Twitter – Don’t Knock it if You Haven’t Tried It

by Dan Ward

Lorelie Johnson (@LorelieJ) posted this interesting tweet the other day:

“Heard someone say that they don’t really like @Twitter. I asked them if they’ve ever tried using it, they said no. Go figure.”

There are a lot of people with the same attitude … the same people who will say they don’t like a certain radio or TV show even though they’ve never watched it.

But unlike a TV show, Twitter is not just an entertaining diversion.  Sure, there are plenty of folks (you know who you are) who share too many details about their favorite brand of toothpaste, but there’s also a lot of business being done in 140 characters or less.

What kind of business, you ask?  A good answer comes from Kermit Pattison of The New York Times, who provided a Small-Business Guide to Twitter in the May 26 edition.

Ask the businesses featured in this story (@Avaya, @HumphrySlocombe, @WholeFoods, @KissMyBundt, @TimBerry and others) if they like Twitter.  My bet is they’re very glad they tried it.

iPad Fascination

by Roger Pynn

I’m absolutely resisting the urge to buy a first generation iPad despite the incredible magnetism of this little wonder, but this post from Seth Godin set me to thinking whether one day that amazing interface will become as disposable as flash drives.

Godin suggests putting an iPad at every place in your conference room and turning any meeting into an incredibly interactive activity.

A client of mine who chases great big contracts worth millions of dollars is thinking seriously that he’ll start putting his presentation decks on iPads and then leave them behind as gifts.

Kind of reminds me of that icon of the 90s … the AOL CD.

Have iPhone … Will Report

by Dan Ward

Do you have a smart phone, a Flip video recorder or both?  Well, do I have good news for you!  Thanks to your ability to shoot a photo or video and hit “send,” you too can be a journalist for one of the world’s leading news organizations!

Don’t worry about training or accuracy.  That’s old-school reporting.  Here’s all you need to do:

Shoot your “news” story.  It could be about anything, from important issues like the imploding world economy to your views on American Idol.  Now, go to the website for CNN (the former “Worldwide Leader in News” that now bills itself as among the world leaders in “information delivery”).

Click on iReport, and then post your news story for all the world to see.  Done!

I know, it sounds too good to be true.  Surely, one of the most trusted names in news wouldn’t risk its hard-earned credibility in the pursuit of lucrative website clicks, would it?

Well, don’t take my word for it.  Here’s what CNN has to say:  “iReport is the way people like you report the news.  The stories in this section are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they post.”

Now you, too, can report the news, without all that worry over silly details like sourcing and verification.  So log on today.  Just think of the amazing stories you can tell!

Headline Writers Can’t Read

by Roger Pynn

I’m convinced that today’s headline writers can’t read … or, at least, they don’t read the stories they are attempting to illustrate.

When I was in the newspaper business, I marveled at the work of folks on the copy desk whose job it was to narrow down what I had written into two or three lines stacked atop my story.

Yes, that was back in the days of “hot type,” and they actually had to count the width of each letter in picas to make it fit into the column. It was an art form. Copy editors were supposed to draw in the reader with enough information to tell them what the story was about. And, oh yes, they were supposed to be accurate.

Today they write for Internet consumption and clicks with headlines like this:

“Girl nearly kidnapped in College Park.”

Got my attention.

Made me click.

Didn’t tell me the story (which, by the way, was actually a story about a competitor website reporting an incident) at all.

In fact, the headline should have read:

“Girl runs into drugstore.”

PR: “As Seen on TV”?

by Kim Taylor

If you’ve turned on a TV in the past decade, chances are you have a pretty glamorous impression of the public relations industry.

I mean, who can forget Kim Cattrall, a.k.a., Samantha Jones?  Or the infamous Lizzie Grubman’s “PoweR Girls”? “The City”?  Or, “Kell on Earth”?

These shows and their characters are as close to reality as McDreamy and Seattle Grace.

Then there’s the other side of PR … the side that’s often attached to words like “disaster” and “nightmare.”

So what happens between the glamour and the disaster?  A lot; there’s strategic planning, relationship building, crisis management, event planning, and a million things in between.  The real-world unfolds every night on television and coverage of the gulf oil incident reminds us of the difference we’re making for client, Beaches of South Walton, as they work diligently to share the message that their beaches are clean and open.

Sure, there might be a smidge of ‘glamour’ in day-to-day PR work and hopefully never a disaster on your watch, but rewards come in ways that rarely include one of the Kardashian sisters producing a reality show to expose your prowess to “fix everything.”

So, if you’re looking to hire an agency or start a career in PR, make sure your views are firmly rooted in “reality.”

Was Obama Knocking the iPad?

by Roger Pynn

If I had been asked to be a commencement speaker this year, I don’t think I’d have taken a shot at technology, but it appears President Obama’s remarks at Hampton University in Virginia over the weekend were at least interpreted that way.

“With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said.

Isn’t that a little like saying “Libraries are a threat to man’s productivity because they seduce him to read instead of work”?

This isn’t a political commentary, but rather I have a question about how far we’ve come as a society in our understanding of the power of digital media. Video games are widely used today as educational tools. We can gain an appreciation for all forms of music – classical to hip hop – with an iPod. And the iPad can give us access to the world of knowledge available on the Internet … just as can any other “computing device.”

Have we forgotten when the first President Bush gawked in amazement at a trade show display of bar code scanning technology used in supermarkets?

Somebody, please, buy the President an iPad so he can discover the famous sayings of William Shakespeare, the origin of Hinduism or the meaning of life.