March 7th, 2008 by Chris Heuer
Really very excited, and late to post this news here - the folks at IABC have been terrific to work with so far and we are looking forward to collaborating with them on driving the Social Media Release forward, as a format, and as a practice. The news is on the IABC Web site, in a Social Media Release format of course…
February 15th, 2008 by Brian Solis
by Brian Solis
I recently ran “The Definitive Guide to Social Media Releases,” which has received some great feedback. Thank you everyone!
Even though it’s a blog post, it doesn’t mean that its shelf life is merely limited to the brief period of time in between new posts. I’d like it to live on and evolve over time as we learn more about SMRs. And, you’re a big part of that evolution.
I was planning on letting that post sit up there for the week, until I received an incredible comment yesterday from Steve Kayser. It’s worth spotlighting and sharing as its own post as he has done what many have been asking for, present a real world case study of the effectiveness of Social Media Releases across various wire services.
It’s nothing short of insightful, and most importantly, it will serve as a guide when considering how and where to distribute SMRs.
As you know, my favorite distribution method is creating, hosting, and channeling a new breed of SMRs through customized blog platform. While it sounds complicated, it really isn’t. And it perfectly complements a traditional wire release by providing comprehensive and consistent findability and visibility across traditional search and blog (social media) search engines and also social networks.
Please note, if you haven’t yet read the previous post, please do so prior to reading this.
Without further ado, here is Steve Kayser’s report on Social Media Releases in action…
—-
Hey Brian:
Nice post. A lot of great points.
As to the question you posed:
And, is this what reporters and bloggers really want and do we really need them?
Are SMRs created for journalists and bloggers and is it what they want?
I was asked this question last week by a marketing manager after having released three test SMR’s. Here’s my answer to the question you posed – and a point.
I care – but not too much.
If you deal in a “complex sale” environment (which we do), a high-dollar product or solution sale (usually over $150,000) requiring buyer evaluation committees, made up of 10-21 people of different functional business groups, it’s more important to make sure our news and content value is “Findable” for those people on the committees when they begin their due diligence. The ‘user”, the “IT person” the “business manager,” “Business decision-maker,” Legal, HR, etc., etc., all have their own unique and specific information needs, which by default includes specific language and terms they use to search for (keywords – key phrases etc.). Sure we want journalists and bloggers to have whatever they need to write their story. We want to be a trusted and valued source. But … no begging or buying is going to happen for them to write about us. No time for that. The hierarchy has changed. Now for us is - first the buyer’s information needs – then the bloggers, media, analysts, etc.
To stay competitive in the tech industry today you have to be
• Findable
• Believable
• Credible
• Prove Value
… just to get into consideration for the complex sale.
Once you’re findable, believable, credible, then you have to prove value – quickly. The SMR is a great tool to help promote those goals. Most buying committees have their researchers start due diligence on the web. Our internal research shows over 93% of our B2B buyers do it that way.
The SMNR helps us be more “findable.”
That’s good. But it also needs to be well-written because a well-written SMR can help us be “believable.” The opposite is also true. Poorly written corporate gobbledygook (to your point in this post) can make you look incredibly unbelievable. Which negates you ever getting into the due diligence buying process. However, good writing is not as easy to do anymore as a lot of folks out there think. (It’s complex to write simple these days.)
“Credible” follows after they do more research. Or not.
MARKETWIRE SMR
I tested Marketwire’s SMNR last week on a Smalltalk Application Development Language press release.
Now … it’s not great, not brilliant, not a literary piece in any stretch of the imagination, but it’s functional, having included some of the keywords/key phrases for this product group’s audience in the title/subtitle and first 100 words. It’s a highly niche and passionate community.
A U.S. SMR VIEW
Costs:
My view (from the U.S.) is that costs for SMR’s are relatively high. The ability to include the additional informational in the release via the related links section that ads value, ups the word count – which ups the cost because after the first 400 words almost all wire services typically charge you $1.00 a word (or somewhere close).
Multi-media assets:
Being a tech SMB – with a couple hundred million in revenue and producing about 100 press releases or so a year in the US – having video/audio assets available for SMR’s from all the product groups becomes a constant challenge. The marketing and product managers almost have to be evangelists/zealots and do a lot of the video and photos themselves. Some are hip to it. Others resist it like the plague. And, the more video / images / multi-media you do use — the more the cost goes up.
But having said all that, Marketwire’s release delivered exceptional results for us. It got pulled into a lot of our target pubs. It was visually and graphically appealing. The live links in the webosphere section started slowly then gradually grew and continue to do so. I think over 10,000 links now. Google keeps on building, “Live” keeps on building, Yahoo actually started higher (79 links) then declined. It has now shrunk to 1 link. I think that’s because their news algorithm churns them into the archive – but I’m not sure about that.
One thing I really liked — the “comments” section. It was valuable and eye-opening. Comments on a press release valuable? Yes. Several had in-depth insights, past experience comments with the product and questions about the future direction. A lot of the questions were about the topic of the press release – but I had probably 20 emails questioning me about the format of the release itself, which was interesting. But it also caused me more work. I had to write an explanation about the new format for our internal employees, detailing the components and the value of the new format. Then I had to send it to marketing, product and pre/post sales managers that weren’t involved in the tests.
Many warmly received it.
Many didn’t.
One great comrade-in-arms, when describing the mindset that did not warmly receive the message and is leery of change, sent me a quote from a Mel Brooks movie – I can’t remember the movie, but do remember the quote.
“It looks dangerous Master … you go first.”
EUROPEAN VIEW
I also used Webitpr.com in the UK last week for a different SMR about a Healthcare Software Application.
First of all, Webitpr.com is a great company to work with. They’re on top of it – especially monitoring the blogosphere. I met them through, of all things, a blog posting on PR-Squared’s blog about the SMR. They saw the posting, responded to me about the content of the post in a courteous, non-obtrusive professional manner and now we’re setting up an overseas account with them. Actually released two English press releases and one German press release over the last several weeks. Adam Parker, Jonathan Dolby, Stephen Davies, — super service. They knock it out quick, — use the SHIFT template pretty much – have a different distribution reach, but very effective. I think they’re going to be a major player in this field. Hope so anyway. It’s nice to work with people who are passionate, positive and proactive. Cost is competitive, but the U.S. dollar decline might pinch them a bit.
