PressDoc Creates Social Media Press Releases

In the new-age of social media, two companies are attempting to remake the old standard press release. NY-based file sharing service drop.io offers PressLift which allows companies to create a multimedia and analytics-driven press release.

PressDoc, a new Amsterdam-based startup, is also looking to revolutionize the press release.  PressDoc describes their service as, “With the rise of blogs and social media the media landscape is changing rapidly. It’s not just the traditional journalists anymore that cover the news. It’s bloggers, Facebookers, ‘Tweeps’ and all the other social media users that decide what news will be distributed across their personal networks. These new journalists demand a new kind of press release optimized for the web, enriched with media and easy to share. PressDoc offers a service for businesses to do just that.”

Both services allow you to add rich media to your release — PressLift appears to be a bit deeper in its analytics and reporting offering. I like the PressDoc publishing layout as matches a traditional blog editor.

You can view press release examples for both PressDoc and PressLift.

PressLift doesn’t appear to publish their prices anywhere on their public site — the pricing is only displayed after you have done all of the work to create a PressLift release. The cost for a PressLift release is $299 – a price that might work for agencies and large companies but not so much for startups. PressDoc charges 10 euros per release — a price that is probably a pinch too low. I would venture a guess that $49-69 is a reasonable price for these new press release services. It’s important to remember that wire distribution is an additional charge. I also think some case studies will help with their conversion rates — quotes are great but real stats on how a new social media release changed the game beyond only using a wire release will be more impactful.

One of the reasons companies (especially small and new companies) like posting their releases on the news wires is because they can send a bit of SEO juice and fresh inbound links to the company’s website. I am not sure what level (if any) SEO juice either PressDoc or PressLift send.

It’s great to see innovation in a space that hasn’t changed much in the last decade. The press release market is a lucrative one and with good promotion, both PressDoc and PressLift should be able to generate a good level of revenue.