The recent release of the Social Media Group’s Digital Snippets social media release (SMR) template caused a wave of excitement and criticism, both on and off line.  Just to recap some of the posts:

Shannon Whitley: "There seem to be more entries in the world of SMNR creation tools, which is great news because we can all benefit from this creativity.  However, I’d like to throw out a challenge to folks like Edelman, WebITPR, Social Media Group, et. al.  I’ve been working on hRelease for several months now.  It’s supposed to be a community effort that will help move the SMNR distribution process forward."

Jason Falls: "The template basically says you can share information about this product or company (Digital Snippits was developed in Social Media Group’s work with Ford Motor Company) but we don’t really want to make it easy for you to see an independent third party’s review of it. …in my opinion, it isn’t a step forward in the evolution of the social media release."

Chris Heuer does a nice video recap on the history of SMR’s and their purpose.

Off-line criticism that I’ve been privy to:

• Digital snippets is really just PR Newswire’s MultiVu socialized
• Lack of comments on Digital Snippet SMRs
• I’ve also received a couple of remarks from folks who seem miffed that newbies and sophomores with at most two or three years of social media experience are disturbing the process. That not enough research has been done.

Thoughts Moving Forward

Before moving forward, I advocate for SMRs. They’re in Now Is Gone and one of the most successful posts on this blog was an SMR case study. 

Press releases are not exciting documents, often loaded with spin and jargon.  While still a tool in the communications professionals arsenal, they do not comprise strategy, nor should they be relied upon as ground-breaking news mechanisms. Social media environments require a different way of disseminating news so that content creators, individual stakeholders reading social media, and possibly journalist can get this information. Enter the SMR.

But to date the SMR has not been widely adopted (though picking up momentum), and there is increasingly greater separation on SMR thought and purpose. The following candid points seek to address some of the criticism to date, and perhaps help SMR developers create widespread adoption:

1. SMRs and press releases are tools, not strategies.  If you don’t have a great story to tell, they won’t work. Many folks have said this, and this fact should always frame SMR discussion.
2. We are inside the bubble, and much of the discussion to date revolves around technical merits (comments, MultiVu, YouTube or not) and means nothing to the average PR practitioner.
3. The average PR practitioner wants a tool that serves a function: Communication with social media communities.  Adoption of SMRs relies on intelligent discourse about what social media stakeholders want and need, not what we the PR 2.0 community thinks. Maggie Fox and SMG have done some research to this end, and it shows in her template. That’s why it is a step forward. Sharing this research would be helpful.
4. Discourse needs to revolve around actual experiences on what has worked and what has not. Again, inside the bubble chatter means little, what does mean something is results. Enough SMRs have been published that we should be able to discern what works. That means people need to share their results.
5. The ideal result from an SMR should be to engage social media communities, in turn causing community members to create their own discussions.  Kami Huyse and I call this storyboarding.
6. What’s becoming very apparent in my experience and from seeing other SMRs is they are not ideal vehicles for hosting conversation.  The fundamentalist view that comments must be part of an SMR seems ridiculous to me. A nice value-added feature, but here are eight ways to have a better conversation: 1) Post SMR in blog and ask for comments, 2) better yet, write a post that’s more conversation in tone 3) Use Facebook Ask Qs on the SMR’s topic 4) YouTube/Seesmic 5) Utterz 6) Solicit feed back from bloggers before releasing 7) Twitter it with Qs. 8) Get a guest spot on an established BlogTalkRadio show. Etc., etc.
7. Old-timers in the social media space need to remember there’s a great influx of new readers and minds.  They would be better served embracing these people, and making their past content easily available than kvetching about how no one researches.
8. Old-timers in social media need to realize that innovation and adoption will occur with or without them. History means nothing when people with two years, two months or two days of social media experience are trying to create a solution that will work for their companies and paying clients.
9. A reality check is in order, too. Dismissing people for lack of social media experience when they’ve embraced it 1) pushes them away; 2) reduces the amount of valid real world marketing experience in the process. My blog is two years old. Yet one of my first article assignments professionally in 1994 was on this crazy technology called Mosaic. 15 years of technology PR and marketing experience later, I find this elitist point-of-view to be invalid and insecure.

Collectively we can do more than individually.  Collaboration works better than ivory tower development.

My one major concern is that technical form must serve functional need. Great technical toys without purpose don’t help us. Web 2.0 has been great, but we need to keep our eye on the prize, which is business function. The SMR has great potential for communications professionals, but it’s the entire online communications industry’s responsibility to participate and help make something that will work.

To continue the discussion, Shannon Whitley has agreed to a Buzz Bin interview. In addition, after SHIFT releases it’s next version of the SMR template, there will be a roundtable on SMRs hosted on Now Is Gone. Todd Defren, Jason Falls, Maggie Fox, B.L. Ochman and Brian Solis have agreed to participate.

Every so often there’s a new metric ranking, a way of measuring the power of social media. Now there’s one for Twitter, the Tweeterboard. The Tweeterboard measures "who is influential on Twitter based on their conversations with other Twitter users." Unfortunately, research last week reveal the system can be easily gamed with "@bait."

The core metric of the Tweeterboard remains @s, both given and received.  Officially, score is calculated "using some algorithmic mojo that resembles the link analysis algorithms used by search engines." But @s heavily weigh the score , and it’s better to receive than it is to give.  Giving in comparison to receiving creates a negative box  score.

Which leads to @bait.  By writing highly provocative tweets, users can bait fellow tweeters into conversation. Responding to some, but not all or mass replying with a singular tweet creates positive equity for your box score.

