When I heard that the folks at Pressitt in the UK had launched the beta of their social media news release tool, I decided to check it out.

Pressitt says the site’s focus is on providing journalists and bloggers with a primary research tool for stories. PR types can upload releases into the system that should then be available to these journalists and bloggers.

My very first experience with the site wasn’t great. When I first went to sign up (as a PR person) I was faced with these restrictions on the registration page:

“I confirm that the content I am about to publish is not related to adult explicit, alcohol, activism, extremism, petition, prescription or other drugs, religious, ringtones, tobacco or vitamins related themes.”

As a social media consultant with a variety of clients, projects and events to publicize, I was immediately put off by the limitations, namely because the two things I wanted to create social media releases for were a wine branding company (alcohol) and a philanthropic campaign (activism, petition).

Undeterred, I filled out the rest of the registration so I could at least check out the tool’s features. Pressitt is entirely free, compared to the existing social media release tool PitchEngine which I wrote about previously. Here is an example release I created on the PressIt site.

Here’s how Pressitt stacks up as a Social Media Release (SMR) tool:

1. Ease of use. Pressitt has a very straightforward fill-in-the-blanks format. The link to create a release is prominent and obvious. Once you start one, you have the ability to choose which brand to attach to the release to.
2. Content prompting. Pressitt offers basic fields for your release headline, overview, and core facts. It does not accommodate for the main body text, but instead prompts you to build your release with overview, core facts, as well as quotes and links. Unfortunately, Pressit doesn’t prompt you to develop a Twitter-friendly blurb for your release so you can easily tweet a link to it.
3. Multimedia Integration. One of the critical aspect of SMRs is the integration of multimedia into a release. Pressit lets you upload videos and images, as well as document files (.doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .pdf and a maxiumum filesize of 8MB). While uploading my release to Pressitt, I ran into a technical glitch that I couldn’t get past. First, it would not let me upload .jpg files because it was expecting .jpeg files.  The site specified it could accommodate these files: jpeg, gif, bmp, png and a maximum file size of 4MB. I changed the .jpg to .jpeg and tried again. Pressitt gave me an error message saying .jpeg files were not allowed. So I converted the images in PhotoShop to .bmp. The site then gave me an error message saying .bmp files were not allowed. I gave up, so my test release doesn’t have any extra images.
4. Social Media Options. The second critical aspect of SMRs is social media integration. I was impressed with the extensive array of 16 or so social media posting options on Pressitt, including some that are probably more popular in the UK, such as Bebo and Propeller. Pressitt doesn’t seem to have its own URL shortener. It is also a little confusing to have Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin buttons at the top of page, but instead of being able to share the content using these services, these are meant to be links to the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts for the person sending the release.
5. Enterprise-level features. At this time, Pressitt doesn’t offer more enterprise-level features, or embedded social media newsrooms. While major companies might be using Pressitt, it is more likely for the ease of use and the fact there are fewer SMR tool options overseas than because of robust enterprise solutions.
6. Reach. It is a little too early to see if Pressitt will expand beyond being a UK- or Euro-centric tool. That isn’t a bad thing, but it just might not have the marketing muscle to make a big impact in the States.

The Verdict

If you are looking for a fast, easy solution without a lot of bells and whistles, Pressitt could work well for you. Me? I like the idea of using all the social media release resources available, particularly when I want a more global reach. I’m still disappointed, however, that some of my company’s clients will never be able to use Pressitt because of the site’s legal limitations.

Which SMR tool do you use and what do you like about it?

I’ve been working in the Central Office of Information for just short of 9 months.

I work on an array of the digital media projects, but the area I value most is the use of social media to enable engagement.

It is in the area that I see Government undertaking some of its most open and purposeful innovation. And, I think the fruits of that activity are up there with the very best from the consumer, educational and media sectors.

There’s always more work to be done, but I wanted to draw attention to ten current examples set to advance our understanding and capacity.

[In no particular order...]

1. UK Trade and Investment – LinkedIn Group

www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1769629&trk=anet_ug_hm

A clever use of LinkedIn for stakeholder engagement. The UKTI LinkedIn group brings together trade and investment experts and businesses. It offers knowledge, insight, support and facilitates connections. The group is open to worldwide businesses of any size, sector, or level of international trade.

