StoryCrafter by Edelman :: My Take

AuburnMedia :: Infopinions:

Before writing this post, I prepared a long post filled with notes and comments about StoryCrafter.

However, having watched and read the comments and posts made by some re: StoryCrafter, this post seems more appropriate now. Perhaps I’ll post that long review, of sorts, later on. It is ready in drafts.

I don’t know, I’m funny in that I like to keep all things in perspective whenever possible. So, a little perspective.

First, and foremost, the problems with releases today has little, if anything, to do with how they are delivered, nor how they are formatted. Period.

The problem with releases today is, first of all, the writing of said releases. Next, the problem with releases is that way too many are being released. They don’t contain actual news.

So, with that covered, we turn to another reality of social media releases.

Take a pie. A big pie. Cut a sliver, oh … say angel hair width. Got it? Well, that sliver drastically over represents the people in the world today that likely have any desire to receive such a release. In fact, you could likely cut that sliver into 1,000,000 parts and 1/1,000,000th would represent the journalists, alone, that would likely want to receive such a release. Truth is, no one knows. There has been no research into the question – that I know of, to date. And, actually, I’m probably over estimating the percentage in each case.

The social media release is just one of many issues being discussed and tinkered with in public relations today. We want to know about it. It is interesting. That is all.

So, with a bit of perspective established, here are my thoughts … if you care. It is long. I’m really just writing for my students (I can make them read it) and for myself as a note taking process.

First, some of the comments left on the first Edelman StoryCrafter SMNR are ridiculous. Seriously. Others actually give ridiculous a bad name. Then, some are fair observations and suggestions. Go look for yourself. I don’t think you’ll need any guide from as to which ones are goofy.

For our part, we enjoyed playing a small role in this project. I believe my students enjoyed participating in, and learning from, the creation of SMNRs using this process. We realize that this is a small part of what is happening in public relations, let alone in social media. What we do realize is that it might be appropriate in certain instances, with certain clients, and with certain interested audiences (bloggers, journalists, and others).

• My students worked with Edelman to test out the new social media release publishing CMS called StoryCrafter. The CMS allows you to write and format and publish a SMNR. It was a good learning experience. The people at Edelman – Ming Yee, Phil Gomes and Rick Murray – were all very generous, kind and helpful.
• StoryCrafter is the latest, in what will likely be a long line of, CMS platforms that will enable people to easily format, write and publish a SMNR. So far, only the major release services offer the distribution – via the wire – these releases. Publishing and distribution are two very different things.

The impetus for creating such a CMS tool was driven by discussions about the possible viability of a new format for news releases. No sane person I know of believes that SMNRs will replace the traditional news release. At best, for the forseeable future, SMNRs will offer a complementary version that some journalists and others may find useful. I think it might be wise to start sending out both versions, just to see if there is actually any interest.

Wouldn’t it just be sad if all of this was solely to please Tom Foremski? Has anyone seen one other journalist clamoring for such a tool? Just asking.

Foremski’s article, Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!, was at least a tiny bit of hype to draw in readers, after all. Gotta hand it to him, though. He wrote a headline that dragged ’em in. It worked in this instance. And, he did spur on discussion and development of these new tools and templates.

The small group of PR practitioners and IT developers involved in this process are participating in an informal collaboration to devise new ways to accomplish the feat – publish a SMNR.

• This is how these things work, you see. People suggest things. Other people take those suggestions and create something following those suggestions. Sometimes they even add to those suggestions with their own ideas. Then they share them back with the community. This is what happened here. If the complaining goobers had done a little reading and research before writing, they would have known that.

What is a SMNR?

• SMNR is a social media news release. It has also been called a social media news release, social media release, SMPR, social media press release, hRelease and much more.
• Todd Defren offered up the first template suggestion for a SMNR: smprtemplate.pdf
• SMNRs. PRNewswire can do it. PRX Builder has a platform that does it.
• People with WordPress blogs can do it.
• Others, I’m sure, can do it in various forms. But, the companies that have the capability to create and distribute the releases all charge. Really? Yes. Well, I am shocked. Businesses trying to develop products and services that might generate revenue. Alert the media! Use a SMNR.
• Edelman never declared that this was an earth shattering revolution / innovation. They simply stated that this is their first offering of an example of how to do it. This is their contribution to the dialog and may well be an offering of a service to their customers.

What transpired in the development of StoryCrafter?

• The Todd Defren SHIFT SMNR template was used as a guide. Gee, imagine that. A template used as a guide.
• Phil Gomes referenced Todd Defren in the intial post announcing the release: Yes, I’ve Been Working On The Social Media News Release, Too.
• Phil Gomes then further credited Todd Defren in his follow up post: Pt. II: Yes, I’ve Been Working On The Social Media News Release, Too.
  • Made no sense to completely reinvent something for the sake of doing so, though we do think that the hosted approach and the comments element (not included in the spec) adds a lot.

