Most people want to ‘get it’: Are you willing to help?
January 21, 2007
I do get a kick out of the entire dustup over the social media release - very happy to hear people talking about it really, even if some don’t fully understand the deeper purpose and the broader implications. Those progressive, anti-establishment folks screaming that our efforts are co-opting social media are doing the exact thing I expected from them - attacking instead of offering help. This is exactly what I did back in 1994-96 when I launched an interactive agency. When any traditional agency would make a move into interactive, we would, to borrow a term from Stowe Boyd “skewer them”. If you have paid any attention to what I have been writing about the purpose for Social Media Club, you will know that this is one of the main points of what I am trying to accomplish - if you get it, share it. Not if you get it, scream at others who are trying to get it and ostracize them while calling them stoopid.
With some age and experience, has come a bit of wisdom about economic realities and human behaviour. It is only natural to want to be combative and tear down the things we don’t understand or dislike - or to throw out an entire barrel of apples for want of getting rid of a few bad ones. The funny thing is that many ‘pro-people, anti-organization’ folks are completely disregarding the fact that these organizations are made up of PEOPLE! People who want to do the right thing, people who want our help, people who want to get it and make things right.
Regardless, this is finally the beginning of the manifestation of the cluetrain principles in our society, with companies entering the conversation in a real and meaningful way. Yes many will stumble and make big mistakes (which can hopefully serve as lessons not to be repeated by others). Personally, I expected such an uprising long ago - this sort of confrontational approach is what lead to the fall of netiquette and the tighter embrace of greed over good sense. It lead to all sorts of problems with people not getting the point, nor being open to new ways of thinking, because those who really understood what it was all about were dismissive of anyone trying to figure it out - especially those older than themselves. Worse, it limited the potential for having meaningful conversations and made management harden their position rather than engaging in meaningful dialogue and understanding why things were different and how they could engage properly. It made management dismissive of those PEOPLE who really wanted to change inside their organizations rather than supportive of them.
From my perspective, this is about more than whether or not the press release is evolving into the social media release, it is about whether or not people want to find ways to help each other do things right, or if they want to find conflict and enjoy the fight. The dust will perhaps not settle for a long time, but in standing for progress and seeking what is best for the whole of society, I will continue to support the golden rule and do my personal best to stay true to The Four Agreements.
There are a lot of good points on both sides of the argument, but the finger pointing about ‘you don’t get it’, or ‘getting social media all wrong’ is not going to be helpful for anyone. There is much to be learned on both sides though, and that is the purpose I have for bringing communications professionals together with bloggers, podcasters, journalists, students, non profits and for profits - to learn together, from each other. Yes, there are many who do not understand that the very nature of how we relate to one another as human beings is changing and continue to do things the wrong way. Are these people going to learn more if you call them names and disparage them, or are they going to learn more if you appreciate that they are PEOPLE and give them the respect that they deserve for being human while trying to help them understand how they can do things differently?
I am not going to get into a tit for tat on every post and every point in this discussion because we have a lot of important unfinished business that must be addressed first, but please know where I am coming from and that my goal is to serve as a catalyst for the good cause. Transforming society through the economic engine of business and technology and communications is no easy task, and I am sure there are things I will get wrong, as will each of us, but our intentions are clear and our objectives are probably pretty similar to yours, even when our tactics and approach may seem diametrically opposed.
In the end, ‘getting it’ is an internal shift that we can not easily force on anyone - people have to want to change for themselves - it is an internal realization that what has worked in the past is no longer working. You can bludgeon people into submission to your way of thinking or you can engage in respectful dialogue and make inroads by helping them along the way. In the end, how you choose to approach this world changing mission is your own. In the end, this is my noble pursuit.
This is the second of my weekly columns we are calling “A View From The Middle” - it is still in its birthing phase, so the format might change a bit, but they are generally deeper posts about the important things I see happening, not on the fringes, but in the middle with everyone else.
Sphere: Related ContentThank You, Boston and good night!
January 13, 2007
Thanks very much to the folks at Social Media Club in Boston for allowing me to present the other night. Special thanks to IDG Network World for hosting the event, and to Todd Van Hoosier and the folks from Topaz Partners for organizing the event .
