You’ll find some good pointers on writing headlines and copy for the web in Who Needs Headlines? at A List Apart, a blog on “the design, development, and meaning of web content.”
As Shaun Crowley, a freelance copywriter and author of 100 Copywriting Tips for Designers and Other Freelance Artists, notes:
People often go online for quick, easy guidance. Headlines like How to…, 10 reasons why…, and 50 top tips for… promise the reader valuable tips, and they help you to highlight the key benefits.
I also like Crowley’s suggestions to…focus on the product’s unique selling point…use a quote…start a story. All good advice that works just as well offline as on.
Also check out Human to Human Design, an article by Aussie web design consultant Sharon Lee, who says, “A good website is built on two basic truths — that the internet is an interactive medium and that the end user is in fact human.” It’s always helpful to remember there are people on the other side of what you write.
And you think you’ve got a PR problem! Consider the uphill battle faced by Price Floyd, a U.S. State Department official charged with improving our nation’s image in the world.
As reported in Slate, Floyd pointed to our rejection of the Kyoto treaty, dissing of the International Criminal Court, revocation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and said, “What we don’t have here is a failure to communicate.”
“These actions,” Floyd wrote in a recent op-ed piece in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “have sent an unequivocal message: The U.S. does not want to be a collaborative partner. This is the policy we have been ’selling’ through our actions.” As a result, our words are ignored or dismissed as “meaningless U.S. propaganda.”
As marketer Chris Houchens noted in a recent post in his Shotgun Marketing blog, this is what happens when you try to “REBRAND” through words and not actions. It’s a Sisyphean exercise.
By the way, wondering how Floyd got away with making such pointed comments in an administration known for lock-step message control? Well, Floyd recently quit his State Department job. ‘Nuf said.
Wanna make your webcasts and computer videos look better? My friend Pam in KC tipped me off to this helpful post on the Strobist blog: How to Improve Your Cheapo Webcam’s Picture Quality.
The Strobist blog also includes a “lighting boot camp” and “lighting 101: learn the basics.”
“The press room of the future is going to be driven by broadband.”
That’s one hint about the future of public relations from a guy who ought to know…because he’s one of the folks who’s changing it.
John Furrier, CEO of PodTech.net, spoke last night about the future of PR and press rooms to a group of about 50 PR professionals and other interested folks at the Third Thursday social media meet-up in Palo Alto. The discussion was moderated by Giovanni Rodriguez, principal of HubbubPR.
Third Thursday focuses on the use of social media in marketing and PR.
Furrier started out as a tech guy, not a PR guy, and he didn’t intend to change PR. He just wanted access to a decent press room at the big Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a space where he could quickly upload his podcasts and videos.
Hey, it’s timely info, and people are interested…so why would you want to wait until you got home (or could find a local Starbucks with a good wifi connection) to publish it? News ought to get out fast!
So in January, for this year’s CES, Furrier decided to create his own press room…a couple of rooms actually, at the Bellagio…with wireless, of course, mega broadband access, plus some plasma screens… and food, lots of it, because he noticed the food at the official CES press room tended to run out fast. He called it the Bloghaus. It was open all three days of the CED, 24/7.
CES opened its traditional press room to bloggers this year, but…it was crowded, the food ran out and the wifi crashed. So a funny thing happened…a lot of the bloggers, podcasters and video bloggers started hearing about this swell place over at the Bellagio and migrated to the Bloghaus.
Soon, Furrier had a full house. And the Bloghaus was operating more like a studio than a traditional pressroom, with bloggers and video bloggers conducting interviews and uploading them right away. By the end of the three-day show, 750 video clips on CES had been uploaded from the Bloghaus.
Even some mainstream media (MSM) folks showed up to check it out, like Stephen Levy of Newsweek and John Markoff of the New York Times. A few savvy CEOs showed up too, and gained some street cred for being willing to talk to bloggers one-on-one. Maybe they’d figured out this was a way to reach millions of people within a few hours.
One thing Furrier noticed is that bloggers and video bloggers tend to work a little differently from mainstream media (MSM) reporters…they talk to each other more, they collaborate. He described it as “conversations among influencers who form opinions.”
“It dawned on me that this is the press club of the future,” Furrier said. “I think you’re going to see more of this…we are in the early stages of a transformation.”
