Archive for August, 2008
eriksr on August 18th, 2008
Just a reminder here, folks.
Remember the poetry you wrote at thirteen years old and posted on your very first Website? Remember the rant against your girlfriend you so cleverly turned into a podcast? The lapdance you put on YouTube? The too-drunk-to-stand pictures you placed on Flickr?
No? Well, no worries, a Goggle search will find them. Don’t believe me? Search your partner, your boss, or for the brave at heart, yourself. Then skip to page 23 (if you’ve been busy) or page 123 (if you’ve been very busy). Why look. There’s your glorious opus, your silver-tongued tirade, your gluttonous grin, your, well, you get the picture.
You are there because the Internet has a memory like an elephant. It never forgets. Ever. Which means everything you have ever posted, in any format, at any time, is preserved for all eternity for all future bosses, potential spouses (and spouses-in-law’s), up-coming clients, and anyone else who can spell your name. Preserved forever. Me? I’m embarrassed by my old USENET posts where I show off my Warhammer rules lawyering skills. You’ll NEVER find them, by the way…
So watch what you say on the Internet. Watch what you post. Watch what your spouse posts. Watch what your kids post. And, heaven help us, if you are in PR, watch what your client posts. Even on their own Website.
Unless, that is, they are delinquent in paying their bill.
eriksr on August 14th, 2008
Brian Solis just wrote about MicroPR, an effort that combines Twitter like brevity with public communication. He and Stowe Boyd came up with it, apparently, after Boyd successfully determined that he prefers to be pitched via Twitter.
Here’s a link.
All I can say is: Wow. Great idea. Pitching in the clear is an interesting concept. The catch, of course, is that no PR person in their right mind will share information of value to competitors of their clients…and reporters sometimes don’t want to share what they are writing about.
I totally agree that this will force PR pros to focus on the key details and not the useless buzzwords and crap that litter frequent communications. But again, will the need for secrecy kill MicroPR? And will a critical mass of journalists and bloggers opt into this?
I love the idea, but I think it is ahead of its time. Regardless, in their own words, here’s how it works:
Examples of usage:
Journalists and bloggers can declare that they do or do not want to be pitched via Twitter and other micromedia tools. They can also announce their specific preferences for contact.
Reporters looking for help with on story development can send a tweet, “@micropr Need startup recommendations for story on new micromedia tools. Reply via public tweet to @reportername” (112 characters).
A writer can share relevant beats @micropr beats = #social #micromedia #networks #media #infrastructure #hosting.
They could declare what sorts of microPR they want (or don’t want) to receive, and in what mode — @public messages or direct/private.
Other services could include scheduling calls and or meetings, etc.
Conference and awards organizers can call for speakers or submissions.
Media can also block certain PR people who are doing it wrong.
eriksr on August 13th, 2008
I’m not gonna pull any punches today: Communicators fail at technology. Hard.
Whether you’re an account manager who desperately needs to email a large file or a senior partner who doesn’t know how to post to their blog, just face facts: You’re doing a crappy job of taking advantage of all that computing power.
I bring this up because, without fail, I regularly found myself to be the one person in firm after firm that knows technology best. I was the one who knew how to edit a PowerPoint presentation in just such a way as to achieve a desired result. I was the one who knew how to quickly and easily find information on the labyrinthine network storage space, or find a specific email lost in a sea of tens of thousands. I built impressive looking blogs within the space of a couple of hours — complete with digital images I made by hand. And of course I know a lot about all the wonderful social media technology out there, too.
I shudder to think what marketing and public relations professionals could do if they had all this knowledge and experience. Yes, I’m certainly an exception — I was raised by a Commodore 64 (suckah!) and am self-taught until I reach proficient or expert status on anything technology related — but I really shouldn’t be.
The secret to getting to my level
If you cannot muster the enthusiasm for learning about some new piece of software, or how to operate some new gadget, don’t fret — you don’t need that, though it certainly helps.
What you need to do is to take thirty minutes alone in a quiet room away from everything else, and you need to start fiddling. Whenever you don’t understand something, Google it. Look around in the options settings of your application or gadget, see what else the technology is capable of.
There’s no need to overextend yourself — there’s no need to learn how something works in great detail, try to focus on learning only what something is capable of. When the time comes, you’ll know exactly what tool you’ll need for the job and you can learn as you go thanks to the power of Google.
eriksr on August 11th, 2008
Cory Doctorow, science-fiction auteur and chief Boing Boing blogger, has an interesting article up at The Guardian that starts with a note about a deal between the music industry and internet service providers, but goes on at length about the evolution of the struggle between copyright holders and the businesses — or people — who want their content.
It got me thinking back to many years ago, when I was a freelance journalist. I enjoyed the last, best days of a profession that had a great real of respect for copyright. This was back when writers were able to charge extra for their work appearing online, before everyone had a Web site. But then something happened — publishers became hungry for content. All that copy was going to attract eyeballs, and eyeballs meant advertising dollars. Publishers printed their writer’s work online with impunity, rarely bothering to ask for permission or even to notify the writers.
We’ve all forgotten what copyright was about
And then, as if my day couldn’t get any cheerier, I came across this post from copyright lawyer William Patry. Patry announced that he is ending his blog, partly because “The current state of copyright law is too depressing”. This quote in particular jumped out at me:
Much like the U.S. economy, things are getting worse, not better. Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new works. Instead, its principal functions now are to preserve existing failed business models, to suppress new business models and technologies, and to obtain, if possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only causes no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners.”
Thanks, William, for summing this up so beautifully. When I first read up about copyright more than ten years ago, I remember learning that it one of the motivations for it was to help keep things fresh. Without copyright law the world would be flooded with derivative, unoriginal work (just like at all the Winnie the Pooh crap out there) is poison for businesses — people want the fresh and new.
This is an analogy for your life
Sorry state of affairs aside, Patry’s dirge is both a warning and a reminder: Don’t get bogged down trying to preserve something that is failing, don’t stop learning, and don’t be evil. Reminds me of Google, but its a good mantra to keep in mind in your daily life, be you marketer, public relations professional, or otherwise.
