“ But if the whole point is to generate public interest in the subject being discussed, why not go directly into the public sphere? Because PR people see themselves as these back room operators, moving around and doing their thing backstage. The ‘audience’ isn’t supposed to know they are at work. Journalists haven’t kicked off their stories by saying ‘Joanna Wimplepuss of HyperPR sent me an email today, extolling the virtues of SuperSoftware 3.0., and asserting that John Fizzel said “This is so cool. It’s way cool,” although I never actually heard him say that.’ Instead they have print the bogus quote, incorporate the bulleted lists and links from the press release. Everyone is acting in collusion to spread little teeny tiny white lies to the rest of us. I am too gonzo for that. We need to be honest about who is trying to influence who to do what. And the simplest move is for the PR flacks to come out into the light of day and explicitly say “here’s something I think is interesting from my client Blatz Software,” and we’ll evaluate it on it’s own merits. The implication that I want the PR people to make it easier for me to crank out 700 words by midnight is old school, and worst of all, we are supposed to not talk about it, like the illegal aliens making lunch for us at the deli, or mowing our lawns. I want it all to be open and above board, and the PR pros to be just an additional voice in the conversation, instead of being treated like the deranged aunt that lives upstairs and that no one ever talks about. Come out into the light of day. We’ll set up an amnesty program, and all the past misdeeds will be forgiven.
Steph's Tumblr
Passing thoughts in various formats.
May 11, 2008
May 4, 2008
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Recently internet-based video has been used for reaching small, influential audiences such as institutional investors or analysts. Unfortunately, the medium’s main drawback is that it is slow. Accordingly, a webclip casting a couple of minutes may contain about 200 spoken words.
To compare, your analyst can read 1,000 words of text in the same time. The online video can show you what sort of person a CEO is, nonetheless, for assessing what he or she has done, you need the full report and accounts, plus the press cuttings.
May 3, 2008
Poster for Going Solo: Going Solo has posters! Download them from the site (A4 version), print them, and plaster them all over your neighbourhood. No colour? Go for black and white. (Yes, better late than never, as they say ;-)) Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch
1 week ago
“ From my personal experience, OnQCo provided me with the foundational elements I needed to have to begin discovering - through trial and error - what works and what doesn’t when shooting any form of short form documentary or video journalism project. Pete Liebengood not only provided constructive critiques of my first attempts, but he did so in a way that didn’t leave me feeling demoralized and dejected. I don’t buy into the idea that someone you show your work to should be given Carte Blanche at destroying your tenuous self esteem as you step into any form of creative endeavor.
May 2, 2008
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As a micro enterprise, your limited resources require that you channel your efforts effectively. You have to grasp the particular social media’s usefulness for your business in order to use it properly.
As well, to sustain your competitive edge it is necessary to limit the social media tools you use - using a blog and Twitter well is better than doing Facebook, MySpace, blogging, and Twitter - it just fritters away your time.
As importantly, those social media tools or services that you decide to have a presence in or with, you must give a sign of life regularly. Sending tweets every other week might not be so helpful. Posting every other month an entry on the enterprise’s blog does not do much good either.
Do the little things but do them well. Moreover, the number of unique visitors may mean little. In turn, 10 customers reading your blog and developing more trust in your expertise may be critical.
May 1, 2008
“ It sometimes seems like bloggers can say anything they want on their blogs. The ‘Publish’ button is just one click away and mistakes are easily fixed. Besides, most blogs aren’t read by anyone except he blogger (and his mother?) so who cares what you write? Reality is that your words are out there for anyone to read and often forever. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean you can insult, slander or misrepresent subjects. Voicing an opinion and threatening are two very different things.
April 29, 2008
kiwork > Registration Confirmation: So, my password (a random suite of jumbled letters) isn’t secure enough, but it’s suggested that I use my mother’s maiden name as a “secret” question?
1 week ago
kiwork > Registration Confirmation: Right, this explains things. It also means that given the requirements for the password, I’m never going to remember it (I can’t use one of my “stock” passwords or algorithms) and I’m going to have to use the “secret question” which is a totally insecure way of identifying somebody to give them back their password.
1 week ago