2. Business, Innovation and Skills – Science: [So What? So everything]

www.sciencesowhat.direct.gov.uk

BIS is the Muhammad Ali of the Government’s heavyweight digital engagement division – tireless, fleet of foot and inventive. I could have selected any of a number of examples but I’ve gone for Science: [So What? So everything] because it is a campaign about to go through change. Expect to see clever use of community to amplify existing UK science content online, and agile use of tools to light up user-pathways to everything from careers to events.

3. Department for International Development – ‘Building Our Common Future’ White Paper

www.dfid.gov.uk/About-DFID/Quick-guide-to-DFID/How-we-do-it/Building-our-common-future

Steph Gray said it most succinctly on his blog ‘this is a sign of the future for major white papers – blending the downloadable PDF with a package of summary versions, background info, video and materials for people who want to engage around the issues online.’ Based on these solid beginnings expect more advances in this area. Have a look at the accompanying SMNR while you are at it.

4. Cabinet Office – Civil Service Jobs API

www.civilservice.gov.uk/developers/index.aspx

The Civil Service site brings all public sector jobs online into one place. But it hasn’t stopped there; there is also the Civil Service Job Service API for government departments to use and incorporate onto their own sites. This is a great example of cross-government collaboration. It has even spawned an iPhone App, which I admit I haven’t used (well, I’ve no use for it do I), produced by Aspire Media.

5. Downing Street – Twitter

www.twitter.com/DowningStreet

1,089,557 followers at the time of writing. Regular, consistent, engaging tweets. Nuff said.

6. Ministry of Defence – Defence Bloggers

www.blogs.mod.uk/homepage.html

‘Defence Headquarters’ already has an impressive track record in use of social media. As this portal page demonstrates, blogs, YouTube and Twitter are being used by a range of staff from press officers to squaddies. MoD has recently developed excellent guidance to help staff navigate between their personal, sponsored and official online profiles; so I anticipate the MoD list growing in length and sophistication.

7. Cabinet Office – Data.gov.uk

http://data.gov.uk/

Nothing much to see at the moment, but with Tim Berners-Lee installed as Information Advisor and departments – like the Home Office – surfacing data sets, we should see some significant movement in the coming months.

8. Cabinet Office – DirDigEng Blog

http://blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digitalengagement

Off to a cautious start, but with occasional guest-posts from officials like Neil Williams, this blog is set to become the most important touch-point for anyone keen to keep up with digital goings-on across government.

9. DirectGov – Innovate

http://innovate.direct.gov.uk

An excellent platform to enable collaboration with developer communities. In addition to the team blog, you can submit examples of innovative apps or ideas for apps that could be developed. I expect this to be the first of many such initiatives across government; although based as it is on DirectGov, this platform ought to become a focal point for citizen-focused apps. There is already some great to stuff to check out.

10. Foreign & Commonwealth Office – Digital Diplomacy Blog

http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/hale/

Given Gordon Brown’s pronouncement (at TED Global 2009) that ‘technology means that foreign policy will never be the same‘, the work of the Office of Digital Diplomacy at the FCO has taken on even greater importance. Stephen Hale is the Head of Engagement there, and his blog is consistently insightful – ranging across evaluation, tools, policies and all with a unique foreign policy lens.

If you know of examples that ought to have been on the list, leave a comment.

Another new and exciting discovery this week:  Pressitt for Social Media news releases

Well, I suppose there would be limited enthusiasm for my find if you work outside of a communications fields – and for those who do work within these field this is probably old news.  But at the risk of preaching to the converted - the Social Media News Release is a must for anyone responsible for communicating with a large audience.    

Modern day public relations is leaning away from the old fashioned press release with its ’stilted’ quotations that isn’t really trusted by journalists (did anyone say ’spin’?).  The old fashioned press release is no longer relevant to today’s multimedia format of broadcast.

It isn’t just journalists you need to engage now  - it is bloggers and ‘citizen journalists’ as well.  Take for example the community organisation I work for.  We very rarely get into the main stream press (we aren’t controversial enough).  We sometimes get into the sector press (where relevant).  The main people picking up our communciations messages and relaying them are the bloggers, social reporters, tweeters etc who work in, or take an interest in, our area of work.

