Through cooperation with IABC and SNCR, the Workgroup receives an incredible boost in resources and visibility to help define real world standards and provide usable and helpful resources for PR professionals to understand the intentions and role of SMRs and how to create and distribute them.

Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher, and the gentlemen who started it all with his post, “Die Press Release, Die, Die, Die,” commented in the IABC press release, “It is great to see all the work that has gone into transforming the news release into something that reflects the use of the many new media technologies that we use everyday.”

My quote, “The social media release is a catalyst for not only providing a new tool to share news, information and content, and also inspire conversations, but also creating a forum to discuss how to improve press releases in general. The whole point of this working group and aligning with the IABC is to create an official standard and process that the entire industry can understand and support, from creation to distribution to building stories.”

SMR Working Group Membership includes:

• Chris Heuer, founder, Social Media Club and principal, The Conversation Group
• Tom Foremski, journalist
• Shannon Whitley
• Brian Solis, FutureWorks
• Shel Holtz, ABC
• Laura Sturaitis, Business Wire
• Jiyan Wei, PRWeb
• Dan Zarella, social media consultant
• Todd Van Hoosear, communicator and social media practitioner
• David Parmet, public relations counselor
• Jason Ryan, New Zealand public sector communicator

Don’t get caught-up in dissecting the SMR template as it exists. No need to debate bullets versus paragraphs or multimedia versus Social Media. Many of the examples out there really aren’t exemplary of a truly “social” press release nor its full potential.

Think bigger. Think differently.

Think about how the SMR represents a new tool and channel for you to share information and spark discussions between you, influencers, and the very people you want to reach. This is an additional service to everything else you would normally do as part of your PR campaigns. Social Media has just added new highways for reaching people and therefore requires different tactics, approaches, and tools to do this the right way.

Remember, nothing beats relationships. And, press releases aren’t a strategy, whether they’re social or traditional.

As I’ve said before, the future of the Social Media Release is in your hands! We haven’t even tapped the potential for this yet

Shel Holtz provides the most in-depth assessment of what this news means from an industry perspective.

More on Social Media Releases:

The Definitive Guide to Social Media Releases

Social Media Releases in Action

Social Media Releases, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

UPDATE: Audio and slides from the Webinar are here.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo,FriendFeed, or Facebook.

There is certainly no shortage of discussions related to the Social Media Release. It’s like that old saying. For every one person who speaks up, you can bet that it represents a greater collective of sentiment within the public. So, for every post or article on the Social Media Release, you can bet that there are countless PR veterans, emerging professionals, and students are who are intrigued, confused, supportive, or against the notion of a new platform for sharing, distributing, and hosting news and ensuing conversations.

Vocus and The Society for New Communications Research will host a free webinar offering marketing and public relations professionals advice on adapting the press release to meet the evolving needs of traditional and online media.

Titled “The Evolving Social Media Release,” the webinar will be held on Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 2:00 pm ET. To register for the webinar, click here.

According to the official press release, yes there’s a Social Media Release version as well, “The webinar will feature leading social media experts Brian Solis, a SNCR fellow and Chris Heuer as well as experts from top newswires for an open and objective discussion into the Social Media Release. The panelists will examine and debate which elements are most important in the Social Media Release and why, the potential evolution of the Social Media Release as well as the new editorial standards and distribution channels that support this new press release.”

Speakers:

Chris Heuer, Partner for The Conversation Group and Social Media Club Founder

Brian Solis, Principal at FutureWorks PR, Blogger at PR 2.0, Social Media Club Co-Founder

Monika Maeckle, VP, New Media for Business Wire

Thom Brodeur, SVP, Global Strategy and Development for Market Wire

Moderator:

- PRWeb’s Jiyan Wei

So, which format of the SMR will ultimately prevail?

I’m not sure there has to be one way to do any release, whether social or traditional. The discussion, as of right now, only helps improve the foundation for ALL forms of press releases.

Perhaps it’s simply suum cuique, to each his own.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, or Facebook.

I recently had the opportunity to discuss the Social Media Release with Shel Holtz for IABC‘s official podcast, Cafe2Go.

As Shel asks, “Why are we talking about the Social Media Release on Cafe2Go?” The short answer is that the IABC is assuming a role in the development of SMR standards. An official announcement is slated for mid-week next week that will go into more detail.

I also was invited by Valerie Combs and Sandra Ponce De Leon of BuzzLogic to participate in company’s online video series, “The Vino Diaries.” In vino veritas…

Valerie’s summary of the discussion is here.

The episode of Vino Diaries is here.

For more on Social Media Releases (SMRs), please read, “The Definitive Guide to Social Media Releases” and “Social Media Releases in Action.” Also, here’s the template that started it all, by Todd Defren.