Moved!

After much deliberation, I've moved my blog back over to davefleet.com.

I have a couple of reasons for making the change:

1. Wordpress - I've finally ported by blog over to Wordpress. No more Blogger for me.
2. SEO - I'm consistently outdone in searches for my name by an English tattoo artist. No, that's not me. Plus, what used to be my personal site (at this address) far outstripped my PR site in Google. If professional contacts search for me, I want them to find my PR site, not pictures of raccoons on my balcony.

So:

• If you've bookmarked/favourited my site, please update it
• Please re-subscribe to the RSS feed at the new site to ensure you don't miss any of my ramblings.

Thanks, and see you on the new site!

In Transition

The site looks a little weird at the moment, I know. I'm in the process of porting over to Wordpress, and my wonderful hosting company took 24 hours before I could access my new web space. That meant I couldn't get the transition done this weekend.

My apologies - I'll be back up and looking good soon!

Social Media News Release: An EXTRA Tool, Not A Replacement

It's been over 18 months since Todd Defren released his template for a new news release format and over that time the a healthy debate has raged over the idea.

Recently, Maggie Fox's crew over at the Social Media Group released Digital Snippets, their own take on the format, re-invigorating the debate.

I love that the social media news release seems to be gaining traction. I love the flexibility, the multimedia content, and the way it forces writers to cut out the crap. I evangelize the format at every opportunity.

Still, a few months ago I wrote about how we needed to find a middle ground with the social media news release. In my eyes, the new format isn't a panacea - it should add to our toolkit rather than replacing the 100 year-old press release.

My concerns in that post:

First and foremost, communicators need to think about their audience. However, we also need to think about how we're going to get the message to that audience, and that means segmenting the media.

There's a big difference between the larger media outlets and smaller, community-based media.

The social media release is a great idea for the larger outlets where the reporter is always going to break down the story and look at it from all angles. However, smaller community papers simply don't have the resources needed to do this. We frequently see releases published almost verbatim by these outlets.

If we were to stop issuing traditional releases for community-based stories, I'm willing to bet we'd see a drop in coverage in local media.

My thinking has evolved a little since then, but my fundamental concerns remain.

It seemed to me that a lot of people agreed.

However, I've heard rumbles about organizations using it to replace the old format, and started to wonder if maybe I was behind the times. Maybe I missed an evolution in thinking since then.

So, as I have a habit of doing nowadays, I asked my friends on Twitter:

"Social media news release: a replacement to the traditional release or an addition to the toolkit? I say the latter. You?"

The responses reassured me, and I was particularly happy to see Todd chime in:

---

• edlee @davefleet - SMNRs complement traditional NRs, but you can't put lipstick on a pig. for either to work, you have to have a story. 12:19 PM January 31, 2008
• EdenSpodek @davefleet I agree, SMPR is in addition to a traditional media release although that could change one day... 10:51 AM January 31, 2008
• DJLitten @davefleet Add it to the arsenal. I'm more interested in when the SMNR makes into J-school curricula. If ever. 09:08 AM January 31, 2008
• TDefren @davefleet re: SMNR. My thoughts (and @briansolis's): http://tinyurl.com/2efrpu 09:07 AM January 31, 2008
• jenzings @davefleet SMNR is additional tool. Traditional NR still viable, but PR practitioners need to craft better/fewer/more relevant ones. 09:03 AM January 31, 2008
• tamera @davefleet echoing that it's an addition 08:57 AM January 31, 2008
• kflaherty @davefleet it's an addition for most companies and for some it has been able to replace. It depends on who, what and end goal of the rel ... ... 08:52 AM January 31, 2008
• Igniter @davefleet an addition until sm becomes traditional - or there is an engine to convert and distribute smnr in traditional format to tm 08:47 AM January 31, 2008
• Canuckflack @davefleet SMR is an addition 08:36 AM January 31, 2008
• stuartma @davefleet Addition. Social media growing in importance but traditional is still The Game 08:11 AM January 31, 2008
• georgedearing @davefleet | the latter 07:40 AM January 31, 2008

---

Addition, Not Replacement

The social media news release isn't yet a replacement for the traditional format. It's a valuable addition to our toolkit which we can use as appropriate.

