PRX Builder

How to Use SimpleSMPR

SimpleSMPR is a WordPress plugin that assists you in the creation of a social media press release. It provides downloadable, social media press release templates and helps you identify release elements using a special set of bracketed tags.  Identifying your release elements will make your release readable by computers on the internet.

Identifying Release Elements

Several buttons are provided to help you tag your release elements. You can also manually insert the tags by typing them yourself.

[contact][/contact] – Each contact and the associated contact information should be surrounded by contact tags. One set of contact tags should be used for each contact.

Example:
[contact]John Mayer (Spoksperson) [contact]Alex Johnson (Spokesperson)
President Vice President
510.555.1212 (office) 510.555.9999 (office)
[/contact] [/contact]

Distribution Date – The distribution date is pulled from the Post Timestamp.

Headline – The headline of the release is pulled from the Title of the post.

[subheadline][/subheadline] – The summary or short description that follows the headline.

[dateline][/dateline] – The line associated with a release that often includes the location and or date.

Example: Los Angeles May 23, 2006

[body][/body] – The main content of the release.

[smpr_tags][/smpr_tags] – Use these tags to surround a comma-separated list of keywords to be used by search engines and as tags for services like Technorati.  This list will be converted into a list of Technorati tags in the release.

Example:  [smpr_tags]movies, imdb, airplane, humor[/smpr_tags]

 

In the [links] and [multimedia] tags it is important to use complete URLs in your anchor text. URLs should usually begin with “http://” or “https://”.

[links][links] – Any anchor text found between these tags will be processed and added to the list of links. The URL and link text will be extracted from each link. These tags may be used multiple times throughout a document. 

One trick in using these tags is to enclose the [body] tags with [links] tags.  This causes all of the links in the [body] of the release to become part of the [links] section.

Example: [links]This is an http://www.myserver.com/mylink.htm>example link. http://www.myserver.com/anotherlink.htm>This link will also be extracted.
[/links]

[multimedia][/multimedia] – Multimedia tags work just like [links] tags. They extract the URL and text from a hyperlink.  However, if anchor text is tagged as [multimedia], the multimedia item will be displayed differently in the release.  Images will be displayed in the release and other multimedia will be represented with an appropriate image instead of a simple link.

[quotes][/quotes] – Wrap all quotes within one set of [quotes] tags.

[boilerplate][/boilerplate] – Wrap all standard text with [boilerplate] tags. Typically this is where you would include more information about the companies or products mentioned in the body of the release.

[services][/services] – An empty set of [services] tags will result in the automatic inclusion of a digg button and a del.icio.us button within your release.  More services may be included in the future.

 

Templates

Under Select A Template, the template dropdown contains a Sample Release and Template 1.  The Sample Release will load the original SHIFT Communications introduction of the SMPR template.  Template 1 is the same release format, but it only includes the release shell and does not include the content from the release.  Make a selection from the dropdown and click the Load Template button. 

Warning:  Any existing text in your post editor will be replaced with the template text.

 

Create Your Own Templates

If you have a post that you’d like to save as template for your own use, follow these instructions:

  1. Load the post content in the editor window. 
  2. Type the name of your custom template in the box below the Save As label.
  3. Click the Save Template button. 

Your custom template is now available in the Template dropdown.

To delete your custom template:

  1. Click the Delete checkbox.
  2. Select your custom template in the dropdown.
  3. Click the Delete Selected button.

 

Upload to PRX Builder

  1. Write and tag your release in the post editor.
  2. Type your PRX Builder login information in the appropriate boxes. 
  3. Click the Upload to PRX Builder button. 
  4. Login to PRX Builder. 
  5. Click the Open A File From This Website radio button. 
  6. Select the ExtLoad.xml file and click OK.

Subsequent uploads will overwrite the ExtLoad.xml file on PRX Builder.  Save the release under a different name in PRX Builder before uploading another release.