Yesterday’s announcement about the IABC’s assumption of a leadership role with Social Media Releases led to a spirited discussion of the merits of the SMR on Twitter.
Below I’ve done the best I can to “capture” the debate, which included folks like the brilliant-but-irascible Jeremy Pepper, media guerilla Mike Manuel, SMR guru Chris Heuer, and PR’s patron saint Shel Holtz.
First off, I hope these guys don’t mind that I post this exchange. I didn’t ask in advance, but, this entire “conversation” occured in public so I can’t imagine they’d care. More importantly, in bursts of 140 character-spaces or less, Jeremy, in particular, is able to sum up a lot of the debating points re: Social Media Releases. (I did my best to defend the concept. You’ll have to be the judge!)
Please excuse formatting glitches. I haven’t quite figured out how to cut&paste from Twitter to my blog.
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IABC - with 15K members w-w - takes role in guiding standards & development of Social Media Releases. My take: http://tinyurl.com/2k4hqz |
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@TDefren geez, glad you don’t have blinders on about SMR… |
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@jspepper Blinders? No. But I’m an avowed optimist. |
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@TDefren tomato, tomatoe, potato, potatoe, let’s throw the whole thing out. you have blinders bc you have more than a vested interest. |
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@jspepper Vested interest? Umm, hell, yea. But it started with a genuine desire to “webify/socialize” the 100-y.o., badly-written text doc. |
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@TDefren badly written bc junior people aren’t being trained, not bc it needed to be webified/socialized. the lack of research is my issue. |
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@jspepper Lay aside perennial “writing” issue. Why not democratize access to content, add/share multimedia, and even (gasp) allow comments? |
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@TDefren bc, at the end of the day, there have been multimedia releases already, and does everything need to be commentable? |
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@TDefren content has ALWAYS been accessible. it’s not hard to get your hands onto a press release. Never has been. |
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@jspepper ALL commentable? No. Some? I think so. But it wasn’t even a consideration b4. Also many wires DID have “gates” up in the past. |
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@TDefren as for comments, should i allow my brand to be attacked on my own site just to satisfy you? |
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@jspepper Always advocated MODERATED comments + if someone’s bound to attack, they will. @ least on site, folks see a cool official response. |
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@TDefren um, all the wires had disty deals with other media. you could get them no matter what, if you wanted to. |
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@jspepper the dist. svs are not bound to serve up all content, esp m-m components. you need an “official” place, bro, whether wires or site. |
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@TDefren moderated doesn’t work, bc of the immense amounts of SPAM and other issues. I know bc I have worked with Fortune 100 and it came up |
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@jspepper “moderated doesn’t work”? so there should be no corp blogs that enable comments, either? |
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@TDefren i fully believe in comments, but you are adding another element of potential mess. |
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@jspepper Actually “comments” were not an original recommendation. But, I do think enabling comments is a good idea in SOME cases. |
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@TDefren that was what i ran into - that the SPAM (even with filters) becomes too much for people with other jobs beyond blogging. |
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@jspepper I empathize with spam issue but c’mon - we can’t let that kill off SMRs, corp blogging, etc. |
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@jspepper If it weren’t difficult, it wouldn’t be worth doing. |
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@TDefren not saying it should, just saying it’s another thing that was not thought of with the SMR. One of too many things not addressed. |
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@jspepper you are wrong in assuming these things were not thought of, the smr is not finished, it is being considered as we speak right here |
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@chrisheuer not really. i am pointing out what i think is wrong with the SMR. if these “things” are being addressed, that’s great. |
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@chrisheuer but, give me a case study. or five. of fortune 100 companies that have used the SMR with a better response than a traditional. |
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@chrisheuer bc at the end of the day, what trumps both traditional and SMR is just good outreach and relationships. No contest. |
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@jspepper Sheesh, you MUST know that *no* SMR advocate thinks it’s a “replacement” for good writing, outreach, or relationships. |
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@TDefren it elevates succinctness and brevity for writing, hard to say how it isn’t. since it sprang from the PR is dead meme, how’s it not? |
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@jspepper Again, the bullets were a *suggestion* - to get past the B.S., to core facts. IMHO, removing B.S. is a boon to relationship bldg |
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you gotta ask: can the smr accelerate actions (discovery, sharing) in ways the press release can’t? finding that answer ought’a be the focus
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@mmanuel thank you. |
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@mmanuel, @jspepper I don’t disagree with that. My *guess* is that yes, SMRs *can* accelerate discovery/sharing. It’s *still early.* |
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@mmanuel Finding the answer ought to be A focus, not THE. Several areas of focus! |
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@shel i’m not anti-smr, just anti-smr as the only solution to this problem…i want to experiment more, see more experimentation |
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@mmanuel don’t look behind the curtain. there’s nothing behind the curtain. ignore the man behind the curtain. |
To sum up, if I may attempt it: this idea of the SMR is just under 2 years old. It’s up against a 100–year old format. It’s going to take several years’ worth of time and experimentation before the PR industry can make a sound judgment on the SMR’s merits.
