Those aren’t my words, but the words of PR and marketing guru, entrepreneur extraordinaire, author and all around crazy man, Peter Shankman who you may know as @Skydiver on twitter.
I attended an TIMA event in downtown Raleigh today where Shankman was the speaker. Having served on a panel with him at the same venue just one short year ago I knew that we were in for some innovative trains of thought.
So, Shankman declared in a room full of mostly interactive sales and marketing folks that the beloved press release will be dead in 36 months. He asked if anyone in the room had even read one recently, and the number of hands that flew up were slim. He drove home four points:
Transparency, relevancy, brevity and “top of mind presence.”
He says if your clients can’t send their message in 140 characters of less, it needs to change. He also said PowerPoint is for the weak, but that’s a topic for another discussion.
Interested in some of Shankman’s other colorful quips and trains of thought? Here are all of my tweets from the event in chronological order: BTW, I’m @communitygirl on twitter.
- communitygirl: @skydiver tells me he has no idea what he will say to this audience of 100 plus.
- communitygirl: @skydiver has taken the podium. He is a wild man. Says powerpoint is for the weak!
- communitygirl: @skydiver says social media doesn’t exist. Gives the power to screw up many times over.
- communitygirl: You can’t make something viral. You can make it good and it becomes viral. @skydiver
- communitygirl: Social media is more like human nature per @skydiver. He helped launch the AOL newsroom without a clue.
- communitygirl: Too many self proclaimed social media experts says @skydiver.
- communitygirl: @skydiver says google will be the winner of the profile war. People in this audience say LinkedIn is more professional than facebook.
- communitygirl: @skydiver predicts the press release will be dead in 36 months! Anyone agree?
- communitygirl: Teach clients that if they can’t send the message in 140 characters it needs to change. Per @skydiver
- communitygirl: You have to like social media. If you don’t it will be obvious. If the PR guy blogs for the CEO people know it. @skydiver
- communitygirl: @skydiver says the personal vs professional profile will go away in 12 months. You will have one profile on whatever network wins!
- communitygirl: Ever heard of unjust tagging? How about facebook purgatory? I will blog about it later. @skydiver is a fun speaker. Hilarious!
- communitygirl: Kids growing up with technology will be smart about it. No need to pity them at all says @skydiver.
- communitygirl: @skydiver is now talking about top of mind presence. Use social media to the point of “remembering.”
I couldn’t tweet everything, as i also needed to eat lunch, but those are a few highlights. Tomorrow I will blog about two concepts Shankman shared: Facebook Purgatory, and Unjust tagging. Pretty funny stuff. Yeah, he’s definitely a wild man.
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November 12, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Jim Turner
Funny how I just posted about Peter today on one of my blogs. http://www.bloggersforhire.com Shankman has a way of getting people’s attention. I love his energy and the guy is wicked smart.
November 12, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Danny Brown
With respect to Peter, I’d have to disagree. I would be more inclined to say that the press release will evolve and take advantage of the newer ways to communicate, but dead? I can’t see it, personally.
The press release is still one of the most useful mediums for recognized news sources. The newer social media release format will only encourage this, and used with a search engine optimized press release will be an incredibly powerful tool to reach as many outlets (media and otherwise) as possible.
I would also hazard a guess that (again, with due respect to the audience) interactive marketers and salespeople aren’t the normal audience that would be receptive to press releases anyway. They would use other outlets for news – Twitter, bloggers, forums, etc.
Of course, if in three years time the press release turns out to be part of media history and no more, then I’ll take back everything I’ve just said and congratulate Peter for looking ahead.
November 12, 2008 at 4:28 pm
johnnypr
It’s certainly on life support but agree that it still has a chance to evolve, I just wish companies would avoid releases that start with the company name and how great they are rather the actual news it’s meant to communicate…ABC Corporation the world’s leading manufacturer of DEF and a Fortune 500 company announced that….it’s not brochure copy…
November 13, 2008 at 12:43 am
Kevin Briody
I’d agree with Danny and Johnnypr to a degree. Press releases still have some life in them, as they are widely used by news organizations (and particularly smaller circulation trade pubs) and will probably continue to be so for a while. The big gripe is on the quality – so many companies just seem to copy/paste from some really horrible template written decades ago without so much as a nod to the fact that the bar has gotten a bit higher over the years.
For an agency dropping client news, take full advantage of newer channels (blogs, tweets, etc), while also using a press release and focus it on the audiences most likely to find it useful. Plus, don’t forget to expend the energy to actually write it halfway decently.
Aside from that, nice site Angela. Always good to see a practitioner sharing their experiences. Subscribed.
November 15, 2008 at 9:43 am
To PROs and journos: when will the press release die out? « heleana quartey
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November 15, 2008 at 5:48 pm
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November 16, 2008 at 5:34 pm
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November 16, 2008 at 5:36 pm
heleana
In response to your post on my blog, I would indeed like to start the conversation you suggested. I have added some more ideas here
http://heleana.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/more-media-trend-forecasting – I’d be interested to know what you think too.
January 1, 2009 at 10:32 pm
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November 3, 2009 at 7:47 pm
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