As you may know, Standard Bank took a giant leap forward in South Africa's marketing and public relations field by publishing SA's very first Social Media Press Release in April 2008.

The original SMPR (from the Pro20 We got the Kaboom! campaign) evolved with this year's Pro20 Kaboom Tour '09 campaign, and continues to help connect fans with Standard Bank Pro20 Cricket and with each other.

As a Masters student in Corporate Communication at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, I've traced the creation and development of the SMPR as a new public relations tool both internationally and locally and I'm quite rightly fascinated by it! That's why I've chosen to do my Masters treatise on the use of social media in a Social Media Press Release to create dialogue between a company and social media users.

Since SMPRs are still fairly new in South Africa and as the leader of SMPRs in the country, I decided to use Standard Bank's Pro20 Cricket SMPR as one of my case studies. To get the research I need, however, I need my fellow blog readers and social media users to fill in my the survey I've created about the SMPR on http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=137459a6-fec4-45a0-b40e-a7d019....

I would really appreciate it if you would take the time to fill in the survey by 30 September 2009!

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help me out! I look forward to sharing my thoughts on SA's cricketing action - especially since cricket just so happens to be my favourite sport next to Ironman triathlon... :)

Cheers, Marieka