The Reports of my Death are Greatly Exaggerated

Mark Twain was correct.  Simon Dumenco is not.  In his recent rant at adage.com, Simon informs us the press release "officially died" this past summer.  It's interesting to read the handful of comments.  All of them are negative.  A quick Google check shows articles as old as four years ago heralding the end of press releases.

That's interesting, because clients still ask for them and, oftentimes, issuing press releases makes sense.

Now, let's be fair to Simon.  His recent post talks almost exclusively about "celebrity" America.  His logic shows fault with his assertion "As the celebrity-industrial complex goes, so goes the rest of corporate America."  While it makes perfect sense for celebrities and their followers to talk in 140-character snippets, doing so when you have something of substance to say is irresponsible.

So, perhaps companies will tweet about earnings and whatnot, but most likely, such tweets will refer followers to a URL where they'll be able to read - wait for it - a press release with the news.

UPDATE - John Mayer has now declared Twitter as "over."  Now what will we do to communicate?

I am SO guilty.

When Braverman Communications was incorporated way back in 2003, a very smart man shared the following thought: When you work for yourself you're always doing three things.  (1) Collecting for yesterday's work, (2) Doing today's work; and (3) Pitching tomorrow's work.

He forgot to tell me there are really four things you need to do, the fourth being: "Don't forget to post to your blog."

Which brings me to a thought I've found myself sharing with clients on a rather frequent basis: remember what business you're in.  In all likelihood, you're not in the publishing business.  Put another way (also not my original thought): anyone can publish a newsletter.  The trick is publishing your 12th newsletter.

There are so many great tools available for broadcasting your message.  Not too long ago, the fax machine revolutionized media relations and, today, the plethora of social media is (not "are") doing it again.  The key to success will be to know when to join the fray and when to hold back.  If you think I'm nuts, think back to the late 1990s/early 2000s when every established company under the sun was considering appending ".com" to its name, either as a DBA or legally. New companies with names that didn't start with "i" or "e" weren't taken seriously.

Why?  Because it was the "New Economy" where everything had changed and nothing would ever be the same.  But, guess what?  In the end, investor's still wanted to see profits; and real customers trumped "strategic alliances."

Before you jump headfirst into blogging, newsletter writing, Twitter, Facebook, or anything that resembles publishing, consider what it is you want to get out of the effort.  Are you creating a blog or Twitter account because it's the thing to do?  Why would anyone want to be your "friend?"  Through it all, remember that all the bells and whistles will never replace mastery of the fundamentals.

Twitter Stalling?

Interesting article on Twitter usage. The number of tweets is way up, but number of users is down.

All is not gloomy, however:

On an annual basis, Twitter is still going gangbusters with 1,271 percent growth from 1.4 million visitors in October, 2008. And on a global basis, it still seems to be chugging away with 58.4 million visitors in September. But a hypergrowth company like Twitter cannot afford to slow down in its home market.

Here's what I think this means: People sign up and then realize it's all a bit overwhelming. A smaller core actually use it actively. Plus, with Facebook and LinkedIn offering pretty much the same thing as Twitter...well, I think Twitter needs to evolve, a bit.

A while ago, I posted about a Harvard study on Twitter that showed most people on Twitter follow a pretty small number of posters. I recently waded back into Twitter on behalf of a client and found countless accounts with one or two tweets that were months old.

What does this have to do with communication? I think communicating in 140-character bursts isn't conducive to true conversation. It's more broadcasting thoughts that may, or may not, be interesting to others.

Message is king.

Here's a nice post from Richard Miles on the importance of the message and distinguishing between the message and the medium.

Twitter Tail Wagging the Corporate Dog

OK, it's not my headline, but I liked it so much, I stole it!

Paul Oestreicher, a PR pro by any measure, offered up this interesting post about Comcast. Apparently, CEO Brian Roberts publicly noted that his company's culture had changed because of Twitter and other social media.

Read the post and you'll see what he may be placing the cart before the horse (or pick your own, perhaps better, analogy).

Twitter = $1,000,000,000?

According to The Wall Street Journal, Twitter is close to securing almost $100 million in funding. The deal values the company at about one billion dollars.

This scares me. Why? It feels a lot - A LOT! - like the turn of the century. Twitter is cool, but it has yet to generate any money or make known, in any concrete way, what its plan for revenue-generation is.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

What is Twitter, really?

What is Twitter? Interesting article from the good folks at Harvard B-School.

To hear the evangelists tell it, everyone's on Twitter and they're all talking to one another. Quick! Jump in now or risk being labeled a dinosaur.

Not so fast. Turns out everyone's following a very, very small number of users.

What does this mean from a public relations perspective? Not much. Companies should still explore how to use it - some are doing so very well.

But it's time everyone calmed down a bit.

Is Twittering the same as communicating?

Is Twitter changing the way public relations and communications are practiced? Should it?

Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times recently ran articles outlining some of the challenges Twitter is facing. The company is growing by leaps and bounds and in addition to enjoying all that success, it’s experiencing some growing pains.

I still haven’t made up my mind about Twitter. Sure, if you’re in the communications biz and don’t get excited when people start holding forth on the miracles and wonders of Twitter, you risk being labeled “old school.” Yes, Twitter is cool if that whole Facebook page is too much for you to consume and you want to know what I’m doing right now (writing this post) or need to know your best friend’s status (stressing over her upcoming history test).

Yes, Twitter is cool. But I’m not sure what the value is to communications pros (other than keeping tabs on journalists).

I can’t help but get that old “2001: An Internet Crash Odyssey feeling.” I can’t help but be reminded of colleagues who looked me earnestly in the eye and said things like “This is the New Economy; profits don’t matter anymore.” Or, “The company represents a paradigm shift away from the old way of thinking.” Or, “It’s all about eyeballs and content is king.” Or, my favorite from Razorfish founder Jeff Dachis, “We've…re-contextualized what it is to be a business-services.”

What’s the point? At the risk of sounding older and grumpier than I am, I’m not sure that compressing communications into 140 characters is a good idea. While “brevity is the soul of wit” and “heard melodies are sweet” continues to ring true, real communication still requires development of thought and appreciation of the process.