CorporatePR

PowerPoint

INC Magazine has an article this month about the uses and perils of powerpoint by Adam Hanft.

While acknowledging its usefulness as a tool (don't kill the messenger), it also states:

"Objections to PowerPoint ring numbingly true to anyone who's been exposed to its obsessive-compulsive organizational structure and truncated syntax: PowerPoint is a radical oversimplifier. It artificially marches the audience to a predetermined conclusion. It chills discussion."

From a PR perspective, we acknowledge the usefulness of PPT to keep one's thoughts organized. However, it should only ever serve as a framework for a conversation. We advise our clients to keep a presentation as close to 15 slides as possible, and to include one slide that could be used to tell the whole story.

Furthermore, we also remind clients that PPTs can be a bear to upload and download given their sheer file size. You should have a low-res version that can be used for email.

Cool Tools

Saw this referenced over at CyberJournalist.net: A web link popularity tool.

Could be a good metric to add to measurements of PR/Marketing effectiveness. Check popularity before, during and after campaigns.

Marketing Technology

Today's BusinessWeek Daily Briefing contained an article by Christopher Kenton that talked about the growing success of bootstrapped tech firms vs. VC-supported firms. One phrase stood out for me:

"We learned that despite what marketers say, technology is a means to an end, not a solution. "

Why is this such a hard thing for many companies to do? How many times have we gotten bogged down in feature wars and bits and bytes, losing the "why" of it all? I think that it is often easier to talk features and difficult to explain the benefits. And explain those benefits in compelling terms, not in generalized marketing-babble.

We firmly believe that today companies have to become independent content creators in order to tell their story more effectively. Yes, they certainly should continue media relations, but there are enormous opportunities to describe their companies and products in a viral, grassroots manner. However, this does add a certain intellectual burden to the company's designated writers and thinkers -- they have to create compelling, interesting content that customers, partners, investors and others want to read. No just more marketing fluff.

PR is Dead, Long Live PR

Blast emails are shot down as spam, reporters don't answer their phones - what can the PR practioner do? At the same time that traditional PR practices are dying, new technologies such as weblogging are lending new life to the practice of telling an organization's story.

We are avidly watching and learning about these new technologies, and are trying to get our clients to adopt them. We intend to share information about our experiences and our progress, in the hopes that others may learn from our successes and our failures. We hope people who are trying to do the same things we are will offer their comments and stories. It is only by sharing such experiences that we will all learn to do our jobs better.

Stay tuned!