The blogosphere in the past few months have been buzzing about Public Relations. Specifically, there has been discussion about the changing role of PR and the social media space. My disclaimer before you read the rest of this post: I’m not an expert in PR — but based on my experience and personal knowledge, I have some thoughts in regards to this recent discussion and the “Social Media Release”.

In my opinion the “Social Media Release” is only one piece of a two part puzzle. There’s a distinct difference between the Social Media Release and having a Social Media Strategy. In my mind, PR should not only understand these are growing trends… they should already be doing it, and perfecting it.

So what’s a social media release?
It’s a clean, clear, humanized press release. It should be outward focused (on the customer and audience). Similar to a 140 character Twitter message, it should be short and sweet — and it should lead with the “meat and potatoes” first and be supported with the finer details farther into the text (also known as the inverted pyramid approach).

Most importantly it should the ingredients for what truly makes it a social media release:

• embeddable content
• embeddable photos
• embeddable video
• links to other relevant websites
• key quotes and testimonials from the source
• the use of social tools to bookmark it (digg, delicious, facebook)
• tags for indexing, SEO and discoverability (so there’s an understanding of what keywords are relevant)
• subscriptions via RSS

Bottom line, a social media release gives you everything you need to discover/learn, share, and MOST importantly — everything you need to retell the story.

The second piece to the puzzle is having a Social Media Strategy. This is having the wherewithal and experience of how to engage in the right areas online to publish and post your information. It also needs to be within the areas it’s most relevant and has value. Brian Solis recently created a helpful ‘Conversation Prism’, a chart that illustrates where conversations are taking place in the online space.

The implications? No longer does your website function as just the hub in which you disseminate out information. Much like in marketing, where the people are communicating — you should be there too, engaged as well.

On a more holistic level, PR is shifting to a role of understanding how to tap the key influencers online and/or allow anyone to have the necessary assets to provide their take on the story. Being a gatekeeper of information shouldn’t be the focus in PR. Establishing an open relationship and conversation with the people who are writing the stories is what it’s all about. It’s happening already — except people are going about extracting the information on their own (also referred to as the groundswell). PR should embrace and augment the “story creation” process for bloggers and people online. While it’s scary to swallow, it’s about enabling audiences to take your information and run with it.

*UPDATE* If you want to see an example of how CNN is already embracing this shift, see a great example of a recent social media release here.

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If you are in the corporate world grind, or have read a business magazine within the past two years, at some point you’ve come across the phrase Web 2.0. What is Web 2.0 anyways? What is Web 3.0? You and most people out there have no freakin’ clue what that even means. Well Marc Benioff, the chairman and CEO of SalesForce.com, wrote a great article on TechCrunchIT that gives one perspective of what “Web 3.0″ means — it’s short and succinct and well worth your attention.

Web 3.0 by his definition, is “the shift” in software as web-based applications, in an environment stored “in the cloud” — that can be done anywhere.

He also does a great job of also backtracking and defining the terms Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 as well:

Web 1.0: Anyone Can Transact
…the emergence of the “killer app” from companies like eBay, Amazon.com, and Google. Although we thought of them as Web sites at the time, they were really amazing applications with a level of functionality, ease of use, and scale that had rarely been seen before by the average consumer. Transactions, not just of goods but of knowledge, became ubiquitous and instant.

Web 2.0: Anyone Can Participate
…the next generation of applications on the Internet, featuring user-generated content, collaboration, and community. Anyone can participate in content creation. Posting a viral video on YouTube, tagging photos from a party on Flickr, or writing about politics on Blogspot requires no technical skill, just an Internet connection. Participation changes our idea of content itself: content isn’t fixed at the point of publication — it comes alive.

Web 3.0: Anyone Can Innovate
…it changes all of this by completely disrupting the technology and economics of the traditional software industry. The new rallying cry of Web 3.0 is that anyone can innovate, anywhere. Code is written, collaborated on, debugged, tested, deployed, and run in the cloud. When innovation is untethered from the time and capital constraints of infrastructure, it can truly flourish.

While I personally cringe when anyone utters these buzzwords, these are in fact real movements of the Web that are important to understand for anyone in business (not just for us geeks). The shift of some form of platform as a service in the cloud is only going to continue to increase.
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Last week eMarketer published an article titled, “Retail Shoppers Hit the Web First“.

“Eight out of 10 respondents who had recently made consumer electronics purchases in a brick-and-mortar store said they had visited the store’s Website first, according to a May 2008 Nielsen Online survey. More than one-half said they purchased from the retailer on whose Website they had spent the most time.”

…the article then goes on to describe:

“If they had to choose just one method of researching their purchases, 58% of respondents said they would choose the Internet — far more than would choose their own friends and family.” Only 8% chose friends and family.

