My colleague Jeremiah Owyang sure ruffled some feathers with his post claiming that the Golden Age of tech blogging is over. Aside from being a mentor and a tireless analyst, he’s also a long-time blogger. His words over the years helped blaze the trail for blogging and ultimately the micromedia bonanza that he believes is contributing to the erosion of long-form social prose. In his article, he quotes good friends Loic Lemeur, Ben Metcalfe, Ben Parr, Francine Hardaway, Chris Heuer and Dave McClure. Their perspective is always interesting. And, his post also drew telling comments from some of the best known names in tech blogging including Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable, Sarah Lacy, Marshall Kirkpatrick, and Dylan Tweney, executive editor at VentureBeat.

His points are worthy of consideration. Kudos to him for sparking this conversation…feels like old times.

I believe that in brevity there’s clarity. While a chapter in the ongoing development of tech blogging is certainly coming to an end, in the overall story, it’s (finally) growing up…as it should. See, tech is more important than a locale. It’s more important than funding or personnel shifts. Its impact on culture, society, business, and human evolution is more profound than the pundits who usually cover it. Evolution is a good thing…and I believe tech blogging is merely undergoing a form of digital Darwinism of sorts.

I recently wrote about my thoughts on the state and future of blogs, which is of course far grander than the world of tech blogging. And as you can see, blogging is alive and clicking.

Yes, micromedia, video, and social transactions/actions are breaking through our digital levees and causing our social streams to flood. And, yes, Flipboard, Zite, and the like (get it?), are forcing our consumption patterns into rapid-fire actions and reactions. You have a choice. You are either a content creator, curator or consumer. You can be all of course. But, think about this beyond the mental equivalent of 140 characters. What do you stand for and what do you want to become known for? The answer is different for each of us. But, content, context, and continuity are all I need to learn, make decisions and in turn inspire others.

I can assure you that the right voices will find the right platforms to escalate the genre and continue to influence all forms of media and those who create it. Watch what happens in 2012. It’s part survival of the fittest and survival of the fitting. I’ve got my eye on some of the names you know as well as many that you don’t (but soon will).

This part is important…If we assume that human beings can only process bytes instead of depth we are confined to competing merely for the moment. That is a game for the AOL’s of the world. What’s changing right here, right now is the players, not the game.

In fact, this is the time to compete for attention by not just feeding it forgettable snacks here and there, but enrapturing it through value, direction, and insight. Do the work no one else can make the time to do. There’s always a market for intelligence…it’s just a matter of which market you decide to pursue.

I believe the next Golden Age lies in syndicated context (yes it’s a play on words) and like a multidimensional chess board, we will compete for attention on several different fronts (playing their game, their way) while expanding reach in the process. There’s tremendous value in trusted content. The secret lies not in character count, but in perspective…seeing what others can’t and doing what others won’t. Just don’t lose sight of who you are and why you’re here. You’re part of the reason we’re here in the first place.

#AdaptorDie

Connect with me: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Google+

Guest post by Chris Heuer, Founder/Chairman Social Media Club

What’s the biggest problem in business today?

It’s not access to capital, though that is a real problem in that it inhibits growth in some places where it shouldn’t. No, it’s not command and control management hierarchies, despite the contribution they certainly make. It’s not the problem of “the other” that plagues broad swaths of our society, though that is a close second. I contend the biggest problem is that each business has too few people looking after the whole of the business. This is not only seen in the concentration of power in the hands of the C-Suite and the Board, but also in the org charts that map an often too real silo like operational structure.

What’s the solution? I believe we need to fundamentally rethink the closely held tenents of business strategy, especially in light of the geopolitical and environmental situation we now face. To put it simply, it is time to for organizations large and small to adopt a holistic business strategy that empowers more employees to think about the whole of the business; to more fully understand the ins and outs of the product/service offering; and ultimately focus on serving their markets instead of serving the stock market.

From 2006 until just a few months ago, I had thought that social media would become the big tent where this sort of thinking would take hold and begin to reshape the very way organizations are managed. Now, however, it has become clear that social media, at least in larger organizations has become another silo, albeit an important one.

Further to this point, it seems that social media has bifurcated into two halves; the social side which deals with people issues like support, sales, recruiting and managing the brand’s reputation; and the media side which deals with massive reach, content production and a never ending pursuit for more followers. Much to my chagrin, social media is not the umbrella under which organizations are transforming. Instead it is being relegated to another silo of the disciplines that fall under digital or online marketing – despite the myriad of ways in which it changes all aspects of operations and strategy.

Still, social media is a catalyst for bringing about a massive change in the way that organizations are structured, how they interact with markets and how employees approach the very nature of their work. So I am not giving up on the power of social media, just adapting my world view to how it has actually evolved in its adoption by the mass market.

Over the past few years I resisted this despite watching many forward thinking thought leaders seek new places to hang their hat. Jeff Dachis embraced Social Business, Francois Gossieaux forwarded Human Business and others have sought to simply distance themselves from social media. To a certain extent they were right to do so, but while I agree with many of their principles, posts and perspectives, I have had trouble getting fully on board behind those memes as the next bit thing. To the extent that it describes what needs to happen, I have very much been a supporter around the idea of this time being known as “The Great Restructuring” as advanced by Jeff Jarvis.

Over the holidays, I realized that the reason for my relucatance was that none of these emerging ideas hit upon the most important distinction which should be the focus of our work ahead. Yes, businesses need to be drastically restructured in order to operate as a more social organization, with greater respect for each human within it. But, these core principles alone are not strong enough to transform the very heart of business and the entrenched egoic mindset that has it held hostage. Businesses today also need to think about longer term impacts to the socioeconomic systems over their own short term gains. They need to understand their role in the broader market, rethink how they create value and act as a symbiotic, inter-connected entity within the global ecosystem known as society. These are principles that Michael Porter recently outlined in a brilliant article called Creating Shared Value in a cover story package on Rethinking Capitalism for Harvard Business Review. [Also read this great summary article by Sean Silverthorne on BNet]

In short, this is exactly what I have been thinking about, explained in a much more eloquent way then my writing skills allow. As Michael Porter stated, business should be “creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges. Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center. We believe that it can give rise to the next major transformation of business thinking.”

Reading his article brought me back to the insights I first unearthed 12 years ago while working for the United States Mint. It has given me new energy that I will use in the year ahead to advance the principles of holistic business strategy with newfound hope for bringing about real change in how organizations are managed, in how employees relate to their employers, and in how we, as a species, go beyond survival, to thrive together. It is ultimately a vision about a form of conscious capitalism, where innovation can still be rewarded, but without exploiting resources or people. Where doing good leads to profit, rather then coming after profit. Where contributing to the collective good brings personal, communal and societal rewards.

This is largely what I have been talking about under the guise of “Serve the Market” [video | slides] over the past year, and what I will be writing about in the year ahead. How do we serve the market? With a holistic business strategy that does not look at any part of our organization, our operations, our partnerships or our products as separate from the rest, or separate from the people who are seeking value from it.

It’s a simple, almost glib phrase, to “serve the market”, to be of service, but it’s game changing. To reach the greatest success in serving the market requires a holistic business strategy. A strategy that understands the business’ place in the overall ecosystem. A strategy that enables more employees to look after the whole of the business rather then their single silo. As with all good transformative ideas, we need a yardstick to measure the success of our efforts.

While the organizational growth vector and profitability are still core metrics, it’s time for us to improve the measurement of the most important currency in the market, that which either lubricates the flow of market transactions or creates sales friction. What we really need to measure is trust. As I first proposed last year when discussing Market Engagement Optimization, its more important then ever for us to develop the Net Trust Score as the barometer for measuring a business against its competitors and for determining if its investments in areas like social media are paying off.

I first started exploring these ideas when I entered the business world with the interactive agency and local content site I founded in 1994. I was fairly certain that I was on the leading edge of something that would soon become a massive wave in interest by senior management in this seemingly obvious approach to business. Now 17 years later, holistic business strategy hasn’t taken hold or even gotten onto the radar of many management consultants, but with respected management leaders like Michael Porter supporting this vision, that is all about to change.

Now in 2011 and in the years ahead, I hope to be a catalyst for bringing the philosophy of holistic business strategy to a wider audience by creating a space for open dialogue around the assumptions we have made in the design of our systems, in how we approach profitability, in how we think about the long term over the short term and how we ultimately create strategies that serve the market, rather then exploiting it.

I hope that you join me in exploring and refining these ideas… and also questioning them. And I hope to illuminate what it all means through many case studies we can collect together along the way.

Follow Chris Heuer on Twitter

Source: Shutterstock

The Problem with Marketing (and markets because of it)

For over 15 years I have been looking at the world of marketing, advertising and public relations and seeing things a bit differently. I was not alone. Countless others also saw the real need for systemic changes, or dare I say reform, across the board. The fundamental challenge became that the broad concept of “the market” was not fair nor efficient – the ones with the power (and money) won, and they often won at the expense of other’s loss.

It has been all too easy for narcissistic leaders in the pursuit of profits that appease the players in the stock market to game the system, even more recently beginning to hide in the open amidst the glut of information. Worldcom, Enron, AIG and Bernie Madoff are the poster children for this problem – the problem with human nature, addiction to power and greed – the problem with entitlement – the problem in an inefficient market with bad actors.

But the sales teams and the marketing teams were given the mission of attacking the market and bringing back as much revenue as possible and expending the least amount of cash (in pursuit of the highest ROI). The support teams were tasked with defending the cash, by doing as little as possible to solve for the customers problems. Occasionally they were tasked with asking, “do you want fries with that?” How thoughtful.

The marketing department set about optimizing their mix of communications channels, studying demographic/psychographic behavior and testing creative before deployment. Some of this is great work. A lot of it is wrong.

It is wrong because it started in the wrong place. It started from an intention of maximizing profits, not maximizing the creation of value in the market. It thrived on the inefficiencies of the market as it studied the terrain to plot their campaigns across the market’s battlefields. Meanwhile, many of the consumers were overwhelmed by a superiorly equipped army. Many still are.

But in 1994, that began to change with the early days of the commercial web. And from there, through my work with virtual communities, to my days at the United States Mint in ecommerce, through the development of a content management and relationship system for Palm and more recently through the growth of Social Media Club I have been experimenting with new ways of approaching marketing.

