For my final project in my PR Writing course we were asked to write a detailed blog about social media news releases. So, to begin, according to Realwire a SMNR is a press release format designed for the online media world. The story needs to be told in a format that is relevant to a wide variety of people, including: journalists, bloggers, publishers & the public.  SMNRs also aim to rethink the narrative, text-focused approach to news announcements, according to Social Media Training. There are many advantages I found of a SMNR, that include: optimized for search, optimized for conversation, optimized for sharing, tells the entire story through multimedia, provides context on complicated stories, and makes a better impression (visually) than a wire release.  After reading through many different websites about SMNRs, I believe that it would be good for a PR practitioner to publish one when trying to reach more or new audiences and/or when they are trying to introduce a new company or product to the public. SMNRs go way past what a traditional press release includes; they include hyperlinks to other references, your website, or background information. They may also include multimedia videos, audio & images, and can be published through Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Here is a link to an example of a SMNR from Symantec.

There are many different websites you can go to that will help you create your own SMNR, I have included links to two options:

1. PRX Builder
2. PitchEngine

Here are a few tips for writing a SMNR that I found on SmartBlog:

1. Keep headlines short (should be no longer than 80 characters)
2. Choose your keywords (what are some common words/phrases someone would search for when looking for this info? use these keywords to optimize your headline)
3. Tell a story (get rid of the marketing-speak and craft a narrative you’d like to read)
4. Aim for “diagonal” readers (take in a story in 10 seconds or less)
5. Create multimedia objects
6. Provide links to resources (these can be timesavers for journalists/bloggers, making them more likely to make your SMNR into a story)
7. Make sharing easy (make sure your SMNR is going to work no matter where you post it)
8. Make feedback easy (include an area for comments)