With Social Media Releases (New Media Releases) in the spotlight again, I felt this was the ideal timing to introduce you to the Video News Release (VNR) redux. Ready or not, start brushing up on flash, screencasting, video production, and video networks.

Online video is the next frontier for the communications industry adding a new layer of engagement to any existing PR, marketing and web initiative. In my opinion social media has reinvented the VNR, putting the power of creation and distribution in the hands of those with a camera, PC, and a broadband connection - well, and a little marketing savvy and an understanding of the pains and needs of the people they're trying to reach...

What the social media press release is to traditional releases, amateur video, screencasts, and demos are to traditional video news releases (VNRs).

For those who may not have direct experience with VNRs, they are an age-old, somewhat effective tool for telling a story visually and are directly related to many of the stories that you see on traditional broadcast news networks. While effective, they are incredibly expensive - especially in the Web 2.0 genre. Production segments, b-roll, satellite transmission, and not to mention the legwork associated with calling attention to the distribution time of transmitting the feed, easily hits the $20k mark for one story.

I've long said that for the right marketers, Youtube, and the other video networks out there, represent what could be constituted as the new broadcast channel for social video news releases. And with the technology barriers of entry are so low (in terms of expertise required and cost of equipment), there's never been a better time to experiment with video.

However, like all forms of social media, it requires a level of understanding, ethics, and transparency that can only be possible with hands-on experience - not as a marketer, but as a participant of all forms of social media.

While many readers of PR 2.0 are in the tech industry, the entire concept of social media VNRs can benefit any business.

At the very least, social video allows companies to demonstrate their product in a way that is consumable, shareable, and also much more interesting than reading collateral.

Let's take a look at a few of the more popular videos online (keep in mind, it's less about quality and more about participating and contributing):

Example 1 - Compelling showcase of durability and innovation

Example 2 - We created this as a pilot for an online series to support the Docstoc launch (which hasn't happened yet). The idea here is to create a series that emphasizes the key benefits to using the service in a funny, and hopefully viral way.

Aside from video, screencasts are also viral and effective as a way of demonstrating how something works, using real world applications. Here are a few examples:

Yoono - We created this specifically for press and bloggers to paint a picture in a way words could not. It has over 150,000 views to date!!!! Oh, and that's my voice :)

SiteKreator - We created this to demonstrate how easy it really is to use the product to build Web sites

Ning

Robert Scoble encourages PR and corporate marketing to engage by saying that we should worry less about trying to have broadcast quality production and focus more on the uniqueness of a product when pursuing campaigns through online video. Even Michael Arrington of TechCrunch supports the use of corporate marketing through video and often runs the more creative shorts on his personal blog, CrunchNotes.

However, it's not just about getting the attention of bloggers and traditional media. It's also a way of reaching the markets, and more importantly, the people that can benefit from the product/service. That's the beauty of a social network.

According to a past issue of PRWeek, Nuance scored 35,000 views on YouTube from a very targeted audience and MultiVu’s work for NVIDIA earned 65,000 viewers off Metacafe.

Here's the Nuance video - Man vs. Machine

There are several ingredients to consider when developing a video or screencast, and the choices you make for their implementation will determine the success or failure of the campaign.

1 - Be genuine. This isn't yet another opportunity for PR to spam the world

2 - Know your targets, their pain points, and why your product will help them. And please don't use the word audience. Viewers today are considered the people formally known as the audience. This ensures that we engage by conversing with, not marketing to, people. This is Jay Rosen's philosophy, which many social media purists hold sacred when discussing how to participate through social media.

3 - Keep it focused on what's unique, interesting, and compelling.

4 - Experiment. Don't just stop at one...keep the line of communication open through video much in the same way you would with blogs, marketing collateral, newsletters, and press releases.

5 - Place the videos on the company site and offer RSS feeds for them.

6 - Ensure that the videos are placed in the social networks where the people you want to reach search for new and interesting content.

7 - Simply placing videos online isn't enough. Just because you place in social networks doesn't mean it will be viewed and shared. You have to do "PR" for it through the folksonomy of strategic tagging, linking, and having others point to it and republish it to spark the viral potential of your content.

8 - Be creative.

9 - Worry less about polish and more about content.

10 - Listen to feedback

While social video represents a new opportunity for marketing and PR, I can not emphasize enough the importance of maintaining traditional programs and fostering relationships with analysts, reporters, bloggers, and customers. Video can only enhance a proactive and all-encompassing marketing and PR campaign.

Social media is indeed breathing new life into Video News Releases and with that, it continues to reinvent PR for the new Web.

Lights. Camera. Action.