OMG BuzzFeed has gone Fortune and its Original Trust Content one better. Instead of cranking out BuzzFeed-like content for corporate-owned media, the publication will teach you how to draft stories like the pros. That’s right. You too can write scintillating headlines like “15 Reasons Taylor Swift Might Be a Cat” or “27 Better Ways to …more
Unfortunately, I couldn’t work the phrase “those pernicious PR people” into this grab bag post. Still, here are three bursts related to communications, albeit each longer than 140 characters. Twitter Looks to Accelerate News Traction Much has been written on whether Twitter falls under the social media or news media category. The debate misses the …more
I penned this tweet last week: Some background – To show people it’s a new day at J. C. Penney, the company posted a video called “It’s No Secret” on YouTube in early May. The 30-second spot acknowledged past mistakes and plans to change its ways. I took the position that if a company deploys …more
The White House has gone all in with owned media, recently adding Tumblr to its arsenal of 17 social media properties. It’s only a matter of time before Team Obama starts poaching talent from BuzzFeed. By studying the trajectory of the White House’s investment in owned media, we can predict what such a property would …more
Seeking Alpha delivers one of the best bargains in the communications business. Complete the registration form, and hear Seeking Alpha’s equivalent of “open sesame” – free access to thousands of transcripts discussing the financial performance of public companies. In spite of scripting that would impress the World Wrestling Federation, weird “storytelling” can still surface in …more
Everyone associates Warren Buffet with finance and being worth a gazillion dollars (give or take a zillion). I think of Buffet as the consummate storyteller. He turns self-deprecation into an art form with passages like this from his 2010 shareholders letter: And now a painful confession: Last year your chairman closed the book on a …more
Americans love a good apology. Show even a modicum of sincerity, and all is forgiven. J. C. Penney and its apology ad is certainly banking on this dynamic. Unfortunately, the strategy is flawed, and the execution is worse. We’ve simplified the chain of events in the aerial view below: Did I miss something? I thought …more
Many variables go into determining the price point of acquiring a startup venture. Does a startup’s public profile play a role in determining valuation? One would think greater awareness generates more buyers which can bring an auction-like dynamic to the proceedings and drive up the price. On the intangible side, the buzz that comes from …more
PR professionals are quick to sing the virtues of storytelling, but their actions tell a different story. That’s how I kicked off my talk on visual storytelling at a PR Newswire event, scrutinizing the content generated by PR with two questions: Does the content deliver the “frame” that today’s journalists need to write a story? …more