As part of the meeting Computerworld Senior Online Projects Editor Ian Lamont showed us Sharkbait, which is a user-generated content site (or a forum, depends on how you view it) where readers of ComputerWorld can submit items for discussion about “tech tidbits”, difficult situations, crazy bosses, and those zany users (you know, the ones who use the CDRom drive as a coffe cup holder). There are some interesting anecdotes there already, and the site just went live a few weeks ago.
Ian also noted, based on a question by John Kass, that Computerworld writers who blog are also responding to comments on non-IDG, non-Computerworld blogs, and are finding info from user blogs and highlighting them on their own site. In otherwords, they’ve joined the discussion. Good to know.
Several folks have blogged about the event. John Kass wondered first if Boston Companies have the zing for Social Media. He follows up his own piece with more data here.
David M. Scott reviews the discussion of the Social Media Release at his blog.
Boston organizer Todd Van Hoosier recorded the full audio of the meeting in these two blog posts - part1 & part2.
As promised, here is a link to a PDF of my slides from the other night.
Someone asked me if I would post my raw notes of Todd Defern’s talk on the Social Media Press Release. I’ve included them below. They are in draft form - done for my use, and errors are my own. The good thing is, if you want to really hear this, you can listen to the meeting in the posts above from Todd Van Hoosier.
More info about the SM Release here.
Sm Release
Todd Defern, Shift Communications.
Everyone hates press releases. But 3k go out a day.
Of the thousands of articles a day published in the media, <3% come from press releases.
Die Press release blog post by Tom Foremski at Silicon Valley Watcher.
Basic Principles for the Press release SMR
- to democratize access to them. Most people who can get full content are credentialed journalists with access to Marketwire or PR Newswire.
- But you may want bloggers, etc. to read your release, or hobbyists, or etc.
o Remove the barriers to access
- Ensure accuracy
o Pfizer drug launch
- Embrace Context
o Anyone writing about you will search, digg, del.icio.us,
• If you were a company you could put a delicious site out there and put your own opinion about this stuff
o Tagging – word of mouth client, they bookmarked every one of the articles about w of m, and tagged them, and collected them.
• PR people giving CONTEXT around the things they’re writing
- Building community
o If you release with tags for technorati search. They won’t just see news about your stuff, they’ll see the conversation AROUND THAT TAG
• YOU’RE putting yourself out there and embracing community
- Be find-able
o Social media optimization
These releases end up as sort of mini-website, made accessible, given content that can be shared,
Novell did an SM release on a day with 10 releases – that release was the least newsworthy but got the most hits
Belkin, Symphony, Novell,
PR-squared.com
4 professors in schools are teaching SM Release
Other folks have put up similar but not same things, but almost exactly the same.
What’s the resistance to this? IR, Legal?
Todd: Most frequent question – should I put out both traditional release and an SM release? 2x cost
David scott – if you just want to reach media – do an old style one. If you want to reach buyers, be in search engines, etc – do an SM release.
Eventually will be called SM News Release or just ‘a news release.’
These new releases won’t go to many of the media company feeds, etc – in the current system.
Will this bypass trad. Media and bloggers and lose credibility –
Where will these releases live?
Client site, PR firm, wire services
Reaction –
Todd: overall positive from journalists, mixed from pr folks, bloggers and influencers – 250 posts about this, only 13 negative
Music and arts folks love this – they can put out clips of what they do as part of it
Social Media Release Blog & Requirements ‘Released’
November 1, 2006
Just a quick note here that we have started a new Blog to address the progress of the Social Media Release and help practicioners to better understand best practices - ultimately making the most of the emerging standard for the PR industry. Check out the Social Media Release dot org Blog if you are interested and subscribe to that feed to follow updates. While we will still be talking about it here from time to time as a project of Social Media Club, the meat of the conversation will be happening over there and on the related Wiki.
[updated title - 3am typo]
Sphere: Related ContentSocial Media Cast 0.2
September 4, 2006
In this week's Podcast Chris and Howard talk about the reason for choosing the Microformat as the technology for the new Media Release standard. Most of the episode is devoted to a discussion of upcoming events and the expansion of the Club. SMC meetings will be held in London on 15Sep2006, New York City on 18Sep2006, Miami on 25Sep2006 and Los Angeles on 28Sep2006. Additionally, SMC will be hosting a Social Media conference for High Tech PR and Marketing professionals in Silicon Valley on 23Oct2006.