This is in part, explained further in my post yesterday on The End of Marketing, The Return to Markets, but it is something I will need to write about for a while to explain fully.

The most important thing to understand about being successful in social media is the importance of attitude and intention. It’s starting from the right point of origin and with the right mindset that will ultimately guide your choices as you ENGAGE with the market. But if your intention is to take the most money possible from customers, you end up in a different place then if your point of origin is serving that market.

This is not to say we shouldn’t be concerned with being profitable. We must be in order to continue to grow, to improve and to do our best to create value. Personally, this is something I have put off for too long now, which is why I am excited about the fact that I am going to be working with Peter Corbett in opening an iStrategy lab office in San Francisco. It’s time to put my own oxygen mask on and do more client work.

In living the spirit of starting from the right intentions, my work and my writings will focus on a new framework to replace marketing and return to a fair, open and efficient market. Yes, there have been some great advancements to this common cause from conversations/communities around Marketing 2.0, Social Media, PR 2.0 and even more recently Social Business Design.

Personally, I think about the tactics behind the ideal of serving the market in what I believe is the purest description (but alas destined to still be another buzzword perhaps).

Market Engagement Optimization (MEO)

Ultimately, when I am looking at MEO, I am thinking about how do we prepare our workforce and operate our companies in the way that creates the most value while we are serving the market. To this end, Chris Brogan and Justin Levy have it right in their book Trust Agents. If employees are encouraged to be Trust Agents in the market they serve on behalf of their companies, they will ultimately be more effective and efficient then competitors not embracing this market based strategy.

I talked about Market Engagement Optimization in a recent post announcing the Reality Check Series with Social Media Club and RealPlayer SP. Now it’s time to start discussing it more broadly with you and other leading thinkers to better develop it as a framework that is easily implemented and doesn’t require an MBA to understand. For this revolution to be televised, everyone will not only need their 15 minutes of fame, but they need to be prepared to engage and they need to be prepared to participate while representing the company in the best possible way.

But like brand makeovers that only involve changing the logo and the color scheme, just representing the company in the best possible way is not enough. The very core, indeed the soul of the company also needs to be in alignment with the current and future market dynamic. Last night at the Social Media Club Palm Beach County launch someone mentioned that within 6-8 months it is expected that consumers will naturally come to expect of all companies customer support within Twitter and other social sites. If true, this is happening even faster then I thought.

What is MEO then?

As I answered the question of what is social media? I take the same approach in looking at MEO. In fact, to me, MEO is just another part of Social Media, it’s a better framework for holistically leveraging social media and other emerging technologies as a primary point of participation with the market.

Simply put, MEO is the art and science of serving the market and maximizing the return on participation. It starts with a culture that respects customers and that harnesses the passions of its employees to engage in the market. Whether you call them ambassadors, evangelists, team members or an employee doesn’t matter. What does is the understanding that when they are better able to engage in the market on your behalf, your company will benefit.

Of course, if your product sucks or your employees hate working for you, this approach will not work. This approach is for real leaders, not egomaniacs who rule by fear and worst practices.

In comparison to SEO, which is natural, MEO there places a greater emphasis on the human over on the other side then who’s competing over relevance of keywords.

An example of this is the adwords campaign I ran with Gilbert Guide in 2007 where we figured out what people would be searching for and actually promoted the link for a well-written blog post that answered the question searchers were asking. We got 2.34% click through rates on that.

What we did then, and what I am proposing now under the framework of MEO is that the best way to make money in a given market is to serve that market and create value. In an increasingly transparent world where Social Media is making more and more information visible everyday, it is of paramount importance to optimize your interaction, communication and collaboration (aka engagement) with the market you serve.

This requires much more then a uni-dimensional approach and even more then a multi-channel integrated marketing approach. It requires a holistic strategy that encompasses tools, talent, methodologies and time.

If you are successful with MEO, you will generate a wealth of good will and trust within the market for your brand. It’s important to remember that it’s not your brand, your logo or your ad campaign that will do this for you – it’s your people. That’s where it all starts and where it all ends.

What about “Market”

What matters most in understanding the market dynamics in an open, web-based market is:

1. Have a clear understanding of the unique aspects that define the market (sets the context for engagement)
2. To identify where they interact with each other in the real world and online
3. To earn their trust by looking out for the mutual interests you share with them
4. To act from a place of integrity, with good intentions
5. To develop true leadership while encouraging and enabling the development of individual capabilities, emotional wellness and intelligence of the workforce

This is where the ideas from the social media playbook model really works well. The best insights about the market(s) comes from participating within it and building close personal and professional relationships. A simple framework for participation is Look, Listen, Learn, Join, Lead, Repeat.

Of course, we always should be learning, in fact being a learning organization in today’s knowledge economy is a fundamental necessity if we are to optimize our employees for successful market engagement.

So What About Engagement?

While this is still being debated hotly, I take the simple route. It’s about any interactions that are intended to open a dialog of some sort and the activities that result from that dialog. So it includes all forms of communication (even the ‘old world’ stuff), participation within open communities, and discussions in closed communities, collaboration on market issues, customer advisory boards, customer conferences and more.

The most valuable form of engagement I have found is when one has earned the trust of the market sufficiently that they are able to convene the market together for a conversation. This is exactly what NPR has done with their Digital ThinkIn I am joining on Friday and what I have recently been doing with JR Johnson and Lunch For Good. It also takes the form of the Reality Check series we are doing with RealPlayer SP and several local Social Media Club groups around the world.

Optimization is Just That

When we add optimization to the idea of Market Engagement is where we really get busy. This is where we really figure out what works and CHANGE what we are doing as a result of the lessons learned. It’s a constant feedback loop and it’s where I expect to be spending a lot of my time over the years to come. The optimization of market engagement is an ongoing process that often happens in real time.

This is particularly true at live events, which require grounded facilitation skills in addition to subject matter expertise and the ability to think creatively. Whether that is an internal strategy development workshop, or it is an open community event or workshop, shifting people’s thinking requires the gentle nudge of insight that is akin to the light touch of a yoga instructor moving you into the perfect position.

Optimization also comes from a post activity review, which is all too often missed or skipped due to a lack of time. It’s sitting around and giving an honest assessment of what happened and why it did. It’s changing it up for the future. And if it is focused on serving the market while being profitable, you can get an excellent return on participation.

Return on Participation

Its not just how many dollars we got out for effort expended, though that can be a fair measure. But just like the triple bottom line suggests we pay as much attention to the ecological and social impacts as we do the economic ones, ROP requires us to look for the value created in brand equity, in trust, in relationships earned, in relationships retained, in new opportunities discovered, in stories collected to be shared with others, in new ideas co-developed with the market and in lessons learned. These intangibles are hard if not impossible to quantify, but failing to consider them (as we would do if we were SOLEY concerned with profits as the only thing that matters) is a mistake.

To this end, I propose a new measure that will measure a return on participation (and a bit more really). In my discussions with Adrian Chan about his fabulous ideas around a brand’s sociability it struck me that my market model (above and below) was qualitatively expressing an indicator we could actually measure. It struck me that we need a new tool to replace the NetPromoter Score.

We need a NetTrust Score.

The question would be asked in the same way as we do with NetPromoter. The question is, how much do you trust our employees? Or perhaps its simply How much do you trust our brand? Or both? What else might we be measuring in this way that would be a good barometer.

While likelihood of promoting a company or product is a great indicator for word of mouth and to a degree implicitly includes trust, it could often hide real problems and issues with the company that are being ignored, because they seemingly don’t affect the short term bottom line. For instance, many people in the US would give the iPhone a high NetPromoter score, but the how much do I trust Apple and AT&T question would get a tremendously lower score. Then again, the company’s leadership would need to care about other people rather then just themselves, so this is also a good example of the problem with marketing and some aspects of corporate leadership too.

Ultimately, as I demonstrate here in my model of the market, the barrier between a company and its market acts much like a trust filter. When it is low, the ease with which trust flows in and out of the company is impeded, diminishing the potential value creation and chances for collaborating with the market for word of mouth benefits and collaborative innovation. If the company has a high NetTrust score, it will be easier for it to engage with the market and garner the benefits – lower cost of customer relationships, higher return on participation, increasing innovation, increasing ability to hire the best and brightest and ultimately, though this, being a world class, highly profitable and effective company.

The end of marketing and the return to markets is a complex idea, but one that is already taking hold in certain corners of the world. I hate citing the usual case studies from Social Media, but it’s true that Zappos, Dell, Best Buy and many others are already on this path. Others like GE have been doing so many aspects of it right, that they just need that little nudge from the anti-marketing yogi to put them on the right path.

Where From Here

Well, this is my first post published over here on PR 2.0 really, and it marks a new beginning for me in putting my thoughts out and collaborating with you to help figure out how to improve on them, and to an extent, how to even define it. So I ask you, what do you think about Market Engagement Optimization (MEO) and the much-needed revolution in marketing? Is it ready for prime time or does it already belong in the buzzword rubbish bin?

Personally, I am going to use the phrasing no matter what. And Unlike many people out there today, I am not going to try to ‘own’ it or copyright it. It belongs to the market. And that’s the point.

Chris Heuer, Shel Holtz, and I recorded number 16 in an ongoing series that discusses the New Media Release aka Social Media Release aka hrelease.

In this episode, we were joined by Shannon Whitley, who is now heading up the Working Group for defining the hrelease standard. We discussed the state of the SMR, current examples of SMRs in action, as well as the plans for the Working Group moving forward.

Whitley has been very passionate about the social media release, creating PRX Builder, a DIY (Do It Yourself) service for automatically creating and distributing them.

We reviewed recent examples of SMRs, and were both surprised and elated, to include one from a major industry player, HP, for its latest study on ink jet performance metrics. WebITPR also issued a release announcing that Stephen Davies of PRBlogger.com joined the team.

The NMRCast was initially started to document the evolution of the press release in today’s social landscape. It reviews the strategies and experiments driving the social media release aka new media release so that PR professionals can learn from each other in order to improve how we share news and information with the public, and in turn, how they share it with each other.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Relevant Links:

The new Social Media Release site, home of the social media release requirements

Google Groups mailing list for New Media Release discussion

Also, for a refresher on SMRs, please read, “Everything You Wanted to Know (or Should Know) About Social Media Releases.”

Subscribe to the NMRCast feed here.

twitter is the message heard around the world – so to speak or so to read.