TRACKING ISSUES
Marketwire SMR’s don’t show up on our reporting dashboard like a typical MW release does. This will cause me (and other PR folks who use Marketwire) some issues trying to reconcile cost/value metrics for upper management. The webosphere link tracking is excellent though. Might even have to create a couple new metrics. Something along the lines of “number of comments, actions or emails” on the PR. I’m not sure yet, but we need to be able to prove the value of our PR efforts. I know this is new ground being plowed – but once the seeds are planted eventually some crops better come up.
WEBITPR.com does have tracking that I can easily append to my other tracking efforts - I use VocusPR for tracking and Marketwire as our main distribution service. WEBITPR’s tracking is easy to view, understand, use and pretty cool to boot. The guys over the pond have done a nice job of building their offering. Pretty impressive actually. Hats off to them.
SMR CHALLENGES
One of the major challenges I see though is downstream distribution. The way these SMR’s are rendered and displayed. They are ripped up and displayed in a gazillion different ways. Almost every news site displays the SMR differently. The best you can hope for right now I guess is to get it right where you have control – like for example, Marketwire – or Webitpr – or whatever your distribution vendor happens to be.
However, though seemingly a small issue, “downstream display and rendering” I guarantee you this question will come up when cost-justifying the SMR to internal budget committees - “Why do it if doesn’t get rendered or displayed the correct way. Isn’t that a waste of money?” So, be prepared to cost justify with results.
Few examples:
Yahoo does okay - renders graphics – but no video.
MSNBC – images and video at bottom.
IMPORTANT NOTE
PRXBuilder.com was the best.
And there’s a reason for that.
I developed all my SMR’s on PRXBUILDER first and then uploaded them. Shannon Whitley at PRXBUILDER is superb to work with. Knowledgeable, helpful, courteous, goes the extra step. His PRXBuilder tool can really help people get their minds around the SMR concept easily and quickly. It’s simple, easy-to-use and you can be up and running in a few minutes with it. Plus, it gives me the ability to use the same press release content and deliver it in 4 different formats
• Traditional Release
• Social Media Release
• Multi-media Release
• New Media Release
This is helpful as we gradually ramp up use of the SMR format – I can still do it the old way if need be for some recipients who need it in different formats.It would be great if Marketwire accepted the PRX Format. I know PRNewswire accepts it – but they’re a little pricey right now for this type release.
Thanks for your post Brian.
Great work as always.
Best,
Steve Kayser
——
Steve, thank you very much for taking the time to document your experiences. I believe that it will only help guide marketing and PR professionals as they look to navigate the murky and unchartered waters of Social Media. I look forward to your future experiments.
Original post here.
Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plaxo, or Facebook
February 14th, 2008 by Brian Solis
by Brian Solis
The Social Media Release back in the spotlight once again and is sparking conversations, inspiring experiments, and raising confusion along the way.
This time, intent and distribution take center stage.
Good friends Todd Defren and Christopher Lynn took the time to research how wire services are positioning their products for Social Media. Todd posted the results here. Great work guys!
Basically, when you call your local representative, you’re presented with the following capabilities.
Now, whether these stats are accurate, that’s up to what you discover through direct research. Ultimately, you have to hear directly from your rep and try these for yourself in order to draw exact conclusions. But, as Defren points out, his research is representative of what the wire services “know and sell” right now.
So, this brings up a couple of important points:
How do you distribute these things?
And, is this what reporters and bloggers really want and do we really need them?
OK, NEWS FLASH….
For Immediate Release:
Press Releases Are Only One Way To Tell Your Story; Social Media Releases Can Complement Traditional Releases
DATELINE: The Blogosphere — NOW — Brian Solis, a “leader” in what should be nothing more than the obvious, today announced that Social Media Releases can complement your outbound communications strategy based on what the people you’re trying to reach want to see and how. They do not replace Traditional Releases.
“I am so pleased and excited that the PR industry is interested in something new to help reach journalists, bloggers and their customers,” said Brian Solis, author of the PR 2.0 blog. “But, I’m sorry to say, that just because a new tool is available to you, you still have to make your story interesting, relevant, and newsworthy. The Social Media Release is not going to miraculously fix a hyperbole-ridden, over-stated, incomprehensible document riddled with BS. The people that matter to you are simply seeking context, relevance, what’s new, what you do, why it matters, how it’s different, and to whom. You still have to do your homework and write something compelling and clear.”
# # #
Why Do We Need the Social Media Release?
OK folks, it’s time to separate the hype from the hope.
I think we’re learning “how” to create Social Media Releases, aesthetically at least. But, I don’t see many discussions that effectively and clearly say “why” we need them.
There’s plenty of talk. And, there’s definitely no shortage of critics out there. And to some extent, I too am skeptical of any one tool that carries the hopes of an industry to magically change the popular perception of PR and press releases in general.
But, IMHO, the SMR is an important icebreaker for the bigger discussions of how and why we should write better press releases in general.
I use them in conjunction with traditional releases and they work extremely well. Personally, I prefer using a blog platform to create and distribute them.
Are they as effective when distributed through a a wire service?
For example, let’s use MarketWire’s recent launch of its new Social Media Release service, “Social Media 2.0” as a case study to see if we can answer why Social Media Releases are worth our time and if they really work. Disclosure, Thom, Kevin, I’m a big fan of MarketWire, so what follows is just an open discussion of a public launch related to a relevant topic.
Facts:
MarketWire recently acquired Kevin Dill’s PRNN service, which was an effective solution for distributing releases online.
Now part of MarketWire, Kevin helped the company build a new Social Media solution dubbed, “Social Media 2.0, the Industry’s Most Authentic Social Media Product.”
They announced it via a Social Media Release format, a service which I also helped them manually code over the course of several announcements starting in 2006.
First, let’s examine the headline, “Marketwire Unveils Social Media 2.0: Industry’s Most Authentic Social Media Product.”
The only reason I’m calling this out, outside of the Social Media ingredients that define the release, is because any product related to Social Media Releases is important and especially relevant to the discussion. Whether Traditional or Social, this headline unfortunately contributes to PR’s usual tendency to hype, hype, and hype some more. It steals from the significance of Social Media and the SMR, demonstrating why PR has a hard time getting taken seriously. Thom, Kevin, consult with us first. It’s free and it’s only going to help the bigger cause that we’re all collaboratively working towards.
Wanna know what the industry’s most authentic Social Media product is?
Blogs.
Instead of being the most authentic social media product, it instead comes across as a disingenuous and an opportunistic attempt at capitalizing on something momentous and “open.”
