Sorry, Todd and Todd but count me among the social media fans who are a bit sick of the social media news release.

I think the only time most businesses will pay attention to the format is if it allows them to satisfy Fair Disclosure and avoid expensive wire distribution. We wouldn’t have to wait two to three years if you and Edelman could deliver that.

Seriously, I’m guessing journalists would prefer a social media tagged pitch or use of more accurate e-mail subject heads.

Actually, they’d really prefer a B.S. and buzzword detector Widget if someone can develop it.

California dreaming, Adam

Also, I’ve always said that this is bleeding-edge stuff. But I’d rather be the first guy in the Model-T than the last guy holding the buggy whip.

Lastly, to the question about “Who’s using it?” – just in the last few weeks, we’ve seen SAP AG, Belkin, Novell, and, as of this morning I got an interesting call from Disney. And that’s just off the top of my head.

Also, several clients are in process of drafting or considering SMNRs for their own programs.

It’s still VERY EARLY. Talk to me in 24-36 months about whether this was a sustainable concept. (Three years vs. 100 years of tradition is not much to ask.)

(You think Edelman would put all those resources behind SMNRs if they didn’t think that there was a market for it?)

The point about reporters downloading the original release might be from the great buzz you and BusinessWeek created.

Could you share how many SHIFT clients are still using the release format and how many reporters are subscribing to releases?

Todd – I can tell you that (according to PRNewswire) close to 1000 registered journalists downloaded our template from PRN, when we first announced it (and I don’t know how many journalists – from among 50,000+ downloads – came directly to our website to do so; we did not ask for registration).

Reaction is usually mixed: web-savvy reporters seem to love it, reporters in more traditional newsrooms are either neutral or negative. I’ll be curious to see what answers come out of the Google Group!

I just posted the SHIFT del.icio.us page to my own. It felt weird.

Sam’s been very quiet about the social media news release, for two main reasons:

1. He hasn’t actually seen all that many social media news releases.

2. He hasn’t heard very many editors interested in the social media news release.

To these points:

1. Has anyone tried to index the various social media-enabled MultiVu, PRWeb, PRXbuilder and now storyCrafter news releases?

2. Is there a list of reporters that have endorsed or spoken positively about the social media news release? I made a point of asking Line56’s Demir Barlas of Sam’s call yesterday about the social media release, and he was all for it. So is, obviously, Tom. I know these aren’t the only two editors on the bandwagon here–I’ve mentioned this to a lot of the reporters I work with, and reception is positive.

How do we address this kind of (probably healthy) skepticism? (I’m going to cross-post this question on the new media release Google group.)

In the meantime, PRX Builder continues to involve the community. We are giving users a chance to create their own release templates. We’ll pick the best ones and post them to PRX Builder for all to enjoy, with full attribution to the author.

Details can be found on my blog here: http://urlcut.com/1chgd

Ed