Helpful or Opressing?

As the communications world grows more comfortable with social media and its various uses, it is inevitable that we are going to shift away from our traditional methods of communication in most all ways.  This includes media releases.  We have moved into a time where it is not uncommon to see what is now called a “Social Media Release” whereby an organization utilizes their various social media tools to get their message out there via a media release in the social media realm.  While this is an exciting  time, IABC has recognized that the marriage of this traditional tool with an untraditional one is a complicated relationships that must be carefully crafted.  On the Hobson and Holtz Report this week, they talked about the conference where members of IABC came together to discuss standards and formats for this new(ish) form of communication.

The Wiki that is maintained by IABC explaining these standards explains the purpose of setting a standard and format for these new media releases, “hRelease is an open, social media news release standard that encourages the electronic distribution of news across the Internet. hRelease will allow news authors to create a single copy of their online release and share it electronically with wire services, members of the press, and the public. The goal of the hRelease format is to enable a simple way to markup news, allowing authors to share news through blogs, personal and corporate websites, web feeds, and any other online repository.”

What are your thoughts? Do we really need someone telling us how to write our releases? Or will it be super helpful?