Chris was not just a social media guru, whip-smart talent, and all-around fab PR pro to me. He challenged me to become a better professional and to strive for greater heights in my own career. He was my partner in crime at industry tech parties, someone I grabbed lunch with, the guy who made all of us in the office laugh with his good-natured humor and sharp wit and was constantly the life of the party when us SHIFTers would get together for drinks after hours. I know he'll continue to be an integral part of my life even as he moves past SHIFT and onto the next horizon.

I'll miss you, Chris, but I'm so happy for you and I can't wait to see you go on to more successes in your career!

A favorite pic I took of Chris with the lovely Kristen Nicole of Mashable at StumbleUpon's 5 million users party at 111 Minna in SF

Oosah launch party at the Harry Denton's Starlight Room (apologies in advance for not knowing people's names):

From left to right, Erica Ogg, Rob Balousek and Andrew Mager

"Untitled" by Z Andrei via Flickr under Creative Commons License

Jennifer Manos & Maragaret Clark a la our PR agency.

"Untitled" by Z Andrei via Flickr under Creative Commons License

Erica from CNET looking adorable. (Yes, I am loving name tags right now. LOL)

"Untitled" by Z Andrei via Flickr under Creative Commons License

.

Powerset launch party a la Mighty:

SHIFTers being sessy!

"Club Powerset" by Official Powerset via Flickr

Holy ish, Julie Crabill is talented!

"Club Powerset" by Official Powerset via Flickr

This is why we need to have more professional lighting in this world.

"Club Powerset" by Official Powerset via Flickr

"Club Powerset" by Official Powerset via Flickr

"I can has an umbrella?"

"Club Powerset" by Official Powerset via Flickr

I'm going to be vain and say SHIFT employees are friggin' hot tamales... (Kayla Kooyman and Marie Williams)

"Club Powerset" by Official Powerset via Flickr

.

More photos of the Powerset launch party on Flickr.

Cheerios!

UPDATED:

One more Powerset shot:

Marie Williams (SHIFT), MG Seigler (VentureBeat), Chris Morrison (VentureBeat), Kayla Kooyman (SHIFT), Evan Borders (KTVU Fox 2)

"2008-0064 11" by tychay via Flickr under Creative Commons License

Steve Hall put up a great wrap-up of the discussion at AdRants.

Thanks again to Emerson for organizing such a great forum.  It's great to see my school taking steps toward getting students into this space.

The problem, as he explains in the structure of his post, is one of bullet points, embedded links and sections, rather than the conventional narrative structure.  Meaning, the press release doesn't pretend to be a pre-fabricated story for lazy editors.

With some compromises, it had a happy ending s he noted on For Immediate Release (Show # 319,) but it re-opens the topic of whether the SMR is ready for prime time.

There were big objective: to increase access, provide context, make it seo friendly, and the big one, to leave out the spin.  The last is a big one, since most editors don't want a PR department to write their stories, but give them the hook. Big difference. Then there's the convenience factor of the embedded links, one-click image downloads and the delicious and technorati tags.

Getting all these in one place, for many organizations is a work in progress. We love our 'shared folders' and our media pages, but they're not exactly accessible and journo-friendly.

Maria and I have been traveling, celebrating holidays, starting new jobs and beginning new semesters--we have been busy bees here in Boston.

I started my first job at SHIFT Communications on January 22, and I have been thoroughly enjoying learning the ropes and figuring out new things. I've been meeting great people and I'm looking forward to building a career at SHIFT.

Just wanted to throw a quick update on here--it's Superbowl Sunday, so I need to get ready to cheer on my Patriots!

The press release evolves again Maggie Fox's Social Media Group, which is one of the most innovative boutique agencies specializing in new media marketing, has developed a new version of the Social Media Press Release (SMPR), which was pioneered by Shift Communications in 2006.

The SMPR differs substantially from the traditional press release, which is often long, detailed and inflexible. The new format emphasizes many points of entry, so that journalists and bloggers can pick and choose the information - and the media - that they wish to use. The latter point is important. With so many media outlets today using images, audio and video to tell a story, the traditional press release doesn't meet their needs very well. The SMPR makes room for story-telling through whatever media the publisher wishes to use. It requires more work on the client end, but should result in much better results.

Another innovation in this new version is its use of popular back-end services like YouTube and Flickr to host content. This means that people can find the information through search engines as well as via the press release.

Maggie has made the template available for anyone to use under a Creative Commons license. She has a more detailed explanation here. Or you can just download the template in PDF format.

This has been a stop and start and stop topic for my team since March 2007.  Hope this year we have better luck.  This is not a big complaint, because our team was able to turn on some other very cool features like a Chip Shot section for mini updates tailored for journalists and tech bloggers.

The SMPR differs substantially from the traditional press release, which is often long, detailed and inflexible. The new format emphasizes many points of entry, so that journalists and bloggers can pick and choose the information - and the media - that they wish to use. The latter point is important. With so many media outlets today using images, audio and video to tell a story, the traditional press release doesn't meet their needs very well. The SMPR makes room for story-telling through whatever media the publisher wishes to use. It requires more work on the client end, but should result in much better results.

Another innovation in this new version is its use of popular back-end services like YouTube and Flickr to host content. This means that people can find the information through search engines as well as via the press release.

Maggie has made the template available for anyone to use under a Creative Commons license. She has a more detailed explanation here. Or you can just download the template in PDF format.

BTW, Maggie was our guest on episode 16.

As always, The Rundown is my weekly LIVE podcast featuring an analysis or summary of something by a knowledgeable person - and me.

As principal, Defren leads client services and business development efforts for SHIFT. More importantly he and his team have been instrumental in bringing the Social Media Release to life. I have some questions of my own about that, about what prompted him to get involved in the whole movement and what it means to public relations and journalism. I also plan on asking him what it's like to bop from Boston to San Fransisco like a tennis ball. Don't miss this exciting Halloween edition.

The Rundown airs on Tuesdays at 1:30pm Eastern. Because it’s live, your calls are welcome. Whenever I have I guest you’d like to talk to, question or heckle, just call in at (646) 716-8329. You can also email your text or audio comments to me before the show and I’ll fit them in. The archives will be available at my BlogTalkRadio host page or by subscribing to the show’s RSS feed. You can also subscribe to the show on iTunes.

[audio=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/therundown/2007/10/30/the-rundown-with-todd-defren.mp3]

Links from The Rundown with Todd Defren

• Social Media News Releases Gain Momentum
• UPDATED: The Future of the Social Media Release is in Your Hands
• The Social Media Newsroom Template
• Social Media Release Template
• Solis' How To 1
• Solis' How To 2
• NMRCasts RSS Feed