It’s an incredible phenomenon that is spreading faster than online parodies of Snakes on a M F Plane…and in my opinion, it has to be the fastest growing social tool out there right now.

It’s everywhere, anywhere messaging so that you can stay in touch with friends, fans, stalkers, and associates whether on the Web, instant messaging, or through text messaging. Each update is broadcast simultaneously to your “friends” and “followers” so that the conversation can travel across borders and oceans faster than any blog post.

While the usual tech pundits are all over twitter, there are also some very interesting people that realize the reach of today’s social tools. One such user, and definitely no stranger to Social Media, is John Edwards - yes that John Edwards. This is the guy that flew Robert Scoble in just to consult with him on how to integrate SM into his formal campaign launch. Let’s just hope that it really is him and not someone from his campaign…that might not resonate well if it was tested and it proved untrue.

Other twitter fans (or maybe fanatics) include Stowe Boyd, Steve Rubel, Scoble, Chris Pirillo, Chris Heuer, Thomas Hawk, Jason Calcanis, Jeff Pulver, Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Oberkirch, Chris Brogan, among many others.

twitter also offers a badge to integrate into a blog post, social networks, or your web site, which displays your most current messages.

Get online, find your friends, and figure out how it can work for you. So far I’ve used it for project coordination, travel scheduling, as well as for pure socializing and simply sharing alerts of where I’m at and what I’m doing.

As an interesting experiment, just look at all of the conversations in and around SXSW.

Next time you’re on, feel free to twitter me (that sounded a little dirty). Send a shout-out: @briansolis, I’m now on twitter!

Caution, it could be addictive.

Update: Seems that twitter is the top story on Techmeme right now. Here are some great conversations online:
twitter tips the tuna – Ross Mayfield
Much a twitter about nothing – shelbinator.com
twitter as a community tool – Chris Brogan
Can twitter save lives – Andy Carvin
twitter could become compulsive – Neville Hobson
twitter THIS – Karoli
Is SXSW going to be the death of twitter? – Chris Heuer
5 ways to use twitter for good – lifehack.org
twitter, a useful communications tool of SXSW – Jeremiah Owyang
Stowe Boyd on twitter
Is there a twitting point? – Rex Hammock
Why do I twitter? – J. LeRoy
A twitter top 10 – Marshall Kirkpatrick of Splashcast

Also, check out http://twitter.pbwiki.com/ for the 411 on twitter celebrities, politicians, hacks, etc. – Per Chris Messina

Add to: Diggdel.icio.usYahooBlinkListSpurlredditFurl

Stowe+Boyd Steve+Rubel robert+Scoble Chris+Pirillo Chris+Heuer Thomas+Hawk Jason+Calcanis Jeff+Pulver Jeremiah+Owyang Brian+Oberkirch sxsw twitter social media media+2.0 media2.0 2.0 web2.0

Some bloggers “get it,” others are forcing us to do a better job explaining what we’re actually doing, while some (and the people who read their blogs) completely miss the point.

If anything, this conversation demonstrates why the blogosphere (and most importantly, people) will chew-up and spit-out traditional PR and corporate marketing types – without thinking twice. But that’s the beauty of this. It forces evolution and improvement – so, either get on board or get out!

It also brings to light a much needed discussion of the need for PR and corporate marketing to evolve.

Truth is that “social” is what’s truly sparking the controversy here. PR had the ability to hide behind so many tools in the past, and now finally, social media is forcing them to step out into the light. PR must now engage with people and in order to do so, must act like “people” not just a faceless broadcasting machine.

It’s not just PR though, social media must be embraced by companies in order to have validity.

In Stowe’s latest post, he nails it with pinpoint accuracy, “Let’s get down to the real basics. We are people. We are already engaged in conversation among ourselves. If corporations want to jump in, fine, go ahead. The water’s fine. But you have to drop the old line model in its entirety, or you will have zero success.”

Chris Heuer adds, “Regardless, this is finally the beginning of the manifestation of the cluetrain principles in our society, with companies entering the conversation in a real and meaningful way. ”

All in all, the world just needs PR to pay more attention to whom their sending information and why it should matter, to them and the people, that read their writing (or watch their videos).

Once they have that knowledge, it will, by all means, change how they reach out – whether it’s in email, by phone, comments, or through blogs. As someone pointed out, the best way to engage socially is by phone. But until they can do so with acceptance and legitimacy, PR has no business engaging directly with individuals.

PR must step from behind its black cloak of anonymity and step into the conversation. But in order to do so, they can’t at all, come across as a traditional PR person – just people talking with people.

The only problem is that most offenders in PR probably won’t even read these blog posts. Hence why we’re trying to bring them into the conversation. Well, only the good ones, the rest can wait for the Ice Age.

Here’s a summary of the conversation…

Supporting

The idea that there is no audience any more—that we’re all equal parts producer and consumer of content—makes for a nice sound bite. It’s also complete bullshit. One percent create content. Ten percent interact with it. That leaves 89 percent who simply read it. They are not engaged in the conversation. They are passively absorbing content. – Shel Holtz

Social media press releases are far, FAR from perfect. But, as long as they’re used as a bridge to further conversations with clients about a blogging strategy that is honest and not filled with malarky … then you know what? I’m willing to stomach it. – Dr Tony Hung

My opinion on the matter is this. I think that anyone who takes the time to invent something, lobby for it and contribute to the community is doing the right thing. That’s the definition of social. – Chris Saad

Stowe makes some bullshit assumptions about the PR industry and the changes many of us are already working to incite. – Mike Manuel

Fact: Press releases continue to be an efficient way to widely distribute information, so there’s no need to cut off your nose to spite your face. – Mark Evans

The new media release, as we refer to it, has the potential to make PR and media more honest because the source of each word, sentence can be tracked.
Posted by: Tom Foremski

Which brings us neatly to Robert Scoble, who misses it more than most. At least Stowe Boyd’s original post was well argued, even if I don’t think he fully understands what it’s all about. – Stuart Bruce

In the end if a marketing or PR professional writes good copy, or tells a good story particularly when it is selling a good product it tends to cut through all the clutter no matter how the message is delivered. – Rick Calvert

I’m a supporter of SMR, but if we want to debate SMR constructively let’s try to have some data to base our arguments. – Daniel Riveong

I’m sick and tired of ‘leading blah blah blah’ and ’solutions’ and phony ‘pleased and delighted’ quotes. But that’s not the issue the social media news release is addressing. – David Parmet

The IDEA is to strip out all of the bullshit and hype from traditional mechanical, and useless press releases and rebuild it as a focused compilation of relevant facts, links, media and a subscription feed to help readers write, tell, and share a story their way (without having to sort through a sea of crap to find out what’s real, what’s canned, and what’s important.) – Me

The social media release is the presentation layer, and that the concept we are supporting technically is the hRelease. The reason behind supporting Microformats are many, but the simplest is that it is intended to primarily be distributed through RSS on BLOGS! – Chris Heuer

I think Solis would say that quality PR can be done without compromising the integrity of the social network experience and maybe that’s true but as with all things commercial we’ll see more obnoxious and manipulative stuff than quality promotion. And hey, that’s OK because this … is …. America and we like our commercialism crash, superficial, and obnoxious, right? – Joe Duck

Some PR people are actually good at what they do. Others are not. And what they are good at is helping refine a message. And, thus, I can see social media and the “future of the press release” being a valid concept.
J. LeRoy

I don’t think we can kill the Release just yet, it still serves its purpose. But smart companies should be trying to complement it. – Jeremy Toeman

For the record, I think “social” news releases posted on a company’s website are hugely better than traditional releases posted on a company’s website. At least a social release allows people to have input. At least you know it’s a PR pitch and not a fake blog post.
Posted by: Dominic Jones

As readers here know, I don’t have any problem with press releases, old or new format, as long as the PR people do the real job of crafting well written and newsworthy announcements without BS. The press release and other materials created for announcements are just the documentation of the story. They aren’t the story. – Susan Getgood

So, where I am right now with the idea of a social media-based press solution: let’s use better writing, a more open approach to replying to feedback, blogs and a richer markup (hRelease) to make our press information more freely available, more indexable, remixable, and just more useful. Instead of being an end in itself (or merely a set of message points we hope others reprint verbatim) hReleases should jumpstart more conversation. — Brian Oberkirch

In my opinion, the social media news release is an inconvenient distraction from the real task at hand, which is getting businesses to understand what social media is in the first place, how it changes the rules, and how it challenges received wisdom and ancient corporate communication tools like, er, the press release. The social media press release is a distraction, but it’s a meaningful distraction… – Giovanni Rodriguez

–

Observing

I don’t have a PR background, and was trying to figure out how it helps communication. Frankly, I probably don’t know enough in this arena, so I’m anxiously waiting for this to get sorted out.
Posted by: Jeremiah Owyang

There’s something about the “social” in “social media” and “social networking” and “social” everything that keeps raising my hackles, no matter how much I believe in the best elements (and intentions) of those much hyped phenomena. – Scott Karp

I find this “social media release” thing rather odd. I’m sure it’s not the case but it sort of gives you the feeling that some in the traditional business world are getting together and deciding, “Well, it’s finally about time we started understanding this Internet thing.”
Posted by: Eric Berlin

Come on, guys, do it right. Don’t just talk the talk: walk the walk. Otherwise, your clients will never get there. – Stowe Boyd

Brian, if everyone agreed with your description of what a social media release was supposed to be and do, then I don’t think there would be any problem — although I think even a social media release should be just part of what a company does to get is message out, along with blogs, etc. It’s baby steps. – Mathew Ingram

–

Not Sold – yet

The problem with the SMR (which sounds more like AK-47 than it should) is that it still pushes information in “blips of transparency” that you expect people to somehow care more about than their friends, who are pushing similar, yet ongoing and consistent “blips of transparency” that, over time, have resulted in genuine relationships forming. You can’t expect drive-by honesty to replace decades of abuse and indirection. Posted by: Chris Messina

In fact, even the term “social media” makes me want to cry. WTF is social media? People are social and we aren’t just idly waiting here to have really impersonal, crappy PR messages stuffed down our throats. Posted by: tara hunt

Public relations is “getting social media all wrong.” None of this is rocket science. And the PR folk have no excuse. All the relevant information is easy enough to find, if one takes the time to actually look. The fact that lots of them aren’t bothering to take the time, well, that’s another issue altogether. – Hugh MacLeod

Would it be possible to get all the little glue-sniffing communist SMPR advocate bastards together so corporate American can beat them with baseball bats? Please? CONTINUED ON ANOTHER BLOG — Lastly, the only reason this social crap has any support from PR is because a small group have glommed onto it as the new new thing and the cornerstone of their lightweight expertise. They look sillier every day. Both comments posted by: Amanda Chapel – (This is a bit weird coming from a blog that is all about hiding identity. Where’s the courage in anonymity?)

