Value Added Social Media Release

Last days, when I search for Social Media Releases (Technorati.com tag search for SMR, SMPR, SMNR…), I find more and more (let’s say it) not good articles about this issue (hype, buzz). Although there are great basic articles about SMR (e.g. Brian Solis is my favourite – he should create the e-book about it), I agree with Brian Oberkirch, Stowe Boyd, Todd Defren, and others (old posts, but still fresh), that there is a long road for the better use of SMR. 

When you look some SMR examples (there are some very ineresting cases, like Ford SMR series), you can see the links for Del.icio.us, Technorati.com, Digg.com (…) searches; and it is very hard to found any interaction (some user engagement efforts from SMR authors), there.

Fancy SMR – Give Me Some Actual Social Media Knowledge and Experience!

If the classic PR people are not active social media consumers in all aspects of (e.g.) Social Technographics activity scale, or simplified, if they do not understand Social Media Interaction – they can not create adequate SMRs.

The reasons for this are obvious:

• Classic PR is based on a controlled messages (PR agencies like control over messages).
• Social Media = Transparency, Conversation and Respect – This is opposite in classic PR practice!
• Lot of them are in the group of people who do not have time to research SMR logic, due to massive routine daily obligations.

Furthermore, User Engagement Management (the knowledge ho to develop and maintain user engagement) is not very known to many people involved in actual SMR development. The result is – a lot of links, without direct comments (maybe they are not very velcome if they are not positive).

Next, actual Social Media Releases do not have much added value, to be REALLY shared with other online (social) media (there comes PR Wire Services).

User Engagement Management and Value Added Social Media Releases are very advanced techniques (such as WoM and Viral Marketing), and my opinion is that we will not see much of those in near future.

In other hand, if we look at the SMR as the tool which cuts the time for the journalists’ investigation about the news article related to SMR, that is the benefit of SMR, at the moment.

P.S. Although I wrote this article, I like the idea about SMR.