MicroMedia Paves the Way for Macro Influence

Warning! This post is about MicroMedia and the emerging market for Media Snacking, but it is not served as a "byte" sized snack. It is instead, a full meal, so I hope you brought your appetite.

The inspiration for this story comes from a meme circulating through the Web that discusses "snacks" and the market for "media snacking." It was started by Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang when he publickly asked whether or not you respect media snackers. He then tagged Francine Hardaway, Chris Brogan, Shel Israel, Connie Benson, and Bill Claxton to continue the conversation.

Ultimately I was pinged by Todd Defren and I thought, rather than discuss whether or not I respect Media Snacking, it might be helpful to examine what it is and why it exists in order to ascertain its value and potential.

What’s a media snacker?

Basically it's folks who consume small bits of information, data or entertainment when, where, and how they want. Some pin this specifically on the youth, because in a sense, they grew up much more "connected" than the generations before them.

But it's not just about the youth.

This is about media in general and how it is carving new channels and creating new vehicles to facilitate conversations, relationships, and sharing by and for the people - across every generation and market demographic. In short, MicroMedia is being driven by the content curators, creators, consumers, and thought leaders who are defining the new social economy.

In case you haven't heard, many edglings are already starting to show signs of Social Media fatigue with so many networks, content publishing tools, and voices vyring for and thus thinning their attention span. Their RSS readers are overflowing with posts, tools such as Twitter, microblogs, blogs, and Facebook are addictive and their respective communities are constantly calling for attention, participation, and updates. The list goes on and on.



There have been many debates as to whether the great attention economy will incite the inevitable attention crash.

But we persevere. We have to.

Every week, every day, there's a new tool, network, or service and edglings flock to each of them, test, and then share their experience. Their reports and opinions determine whether or not the rest of the herd follows in their experiments.

People are always on the hunt for new information and will go to unfathomable depths in order to find and reach people.

Of course, as in every market, there are guides or trend setters whom people naturally follow and with enough momentum, the crowds increase in population as no one wants to get left behind. People naturally go where their peers, friends, and family go. But with every new, exciting service that gains momentum, individuals, whether they're an early adopter or a mainstream user, are forced to create and maintain new and existing profiles across multiple networks simply to communicate with their contacts and maintain their relationships.

Is this an ominous sign for Social Media?

Hardly.

This represents a shift in media creation and consumption (sorry I don't like that word) as many people are simply pulled in so many directions. Many just don't have time to read and watch everything that's pushed to them.

Enter MicroMedia, an emerging market category which seems to date back to 2000, but really didn't start to take current shape until 2005 and 2006 with the rise of Web 2.0.

Regardless of terminology however, many of you are already experimenting with MicroMedia, whether you know it or not. Tools such as Twitter, Kyte.tv, Pownce, Tumblr, Jott, and even Facebook are all forms of MicroMedia which allow you to send and receive small "bite-sized" media morsels for easy chewing and digestion. Many praise the rise of MicroMedia as a step in the right direction for enhancing our media consumption as well as increasing our participation within dedicated communities

Jeremiah Owyang who has been discussing this topic quite a bit over the last several months describes it this way:

Quick audio or video messages published to a trusted social community. May be created and consumed using mobile technology, and often distributed using other social media tools.

After some thought, I amended it a bit:

Any form of concentrated content created using social tools that broadcast voice, video, images or text to targeted Web and mobile communities.

There's a shift taking place in how certain groups of people discover and share information, and if you're in the world of publishing, marketing, or sales, you should probably pay attention. With every new channel that gains momentum, a new bridge can also be built between you, peers, and your customers to foster healthy and dynamic communities based on conversations and relationships.

The content published via MicroMedia goes by many names including, video, audio and blog snacking, media snacking, snack bytes, media bytes, snacks, etc.

Whatever we call it, it represents a new medium, one that places an emphasis on brevity and value in order to say more with less. And, it's not just about us, those who blaze the trail by experimenting, documenting, and sharing our experiences with shiny new objects, it's about the people dictating their preference for creating, receiving and sharing information in specific ways.

