By Becky Caudill
Over the last several days, there has been what can only be described as an overwhelming amount of discussion in the blogosphere on the social media news release (here, there, and almost everywhere). It seems PR folks and bloggers either love it or hate it, and they certainly aren’t afraid to say so one way or the other. Normally, I love controversy and gossip, but I found myself just feeling tired by the fifth or so rant.
Here’s the thing – I’m familiar with the social media news release (SMNR), having used various versions of it with a couple of clients, and while I do believe a release of this nature has its place and provides many benefits, I’m not entirely convinced it is the solution to all that ails us in gaining exposure for our clients in the blogosphere. I’ve seen a lot written these past couple of days, and I believe what it comes down to is having conversations.
I don’t care how many press releases your client issues, how many links a release incorporates, what your client thinks about search engine optimizers (SEOs), or how many tags a release has … if your client doesn’t engage in active conversations with bloggers, it’s all for naught. If you want your clients to be remembered by bloggers, make sure they respond to pertinent blog posts. If your client wonders why a blogger never talks about their products, customers, or market, make sure they’re speaking directly to the blogger about these things. No press release in the world will ever substitute for this sort of interaction.
Incidentally, feedback I’ve received from traditional press on SMNRs has been mixed. Some reporters liked the fact that extra marketing speak (“market leading,” “next-generation,” “robust,” etc.) had been eliminated in favor of links back to product information and market data, while others thought the format wasn’t conducive to putting together short and dirty news briefs and actually made their jobs harder. Whichever way you look at it, the SMNR isn’t perfect.
I think that’s a pretty good statement to summarize this debate – the SMNR is not perfect; it’s also not an evil beasty out to destroy Earth. It is what it is, and it works for some people but not for all. Isn’t that the way with so many of our clients’ technologies as well?
In my opinion, the following statement pretty much summarizes how I feel about the whole debate and the various sub-debates that have sprung up:
“ … Despite the culture mismatch, there certainly are plenty of bloggers who actually don't mind hearing from a PR person, as long as it's in the form of a personal email or comment that reflects that the flack actually reads the blog and gets what it's about … But fundamentally social media is a peer-to-peer medium; bloggers would rather hear from someone doing something cool than from the paid promotional representative for that person. The problem is that the people doing that cool stuff are busy, which is why they pay PR people to do the outreach for them in the first place.” - The Long Tail
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