I haven’t commented on the social media news release / Edelman announcement brewhaha because, well, take a look at the subject line.
It’s not the releases that are broken, it’s the content. It’s the industry more than that but let’s not bite off more than we can chew here. Releases are designed to get discrete bits of information out into the public record. Most of it to satisfy legal requirements. Unfortunately most releases (Whamco Announces New Bits of Crap: Industry First!) are sent out with the intention of generating news and that’s a whole different ballgame. News is generated by news, the delivery format (the messenger if you will) is besides the point.
In other words, if you want to get the attention of the media, the format is besides the point, just give them news.
I agree also with what Brian Oberkirch says:
The social media news release is an attempt by communication firms to ward off strategy decay. (”There’s no place like home, no place like home…”) Two of their biggest deliverables (creating media materials and managing press relations) are eroding as social media gain traction. The SMNR is a hail mary play to professionalize and corral what will start to become organic by-products of distributed organziational communication. There will be no one format or standardization, and the only real consumers of SMNR argumentation will be agencies and those who might hire them. As it is with APR, WOMMA guidelines, etc.: the rest of the world will just keep doing its edgework, indifferent to this discussion.
Just keep walking folks, nothing to see here…. return to your homes.