If you want to know more about the power of citizen journalism and the web in self organising and spreading messages / content then I strong advise that you read Clay Shirkey’s ‘Here Comes Everybody’ which discusses this topic.  You can also find more of Clay’s writings here.

Which was the reason I walked out of the LCCI Public Relations course I attended a few weeks back:  The tutor didn’t entertain any notion of online PR, (in fact he spoke about using fax machines for press releases – unbelieveable)  Now I am no PR expert – having concentrated my studies way back on the general marketing side of things alongside event management and general communications – everything I know PR wise has been picked up through experience.  But its still a sad day when you attend a course designed to ‘top up’ your knowledge and you know more than the tutor.

Anyway a bit of a digression…

A “Social Media News Release” is more accessible for bloggers and ‘citizen journalists’ than a traditional press release, as it includes embeddable video, images or audio, lists social bookmarking buttons (helping your message ‘go viral’), and lists the relevant tags / hashtags to enable people to keep abrest of developments of that particular story.  

So platforms such as Pressitt are useful when you are just getting started with the Social Media Press Release as it helps you create, publish and release your SMNR.  Providing pre-formatted templates that you can ‘drop’ your links, video, audio, twitter stream etc into, Pressitt is free and easy to use.

Of course, if you have a list of emailable contacts and your own template that you can use, you probably won’t see a good reason to use platforms like Pressitt. 

However you decide to create and release your SMNR I would recommend that you keep the following in mind:

1. Make sure the information is accessible:  if you are embedding video, audio etc – make sure it is easy for a blogger or citizen journalist to ‘grab’ and embed into their own site. 
2. Use tags / hashtags:  This will help track the progress of your message, who is using it, who is forwarding it etc.  For more information about what a tag is click here 
3. Make sure your SMNR is going to the right audience – this is where platforms like Pressitt can be useful, but you should also perhaps look at building your own contact list of relevant people.

More about Pressitt >>>

You can also find out a little more about the Social Media News Releases via the video below.  Warning: This is a bit of a sales pitch for the organisation Webit PR (the services of whom I am not endorsing), but it is good for a general overview / summary of the points above.

“Many industries today are working hard to adapt their business practices to the changing Web. One prime example is the public relations industry’s effort to develop the social media news release (SMNR).”

The question the folks over at internet marketing blog are asking is: “But should they be used for every release? Do they really help spread your message? Do they help your website get links?”

They recently conducted a study comparing the results of social media releases and traditional releases by publishing them across five newswires.

They hoped to learn which format would be syndicated on “portal websites” most often, and which would be best for link building.

You may be surprised by what they found… I certainly was. Click the link below for the results.
http://blog.hubspot.com/

TyrantApprentice
www.webtyrant.com

We must say goodbye to the traditional press release that we have all been used to and embrace the new way of presenting information! The Social Media News Release, or SMNR as it is commonly referred to, is an interactive way to provide company news to target audiences.

In my previous post I mentioned SHIFT Communications and their Social Media Newsroom template. Todd Defren, PR Squared blogger and SHIFT Communications’ employee is the man behind the newsroom template and he also created a template for the new Social Media News Release. As with social media newsrooms, some companies are afraid of moving to the SMNR format. PR 2.0 author Dierdre Breakenridge gives a number of reasons why we should move to the new social media format. Although all are quite true, I particularly agree with reason #2. In a SMNR a company can pull viewers to exactly what they want them to see. The company’s voice is very present in the SMNR and this ensures accuracy in journalists’ stories. Below is the updated version of Defren’s Social Media News Release.

As you can see, this new press release still contains the traditional information such as PR contacts, headline, basic news facts and quotes. Then the SMNR offers a wealth of multimedia items that relate to the topic of the release. We see photos, MP3 and or podcast files, visual charts and images and video. At the bottom of the template, we have social networking options such as RSS, Technorati tags and “share this”. Facebook and Twitter can also be included here. There is also a section for Trackbacks to other blogs. All of these multimedia features bring interactivity to the news release. According to WebitPR, multimedia content increases the enthusiasm of a company’s news.