The intro paragraph, aside from the hype, serves well for ensuring that the release gets indexed in traditional search engines. Their intro paragraph is packed with key words, which will help it show up in search.
Here are a few examples how well it did for searching “social media” and “Marketwire”
Could it have been a bit more effective across other key words?
Yes, absolutely.
That’s the art of a SEO-optimized press release, which are complementary to SMRs and traditional press releases.
Did it too reasonably well?
Sure it did.
Here’s where most Social Media Releases fall down…
The link to Digg isn’t generating community voting the way that it does in say, a blog post.
Is this fixable?
Yes.
Unfortunately, the link to search context and discussions within Technorati isn’t yielding all of the discussions we know are present in the blogosphere.
Is this fixable?
Yes.
In the Bookmarking category, the MarketWire SMR has everything needed to ensure that people can save and share this link publicly within social networks.
The trackbacks function only provides a trackback URL, when it could also display a list of all places that responded to the news.
Instead of providing a hub to all external and orbiting conversations, it provides a count to discussions through traditional search engines.
The embedded video and stills ensure that the conversations take place outside and around the news. For example, at the time of this article, the YouTube video featuring Thom’s intro to the new release service was viewed 333 times and counting. However, it’s missing the link back to the release should someone stumble upon it directly within YouTube. But, it’s still bringing the conversation to people and also allowing them to discover it within their networks.
Overall, aside from the “over the top” positioning, MarketWire demonstrated how a Social Media Release can spark conversations across the Social Web. As their coding improves, they’ll be able to track and promote the dialog more effectively, thus extending the conversation.
Unfortunately, though, the release isn’t gaining visibility within Social Media channels, which is an important step in tying everything together, and also promoting the information within the very networks that people go to discover and share information.
Everything else, including RSS feeds, work really well and I’m sure the SMR service will only get better. The products from PRNewswire, PRWeb, and BusinessWire, share similar capabilities, and most likely, results within the Social Media Sphere.
How could all of them improve?
Service providers and businesses looking to amply SMRs should extend the platform beyond an HTML Web page. Building something on a social platform such as WordPress, with full customization capabilities, delivers an inherent social ecosystem which supports the social tools of today and tomorrow and also ensures visibility and search ability using Social Search engines. Offering combo pricing for an SMR plus traditional distribution would raise the bar and create an entirely new playing field for sharing news across Social and Traditional networks.
What Makes a Social Media Releases Social?
Obviously a Social Media Release needs to feature Social Media ingredients, which includes links to bookmarking networks, contextual tags, the ability to track and host conversations, and also discover them within social networks. The inclusion of new features to simply make a fancy, shiny, new whiz bang press release doesn’t necessarily cut it.
So, what socializes a release?
A Social Media Release should contain everything necessary to share and discover a story in a way that is complementary to your original intent; but, the difference is, how they find it and the tools they use to share and broadcast.
Social Media is one big extension to the Web, except it promotes voices, along with content, in a way that focuses on people and their social networks.
Giving everyone what they need and how they need it, requires a different approach. Almost 100% of press releases issued today are done so without video or audio, which are underlying component of SMRs. But it’s not about multimedia content, it’s about connecting content across social networks and the people looking for it.
Social Media lowers the barriers to entry for companies to record, share and embed video and audio, and most importantly, allow people to also easily share with their audiences. The same can be said for all multimedia content.
Everything within Social Media now is widgetized, meaning that if you upload various content across social networks, you can embed it all in one place and repackage it under one brand umbrella. Without getting all geeky, these networks give you the “embed code” that you need to plop it somewhere. It’s just cut and paste. What if the whole SMR was embeddable as well? That could be very cool!
So if we’re promoting conversations, shouldn’t we instill the ability to host or feature comments?
Absolutely.
Social Media is a two-way street and dialog sets the foundation for Social Media Releases.
The next step is discovery.
By placing content across social networks, properly tagging them (inserting relevant key words) within each, and linking back to your SMR (or blog post), you can effectively leverage visibility within each community, and also steer influence back to your intended impressions.
Obviously conversations should be ongoing, so part of socializing the release has a lot do with helping people staying connected and also find it again should they wish to see updates.
Make sure to check out co-comment, Tangler, and SezWho.
RSS for company news is one way to keep people tapped in to what you’re doing. Offering links to simply that process could only help. For example, include linked icons for Bloglines, Netvibes, PageFlakes, and Google Reader. In addition, companies should also think about creating individual RSS feeds for product lines and specific services, to keep people connected to specific channels.
And if you’re feeling particularly inspired, creating an aggregated dashboard of relevant content, using Alltop or POPURLs as an example, bloggers, journalists, and customers can stay up to date and connected. Try experimenting with Netvibes to create something like this as a way of experimenting by tracking your favorite voices and stories on the Web. All it takes is an RSS feed.
So again, we ask, what makes a Social Media Release Social?
Well, at the end of the day, if you’ve ever written a blog post, much of what I’m describing already exists. There’s nothing to say that you couldn’t do this right now simply by creating a customized blog that is an extension of your company’s online newsroom.
However, if resources are limited, there are companies, including my own, which help you get there. Or, you can simply use existing services to recreate this process for every news release you wish to publish.
So, at the end of all of this, a Social Media Release should look something like this:
—————–
Headline
Intro paragraph, rich with key words, relevance and context (summary)
Supporting facts
Quote
Embeddable Video (The new VNR)
Embeddable Audio
Embeddable Images
RSS for the company news
RSS for product info
Post in “insert social network of choice” (Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, or a relevant social network for sharing)
Blog this (links to blogging platforms)
Share on Twitter, Jaikue, Pownce or Tumblr
Bookmarks
Relevant links
Digg, Reddit, and other relevant news aggregators and communities.
Comments - Maybe also include a link to a hosted network on Ning or even a discussion forum on Tangler or Google Groups
Contact: hcard, vcard, LInkedIn, Facebook
—————–
The Value of Social Media Releases
Even after we define the SMR, the same questions still come up:
1. Should we include sentences or is it supposed to be bullets?
2. Are we designing SMRs for “the wire” or the “web?”
3. Are SMRs created for journalists and bloggers and is it what they want?
4. Do SMRs need to spark and host conversations?
5. Can they, and should they, bypass influencers to reach people directly?
1- In order for these releases to show up in search engines, the truth is that an intro paragraph or two are necessary to help them index properly. Simply relying on bullets won’t get you anywhere, even if they’re sent directly to your contacts.