Text Example


Audio Example


Video Example


Steve Rubel wrote earlier this year that MicroMedia allowed him to do more with less. It freed him from the pressures of having to write daily posts, which in turn forced him to focus on sharing shorter, more frequent thoughts and discoveries across a myriad of dedicated social networks, including his blog and microblog aka his lifestream.

Sometimes however, less, is just well, less.

I participate in almost all forms of macro and micro media, production and consumption. As in almost everything, there is plenty of garbage out there. Just because we can produce things easily these days, doesn't make them good. But, it's my choice what I chose to share and to what I watch, read and listen; just like it's the choice of everyone to determine when, where, and what they consume.

So in order to reach these increasingly discerning groups of people, you'll need to understand their culture and where the participate and then reverse engineer the process from a position of sincerity and empathy.

I use a few different MicroMedia services for hosting my aggregated stream of macro content as well as media snacks. Jaiku and Tumblr provide an easy and seamless tool for creating a stream which presents all of my social activity through constant bite-sized formats. Whether it's through my blog, microblog, various social networks, different people choose which format works for them, just like they can choose which social networks to cultivate friendships.

The point is that MicroMedia represents a new opportunity for information to reach people. And as our attention span thins, MicroMedia will evolve into legitimate rivers that reach people however and wherever they find and share their information. Even if you don't subscribe to the "less is more" philosophy, there are those that do. People have choice, so ignoring them will only ensure that we're not included in their diet of relevant media snacks.

When enough individual voices pool together, the whisper becomes a roar, transcending MicroMedia into macro influence.

---

Resources

Excellent presentation: "The Economics of New Media"

Here's a great video about media snacking, just look beyond all "youth"

I've created a list of MicroMedia tools designed to facilitate the creation, sharing and discovery of media snacks. Please help me populate the directory by sending an email to pr2point0 [at] gmail [dot] com or leave a comment. I'll update the list to keep it tasty.

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A Directory of MicroMedia Tools and Services

Text/Media:

Twitter
Pownce
3jam

Lifestreams and Microblogs:

Jaiku
Tumblr

Video:

Eyejot
Kyte.tv
Seesmic
Facebook Videoustream.tv - Live video streaming
Justin.tv - Live video streaming
Veodia - Live video streaming
Yourtrumanshow - Episodic video streaming
Magnify.net - Video curation, packing short videos are topics or themes through one channel

Mobile Voice:

Pinger
Jott
Utterz
Twittergram
Gabcast
Mysay

Social Networks:

Facebook - Think Newsfeed
Yahoo Mash - Think Newsfeed
iRover Network for iPhones, friends, and short messages

---

Other voices carrying the meme forward:

Clay Newton, Connie Reece, Leo Hopkins, Deborah Schultz, Steven Hodson, Geoff Livingston, John Johnston, Cathleen Rittereiser, Mark Cahill, Kevin Dugan, Kami Huyse, Jane Quigley, Sarah Wurrey, Gaurav Mishra, Drew McLellan, Andrea Vascellari

---

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

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utterz facebook mash mysay gabcast kyte.tv jaiku tumblr twitter media micromedia micro macro socialmedia social+media media2.0 media+2.0 2.0 pr2.0 pr publicrelations content public+relations pr+2.0 snack byte snacking snacker

Beware the Things You Share in the World of Social Media

Facebook isn't the only online aggregator that contributes, defines, and showcases your online brand. Everything we produce and share is online and readily discoverable, not just by friends and family, but business associates, customers, prospects, clients, etc.

You'd be surprised what people see, remember and in turn, share with others.

Stowe Boyd recently captured a unique observation in his short post, "With Apologies to Henry Davied Thoreau," where he warned, "Beware of any undertaking that requires editing your Twitter stream."

The very tools you use to communicate with friends are the very channels that can remind us that the world isn't always a nice place.

Update: See Dan Wei's post about a recent job interview and how legacy content that appeared in Google search sparked a very interesting conversation.

Update 2: Does What Happens in the Facebook Stay in the Facebook?

A very interesting video that should remind us that what we share on the Web and in social networks (in this case Facebook) is discoverable and usable by people you don't know and could come back in ways you would never expect.

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

Now is Gone Podcast Series #1 - Audience Versus Community

Only 14 days until the release of Now is Gone and to get things rolling, Geoff Livingston and I are recording a series of weekly podcasts to discuss the seven principles of community engagement uncovered in the book.