Last week, I openly tweeted my @bait experiment and threw out Tweets comparing a would-be Green Bay Packers vs. the New England Patriots Super Bowl to a battle between Rocky vs Darth Vader. The @s flew and sure enough, I shot up to the top ten on the Tweeterboard. Compatriot in crime Doug Haslam made it to #3!

With no written metric, it’s hard to determine what exactly makes the Tweeterboard tick. In a more drastic example, Adele McAlear noticed a new Twitterer, bugman1984,  who shot to the top of Tweeterboard with less than 30 followers.

Like many other so called rankings, it’s game-able, and subjected to the biases of the algorithm creator.  Rankings are always great ways to find new Twitterers and blogs to follow, but they vary in accuracy. One key barometer to look for is multiple variables, with more variables countering individual metric weight, hopefully making for a more balanced, composite picture.  I also prefer rankings that do not have a subjective, human determined content ranking.

It’s important to note that the most important ranking is that of relationships.  Only a person or business can truly determine the weight and power of those relationships. Whether it’s love, revenue, inaugural ball invites, etc., relationships build results.  See K.D. Paine’s new book on measurement for more.

Other Twitter Members Weigh In

It seemed appropriate to ask other Twitterers what they thought of the Tweeterboard. Here are their answers:

Connie Reece: Tweeterboard: Not sure if legitimate is correct word. Do not think it adds real value because of way it is designed. Looks at too few ppl to be statistically significant; you lose pts. for conversation w/ ppl whose updates are protected. Tweeterboard is also link aggregator — pulling in blog content to the site from ppl on Tweeterboard. I do think Tweeterboard COULD have value if it awarded pts. for reciprocity rather than popularity.

Dave Fleet: Tweeterboard encourages twitterbait – ask questions, get @ replies, leap up the board. Rewards taking, not giving.

Mack Collier: Can see little value to Tweeterboard other than seeing who to follow, and ego-stroking for those on list

Adele McAlear: I’m suspicious of it’s number crunching reliability. Methinks buggy performance.

Tim Walker: "Legitimate"? I don’t know. Impossible to understand relation of inputs to output? Oh, yes. Should be more intuitive, sez I.

Roy Blumenthal: To my mind, tweeterboard isn’t an ‘analytic’. It’s a vanity thang. So it’s a ‘vanalytic’.

Sashi: Tweeterboard does not follow all Twitters. Not sure if everyone agrees with the algorithm

David Binkowski: It doesn’t count everyone’s tweets, so it would be a tool but definitely not a comprehensive one.

Perhaps you’ve noticed Jeff Pulver’s "Social Media Breakfast" series coming to a town near you. Everyone seems very excited.

But there’s a strange element to this series. Is this really the Social Media Breakfast series? Or is it a Jeff Pulver meeting his network tour?

The real Social Media Breakfast (SMB) series was started by Bryan Person in Boston. I was the fourth SMB speaker last December. Person helped Jeff Pulver with an unrelated event in November.  Person also supported one SMB in New York City last Fall.

That was the last we heard of Bryan Person as far as the Social Media Breakfast series in NY went, even though Pulver ran one this January.  Ironically, the Social Media Breakfast site mentions nothing on this matter.

When I asked Jeff Pulver these questions on Twitter this morning, here was the answer I got: "We offer real-time social tagging with your grits." I think a little more explanation is in order.

It’s important to give people credit for their concepts and not just take their ideas.  When Debbie and I started BlogPotomac we consulted with Josh Hallett, creator of BlogOrlando and got his blessing and insights. We are honoring his effort and insights by including him in the program as emcee.

Jeff Pulver helped me with Now Is Gone by providing great insights.  He helped drive voice over the ‘net with his trade shows and VON publication in the late 90s. Pulver is now helping social media-ites across the country with these events. But they should a) either get approval and give proper recognition to the originating organizer/founder, or b) call this series something else.

In addition, as a standing member of DC’s social media community, I think reach-outs to Refresh DC and Social Media Club should have been made. Just my $.02.

At last my co-chair Debbie Weil and I are happy to announce BlogPotomac’s date and location. BlogPotomac will be held on Friday, June 13 at the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia.

Sponsored by Livingston Communications, The Point, Viget Labs and WordBiz, Inc., BlogPotomac seeks to provide a local “un-conference” on best marketing practices for the social media community in DC. Our goal is to provide advanced marketing insights beyond the average social media 101 event.

Our excellent line-up of seven keynotes includes:

Opening Keynote: Lionel Menchaca, digital media manager and chief blogger, Direct2Dell

Lunch Keynote: Frank Gruber, community manager, AOL and author of Somewhat Frank

Additional keynotes (in alphabetical order) will be given by:

• Social Media Group’s Maggie Fox on integrating social media
• Kami Huyse, Communication Overtones on ethics
• Author KD Paine on measurement
• Jeremy Pepper, The Point and Pop! PR Jots on strategy

Co-chair Debbie Weil will emcee with BlogOrlando Creator and BlogPotomac Advisor Josh Hallett. Without Josh and his original concept there would be no BlogPotomac. As the financier and organizer of the event, I’ve elected to pass on participation.

Because there will only be 150 seats, to recoup costs, and to avoid a Podcamp Boston situation, estimated ticket cost for the event will be $75.  Financial accounting for the event will be open and published. Any profits from BlogPotomac will be donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Our next task will be creating the BlogPotomac logo and site, publishing our full agenda, as well as opening registration. Stay tuned for more details.