Comments on: Social Media Release in the Spotlight Again

By: Jason Ryan

Jason Ryan — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:56:00 +0000

Reading your post Brian, and a lot of the other stuff over the last month or so, I wonder if it would be helpful to include a little more clarity around the terms (as they are currently used) hRelease and SMR?

It seems to me that a lot of the discussion presupposes that these terms are equivalent, or at least closely related, when at the moment that is not necessarily the case - although the community may work to close that gap.

Ideally, I would like to think that hRelease would make news more discoverable (and digestible/reusable) to the public (particularly those using assistive technologies), to journalists and pr professionals and to machines - and fwiw my preference would be in that order.

Interested to see how this could be resolved.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:42:00 +0000

There was way too much to cover in one hour, and the fact is that we don’t have all the answers yet anyway. Distribution and communications go hand in hand so it is a vital component of the discussion. And Kami is right, there are many variables. And there will be many types of media released by companies–we might call some of them “social.” What is clear is that companies need to think in terms of a “mediacast” and publish in many new media formats, and distribute and collect responses over many different communications chanells.

It’s an incr4easingly fragmented media world and like it or not, that means the PR industry has to adapt to it. And I think that’s the work that I and my fellow panel members are doing–helping others in the industry to understand the new rules in communications and how best to adapt to them.

By: Brian Solis

Brian Solis — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:55:00 +0000

Todd, Shannon, I don't disagree with you. I did suggest that a "lite" social version of a release (perhaps a hybrid between a variety of formats) cross the wire for search and reporters.

Ultimately, with the hRelease format, we can broadcast it officially through a number of ways.

In my opinion though, if we're talking pure Social Media, we should also evaluate other avenues.

When we're talking about telling a story with integrated new media and social media elements using the reach of the wires, let's continue to experiment.

My only argument about aligning socially-tuned releases for the wire is that they only provide for somewhat socialized distribution...which is why I call them "lite" - bookmarks, digg, RSS links, etc.

As we all know, there's much more behind social media. The tools and the ability to interact with and share information are far more extensive than the wires currently (and maybe should never) provide.

For all PR people looking to learn, please remember, that news is also about relationships and how we get the story to them in a way that matters to their community.

By: Brian Solis

Brian Solis — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:46:00 +0000

Kami, you’re right. I hope we can keep this discussion going because there’s much to explain. The hRelease format is indeed the most important product of this process….that and also helping people understand Social Media as well as writing more effectively.

Mike, done deal. Let’s get Todd, Chris, and Tom to get it going in Vegas!

By: Shannon Whitley

Shannon Whitley — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:34:00 +0000

Thanks, Brian. Posts like this are especially useful to those of us who weren't lucky enough to make it to Vegas.

I'd also have to argue for the importance of social media news releases and the wire. We may call it something else, but we still need some way to collect and distribute social media releases.

We can't rely on 'search' for our news; it's not practical to look for our news on every company's website; and I don't want to wade through all of the junk at services like Digg.

So how do we discover legitimate news using our brave new media releases?

That's one of the things that I'm working on at FetchWire.com. Like the release itself, the "wire" concept isn't really broken. It just may need to be retooled for our social media world.

By: TDefren

TDefren — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:10:00 +0000

Good recap, Brian, though I don’t agree that a SMPR should never go over the wires. I believe that for the forseeable future, the wires serve a purpose: distribution as wide as possible, including to hard-to-reach outlets (Yahoo News, etc.) and more isolated sources (local metro papers).

p.s. – GREAT to see you last week. Let’s catch up again soon.

By: Mike Keliher

Mike Keliher — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:06:00 +0000

Brian, thanks for the link and for your additional ideas on this jazz. You’re right, the session wasn’t all it could have been, and the audience did leave with a lot of unanswered questions. Hopefully, though, that will pique their interest more than discourage them.

That said, a one-hour panel for this is not enough. That room was packed, and I would gladly have spent the whole conference talking about this one issue.

What do you say we fire up an SMR Summit later this year? You’re in Cali right? I’m in Minneapolis, so we’ll meet in the middle. How ’bout the Venetian in Vegas?

By: Kami Huyse

Kami Huyse — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:18:00 +0000

Brian; I am glad you summarized your thoughts here, because you are right that the session at New Comm didn’t do it. In many ways I would have to agree with you, though I think that others are indeed trying to get a format (hRelease) that would be recognized on the wire. However, I think that we have too many issues that are all mixed up in this debate. They are: content, form and distribution, and each point has a bevy of opinions around it. Then there are a number of people who might read or use one of these releases: journalists, bloggers and social media types, and people searching for the information. This is quite a number of variables to sort out, as you point out in your post.