The book is available for pre-orders at Amazon.com.

You can download Podcast #1 here or stream it from the Now is Gone blog.

Podcast #1 - Audiences versus Communities

- One-way communications to audiences versus two-way conversational marketing within communities

- The social media release as an example of community marketing

- The need to engage in two-way communications, even when its negative Jennifer McClure’s work with New Communications Review, specifically analysis of FedEx’s failure to respond to negative comments

- Jay Rosen’s article highly influential article, "The People Formerly Known as the Audience"



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Further Defining Social Media Releases

Duncan Riley, whom I greatly admire and respect, offered a very enlightening response to a recent question posed concerning the distribution of Social Media Releases on Gooruze, a new social network dedicated to helping marketing, advertising, search, and PR professionals learn, share and grow together. Disclosure, Duncan and I are among the eight founding "gooruze."

His points are very important and worth sharing as they will make us "think" about how, when, where, and why to use social media releases, if at all.

As much as I respect and understand where Brian is coming from, I can’t help but think that Social Media Release is a non-term. The whole point of social media is that it doesn't conform to traditional rules, and media releases are one of these things; social in this case representing of and from the people. There's still a strong place for media releases - and people should always send them to me, particularly first ;) - but you can't use media releases in a medium that has no center, and is decentralized as part of its very nature. The key is getting in the back door: you wouldn't send a press release to Digg, but you can get on Digg by using more traditional PR methods by contacting the right person at the right blog.

My reply:

Duncan, your views accurately capture the challenges associated with this new format. Well said.

I agree that the SMR is not so much a non-term, but definitely a misunderstood tool, which I’m sure, took off well beyond the original aspirations of SMR creator Todd Defren. Perhaps it’s propelled by the fact that people want so desperately to save or leapfrog the press release, that they are pinning their hopes on this new format.

I can’t agree with you more…Social Media doesn’t conform to traditional rules and is driven by and for the people. This is such an important point because there are many people who believe that the SMR is the only way to engage in conversations, when we all know, that only direct participation is the only way to engage.

Perhaps I need to do a better job in contributing to the value of SMRs.

In the past, I’ve written SMRs to complement media/blogger relations, traditional press releases, as well as corporate blog posts. I’ve placed them online using a social platform, such as Wordpress, and placed them inside of a socially-enabled press room – also built on Wordpress, as an extension to a company Web site. In these cases, they’ve had some pretty interesting and encouraging results.

I haven’t yet though, used Social Media Releases to distribute news to bloggers and journalists. I don’t see the need to replace relationships with “new” tools, and I hope that others don’t forget the importance of one-on-one conversations to share news.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the momentum for the Social Media Release is picking up inertia and I am spending quite a bit of free time (whatever I have these days) adding to the collective voices out there to help clarify what they are, what they aren’t, and also how they may help.

The SMR started as a way of putting together the information that writers need, in one place, collecting the building blocks of any good news story, including news facts, images, video, RSS feeds, links to supporting market information, links to social networks and bookmarks, and also suggested tags, all without the usual BS or spin.

Somewhere along the way, perhaps just over a year ago, some of us discussed the possibility of renaming the Social Media Release as the New Media Release as to not confuse people between the tools to reach people versus the networks where conversations take place with or without PR. But since the Social Media Release brand has legs that only seem to be gaining momentum, I’m committed to helping guide their use and benefits on a path of relevance.

You’re exactly right, “You can't use media releases in a medium that has no center, and is decentralized as part of its very nature.”

I couldn’t have said it any better.

SMRs or New Media Releases were never intended to become the hub, but they were designed to provide information and hopefully, also spark conversations by placing information in places where the content could be discovered – directly and indirectly. Most importantly, they were not intended to cure the ills of many traditional press releases nor are they designed to replace them. They do however, represent an opportunity to distribute information in a usable way, while also presenting the information within social networks to enable people to disseminate, discuss, share, and also provide perspective.