I really don’t get why society needs a stupid press release. Oh, OK, I guess we need to pre-write stories for bloggers and journalists since they can’t write their own opinions or reports down, right? Sigh. – Robert Scoble

I don’t really need to read anything else to understand that Stowe is right on point – and you understand that my post was less about the idea of a social media press release than the role of PR more generally, I assume. And I don’t personally think this is an Edelman issue. It’s simply the expected tension between the authenticity of social media and the lack of it in much of business. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is as immutable as the law of gravity. – Rob Hyndman

It’s all good. But you gotta stop caring about press releases and start caring about people. – Jenean Sessum

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After spending a week writing “Social Media Killed the Press Release Star,” which painstakingly explains in great detail the need to improve the content and overall relevance of PR and press releases as well as putting a microscope on why the hell a social media (or let’s just call it “an overhauled”) release WILL exist, people still don’t get it.

Good friend, Stowe Boyd wrote an interesting post that I’m afraid is drawing the wrong kind of attention to an important movement…the need to improve PR and fix everything that’s wrong with the press release.

Ally, Robert Scoble unfortunately jumped on the bandwagon as well tearing down the SMPR without proper background on the subject and what we’re trying to do with it. But, he did accurately capture the essence of why I’m working hard to change the game with his comment, “I really don’t get why society needs a stupid press release.”

Fellow comrade, Jeremy Toeman at LiveDigitally asked if it’s time to kill the press release. His thoughtful observation was a little more on target, claiming “Reporters for more traditional outlets don’t necessarily deserve to have their worlds come crashing down just because us “hooligan bloggers” don’t have the patience to read through a full-page of carefully crafted spin information.”

Stowe asked, “Why not just use blogs? Why do we need these so-called “social” press releases?”

Scoble demanded, “Just give us a damn demo of your product and tell us about it.”

Indeed blogs and videos are a part of communicating with people to spark many-to-many conversations and it takes an entirely new level of PR to legitimately engage without being portrayed as fake or plastic. It takes experience, honesty, and an understanding of what they’re talking about and why it benefits readers – most PR professionals are not even close to approaching the market at this level, though they should be.

In addition to providing newsmakers with a better source for writing their stories, blogs are a natural way to also start conversations (eliminating the robotic process of companies talking “at” markets).

Video demos are also exactly where PR needs to go. It’s now easier than ever to capture and share video with bloggers, reporters, and people. Consider it the “new” video news release if you will.

But blogs and video demos aren’t ready to displace press releases – at least not yet – and at the end of the day, they are additional ways to open dialogue. It’s all about the steps that get us out of using painfully out-of-date tools that have no place in the world of socialized news and the sharing of information.

Hence, the need for a tool that provides information in a way that works across a spectrum of applications, while getting us one step closer to creating a closer relationship between producers and consumers, companies and customers, and most importantly between THE people that comprise all of the above segments.

The truth is that the wires are getting it all wrong as the IR Web Report points out. And, it’s polluting the intention behind this movement and stripping away credibility away from those of us who are diligently working on fixing something that has been broken for a long, long time.

Someone on the panel misused the term “audience” which in all honesty has no place in the world of social media. According to Stowe, “Please, please, please don’t talk about audiences when you are theoretically promoting social media. As Jay Rosen has suggested, we are the people formerly known as the audience.”

He’s absolutely right. In the discussion of press releases with PR people who are starting to learn about social media, “audiences” still speak volumes when discussing the distribution and dissemination of news to various readers – unfortunately, many people aren’t there yet and they’re not connecting audiences with people. But “People” is also too generic when looking through the scope of a sniper rifle. It begets further division in order for PR to connect at a deeper and more meaningful level…

So, let’s get this straight.

Audiences = people

People = various groups of individuals with common wants and needs

PR can only participate in the conversations when it can truly understand those unique and important wants and needs.

Stowe did accurately point out that most PR is complacent and old school, “The ‘wink, wink, nudge, nudge’ complicity of leading PR bloggers around serious flaws in the conventional notions of PR is lamentable. For example, seeing the bloggers acknowledge on one hand that CEOs don’t actually provide those quotes that are stuck into press releases while on the other hand promoting transparency and openness in corporate communications was more than painful.”

But, let’s be clear! There isn’t any lamenting or mercy coming from this PR blogger. I’ve been pretty frank with the need to improve things at every level in PR, not just writing, and have gone to great lengths to help those who feel there’s an opportunity to improve.

Brian Oberkirch replied to Stowe’s post with, “I do think something like hRelease would be good, as it would permit people to clearly round up the ‘official’ company responses to things and make them a part of larger discussions. The ails that plague press releases have nothing to do with slapping a Technorati link on them.”

Look, it all starts with the need to tell a better story in a way that means something to someone. One release no longer serves everyone. With wire services and savvy web marketers placing them in search engines as well as news desks, it’s now more important than ever, to improve the foundation. Garbage generates garbage. Benefits and relevance specific to individual needs produces interest and ignites dialogue.

Journalists and bloggers aren’t the only reader of releases these days; they’re now actively consumed by customers as well. 51% of IT professionals reported that they learned about new technology by reading releases on Yahoo over tech publications. That’s a HUGE shift and should spark an urgent need to transform the release into something more substantive for the needs of specific customers.

Remember, it’s the substance, significance, and honesty that press releases lack. The rest is technology.

The idea behind the SMR aka hrelease aka Social Media Release aka New Media Release is a bit off in Stowe’s post and among other critical PR bloggers and practitioners. It’s not about capitalizing on trends in order to take an archaic, dying press release formula and present it to newsmakers in a fancy new package labeled as “social media” just because it has trackbacks, Technorati tags, RSS feeds, links, etc.

The IDEA is to strip out all of the bullshit and hype from traditional mechanical, and useless press releases and rebuild it as a focused compilation of relevant facts, links, media and a subscription feed to help readers write, tell, and share a story their way (without having to sort through a sea of crap to find out what’s real, what’s canned, and what’s important.) This is what a good release should be anyway, regardless of trends and titles. Basically it’s the press release redux. It takes out what’s wrong with press releases and modernizes them into a usable format for journalists, bloggers, and individuals.

If you don’t get it, then move on, really. Keep using press releases with fake quotes, jargon, hyperbole, and paragraphs full of ridiculous details that have no relevance to anyone. Pay $1,000 for a wire service that will only end up in search engines, not in the news. Forget that the web in-of-itself represents a new kind of “wire.” Ignore the shift that has already taken place. Bitch about it, correct us, harp on the irrelevant details, cast all the stones you want, but don’t do so without getting your facts straight.

At the end of the day, what matters is that some of us will continue take the arrows in the back in order to change what’s wrong with PR while demonstrating success. All this, so that others can get better at what they do, and in the process learn how to engage individuals in a way that transcends the one-AT-many (audiences) approach to many-to-many conversations (with people).

Update: Chris Heuer adds perspective and insight to the conversation.

Update: The other side of the story starts to come into play over at Touchstone. Are You Paying Attention?: Sunday morning snippets

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A New Year is upon us and I think I’ll start off the New Year with a rededication to the Social Media Release (SMR), the Social Media Club, and why the hell all of this will matter to marketing, communications and PR professionals this year.

The truth is that somewhere along the way, a few of those who “got it” embraced it as their own, those who are just now learning about it are “not getting” it, and a few of us, are tirelessly working to get everyone up to speed for the betterment of traditional and social media press releases.

Let’s face it. Basically, press releases are lame. The existing intention, the process, content, distribution, the metrics…it all continues to earn a black eye on the face of 21st century PR. Honestly, most press releases SUCK!

About 10 years ago, search engine optimization (SEO) came along and several smart PR and Web marketers fine-tuned the content of a release for it to index in Yahoo and Google all to improve a company’s ranking in search engines. In 2006, this art has only been streamlined. When combined with the science of paid and free wire distribution, press releases can now serve the purpose of announcing news to journalists and bloggers, and when written like an article itself, can now start to appeal to consumers directly.

Ah yes, remember, in 2006, 50% of IT professionals reported getting their news and information from press releases on the web over traditional publications.

In 2006, we also saw the explosion of social media and peer to peer influence. It too represented a “smarter” opportunity to distribute information, and more importantly, become part of the conversation. Nowadays it’s less about word of mouth marketing (WOMM) and more about word of “mouse.” Yes it’s the clicks and links that count, not so much the grapevine.

There’s still much to learn on this front, but as of now, small agencies and independent contractors continue to lead the way, while big agencies unfortunately screw the pooch in the public spotlight with highly visible and discussed attempts to fool, capitalize on, or manipulate the market – read Walmart Flogs, StoryCrafter, Acer Ferrari incident, etc. While some credit Edelman with paving a path, when you do so with such awful and vengeful publicity, I start to wonder whether they’re helping or tainting the opportunity for social media and new PR.

And while we’re on the subject of new PR, let’s talk about the SMR aka hrelease aka social media press release.

Now, more often than not, I’m starting to hear things such as “social media is no mo” and “do journalists really need a social media press release?”

Oh, and my personal favorite, “I’ve not found a single one who likes the idea of bullet-point news facts. All it does is increase the amount of work they need to do.”

Oh and there’s also, “I can’t see the vast majority of journalists on trade press, regional press etc ever being interested in anything but a release that is as close as possible to what they want to publish.”

Hey guys, let’s remember….it’s not about the people who don’t want it; it’s about the people who do!

For you comfort-zone marketers, here’s the bottomline. Go ahead and write traditional press releases, but do so with meaningful content. Keep it short and get rid of the adjectives, the first, the best, the paradigm-shifts, trend-setting verbiage, 14 quotes, world-famous, etc., and get right down to the meat of it. Reporters aren’t reading brochures, they’re looking for news, and if you were ever any good at PR or marketing, you’d realize that hyperbole does not give your release a better shot at coverage. When you master that…then try writing a traditional release specifically for search engines (this is an entirely different discussion, but for the more advanced reader, I want to clearly separate the opportunity for standard, SEO and social media press releases).