That said, a couple of sub-themes emerged here:

• We need to write better news releases.
  • Todd and Brian Solis say it well in the post Todd linked to above: "A crappy press release is still a crappy press release regardless of multimedia or social bling."
• Social media is growing but "traditional media" is still the mainstream. Sometimes the old format is more appropriate to communicate with them.

Learn More

• Check out Chris Heuer's video for an intro to the social media news release.
• Check out SHIFT Communications' del.icio.us feed for examples and discussion of the social media news release
• Learn more about Digital Snippets at Maggie Fox's blog, or check out Collin Douma's session at PodCamp Toronto on February 23 & 24.

Technorati Tags: social media news release,communications,pr,release,media,tactics

Social Media Training Wiki: How Did We Measure Up?

In mid-December 2007, I established three objectives for the Social Media Training Wiki:

• More than double the number of site members by the end of January 2008
• Double the number of contributions by the end of January 2008
• No existing pages with content placeholders by the end of January 2008

Results

Well, it's the end of January; how did we do?

• More than six times the number of site members (113)
• Almost three times the number of contributions (374)
• Some pages do still have content placeholders

Two out of three. Not bad, given that the site also has seven new topics since the last post, including the beginnings of an RSS primer (in response to Shel Holtz's helpful comments).

New Objectives

Time for some new objectives.

Last time around I set some areas of focus:

• Recruiting new members (you can sign up here)
• Encouraging renewed contributions from existing members
• Fleshing-out existing topics
• Adding advanced topics

I think these remain valid, so my new objectives are also based on these:

• New members: 175 total members by the end of February 2008
  • Roughly a 50% increase
  • Why am I happy with such a small number of members? Because you don't need to sign up to read and learn from the wiki. 175 experienced social media folks contributing to the wiki would be awesome
• Renewed contributions: 500 total contributions by the end of February 2008
  • A 34% increase
• Fleshing-out existing topics: Zero placeholders on existing pages by the end of February 2008
• Advanced topics: New section of advanced concepts in place by the end of February 2008

Key Topics

To help people focus on the key topics, here are the gaps I see on the site right now:

• Blogs - we need details on the pros and cons of blogs as social media tools
• Blog Monitoring - this page needs populating
• Micro Blogs - this page is short on pros and cons
• Podcasts - what are the drawbacks of podcasting as a medium?
• Social Browsing - I'm still not sure if this deserves its own page. If it does, it needs more content
• Social Media News Release - what are the drawbacks of this format?
• Social Networks - this page is short of content on general features as well as the pros and cons of using social networks from a marketing perspective
• Video Blogs - This niche topic needs fleshing out
• Case Studies - this isn't one page, it's every topic. I wrote yesterday about the lack of social media case studies out there. This is a chance to help correct that.

How You Can Contribute

Spread The Word

A big thanks to Lee Hopkins, Shel Holtz, Donna Papacosta, Dirk Shaw and everyone else who has written about the wiki already. The more people that know about this, the more will get involved in strengthening this resource.

Add To Existing Pages

Are you an experienced user of any of these tools? Why not take five minutes and add a few notes on one of these topics?

Add New Topics

If you spot a gap in the topics on the wiki, go ahead and fill it!

Help Others

There's more to the site than just the wiki content. Every page on the site feeds into a site-wide discussion forum. If you have questions, post them! If you have answers, help people out.

Let's add to this momentum. Let's make the Social Media Training Wiki an even more valuable resource for the community.

Check out the wiki.

(photo credit: -murilo-)

Technorati Tags: training,social media,education,wiki,collaboration,social media training wiki,Donna Papacosta,Lee Hopkins,Shel Holtz,Dirk Shaw

Case Studies? Anyone?

For all the talk of openness, transparency and community in social media, there's one thing missing.

Case studies.

Social media is still an emerging area, and it's moving at light speed in many areas - video and mobile, to name two.

However, the lack of fleshed-out examples of success has bothered me a lot recently.

