“Mr. Penn, who isn’t looking for a job, got the idea for the social media résumé from Todd Defren of Shift Communications who created the social media press release, a template for a Web 2.0 news release that he made available free to others in the public relations industry.”

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Todd Defren created a collection of resources and posts for public relations 101. It encompasses social-media tactics, free online services that appeal to small businesses and creating a news release for an online community.

Scott Monty
relationship director, Crayon

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Innovation is essential for the PR industry as it continues its evolution. PRWeek profiles five agency executives whose ideas could have an effect far beyond the reach of their agencies

Todd Defren
Principal, Shift Communications

“Let’s screw up intelligently,” Todd Defren dares the industry.

Defren envisions a PR industry that is willing to take risks - and perhaps make some mistakes - to get things right.

I’d like to see us experiment more,” he adds.

And the industry may not have a choice. As media grow increasingly sophisticated, Defren believes bad PR - e-mail blasts, unsolicited attachments, and uninformed press releases - will disappear.

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With access to blogs, message boards and other media tools, consumers have ushered in the age of citizen journalism. They can report, critique and disseminate news and information, becoming an important part of the conversation.

That’s the premise behind the social media press release, which includes rich media along with text that targets consumers as well as journalists.

With the goal of making press releases more Web friendly, SHIFT Communications, a Boston-based PR firm, has designed a template that reduces the traditional text of a press release to bullet points while adding videos and links.

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SHIFT Communications, one of the fastest-growing national Public Relations firms, won THE coveted Stevie Award for being named Agency of the Year in The 2007 American Business Awards last night.

Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars” (New York Post , April 27, 2005), The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.

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 BOSTON: RealNetworks has consolidated its external PR capabilities by naming Shift Communications its US AOR.

Todd Defren, principal at Shift Communications, said the agency will be conducting traditional and social media programs for all of RealNetwork’s divisions including Rhapsody, RealPlayer, RealArcade, and Technology Products and Services—the company’s mobile division.

“We’re helping develop a blog outreach strategy, blogosphere monitoring, and advising them on how to best respond to comments and bloggers themselves,” Defren said. “We already help them set up the RealPlayer blog for the launch of the newest version of RealPlayer.”

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Who knows better than a marketer that the medium is the message? A midsize Boston PR agency, SHIFT Communications, has developed a press release made especially for the Internet. The impetus for this invention: Web 2.0, that second-generation wave of Net services that let people create content and exchange information online. To encourage PR folks to use these Web tools to get the attention of journalists and bloggers, SHIFT has developed a model for a “social media press release” …

…SHIFT Communications aspired to a launch event that would be the talk of the DEMO 2006 technology conference (in February), as well as both tech-oriented and mainstream audiences… The PR team spread the company’s passion to consumers using the media who had seen Pleo’s magic up close and personal throughout the process in a deep enough way to suspend their disbelief and make them product evangelists.

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…[Todd Defren, principal of SHIFT Communications and author of the blog PR Squared] notes that approximately 3,000 press releases cross the wires each business day, overwhelming editors who often discard these notices without ever glancing at their content… Defren developed a social media news release template to modernize press releases and increase their ease of use through five principles…

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…I contacted Todd Defren - since he’s the recognized expert on SMPR templates - and he offered this powerful thought, “It’s important to understand that the Social Media News Release is not intended as a replacement for the traditional news release. It’s an evolution. The SMNR’s core function is simply to allow creators of news to leverage the Web familiarity that is now ingrained in consumer audiences. With 50+ percent of consumers now creating and sharing content online (Pew Research), it just makes sense to democratize access to corporate news and multimedia assets to anyone (reporters, bloggers, laypeople) who might be interested, and, to create a forum for community and context that - to date - has been unavailable via old-world press releases.” Amen.

