Mitch Arnowitz

January 23, 2007

Social Media Press Releases

Update: see Stowe's updates and summary here

as posted to AdMarketing

Is anyone watching the press release debate between bloggers Chris Heuer and Stowe Boyd? Does anyone care?

Well, you should. The 'kill or revise the press release' debate has been going on for some time but seems to be picking up steam. At the moment, there's an argument raging about last week's Third Thursday SF event on new media press releases. I think that Chris supports revamping the press release through standards like Microformats. I think that Stowe is saying the press release is wrong and adding new media tools as window dressing won't help. He is actually questioning "the outmoded thinking about PR and social media."

As you probably know, press releases are beginning to include community building features such as Del.icio.us, Furl, Digg and, of course good old fashioned RSS. New media tools are being added to increase traffic (although it's up for debate whose traffic is being increased!), engage and listen to the conversation. As companies open up the communications process and become more transparent, there's also something to be said for getting away from the broadcast, corporate speak mode.

As far as this debate goes, you can follow the specifics here, here and here.

The bigger issue might be the changing or evolving face of PR. In addition to the media, are you writing press releases for people that read Yahoo! and Google News? Are you incorporating social media tools in your press releases? Are clients asking for these services? Or, is all of this just blogger talk with the original press release format here to stay?

What do you think?

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November 14, 2006

Supply and Demand

Sally Falkow points to an interesting list by London based E-consultancy on The 12 reasons why UK businesses don't blog.

What's interesting is that some PR folks tell me that clients aren't asking for blogging, tagging and social networks. What companies and orgs know though is that things are changing. They sense that customers and supporters are getting info and news from different sources these days-- away from the mainstream and their Websites. 'Engagement' seems to be a word that Corporate America, not only the non-profit sector is picking up on.

I don't necessarily hear it alot but also sense that most corporate communication departments know that they've already lost some control over the message.

So, the question is: are the agencies leaving money on the table by not listening to the conversation or even asking the right questions?

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October 17, 2006

Social Media and the Press Release

This comes from the DC Communicator broadcast (no link to their website- it's down at the moment).

Social Media and the Press Release

The concept that more and more people are consuming information when and where they want also is of interest to Dan McGinn who heads The McGinn Group. McGinn, a regular contributor to the DC Communicator, has these observations:

Social media sites like MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Second Life and Facebook are rapidly gaining on more established portals/search engines such as Google and Yahoo! People with common interests come together on these sites to spend time and share their creations, information and experiences. In June, two out of every three people online visited a social networking site.

You can read the rest of the post here.

One of the best reads on the new press release stratedgy is The New Rules of PR :: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly by David Meerman Scott.

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