One of the points Mike Manuel raised a little later on (via Twitter) was whether “failure (of the SMR idea) was an option?” Of course it’s an option, in fact given the odds, I daresay failure is a likelihood!
But, I think the format deserves a fair shake – a “willing suspension of disbelief” – and I’ll continue to advocate for the SMR, not just because I have a “vested interest” but because I am a True Believer. Ye Olde Press Release no longer does what it’s supposed to do: deliver accurate content in a believable, accessible way. To me the SMR is, if anything, a return to first principles.
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Hi Todd,
Thanks for pulling these tweets together. That was an interesting discussion yesterday.
I wonder if part of the reason there’s resistance to the idea of the SMR is that people think it would replace the traditional format.
I know you and others in the working group have advocated for the SMR as an additional tactic, NOT as a replacement. You’ve also (correctly) stated that a crappy release is still a crappy release, regardless of the format. I think that’s the right approach, but I’m not sure that many people realize that that’s what we propose.
Once this is loudly and clearly communicated, it quells peoples’ fear and a lot of resistance falls away.
However, as I wrote yesterday, I do agree with Jeremy that we need examples of success (supported by data) to help drive this forward. Examples of companies using the SMR, without giving results, only does so much to convince people.
Cheers,
Dave
This used to be an interesting blog about issues relating to social media, technology, life, culture and blogging…now its about formats…or better put…templates that anyone could devise….what is happening here? I can devise templates…how is the needle being pushed forward?
Dave - You’re right on all points, and I look forward to working with you.
Austin, sorry to disappoint. If you were to read the blog from the bottom-up, I cover politics, clueless clients, and the impact of Social Media and SEO on small companies. I may be biased but I don’t think I’ve been slacking off, amigo.
Todd - Enjoyed the SMR conversation, but even better (for me, at least) was seeing how you used Twitter to quickly gather info and share it with us. I’m starting to “get it” now.
Well, interesting that neither of you has responded to my challenge yet.
http://twitter.com/jspepper/statuses/767833093
http://twitter.com/jspepper/statuses/767833219
Seems like a simple way to respond to my criticisms.
Sheesh, Jeremy, didja think I was on Twitter 24×7? Didn’t see those tweets til you posted ‘em here.
Tell you what: I am willing to help, within reason. I need to prioritize my time for SHIFT clients, as I know you’ll understand!
But again, I am happy to help. Maybe if you could establish “what success means” to start off? I’d also want to know what content and news you’d offer up.
Feel free to take this to email. tdefren (at) shiftcomm (dot) com.
And, oh yea, be sure to ping Chris too!
Todd, you don’t sleep, just admit it.
Did talk to Chris last night. We’ll take it offline, and it’ll be next month.
Gonna be an announcement that it’s my dog’s 10th birthday.
You guys typed all that stuff out? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just pick up a phone and talk to each other like real people? What a bunch of dorks…
Boy am I glad I was too busy last Thurs to twitter or I would have gotten sucked into this discussion.
My concern has always been (as you know) that folks will glom onto the new format, think they are “engaging”/doing “social media” (whatever that means) but continue to perpetrate the same bad PR practice we all bemoan — boring stories, crappy outreach strategy, and so on. I know that’s not what you or any of the SMNR advocates are saying, but it is a STRONG possibility. Dare I say probability, given the bottom line imperatives at big agencies.
I’m a PR student studying your blueprint for the social media release. About a week ago when my professor introduced us to the SMR, we had a conversation much like your twitter discussion. However, after a long discussion about the merits and pitfalls of using social media releases instead of traditional press releases, we couldn’t come to an agreement about which was “better.” We did, however, agree that the method we chose would depend on our audience. Isn’t the PR world big enough for both?