So let us welcome this new way of providing information to constituent groups.

This release is the culmination of about 6 months of work for me.  This is phase I of a suite of 10 different social media marketing services.  Please click on the release for more info.  Thanks!

NK Announces Digital Offensive in B-to-B Marketplace
Proprietary Process Underpins Social Media Savvy Suite of Services: Nicholson Kovac Inc., one of the nation’s leading independent marketing communications agencies, today introduced a suite of proprietary social media services designed specifically for B-to-B clients.

read more | digg story

For a class assignment, Heather Pierce and I created a sample SMNR about the Communications Career Fair that is going to be held next semester. I am going to be planning this career fair with four other communication studies students. The SMNR turned out very nice and I am very excited for the actual event to take place! Please feel free to check our SMNR out

For a class assignment, Blake Fraum and I had to create a SMNR about a news release we are writing for class as well.  I was really excited about the way it turned and apparently our teacher was too because we got full credit!!! Have a look!

For use in class on October 23.

Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!, Tom Foremski (blog, twitter)

The Social Media Press Release, Todd Defren (blog, twitter)

First SMPR template, Second SMPR template, from SHIFT Communications

Ford examples: Ford Focus, Ford F-150

SMNR building tools: PR X Builder, Pitch Engine, Edelman Story Crafter (SMNR about it)

I recently put together a plan for a social media newsroom and think I may have stumbled on new way to add extra incentive for subscribers – the ability to give them special access to the information before it posts publicly.

This may not be anything extremely new, and it may not make sense for everyone, but it makes a lot of sense for this company and I thought I should share it here. Let me know what you think.

A social media newsroom is basically an extension of a company’s website where journalists and bloggers can go to pull press releases and all the factual information, images, audio and video clips to use in their coverage.

In many ways, a social media newsroom looks and functions like a blog, and for good reason; blogs are extremely efficient in delivering information in a way that is flexible, easy to navigate and they put the most recent stuff up front.

For a primer on social media newsrooms, download SHIFT Communications’ template for a social media newsroom here: http://shiftcomm.com/, or visit Ford Motor Company’s online newsroom for a good example of what a social media newsroom looks like. If you know of other examples you wish to share, please feel free to post them in the comments.

While it’s not unusual to have RSS feeds delivering new posts to the company’s online newsroom via reader and email, in this case I thought it would help increase the incentive to subscribe if subscribers were promised early delivery of the new posts before they showed up on the public site.

Rather than having the traditional RSS feed that delivers new posts via reader and email at the same time as the post shows up publicly, this feed would deliver the company’s news to subscribers first, offering a 6-hour lead time to journalists and bloggers interested in breaking a story.

To do this, I asked Ross Johnson of 3 Point 7 Designs and co-owner of Ingenex Digital Marketing if it were even possible, since I have a strange tendency to think that I can do anything. Luckily, he said it could be done.

Basically, Ross said, you would have to have two identical sites — one private and one public. When interested visitors to the site sign up to receive automatic updates, rather than subscribing to the RSS feed for the public site, they would instead receive updates from the private one.

There would just be a little feed switcheroo. The public site could then be automated to post the information on a 6-hour delay after the identical information on the private site posts.

Since timeliness, and the ability to ’scoop’ the competition is one way blogs and news publications add value to their readers, this way, they could have their posts up and stories filed before the release hits publicly.

But, this got me thinking that other special nuggets of information could be distributed from the private feed as a means of adding value to being a regular subscriber.

And, beyond being a regular feature to an online newsroom, bloggers, and traditional media outlets could also have the potential to do something similar, thereby giving people more incentive to subscribe to their information since they receive something over and above what is posted on the public site.

Maybe others are already doing this, I’m not sure. If so, how does it work for you? Do you foresee any problems that I may be overlooking?

Please, let me know your thoughts and many thanks in advance!

Every day I talk to clients about the same thing: how to make their digital press release more effective.  That part is easy—we are absolutely married to the idea that if you give highly targeted journalists and bloggers a good release and add the info (images, video, links, quotes, facts, etc) that makes covering a story easier and more interesting, you’ll get better pick-up.  It is the golden rule of PR: treat journalists as they want to be treated.  I love that part (especially all the great success stories I hear from our clients!) 

