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Social Media Relations = The Release + News Room

September 30, 2007 | 23 Comments

As promised, here is the “Social Media Relations” presentation I gave at the Ragan Communications Social Media Summit last week. The presentation is a quick history and overview of the social media release and news room with some facts and stats to support the reasons for using it. For much of the Q&A, we discussed whether or not the social media release should replace the traditional version. A few seemed to think the social media release would be a great new tool for all reporters - of old and new media.

As the social media release gains popularity, I don’t think we’re faced with an “either or” proposition. I told the audience to use their discretion and make the call based on their knowledge of the journalists they’re pitching. I know reporters who work for organizations that block all video and I still know reporters who have difficulty navigating the web.

A hybrid release might make sense across the board - a release that improves on the traditional template, but doesn’t quite include all of the components of the suggested social media release template (Todd Defren, creator of the social media release template, reminds people this is just a suggested template). For instance, I love the idea of using bulleted news facts at the beginning of all releases - similar to what CNN.com does with all its stories now. And I think sending contextual links to other relevant stories is important, when applicable. I’m also a big fan of providing multimedia elements whenever possible. However, I’ve just described more of a multimedia release than a social one. I haven’t provided for comments, sharing or community-building.

Todd Defren and I agree that the purest form of a social media release is a blog post. And that’s exactly why I believe the best solution for a social media news room (and therefore a social media release) is a blog engine. Instead of building a social media news room from scratch, why not build it from a Wordpress template and almost immediately gain RSS, search functionality, categories, comments, archives, easy video integration and a menu of cool widget options. Every release, or post, that you publish is instantly a social media release. And better yet, you’re engaging in the conversation at your corporate site instead of a third-party newswire. That’s what we did at Leopardo. Although,we disabled comments so our news room is more of a monologue. While I understand the importance of social media and “conversation,” I wanted to take small bites when applying social media for my company. Comments is a big obligation and responsibility because I think it’s critical that you (the organization) be committed to responding to all comments in a timely manner - typically within 30 to 60 minutes. Anyway, I digress. Here is the presentation.

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Blogging, Educational, Management, Marketing, Media, Presentations, Public Relations, Social Media, Strategies+Tactics, Technology

Edward Bernays: Assassin of Democracy

September 29, 2007 | 4 Comments

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Educational, Politics, Public Relations, Video

The Carcracker Suite - A Safety Dance

September 27, 2007 | 2 Comments

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Advertising, Video

A Week of Speaking About Emerging Media

September 26, 2007 | 2 Comments

As I write this, I’m waiting for my laptop to reboot (I hate Vista) so I can tweak my “social media relations” presentation that I’m giving tomorrow at the Ragan Communications Social Media Summit. If you’re there, stop by and say hello. Stay tuned, I’ll be making the presentation available to my readers. Next Tuesday, October 2, I’m joining an impressive group of panelists for a discussion on “How B2B Marketers Can Leverage the Power of Emerging Media.” The panel includes:

David Armano, Vice President of Experience Design, Critical Mass
Mike Gamson, GM, New Business, LinkedIn
Matt Lohman, Director of Business Development & Research, KnowledgeStorm
Rick Murray, President, me2revolution
Chris Yeh, CEO, Ustream.TV

I’m looking forward to that conversation!

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Blogging, Educational, Marketing, Media, Presentations, Social Media

The Next Generation of Engineers

September 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Nice Idea - The best video clips are right here

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Advertising, Video

The New Rule of Press Conferences

September 21, 2007 | 2 Comments

New Rule No. 1 - Every press conference should have one of these guys standing next to the spokesperson, adding special news commentary… and wearing a similar outfit.

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Humor, Media, Public Relations, Video

Writing Comedy Is Easy For Some…

September 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

…and even easier for others. Like the writers for these great shows.

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Humor, Video

The Fundamentals of Drawing

September 20, 2007 | 1 Comment

My wife, the elementary school art teacher, would appreciate this video. Now, if only I could get her to actually read my blog. Impossible.

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Posted by toddand | Filed Under Design, Educational, Video

Yarr… It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day

September 19, 2007 | 1 Comment

Where have I been? Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day and I forgot my eye patch. Shiver me timbers. In case you’re wondering, this isn’t the first time I’ve written about talking like a pirate. It’s one of my favorite topics.

IMPORTANT: Please don’t be confused by some mistaken reports of today as ‘Talk Like a Parrot Day’ - it’s not.