PR Chicago

All Atwitter about Twitter

Twitter reminds me of using the phone when I was in junior high school: "What are you doing? " "Nothing. What are you doing?"

On the other hand, I thought it was rather exciting when the folks at the unfortunately defunct FOX show "Drive" did a running commentary on Twitter during the show's two-night premiere, writing about some of the production challenges and answering questions. I loved the immediacy of it and think something like Twitter might prove useful if you're looking for virtually on-the-spot anonymous feedback.  At a badly-run or boring event? Use your smartphone to post a comment and perhaps the event managers can save the day. Yawning through a lengthy speech? Mention something on Twitter and maybe the speaker will get the 3-minute warning. 

Blogs, Drifting

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is a hobgoblin, anyway?

While berating myself for failing to post, I've noticed quite a few blogs, seemingly abandoned and floating aimlessly through cyberspace. Some tout long-shuttered restaurants, or refer breathlessly to events from the 90s.

Now I'm hardly the soul of consistency, but shouldn't bloggers be required to clean up their detritus after, say, a year or two? Pretty soon we'll be encumbered with piles of blogging driftwood as folks lose their initial enthusiasm.

Which brings me to the PR focus of this rant. So many corporate web sites I visit exhibit this same lack of consistency. On some, news releases haven't been posted for years.  What does this tell the media? That nothing's been happening? That you let your in-house PR staff go and don't think you should communicate anything to the outside world?