social media press release etc.

anthropoet — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:26:56 -0600

I'm pretty sure the social media press release was a PR stunt in and of itself. The format is large and awkward, and more of an actual web page than a document.

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Putting the People in PR

Jeneane Sessum — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 14:33:54 -0600

If "social media" PR types continue to focus on how to bring old tools into a new paradigm, they will continue to be beaten about the head and neck. Case in point is the social media press release, which has been discussed way too long for anyone outside of BigPR, which struggles to adapt to the changing means of "relating" among "people," formerly known as consumers.

The problem is the dual role of consumer (or user) and producer (or co-creator) that we find ourselves in, thanks to the Internet. Wait, it's not a problem at all. At least outside of BigPR--which has quickly become OldPR.

The traditional press release serves a purpose and always will. For public companies it is more an IR tool than anything else. Public companies are required to release information--and whether they do it through more human sounding language, through some PDF or HTML file with horizontal rules and links to podcasts, OR the usual way, they're not bothering anyone.

The call for a social media press release is a straw man. It is easier to fix formatting and links in an OldPR tool than it is to figure out how to bring an old-world discipline into new territory.

We are not an audience. You should not be broadcasting. Hello, it's time to take delivery.

On the social Internet, people are always looking for help getting done what they need or want to get done. THAT is the role of PR. THAT is how NewPR people are helping their clients. Finding ways to help people participating online do the things they want to do. Helping them discover new things to do. It's bottom up in the most radical way. The People are the new CEO. And the new CEO is a person.

In my opinion, the women of PR often "get this" right off the bat. Maybe because women held roles for so long as "helpers" in business: the idea of helping "people" get things done is not so foreign to us. The difference now is that we are taking a lead role, not a pleeb role, in enabling and connecting people in order to get things done.

Tara Hunt gives her opinion of the recent hubub around "Social Press Releases" in Stowe's comments, highlighted in this recap post. She says: "..Even the term 'social media' makes me want to cry. WTF is social media? People are social and we aren't just idly waiting here to have really impersonal, crappy PR messages stuffed down our throats."

Yes, people are social. No press release format or email format or HTML code can make us less so or more so. The only thing we need is all we've ever needed -- mediums for connecting and creating.

Time to stop caring about press releases over people.

Time to get things done.
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social media press release etc.

Putting the People in PR