2 - I guess that parlays into the next point, SMRs should be designed for the Web, while a traditional release (say a compatriot release) is designed for the wire. Social Media Releases play to the strengths of the Web and also Social Media, a feature that wire services have yet to conquer.
3 - Personally, I’ve created SMRs with a private URL and shared with reporters and bloggers before the news was official (basically under embargo). They loved it and the ratio for pitching and publishing was almost 100%. But, all I’m doing is creating, positioning and packaging information in a way that’s relevant to them. The SMR in this case, becomes a wrapper for presenting information in a palatable and digestible way.
4 - Yes
5 - SMRs are more than just reporters and bloggers; they’re about people. When created properly, they can get discovered by the very people you want to reach and thus bypassing traditional influencers. I’m not saying that you should bank on this as a strategy, only think about it when you’re creating your press release strategy. You can write for both influencers and customers using a variety of Traditional, SEO, and Social press releases.
Yes, press releases show up in search engines.
Traditional Search Engines
Let’s start with the basics.
Traditional press releases distributed over wire services, for better or worse, ARE already showing up in search engines (especially Google and Yahoo News) as a natural part of the wire distribution process. Bottom line, press releases are already reaching people directly.
According to an Outsell study, over 51% of IT professionals report that they get their news from press releases in Yahoo and Google news over trade journals.
It’s a fact that is changing the game for PR, and it’s not only being driven by journalists, but customers too.
What it really represents is an opportunity to do things better. It all starts with making news relevant and writing it in a way that help people “get it.” An awful press release will still be awful, regardless of multimedia or social bling.
So, if traditional press releases already reach people, then why do we need a Social Media Release?
Search and Discovery in Social Media
Social Media Releases may look similar to today’s multimedia releases in format, structure and design, but depending on a series of factors, they have the ability to open up dialog in a way not possible with traditional or multimedia releases.
An important distinction between the two, discovered after spending the last two years experimenting with formats and distribution channels, is this: the content and structure of the SMR is only part of the equation.
What if the people you’re trying to reach are searching and sharing content outside of traditional online communities and instead, or in addition, actively participating in Social Media?
Helping SMRs appear within this realm is the true promise…otherwise they’re nothing more than a fancy wrapper for packaging news for their intended recipients. And, as any good PR person will tell you, providing a summary, images, video, and other supporting facts in one package, specific to their intended recipient, is something they’ve been doing for years.
SMRs are much more than bulleted text and links to multimedia content in social networks. It’s much more than simply sharing information. And, it’s definitely much more than providing building blocks for people to piece together.
SMRs are the hub for relevant content and also the catalyst for the socialization of news.
But, if nobody sees it, what good are they?
A big part of this socialization starts with “findability,” i.e. is the SMR discoverable inside or outside the world of Social Media?
Contrary to popular belief, search engines are not all created equal – especially in the world of Social Media.
The same tools that you use to find bloggers who cover the topics that are important to you, are also the same tools that someone can use to find your SMR (when done right).
- Technorati
- Blogpulse
- Google Blog Search
- Google Alerts
You probably didn’t know this, but most SMRs released to-date not readily discoverable by “social” search engines, even if you embed Technorati tags.
Yep, it’s true. The tags included in most SMRs will lead the reader to contextual links, but, the release itself will remain invisible in the social search engine. For example, click any Technorati Tag in any SMR out there and it will simply force a search for that keyword and produce all related blog posts on the subject, but the release itself won’t be part of the results unfortunately.
Please keep in mind that this is different that the “suggested” tags that you’re seeing in the hybrid examples out there today. If anything, they just help increase findability in traditional search.
Social Media Optimization (SMO)
To be “seen” by these blog-specific engines requires a separate social media optimization (SMO) aka blog search engine optimization (BSEO) process and an entirely different distribution mechanism. If the SMR is not published via a social platform (note: blogs are inherently social) like Wordpress or Blogger, it’s going to be ignored by Technorati, BlogPulse, Google Blog Search, et al.
Most often though, just to get things in perspective, if you place it on the Web or distribute via a traditional wire service, your release will in traditional search.
To apply SMO to your press release, again, think about blogging it in addition to your other release distribution.
Create a virtual fireside chat. Make sure to link each release to each other. And, if you upload content to social networks for embedding into your release, also ensure that there are links back to the releases.
The most important thing you can do to escalate visibility is to tag your content direclty within each social network with the relevant key words that someone might search when they’re looking for information. I can’t emphasize this enough.
Summary
Social Media Releases are only one way to tell your story and they can work extremely well when paired with a traditional release and an effective outbound media/blogger/influencer campaign.
Nothing beats knowing what you want to say, why it matters, and to whom. You still have to do your homework and you still have to write something compelling (meaning well written.)
Conversations are ultimately the tool that will help you spread the word and ignite additional word of mouth and also trigger customer responses.
Writing the news in a way that’s helpful, informative, and relative is a critical starting point for any release, whether social, traditional, or SEO.
What this all means is that the future of the Social Media Release is up to you. Raise the bar. Experiment. Provide value. Remember, that releases, regardless of format, are only the tools that can help facilitate discussions, relationships, and also visibility. The ability to tell your story, your way, to the people that define your markets, is where we should all focus our time and effort…the rest, is simply a function of outreach.
Link to the original post.
Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plaxo, or Facebook
October 17th, 2007 by Brian Solis
This post was developed jointly by Todd Defren and Brian Solis.
The Social Media Release (SMR) is gaining traction and visibility and is now looked to by many as the savior of the traditional press release - which may honestly be too great a task for any one tool. But, at the very least, the discussions around the SMR are fueling the evolution and improvement of the press release overall.
Each day new examples are emerging and will only continue to be showcased as Social Media purveyors blaze the trail for the future of the news release, whether it’s traditional, multimedia, social or a combination of all the above.
As a quick refresher, the Social Media Release template from SHIFT Communications was created in response to Tom Foremski’s public call for the death of press releases. The template provided, for the first time, a one-stop resource for bloggers, journalists, and people, to find relevant information for constructing stories without the B.S., or as Foremski called it, the “spintastic” messaging prevalent in traditional press releases.
The evolution of the Social Media Release in the 18 months since the SHIFT template’s debut is simply unbelievable and testament to the cumulative desire to carry the PR profession forward, in entirely new and exciting directions.
