DISQUS

Simon Owens · 1 year ago

He seemed to show some apprehension that PR people are sometimes able to bypass bloggers or journalists all together, but I really have no problem with this if the PR release really is a worthy piece of news. I mean, what's the major difference between a press release and a company blog? Nothing, really? So what's so bad about directly linking to a press release?

mathewi · 1 year ago

Good point, Simon. I don't much see the difference either, really.
I've read lots of blog posts (and news stories, for that matter) that
just read like a rewritten press release -- I don't see why a
well-written press release shouldn't get just as much prominence.

SoftwareSweatshop · 1 year ago

Word up!

Engage, engage, engage. Pique interest, give people something thought provoking. Stop talking about how great you are and provide something of value. They'll naturally follow you.

Raza Imam
http://SoftwareSweatshop.com

Paul Kedrosky · 1 year ago

"Rocket surgery"?

mathewi · 1 year ago

Yeah, you like that one? My own invention :-) It's surprising how
few people notice.

Paul Kedrosky · 1 year ago

I'm a big fan of Spoonerisms, so you're delong with a pro here.

GearsofWar · 1 year ago

I love it!

n8k99 · 1 year ago

at least we're not talking about "nuclear rocket surgery!"

kevinbriody · 1 year ago

I'm glad someone else noticed this line. I love it - visions of a spaghetti mass of wires sticking out with an engineer yelling "soldering iron stat!"

John Furrier · 1 year ago

Social media needs to be social...putting links is is key but that ain't the end game...

I have a big opinion on this puppy - almost all social media fails because PR isn't funding in their companies to do it right. Links is the minimum starting point. To do is right is like building a rocket ;-) A marketing rocket

http://furrier.org/2008/04/11/social-media-rele...

Todd Defren · 1 year ago

As one of the "forward-thinking PR practitioners and agencies (that) came up with the idea of an SMPR" (thanks!) I can say only one thing to this post, Mathew:

AMEN!

Thank you for your advocacy and blunt talk. ;)

p.s. - FWIW I track reactions to the SMPR at http://del.icio.us/SHIFT.Communications. Check out tags like SHIFTtemplate and SocialMediaRelease, if interested.

mathewi · 1 year ago

Thanks, Todd.

MikeH · 1 year ago

The idea of making a real blog post is more what I favor. REAL content that is also PR. Serves TWO purposes. It provides information to the press and the organic traffic of people approaching it from their interest validates it as newsworthy.

-M

mathewi · 1 year ago

I would agree with you there, Mike. Doing that can pretty quickly
tell you whether what you're writing about is of interest to anyone.

David Jones · 1 year ago

Mat, good post. As a PR guy and blog nut, I like the SMPR in theory. I've used them before and they're fine. But I've also sent emails to guys like you to pitch stories and used links to del.icio.us pages and youtube pages that have been set up expressly to make it easy for bloggers/media to find what they need to do the story.

Use your blog if you have a blog, use an SMPR if you've got the time/money, re-do your corporate online newsroom and include embed codes for pics and video, etc., or just do what you suggest and use links in an e-mail.

This isn't that hard. Learn news judgment, be a resource, don't waste journos time. After all, you can put lipstick on a pig...but it's still a pig.

BTW, I always thought I invented the witty mis-use of "rocket surgery."

mathewi · 1 year ago

I think you're right, David -- there are lots of tools, and provided they serve to connect journalists or readers or bloggers or customers to something, then I think that's great, whether it's a blog page or delicious links or a YouTube video, or all three put together.

As for the rocket surgery thing, I promise not to file a claim against you for trademark infringement if you promise not to do likewise :-)

David Jones · 1 year ago

It's probably these guys we have to worry about...they've got the domain:

http://www.rocketsurgery.com/

mathewi · 1 year ago

damn. i knew i should have registered that -- that and "pizza.com"

Mike Keliher · 1 year ago

If I may be so brash as to simply share something I wrote more than one year ago:

http://www.unjournalism.com/2007/03/10/social-m...

My, how so little has changed.

Thanks for the post, Matt.

mathewi · 1 year ago

Well said, Mike. Unfortunately, some things have to be repeated
before certain people get the message :-)

John Bell · 1 year ago

We first used the SMPR over two years ago. But you are right - it hasn't caught on and it's a shame. I see two aspects of the SMPR that are important: making it is more useful for any "media" (traditional or non-traditional journalists) to use. That means adding links and multimedia whenever possible. We should be trying to make content as easy as possible to use and that means content formats - text plus video plus pictures. The other is the "social" part or the conversation surrounding content. I wish more clients were ready for this. But they don't have to enable a comment flow in their online media room to make the SMPR useful.

As for spin vs. facts? I say - tell me why this is important and relevant then give me the facts and content types to run with. But you are the journalist. What makes sense to you?

mathewi · 1 year ago

Thanks for the comment, John. I like a paragraph or so summing up
what the point of the release is, and then some facts. More or less
the same way someone would write a news story.

Dino · 1 year ago

I can't believe I missed "rocket surgery"