SMPR - All Bells And Whistles?

I'm aware I'm just a PR student, so pardon my nerve. But what is happening to everyone out there?
I key in the words 'social media press release' and the Net is throbbing with excitement. Forums and posts abound with people virtually (I mean that in the literal sense) falling over each other, in their attempts to become part of the conversation about this revolutionary, breakthrough, awesome departure from PR as we have known it.
The environment is bouncing with mutual congratulations, as those PRs who are on message engage in much back-slapping and virtual high fives. You're all just so thrilled with yourselves and each other that I feel bad about raining on your parade.
In fact, so loathe was I to do the 'Hey - the king's nude' thing, that I spent the last couple of days trawling and logging onto endless websites - just to make sure that I hadn't misunderstood the whole thrust of the SMPR concept.
So thank-you Todd Defren and Brian Solis and Chris Heuer and your many acolytes for the acres and acres of verbiage which you and fellow trailblazers have felt it necessary to put out on the subject.
The thing we Brits especially like about you Americans is your boundless enthusiasm - the way you pick up and run hard with anything even marginally new. In fact, so overwhelmed was I by the truly frantic (almost hysterical) level of excitement I kept running into on every virtual corner, I was momentarily swept up in the SMPR-will-change-the -communications-sphere-as -we-know-it tsunami myself.
But then I logged off, lay down in a dark room and thought about it. A phrase came to mind. Three words. One of those was 'wheel'. Hate to say it but I suspect SMPR is everso over-hyped. I mean, I'm up for the embrace-technology thing. Why else would I be doing this bloody module? But I suspect that, faced with 65 million potentially troublesome bloggers, some PRs are hitting the appeasement button. Blogging? You betcha! Just don't hit me!
Okay, your dream press release is multi-layered - electronic and using online tools, like a Podcast link, RSS feed, Technorati tags and optional links to other coverage.
So far...so very like an innovative, well designed and regularly updated website. I was particularly struck by the novel idea of pre-approved quotes from your client talking heads. Tell me, what sane PR would publish any other sort??
I understand you want to maximize the communications options offered by technology; I see why the brave, supremely confident or downright foolish among the PR fraternity might want to risk engaging on a daily (or even hourly) basis with anyone and everyone who is no one in the blogosphere - fielding all brick-bats and bouquets on behalf of their clients.
I get the global audience thing. I realise PRs can be judged and found wanting - not only by their clients but by the world community... and probably a few shifty characters beyond that. I've certainly worked for a few spacemen in my time.
Yes - the Web has opened up all kinds of communications channels which we ignore at our peril and for sure there are lots of influencers out there with fingers permanently poised over keyboards, just waiting to bag 'em an unsuspecting PR, organisation, corporation, product or service.
High Noon comes to Neverland and there are varmints in them thar hills. But your SMPR concept won't change any of that. Not if the bullet's got your name on it. And I'm not the only one who's nowhere near converted....



Class Act

Another week - another wander around Tecchieworld. The last few days have seen me labouring mightily over yet another first: The PowerPoint presentation.
It's a doddle. A child could do it. Have you really never done one before?
This and many other helpful remarks have come my way since I foolishly went public with this latest assignment.
Yes, it probably was. Yes, one probably could. And no, I really never had....
But that's all behind me now. One PP presentation primed and ready for delivery. What's more, I enjoyed doing it.
The subject? Social Media Press Releases.
I'm probably the only person who's never heard of them. But if you too are a SMPR virgin, just key it in and stand well back. Oh, I suggest you make up some sandwiches and a flask of something fortifying before you start: there's so much stuff sloshing around about this concept and how it will change the face of PR, radically and permanently, excluding many practitioners along the way...that you really will require some sustenance on the journey.
We did more statistics today. Well, my fellow students did. I went home early and ordered Bryman. That's the author, not his book. We're presently in negotiation about how much he'd charge to personally sit with me and talk me, or walk me, or drag me kicking and screaming, through the statistics chapters of his lovely, unputdownable book, Social Research Methods.
PR at the University of Stirling...it's so not for sissies.