After working together along with Chris Heuer, Shel Holtz, Shannon Whitley, among many others, it’s clear that there is a hunger to evolve the 100-year old press release format, and in the process, maybe also improve the game for PR overall. Now it’s up to all of us to define. And since the world is watching, it’s important for us to occasionally take a step back in order to to carry SMRs forward.
In the last year, we have worked diligently to defend, explain, and showcase SMRs, but there are still many questions as word of a new format spreads. (For example: “What’s the difference between a SMR and a Multimedia Release? Should we put out a SMR in tandem with a traditional release? Can I rely on these releases to do my job for me?”)
So far the examples that we’ve highlighted over the past year – whether they’ve been distributed on a wire or hosted on a Web page – have all been a step in the right direction, but at the end of the day, with few exceptions, they are not quite fully “socialized” yet. They are representative of a hybrid multimedia and social media release, which can be distributed as traditional releases as well as simply hosted on traditional web pages. (Here’s an example of a release that looks social, but isn’t quite there yet.)
Social Media Releases may look similar to today’s multimedia releases in format, structure and design, but depending on a series of factors, they have the ability to open up dialog in a way not possible with traditional or multimedia releases.
An important distinction between the two, discovered after spending the last year experimenting with formats and distribution channels, is this: the content and structure of the SMR is only part of the equation.
SMRs are much more than bulleted text and links to multimedia content in social networks. It’s much more than simply sharing information. And, it’s definitely much more than providing building blocks in a “B.S.” free format. SMRs are a starting point for the socialization of news. We’ve got the multimedia part down: now we need to focus on the social aspects.
A big part of this socialization starts with “findability,” i.e. is the SMR discoverable outside in the world of Social Media?
Did you know that the major wire services used to be subscription-only?
Their 3,000+ daily releases were not open to the general public until recently. But the wires’ newfound openness means that traditional news releases can be discovered via Google and Yahoo. And search engines are an incredible catalyst for news distribution: people are finding news through Google and Yahoo and as a result have become more accepting of press releases as legitimate information resources, on a par with trusted trade journals (this has been documented by several analysts tracking the media space). After finding information through traditional search engines, people can still “socialize the content” by taking the initiative to manually bring it into the conversation, embedding links and content into their own blogs, del.icio.us accounts, etc.
This means that press releases, regardless of format, are now equally important to bloggers, journalists, analysts, and now, customers too!
Contrary to popular belief, however, search engines are not all created equal – especially in the world of Social Media.
For example, you probably didn’t know this: traditional & multimedia releases – which would include most of the SMRs released to-date – are not readily discoverable by “social” search engines like Technorati, not even if you use Technorati tags. The T’rati tags included in most SMRs will lead the reader to contextual links (if they exist), but, the release itself will remain invisible to the social search engine. Please keep in mind that this is different that the “suggested” tags that you’re seeing in the hybrid examples out there today. If anything, they just help increase findability in traditional search.
To be “seen” by these blog-specific engines requires a separate social media optimization (SMO) aka blog search engine optimization (BSEO) process and an entirely different distribution mechanism: if the SMR is not published via a social platform (note: blogs are inherently social) like Wordpress or Blogger, it’s going to be ignored by Technorati, BlogPulse, Google Blog Search, et al. So the SMRs we’ve seen so far have rarely been part of the broader, contextual conversation.
Shannon Whitley, current chair of the Social Media Release Working Group, which is dedicated to creating technology standards for creating and distributing SMRs, offered this insight:
“The best place to publish a Social Media News Release is on your company blog or social media newsroom (which is hosted on a blogging engine). However, it’s important to recognize that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) alone will not necessarily draw attention to your news. It’s still important to actively promote and distribute your releases via newswires and social media tools, and – wherever you promote your news – to provide a link back to your Social Media News Release.”
This is an important point because if you’re relying on one release to reach everyone, the truth is that Social Media and multimedia releases can look exactly alike, but, they will show up in two different places.
So how do we get more “social” with our Social Media Releases?
Social can be defined as:
Hosting conversations – via moderated comments – directly at the hub of the SMR (ideally in the corporate social media newsroom) or providing a link to comments.
Providing a trackback function – and displaying the results. This is not only a good metric for marketers evaluating industry response, but also helpful to those looking for additional perspectives on the news.
Enabling links to social bookmarking sites (like del.icio.us) is good. So is the creation of purpose-built links that highlight other voices and provide context for the news.
Using links and tags that drive all of the images, video, and audio posted to social networks back to the SMR. These links and tags act as beacons for the conversation. It shouldn’t matter whether users come across a traditional, multimedia or social media release; it shouldn’t even matter if they find a “chunk” of the release’s content somewhere else on the web… by including relevant tags and by consistently associating the SMR’s dispersed content elements (on YouTube, Flickr, etc.) with the SMR’s permalink in the Social Media Newsroom, you can leave breadcrumbs that ultimately aggregate the resulting conversations in one convenient spot.
At the end of the day, the SMR was never intended to replace the traditional press release nor is it supposed to relieve you of good ol’ media and blogger relations. In fact, experience thus far shows that SMRs are much stronger when paired with both a traditional counterpart and strategic outreach.
An SMR written in either bulleted or narrative format, partnered with a “static” release – each containing reciprocal links – can not only distribute meaningful news, but also offer building blocks (shareable content); facilitate and encourage conversations and sharing (via social media tags); and ensure a presence in both blog and traditional Web search engines (via SEO and SMO).
Multiple releases can specifically appeal to different groups using the channels the reach them (customers, bloggers, journalists, etc.). It will, for the first time, combine mainstream PR while creating new arms and legs to reach important groups that comprise The Long Tail.
The key to the SMR’s long-term success will be the ability to truly be social; to not only deliver the news in a snazzy new format, but also to facilitate discovery through Social Media channels, encourage sharing and spark conversations, all in a way that brings customers, journalists, bloggers, and analysts together around your story and your community.
The SMR template is a starting point to incite creativity and innovation. How you develop and issue SMRs is ultimately up to you, and given that these are the early days, the interest level is high in making sure we get this right. We’re all in this together.
For additional background, please read Everything You Wanted to Know About Social Media Releases.
June 20th, 2007 by Chris Heuer
I just got off the phone with Shannon Whitley from PRX Builder and I am very happy to report that he is taking the lead in moving the technical standard for the Microformat forward. As a result, he is going to be reaching out to many of you who have expressed interest in becoming involved - if you are not yet a member of the New Media Release Mailing List on Google, please join in there now and let us know if you are interesting in lending a helping hand, or share your thoughts here.