The landscape for good press releases is broadening and is forcing PR to think about new ways to write and distribute them thanks to search engines and meme tracking services ala Techmeme. 51% of IT professionals for example, claim to get their news directly from the press releases that show up in Yahoo Business or Google News over traditional industry rags. And, depending on the day, PRNewswire and Businesswire are now ranked within the top 50 sources in Techmeme’s Leaderboard. It’s all very interesting to say the least. It is also very revealing.

What I’ve learned is that it’s now more important than ever to package news in a useful and meaningful format using the channels where the people you want to reach go for their information.

However, none of this alleviates the need to share news with the people who can help carry information to the people you want to ultimately reach. In the realm of blogger and media relations, relationships are the foundation for distributing information. And in this case, press releases are merely an option – as long as the news and appropriate information is shared in a way that meets the needs of each blogger/reporter.

Social Media is about people. A Social Media Release simply can’t be the only solution for bridging conversations between people and companies though. It can however, present information through social channels which “can” empower people to do more with the content that they discover. But at the very least, SMRs are forcing PR people how to do things better, differently, and hopefully, more effectively.

Additional reading:

The Future of the Social Media Release is in Your Hands - Use it responsibly

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social+media socialmedia smr social+media+release social media release media+20 media2.0 2.0 press+release pressrelease pr pr2.0 pr+20 todd+defren template brian+solis hrelease media+release press publicity communications marketing duncan+riley techcrunch public+relations public relations blogger+relations blogger blog

Blog This - October 28, 2007

Please take a moment to vote for the Social Media Manifesto, the Future of Marketing Communications here. You can read it here.

PR and Bloggers Officially in "Beta” - Finally

Stuart Henshall really nails it on how PR can more effectively work with bloggers.

Social Media Forces PR's Evolution

Social Media is forcing PR to stop lobbing grenades from behind the wall and to jump into the front lines of conversations

Definition of Social Media by Brian Solis

I took a crack at updating the definition on Wikipedia, perhaps it's still too complicated. Either way, we'll see if it sticks

5 PR Pitches: The Good and Bad

Marshall Kirkpatrick should earn a medal for taking time out of his busy day to stop and teach PR people how to do their job

AdaptiveBlue Brings Links to Life with New SmartLinks

If you blog, consider adding SmartLinks to your template. SmartLinks enhance the value and experience for visitors of Web sites and blogs by intelligently analyzing each link and custom serving additional resources that help them do more with the informat

20+ Free Press Release Distribution Sites

Mashable spotlights the top services to host free press releases

Robert Scoble on Upcoming.org - demonstrates Seesmic

Robert Scoble on why social event sites help you find where you need to be. Thanks to Rebecca Reeve for the tip

Yes, some blogs are profitable - very profitable

The SF Chronicle documents how blogging can be a lucrative business and therefore how it is further changing the game of media and putting the power of influence in the hands of people

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The New Rules for Breaking News, Robert Scoble Should be in PR

Part Three of a series discussing blogger relations, "Building a Bridge Between Your Story, Bloggers, and People."

Now that blogging is crossing over into the mainstream, certain bloggers have earned a right of influence and clout that rival many of the top journalists.

Good friend Robert Scoble recently discussed the subject of blogger relations, embargoes and the process of news and launches in tech PR. Scoble, for those who may or may not know, is probably the one of the world's most recognized bloggers. While his forte lies in tech, his influence if far greater. For Scoble to take the time to observe trends in PR and openly discuss them in the blogosphere is representative of an important shift in news distribution and the art of influence.

It got me thinking.



The business of news distribution, from a "smart" PR perspective is evolving out of necessity with new processes dictated by the more savvy practitioners. But in some cases, it's important to expose the mechanics of the new media machine for the betterment of the entire industry.

I don't know about you, but I'm a little burnt on just being a "PR guy." There's so much more to what we do, so why not work on the PR for the PR and actually improve things.

Introducing news used to be pretty cut and dry. We'd start by running a press tour a couple of months in advance to the brief monthly print publications and analysts. Then as the official launch day would approach, we'd hit weekly print two weeks out and then online a few days prior - holding everyone to the same embargo date. The press release would then cross a news wire and some would support it with media outreach while others would cross their fingers and hope for the best.