Then when you’re all set, try a social media release along side of the traditional version. Distribute both through channels that make sense to the various markets – decide which is better for bloggers, journalists, and customers (they’re readers too). Whether comprised of bullets or a condensed summary, get it out there. Remember, press releases aren’t just for journalists anymore
This is why I’m re-dedicating myself to social media and the social media press release.

It’s not about the journalists that claim social media releases make their job harder or the PR flacks that hide behind these questions and debates to avoid evolution. It’s about serving different audiences using the tools that reach them.

For those new to the discussion of SMPRs (SMRs) and social media marketing, here’s a summary of key events in 2006:

- The press release celebrated its 100th anniversary.

- Tom Foremski called for the death of the press release and sparks a firestorm of support and criticism – mostly support. The interesting thing here, is that technically he isn’t calling for an SMR, he’s asking for PR people to be less “spintastic” and more informative and direct.

- Todd Defren offers a creative solution for the social media age in response to Foremski’s post.

- Chris Heuer has the vision to form the Social Media Club as well as a group dedicated to creating a standard for Social Media Releases aka hRelease. SMC flourishes across the country.

- Chris Heuer, Shel Holtz, Tom Foremski, and I host The NMR podcast which chronicles the development of SMPRs.

- Auburn University’s Robert French teaches PR students how to prepare for the realworld of social media and PR

- The value and legitimacy of the blogosphere is challenged by traditional media.

- Robert Scoble shows the potential for corporate video blogging, which I say will become the new video news release in the social media age.

- Jeremiah Owyang leads a culture shift at Hitachi to join the social media revolution and then joins PodTech to do the same for other companies. His efforts lay the foundation for defining metrics Corporate America of new marketing and PR opportunities through Social Media

- Heuer and the Social Media Club host “From Social Media to Corporate Media” to help companies reach their markets directly using new social media tools. Scoble and Lisa Stone keynote

- To help the masses understand the potential for SMRs, I develop a guide/template that explains the meaning, benefits and value and “how to” write them – without the need for automated tools. There’s even a step by step tutorial that also explains “why” social media releases matter. Part I, Part II, Part III

- Some PR’s enjoy direct success within target communities using SMRs.
Here are some examples: Spiral Frog, the SMPR “how to” template, Weblo.com, among others

- PR professionals start to question the need for an alternative to the traditional press release

- General media claim that there is no need for a social media release

- Factiva hosts a social media roundtable to determine how best to track influence in SMPR and new PR.

- Wire services announce Social Media capabilities, but many drop support for comments and none support Technorati – although in 2007, PRNewswire announced support for a new Technorati button in order to track conversations around a release. Although, we all drove this one, this one, truth is that you shouldn’t have to pay a lot of money for the ability to get news into the conversation.

- Chris Heuer presents the official SMR format at the recent Society for New Communications Research event in Boston

- Heuer also introduces a blog dedicated to the evolution of the SMR standard.

- Shannon Whitley introduced PRx, a walkthrough solution for generating SMRs

- Edelman introduces StoryCrafter, an automated tool for creating SMRs based on the Social Media Club’s list of key elements for a social media release. This sparked a whirlwind of conversations and opinions as it wasn’t as much evolutionary as it was unimpressive.

– Brian Oberkirch says, “The social media news release is an attempt by communication firms to ward off strategy decay” and completes the thought full circle with “I suggest we focus our collective efforts on hRelease.” – which is pretty much right on with what Chris Heuer and I have been saying all along. Think less about the “new release” and more about the “social media” elements to spark conversations in the community.

– Mike Manuel also added his poignant thoughts, “If, however, we’re not all working toward this same goal, and instead get caught up with using proprietary formats and tools to posture and advance competitive agendas, then, sadly, the Social Media Press Release will die, die, die, quickly.”

– Phil Gomes replies with support for a standard while asking the community not to flame Edelman for the creation of their own tool, while claiming he wasn’t invited to participate in the standard for SMRs.

- Buzzlogic launches at DemoFall, offering the ability to truly track conversations and influence.

- Defren posts on the state of SMNRs

To this day, I’m often asked, will SMPRs replace traditional PRs? The answer is no. In fact, many new media PR practitioners write and distribute both, or a fusion of the two. There’s still much to learn – and much to teach. Either way, it’s time to board the train (clue train that is) and reach journalists, bloggers and customers in more meaningful ways. Start practicing. Start expanding your toolsets. Start participating. Engage or die!

Tags: Hrelease prx Edelman steve+rubel phil+gomes brian+solis chris+heuer tom+foremski todd+defren siliconvalleywatcher pr public+relations pr2.0 socialmedia social media social+media shel+holtz socialmediaclub smr press release press+release Robert+scoble jeremiah+owyang Hitachi factiva oberkirch buzzlogic demo technorati prnewswire

What started as a special test program for PodTech, has now spawned a life of its own. I’m running this particular series here, in advance of PodTech, because PR2.0 is a forum for exploring the fusion of Social Media and PR as well as the bubbling activity behind the Social Media Release. The series features some very important interviews with those truly behind the evolution of Social Media.

Alison McNeil (who is a frequent contributor here) and I caught up with several influencers at the “Social Media to Corporate Media” conference in Palo Alto to talk about how social media tools can benefit corporate media (advertising, marketing and PR) and improve overall customer, press, and influencer relations along the way.

Video Three – Jeremiah Owyang (now with PodTech), Chris Huer, and Chris Carfi.

Video One – Introduction

Video Two – Robert Scoble

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“How to Write” a Social Media Press Release Template Now Available

In Honor of the 100th Birthday of the Press Release, New Worksheet Explains Social Media and the Process of Writing SMPRs

See example, history, and additional information here.

I. Headline:

Insert a short, compelling headline that features keywords, not buzzwords, to attract attention and legitimate interest by those who cover your space as well as potential customers.

II. Sub Headline:

The Subhead should further explain why someone should continue reading, providing a bit more clarity to the news

III. News Summary:

List a few compelling features of what, why, and who cares…do not use buzzwords or hyperbole (and try to keep the entire release below 400 words). You can use bullets or sentences or a combination of both.

IV. Quotes:

Not every press release needs a quote, especially if the quote doesn’t lend anything to the value of the information. If a quote is necessary, there are a couple of ways to implement into the SMPR.

Corporate Quote:
Please do not start with, “We are excited…” or “We are thrilled…” Keep the quote on target explaining why this is a significant milestone.

Expert or customer quote (if necessary):
Keep it related to the news and how the product/service benefits customers in real world applications.

V. Market Facts and Relevant Links:

Use del.icio.us or other social media-driven site to collect relevant facts about the company, product, competition, and state of the market and present it all through one link.

One Link Example:
http://del.icio.us/FutureWorksSMPR

Or you can provide the relevant links in its own category of the SMPR.

Multiple Links Example:
How To Write an SMPR – http://future-works.com/about/103106_htg.html

Todd Defren’s SMPR template – http://www.pr-squared.com/2006/05/the_social_media_press_release.html

Examples of social media press releases –
http://www.spiralfrog.com/socialmedia.aspx?control=spiralfrog-kochrecords20sep06.ascx

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/8/prweb428622.htm

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=162010

Evolution of social media press releases – http://www.briansolis.com/2006/10/evolution-of-social-media-press.html

SocialMediaClub – http://www.socialmediaclub.com

Social Media Releases – http://www.socialmediarelease.org

VI. Company Info:

Add a few sentences about the company, but leave out “XXX is a leader…” and other filler, posturing language. Don’t make it too long, you can always link to a corporate backgrounder or additional information.

VII. Image/s Link:

Include a link to images, and the best way to do so is to use a social media photo sharing services such as flickr or zooomr. The best part about social media is the ability to not only share your photos with bloggers and reporters, but with the right tags, the pictures can make their way onto the desktops of anyone searching for similar products/services for consumption and sharing.

For example, if you go the link below, you will see a set of images that I created for the purpose of sharing artwork with PR/marketing writers interested in the launch of the Social Media Club. I’ve also tagged each photo with several different tags, including “socialmediaclub” and “social media” so that others can find these images when they’re searching for photos related to the subjects.

Example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/briansolis/sets/72157594290369491/

VIII. RSS Link:

RSS is a simple XML-based system that allows users to subscribe to their favorite websites and blogposts. Using RSS, webmasters can put their content into a standardized format, which can be viewed and organized through RSS-aware software or automatically conveyed as new content on another website. Now, this capability can be used for bloggers, reporters and customers to subscribe to future news directly.

Example:
http://www.future-works.com/cutenews/rss.php?category=2

or

http://www.briansolis.com/atom.xml

IX. Technorati Tags:

Technorati tracks the number of links and the perceived relevance of blogs, as well as the real-time nature of blogging.

What’s important for you to know about Technorati allows users to search by “tags” or keywords to help you identify who’s talking about your areas of interest. With Social Media Press Releases, readers will now also have access to your news – if tagged and published correctly.

For example, this “how to” will carry many keywords, tags, and links, with “PR” and “SMPR” among them. Behind the words, the following tag will be hyperlinked, http://technorati.com/tag/PR and http://technorati.com/tag/smpr and updated at Technorati. So for example, if someone searches “PR” as a tag or as a keyword, this article will hopefully appear in the list.

For more information on tags, please visit:
http://www.technorati.com/help/tags.html

Example:

For the tag “futureworks”, it would look like this
FutureWorks – http://technorati.com/tag/futureworks

Remember to use best practices and publish only relevant and necessary tags – do not promote tag spam.

X. Bookmarks:

It’s important to give readers a way to save the link, using their favorite tools. The whole concept here is that you provide a means to enable social bookmarking which allows other people to find and share favorite things on the web.

It’s also a good idea to provide suggested tags (or tag beacons) to help track pickup and encourage sharing all under a common umbrella

Example:
Tag Beacons: socialmedia press+releases public+relations PR brian+solis todd+defren chris+heuer socialmediaclub SMR socialmediarelease

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XI. News Sharing, Digg, NewsVine

These sites tap into the potential reach of user powered content. Every article on digg and Netscape is submitted and voted on by their communities. By placing a link to these sites in the release, users can help share, discover, bookmark, and promote your news.

