No Frills Language

I subscribe to a great blog, "Life In the Boomer Lane." Her posts are just
hilarious and deliver a lovely little dose of reality every day, or so.

I'm not in the boomer lane just yet but seem to share and/or relate to some
of this blogger's experiences. I've always felt I was an older person trapped in
a younger body.Proof perhaps?

One of Renee's posts last week had me in absolute hysterics - Six Word Memoirs.
Apparently the AARP recently published memoirs from the senior community. Hers
was a cracker, but the premise of such an exercise got me thinking about the
current trajectory of our language, being reduced to 140 characters, or short
bytes that can be digested in 30 second spans - the most time that people have
available before moving to the next post.

In other words, stripping everything superfluous, discarding the verbose
and really, communicating in the most rudimentary way. It can be unintelligible
and selfish at times. No frills indeed.

I will be exploring the meaning of words - the frilly and not so - in my next
MediaPost column, but in the meantime here are a few of my six word memoirs:

- Started way too young, oh well.
- Ahead of my time. Cliche? Yes.
- Still learning to walk the walk.
- Lots of frequent flier points accumulated
- Tinting hasn't affected my brain cells (I cheated here)
- Round the way girl lived here.
- Most obnoxious line used, "Google Me!"

What are your six words?

Sayonara, So Long, Goodbye!

A short take on how one company killed America's love affair and its decades-long quest to be the best car brand - in just a few short months. Business is business is business. Except that the way companies do business in every country can be vastly different. Yes, even in our "global" marketplace.

Cultural nuances and traditions have a direct impact on management and leadership styles, affecting workforce attitudes and performance, from the top down and bottom up. Toyota's spectacular fall from grace puts the spotlight on how a number of Japanese cultural traits -- things like gokuhi, uchi-soto, gaijin -- helped propel its PR nightmare. In English, these terms roughly translate to secrecy, suspicion of foreignness, pride and insecurity -- none of which are particularly PR friendly or conducive to reputation-building, nor endearing to a nation consumed by transparency and openness.

Our way is not always the right way
One of the first things a marketer is supposed to learn is to know thy customer. Barring its first American flop in 1958, Toyota seemed to know its customers very well. The company pioneered just-in-time manufacturing, became the darling of the auto industry, and was embraced by American consumers wholeheartedly. At the same time, Toyota's reserve and intense pride seemed to reinforce the image (correctly or not) of the Japanese -- always striving for perfection - which up until a few years ago served the carmaker very well.

But alas, that pride -- and arrogance I would add -- is what finally got in the way of Toyota understanding its customers. In an era where customers control so much of the conversation, Toyota forgot the golden rule of know thy customers.

Read the rest on Media Post.

One More Mobile Divination for 2010!

These predictions come from a recent column in MediaPost by Ryan Deutsch, vice president, strategic services and market development for StrongMail Systems. It’s definitely worth a read! His forecast? Cautiously optimistic (my preferred stance), while straight up on what's working and what needs work!

"As we all gear up for the new year, I figured I would join the long list of bloggers making predictions for 2010. As a courtesy, I am going to keep my positions simple and VERY straightforward, as this will make it easy for each of you to call me out at year's end for any and all completely incorrect calls that I made.” Cheers, Ryan!

The Year of SMS, Sort of Could it be? As email marketers, we have heard for years how critical SMS communications would be to brands and consumers. In fact, I recently heard an analyst joke that we just finished the Decade of SMS Marketing. It felt like each year would be the year for marketers to invest heavily in mobile programs, but that investment never seemed to become a reality.

While mobile has become critical for alert and time-sensitive communications, applications for direct marketing have not materialized. While some brands have leveraged mobile in a meaningful way (to capture off-line options to campaigns, for example), few have committed heavily. I think 2010 will be the year of mobile - but not from a traditional direct marketing standpoint. As applications proliferate on mobile devices and further integrate location services, we will see marketers trying to leverage true location marketing.

I think 2010 is the year for early adopters in location-based marketing. If you are not the early adopter type, be sure you are using mobile for critical alerts or offline opt-ins while you wait for location-based case studies to hit the street. Then make sure you have a mobile (iPhone/Android) application ready to go for 2011."

You can read the rest of Ryan's predictions on MediaPost here

Hey, The Press Release Isn’t Dead… Yet

Back in September '09, I wrote a column for MediaPost called "Think You Know PR? Think Again", which ignited a lot of heated dialogue about the value of press releases in today's increasingly digitally-driven media world. It questioned the effectiveness of the press release as PR currency, and I went so far as stating that the press release is dead.

But apparently, it is not. Yet.

As a follow up to my column, Lindsey Miller of the communication professional's bible - Ragan.com - interviewed me about the usefulness of press releases. My comments appeared in a Ragan Communications/Pollstream survey released last week. Miller's article appears here - http://wp.me/pcO2G-8k

What do you think? Is the press release dead?

The Tale Of PR And Social Media

(This article appeared in MediaPost on July 28, 2009)

Like any disruptive innovation, social media has come at a time when everything in our lives – online and offline – has changed so dramatically. We could almost document the rise of social media over the past 18 months of turbulence in the US and abroad. So it’s no coincidence that social media will become the marketing be-all as we kick off a new decade: social media will be to 2010 what email was to 2000.

We’re starting this journey and mapping out a new course, making it up as we go along, friending each other – PR and Social Media – until we get it right. There are many lessons to be learned and like anything new, there are bound to be mistakes. Practice, after all, makes perfect. Companies big or small are not immune to public ridicule in having “tweeted” out of line or handled a social media crisis poorly. Corporate Tweeting now comes with a 25-page “how to” manual. PR companies, digital marketers and corporate Tweeters – we are bound to mess up along way. The point is that most of us simply don’t know until we try.

To read my entire article in MediaPost’s Marketing Daily,"A Tale Of PR And Social Media", please click here

Think you Know PR? Think Again

My article in MediaPost, Think You Know PR? Think Again, seems to have struck a nerve with the many people – and not just in the PR community.

Earned media has never been more valuable; it's impossible to buy, after all. And while paid media's supporting role is very strong, companies are continuously looking for new ways to distribute authentic messages and engage others in what they do; corporate shtick has no place in that equation. But earned media is just that -- earned. As much as we'd like, we can't make people say great things about us (or our companies) unless they truly value and believe in what we do.

So if PR is playing a greater role in achieving that missive, do we (and our clients) really get it?

PR can achieve many different things, but the game is changing quickly. As an industry, we need a firm grasp on what the marketplace demands, and our ability to deliver. We need to get tougher when it comes to expectations: We're being called upon to do a lot more with a lot less. It's time for us to gain more respect in what we do, by communicating exactly what it is that we do.

Do you understand PR in today’s terms, and what PR can or can’t do? I invite you to join in the conversation!

To read my entire article on MediaPost, "Think You Know PR? Think Again", click here