Association to accelerate adoption of standards for online communication tool

Core News Facts

• The International Association of Business Communicators — IABC — is assuming a leadership role with the Social Media Release.
• IABC will coordinate the effort to develop standards for the social media release.
• The social media release combines flexible formatting options with a tagging standard.
• The goal is to make business news usable by online reporters and bloggers, as well as more discoverable in search engines.
• The effort started two years ago with a blog post by Tom Foremski titled, “Die, Press Release. Die! Die! Die!”
• Foremski’s post called for companies to parse the information in their press releases so he could pick the elements he wanted to form his story. The traditional release is written in narrative, which makes that hard to do.
• Todd Defren at SHIFT Communications released the first template for a social media release.
• IABC has already received confirmations from people it has invited to join the existing working group.
• IABC will convene a group to work on the technical specification that will lead to a tagging standard.
• IABC will also work to consolidate Social Media Release resources currently scattered across the Web.
• IABC joins the Society for New Communication Research (SNCR), which is already involved in the effort.

SMR Working Group Membership To Date

Current members

• Chris Heuer, founder, Social Media Club and principal, The Conversation Group
• Tom Foremski, journalist
• Shannon Whitley
• Brian Solis
• Shel Holtz, ABC

Recently joined after receiving IABC invitation:

• Laura Sturaitis, Business Wire
• Jiyan Wei, PRWeb
• Dan Zarella, social media consultant
• Todd Van Hoosear, communicator and social media practitioner
• David Parmet, public relations counselor
• Jason Ryan, New Zealand public sector communicator

Quote Attributable to IABC President Julie Freeman, ABC, APR

IABC’s involvement in this initiative will attract representatives from public relations agencies, press release distribution services and the media. By bringing this group together to develop an industry standard, IABC is playing a leading role in shaping how communicators reach their audiences for years to come.

Quote Attributable to Chris Heuer, principal of The Conversation Group and founder, Social Media Club

We are excited to see the social media release get the attention and support of the IABC. Their ’stamp of approval’ on the concept will further the original idea and the input they will provide will most certainly improve the social media release and the practices professionals apply in creating them. Our original intent was to work with every professional communicator who shares an interest in seeing the industry evolve in the right direction, this intention is now becoming a reality.

Quote Attributable to Brian Solis, Principal, FutureWorks PR

The social media release is a catalyst for not only providing a new tool to share news, information and content, but also creating a forum to discuss how to improve press releases in general. The whole point of this working group and aligning with the IABC is to create an official standard and process that the entire industry can understand and support, from creation to distribution to building stories.

Quote Attributable to Tom Foremski, Journalist

It is great to see all the work that has gone into transforming the news release into something that reflects the use of the many new media technologies that we use everyday.

Quote Attributable to Jen McClure, Executive Director, Society for New Communication Research

The creation of a standard for the social media release is an important initiative that addresses the evolving public relations profession and media landscape. The Society has been involved in this effort since its inception, and we look forward to continuing to support and contribute to this process through the continued participation of our Fellows Todd Defren, Shel Holtz and Brian Solis, as well as through our research and best practices programs.

Multimedia Elements

Cafe2Go #18
IABC’s official monthly podcast featuring an interview with Brian Solis about the Social Media Release
February 2008 [39:23m]
Download

Chris Heuer discusses the Social Media Release

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Links to Related Content

• Current home of the Social Media Release
• hRelease wiki
• Access the purpose-built del.icio.us site containing links to ongoing coverage, industry news, and reactions.
• RSS feed to purpose-built del.icio.us site with ongoing coverage, industry news, and reactions.
• Tom Foremski’s original post, “Die, Press Release. Die! Die! Die!“
• Examples of social media release
• Social Media Release podcast
• Shift Communications’ original social media release template
• IABC
• Society for New Communication Research

Technorati Tags

social media / social media release / social media news release / social media press release / IABC / media relations / blogger relations / blogger outreach

IABC Boilerplate

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is a global network of communication professionals committed to improving organizational effectiveness through strategic communication. Established in 1970, IABC serves more than 15,000 members in 70 countries and 100 chapters. For more information, visit www.iabc.com.

Contact

Joseph Ugalde
Phone 415.544.4726
E-mail: jugalde@iabc.com

Archana Verma
Phone 415.544.4722
E-mail: averma@iabc.com