David Parmet , Chris Abraham, Neville Hobson, and Stuart Bruce have added their thoughts to the conversation. For the most part, initial feedback online and here at Gnomedex has been pretty positive.
Shel Israel responded to David Parmet’s post with a great comment
I think I have seen the future of the press release and it is called a “blog.” The press release goes social at Marketing Begins At Home
…and if that blog post is formatted in such a way that the official communications from the company adheres to a Microformat hRelease – it should make it easier for anyone, professional or amateur, to add their insights and opinions to the conversation while maintaining the integrity of the facts.
I agree with Shel – it is the blog – but it is also the podcast, the video clips, the tags, the product specs and what other people have to say about the ‘news’ coming out of the company. The Blog and RSS may be the technical distribution platform, but it is deeper than that. It should also be about being able to present the information in a way that is easier for journalists and passionate users to reference and discuss. The standard press release format crafts a story that we must often dissect before we comment on what the company is doing.
It is also a matter of whether the blogger-employee is speaking on their own behalf or speaking ‘officially’ on behalf of the company.
Lee Oden added on David Parmet’s same post in response to Shel:
A blog within a company web site that powers press releases, articles, news, coverage, executive bios, photos, podcasts, video – the whole package all available as HTML and RSS. Combine that with the inherent web 2.0 features of a wire service like PRWeb.com and the notion of “press release goes social” takes a step up to a whole new level. The press release goes social at Marketing Begins At Home
Now we are getting somewhere. It is great for more people to start getting the big idea and adding these sorts of insights to the conversational flow. While the technology is important, once again, the most important bit is what other people will be able to do with that information once it is available in a standard easily remixed format.
Lots of little nuances and big concepts to work through – but the mere process of being engaged in the conversation will yield some unexpected results – the least of which will be some notion of shared best practices, the best of which could be a unifying standard that makes everyone’s life quite a bit easier.
technorati tags:newmediarelease, socialmediarelease, pressrelease, pr, communications, gnomedex
