Tag Archives: shel holtz

The social media release is not a PR panacea

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In the first few weeks of my new job at readMedia, I’ve been learning tons about the role press releases play in our clients’ local media relations strategies. Although many PR and media bloggers have decried the death of the press release in favor of new tactics like the social media release, from what I’ve seen so far those claims are quite premature.

All the discussion about social media releases seems to come from the perspective of big brands launching new products and trying to get feature coverage. It was no different when I was reading Putting the Public Back in Public Relations. From Chapter 8:

Most news releases are driven by product development, which can cause an inward and narrowly focused view from life inside the company.

But thousands of PR and communications professionals just don’t work in this kind of environment. Many of them work for organizations whose activities form the basis of bread-and-butter local news stories: non-profits, schools, governments, small businesses. (A recent Pew Research Center study found that three-quarters of local news is triggered by government and schools.) The PR strategy at these organizations isn’t focused on trying to get consumers or B2B customers to buy their product and thus aren’t putting out the kind of releases that PPBPR (rightfully) lambastes:

Company X Launches World’s First, Industry-Leading, Innovative Thingamabob That Will Change Our Lives for the Better

The news these organizations are making is the kind of news that likely used to be covered by a local newspaper or TV beat reporter: the results of a state agency investigation or the growth of a local college. But as newsroom resources dwindle, local journalists are relying more on well-crafted press releases to alert them to and help them tell stories. And we all know that often press releases are given a quick copy edit (or not) and reprinted, sometimes in their entirety, as news.

Where the SMR falls short

What the social media release encourages is “atomizing” content into bite-sized pieces so that bloggers and journalists can reassemble it. This may work for a journalist at Fortune or a blogger at Engadget who wants to dig into a trend or review a product, but a city desk reporter at a local daily or the publisher of a suburban weekly often just wants solid, relevant content they can quickly post or publish. They don’t want to have to piece together a story from bullet points, quotes, images and video.

I’m not knocking the concept of a social media release, entirely. I hold great respect for Todd Defren and Shel Holtz and others in the PR profession who’ve developed and worked to refine the concept. I absolutely think many components of SMRs are vital for PR pros to adopt: making sure releases are posted online for purposes of public viewing, search indexing and social network sharing; enhancing stories with multimedia content when appropriate and available; and providing links to additional resources are all important ways to augment a story.

But I just don’t think an SMR is the best approach for every organization – especially locally-focused ones. A lot of the hype about the SMR seems to be built around using it as a tool for news like product or campaign launches (like the Crayon/Coca-Cola example cited in PPBPR). That’s a very narrow slice of PR.

While the SMR isn’t necessarily supposed to be a replacement for traditional releases, there’s still a lot of argument about which is better and which will “win out.” The SMR may eventually become the superior choice for communicating certain types of news, but I still think it has a long way to go before unseating the traditional press release (enhanced for the digital age, of course) as a source of local news content.

Why Facebook shouldn’t be your primary B2B marketing channel

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do_not_enterIt’s hard to determine which social media tool is more lauded as the second coming these days, but Facebook certainly ranks up there as a platform that many of the social media experts, mavens, gurus and even people who know what they’re talking about promote as an easy place to start your business’ foray into social media.

But here’s the thing – most of the really good examples out there are of B2C companies using Facebook to reach their target audience. There are far fewer concrete examples of successful use of B2B companies using Facebook. And I’d caution that it’s not a very good tool for B2B companies to use – as least not right now, anyway.

Why? One simple word: blocking. Those of us who dabble around in social media all day from our laptops, iPhones, or the comfort of our Web 2.0-crazed agency jobs can easily forget that THOUSANDS of people work for companies who block Facebook at work (some gobbledy-gook about productivity?). For B2B companies, their target audience is usually (obviously) other companies, but more specifically, it’s the decision-makers within those other companies. This could mean purchasing managers, marketing managers, IT managers or the C-suite. You can have the snazziest Facebook fan page in the world for your business, but if none of your target audience can actually access it during the day while they’re at work (and making those decisions about whether to use your company’s product or service), then it’s probably not the best way to engage your potential customers.

