The SMNR template certainly can support narrative content alongside other Social Media elements and embedded content, eh?

For those of us who have worked on small papers and trade publications, it’s well-known that our staffs are not adequate for production of all the content needed (as one trade publication publisher I worked for put it) to fill the space between the ads. Narrative press releases that can be dropped into the bottom left-hand column of page 35 are invaluable for people who toil away on these publications, of which there are still tens of thousands. And, particularly with trade publications, these often end up getting read by the right people.

I think what I like most about the social media release is the flexibility it offers. You don’t need every single multimedia option, but you can take advantage of anything the client needs.

I’m not a big fan of rigid adherence to a communications tool if it doesn’t completely align with a client’s needs. For example, I’m sure we can all imagine scenarios where we don’t need to create a community around a release, but we want to provide info to an existing community. And if you work with clients on extremely sensitive political issues like I do, you may not want to enable comments in this particular environment.

But what I appreciate most is your desire to make social media “standard operating procedure,” essentially relegating it to the tactical level because the strategic justifications for such a tool have already been explored and confirmed.

Bravo, sir.

Stephen – I am all for comments on SMNRs being enabled; ultimately each news release should be like a blog post, with comments/trackbacks, etc. BUT, I do think that the comments should be moderated for cuss words, spam, tonality, etc.

LaSandra and Wilson – Thanks to YOU, for the hard work, and for stopping by!

I’m glad you found our release and that you approve. Your template helped tremendously – thanks!

~ LaSandra

What are your thoughts on a comment area on SMNRs? So users can actually comment on the release itself?

I know Edelman’s template has them, as does ours and I’m doing a blog interview with a guy from the European arm of a top 10 Fortune100 company about theirs they’ve just released which includes the ability for anyone to comment also.

Personally, I prefer them because it makes a social release even more social in my opinion. Of course, they’re just my thoughts and I think the inclusion of a comment form will take some time for the end user to get used to.

For example, we haven’t had a lot of comments on the ones we’ve produced (now into our double figures) so we’ve since included a section above the comment form that allows users to see who’s monitoring the comments and the period of time they’ll monitor them for. (Tip of the hat to Constantin for that, btw)

It’s usually over a seven day period but can be longer. So, say, in this case, the VP of service provider marketing at Cisco, Jeff Spagnola would monitor and answer any questions for a certain period of time.

It’s like an online press conference or a ‘blogger conference’ if you will.

Yay or ney?

Geez, I better call the publisher!