Example:

Digg

NewsVine

XII. Contact Info:

Add contact info here. Please include relevant info, email, cell, and any IM client you may use.

Also, insert link to vcard, see example below:
http://0301.netclime.net/1_5/M/6/2/Brian%20Solis.vcf

# # #

A Note About Distribution:

Several wire services reach traditional media, but integrate social media optimization (SMO) and search engine optimization (SEO) elements as well to appeal to bloggers (because the releases can provide the information in a format that they can appreciate).

These services include:

Marketwire (traditional, SEO – working on SMO) – Marketwire distributed the example release.

PRWeb (traditional, SMO, SEO)

PRNewswire (traditional, SEO, multimedia)

Businesswire (traditional) and the new, pseudo SMO BusinessWire (alliance with PRWeb)

Weblogwire (traditional – but only tech bloggers subscribe to this service)

PRXbuilder – (SMO specific, aligned with PRNewswire)

Tags: Briansolis brian+solis todd+defren chris+heuer socialmedia social+media futureworks futureworkspr smpr publicrelations pr public+relations press+release press+releases pressreleases pr2.0 pr20 pr+2.0 newpr seo smo media

What started as a special test program for PodTech, has now spawned a life of its own. I’m running this particular series here, in advance of PodTech, because PR2.0 is a forum for exploring the fusion of Social Media and PR as well as the bubbling activity behind the Social Media Release.

Alison McNeil (who is a frequent contributor to this blog) and I caught up with Scoble at the recent “Social Media to Corporate Media” conference in Palo Alto to talk about how social media tools can benefit corporate media (advertising, marketing and PR) and improve overall customer, press, and influencer relations along the way.

Video Two – Robert Scoble

The series includes some very important interviews with those truly behind the evolution of Social Media, including Jeremiah Owyang, Chris Heuer, and Chris Carfi.

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What started as a special program for PodTech (official program to be announced soon), has now spawned a life of its own. I’m running this particular series here, in advance of PodTech, because of the fusion of Social Media and PR and the bubbling activity behind the Social Media Release.

There are some very important interviews with those truly behind the evolution of Social Media and its influence on marketing, PR and advertising, including Robert Scoble, Jeremiah Owyang, Chris Heuer, and Chris Carfi.

I’ll run this over the next couple of days, so enjoy!

Video One – Setting the Stage
Brian Solis and Chris Heuer

Feel free to forward passed my intro directly to Chris’ welcome speech.

Tags: chris+carfi chriscarfi chris+heuer chrisheuer robert+scoble robertscoble podtech futureworks fwpr briansolis brian+solis socialmedia social+media sm2cm media siliconvalley+2.0 siliconvalley2.0

Chris Heuer, Shel Holtz, and I recorded the latest edition of the New Media Release NMRCast for Shel’s award-winning For Immediate Release (FIR) podcast.

The New Media Release Podcast, episode 10 can be downloaded here, heard directly from the FIR page, or subscribed to via the NMRCast feed. Also, the Apple iTunes subscription is now available here or by searching for NMRCast at the Apple iTunes store under “podcasts.”

Content Summary:

Chris Heuer, Brian Solis, Shel Holtz. talk about Social Media Release requirements, SMR and traditional press releases, SMR metrics, and the latest on the Working Group progress.

In This Edition:

The new Social Media Release site, home of the social media release requirements

Google Groups mailing list for New Media Release discussion (please join!)

Download the file here (MP3, 29.1 MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

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As a function of the Social Media Club, Chris Heuer and I were recently discussing Social Media Press Releases with a reporter at a PR trade magazine when we realized just how many people have yet to even learn about the fundamentals of social media. For example, as we were defining the building blocks of an SMR (social media release), Chris stopped and asked the interviewer if she knew what a “tag” was. That was a great question, it turns out, because the answer was no.

That’s when we realized, as we reach out to traditional PR channels, we are definitely flying over the heads of the masses – at least for now. Social Media is not only for the elite or early adopter; it’s for everyone that cares about doing a good job and engaging with target markets. With that, it’s important that we take a couple of steps back in order to help everyone understand the benefits of Social Media and most importantly, learn how to implement Social Media Optimized (SMO) campaigns to more effectively converse with customers and encourage them to share information amongst each other.

I reached out to my friend Lee Oden over at TopRank Online Marketing and he had this to say about the subject, “Due to the increasingly social and sharing nature of the web and the increasing importance of press releases as direct to consumer communication tools, it is important for marketers and public relations professionals to adjust their message format and delivery to correspond with the needs of today’s web savvy audience. Another motivator for using social media with news releases is that editorial resources at many publications are running thinner than ever and expected to do more with less.”

Exactly.

Technologies such as RSS, tags, SMO, social bookmarking, etc., are ineffective if you don’t have a grasp on what they are, how they work and how you can benefit from them.

The point of this discussion is two-fold, one to help grasp the premise of social media in order to then take it to the next level with an SMPR, and two, how to write more effectively.

It’s also important to understand that just because SMPRs provide a new format for delivering news, and, wire services provide a new push channel for companies to broadcast to bloggers, it doesn’t mean that bloggers/reporters will automatically pull your information.

As one reporter put it when learning about SMPRs, “You mean I can get the same poorly written press release in a whole new format, with fake, useless executive and customer quotes, so that I can deconstruct the content in order to figure out what the news really is?”

Great point…new technology and poor writing, still equal a bad press release.

I’ve heard many discussions lately surrounding PR 101 in regards to writing press releases. Everyone says, write well, write clearly, get to the point, reduce hyperbole, etc. But as with every educational institution, there are always different “schools” of thought on how to write well. So PR 101 doesn’t mean much if you didn’t learn the right things along the way. This really shouldn’t be open to various interpretations. Take the following advice at its core and don’t deviate from it.

Bloggers, like traditional reporters, are busy people. They will never ever get from a release what your product marketing and marketing department try to shove into it.

Another way to create a “better” press release is to think about it as taking the news release you would have written and then condensing it into a solid pitch letter. Get to the hook and the relevance ASAP. The process forces you to distill what really is important, why, and to whom it impacts. The end result should be a compelling, SMPR which bloggers — and honestly, traditional reporters, too — will appreciate.

For those who may need to catch up with the history…this was inspired by Tom Foremski’s original post, Die Press Release, Die Die Die, where he tells the PR industry that things cannot go along as they are…business as usual while mainstream media goes to hell in a hand basket. In turn, Todd Defren of Shift Communications introduced his Social Media Press Release Template and it was extremely well received.

To help PR professionals create Social Media Press Releases, I developed a “how to” guide, using a social media format, to help put things in perspective.

I’m often asked, will SMPRs replace traditional PRs? The answer is no. In fact, many new media PR practitioners write and distribute both, or a fusion of the two.

I contacted Todd Defen - since he’s the recognized expert on SMPR templates – and he offered this powerful thought, “It’s important to understand that the Social Media News Release is not intended as a replacement for the traditional news release. It’s an evolution. The SMNR’s core function is simply to allow creators of news to leverage the Web familiarity that is now ingrained in consumer audiences. With 50+ percent of consumers now creating and sharing content online (Pew Research), it just makes sense to democratize access to corporate news and multimedia assets to anyone (reporters, bloggers, laypeople) who might be interested, and, to create a forum for community and context that – to date – has been unavailable via old-world press releases.”

Amen.

Social Media Press Releases do not replace traditional releases, they complement them – much in the same way that Social Media activities and campaigns work best in concert with traditional PR initiatives. Together, Social Media + PR delivers a more effective communications program that actually “thinks about” and strives to “satisfy” the needs of your customers.

Click here to follow through to the Social Media “How To” guide.

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Chris Heuer, Shel Holtz, and I recorded the latest edition of the New Media Release NMRCast for Shel’s award-winning For Immediate Release (FIR) podcast.

The New Media Release Podcast, episode 9 can be downloaded here, heard directly from the FIR page, or subscribed to via the NMRCast feed. Also, the Apple iTunes subscription is now available here or by searching for NMRCast at the Apple iTunes store under “podcasts.” If you subscribe to the FIR “everything” feed, however, this podcast will not be included.

Show notes for Oct. 25, 2006:
Welcome to NMRCast episode #9, a 25-minute podcast recorded live from the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC.

Content Summary:
Chris Heuer, Brian Solis, Shel Holtz. talk about about Edelman’s woes and the notion of disclosure; we catch up on Social Media Release working group progress; and we talk a bit more about tags.

Download the file here (MP3, 11.6 MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

The series was inspired by Tom Foremski’s original post, Die Press Release, Die Die Die, where he tells the PR industry that things cannot go along as they are . . . business as usual while mainstream media goes to hell in a hand basket. Foremski has even offered advice on how to create a better press release:

• Provide a brief description of what the announcement is, but leave the spin to the journalists. The journalists are going to go with their own spin on the story anyway, so why bother? Keep it straightforward rather than spintastic.
• Provide a brief description of what the announcement is, but leave the spin to the journalists. The journalists are going to go with their own spin on the story anyway, so why bother?
• Keep it straightforward rather than spintastic.
• Provide a page of quotes from the CEO or other C-level execs.
• Provide a page of quotes from customers, if applicable.
• Provide a page of quotes from analysts, if applicable.Provide financial information in many different formats.
• Provide many links inside the press release copy, and also provide a whole page of relevant links to other news stories or reference sources.
• And tag everything so that I can pre-assemble my stories.

In This Edition:
Google Groups mailing list for New Media Release discussion (please join!)

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Tags: social+media, pr, onlinepr, newpr, pr2.0, socialmediaclub, chris+heuer, chrisheuer, briansolis, brian+solis, futureworks, publicrelations, public+relations, todd+defren, chris heuer, technorati, socialmedia, smpr, seo, smo, shelholtz, forimmediaterelease, fir, socialmediarelease

I ran this post over at Social Media Club and felt it relevant to share with you here as well. I’ve also added a few additional pieces to keep it fresh and interesting for those who may follow both blogs.

It’s easy to get caught up in the rapidly evolving world of social media and sometimes I have to stop and remember that there’s a whole other world out there that thinks social media is a group of friendly journalists.

Over the last several months I have had the opportunity to help start and participate in the Social Media Club along with Chris Heuer. In the last six months, I have learned more than I have in practicing traditional PR for years. It’s one thing to practice it in your own bubble, but it’s another to learn and share with each other; and that’s the point of Social Media Club, “If you get it, share it.”