What is complicated about these ongoing conversations with clients is remembering how their organization or PR firm refers to digital releases.  The semantics vary from IPK (internet press kit) to MNR (multi-media news release) to EPK (electronic press kis) to NMR (new media release) to SMNR (social media news release) to simply ekit.  Honestly, it’s exhausting (and frankly, the cognitive dissonance makes me need another cup of coffee)!

Are all those things exactly the same?  No, not really.  But there is an awful lot of overlap.  As has been noted by many digital release advocate savvier than little old me, EPKs/IPKs/MNRs/SMNRs/NMRs can sometimes replace, and more often compliment, traditional releases, reaching new audiences or simply enhancing efforts with more traditional audiences.  Here’s a run down of the differences, incredibly over simplified in part because they are used a bit differently by different people:

EPK (electronic press kit), IPK (internet press kit) and ekit refer to multi-media, HTML release delivered to journalists via email.  They range from barely to highly branded.  The terms EPK and IPK are also used to refer to the type of press kit (loaded with images, backgrounders, press clippings, etc.) often found in an on-line newsroom.  EPK also refer to on-line kits used by music execs to get their audio to stations and other interested parties.  EPK/IPK/ekit vendors are often web designers and charge hourly or on a project basis. 

MNR (multi-media news release) refers to digital releases that have multi-media components: embedded video, audio, images, etc.  Although generally HTML, they are not necessarily delivered via email and are rarely highly branded. MNR vendors tend to price by word and multi-media element.

SMNR (social media news release), SMR (social media release) NMR (new media release) and the recently profered DMR (Digital Media Resource) refer to releases that have multi-media components and are social media enabled with bookmarks, keyword clouds, RSS feeds, trackback links, etc.  They are often written in a transparent, often bullet point, format with a section of facts, quotes and other useful info—basically the raw data, minus spin, journalists and bloggers need to write a story.  They are designed to be very blogger friendly, move across the web rapidly and reach past traditional audiences.  (If you haven’t already read it, you should check out Tom Foremski’s article, Die! Press release!  Die! that really started this whole movement.  And, for the comprehensive run down on SMNRs try here.)

So here’s what we do: HTML releases designed to be very email friendly, delivered directly to targeted journalists (and bloggers with permission), loaded with multi-media content–unlimited video, images, audio–and often made more web friendly using bookmarks, SEO, and (hopefully) associated blogs (if I can talk some clients into that one soon!).    You can see our work here and here and here (this could go on all day!).  Since we are basically email experts, we sometimes use proven email tactics, such as segmentation or personalization, to deliver better results to our clients and believe a little email expertise offers a new angle for PR professionals.  In other words, we have elements of all the above but also offer a bit of a twist.

So what do we call our own product?  Honestly, up until this point we have used language that reflects the client in front of us at that moment.  I have been juggling many of these acronyms for nearly five years now and PWR just turned two; we are getting more clients every day and can no longer keep track of so many damn letters.  Yes folks, it’s time we committed, tied the knot.  So who we going to marry?  Drumroll please…

We hereby declare that from this day forth, for better or for worse (unless we change our minds), our fabulous products shall be referred to (by us at least) as New Media Releases.  It isn’t a perfect fit (what marriage is?) but we think it captures the general idea of what we believe: traditional release delivery methods are out of date with the new media world and New Media Releases (there, I did it) deliver better results precisely because they let PR professionals focus on the elements that would improve the story they’re working on; a little video here, a little spanish translation there and a whole lot of images everywhere.  Although not yet as robust in the social media components as some SMR experts are advising, we agree that a more social media savvy approach can enhance the product and are working with clients on adding those elements for appropriate projects.

So call us the New Media Release folks because New Media Releases are us.  And that seems like as good an idea as any to write my first blog about.  (I mean after all, how often does one get married?)

Any marital advice?

I’ve been speaking up on Twitter about my concerns around Social Media Releases (SMRs). I’ve apparently been flapping my gums enough to get the attention of PR Newswire, a representative of which called me yesterday to find out why I’ve been so negative. I know that social media expands far beyond marketing but in this blog I’m focusing on my concerns with SMRs further enabling sub-par PR skills.