Now, there has been some truly foolish sniping going on from the uninformed fringes.

• So, for those that want to wail that this is some form of ripoff, you really should go away and read and become familiar with the small group of loosely joined people that are collaborating (in some ways) to further the idea of SMNRs. Todd doesn’t call it a ripoff. Todd calls it open source.
• “SHIFT’s template was “open source” – anyone and everyone, including Edelman, was welcome to use, modify, re-arrange, etc., with no strings attached (and no credit necessary – though, yeah, sure, it’s nice!)” (Source)
• And, he got credit … and continues to get credit for his ideas.

What does StoryCrafter do?

• The following slideshow is what StoryCrafter claims to do.
  
• And, it does that. Is there a little “selling” going on there? Is there PR-speak / social media jargon involved? Yes and yes. Am I surprised? No. And you shouldn’t be either.
• Some of the other discussion about StoryCrafter strays off subject and turns into … well, childish nonsense. So, I’ll leave those out of the discussion here.

So, may we return to reality? May we return to the discussion of various ways individuals, organizationis and businesses may create SMNRs? I thought that was the purpose here. I knew there would be some petty nonsense, if only because Edelman was involved. You see, there are those that just can’t separate the name from the topic under discussion. Those people would do everyone a favor by just remaining silent. They add nothing to the discussion. But, children often lack discipline. So, it is best to just ignore them.

Key points to remember and/or discuss.

• The real problem with news releases are (a) writing and (b) too many are released without real news in them.
• Standards in language (i.e., XBRL, XPRL, etc.) need to be decided.
• APIs from PRNewswire, et. al., would help in offering a way to integrate the publication of SMNRs into their systems. They could retain control over what is published and by whom to protect their business interests. If they were willing to release APIs, this whole process would likely leap forward. Think of all the open source developers that might take up the challenge.
• That being said, release of zipped downloads of these CMS packages (a la OpensourceCMS.com) that allow anyone to host such a platform may not be a good thing. Just think of all the spam that will be generated. So, if the source code is going to be shared, I’d suggest only sharing it with reasonable people.
• I still think that, for the masses – those individuals, organizations and businesses – the best possibility for this kind of open source platform is likely WordPress. An update and adaptation of the Structured Blogging plugin, use of the PodPress plugin and/or Viper’s Video Quicktags – with a few other plugins, perhaps – and we have a viable alternative for creation and publication. But, without defined standards, the distribution is still a problem.
• Very key points … Choose an existing CMS platform. Stay away from the core code of said CMS platform. Accomplish the SMNR process via plugins. Develop standards. Stay true to standards. That will be the most fruitful and simplest method.
• The major release services seem uninterested in participating in an open process of developing such a platform. I believe this is a missed opportunity. They could, with the right API and process, retain their business interests and drive more users to their services. Think Google and Flickr, for example.

We are likely a long way from this being settled. But, I truly wish the discussions would stay on topic and not devolve into name calling and other such foolish activities.

A few asides …

Back to comments, the reality that one may comment on a release is refreshing. Although, I doubt everyone is going to want that. And, StoryCrafter allows trackbacks. This is new! PRX Builder does not have a tackback link, even in their aggregator blog.

The only other version, I know of, that allows comments – in a service – is PRX Builder. The large distribution services offer “mail to” links, I believe. PRX Builder does aggregate their releases into a WordPress blog, I’m sure that trackbacks there can be remedied. But, that isn’t the same as having it built into the CMS that generates the release. Further, comments on the Edelman StoryCrafter site do not require that you login to comment. PRX Builder does.

Speaking of PRX Builder … This release, for instance, PRX Releases » The New Standard for Comics and Gaming also has emoticons. (See QUOTES:). Is this the first known “emoticon release?” Oh, boy. Sorry, I digress. Hey, it is social media. These things (emoticons in releases) are to be expected. Aren’t they?

Shannon Whitley of PRX Builder has kindly asked that we work with his CMS package, too. If he is still interested, we’ll try to do that next semester. I have recently had a bit of time to look at it and I think it is a good tool, too. PRX Builder is still in beta, so they are allowing people to post releases for free. For my student efforts, I would not want our releases to actually be posted – go live – unless they were for a real event. So, that will have to be explored before we proceed. Edelman’s StoryCrafter offered that option. I don’t want my students contributing to the noise out there by producing indexed information that has no use beyond the educational exercise aspect of using the tool.

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