Political Twittering

For some reason, I’ve given alot of thought to Twitter lately. I’ve interspersed thoughts of “how do people have the time to Twitter, anyway?” with “Twitter is an extremely effective tool, and could be utilized quite readily by politicians”. Handily, I came across an extremely interesting article on Yahoo about just that topic - political twittering.

However, the article discussed two negative examples of Twitter being used by politicians, namely Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger (all I can say to the latter is: “What???”), and then goes on to briefly examine other politicans’ use of Twitter. As this article states, “In March, columnist Charlie Cook of the National Journal wrote that he has ‘yet to hear a single intelligent remark twittered by an elected offical.’”

If you read The Christian Science Monitor’s post on political twittering, you’ll see much room for improvement. Granted, Twitter does pose a security threat (politicans blythely twittering about secret locations, classified info, etc.), and too often it is uselessly and pointlessly used as a “where am I now” commentary (”at the gym!”).

However, that just means there’s alot of room for improvement. Imagine the possibilities! Barack Obama did - his campaign’s use of social media tools helped get him elected. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Twitter can be a very effective tool, if used properly and strategically.

Top Ten Cruddiest Headlines

The Denver Egotist recently posted a timely article titled “The Rant: The Top 10 Cruddiest Headlines That Prove You’re a No-Talent Hack“. This piece tickled me so much, I’ll paraphrase their main points (the sincerest form of flattery, heh?) here.  

The top ten worst headlines and headline techniques (and they are truly awful) are:

1. No headline at all. Self-explanatory, really. This is pure laziness sold to an unsuspecting client.
2. Size matters. Aren’t we over this yet?
3. There’s [attribute]. And there’s [product attribute]. It worked back in the day, and personally I think it can still be clever, but it no doubt has been overused and has lost its edge.
4. Start your engines. Just a snazzier way of saying “Get ready”- which doesn’t say anything, really.
5. Or buy a [product]. Used with a blatantly silly visual, this approach is simply exhausting in its blandness.
6. There’s only one way to spell [word/phrase] - [brand]. Apparently, there’s many ways to spell it, because many people have used this line.
7. Think you know [word/product/brand]. Think again. Okay, I will. I’ll think of your competitor, who (hopefully) has a more creative ad campaign.
8. Got [brand/product]? It works for “Got Milk?” because that was the original. Everything else is just a clone.
9. The good and bad news. Again, pure laziness.
10. Puns. Or, as the author describes them, “painfully obviously wordplay.” They usually read as very silly wordsmithing.

What other cruddy headlines and headline tricks can you think of?

Big Brother

Something struck me as I was reading through my latest copy of The Public Relations Strategist (Spring 2009). “In 2009, Big Brother is now a vast, collective and diverse group of individuals, organizations and industries watching the Internet and sometimes acting upon the information that they obtain.” This quote is in an article titled “Social Networking Media Present New Ethical Challenges for Public Relations” by Tim O’Brien, APR.

It truly is Big Brotherish out there. You hear seasoned celebrities make comments all the time, grateful that they didn’t come of age as a celebrity in this, the digital media age, because, today, they could not have gotten away with the things that they did then.  A listtle closer to home, where home is our marketing and public relations world, no longer is an irate or unhappy customer relegated to their simple letter to customer service and a few phonecalls to same. Today, these same disappointed customers take to the blogs and forums, loudly proclaiming to all who listen their woes with you and your company.

Today, everyone is watching, listening, and talking. You need to be aware, and you need to likewise - and you may need to respond. Or at least have a plan in place on how to react. But, more on that later.

Digg It

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m new to social media marketing (then again, aren’t we all? Seriously, did many people use it last year, or the year before?). Although I’ve been on LinkedIn for a while (thanks, Dean Bakeris!), within the past few months I’ve started blogging (both personally and professionally), have two Twitter accounts (@LauraLaChapelle for me and LaChapelle Communications, and @PRSA_MD for PRSA-MD), and joined FaceBook.

Well, you can only write to the big black void so much before it occurs to you that you  need to start promoting things, or else you’re just writing to yourself. So, I recently experimented with Digg to promote what I’m writing as the Baltimore Triathlon Examiner. Overnight, I had 171 page views (as opposed to just one previously).

Gosh darn, this marketing stuff really works (she says snarkily).

Rethink Your Approach to Employee Communications

How do you communicate to your employees? Do you post signs on the bathroom doors? Send out a mass e-mail? Hang up posters in the break rooms? Or, are you more advanced, with an employee newsletter, executive blog, and/or intranet site? Honestly, I’ve been at companies that have used all these approaches, from the bathroom signs to the dynamic intranet site.

Depending on the make up of your company, any and all of these methods can be effective. However, you should also consider utilizing social media. Develop a group for your company on LinkedIn and FaceBook, set up a Twitter feed, and even utilize YouTube and Wikis.

Hey, your employees are on these sites - rather than ignoring that fact, embrace it and use it to your advantage.

Web 3.0

I recently read an article in The Public Relations Strategist, a publication of PRSA, titled “Envisioning Web 3.0″ by Jeffrey Barrett. I didn’t realize there was a Web 1.0, let alone a 2.0 and, finally, an upcoming 3.0.

A History Lesson

Contrary to popular lore, the acknowledged creator of the World Wide Web is Tim Berners-Lee and not Al Gore. Web 1.0 spanned 1990 through 2000, and included the launch of the URL and basic search capabilities. We are currently in Web 2.0 (2001 to present), and it is marked by social media and more extensive, and user-friendly, search capabilities.

What is Web 3.0?

Web 3.0 is coming next. Otherwise known as the Semantic Web, this will make what is a difficult search today a one-click search in the new Web. How, you ask? Obviously, just as with Web 1.0, Web 3. 0 will require massive R&D. In the words of Barrett, Web 3.0 will provide us with “access to a technology that incrporates the best of the existing Internet into an advanced system featuring computer-friendly language thta connects infinite sources.” Basically, “with Web 3.0, you would simply  need one search agent to assemble all of the relvant in formation that you need,” rather than a multidude of searches and examination of numerous links to find the information you’re looking for, as we do today.

Changing How We Live and Work

The implications of Web 3.0 are tremendous. Its impact on marketing and public relations, however, would be particularly extraordinary. We would be able to target audiences with laser-like focus, save us tons of time with our Internet searches, search for media coverage results for accurate media measurement, and create ’side-by-side’ one-to-one relationships with our customers.

Even if I may never have heard of Web 3.0 before Barrett’s article, I’m certainly looking forward to it.