Dritte Teil:Fix Those Press Releases!

Brian Solis's entire point in writing Enough Already: Getting the Social Media Release All Wrong is to dicuss social marketing. As best as I can follow the concept, this is where companies have "conversations" with we in the media.

You know, the principal of FutureWorks PR is trying to get a conversation going.

Social press releases try to have the vendor engage me in conversation. Wait a minute! Who said you could be my friend? Conversation tends to be inefficient. Give me hard data now. We can have a conversation when you slot me 30 minutes at the next trade show.

This is from an email that was a recent attempt by a company ceo to socialize pr-wise with me. (I've edited out identifiable names):

Dear Ralph.
... We’ve chosen to adopt an open source business model similar to Company X; software is free and customers pay only for services & support. The software is available at http://www.companyt -- Check it out, would like to know what you think.

I fell for the friendly approach, but the email gave me little information. Going to the Web site, I was overwhelmed by the clutter on the home page. As well as the clutter on any other page I link to. I'm soured, because I can't really figure out what's going on. Too little information, followed by too much information.

Social press releases is a transient trend whose end I await with impatience.

Comments

[Brian Solis]

Hi Ralph, I just wanted to chime in here to make sure that the point of the discussion is clear with you, and most importantly, your community of readers.

Your point, "As best as I can follow the concept, this is where companies have "conversations" with we in the media." The truth of what we're trying to do is put solid information in a format which you can parse in a way that works with your workflow. We're not trying to socialize, and in turn, give right to have companies spam you with some new fangled tool that has links,media, rss feeds, etc.

The idea here is to give you everything you need in one place if you decide to use it: News, facts, resources, images, media, actual quotes, subscription feeds for future news, and the ability to allow comments - all without the traditional BS stuffed into press releases. It's about knowing why you might want to know what company x is doing. Think of it as more intelligent and informed PR - instead of shotgun PR.