It’s cold outside. Why not warm yourself with today’s inflammatory “Stick It To The Man” edition of “3Q’s in 3 Min?”

Every Thursday, socialTNT channels the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. The videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters, PR/communications practitioners and marketers on the future of media.

This Thursday, socialTNT meets with Jeremy Pepper, PR Blogger and Director of Communications for The Point. As a notorious contrarian blogger, Jeremy is the perfect fit for “Stick It To The Man” week. In today’s “3Q’s in 3 Min,” Jeremy plays hardball with the Social Media News Release and offers a little advice to the Blog Council.

Jeremy Pepper is not new to social media; he’s been blogging for four and a half years. The New PR Blogger Timeline places Jeremy’s POP! PR Jots as the 16th PR blog on record. Some of his recent posts include: “PR Will Lose Social Media to Advertising Because of Sex” and “It’s a Shame,” a passionate post about blogger/media relations. Before you start firing your guns, you aspiring restless contrarian bloggers should check out Jeremy’s post on libel.

Fun Facts about Jeremy

• Totally connected, you can find him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
• Once tied Miles Perkins (of Industrial Light and Magic) in a Valleywag “Snacky or Flacky” contest
• Seems to love wearing flip-flops (He came to our interview in 30 degree weather wearing flip-flops!)
• Originally from Detroit, Jeremy studied philosophy at University of Arizona (maybe that’s where he got a degree in Sandal-ology)

Watch as Jeremy tells us his thoughts on the SMNR and advises the Blog Council to open up a little bit.

Is the Social Media News Release just another choice? Or does it have advantages and benefits not found in a traditional release?

Should the Blog Council pow-wow with PR peeps? Or do big corps really need privacy from the outside? Love to hear your response.

Once again, thanks Jeremy for your interview!

[The above picture of Jeremy, "Worlds Collide Hosted By Tim Ferriss: Jeremy Pepper," taken by Brian Solis and used under Creative Commons.]

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For those of you not familiar with our regular Thursday feature, “3Q’s in 3 Min” follows in the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters, communications practitioners and marketers on the future of media.

Our first clip features Forrester Research Senior Analyst Charlene Li. Charlene researches social media/web 2.0 technology and relates its uses to the marketing professional. In this clip, Charlene explains that by interacting with a brand–on even the most minute level–the consumer starts to build a relationship with the brand. See the full post and 3 minute interview here.

At last month’s Web 2.0 Summit, socialTNT was lucky enough to meet with Business Week Media Columnist Jon Fine. In his column, Jon focuses on the convergence of media and advertising. Check out the clip below to hear Jon’s opinion about social media and PR. For the full post and 3 minute interview with Jon, click here.

Our final clip for the day features Silicon Valley Watcher’s Tom Foremski. Tom has played a crucial part in PR’s evolution by declaring “Die Press Release! Die! Die! Die!” Below, Tom shares his ideas on the future of PR and stresses the importance of change. To see the full post and 3 minute interview with Tom, click here.

That was just a sampling of a few of the great interviews we’ve had on socialTNT’s “3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min.” To see all of the interviews to date, please check out this page. We’ve got some great interviews lined up, so stick around.

Once again, thank you Charlene, Jon, Tom and all of our guests for sharing your insight.

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Once again, it’s time for our regular Thursday feature, “3Q’s in 3 Min.” In the spirit of citizen journalism, SocialTNT puts bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters and PR practitioners on the future of media .

This week, Silicon Valley Watcher‘s Tom Foremski discusses the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, the changing media landscape, and the state of PR in the new ecosystem. For those two of you not familiar with Tom, he was the first (on record) to call for the end of the traditional press release.

More about Tom and the video after the jump…

Tom’s blog post from February 27, 2006, entitled “Die Press Release! Die! Die! Die!” called for a deconstructed press release to include these elements:

• a brief description of the key elements of the story
• quotes from CEO, C-Level spokespeople, customers, and analysts
• financial data
• links to other news stories or references

His sentiments were echoed through the community, inspiring Todd Defren to post a template for a Social Media News Release (SMNR) on May 23, 2006. (Rest of the history of the SMNR can be found here.)