I could write a whole series of posts on the annoyance of Internet blocking software at work, how it’s a management and not an IT issue, how social media tools can actually increase productivity… but these have already been written and rehashed. Shel Holtz even founded a Web site dedicated to the issue, StopBlocking.org. But the reality is that several companies still routinely block Facebook and other services, and while those people your company is trying to reach probably DO have a personal Facebook profile, many of them can only access it at home, after the workday. Unless they are really, really passionate about finding the lowest-cost widget or solving their company’s CRM software needs or testing out a new benefits delivery system (heck, there’re probably people who are), I doubt they’re likely to spend too much of their personal time in the evenings on your company’s Facebook page.

Facebook can certainly be a key tool for your B2B business in adopting social media, but don’t forget the cardinal rule: Go where your customers are. And unfortunately, due to Internet blocking, many of them are NOT on Facebook at work.

Your day-by-day guide to social media

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dotwMost of us aren’t lucky enough to have a personal assistant who maps out our schedule for us each week and tells us exactly where to go, when to be there and what to expect. With so much information on social media rip-roaring through the interwebz and changing constantly, it’s hard to keep up! But I’ve got your back. Take a deep breath and refer to this day-by-day guide to help you keep up with popular weekly goings-on in social media:

Sunday

#blogchat, 9 p.m. ET
Started just a few weeks ago when Mack Collier spontaneously added the #blogchat hashtag to one of his tweets, this Twitter chat has grown steadily in the last month. The unmoderated and free-flowing dialogue allows bloggers to discuss topics ranging from guest posting to how to promote a blog to blog analytics to ghost blogging. The most recent chat generated a 71-page transcript (!) that Connie Reece makes available at her site.

Also on Sundays, check out Social Marketing Update, a show on BlogTalkRadio produced by Ken English and Dr. Ron Capps (aka NicheProf) that airs at 12:30 p.m. ET (all episodes are archived at the site).

Monday

#journchat, 8-11 p.m. ET
PR professionals, bloggers and journalists alike participate in this weekly Twitter chat designed for these groups to learn about and from each other. It’s moderated by Sarah Evans, who collects questions through Twitter or e-mail leading up to the chat and then uses the @journchat account to ask selected questions to the group. It moves fast, so use TweetGrid, TweetChat, or a dedicated column in TweetDeck to keep up! The last 30 minutes are reserved for pitching – one pitch apiece, and no spam!

Tuesday

Social Mediasphere TV, 8 p.m. ET
Jim Turner, aka @Genuine, produces this weekly event that’s part radio show, part livestream, and part chat. He’s invited guests such as Amber Naslund, Keith Burtis and Micah Baldwin (who call in via Skype) to discuss topics like personal branding, what it takes to be a social media rockstar, and the ethics of Twitter. Jim’s humor (often self-deprecating), the insights from his guests, and the contributions from those participating via the online chat make this one a must-see.

Wednesday

Reading day
I used to love “reading day” in college, which was a more succinct way of saying “The University is giving you a day off from classes at the end of the semester to study for exams, but it’s really just an excuse for you to go out late on a weeknight and sleep in the next morning.” Spend Wednesday catching up on all the posts that have piled up in your feed reader. Check out Jeremiah Owyang’s weekly digest of the social networking space (published on Sundays) and browse through Mashable‘s feed to see what’s new. And of course, catch up on all those tweets you favorited (as a way to bookmark for later) that include links to great blog posts recommended by those you follow.

Thursday

For Immediate Release/The Hobson & Holtz Report Podcast
This podcast actually comes out twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson have been producing this series for four years. Each podcast episode is approximately an hour long and topics focus on the “intersection of online communication and public relations.” Interviews, book reviews and speeches/speakers from a variety of communications conferences are also often included in the podcast, which you can subscribe to via RSS or iTunes.

Friday

#followfriday
I’ll admit that this Twitter trend has seemed a bit tired lately – especially when people simply tweet lists of follower names with no recommendation or rationale for why you should follow someone. It can border on spamminess. Essentially the idea is that you recommend people you think others should follow by adding the #followfriday hashtag to your tweet containing their user name. I’ve gotten away from doing this lately, but I still do discover new people every week based on recommendations. Twitter has discontinued listing #followfriday as a trending topic on its home page, but you can still check out the stream of recommendations by typing #followfriday into Twitter search, or you can check out TopFollowFriday.

Saturday

Dude, get a life. It’s Saturday. Go outside. Call your mother. Drink a beer.