Over at Social Media Release, Chris Heuer gives a quick overview of the purported magic of the SMR:

“The Social Media Release is intended to make it easier on people to identify and share the most important pieces of information with others around the globe while adding their own valuable perspective and/or editorial. It also takes full advantage of HTML, multimedia and the network effects enabled by the Internet by using structured data via the Microformat, which ultimately increases its findability by interested parties – which is ultimately the driving purpose of public relations and the press release specifically.”

Let’s hone in on the implication that ruffles my former PR girl feathers the most: Increasing the findability of press releases is the ultimate purpose of PR. I could’ve sworn the ultimate driving purpose of PR was to fuel company visibility and credibility with support of third-party validation, which in turn drives revenue.

Press releases, SMRs or otherwise, are sales tools and information vehicles for customers, partners and shareholders. They are not a primary driver for bringing news to the media and achieving balanced coverage. If an SMR is discovered out on the Web, even if it includes comments from third-party sources or trackbacks to blogs that support it, it is still covered in marketing slime. Can it really be any more of a trusted resource than a regular old press release?

Heuer, Jeremy Pepper, Shel Holtz and Todd Defren (the credited developer of the first SMR) had a large Twitter discussion a while back on where the SMR fits in the PR landscape. I agreed most strongly with Pepper on what is also my biggest concern: there is no substitute for good relationship building and written communications. I don’t care if the medium is an SMR or an email or a carrier pigeon or some futuristic Jetson-esque device. What helps drive good news is a) solid content and b) trusted relationships and there is no “tool” that replaces it — my friend and well-known tech journalist Ryan Naraine agrees. He’s said before that he does not care how the news is delivered, just give him good content and don’t waste his time.

The proponents of the SMR say that they never intended it to be a replacement for good PR skills and I trust them on that one. These are seasoned guys. I worry more about the less-than-stellar or junior PR folks using it as yet another cop-out for poor writing or lackluster communication skills. And if their perception might be that the sole objective of PR is to increase “findability” of marketing collateral, we’ve got problems.

Less dangerous to me is the social media newsroom, which I believe was also fathered by SHIFT Communications. I tend to like the simple and clean approach that Fathom SEO is using (the company recently released a WordPress template for such). The social media newsroom seems to accomplish what I think most companies who have a broad blogosphere presence would want, from linking to multimedia and social networking pages to integrating commentary. But if you have a fully functional social media newsroom, and a handle on truly top notch PR strategy, do you need the SMR?

In the end, regardless of what I blather here, I’m still trying to find the answer to one simple question: “Does anyone have any metrics to suggest the proven success of an SMR in *any* arena?” Especially considering their cost. I’ve asked this on Twitter on and off for about a month now and no one has yet to provide a case study.

Can you?

It’s cold outside. Why not warm yourself with today’s inflammatory “Stick It To The Man” edition of “3Q’s in 3 Min?”

Every Thursday, socialTNT channels the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. The videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters, PR/communications practitioners and marketers on the future of media.

This Thursday, socialTNT meets with Jeremy Pepper, PR Blogger and Director of Communications for The Point. As a notorious contrarian blogger, Jeremy is the perfect fit for “Stick It To The Man” week. In today’s “3Q’s in 3 Min,” Jeremy plays hardball with the Social Media News Release and offers a little advice to the Blog Council.

Jeremy Pepper is not new to social media; he’s been blogging for four and a half years. The New PR Blogger Timeline places Jeremy’s POP! PR Jots as the 16th PR blog on record. Some of his recent posts include: “PR Will Lose Social Media to Advertising Because of Sex” and “It’s a Shame,” a passionate post about blogger/media relations. Before you start firing your guns, you aspiring restless contrarian bloggers should check out Jeremy’s post on libel.

Fun Facts about Jeremy

• Totally connected, you can find him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
• Once tied Miles Perkins (of Industrial Light and Magic) in a Valleywag “Snacky or Flacky” contest
• Seems to love wearing flip-flops (He came to our interview in 30 degree weather wearing flip-flops!)
• Originally from Detroit, Jeremy studied philosophy at University of Arizona (maybe that’s where he got a degree in Sandal-ology)

Watch as Jeremy tells us his thoughts on the SMNR and advises the Blog Council to open up a little bit.

