Mr. Boyle, my 10th grade English teacher took one look at the first article I published in the school paper and quickly circled every is, was, were and to be, then handed it back. I remember the crushing feeling of defeat as I'd previously been so proud of the piece; easy lesson, well learned.
Nearly every time I assign a release to a young writer they turn in something riddled with passive sentences. My first piece of advice: drop the verb "to be." What I get back is often much better and they tend not to make the same mistake again. Though, I try to do it without the humiliation.
Facebook finally let us choose our own verb for our status updates, eliminating the annoyingly passive "is" from our writing requirement.
Thank you Facebook, for passing 10th grade English.
Posted by Chuck Tanowitz on December 21, 2007 at 11:47 AM
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In our first conversation, we spoke with Dan about Fake Steve Jobs. This time, the senior editor from Forbes talks about lessons learned in the blogosphere and the interaction between PR people and business reporters. Check it out.
Posted by John Moran on December 12, 2007 at 8:23 PM
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Very, very few close friends of mine are on Facebook, and for those very few, their reasons for trying Facebook are similar to mine: We're learning how it fits into PR and marketing for our clients. More importantly, a large part of the group yet to adopt Facebook is comprised of former colleagues in public relations--and they still are in related fields. This past weekend, at a holiday party, I had to explain the concept of Facebook to many of them.
I wonder if, as a result, I should be more skeptical of the immediate impact of Facebook on my clients' work. Facebook's clientele is still young, and it is hardly the mainstream. While I stand by the predictions of many in terms of the impact Facebook and other social networking sites will have on PR, the immediate affect of those programs on a mainstream audience is a question of mine.
From a broader perspective, my experience this weekend--teaching many of my hip friends about what I think is the hippest new application on the Internet--demonstrates the important role as "perspective provider" that everyone at Schwartz serves for our clients. Since we are outside consultants for our clients, we need to be careful in cutting through the hype of new marketing tools.
I spoke with a potential Schwartz client recently who used Facebook with great success. I told him that for his needs, this made sense--his web application was for college students. But for any program that wants to target the mainstream, Facebook is only part of the equation. There is still no better approach to reach a mainstream audience than to target reporters who write widely syndicated stories. At least for now.
I say this despite some very recent research that notes how upwards of 40-percent of Facebook's users are over 35, according to Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang, and there are a total of 40-50 million users. That means some 20 million Facebook users are over 35. I guess my social scene is no longer part of tech communications early-adopter audience.
There are several nice summaries available of Owyang's presentation at the Web Community Forum last week, and certainly Facebook is discussed within any brainstorm related to promotion of consumer technology offerings. However, what I have seen in practice--both at holiday parties this season and with Schwartz's PR programs, is that Facebook is only the newest of many tools in the arsenal for promoting to the consumer audience. We're watching Facebook carefully, but only as part of broader programs--and numerous "outside-the-box" tactics--to reach consumers and grow traffic.
Posted by Ross Levanto on December 11, 2007 at 2:15 PM
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When I was in college, one of my professors had been a field reporter for Voice of America. He told us the story of an influential CEO he interviewed who appeared to be the busiest man in America. He asked the CEO (unfortunately I can't remember his name) when, if ever, time was afforded to simply think. The CEO responded (and I am paraphrasing) that "he used to be able to think on long flights, but now they put those phones on the back of the seats. I never get a break."
It's been a while since I have been on a plane that has phones, but given a New York Times story I read this morning, it looks like very soon we all will have no peace in the skies. A few different Internet start-ups are developing services that allow air passengers to check email and even surf the Web in flight.
I am not surprised that the response from the blog community has been positive. Without a doubt I would pay for this service. Initial reports say JetBlue will be offering it for free for email use. I would pay for that, too. As it is, I spend money each time I get to Logan Airport to sign up for its Wi-Fi service, even though I log on for only thirty minutes or so before boarding a plane.
Another interesting aspect of the in-flight Internet news--JetBlue is one of the early adopters. JetBlue often promotes its technology and its relationships to popular technology companies. That's smart. People want to fly airlines that are technologically advanced, for obvious reasons. Being early to market with Internet access enhances the company's hip aura, in contrast to the dingy relic image I associate with many other airlines. No question Virgin Atlantic is also in the hip Airlines category. As noted in The Times piece, they are also one of the first to offer Internet access, except for them it's through the inflight entertainment systems.
Going back to my college professor's story for a minute, if I'm trying to work or think through some deeper topics, I'd much rather have the person sitting next to me in flight surfing the 'Net than chatting (probably loudly to be heard over the engines) on one of those seat-back phones.
Posted by Ross Levanto on December 7, 2007 at 7:50 AM
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Until the New York Times blew his cover back in August, Dan Lyons had industry insiders trying to figure out the mystery writer behind the Fake Steve Jobs blog site. In addition to maintaining FSJ and his work as a senior editor at Forbes, Lyons has also published a book, "Options - The Secret Life of Steve Jobs: A Parody."
We had a chance to sit down with Dan recently to discuss a number of topics. For his take on the Fake Steve Jobs experience, check this out. Coming up next week, we'll talk to Dan about lessons learned in the blogosphere and the interaction between reporters and PR people.
Posted by John Moran on December 6, 2007 at 3:59 PM
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