Interesting Twits.
Been experimenting with SMR’s fairly aggressively. Five releases in the last couple months. Commented about some of the issues on Brian Solis’ blog - http://www.briansolis.com/2008/02/social-media-releases-in-action.html
That post covers a lot of issues we’re (me, myself and one other person) trying to figure out - tracking, measurement, value, downstream display, etc. Building data, getting comments and feedback. No problem with moderated comments here. I find the comments valuable and helpful. If, and when, I get the occasional “Richard Cranium” who blasts or attacks our company - no problem. It’s a very small minority. If you have thin skin, probably not the way to go.
COUPLE SMR EXPERIMENTS
Had the opportunity to use two SMR’s (more multi-media than SMR actually, but close) in an event we hosted. A major college MBA Business Plan Competition with 14 colleges (sorta like the NCAA tourney). The release content was not great, not particularly good, but functional. Since the opportunity was there, we decided to push the limits for the multimedia portion of one of he news release.
1st Release
The announcement of the contest topped around 6,300 links in the first 24 hrs as tracked in the Marketwire PRstats™ - described as “the current number of locations of this press release listed in.” One of our earlier SMR’s topped 19,000 links… bloggers drove that. Question is, what value do you attribute to that number? How do you get your arms around it to measure and analyze? It’s impressive looking. No doubt. And it’s dynamic. Changes every hour. But eventually we need to translate that into some action that moves the value needle. For us, in the complex B2B sales environment, that means moves the buyer committees, media or analysts to action. The Trifecta would be all three.
Both releases were displayed on CNN,CNBC, MSNBC and all that - but they mangle the display and formatting. Which negates the value and utility. Why do it if it gets trashed? That’s what testing is for though. To see what happens and how best to deal with it. Right now I know one thing. You control the display of the release only on your own site. Or your distribution vendor’s site. If you can get them to display it the way you create it. Although I will say Yahoo does a pretty good job of displaying some of the multi-media elements.
2nd Release
The announcement of the winners was where we pushed the multimedia envelope. Interspersed pictures of the winners with actual video interviews of the winners - which had been shot prior to the competition.
Announcement of Winners
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=828759&k=cincom
Marketwire has text formatting limitations. Bolding, Bullet-points, dont work. Text doesn’t display well. Sometimes distracts from the original content layout. Particularly if you use sluglines and a web chunk writing style.
It displays much better on PRXBUILDER
http://www.cincom.com/common/PRXRelease/HTML/CincomUCSoEwinners(2).htm
Response was good. From the colleges, the competitors, web readers, emails - etc. All that stuff. But what surprised me most was the intense interest from professors, Venture Cap folks, bankers and judges pulling me aside, asking about the concept, the distribution, the ‘How does it work?’ kind of questions you get. Actually, at one point, (we had releases displayed hard copy and live on a news board so the teams could see) I had several people lined up - like a tour guide.
Good test - but no media inquiries. Lot of related pubs linked to it though. However, the announcement happened on a Tuesday when Hillary won Ohio and Texas (if she did) and we’re in Ohio. Regardless - No media inquiries.
Announcement release on Marketwire
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=826737&k=cincom
Announcement release PRXBuilder
http://www.cincom.com/common/PRXRelease/HTML/CincomUcSpirit02262008.htm
As for the gentleman that Twittered you to help him devise an SMR - Best way to do it, is to do it.
Go to Shannon Whitley’s PRXBUILDER.com It’s a great app. Figure it out. But I’m sure you guys all know that. And he is superb to work with. Real professional.
I didn’t mention WebitPr.com from the UK. This was a North American event. I have used them for overseas releases - with success. Wonderfully helpful, courteous and responsive. I hope they take off. They could be a threat to some of the major distributors if things fell right.
Regards,
Steve
PS - Working on building a social media newsroom modeled after your template, but tweaking it in several ways. It will include all company blogs and our Expert Access E-zine (141,000 subscribers) which will effect the layout somewhat. I’ll send you an email when I rough it out. Because of the large amounts of content we publish it may end up being a hybrid of a Social Media Newsroom mixed with design elements/capabilities of sites like Time/WSJ/Reuters