Industry Watch: Social Media Club and the New hRelease
November 2006

Q&A with Chris Heuer, Founder, Social Media Club, and Brian Solis, Principal, FutureWorks PR

Q: Whenever I hear the name Social Media Club, I think of dancing and Cuban music (Buena Visa Social Club?). Tell us exactly what the Social Media Club is, what burning need prompted its founding and how long it's been in operation.
This was originally a project from BrainJams, my (Chris Heuer's) website and blog. One of the things we saw was the opportunity to bring people together, to jam - sort of like musicians. The Social Media Club is also an opportunity for people to get together - the focus is social media, replaying web 2.0. But with web 2.0 you're looking at exclusion and high cost tickets to web conferences. The social media club is more like web 2.1 in terms of accessibility, inclusion and affordability.

For the new web, the point is people and the focus is on people. According to social learning theory, we learn more from each other than by any other means. And so the more high tech we become the more high touch we crave.

The Social Media Club was launched about three months ago. The first blog was in August this year. It's still in the process of being organized - to share best practices, establish ethics and standards, and to promote media literacy. This is the beginning of a global conversation about building an organization and a community where the many diverse groups of people who care about social media can come together to discover, connect, share and learn. We've talked with a lot of people including web tool people, but didn't stop there. Artists, students, PR, Education, Political - all have an interest and a stake.

Q. There does seem to be a Brave New World of PR, Communications and so forth, instigated by the web and the web's yet to be completely delved potential. Would you describe what you see for the emerging media movement.
This is one of the first times where everyone in the world will be impacted socially. Air. Water. Social Media. It's conversation through a mediated device. The ability to engage with people around the world has increased a thousand fold. This is a remarkable moment in time, and with the potential comes the questions of what it's to be used for. How do we encourage greater tolerance, greater dialogue. It's cross-cultural in nature. One of the Social Media Club's missions is to help promote values which bring people together and assist in respectful conversations.

We've moved from being an information economy to being a knowledge economy. Smart people have a greater chance to collaborate, find ways of collaborating and increasing the pace of innovation. Social media encourage people to share knowledge rather than hoard it. All of this means we're not as condemned to repeat mistakes or reinvent the wheel.

Q. An item of note is your current project, the hRelease, meant to modernize the traditional press release for a web-centered world. Why doesn't the old style press release work? How will the hRelease differ from it?
The current press release format gives the story and gives the spin to the story. What we want to do is get people involved in the actual news again. We hope to push forward the social media PR template as a standard to give people information that can be delivered via highlighted blocks of information, such as bullet points, snippets or insights. That way people can tell their own story about the news based on factual information. It also helps journalists get the facts rather than a pre-canned story. I recently issued a press release which included a link to photos and a link to a site on http://del.icio.us/ for research and information. That way journalists and reporters can determine their own perspective since they're viewing factual information rather than my spin on the information. More facts. Less editorializing.

Q. What does the small h in hRelease stand for?
It's a technical naming convention in the microformats community.

Q. Can we see an advance copy of it?
(Laughter) We've formed a working group of 10 people and are soon to make the requirements public. But to get an idea of the social media press release, look under the news section on spiralfrog. (See http://spiralfrog.us/socialmedia.aspx?control=spiralfrog-kochrecords20sep06.ascx). It also gives a traditional news release within the general press release.

Q: Is it meant to completely replace the traditional press release, or will there still be a place in the world for the traditional release?
There will definitely be an opportunity for both to be used. The traditional release still serves a purpose and will likely continue to. The hRelease is a package for those who practice social media and are comfortable receiving information this way. Only time will tell if this is generally accepted. For now I (Brian Solis) send out both.

Q: Do you think the change in the press release will have an effect on media itself? Will function follow form?
I think it will have to. There will be more focus on giving people facts, which creates a greater, more authentic engagement. Still, while many employees blog, the hRelease will separate the official company blog from all the chatter.

It's interesting stuff. Now you see young hires using texting shorthand with high level executives.