The Third Thursday meeting last week in San Francisco marked the collaboration between the Society for New Communication Research and Social Media Club. The panel was made up of Tom Foremski (of Silicon Valley Watcher), Brian Solis (of FutureWorks PR and PR 2.0), Shel Holtz (of Crayon and A Shel of My Former Self), and special guest, Joel Tesch from BusinessWire. Chris Heuer (of Social Media Club and Idea Engine) moderated.

The conversation opened with Chris Heuer asking Tom Foremski about his initial comments that traditional press releases were of no use to journalists. It very quickly escalated into a heated discussion of what social media really is and isn’t.

Joel Tesch agreed that the old format of text only is no longer effective.  A press release today must have links, multi media to make the release interactive so it becomes a real method of communication.

Stowe Boyd took the group to task for calling people audiences and still approaching social media with old traditional PR concepts.

“The “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” complicity of leading PR bloggers around serious flaws in the conventional notions of PR is lamentable. For example, seeing the bloggers acknowledge on one hand that CEOs don’t actually provide those quotes that are stuck into press releases while on the other hand promoting transparency and openness in corporate communications was more than painful. We should simply state, unequivocally, that such things are not social media: they are old style, push marketing crap. They are exactly the things that lead us to question the motives, influence, and truthfulness of stupid, old line companies who just don’t get it.”

Robert Scoble picked up on it and wrote “I really don’t get why society needs a stupid press release. Just give us a damn demo of your product and tell us about it.”

Brian Solis of PR 2.0 made some cogent responses. “It all starts with the need to tell a better story in a way that means something to someone. One release no longer serves everyone. With wire services and savvy web marketers placing them in search engines as well as news desks, it’s now more important than ever, to improve the foundation.

Journalists and bloggers aren’t the only reader of releases these days; they’re now actively consumed by customers as well. 51% of IT professionals reported that they learned about new technology by reading releases on Yahoo over tech publications. That’s a HUGE shift and should spark an urgent need to transform the release into something more substantive for the needs of specific customers.”

The podcast of the event has a wealth of information about media shifts, insights into what journalists really want from PR and how to navigate the new media landscape.

Listen to the podcast and let us know what you think about new media releases.