On 10/23, we held our first event, From Social Media to Corporate Media at the SAP offices in Palo Alto.

Me

Social Media Club was formed to help share all things social media and how it applies and benefits the world of marketing communications.

The goals are simple:

Promote media literacy – production and consumption

Promote ethics and standards

Share best practices around the emerging area of Social Media

Chris Heuer kicked things off with a profound assessment, “There is more wisdom in the room than what stands in front of you. And it’s this collection of shared wisdom that will help us collectively learn.”

Chris Heuer

He quickly reviewed the differences between strategy and tactics, as keynote Robert Scoble was focusing on SM Strategy and co-keynote, Lisa Stone of BlogHer discussed SM tactics.So to recap, strategy is about goals and the plans to reach those goals and tactics are the activities and attitudes to execute.

Daniella Barbosa

So what does from SM2CM mean?

The cost of production has dramatically reduced the price of admission, which is opening the door for the masses to produce and share content on their own.

Jeremy Pepper

If you look at the Cluetrain mantra that says “markets are conversations,” then it has definitely been manifested in the form of social media. Social media represents the opportunity to engage with customers, potential, stakeholders, employees and anyone else that shares relevant content. In the corporate world, businesses can apply social media in the form of blogs, podcasts and video blogs.

Deb Schultz

Why? Because it opens up the corporate kimono and allows customers and company executives to enter a forum of productive dialogue. Transparency is the new honesty – instead of its old meaning, hollow or fake – and at the root of social media, we’re quickly learning that we don’t market “to” anymore, we “talk” with those who make up the market.

It’s about being human and being connected.

According to Heuer, “you can’t manage micro segments in the long tail.” He’s right. The segment manages itself, although you can do your part to reach them using SM tools that interact with them directly or with those around them.

In today’s social media world, it’s all about people and listening. Participation is marketing nowadays, and the goal is not to focus all efforts on controlling the message, but simply trying to be part of the conversations that are taking place with or without you.Again, listening is more important than talking.

Jeremiah Owyang

True engagement is genuine and value driven, and not focused on sales! To reference Heuer, it is the “because of” effect. I’m here “because of” my desire to learn about social media. I purchased your service, “because of” my trust in the company’s honest and open door communications policy. Remember, as social media marketers, we’re not here to sell, we’re here to share and we’re also here to listen to our customers.

Giovanni Rodriguez

So, coming back to social media and what it means to corporate media…

By integrating social media tools, we can reach our customers in a whole new way that also encourages them to in turn, socialize your company and its products/services. It’s all about opening up channels to listen, participate, and befriend and help markets.

More to come…

Deb Schultz, Chris Carfi, Greg Narain

For additional coverage on the SM2CM event, please visit Jeremiah Owyang and Giovanni Rodriguez. Also read posts at Hyde Park and Community Technology.

Other interesting people I talked to onsite include:
Daniela Barbosa
Deborah Schultz
Mark Ivey
Jeremy Pepper
Greg Narain
Chris Carfi
Robert Scoble
Lisa Stone

For more pictures, jump to one of the several SM2CM flickr streams. Additional Social Media Club event pictures, including a collective repository of pix from SM2CM, are also available here.

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Tonight we’re hosting a roundtable entitled, “Talking About Disclosure” to discuss honesty, ethics, and disclosure – the things that will serve as a solid foundation for blogs as well as helping to escalate credibility in the blogosphere, among consumers, and among traditional journalists.

The event even made TechCrunch today. Thanks Mike!

Arrington (along with many other important bloggers) have been both in the spotlight and the hotseat in regards to blog posts and how, why, and when to disclose business investments and potential conficts.

According to Mike, “I am a blogger with a lot of opinions, and because of that I’ve been involved in a number of heated discussions around journalistic integrity and ethics. Mainstream media defines journalistic integrity as a lack of financial interest in the subject matter of their reporting. I think integrity goes far beyond financial interests; in our subjective world conflicts of interest are nearly impossible to define around money alone.

But the friction destruction and market efficiency qualities of the Internet are leading blogs in particicular to face a serious credibility challenge, and I believe this must be dealt with in a direct and open manner. The WOMMA guidelines are a good start, but I think more practical and far reaching advice is also needed. I also think that we need more than a set of principles. There have to be consequences when journalists stray.”

When
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Where
CNET
235 2nd StreetSan Francisco, California 94105

Hope to see you there tonight! Sign up here…or just come on down. Oh, and thanks to Joel Sacks for helping us with the venue! And thanks to Chris Heuer for always looking ahead!

Update: Social Media Club’s Disclosure event posted on ValleyWag. Thanks Nick.

Tags: socialmedia, socialmediaclub, mikearrington, michaelarrington, michael+arrington, techcrunch, ehtics, disclosure, blogging, blog, blogs, chrisheuer, womma, ValleyWag

It was billed as an alternative to O’Reilly’s upcoming Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

Was it? No.

Was it related to Web 2.0? Not really.

Was it still useful? Yes.

Bambi Francisco and Roland Vogl, Esg.

For a “Web 2.0” event however, it had a completely different group than I’m used to seeing. It seemed to mash veteran Silicon Valley professionals with up-and-coming Web 2.0 entrepreneurs. But, that’s OK. It was still, for all intensive purposes, a valuable event; partially from a content perspective, but mostly from “lobby” leverage – meaning that there were some great people and interesting conversations taking place around the coffee bars and rountables.

Jared Spook and Vic Podcaster

Chris Heuer

Some of the more interesting folks I met with onsite, include:

Greg Narain, blogger at SocialTwister, partner at BlueWhale Labs, and CEO of Social Roots
Vic Podcaster, HotFromSiliconValley.com
Chris Heuer, SocialMediaClub, BrainJams, and Web2point2
John Furrier of PodTech
Ivaylo Lenkov, CEO of SiteKreator
Sunny Madra, founder of PostSticky
Jessica Hardwick, CEO of SwapThing
Mital Poddar of SwapThing
Ranvir Gujral, Partner at BlueWhale Labs and CEO of InsightPath
Joanne Wan, internet entrepreneur
Marissa Mayer, Google
Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering
Lawence Coburn, founder of Rateitall
Ben Wan, angel investor
Roland Vogl, co-founder of a new startup with Bambi Francisco
Bambi Francisco, CBS MarketWatch and also a new start-up, stand by for a follow up post

Marissa Mayer, Vic Podcaster

Greg Narain and Vic Podcaster shooting a segment for Bambi Francisco’s new project (nice flyer placement Greg!)

Jessica Hardwick and Greg Narain

Roland Vogl videotaping my elevator pitch for his new startup with Bambi Fransciso

For this event recap, I’m going to focus on the keynote address because it held the greatest value. It captured the history, state and future of the Web, but then again, it was Ram Shraram, so of course it did.

The event was kicked-off by Daya Baran, WebGuild president.

The panel was moderated by Safa Rashtchy of Piper Jaffray and the keynote was delivered by Ram Shriram, Founding Member, Google Inc. and Sherpalo Ventures.

Ram Shriram

Disclaimer: What lies ahead is a summary and is not verbatim.

Q. What stage of the Web are we in? Everyone talks about 2.0…is that relevant, accurate or even a true description?

RS. The web is more evolutionary than revolutionary. The first wave was about information. The second wave is about enabling consumption and commerce.

Web 2.0 is representative of a whole new set of technologies and new programming tools.

Q. Has there been a change in the user point of view and what they’re doing?

RS. In the developed markets around the world the focus will be on usage growth, email, and new technologies and platforms for search.

In emerging markets, such as Brazil, India, China, and Russia, the markets will be similar, but online virtual communities, vertical applications and gaming are the top current and growth opportunities. Usage growth comes with maturity.

Q. We have had 10 years of popular internet usage in the U.S. Are the emerging markets going to learn from the us?

RS. It’s wrong to look at emerging markets through a U.S. prism. Search has made the world flat. Users now have instant ability to access information. Search will be the primary application driving new capabilities on the Web in both developed and emerging markets.

Q. What are the key factors that determine which applications becomes highly popular?

RS. Viral is the least expensive way to grow a business. In the world of the web, it’s not about first mover advantage.

Let’s look at Friendster, which did execute well, but it’s about open versus closed. Myspace gave freedom to users to customize and personalize their experience. When users are excited, they want to share it with everyone.

Viral growth is preferred, and with a few lucky breaks along the way, sites can take off.

Soft controversy is a good thing too – definitely not like Napster. But sites today, should leverage the blogging community to carry their messages.

There are hyper opportunities out there, but there is also hyper competition. The barrier to entry is so low these days, which opens up the market opportunity to almost anyone.

These days you don’t need a lot of capital to get your idea on the web. In fact, the greatest challenge for start ups is the tremendous shortage of talent.

The primary network effects of these business drivers are the users that flock to the sites.
More users = more content. This helps create community which can advance the cause to succeed.

It’s also important for sites to incrementally role out features instead of dedicating all resources to a never-ending cycle of feature development prior to public BETA release. It’s better to at least get half a product out, rather than a half-assed product

Q. Let’s talk about social networking and your view on why it’s popular?

RS. The primary driver of social applications consists of lots of blocking and tackling.

Users enjoy any form of self expression. The younger generation uses the Internet to communicate. And this is a group that uses the web as their personal community for
self expression and entertainment.

As a developer of social network applications, it’s useful to look at history to understand previous failures and successes. Their competitor is one click away. It’s not enough to define the franchise and stickiness. It’s not like the PC market, you can lose your franchise in an instant.

Q. What determines success?

RS. Let me say that there will not be one winner across the globe.

If you look at Web 1.0, with companies such as ehow and geocities, and countless others, they were, at one point in time, perceived as clear winners.

What creates sustainability? Some say it’s the dynamic nature of the content which lures and keeps visitors there.

These social networks today, such as Myspace, are like the People magazine for users.

Now, with dynamic content through ajax, RSS, and widgets, the experience is more dynamic than ever.

Q. Now let’s talk about monetization. Is it possible for a company to lose focus on its business model in favor of users?

RS. If you build a field of dreams and users come, then ½ the job is already done. If not, move on.

If they come, focus on their needs because if a site is user centric, then monetization is easier.

Consumers have competing things out there to attract their attention, so try to understand the their need and focus on it.

