Finally someone with the chutzpah to walk the social media walk. After all the ‘is the release dead’ BS, SHIFT Communications has unveiled the social media press release. Todd Defren has the details on his blog and is tracking the conversation here.
The press release itself could use a make-over, social media or not. The format is tired and for most purposes it’s outlived its usefulness. What SHIFT is doing is nothing short of a full scale desconstruction. And just to prove they’re putting their money where their mouth is, they’re announcing it in the new format.
Bonus links: thoughts on the matter from Shel Holtz, Kami Huyse and Stuart Bruce.
Update: Susan Getgood agrees but also points out that crappy fluffy news releases will still be crappy fluffy news releases.
Worthless announcements will still be worthless, even in a new format. The root problem isn’t the format of the press release, however odd. It is the use of the press release for stupid stuff (edited — the first version of this post used stronger language).
But the award for best response has to go to the Media Guerrilla himself, “Crazy” Mike Manuel.
Update 2: Brian Oberkirch gives the news a “Meh.”