Is the Social Media News Release just another choice? Or does it have advantages and benefits not found in a traditional release?

Should the Blog Council pow-wow with PR peeps? Or do big corps really need privacy from the outside? Love to hear your response.

Once again, thanks Jeremy for your interview!

[The above picture of Jeremy, "Worlds Collide Hosted By Tim Ferriss: Jeremy Pepper," taken by Brian Solis and used under Creative Commons.]

:: :: :: :: ::

Itching to build your own Social Media News Release (SMNR) the way the Canadian Social Media Group did for the Ford Focus?

Then hurry up and click here to register for a very limited webinar on the basics of the SMNR hosted by Shannon Whitley next Wednesday. There are less than 20 spots available. We heard about this one through the New Media Release Google Group.

Shannon promises to “go over the fundamental structure of the SHIFT template, ending with a quick demo through PRX Builder.”

If you’re looking for a soup-to-nuts look at social media, check out the Horn Group’s overview webinar on Tuesday (Horn is my co-editor Joe’s employer)
The full description after the jump:

Social media, social computing, digital media…different names that describe the same effect: building an open conversation with communities that are important to your business. Discover how to integrate social media with your 2008 communications plan and learn from real social media successes and lessons.

Join Horn Group for a one hour webinar on December 4 at 10:00 am PDT that will hit these topics:

Is social media right for you?

Keys to using social media in your communications program

Avoiding the pitfalls of social media

Grasping social media by the horns – a case study

If you’re a technology industry communications or marketing executive, you will want to participate in our Social Media Boot Camp.

Without fail, you’ll tune in to watch your favorite show mid-season only to find it’s a clip show. Although sometimes annoying, clip shows help those behind in the season catch-up while helping new viewers get a feel for the show by just seeing the “greatest-hits.” All of our guests have given amazing insight, but–in case you’ve been short on time–today’s “3Q’s in 3 Min” highlights socialTNT’s top 3 answers.

For those of you not familiar with our regular Thursday feature, “3Q’s in 3 Min” follows in the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters, communications practitioners and marketers on the future of media.

Our first clip features Forrester Research Senior Analyst Charlene Li. Charlene researches social media/web 2.0 technology and relates its uses to the marketing professional. In this clip, Charlene explains that by interacting with a brand–on even the most minute level–the consumer starts to build a relationship with the brand. See the full post and 3 minute interview here.

At last month’s Web 2.0 Summit, socialTNT was lucky enough to meet with Business Week Media Columnist Jon Fine. In his column, Jon focuses on the convergence of media and advertising. Check out the clip below to hear Jon’s opinion about social media and PR. For the full post and 3 minute interview with Jon, click here.

Our final clip for the day features Silicon Valley Watcher’s Tom Foremski. Tom has played a crucial part in PR’s evolution by declaring “Die Press Release! Die! Die! Die!” Below, Tom shares his ideas on the future of PR and stresses the importance of change. To see the full post and 3 minute interview with Tom, click here.

That was just a sampling of a few of the great interviews we’ve had on socialTNT’s “3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min.” To see all of the interviews to date, please check out this page. We’ve got some great interviews lined up, so stick around.

Once again, thank you Charlene, Jon, Tom and all of our guests for sharing your insight.

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Hats off to Ford and Maggie Fox at Social Media Group for making an exciting press release. It is another example of the changing evolution of the traditional news release. My question from the backseat is: “Are we there yet?”

When I was a kid, I used to love going to the car show at the State Fair. My favorite part was climbing into the cars, playing with the knobs and pretending I was driving my little brother. Running around the showroom floor, I would grab as many promo books and posters as possible. At home, I’d put the poster up or look at the glossy pictures or the stats in the promo books. Yes, sometimes I’d even cut out some of the pictures and make collages (hell, that Geo Metro looked pretty hot when I was 10!) My friends would come over and we would talk about the cars, but, after a while, the books would eventually end up in the trash.