This entire cycle seems like a luxury nowadays as the cycle of innovation is completely dependent on frequency in order to compete, and that frequency has radically shortned the span between communicating news. In turn, the business of news targeting and distribution is favoring short lead outlets such as newspapers, weeklies, as well as online venues.

Enter blogs.

Bloggers have changed everything and it's sending PR people into a frenzy for how to launch products and broadcast news.

Yes, we're talking about tech and maybe that's not the industry you're in. However, in tech, things work on a bit of a more hectic, hurried, and constant schedule, but the processes that we develop and evolve, wind up inspiring other industries. Basically this is edgework. We're defining and refining new processes and strategies and bringing them back to the center.

So when tech bloggers emerged as part of the mix, we found ourselves rethinking (maybe scrambling in some cases) to figure out how to balance bloggers without upsetting relationships across the board.

Scoble states, "I’ve noticed that PR types are getting very astute with dealing with bloggers lately...First they’ll call Mike Arrington of TechCrunch. Make sure he’s briefed first (Mike doesn’t like to talk about news that someone else broke first, so they’ll make sure he is always in the first group to get to share something with you all). Then they’ll brief “second-tier” bloggers like me, Om Malik [of GigaOM], Dan Farber [of ZDNet], Read/Write Web, and a variety of others. Embargo us all so we can’t publish before Mike does."

He's partially right. There is a process, but trust me, it's a process rooted in respect, admiration, and cultivating relationships (at least for the more effective communicators anyway.)

I've dubbed bloggers the new "wire" service. Providing them with early access to information allows news to bubble up, gaining credibility and momentum to the point where it attracts attention from traditional journalists. Bloggers have direct relations with people, your peers, and they thrive off of their participation.



Attention wire representatives, I'm not saying that bloggers have replaced you. Wire services are still valuable in not only sharing financial information and meeting disclosure requirements, they also have integrated with search engines allowing press releases to reach people directly.

Bloggers add a new step at the beginning of the process.

For example, one of the primary reasons that we launch most tech companies and products in "Beta" these days is because we want feedback directly from the people who would jump in early and give honest feedback as well as sharing the information with their friends and associates. And, if a product is in Beta, most traditional media wouldn't yet pay attention. However, those journalists who do feel a greater sense of competition with bloggers in order to be one of the first to share new, new information, will make it known through their coverage.

This is why it's so important to listen and read before you create any marketing strategy.

Working in Beta not only adds a new step to the communications process, it also affects product marketing as it also requires the team to factor in time and energy for a private or public focus group in order to build awareness and garner feedback.

Most traditional journalists these days want to hear about things that are either ground breaking or changing things in a way that is demonstrable by the massive support of the people who use it. After the beta gains momentum, and enough people use it favorably, then traditional media comes into play.

The next step after that is hitting the "magic middle," bloggers who are defined as having a range of between 20 - 1,000 inbound links to their blog. These are the influencers who truly move the needle for customers and is among the best peer to peer marketing avenues you can pursue. In many cases, these bloggers are you prospective customers.

How do you share news with bloggers? Well, a lot of it has to do with relationships and for that, I suggest you read the series on blogger relations (Part I and II.) I can tell you that it's different for different industries and there isn't an exact science yet.

Certain bloggers maintain a higher authority than others, and while it fluctuates, most levels of influence remain constant over time.

The business of news has advanced quite a bit in the tech world, and by advanced, I mean that it has introduced a new layer to the equation.

Let me first clarify, there is still a thriving news business within traditional media. In the tech world however, the art of Beta news is the new game. But, this is not unlike other industries. Early information, prototypes, leaks, R&D, are all things that give bloggers their edge these days and, if executed properly, they only escalate the brand and the anticipation for new things among traditional press and ultimately customers.



But going to bloggers is tricky. Favoring one and not the other can cost you credibility and relationships. So borrowing a page from the traditional PR playbook, bloggers have embraced embargoes to maintain the privilege of receiving early information - in most cases.

I can tell you most certainly that I've had several instances where bloggers broke embargoes, which could have been costly if we didn't have backup plans in place. I have witnessed the wrath that can result if one blogger goes before everyone else. It all comes down to relationships, having valuable news to share, and working with a select group of people that can really help build the community, while adapting to the way they work.

But this is the wild west. Live and learn.

