Steve Rubel on Press Releases Get TrackBacks, But Will They Send Them Too?

Steve asks the first half of a really big question:

[from Press Releases Get TrackBacks, But Will They Send Them Too?]

Press releases became a bit more social yesterday as PRWeb added trackback functionality. As Mike Manuel notes, this news comes on the heels of Six Apart’s commitment to making the trackback (defined) a web standard.

Will press releases ever gain the ability to also send trackbacks? I imagine this would cause blogger outrage. Taking this a step further, if trackbacks become a web standard, what will happen when ads start sending/receiving them? There’s a collision in the making as traditional marketing tools adopt social features and vice versa. It’s a necessary collision that will occur now that consumers control the message. The shakeout should be fun to watch. Which tools will become acceptable for marketers to use and how?

The second half?

• How will ads, press releases, and other marketing collateral become more socialized? Trackbacks are just one element of an entire social architecture that includes comments, tags, identity, and reputation.
  
  
• What if ad networks support ratings and comments on ads?
  
  
• What if press releases include search widgets that automatically update when they are linked to?
  
  
• Will PR firms have a Technorati-ish authority based on the links that their press releases accumulate? What is the service that will support that? pr.technorati.com?
  
  
• Will individuals identify their interests through tag-based profiles, and filter ads based on those?
  
  

If people are at work on projects in the social marketing sphere, please contact me. It’s potentially huge.