http://www.virtualthirst.com/virtualthirst-socialmediarelease.html

Focusing on a specific example could uncover some new discussion
points.

I'll kick in a couple:

I found the use of a custom background interesting.  It could draw
readers into the page, or it might distract.

First read I think it's brilliant for a lot of reasons. I am intrigued
by what they are doing, this new cottage industry of virtual reality
marketing. But the presentation can be greatly improved, more like the
Shift, Storycatcher (Edelman), PRX Builder. The purpose of the Social
Media Press Release is as a ultra SEO - enhanced, multi media thing
that lives on and for the web

The background is too ethereal and the there are no graphics within
the "release" - too many words, font too small, no we-enabled copy --
but I like what they are doing. So this is what crayon does?

mark

On Apr 24, 4:12 pm, Shannon Whitley <shannon.whit...@gmail.com> wrote:

 It is very comprehensive (minus a few typos and missing images).
This is ideal really...as a former media person, this is something
that I feel is extremely helpful and
well-organized. It's almost like visiting a media room within a Web
site, but for a specific reason...in relation
to a press release, which saves so much time and so much frustration
of having to "click" around and play
the "guessing" game of where the info. you need, will be located in
that media/press room.

It does sit separately, but doesn't give the feel of being "detached".
I like the specificity of it.
In today's fast-paced social media realm, this seems to me...a
fantastic and perfect example. Brilliant!!

On Apr 24, 2:12 pm, Shannon Whitley <shannon.whit...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'd have to give it a mixed reception.

It's interesting, certainly. But does it do the job? Maybe - but what
IS the job? Is it reaching out to the media? Then, as a long-time
journalist, I'd have to say it doesn't reach me very well. I've never
been a fan of just listing a few bullet points rather than writing a
short - repeat, SHORT - release. Yes, there's a release linked below
(curiously enough, as "Multimedia"), but I don't have time to look to
see if there is one. It should be more prominent.

On the other hand, if it's just reaching out to the consumer, or to
the hard-core Second Life person, I think the traditional elements are
going to be a turn-off. Also, as a consumer, I'd still rather read a
short story than try to make sense out of bullet points. And the
quotes, whether real or bogus, add nothing.

I'm also not sure that just listing a collection of photos is more
effective than showing the photos and making them available for quick
and easy download at a variety of screen resolutions.

That's what I would have guessed.  You are turned off by the
background whereas Cecilia liked it.  People will have different
reactions and I wonder if that detracts from the message.
Nonetheless, I think themed backgrounds for releases is an interesting
idea, although I discovered later that this wasn't just the background
for the release.

Cecilia:

I had many of the same reactions to the release that you had.  I give
them an A+ for the number of links they've included.  I think some
inline images would improve it overall.

Les:

You're right about the "audience" issue.  Can we write the same
release for the consumer, the amateur press, and the professional
press?  I think we are all struggling with that question.

I've been studying this release carefully because I think there are a
lot of things that have been done very well.  Kudos to the team at
crayon.

It might be interesting if the crayon team takes all of the feedback
that they're getting and revises the release to make it even better.
Obviously the release isn't stuck in time like something that goes out
over a newswire, but is it worth the effort to edit an online release
after it's been posted?  Does that diminish the integrity of the
release?  I suppose they left that open with the 'coming soon' remark
next to the headshot.

The first job is to help a reporter/blogger check for relevance. I
think it does that job well.

The atomic quotes were startling. Just what I've always wanted! No
digging through Shel's tortured prose; I can torture those quotes at
least as well with my own prose.

bug: Some of the social media links didn't work for me. digg/del.icio.us.

I didn't find the tag list right away. I almost would like to see that
in its own section.

Add the rss feeds to the web page's autodiscovery mechanism.

Was there an xml encoding of the release? I didn't see a link to it.

Linking to a location in 2L, use links that open the Second Life app
and take you straight to the coordinates.

As long as you're tagging things, why not put an aggregator right into
the bottom or sidebar of the release's web page?

The formatting is vanilla html (a good thing). It might be interesting
to add css IDs to the elements and let others play around with styling
for different effects. For example, the quotes section might look good
with more prominent formatting.

All in all, a great job. You can see the social media release coming to life.