Many of the leading thinkers on the release, including myself, are surprised at the very limited pick up this idea has received so far. I was particularly surprised when I visited PRX Builder’s site to see how few organizations have created a PRX Social Media Press Release thus far. Perhaps it was partly due to the fact that it was not a widely community standard, but I think it is really much more than this.
The main reason I have not been pressing this forward over the past few months was simply the fact that we had to invest too much time arguing for the very need for the press release to evolve and it was tiring and stoopid. I had hoped we would be talking more about what it would do and how it would do it, but instead found a never-ending supply of cynical PR Pros and pessimists who would rather invest their time defending the status quo instead of finding a better way forward. Then of course, there was/is the looks of disdain I received from my peers here in Silicon Valley who wonder why I am working with PR people - the image problem for the industry is on par with that of used car salesman.
Regardless, the communications industry as a whole is at another key crossroads in its history. The Social Media Release is but one way in which the industry’s transformation will be manifested and I am proud of my involvement in driving the conversation forward and particularly thankful for the courageous and forward thinking colleagues who are along for the journey. Brian Solis, Todd Defren, Tom Foremski and Shel Holtz as well as thought leaders from PR Newswire and BusinessWire continue to support and push things forward. I hope you will join us at the midpoint of our journey.
We have some other news to share in the next few weeks, but first, let’s move forward finally on developing a real standard that will benefit us all.
January 20th, 2007 by Chris Heuer
So Stowe Boyd in his infinite wisdom decided to attack the idea of the Social Media Release, in a one sided telling of our conversation at Third Thursday earlier this week. Rather than take into account anything that anyone else had to say about his pointed criticism, he decided to just repeat his original objections and leave out the rest of the story. He did not bother to do any homework, nor has he bothered to ask me about it (even though he shares office space with me in San Francisco).
It is some 26 hours after I left a comment on his blog, and he has yet to approve it. Since it has grown into a bigger conversation now that is absent key facts, I am forced to repost my comment here, after many people have jumped on ‘the story’. Seems to me he did not want my response to be part of the impressions people had when reading about the story that he is actively promoting for the purpose of stirring things up and creating controversy. Now Robert Scoble has joined the fray, relying on Stowe’s malformed impressions of what we are working to accomplish, without hearing the other side, or without understanding the background. Strangely enough, I wrote about this on my personal site the other day. As a result, here comes the pile-on, where all bloggers are going to attack the PR industry - without knowing all the facts, giving more credence to that stupid “Attack of the Bloggers” article from last year.
Here is what I had to say in response to Stowe’s post that he has yet to approve for further clarification on the subject.
Stowe, as you pointed out, we were there to talk about the social media release, we were not on a mission last night to explain what social media is or isn’t. This was about revising the entire way the PR profession looks at press releases. The issues you raise are good ones, and other than the combative approach you want to take, are generally things we agree with.
If you had done a bit more research you would understand that the term 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!
The interesting thing about proposing a Microformat for it is the structuring of the information in the press release to make it more findable, which both Brian’s previous comments hints at. Additionally, I believe it is a way to distinguish everyday blog posts, from official corporate announcements, such as those that accompany a product launch, and to bundle all the facts/information in a way that will let other people tell the story - whether journalists, bloggers, raving fan customers or haters.
For you to harp on us for the one ot two uses of the word audience is not fair nor accurate and quite honestly feels more like an attempt to nitpick for the purpose of creating controversy. As you may have done in the past when selling an idea to a group of people, you use language they understand in order to make the connection. It is the equivalent of a software developer saying users instead of people - this is habitualized usage of language. While your main point is correct, that companies need to engage with people through social media, the occasional use of the term audience is not inappropriate.
We all appreciated your insightful and challenging questions, as that is the sort of dialogue we want to have with a wider group of people. Our understanding of social media and our moral compass is clear here, that companies ultimately need to let go of the illusion of control, be more transparent and most importantly, be honest and engage with their customers and all the people who care about what a company is doing with respect.
It would have been great if Stowe would have told the other side of the story. Or even better, if he would have bothered to call me or one of the other panelists, to get our side of the story. So now, here we are having to provide the details that should have been included in Stowe’s original post and having to correct the misperceptions he created in the minds of 10’s of thousands of people.
Brian Solis has done a great job of shedding light on our real purpose and the true nature of the social media release - for even further reading, you can also check out SocialMediaRelease.org, a site that should have been linked from Stowe’s original post but wasn’t because it seemed more important for him to link to my personal site instead.
December 5th, 2006 by Chris Heuer
In the good news we have been waiting for department, Edelman today announced the release of Story Crafter, “Web-based software tool for helping companies produce and deploy social media news releases.” With the only other current offering on the market PRX Builder falling below expectations while exceeding the ’splash via flash’ value, this is really welcome news and hopefully signals the beginning of a new wave for 2007. We will have a more in depth review of the tool itself in the coming days as well as an interview with Phil Gomes from Edelman’s Me2Revolution Group.
We also discovered today why we have not heard more from Auburn University’s Robert French on our efforts around the Social Media Release. According to the SMR Edelman put out today “StoryCrafter was extensively beta-tested by Auburn University students studying under Robert French, instructor and technology advisor for the University’s Department of Communication and Journalism.” Robert, further said “StoryCrafter provides a simple, yet complete, format and process for the creation of social media releases. For those new to the process, using StoryCrafter helps you understand the formatting and layout, too. And, the StoryCrafter tool offers all of the options called for in the Social Media Club’s list of key elements for a social media release.”
BTW - this was one of the easiest post’s I have ever written all thanks to the simple to quote format of the Social Media Release.
November 8th, 2006 by Chris Heuer
In a clear and succesfull attempt to show the power of Blogs as an open and credible conversation platform that seemingly meets the requirements of Fair Disclosure, SEC Chief Christopher Cox replied to Scott McNeely’s letter requesting clarification on whether the Internet adequately meets those requirements. Thanks to Kevin Dugan for the heads up via the Social Media Release mailing list (still misnamed as the New Media Release list).
This is exciting and I will have more to say later, but a few of the highlights and what it means for us:
This is also the topic of a community conversation we will be organizing in the near future, stay tuned for more details. (Apologies for the rush job and typos, need to finish another document and get some sleep at some point before Web 2point2 Unconference tomorrow.)
