Valley PR Blog

Valley PR Blog Exclusive: Q&A with Shel Holtz

By ValleyPRblog on April 7th, 2008 In Social Media

Social media pioneer Shel Holtz is coming to the Valley for an IABC seminar on Tuesday afternoon. Valley PR Blog caught up with Shel via e-mail for this exclusive Q&A in advance of his appearance.

How has PR changed with the rise of social media?
In a lot of companies and agencies, it hasn’t. For many others, though, there is now a recognition that social media are changing the models of communication and they are adjusting their practices to account for it. Essentially, we have to come to grips with the fact that conversation is more effective than the distribution of messages in terms of influence.

What do you think is the most significant social media application in terms of PR?
We get too hung up on applications. The single most significant tool is the one that will work best given the goal you are trying to achieve. For one effort, it could be blogs. For another, it might be social networking sites. I just saw a video in which two communicators – a consultant and a client – talked about the use of YouTube and Flickr as the most important tools they used in a campaign.

Has social media minimized the importance of old school media?
Despite what some people say, it hasn’t. Among media channels, local and national TV news and newspapers remain the most trusted sources of information; there are multiple surveys and studies that reinforce that. However, the article doesn’t end when it’s printed on the page. News from mainstream media represent much of the fodder for conversation in the blogosphere. Also, mainstream media is coming to grips with the fact that those engaged in the social media space often pick up on news that the reporters and editors discounted as unimportant. And one reporter-turned-blogger has found that his reports get great traction on weekends, when mainstream media properties are functioning with skeleton staffs.

What trends do you see coming in the next few years that will impact the practice of PR relative to social media?
Adoption of social media will continue. Geoffrey Moore’s “late majority” and “laggards” have yet to join the party, but they will. We’ll also see more meshing of social media into other communications, the way Fast Company has turned its website into a social network. More niche social networks will emerge, along the lines of MyRagan.com for communicators. “Micro-blogging” will gain more traction in the general population. And the use of video as an integral part of social media will continue to surge.

What do you think of the so-called “social media news release” vs the traditonal news release?
It’s not a one-versus-the-other situation. For now, I believe companies need to do both. It has never been suggested that the social media release replace a traditional release, but rather that the social media release supplement the traditional. There are, for example, a lot of trade publications that still need narrative press releases to drop into the back end of the book in order to fill the space between the ads. And traditional releases move quite nicely over traditional press release distribution services. The social media release is designed to make it easier for online reporters – whether they’re bloggers or writers for WashingtonPost.com – to use the content online. When you’re using the web as your channel for communication, you’re not limited to text. The social media release does parse the contents of the release into easily scanned segments. It embraces social media tools like RSS feeds, tags, and the means by which a release can be added to democratized content sites like Digg and del.icio.us. And one of the goals of the SMR working group is to establish a standard for tagging, so quotes in press releases from leaders of utilities, for instance, can be easily found in a search.

Has PRWeb overtaken PR Newswire and Business Wire or will the big guys win out in the long run?
Hard to say. It’s worth questioning if even PRWeb has a future. Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, argues that a company blog meets all the needs of a press release distribution service, at least for satisfying regulatory disclosure requirements. PR Newswire and Business Wire have both joined the Social Media Release working group, so they’re serious about looking down the road to embracing new models.

What’s the deal with Second Life? Was is over-hyped or is there still a future there for real commerce?
I’m not sure about commerce, but it – and other virtual worlds – represent a venue for getting real work done – which, by the way, is the title of a Forrester Research study: “Getting Real Work Done in Virtual Worlds.” Some examples of how Second Life is being used for real work: Employee training (no getting on a plane to sit in a classroom with other employees from different locations who also got on a plane to be there), press conferences, job fairs, emergency training simulations, client meetings and architectural renderings. Some marketing will work, if it engages the population. The mistake most companies made in Second Life with their commerce efforts was that they bought an island, built a building, and waited for people to come. But Second Life is nothing more than a three-dimensional social network – it’s Facebook in a 3D setting. People are there to interact, not go to a destination. So companies that figure out how to market and sell in that context will do pretty well. Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that the population of Second Life isn’t all that huge yet. Still, there are predictions from some pretty reliable sources — the Financial Times, Business Week, and others – that the World Wide Web will adopt a three-dimensional look-and-feel similar to Second Life in the next 5-8 years. And Second Life has released its source code, so the potential for multiple universes to which you can travel with a single avatar is going to become a reality. IBM is about to launch one behind the firewall just for employee use, for example.

Have you seen any evidence that journalism schools and PR programs are effectively preparing students for the rise in new media?
Mostly, no. Some are, but most face a long and tortuous route to introducing new content to the curriculum.

Can you point to any PR/New Media firms and/or companies out there that really get social media?
Oh, heck yeah. Edelman, despite some early stumbles. When you’re first, you’ll be the one making the visible mistakes. Fleishman Hillard’s CEO David Senay has voiced his belief that everyone in his company must understand social media and how to integrate it into client work. Hill & Knowlton has done some great stuff, and has a cadre of company bloggers. Then there are mid-sized and small firms that are leading the way, like SHIFT Communications.

What are your impressions of the Phoenix market in terms of it being social media savvy and active in the social media world?
I’m not sure geography has any relevance. You can be in a remote corner of Alaska, but if you have an Internet connection, you can learn and begin to use social media. Jeremy Pepper ran a small agency in Phoenix when he was noticed by Weber-Shandwick and hired to come run their interactive practice in San Francisco; Jeremy got the social media space early. I know some other folks in the Phoenix area who are embracing it.

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