I love the Ford Focus release. I am excited that we are finally shaking things up a bit. The release has tons of high-def pictures of the interior and exterior, as well as videos of the cars in motion. There are also bullet-pointed stats. It looks nice. You can post the pics and videos on your preferred social network and maybe mash it up. The kid in me loves it, but, ultimately, it feels like a multimedia version of the marketing schwag from the car show.

It’s nice to see big companies embracing change. It’s a learning experience for all of us. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the elements that were executed well and then look at how the release could have been beefed up.

First off, kudos for the Flickr pics and YouTube videos. Pluses for allowing these to also be embedded and distributed. To me, what really stands out is the video of the UCLA students playing with the cell phone/music player integration feature found in the new car. While obviously edited, it didn’t feel overly produced. Also, Ford gets a lot of respect for disclosing that these students were Ford “ambassadors.” Finally, the ability to bookmark the release in del.icio.us and add an RSS feed gives this release the feel of a sporty, fully-loaded SMNR, but something is missing.

I feel the Social Media News Release is not just a tool for content sharing, it’s about facilitating discussion. The ability to share content is one aspect. Ability to easily find content is another. For me, however, the ultimate goal is to create an exchange of ideas, opening up, and sharing between the company and the consumer to build increasing discussion around the product/brand. This release, to me, looks like a one-sided conversation.

On her blog, Maggie Fox at Social Media Group tells us:

“…with this implementation we were aiming for simply a way of sharing content with people who wanted it in formats they could use, all conveniently located in one place. Period. We didn’t include the ability to comment or trackback because not every interaction has to be a full-on conversation, sometimes sharing and enabling are enough.”

I know the fear that Maggie talks about. It’s scary to open up the conversation because you might not always like what comes out. The discussion is happening whether we like it or not. How are some ways that Ford could have used this release to create a voice that gives back to it’s consumers in a way that shapes the conversation?

My first idea hearkens back to the DVD era. Remember the value-add on DVDs? Besides the great audio/visual, it was also the Behind-the-scenes footage. Wouldn’t it be awesome if Ford had some videos made by the engineers or designers that lead us through the whole development process? I would share that with my friends and I think any tech/engineer/design geek would love it, too. What if they blogged during development? What about user submitted questions to the development team with digg-like voting? Or Twitter?! OMG!!

Ford has a massive following. Just doing a quick search on Facebook yields 500 hits with a handful of really significant user groups. What if Ford had harnessed the power of the user groups? They are already discussing Ford. It’s nice that Ford has it’s own (sponsored) group with a significant following. Wouldn’t it be cool if the Ford release linked to the Facebook group?!

Finally, what about blogger outreach? Remember those UCLA kids in the videos? What if real bloggers and vloggers were invited to try out the car and it’s features? [Oops, Trumped. Maggie Fox posted this comment today. However, the addition of a link to a del.icio.us page with coverage would help see what others are writing.] What about man on the street videos testing things out?

So that’s my take on the Ford Release. What do you think? Brian Solis and Todd Defren posted their joint “State-of-the-SMNR” slash response here. Stuart Henshall posts his here. You can also read more from Maggie Fox here.

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Since Tom Foremski’s call for the death of the traditional press release, there has been a lot of chatter about the ’social media news release’ (SMNR). Foremski’s rational for writing the ‘Die Die’ post can be found in our interview with him.

The SMNR sounds complicated. It’s basically a modern way to answer the who, what, when, where, and why using photos, video, links, and an RSS feed.

What’s complicated is getting numerous departments at a company of this size–often with multiple agencies–to sign off on the text, let alone the web2.0 elements of an SMNR.

Ford’s release for the 2008 Focus is a good example of an SMNR that quickly tells a story while being easy on the eyes. It helps journalists do their job, and makes blogging a snap (ty Bargainista).

So what? Ford is the most financially troubled of the Big 3 and has the most to gain by getting control of their message. Getting information in to the marketplace early and in a way that’s interesting and palatable to the media and the blogosphere is a way to manage reputation. Their Autoshow blog is cool example of this.

An overview of how companies can benefit by open communication can can be found in Clive Thompson’s naked WIRED cover story.

Planning on using an SMNR or elements of one? Let us know at prnewser at mediabistro dot com.