Exclusives come into play these days still, however, they're growing more rare. Offering one story to one writer may most of the time, limit the total visibility for any story, as most bloggers extend the reach to a more complete global community of people.

Scoble points to organic initiatives such as those executed by Kyte.tv and Seesmic. Both companies are embracing bloggers, and influential players directly, without PR, to introduce them to the product and let them experience it without influence. He openly wonders if these techniques may be more beneficial in the long run instead of playing the news game.

Well, to tell you the truth, you can still run both and be successful - as long as you're smart and genuine about everything.



Working one on one with important people, whether they're bloggers or enthusiasts, will only benefit you in the short and long term. However, this isn't always a guaranteed success - even though anything rarely is these days.

Remember this...campaigns aren't viral. People make them viral.

If it's anything that Social Media has taught us is that we can empower people to help carry the word out to others. However, most executives are far too impatient to sit and wait for an organic campaign to get traction.

Now, an even earlier step can be introduced into the process as a way of gaining traction sooner. Before Beta, there's Alpha and this is usually an experiment in organic marketing, driven by a sense of scarcity and exclusivity. Note, many companies also dub this "Private Beta."

Most of the time, new companies and services are previewed in private, through either invitations, opt-in reviews, or password-protected links. Bloggers, media, and enthusiasts are all included in this round and empowered to share information with other peers to build up excitement. For example, microblogging service Pownce was almost an overnight sensation as it was introduced in private to a select group of influential geeks and bloggers. Their touting of access to the site combined with the fact that each were also empowered with a set of invitation codes, created a hyper-active market for invitation exchanges, with some actually going on ebay (and selling!).

As mentioned earlier, Loic LeMeur's Seesmic is pursuing the invitation strategy and is currently in Public Alpha. This is unique in the sense that it still creates a sense of exclusivity, however, people are so excited to be part of it, that they show off their creations in public, thus fueling demand and increasing visibility for the up-and-coming company. Here's an example of Robert Scoble using Seesmic to discuss Upcoming.org, which he promoted across all of his social networks.

Imagine for a moment breaking news organically without worrying about embargoes, but instead by using social tools and people through all channels of Social Media to share information before an official launch. Yes, it's possible and is being practiced and streamlined now. But, we can talk more about that later as part of an upcoming series, "How to do PR without a Press Release."

Social media is forcing an evolution in how companies share information with customers as well as those who also act as information intermediaries to the people that depend on them for guidance. The art of news is truly an art and it requires practice and experience. It also requires talent and creativity. The most successful ways of sharing news will be dependent on your ability to listen and by building and cultivating relationships with those who can help break news under the "new" rules of the launch.

There isn't one way to work with bloggers, enthusiasts, and traditional journalists, but there are more than enough opportunities to do it the wrong way. Pay attention. Think. Be Creative. Have a plan. Build trust and ensure that your intent is genuine.

Conversations with the bloggers and media (and customers) will help dictate the launch and news strategies that are going to have the biggest impact and meaningful benefits for your company.

Read the full article with a white background.



Related Articles:

Building a Bridge Between Your Story, Bloggers, and People Part I

Building a Bridge Between Your Story, Bloggers, and People Part II

Robert Scoble Asks, "Is Facebook the New Press Release?"

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Apple's New Wireless Keyboard is a Work of Art

The Movado Museum earned its name for a reason. The original Movado watch was a fusion of beauty, modern design and technology. In 1960, it earned a place in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Apple, a company long associated with ground-breaking designs, has outdone itself with the introduction of its new wireless bluetooth keyboard.



Yes it's a keyboard, so writing a review of it based on that functionality would be boring. I'm simply taking a moment to recognize the incredible beauty and style that will define a new generation of computer peripherals.


The real thing, I actually used it to type this post

Similar to the way the iPhone changed the game for the entire mobile industry, this new keyboard will inspire new designs across the Mac and PC landscapes.

Borrowed from the new iMac wired keyboards, it also incorporates the new low profile keys from the Macbook lines.



It's razor thin, tiny, portable, and a complement to any desktop.

After owning it for less than 24 hours, I find myself looking for reasons to type.

$79 at Apple.com and at your local Apple store.