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PR Agency SHIFT Communications Named Agency of Record for Six Sizzling Startups

May 1, 2008

SHIFT Communications Skyrockets to #26 in National Ranking

March 17, 2008

PR Agency SHIFT Communications Named Agency of Record for The Rubicon Project and Powerset

March 17, 2008

SHIFT Communications Announces Open House

November 2, 2007

SHIFT Communications Tops $10M in Revenues

October 17, 2007

SHIFT Communications Promotes Mandy Mladenoff to Managing Director, San Francisco Office

October 2, 2007

SHIFT Communications Wins Sabre Award for Advancing PR Industry

August 8, 2007

New Facebook Application, “Newshound,” Allows Users To Save, Share, Comment and Subscribe To News & Web Content

July 31, 2007

SHIFT Communications Rings Up Two 2007 Bell Ringer Awards

June 28, 2007

SHIFT Communications Wins “Agency of the Year” in 5th Annual American Business Awards

June 12, 2007

RealNetworks Names SHIFT as Agency Of Record

June 12, 2007

Travelocity Books SHIFT as AOR for Emerging Brands
May 14, 2007

SHIFT Communications Upgrades to New Headquarters
May 1, 2007

SHIFT Communications Wins Bulldog Award for Innovation of the Year
April 19, 2007

SHIFT Communications Debuts First-Ever “Social Media Newsroom” Template
February 5, 2007

Novell Names SHIFT Communications Agency of Record
September 1, 2006

SHIFT Communications Promotes Mandy Mladenoff to Vice President, Account Services
August 1, 2006

SHIFT Communications Releases Helpful “PR 2.0 Essentials” Guide
July 25, 2006

SHIFT Communications Wins a Bell and Three Awards of Merit at 2006 Bell Ringer Awards
June 15, 2006

Investor Relations in the Blogosphere

3 pm EST on Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Location: Audio Conference

Topic: Restricted at once by regulatory pressures and acceptable internet etiquette, what tactics should you investigate to best position your company?

This 90-minute audio conference will explore the ins and outs of getting out your company’s message via blogs. Find out who are the influential bloggers. Discover the right way to engage these online journalists and develop relationships with them. Moderator:
Hank Boerner, Accountability-Central.comSpeakers:
Todd Defren, SHIFT Communications, Pr-Squared Blog
Broc Romanek, TheCorporateCounsel.net
David Jackson, CEO, SeekingAlpha
David Collins, Jaffoni & Collins

 Web 2.0 Summitt

Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - Friday, November 7, 2008

Conference schedule and specific locations TBA.

For more information, please visit http://www.web2summit.com/.

New Media Expo

Thursday, August 14, 2008 - Saturday, August 16, 2008

Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, 850 Las Vegas Blvd. N., Las Vegas, NV

The 4th Annual New Media Expo is an annual convention that educates individuals and companies about how to produce high-quality audio and video digital content, grow a loyal audience, and market or monetize that content in creative ways.The Expo is a “prosumer” and corporate event that brings together influential digital media creators, podcasters and content developers to cover the complete range of creation techniques, business objectives and future trends.The Expo is also a major networking event where content creators can share ideas and build partnerships.For more information, please visit http://www.NewMediaExpo.com.

Social Gaming Summit

Friday, June 13, 2008

9:00am- 6:00pm

Location: UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center, 1675 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA 94107

Topic: The Social Gaming Summit is a one day conference focused on the intersection of casual gaming, immersive worlds, and social networking. Games are becoming one of the most popular activities within social networks and game developers continue to spend increasing amounts of energy figuring out how to leverage and apply the growth in social networking to the games they are developing. The conference will bring together leaders in the social networking and gaming spaces to share insights into the convergence of these worlds.

For more information, please visit http://socialgamingsummit.eventbrite.com/.

 Social Computing: Tapping into the Power of Connected Customers

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Location: Forrester Research, 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA

Topic: This workshop will not only introduce these new tools, it will provide you with frameworks to create a coherent strategy around five specific business objectives: listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing your customers.

For more information, please visit http://www.forrester.com/events/eventdetail?eventID=1521.

 New Communications Forum 2008

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - Friday, April 25, 2008

Location: The Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa, 170 Railroad St, Santa Rosa, CA 95401

Topic: The Forum provides an in-depth, hands-on exploration of the future of communications. In its four year history, it has come to be known as one of the world’s leading conferences focusing on the latest trends in new emerging media and communications platforms.

For more information, please visit http://newcommforum.com/2008/.