November 3rd, 2006 by Brian Solis
I ran this post over at PR2.0, but it is also appropriate to have a home here at Socialmediarelease.org.
The content has been modified a bit since so much has happened over the last few days. Most notably, Chris Heuer created this site dedicated to Social Media Releases (SMRs), presented the format for the SMR at the recent Society for New Communications Research event in Boston, and also ran a powerpful post entitled, “The Impact of Social Media and How it Changes Everything.”
Seems almost like history in the making here, considering that we’re celebrating the 100th birthday of the original press release this week.
With the rapid evolution of SMRs, we can’t forget just how many people have yet to even learn about the fundamentals of social media. What are tags? What is RSS? What is social bookmarking all about? Why use photo sharing sites when we can put the images on our corporate site? Blogs don’t reach the mainstream, do they? You get the picture.
For all us us helping to define the new PR landscape,we need to remember that we have an opportunity to increase the value of our profession tremendously over the coming years. But more importantly, it is up to us to ensure that we don’t leave anyone behind.
Social Media is not only for the elite PR pro or early adopter; it’s for everyone that cares about engaging with target markets.
With that, we need to continually 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.
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. So, at the end of this post, there is a link to a doc that explains how to write an SMR, what the technology means behind it and how it helps you, and how to distribute it.
It’s 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?”
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.
We’re 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 in order to serve the many different audiences.
I reached out to friend, and fellow SMR Working Group associate, Todd Defren - since he introduced the first template for mass consumption, “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 Todd.
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. Most importantly, it also given them a powerful forum to “participate” in the news.
“The tools used to generate Social Media Releases will end up being free plugins for common blogging platforms and merely features of the enterprise blogging software suites.” – Chris Heuer
Click here for the Social Media Press Release “How To” guide. And please, feel free to use it, share it and evolve it freely. Available in Word or PDF.
Click here for the first draft of the official elements of an SMR proposed by The Working Group.
Tags: socialmediaclub socialmedia chris+heuer chrisheuer briansolis brian+solis todddefren todd+defren social+media+release smr hrelease pr public+relations publicrelations pr2.0 pr20
November 2nd, 2006 by Chris Heuer
It is clear that we have hit a very raw nerve in the pursuit of the Social Media Release concept and that the time has come to update the stale concept and practices of the traditional press release. This is particularly true in light of the ever-increasing velocity of information and the increasing number of sources for information through Social Media.
Tom Foremski’s rant on this subject from the perspective of a Social Media era journalist is as important today as it was when it was first written in February of this year. Indeed, it inspired Todd Defren’s Social Media Press Release Template, which in large part already covers the most important elements of the Social Media Release requirements we are publishing today. Many others have contributed to this effort, most especially the members of the “Working Group” and the members of the New Media Release Google Group discussion list.
Now we must move to the hard bit, resolving our thoughts of the requirements through the further input of the professionals who care about this important area of public relations practice. Then further resolving the technical issues to get a final specification that we can turn into a technical standard that can be widely implemented by the wire services, search engines and other tool makers such as WordPress, BEA, Technorati and Six Apart.
Before considering the individual elements of the Social Media Release more fully, I think it is important to understand why we are seeking to turn these requirements into a Microformat specifically. The Microformat is a relatively new standards body for defining structured information using HTML and XML in a way that increases its findability and usability. From my perspective and that of others who have been producing social media for a length of time, all I need to say is RSS (aka Really Simple Syndication). The combination of RSS, tags and structured information is a powerful force for connecting people and organizations who have information to share, with the people and organizations who are most interested in that information.
Ultimately, it is about a wide and relatively free distribution technology (RSS) upon which the Blogosphere is built (thank you Dave Winer and every other person who has added to the capabilities since) and an open, user defined folksonomy that connects the small pieces in a loosely joined structure. This is a disruptive force in the core of the wire service’s business model – charging a fee for distribution of news to sources for relaying that information to the general public. My favortie economist, Paul Zane Pilzer, has a lot to say about the economics of distribution being disrupted through the application of technology that is relevant here if you want to go really deep into my thinking on this matter. Unlike some people though, I don’t see this destroying the wire services, I see it forcing them to evolve even further then they did when the Internet first gained wide adoption a decade ago.
Rather than paying for distribution, people will pay for what is most important in the wild and wooly sea of information in the world – it has been an under reported aspect of their business, but one that has been present all along. The real economic and social value is in authenticating and validating the source of the release and the integrity of its content. This is the business opportunity I saw back in April when I first spoke with Tom Foremski and I first registered some related domains, including this one that I have donated to the community as a platform to talk about best practices for the Social Media Releases. It is the same business opportunity I see today and core to the issue of trust in an open system such as the Internet - which is perhaps the most important assett next to time.
While services like PRX Builder are great innovations that are pushing this conservative industry forward, I see no long-term viability in that sort of tools business – it is seemingly more of a stop gap measure while the broader news/PR ecosystem finds its new equilibrium. Perhaps there is more to it than I have seen so far, but the tools used to generate Social Media Releases will end up being free plugins for common blogging platforms and merely features of the enterprise blogging software suites. The services will most likely pick up the feeds from companies who register with them (or source through them) and provide validation of their authenticity to other interested parties. In addition to independently verifying the information, they will provide real measurement and tracking capabilities that go beyond column inches and into the heart of engagement, getting closer to measuring the specific impact of the release on the bottom line.
If the wire services don’t do it, perhaps this community of practitioners will come together to create a ‘limited source’ version instead.
Why am I sharing what I believe to be the secret sauce with you here? Because I have already shared these ideas with all the major wire services, so in the interest of full disclosure, we can create a more level playing field and hopefully accelerate innovation of concept and execution.
November 2nd, 2006 by Chris Heuer
Before diving deep into the key elements of the Social Media Release that we have identified over the course of our discussion, it is important to note some of the key drivers of this effort and some of the things that are not yet adequately addressed.
Primarily the driving force behind this movement is the technological advancements that have occurred primarily though computer mediated communications. This is principally understood as the extended capabilities inherent in the Internet for expanding reach, engagement and measurement as much as it does for search and monitoring. Fundamentally though, it is about the era of social media where people not only consume media, but also create it – this is what our colleague Richard McManus refers to as the “Read/Write Web”. Where community and collaboration are no longer defined by physical proximity but by common interests.
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.
