The press release is on life support and I’m rallying a team of supporters to euthanize it – not to put it out of its misery, but to keep it from contributing to the misery of reporters, analysts, bloggers and the people who read them. The process of writing and distributing a press release can be excruciatingly painful and is almost laughable when you read the final product. Company X Launches World’s First, Industry-leading, Innovative Thingamabob that will Change Our…
PR and Social Media are Still Oil and Water
In many ways, the recent discussion of Marketwire’s acquisition of PRNN and how it was positioned as an example of the pioneering developments in Social Media and news distribution reminds me a bit of PRWeek’s claim that PR was entering an era of PR 3.0. Attention, executives at wire services and industry magazines, before you jump into the comments section here, believe that I fully acknowledge your good intentions. However, perhaps your excitement and enthusiasm may have clouded your judgment…
Marketwire Acquires PRNN – But is This Really Social Media?
Social Media is the new gold rush and traditional PR services are scrambling to stay relevant as new tools, channels, and experts are forcing a long overdue renaissance. Nowadays, the word “social” is getting tossed around by anyone and everyone as if it was a golden adjective with huge dividends for instantly inflating personal expertise and credibility – regardless of whether or not they truly understand and practice social media. And unfortunately, it’s bound to only get more polluted as…
New Media Release Cast 16 – Evolution of the Press Release
Chris Heuer, Shel Holtz, and I recorded number 16 in an ongoing series that discusses the New Media Release aka Social Media Release aka hrelease. In this episode, we were joined by Shannon Whitley, who is now heading up the Working Group for defining the hrelease standard. We discussed the state of the SMR, current examples of SMRs in action, as well as the plans for the Working Group moving forward. Whitley has been very passionate about the social media…
The Social Media Manifesto
In the past, I’ve spoken at PR, tech, and communications events about Social Media and how companies can engage in the conversations taking place with or without them. As much as I wanted to look into the future, I was rooted in the present as a means to connect it to the past. There are just too many new things to introduce to people and even more reasons why they should care. The discussion usually centered on the tools enabling…
New Media Release Cast #15 Now Online – Evolution of the Press Release
It’s been a while since we last recorded the NMRCast, but with the growing discussions around the new media release, we felt it was time to reignite the conversations. The NMRCast was initially started to document the evolution of the press release in today’s social landscape. It reviews the strategies and experiments driving the social media release aka new media release so that PR professionals can learn from each other in order to improve how we share news and information…
Social Media Killed the Video News Release Star
Source With Social Media Releases (New Media Releases) in the spotlight again, I felt this was the ideal timing to introduce you to the Video News Release (VNR) redux. Ready or not, start brushing up on flash, screencasting, video production, online video networks, and Web marketing. Online video is the next frontier for the communications industry adding a new layer of engagement to any existing PR, marketing and web initiative. In my opinion social media has reinvented the VNR, putting…
Social Media Releases – Everything You Ever Wanted to (or Should) Know
The social media news release is rallying support. And more importantly, examples and discussions of usage are percolating throughout the blogsphere among PR practitioners and bloggers alike. It’s no longer a matter of if, nor when, but now a matter of practice and evolution in order to determine success and failure. As a recap, the Social Media Release has been pushed by many influencers, including Tom Foremski’s public outcry for the death of crappy press releases; Todd Defren who offered…
Attention Traditional PR, Step Away from the Social Media Release – aka hRelease
I came across a post that really smacked me in the face with a stinging sense of reality. You can’t help everyone grow; only those that realize they can. We just have to do a better job of reaching everyone else to help lay a more informative foundation for people to cause change. Regarding the Social Media Release, it’s not social media. The Social Media Press Release still adheres to the antiquated notion that public relations means appealing to the…
Thank You for Bringing Attention to the Need for Change
The conversation regarding the need for evolution in PR still rages on (with the SMR aka hrelease at the center of the controversy.) Some bloggers “get it,” others are forcing us to do a better job explaining what we’re actually doing, while some (and the people who read their blogs) completely miss the point. If anything, this conversation demonstrates why the blogosphere (and most importantly, people) will chew-up and spit-out traditional PR and corporate marketing types – without thinking twice….