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Blog This, October 21, 2007

Please take a moment to vote for the Social Media Manifesto, the Future of Marketing Communications here. You can read it here.

Future to Newspapers: Jump in the river

Doc Searls, "To be truly alive, truly new, truly part of the life of its readers, a newspaper needs to be on the live web and not just the static one. It needs to flow news, and not just post it. It needs to flow rivers of news, or newsrivers."

Anti-Gaming TechMeme - New PR Trend?

Robert Scoble thinks he's identified a new trend in tech PR and how the industry revolves around Michael Arrington and TechCrunch. Scoble also highlights how some companies are successful with organic news discovery. I agree and disagree...

Exclusive: Techbloggers Have Sold Their Souls

Rogers Cadenhead comments on Robert Scoble's original post that bloggers are selling their souls in order to participatae in the news game.

PR Pitch From Hell - Flacks: White Space is Your Friend!

I just adore B.L. Ochman. She shares ideas to help flacks improve their pitches.

Traditional Press Release Example

An example template to help with writing effective press releases for the wire and also for search engine optimization (SEO)

Technology/Internet Trends by Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley

Myspace PR sent out very detailed briefing notes for the joint Web 2.0 Summit keynote by Rupert Murdoch and Chris DeWolfe regarding Myspace. It was supposed to be off-the-record, but as this reporter says, "...in my experience, an arrangement to keep some

The Future of the Social Media Release is in Your Hands

Brian Solis and Todd Defren collaborate on the future of the Social Media Press Release

Storyboarding: Another View on How to Use the Social Media News Release

Kami Huyse ane Geoff Livingston are among the new stars in PR. The duo continues the discussion on the evolution of the Social Media Release

We Build Our Tools And They Shape Us

Stowe Boyd, "New applications like Twitter, Facebook, Jaiku, and Pownce have rapidly emerged as the leaders in the exploding lifestreaming niche. This networked form of communication has been compared to talking on a partyline, and the flow of updates..."

A Can of Worms

Oracle Stirs the pot with a blogstorm reaction to its blogger policy for attending OpenWorld

Blogger Relations vs Social Media News Release (SMNR)

Stuart Henshall examines an SMR and Blogger relations reminding PR people, that nothing beats relationships. Tools are just tools.

Connect on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce or Facebook.

pr public+relations social+media blog blogger socialmedia diigo publicrelations pr2.0 pr+2.0 communications marketing

The Future of the Social Media Release is in Your Hands

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 Social Media evolves, so does the process of discovery, sharing, and influence.

Traditional press releases distributed over wire services, for better or worse, ARE already showing up in search engines as a natural part of the wire distribution process.

According to Outsell, Inc. over 51% of IT professionals are reporting 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, dictated by necessity, to do things better. And, in order to do that, we need to understand the dynamics of traditional, multimedia, and social media.

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.

It all starts with thinking about what you want to say and figure out why it's important to those you want to reach.

A crappy press release is still a crappy press release regardless of multimedia or social bling.

Writing the news in a way that's helpful, informative, and relative is a critical starting point for any release.

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 reason for this post is to remind people that tricking out press releases for the sake of tapping into a trend doesn't do anyone any good.

Writing the news in a way that's helpful, informative, and relative is a critical starting point for any release to be successful now and in the future.

Garbage in, garbage out.

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.

This is a call to action for PR people to stop and think about the entire process and take the challenge for improvement, whether multimedia or social.

We have a responsibility to journalists, bloggers, analysts and to our customers that we need to finally take seriously. And, in order to build/continue relationships, we have to provide information in way that works for the different groups of people that want info, without the usual b.s. or spintastic hype.

For additional background, please read Everything You Wanted to Know About Social Media Releases.

Connect on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce or Facebook.

blogger blog blogger+relations relations media press communications marketing marketing+2.0 pr2.0 pr+2.0 pr publicrelations public+relations media2.0 media+2.0 publicity todd+defren brian+solis press+release pressrelease news+release news social+media social socialmedia smr smpr hrelease multimedia digg delicious del.icio.us bookmark rss social+media+release social+media+press+release social+media+news+release social+network smo seo sem search bseo search+engine technorati flickr youtube key+words

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