Please note that our current work does not adequately address multi-lingual variances, though we feel that the framework it represents is fairly universal. It is also light in the realm of financial information distribution, which is handled quite well by the XPRL standard. We hope to accommodate both of these issues as the discussion around the technical standard progresses.
With that understanding, let’s jump into the elements we identified in our discussions:
Headline: No explanation needed (I hope)
Sub Headline: No explanation needed (besides, its optional)
Highlights / Key Facts: This is one of the major differences of the Social Media Release compared to a traditional press release. Highlights, aka key facts, are short and to the point statements that are the important takeaways that are the reason for the release. There is no technical limit on these highlights, only practical limits of brevity.
Summary: This is intended to present the highlights of the Social Media Release in paragraph form for those who do not like reading the bullet format – it also allows more room for tonality and perspective.
Tags / Keywords: By specifying the most highly relevant tags / keywords for the information contained in the Social Media Release, it will have a higher chance of being discovered by people who monitor social media for those particular keywords and phrases. At present, search engines like Technorati and other services create ‘feeds’ for these tags that individuals and organizations use to connect to the information that most interests them. This is a very important piece of ensuring the release gets to the right people and as widely as possible in the social media ecosystem. There is no technical limit as to how many tags can be included, but as a practical matter it is probably best to keep it more focused than less, else the value of the system will be eroded as email has been by spam. An optional component here might be to create an additional field that would specify any 3rd party service(s) to which these tags should connect such as Technorati, Delicious, Digg, FURL or even Personal Bee. The addition of these services would enable easier socialization of the information in the release and enhance the ability to track its influence and reach.
Links / URLs: While links may be embedded in most of the other areas of the Social Media Release since most elements allow HTML, this specific designation of all the links in a separate field emphasizes them in a way that makes it easier for people to access them.
Link Types: One of the reasons for having a separate area of the Social Media Release for Links is to identify them as link types, which adds even greater value. These enable the recipient to identify the links source, relationship and relevancy. Link Types will be defined over time based on real world usage. They are initially intended to be left as an open, practitioner-defined field. Examples of link types include, 3rd party review, supporting research, case study, company web site, buy link, and most notably, collections of links such as those created on sites like Delicious and Furl.
Reserved Link Types: There is the possibility of having special link types reserved such as CSS, where a CSS link type can be used to display the Social Media release on different sites with a particular style and emphasis. This would allow companies control over the visual presentation of the release. Additionally, the recommended presentation style can be made available as a default option through the working hRelease Microformat Web site. In fact, it may actually be used for some of the other elements listed here such as company Web site and Source URL rather than keeping them as independent fields. This is where dialogue with the experienced Microformats community comes in.
Quotes: As an easily identifiable and widely used element of the traditional Press Release, calling out quotes as a unique field is an obvious requirement. This also leads to types of quotes, which require further discussion and may in fact be left as a user defined field in the initial standard
Embedded Audio, Video and Images: Use existing RSS protocols for creating enclosures that enable practitioners to include logos, photos, audio clips, video and other similar content along with the release.
Embed Other Microformats: In the event that the release is about a particular event, we would like to include the hCal, another type of Microformat that defines event specific information such as date, location and start time. This can also be done for hCards to include relevant contact information. The process used here for embedding other Microformats in the Social Media Release should enable all other Microformats to be embedded as they are developed.
Traditional Press Release: For those who like to ‘kick it old school’, we want to allow the inclusion of the standard release in text format. This allows recipients to receive and republish as they always have done and accommodate our multi-channel, write once, distribute everywhere communications philosophy. In short, it helps bridge the gap between the traditional press release and the Social Media Release.
Company Information: This should include separate fields for Company Name, Description, Company Web Site, Ticker Symbol, SIP Code and whether or not the company shall be considered the primary source of the release rather than a party to the release. There can be multiple company descriptions in each hRelease.
Contact Information: Multiple hCards can be included here with one being designated as the primary contact. hCards are similar to the types of contact cards that you find in Outlook and contain all relevant information in a common Web standard format.
RSS Feed for Company: Within each Social Media Release is the information on the location where someone can find and subscribe to all releases from this company. This URL for the feed may exist on the company site or at a 3rd party location such as FeedBurner or PR Newswire. Additionally, this may serve as a location for all feeds from the company’s blog or just the specific feed for the company’s hReleases.
Date/Time Stamp: At the original point of publishing, a date/time stamp is added to the hRelease to validate when it was published.
Modifications / Corrections: This item is a bit trickier and may not be addressed in the initial specification. There is good reason to include it as a type of data being described, but there is some concern that this might be something that should be handled outside of the Social Media Release standard as a piece of functionality within the services that leverage that information instead. At the very minimum we need to store the ‘last modified’ date / time stamp. In the ‘blue sky’ no limitations version of the Social Media Release, it would also include a form of “versioning” that addresses each modification made, descriptions of the modification, and even perhaps a link to a new release intended to call attention to the correction / modification.
Geography: If the release is intended for a specific geography, the Social Media Release can specify the point of origin using geocoding specifications together with an extended radius field. This again is intended to allow for a more targeted connection between the source of the information and those that care about it most.
Source URL: The source URL should indicate where the Social Media Release was originally published and allow for individuals to return to that source to see if any modifications were made. This also makes it easy for people to reference a link to the original release and for practitioners to track citations to it. Another piece of important information here might be a separate verification mechanism to absolutely authenticate the content using a security mechanism such as Pubic Key Infrastructure or a Checksum (techie stuff, but strong and proven technology).
Trackback URL: Following standard conventions of blogging and RSS, a trackback URL will enable the conversation around the release to be tracked more cohesively – at least among those sources that want to demonstrate that their audiences can feel comfortable knowing that the source of the information is trusted and accurate.
While this is the end of one phase of the discovery process, it is really only the beginning of the process. Now we need to get some wider inputs on this and engage in some deliberation on the finer points of the Social Media Release (aka hRelease) with the Microformats community and other interested parties.
If you are so inclined to write about it, please use the tag ‘socialmediarelease’ and/or ‘hrelease’.
October 30th, 2006 by Chris Heuer
So I am finally finished with the really basic configuration and customization of this blog, but there is much more work to do. The Social Media Release Working Group has been discussing the requirements for the past month. We will be posting the result of those conversations here later this week along with access to a special discussion and deliberation tool to help manage the process called Civic Evolution.
On this blog, practicioners will discuss what is really working best for them and we will point out relevant developments in the industry.
The Social Media Release is a project of Social Media Club using Microformats.