Why I follow: For Immediate Release

One of the almost, but not quite, useful parts of Twitter is “Follow Friday,” or, in social media speak: “#followfriday.” This is a user-originated trend of tweeting the Twitter names of people you follow. (Doing it on Friday, so far as I can tell, is strictly for the purposes of alliteration.) The idea is that your followers will check them out and maybe follow them, thereby filling the ranks of their own Twitter contacts with individuals who, theoretically, have something relevant to say.

The problem for me is that there’s no explanation. In just 140 characters it’s difficult to convey why I should follow someone, especially when you’re suggesting multiple people. Usually, all we see is a couple of Twitter handles with the #followfriday hastag.

Although I obviously think Twitterers I follow have useful things to say, I’m not necessarily interested in the people they follow. I like to check out profiles for myself, which becomes time consuming, and sometime leads to no useful information whatsoever. All in all I appreciate the spirit of the trend, but not the practice of it.

This is part of the motivation behind the “Why I follow…” concept I’m testing here at The w-lister.

Social media doesn’t work without us freely sharing our thoughts, including our suggestions to check out certain podcasts, blogs, applications, utilities, widgets and whatchyamacallits. The wisdom of the crowds is how things move along, so we need things like #followfriday. But, in my own tiny sphere, I’d like to share a little differently, and offer a few reasons why I think you might want to read a certain blog, follow someone on Twitter, or listen to a podcast.

For my first “Why I follow…” I want to point you towards For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a twice-weekly podcast about communications, technology and how they’re growing together. It’s hosted by Neville Hobson in Wokingham, England and Shel Holtz coming out of California. If you’re in PR, marketing, advertising or any other stream of communications you’d do well to listen to FIR. For two one-hour episodes a week you’re given free insight into the industry from well-established PR professionals with an expert grasp of new communications, grounded in a rock solid understanding of the fundamentals.

These guys know their stuff; and when they’re not sure, they do the research. In an online environment often rife with opinion and sort on facts, Shel and Neville give things a measured treatment and share them in an engaging, informative manner. FIR is not over the top with “passion” for certain products or people, making claims that the end is nigh for traditional media, dishing the dirt on pseudo-celebrities from the Web 2.0 space, etc. Instead, there’s genuine excitement about the evolution of communications fuelling interesting discussion about the latest trends and how they may or may not fit into the picture on a practical level.

Honestly, I don’t know how they keep up their energy level. In addition to producing two very full hours a week of The Hobson & Holtz Report, the FIR team also puts out book reviews, interviews, live call-in shows and extra “cuts” that didn’t make it into the regular episode. The end result is hours and hours of valuable content for us, all free of charge.

Now there is some advertising in the show, but not that much and not that bad. One sponsor, Custom Scoop, is run by Chip Griffin, who knows a lot about a lot, including social media. His paid spots are called the “Media Monitoring Minute” and actually feature little commentaries on current issues, thus adding to the content of the show, more so than advertising the media monitoring services of Custom Scoop. The other ads are from Ragan Communications, a very prolific, influential company. These spots are more stiff, straightforward commercials for conferences and other products Ragan offers, but they’re brief, and most definitely of interest to FIR listeners.

Strength comes in numbers on For Immediate Release. Neville and Shel have attracted a collection of very smart, very talented people who have formed a strong community around them. They not only contribute to the show through comments and reports, but also keep the conversations going through other channels such as their FriendFeed Room, Twitter, individual blogs and even in person at social media events. This community brings even more experience and expertise for other listeners to learn from, and creates more opportunities for this learning to happen.

So again, if you work in or around communications, I think that listening to FIR is a wise investment of your time. Visit www.forimmediaterelease.biz and take a look for yourself.