For social media to progress beyond teenagers and a few niche agencies, we need widespread adoption. That means buy-in from senior executives.

For that, we need examples of successful social media initiatives that we can hold up and show to our bosses, our clients and our colleagues.

We need case studies of social media successes.

I recently asked my Twitter contacts why they thought there aren't more case studies, and was met with an unusual wall of silence. The exception was Collin Douma, who pointed out that agencies need permission from clients to release data about their work. Without that, case studies aren't going anywhere.

That's fair enough, except I can't believe that no organizations are willing to blow their own horn and show off their successes.

I've also noticed that case studies are one of the biggest gaps in contributions to the Social Media Training Wiki.

I'm beginning to wonder:

Do the evangelists really believe the market is big enough for all of us or are they keeping their cards close to their chest out of choice? Is all the talk of community really just hot air?

(That would be fine - I wouldn't expect organizations in most sectors to reveal their secrets - were it not for all the talk to the contrary. I'm beginning to wonder if there's a lot of talk without people practicing what they preach)

Is the lack of accepted standard measurement tools making people loath to publish their figures? I could understand that. Still, surely you're using something to determine success or failure.

I have found a few case studies. Metrics are few and far between, but at least they're putting this stuff out there:

• Geocommons social media release
• How Sony leveraged the "vampire" Facebook widget
• Digital Photography School blog competition
• User-generated content by Bath & Body Works
• Blogging in the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

Attending CaseCamp Toronto 6 in November 2007 threw up a few good examples too, including Vortex Mobile's campaign for Levis and the Globe & Mail's enabling of comments on its website.

Unfortunately, too many of these "case studies" are anecdotal, with little hard data to back them up. That's what we need.

Have you found a similar lack of case studies? If so, why do you think this is?

What good case studies have you found?

(photo credit: Major Clanger)

Technorati Tags: social media,case studies,examples,measurement,statistics,success

Low-Brow Reporting From The Globe And Mail

Referring to this story in the Globe and Mail.

Technorati Tags: journalism,tabloid,communications,plan,Globe and Mail,sensationalist

Will Pate Talks About PodCamp Toronto

Will Pate has been a technology entrepreneur and community builder since co-founding his first business, Infinity BBS, in elementary school.

Since then he has co-founded Raincity Studios, a Vancouver-based new media design, development and web marketing firm and has worked at Flock and on a project called Mazava.

He is currently the Community Evangelist at ConceptShare and co-host of tech news show CommandN.

Perhaps most importantly though, Will was the tenth person to register for PodCamp Toronto 2008!

I asked Will about his expectations for PodCamp Toronto, what he hopes to get out of it and who he's looking forward to seeing at the event next month.

Is this your first PodCamp? If not, what other events have you been to?

Pate: Although I'm a veteran of BarCamps, this is my first PodCamp. I hope there is no terrible initiation

Why did you decide to register?

Pate: I heard good things about PodCamp last year, but unfortunately I couldn't make it. I've been co-hosting commandN for about a year now, and I'm bummed to say I haven't met enough local folks making podcasts.

What do you hope to get out of the weekend?

Pate: Friends, some co-conspirators for future projects and folks I can recommend to people looking for their skills.

Which session are you most looking forward to?

Pate: An Example of a Session Title - Jay Moonah" - Haha!

Seriously though, I've been following the idea of the "social media release" so I'll be looking forward to hearing Collin Douma flesh out the idea.

Is there a session that's not on the list that you'd like to see? What it?

Pate: Perhaps I should rework my "Guerilla marketing for content producers" presentation that I gave at nextMEDIA. Folks seemed to like it, and I bet the audience could get something out of it.

Name one thing you'd recommend visitors to Toronto do while they're in town for PodCamp

Pate: Go for a beer with the group after the sessions are over. Don't miss some of the best conversations.

Thanks Will!

---

We'll be posting a few of these interviews over the next little while. If you want to meet the folks interviewed and check out the sesions they're excited about, then sign up for PodCamp Toronto!

(cross-posted to the PodCamp Toronto 2008 blog)