To find an individual who has dominated the new cycle for such a long stretch of time like President Trump, you have to go all the way back to 1994 and the O.J. Simpson trial.
It’s not a bad comparison.
The trial of American People vs. President Trump is unofficially underway delivering plenty of fodder for those who write about the business of communications. I could devote every post to Trump. I don’t weary of foisting TMT (too much Trump) on readers.
Here’s the first half of my Top 10 posts for H1 2017.
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1. Bloody Hell, Someone Sent Me an Actually Informative Press Release
The value of the news release has eroded through the years to the point that most have the value of a discount voucher for Blockbuster Video. Certainly, PR has done its part to accelerate the demise with writing that would position Attila the Hun as a breakthrough in leadership.
But in this post, Michael Butcher from TechCrunch — in one of those rarest of moments — praises a news release for being packaged exactly how journalists need it.
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2. Breaking Down the Failure of Thought Leadership
Virtually every PR effort has the thought leadership religion.
There’s just one not-so-little problem.
Most companies implement what amounts to “thought followship.” They simply repeat perspectives that have already been expressed or offer up vanilla points of view. Even worse, some will dress up self-promotion as thought leadership.
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3. Apple’s Savvy in Communicating a Job-Creations Narrative
Any post that carries a photo of Tim Cook in a cowboy hat playing poker against Elliott Gould has to make the Top 10 list.
The point is, when a company like Apple has all the poker chips, it can exert its will on the marketplace. We see this surface in its communications and proactively tackling issues like job creation in the U.S. as a counter balance to manufacturing overseas.
With zero access to Apple execs and no news release available, journalists were forced to write their stories based on the pristine narrative put forth during a CNBC interview and Apple’s microsite on job creation.
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4. Similar to PR, Journalism Comes in Different Grades
I get tired of PR being the whipping boy of journalists.
I have this theory that in any given industry, roughly 3 percent of the professionals are extraordinary, roughly 3 percent are dreadful and the rest fall somewhere in between.
The theory holds true for both PR and journalism as this post explains.
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5. The Secret Sauce in Silicon Valley Isn’t American
President Trump’s immigration policies threaten Silicon Valley and ultimately the U.S. economy because over one third of those in Silicon Valley were born overseas.
As a public service, this post strives to help the White House connect the dots.
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I’ll publish the rest of the list on Monday.
In the meantime, I’m sure Mr. Trump will do his best to keep us entertained and the ad dollars rolling into CNN and Fox News.