To me, this is a no brainer, I’m a digital native. However it should be a LOUD message to those Marketers, Executives, and CEOs out there who don’t view the web as a major component of your marketing communication strategy. When is the last time you reviewed what you’re providing online? Is it timely, relevant, and adding value to your personas that are finding you online?  It better be.
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I have a lot of ideas. They’re not all that great. However, I consider myself entrepreneurial by nature and I’m lucky enough that my job and friends all help foster this type of thought on a daily basis. That being said, I have no problem sharing my ideas because I’m a firm believer that at the end of the day — it’s not the idea that counts, it’s the quality of the execution and level of thought put into the delivery. After all, Apple wasn’t the first to make a MP3 player. Feel free to rip me apart and tell me all the BAD parts of this idea below.

Facebook Application Name:
EventCast (don’t really like the name, but it’s all I got at this point)

20 word description:
Chat, socialize and interact with anyone in the world about a major scheduled event you are watching or participating in.

The 6-second “Elevator Speech”:
An EventCast is a simple basic chat ‘n share application that lets you communicate while any major event is taking place. It allows anyone to connect instantly with a group who have the same interest to be watching or participating in an event.

The “really in depth” description:
The basis of the site is just giving people a centralized place to go during the time of a major event to chat and communicate (think Super Bowl, American Idol episodes, MTV Music Awards, Greys Anatomy episodes, The Oscars, Sport Playoff Games, The Office episodes, Miss America etc). That’s all it is.

Picture this: The Super Bowl is on tonight. You are taking it easy this year and watching it with a small group. You pull out your MacBook then power up your social graph via Facebook on your laptop or cell phone. You click and jump into the official ” ‘09 Super Bowl EventCast” app and you’re instantly connected to any of your friends who are logged into Facebook. You also have the ability to bail from your own friends free to float to different rooms with other FB users.

The first commercial comes on — the chat room is blowing up. It’s another hilarious Bud Light commercial that everyone will be talking about tomorrow at work or school. Your buddy from college makes a funny joke about the chimp in the commercial. You then have the ability to digg vote up (thumbs up icon) on any comment or chat messages people send within your room. If it scores enough of a majority “a really complex algorithm” sends the message as a global message imported to other rooms chat feeds in your network — and if it is voted up there it’s placed globally to all the EventCast rooms on FB.

The idea really is simple. A place to hangout with your friends (who live on Facebook already) when you can’t physically hangout — and it’s all centered around major events you’re likely to be watching anyways. It can also serve as a reminder tool for you as a user so you don’t miss things you might be interested in like the The Olympics or The Presidential Debates. The application could send reminders and invitations asking to see if you want to participate. It could text you minutes before its about to start to make sure you don’t miss out.

There are other things you could do like…

• Make an iPhone app that would stream the chat so you could even be at a park, at a bar, in a airport or sitting on your couch and still participate “on the go”.
• Get corporate sponsors to place advertisements throughout the event on the web application itself.
• Have moderators provide “interactive” components/links in real-time to view more detail of any given topic. For example, you can click-through on the e-Trade website to find out more information on the AD they just aired as a commercial. Companies can choose to advertise their event is “being EventCast’ed” LIVE and to log-in for an “interactive experience.”
• Guest chat hosts could also interact with users — for example, sport broadcasters or designated bloggers can give their real-time feedback on their experience on what it’s like to be there. Users can ask direct questions to the people at the event.

So is it stupid? Does it already exist? (if it does, is it executed well?) Is it a decent idea with a lack of focus? One of these days I’ll actually build out one of my ideas. I hope someone beats me to this one…
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Back in 2007, Steve Jobs described a feature released on the original iPhone called Starbucks Select:

“You walk into a Starbucks. Order your latté. While you wait, you hear a song wafting from the loudspeakers. You love it. So you get out your iPhone and buy it over Wi-Fi. Just like that. The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on iPhone tells you what’s playing in select Starbucks and lets you buy it along with other featured Starbucks content.”

Back in ‘07, I remember thinking this was the beginning of a great business model that could grow outside of just purchasing a song at Starbucks. But Apple has not moved forward with it.

Think about it… why draw the line at just selling Starbucks music? Why not something in more functional everyday commerce areas like retail stores, concerts, festivals or any event.

• What if… if you were at a concert and you had the ability to pull your phone out and order the album that’s being played on stage? Why not give people the ability to order the t-shirt and have it shipped to their house so they don’t have to carry it around? Let them order the album of the opening act or make a donation on-the-spot to the artist’s favorite charity.

• What if… while watching the Super Bowl you were able to get real-time updates pushed to your iPhone as commercials aired allowing you to bookmark for more information later or buy the product right away?

• What if… while watching American Idol you can purchase the shirt David Cook is wearing on stage? This would of course be done through an American Idol iPhone Application — in which you could vote for contestants and watch previous performances.

