Drop.io launched multimedia-rich press release platform PressLift Feb. 3 during New York's Social Media Week. The software allows PR professionals to integrate video, audio files and supplemental images into press releases.
PressLift aims to provide journalists with everything they need to understand and access a press release's subject matter, in a time-saving platform.
Media companies could also use the platform to enhance their own PR efforts. Imagine your communications department cutting down on time-consuming follow-up emails providing further information about a launch or product. PressLift could be used to promote a new video channel, for example, with actual videos embedded in the press release, without having to worry about file size.
What's cool about PressLift
Aside from the ability to create a neat package of multimedia information, PressLift's key capabilities include the ability to pre-schedule press releases, internal analytics to track the press release and each of its components, as well as the ability to attach Google Analytics code for third-party metrics, and a Terms of Access generator. This allows PR people to assign an embargo period, compliance agreement and other terms that journalists must accept in order to access a press release. The platform also embeds links to a brand's social media profiles for easy access.
What's not cool
Today's digital media landscape has a dazzling cloud cover, plump with free or inexpensive open-source offerings, so it can come as a surprise when a product or platform demands some investment. PressLift costs around $300 per press release. For that price, users can upload as many rich media files as they want, knowing that the package will be delivered to inboxes. But for high-volume PR, the price could quickly add up.
Here’s a sample press release I created:
Comments
Budget alternative?
Match Strike's Rex Riepe emailed me this message after this story was posted:
"300 bucks for a social media release? We don't have the Valley connections of drop.io, but Presskit'n has been offering social media releases (and social media newsrooms) for free for a while now."
I checked out the Presskit'n (http://presskitn.com) product and although it is a tad buggy and slow, it does offer many of the same capabilities as PressLift, for free.
What I liked most: Headlines are limited to 125 characters for easy tweetability, and there is an icon next to the press release headline that automatically posts a shortened url to your "news room" (a.k.a. rich media press release) on Twitter.
Also, brands can include their Twitter feed in their "news room".
What I liked least: While Presskit'n allows PR people to embed video in their press releases, they can only upload them from YouTube, Vimeo or Flickr; whereas PressLift allows users to upload in-house videos off of their computers.
~Naomi