’s site, amongst other sources:
Where do they source their news? Both cite Google’s official blog:
Not too surprising given there’s no press release process in the Google world. Both GigaOm and The Register seem comfortable linking to the blog: both sites have arguably blurred the line between blog and news outlet, and I’d contend a blog has a certain that goes beyond a flat press release (which I’ve written about previously).
To Google’s credit, the blog post is:
- More in-depth than a standard press release
- Written informally
- Detailed in its description of the benefits of the merger to Google and MetaWeb and customer base (webmasters/web users)
- Attributed to a Director of Product Management
- Open ended, with links to a video explaining what MetaWeb does (in ‘Plain English’ style)
There’s been a lot of talk about the SMR (social media release) but I’d say this approach although somewhat similar goes a step further too. SMR examples I’ve seen are essentially a press release with multimedia elements (eg. audio/video/images) listed on the sidebar. Blogs on the other hand offer a more fluid approach. Have some video? Embed it into the fabric of the post. Images likewise. Less clunky than having a specific multimedia section (although there’s no reason to keep this in addition).
So, next time you have something to say, why not get a product expert to crack open the blog editor and say something of real value – for journalists, analysts, your client base and the wider public. Think beyond the puffy press release, footnoted with a solitary link to the company website: frame a clearly explained story, and if you can, use audio and video to add color and create a compelling experience.
You may just find your message stretching further than you imagine.