Tom moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1984 and founded the international news agency, West Coast News. Fifteen years later, in 1999, Tom joined the Financial Times as a US Technology Correspondent and Columnist. In 2004, Tom jumped the print ship to try his hand at blogging full time. According to compete.com, Tom’s Silicon Valley Watcher received roughly 18,000 unique visitors in the month of August. Besides calling for the death of the press release, Tom is also notorious for uncovering the real life identity of LonelyGirl15′s Jessica Rose.

I had the opportunity to meet with Tom in his San Francisco flat earlier this week. Before the on-camera interview, we sat in Tom’s living room and chatted a little about recent industry news. A book case full of art books lines one wall, its shelves populated by miniature robots ranging from the 1950′s to a recent purchase from Kid Robot. On the top shelf sits a pair of vintage dioramas with scenes from the comic book Superman and some Doctor Who figurines. Children’s art and family pictures are scattered throughout the room, but my eye is drawn to a brightly colored poster hanging above the bookcase promoting The Haight-Ashbury Street Festival. Tom says he knows the artist personally–not surprising since he once published the neighborhood newspaper for the famous SF neighborhood.

Fun Facts About Tom:

• He has a pet bearded dragon
• He’s on Facebook and LinkedIn
• He has two children

After our warm-up chat, we go outside to Tom’s backyard patio for the shoot. Please forgive the shakiness of the camera. I promise to have a tri-pod soon. At SocialTNT, we like to go above expectations; instead of three questions, this week’s video features a whopping FOUR questions! The fourth question is the meatiest!

Check it out:

Do you agree with Tom? Is PR really in a state where change is an added bonus, not a necessity? Will PR ever be forced to evolve? If so, when?

Please feel free to comment on these questions or anything else Tom touched on in the remarks below.

Once again, thank you Tom for taking the time to share your insight with the SocialTNT audience!

Tomorrow, we continue with Part 2 of yesterday’s post,”It’s a Conversation, Stupid!”

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If there was ever a prime example of why the traditional press release must die, this release over the weekend has got to be it.

Take a look:

Video to Demystify Social Media and Web 2.0

ECommerce Rocks Video with Ben Wills helps demystify social media websites for business owners.

West Midlands, United Kingdom, September 29, 2007 –(PR.com)– Top US marketer Ben Wills is interviewed in a virtual web 2.0 video as part of video tutorial series.

As the buzz about social media grows ECommerce Rocks launches a new video interview with US Search marketer Ben Wills about web 2.0 and social media websites.

Interviewed by Gareth Davies of GSINC Ltd, Ben Wills discusses the key social media websites and what they can mean to business owners.

Whether it’s YouTube, Digg, MySpace or Bebo the video helps to explain the functions and value of these websites as part of the ECommerce Rocks series of virtual video interviews.

Davies commented:
“It’s always great to interview marketers like Ben Wills and I hope that folks can benefit from his enlightening commentary.”

He added “Hopefully the interview combined with the cutting edge format of virtual video means that others can benefit from Ben’s insights and advice, and that the video helps to explain to viewers the basics of web 2.0 in an engaging and easy to understand format”.

The latest ECommerce Video is available to watch online at XXXXXXX

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy! I wish I could say this press release was a joke. I wish I could laugh at it’s irony. But I can’t. Not even the Dadaist in me can look at this as art.

From the Headline and matching sub-head, to the shining cliched spokesperson quote, this release has it all. What makes this one particularly painful is that it’s announcing a product intended to explain social media to the ignorant. Here’s a concept: use a social media new release!

Let’s imagine this same announcement in a social media newsroom. First off, it’s a video announcement. Maybe a trailer? Interview outtakes? Come on guys, don’t be so lazy.

Think how much more engaging and valuable this release would be if it had links to del.icio.us pages with bookmarked articles discussing the importance of social media for marketers. Maybe another one with articles on or interviews with the “experts.” Hell, even a link to a wikipedia entry on this “top US marketer.”

We have to stop being contributers to the info-clutter. A press release should not be noise pollution. It should help reporters, Bloggers and Netizens quickly find key information, place it in context, validate the facts, and then use that information how they want to use it.

Take a look at the presentation Todd Andrlik gave at the Ragan Communications Social Media Summit. It offers a great discussion on the history of the news release and the importance of the new SMNR. (Thanks to Todd Defren for passing Todd Andrlik’s presentation along.)

Here are two great video explanations bBy CommonCraft on Social Bookmarking and Social Networking.

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