There’s no need for a grandiose idea, just focus on a simple idea. If it works, then it’s a great place to start.

Q. What about advertising revenue as a business model?

RS. I’m seeing a trend in user subscriptions for premium and branded content – sort of like a la carte payments, where you pay one off for whatever you want.

Q. Why should anyone pay if it’s free on something like Youtube?

RS. Software as a service (SaaS), will prove the model for pay-for services online. In the business space, salesforce.com is a perfect example.

Over time, large businesses will deploy online applications to streamline workflow.
The notion of SaaS is not new, but its development and deployment today is unique for today’s market.

Technology has come full circle. It’s still the same premise as a client/server relationship with the whole idea of data sitting out there on cloud.

Q. Let’s talk video. Do you believe video is next killer app on web? Who will be the leaders?

RS. I know I’m not giving a direct answer, but it’s too early to predict. Who would have predicted that Youtube and Myspace would be category leaders 12 months ago?

Nowadays, content is user generated. The creators of the content are also consumers.
Content sharing all morphs into one big conglomeration a la social applications.

With every new medium that comes along, everything else (those that understand innovation) will co-exist.

Look at it this way: there are 200-300 sites for podcasts, social networking, and video sharing. They all co-exist, but their competition is always one click away.

Somewhere along the line, though, you’ll end up with new winners. They’ll just emerge. It’s the power of viral marketing.

Q. OK. Let’s take e-commerce. It used to mean Amazon or ebay. What are the challenges and what does it mean to users today?

Search has made the world flat – like I said before. Brick and mortars and the longtail of commerce are more readily available to the user, compared to 7 years ago.

Do you know which online business had the fastest growth over the last 12 months? The answer is JCPenny.com. No one saw that coming.

It’s no longer about having a pure internet brand. Today, ecommerce building blocks are so readily available, even bricks and mortar companies, and ma and pa shops, can get online.

By the longtail of commerce, I mean that there are lots and lots of companies selling fishing rods and specialized books now, and they all have the ability to bring their products to the world.

The next big opportunity may lie in the vertical sites. For example the average transaction at BlueNile is $4,000. Zappos, for instance, is succeeding online only selling shoes. Many more emerging companies will succeed in vertical silos of commerce.

# # #

Well, that’s a wrap. Special thanks to everyone who took the time to speak with me at the event. I’d also like to send a thank you to Daya Baran, president of the WebGuild.

Jump to the flickr stream for more pictures from the WebGuild event.

Tags: web2.0, web+2.0, google, marissamayer, marissa+mayer, bambifrancisco, bambi+francisco, vc venturecapital, webguild, bluenile, ramshriram, ram+shriram, jcpenny, friendster, myspace, jaredspool, seo, sem, vicpodcaster, bluewhalelabs, gregnarain, chrisheuer,

STIRR, “Our Mixers are designed to bring founding teams together along with a blend of members from the tech community (stealth-mode folk, startup-savvy engineers, journalists, service providers and investors). Stirr Mixers encourage people to stand up, interact, socialize and swap thoughts/ideas. Each mixer provides an opportunity for early stage entrepreneurs to present ideas to their peer group, press and investors.”

While at Office 2.0 conference, I coordinated a series of caravans from San Francisco to Palo Alto, bringing Office 2.0 attendees, speakers and press along for the ride.

Upon arrival Fanny and Alexander in Palo Alto, it was evident STIRR 1.7 was already well underway.

It was a bit overwhelming, because I didn’t arrive until 7 or so, and it seemed as if there were three STIRR parties running simultaneously – the back patio, the main room, and outside by the front entry way.

Sanford took the stage to announce STIRR’s Original ’60 Second Spot’

The STIRR team

Rafe Needleman gets the crowd ready

Up first…

LicketyShip, Robert Pazornik, CEO

Licketyship delivers electronics products to your home or office in about 4 hours “as fast as weather and traffic permit.”

When you search for a product at LicketyShip, they check the inventories of stores near you in real-time. Their patent-pending software matches the product closest to you with the nearest available courier from their instant-delivery network.

Items are packed on demand, so they’re ready to go when their couriers pick them up and then deliver direct from the store closest to you.

Because it’s more efficient to deliver products across the city than across the country, they can deliver to you the same day you order for about the same price (and sometimes less) than overnight delivery from FedEx – usually about $19.99 for package up to 150 pounds.

PrefPass, Adam Marsh, CEO

PrefPass is all about one thing: personalizing web sites without having to register.
PrefPass lets you grant any site a Pass to access your anonymous Prefs with one click. So whether the site wants to personalize their content, their recommendations, or their ads, they can ask you and you can say yes or no. Simple, right?

Vyatta, Allan Leinwand, Founder

Vyatta is working to restore the open environment and culture of the Internet’s past by developing a line of enterprise-grade, open-source, network infrastructure products, including routers and firewalls. Vyatta was created to bring commercial-quality open-source networking products to market.

vFlyer, Oliver Muoto, VP of BizDev, Founder

vFlyer is a classified ad creation, management and submission platform that enables online sellers to quickly and easily create attractive classified ads or “virtual flyers” that can be posted on dozens of leading online marketplaces in a few simple clicks. Sellers today are faced with the problem of having to post to multiple marketplaces in order to sell their products and services.

Users can upload high resolution photographs, include maps, and select or create professional themes to publish their “virtual flyers.”

Google Gadgets

We were also treated to a surprise guest speaker. Adam Sah from Google discussed his team’s efforts behind Google Gadgets. Google Gadgets are mini-applications that work with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or any page on the web. They can range from simple HTML to complex applications, and can be a calendar, a weather globe, a media player, or anything else you can dream up. Google’s “Universal” gadgets work with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or your own webpage.

Back to the party…

Of course there are always too many people to try to meet and engage in meaningful conversations, but I did my best. Those I caught up with include:

Tara Anderson, ValleySchwag
Kevin Warnock, gOFFICE
Melanie Sit, Innovation Management Sciences
Michael McDerment, FreshBooks
Christian Perry, Zaptix and SF BETA Meetup
Brian Sullivan, Civic Evolution
Mittal Podder, SwapThing
Rafe Neeldleman, CNET
Baris Karadogan, ComVentures
Greg Narain, Social Roots and Blue Whale Labs
Megan McCarthy, Valleywag
Angie Chang, themintpages
Chris Heuer, Brainjams and SocialMediaClub
Ivaylo Lenkov, SiteKreator
Jason Hoffman, Joyent
Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategist
Joel Sacks, BuzzShout
James Yu, BuzzShout
Ryan Olson, Red Herring
Ben Wan, Angel Investor
Christopher Peri, Vyew
Vic Podcaster, Hotfromsiliconvalley

Christian Perry and Tara Anderson

Ben Wan

James Yu of BuzzShout capturing footage

Aside from recapping the day’s events at Office 2.0, there was interesting business dialog transpiring everywhere.

SwapThing and Lickety Ship discussed a possible alliance for local swaps.

Chris Heuer discussed his upcoming events, “From Social Media to Corporate Media” on 10/23 in Palo Alto and “Web 2.2” on 11/9 in San Francisco.

Joel Sacks and James Yu shot footage for their new videocast over at BuzzShout.

Greg Narain introduced his new venture Blue Whale Labs along with Stowe Boyd and Ranvir Gujral. The Lab’s goal is to provide “Strategic consulting, design & development for innovative social applications.”

Tara Anderson of ValleySchwag was looking to procure new schwag for future mailing.

Kevin Warnock of gOFFICE recapped his presentation and was looking for potential partners and possible advisors.

Lenkov of SiteKreator highlighted his presentation that he was preparing for the Office 2.0 panel hosted by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

Christian Perry promoted Zaptix, but also recruited for the upcoming SF BETA Meetup.

Mike McDerment of FreshBooks discussed the advantages of SaaS and the company’s ability to provide stats for service providers and customers, including average billing, payment timelines, etc., by industry.

Melanie Sit unveiled plans for a “Web 2.0” holiday party.

Megan McCarthy introduced herself as the new party correspondent for Valleywag.

Jeremiah Owyang

Greg Narain

Baris Karadogan COMVentures

Christian Perry, Angie Chang and Sister

Mittal Podder and Sean Ness (STIRR co-founder)

Ryan Olson The Red Herring

Rafe Needleman was interviewed by our very own Alison McNeill

For more pictures, visit the flickr photo stream.

For more on the story, visit Valleywag

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I joined Chris Heuer and Shel Holtz for the latest edition of the NMRCast for Shel’s award-winning For Immediate Release (FIR) podcast.

NMRCast #8 is available online here.

Participants: Chris Heuer, Brian Solis, Shel Holtz.

Content summary: Chris provides an update of the working group’s progress. We discuss the role of tags in the social media release. A discussion of Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s letter to the SEC seeking approval for blogs to serve as a channel for material disclosure.

In This Edition:
Google Groups mailing list for New Media Release discussion (please join!)
Jonathan Schwartz’s call to the SEC for approving blogs as a channel for satisfying regulatory requirements under Reg FD
Technorati tags
Microformats

History: The series was inspired by Tom Foremski’s original post, Die Press Release, Die Die Die, where he tells the PR industry that things cannot go along as they are . . . business as usual while mainstream media goes to hell in a hand basket. Foremski has even offered advice on how to create a better press release:

• Provide a brief description of what the announcement is, but leave the spin to the journalists. The journalists are going to go with their own spin on the story anyway, so why bother? Keep it straightforward rather than spintastic.
• Provide a brief description of what the announcement is, but leave the spin to the journalists. The journalists are going to go with their own spin on the story anyway, so why bother?
• Keep it straightforward rather than spintastic.
• Provide a page of quotes from the CEO or other C-level execs.
• Provide a page of quotes from customers, if applicable.
• Provide a page of quotes from analysts, if applicable.Provide financial information in many different formats.
• Provide many links inside the press release copy, and also provide a whole page of relevant links to other news stories or reference sources.
• And tag everything so that I can pre-assemble my stories.

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Tags: social+media, pr, onlinepr, newpr, pr2.0, socialmediaclub, chris+heuer, chrisheuer, briansolis, brian+solis, futureworks, pr2.0, publicrelations, public+relations, todd+defren, chris heuer, socialmediaclub, technorati, socialmedia, smpr, seo, smo, shelholtz, forimmediaterelease, fir, socialmediarelease