• What if… [insert more great ideas I haven't thought of yet here]

While I’m unfamiliar with the technical requirements it takes to setup a wi-fi base that once connected you’re iPhone would load a “Store Application”. I’m assuming with the launch of the App Store and it’s API, this in theory, could be relatively simple for the folks at Apple. Another alternative I’d offer: instead requiring developers to code a “Store Application” from scratch — is Apple could offer an application that resides in the next firmware update (universal user interface, few customizations here and there, standardized checkout — essentially give developers places to slot graphics, products, prices and descriptions). This would allow developers to then utilize an API to setup their own custom settings within using the web service. There could even be a per transaction fee Apple can mandate in order to monetize the Application.

Is my idea that far fetched? I’m sure critics would argue not enough users have an iPhone for this to be worth the investment on either Apple or the businesses. To which I would point out one million people purchased a 3G iPhone during is launch weekend. Is that enough users?

These are just thoughts, sparks, ideas… what are you waiting for Apple?
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**UPDATE** This post was featured on !  How cool is that?  Check out the article that mentions this blog post.

I read a great article that gives a good inside look on the powerful effects of social media — specifically how the Barack Obama’s campaign staff has successfully utilized grasped leveraged new-media. Here are few things I didn’t know about www.My.BarakObama.com:

• One of the four founders of Facebook created/manages his online presence (Chris Hughes).

• Obama has raised over $2 million dollars online.

• MyBarakObama.com has over 900k members.

• The campaign has spent over $3 million in online advertising.

The growth strategy was positioned on a simple concept; “keep it real, and keep it local”. Similar to Facebook, his website is built around the concept of establishing “local networks” to make connections to other users. Supporters are more receptive because they are meaningful connections that literally “hit them at home” with familiar people they may or may not already know in their community.

In my own opinion, the big takeaway is the execution and strategy. Understanding how to market online in a “web 2.0″ world is no longer optional — it’s something you must address. Why should you care about social media and having a strategy? Well, five of the Top Ten most traffic’ed websites are social networking websites. YouTube is over 10% of all Internet traffic. Over 100 million blogs exist.

There’s more than a few reasons to care.

More importantly, “being everywhere” in which users visit on a daily basis is key. No longer can you just live in your own www.domain. Two way communication must occur across multiple touch points (online and offline).

MyBarakObama.com did does a good job of building a community and carrying the consistent “Change We Can Believe In” brand message — but what it really does well is provide tools to its supporters by leveraging the viral benefits of social media. Obama’s staff understands how to plan, build, evolve, and execute a communication strategy online that adds value to its supporters. This has resulted in a tightly nit loyal community online that wants to use it and finds it exciting.

While I’ve noted his site as a great case study of reference for my own clients, he does serve specifically as a political social media “road map” for several new campaigns to come.
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Today I was talking to Cara, a co-worker, who constantly suffers from “email hell” every morning. I fear she is constantly victim to G.N.D. syndrome (Getting Nothing Done). In the midst of her pain, I was reminded of a helpful presentation I wanted to share by Merlin Mann. His take? You should never dread opening your inbox. Email is just a medium. Email can do amazing things for you.

In the past two months, I’ve really started to grasp the flow after watching “Inbox Zero” and it’s amazing. No really. This video is pertinent to everyone, even if you don’t receive high volume email. DISCLAIMER; the video alone won’t change your life. It’s the mindset you have to adopt. Do that and then you’ll then see positive change (and be sure to thank me).

» Watch the full video here

One of the blogs I follow is written by Sam Meers, it’s a blog dedicated to insights in advertising. He wrote a blog post regarding the topic of Brand Value and how companies can mistakenly focus on how a product should be priced VS. discussions revolve around “How do we add value in order to justify the price?” He gave an example of how a friend was purchasing a new kitchen and the companies she shopped failed to differentiate themselves from one another other than just providing a price of their goods.

Given this scenario, Sam’s recommendation in regards to Brand Value was:

“Your company has a story to tell. And within that story you have small bits of information that set you apart from your competitors. But you must tell the story. And you must tell it in a compelling manner. Otherwise, you will only have price upon which to build your business. And there is always someone who can make it and sell it cheaper than you.”

After reading his blog post, I personally posted the following comment:

“I totally get the concept of ‘illustrate your value’. But, in your friend’s situation how do you tell your story? If the interaction with the customer is just “give me your price for X” how do you inject your brand story? How do you sell it’s value. I suppose you can try to give your “pitch”, but how do you do that without coming off like a used car salesman?”

Sam posted a great response in regards to my comment (above). He describes, “The basic answer is this: If you wait until the customer is interacting with the sales person to begin telling your brand story, then it’s too late. Sales people need marketing people to lay the appropriate groundwork in the marketplace so people are prepared to purchase when they walk in the door. If the brand story has been well articulated, then the customer knows why they’re there — and they’re ready to buy — and their purchase will not be based on price, but value.”

» Read the full blog post here