What’s changing is the relationship between traditional and emerging media, he said. It’s getting more symbiotic. MSM reporters are recognizing that bloggers can simply get a lot of information out faster. Also, they’re recognizing that communities of bloggers who focus on specific issues can uncover good stories…and help them percolate up into public awareness. Then, as Furrier put it, “the mainstream media comes in and fossilizes the story for the public.”
Coming up next in my next post: Furrier on the death…and rebirth…of the VNR.
Sit through about 30 nausea-inducing seconds of Lindsay “I support the surge” Graham and…wait for it, wait for it…here comes Barbara Boxer!
You go girl!
Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system…what an interesting use of a video news clip to frame a point of view, promote a candidate, and raise funds.
For another view of the Pentagon’s recent decision to limit web access for troops stationed in Iraq (see my previous post), here’s is a panel from Don Asmussen’s (a.k.a. “Bad Reporter”) latest strip.
The targets of these new Pentagon restrictions? Subversive social media sites like MySpace and YouTube. No, I’m not kidding!
For the rest of Asmussen’s strip, found in the SF Chronicle, click here.
If it starts to seem as though things aren’t going quite so badly in Iraq, for a change, maybe it’s because of Bush’s surge…
…or maybe it’s because Iraq’s interior ministry “has decided to bar news photographers and camera operators from the scenes of bomb attacks,” as noted in this ABC News Online article.
…or maybe it’s because the Pentagon is now limiting web access for troops stationed in Iraq, as noted in this AP news story by reporter Lolita A. Blador. (If our enlisted men and women can get to an internet cafe, they’re okay, but they can no longer use the Defense Department’s computer network to access sites like MySpace and YouTube.)
If you want to get a more accurate picture of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, one good place to start is the news releases link at the Department of Defense web site.
Here’s what I found today:
Here’s a link to the news release at the top of the list — it announces the death of “Spc. Rhys W. Klasno, 20, of Riverside, Calif., [who] died May 13 in Haditha, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.”
And, as you can see, there’s lots more where that one came from.
I meandered over to a flickr page, on a link from a link from the MultimediaShooter blog, and found some fabulous photos by “thepres6.” This is someone who clearly loves photographing sky, clouds, water and reflections…and who is clearly a much better photographer than I am.
Be sure to watch thepres6’s “sun, sky, water” slideshow.
Then again, even us amateurs get lucky once in a while. Here’s one of my favorite water reflection shots:
This pond is in New Hampshire near my sister’s house. I’ve enjoyed it in many seasons, but it was the water lilies that finally made me stop to shoot some photos.
Whatever that means…but, hey, it’s kinda fun!
I was fortunate to have two local video bloggers, Ryanne Hodson and Jay Dedman, come to my journalism class last week to talk to my students.
Ryanne has developed some great online tutorials for aspiring video bloggers at Freevlog.org. She is the co-author (with Michael Verdi) of Secrets of Video Blogging. Jay is the co-author (with Joshua Paul) of Videoblogging.
“There’s definitely a need for quality content,” Ryanne told my students. “It’s great to come from a place like CBS or CNN…and now we’re producing our own content.”
“It’s so exciting now because it’s so wide open,” added Jay, noting that it’s still fairly easy to get attention for your videos because there are so few video blogs out there.
Jay’s advice to my students: Start making videos, do it consistently, focus on the kinds of stories you like (not the kinds you think might be popular), have fun…and do it because you really love it. He says he only wishes video blogging had been around when he was a little younger so “instead of forming a rock band I could have formed a video band.”
Ryanne added, “Your blog becomes a resume.”
Jay & Ryanne’s Video Blogging Resources
- FreeVlog.org – free tutorials and other helpful info on video blogging, created by Ryanne Hodson and Michael Verdi, authors of Secrets of Video Blogging
- SpinXpress.com – home of the Get Media search engine for all kinds of media available for reuse under Creative Commons licensing
- OurMedia.org – a community site for video producers and podcasters
- havemoneywillvlog.com – a blog to help video bloggers fund worthwhile projects
- creativecommons.org – everything you need to know about creative commons licensing
- blip.tv – free video hosting with creative commons licensing
- WGBH Lab – Video Sandbox – WGBH’s video archives, now available for mash-ups under creative commons licensing
(Note: The content of their RyanIsHungry vlog was recently licensed to the PodTech Network for broader online distribution.)
