Who was this primarily sent to? Reporters and journalists? Bloggers? Curious seeing as how you wanted to join and not build conversations.

Jonathan

The release looks great. Very nice work! I’ve finally solidified my view on multimedia vs. social media. I tend to agree that a social release must facilitate conversation, but it doesn’t necessarily need to host it.

Speaking of template plagiarism, I’m thinking of adding a new template to PRX Builder. We might call it the MKF…

Interesting point that’s come up a few times – whether or not this release is truly “social” since it does not directly create a platform for discussion. For the record, this was not an oversight, but rather a deliberate strategy – with this SMPR, we were seeking to provide tools and content to enable bloggers and other content creators to discuss the 2008 Ford Focus. In other words, we weren’t trying to build a conversation, but rather join one that was already underway, and hopefully make it a little richer and better-informed with easy-to-access content.

The point is this: companies don’t always have to “own” the discussion around their products, sometimes sharing is enough (and right). I do find it interesting that the act of enabling and encouraging discussion would be seen as anything but social!

Once again, thanks to everyone – it’s so nice to feel the love!

At the same time, I think any release like this should have a ‘click’ to an interactive version that is itself a post in an ongoing blog. The release can come in email or as a link, but it should be *the visitor* not *the company* who decides on the level of interaction.