Please Release Me!

Foreword: What’s it all about?

 

I’ve spent 30 years riding the tide of daily journalism for just about every medium imaginable, including a fun 5-year stint writing local news for the Web. That means I’ve seen thousands and thousands of press releases - the great, the good, the bad, the gawd-awful, the well-intentioned and the unspeakable - and through all that, have learned quite a bit about what works and what doesn’t.

Meanwhile, for about two decades now, I’ve also been riding the wave of online technology, well before the Internet became a household word. (Remember Prodigy? GEnie?) And like many along for that thrilling, at times heartbreaking ride, we’ve seen hopes dashed (or realized) and grand visions and promises fall by the wayside or minimized to maddeningly mundane ordinariness.

But many of those dreams are still alive. And sometimes, they turn out to be only deferred, not dashed. Or the reality becomes even better than the dream, if we just look at it in a new way.

Take the Internet. Sure, there’s the spam and spyware and virii up the digital wazoo (not to mention technology that just never quite works as you hoped). But the initial dream of the Net - a vast treasure trove of the world’s information, accessible to all - is coming into view, just as a majority of online travelers jump to broadband light-speed.

Blogs (Web logs) are a taste of what’s to come - finally, the ability to easily and cheaply (or for free!) share one’s thoughts around the world (with anyone who cares to listen). Then there are programs like Squarespace, which are trying to make creating attractive, flexible, powerful Websites as easy as typing or putting pen to paper. And they’re getting better all the time.

It’s like the Mega-Microphone of all Microphones is being turned on, in a newly opened Great Hall big enough to hold every living human being. (Sound of someone blowing into mike, in big-echo hall, maybe a hint of feedback.) So, who will come up to that mike? What will they say worth listening to? And what will we be willing to pay to hear their message?

Will it only be the mega-bucks Corporate World that really draws attention? Or can the universal,

easy-to-use nature of the newly evolving Web tools - and that often underrated, all-powerful tool called e-mail - give everyone, if not an equal voice, at least the chance to be heard by those they are trying to reach?

Sure, there are still innovative hurdles to clear. (There always will be). Ten years after a prototype’s photo set me to drooling, I still want my $100 (droppable without heart attack) Etch-A-Sketch-sized window to the Web, tethered invisibly to a high-speed wireless connection - one that can or does hold everything I’ve ever read or wanted to read, from newspapers to magazines to trashy novels and big fat textbooks, all comfortably nestled in the crook of my arm, or setting on my lap in my easy chair as I doze. I truly believe that’s coming, once all those messy issues of power and WiMax and the rest are resolved.

But the magic is here, already. All you have to do is believe, and set your mind to it.

Despite all the big-picture fits and starts, the question remains - how will we use this newfangled power? So many of our magical new tools seem to have been used, for the most part, in heartbreakingly old ways, as if we can’t think outside the mold we poured decades, if not centuries ago. I compare it to the limitations of our brain, and how we don’t use so much of it.

Or, in a more literal sense, it’s like being handed the keys to, say, a Lamborghini, and using it only to go 20 mph down to the corner 7-Eleven once a month.

Such a waste of all that power!

But the power is there, and I bet you can feel it, too.

Here’s the biggest key to all that power, in my opinion - one of those big words left over from the Sizzling Dot-Com ’90s (pre-bust): Disintermediation. It translates, roughly, to eliminating the middleman (or woman).

Here’s the key point (what we call the "nut graph," in newspaper parlance): Every business, large or small, every government agency, every non-profit group - every garden club, every association of left-handed Lutheran plumbers who served in Vietnam - everyone can get on the Net, and communicate with like-minded souls. Many already are doing so, in ways unimaginable just a few short years ago.

And yet by and large, it’s being done so haphazardly, so inefficiently, so … well, that Lamborghini rarely gets out of the garage, much less driven at full throttle to all the wonderful places it can reach.

Let me repeat myself, phrased a bit differently: YOU CAN COMMUNICATE WITH ANYONE, DIRECTLY, AT ANY TIME, IN WAYS OF MUTUAL CHOOSING. And profit immeasurably as a result - financially, to be sure, but beyond mere money.

Now think for a moment or two about just what that makes possible.

Exciting, huh?

Now, I need to be clear - I’m not talking about the eye-glazing shovelware of PR-speak that far too many companies and others put out there on the Web so they can say they are "doing the Web" and not be left behind. I’m not speaking of the "sign up for our great offers!" mailing lists that junk-mail filters often all-too-understandably keep out of your mailbox.

I’m talking about something far more grand and profound, but no less simple. Direct communication, with customers (or potential customers), with group members (or would-be members), with those who share you and/or your associates’ desires, interests and dreams.

Jeff Jarvis, whose blog www.buzzmachine.com is one of my favorites, writes about the news industry becoming a 2-way dialogue, thanks to the new generation of easy-to-use, powerful Net tools. That makes many in the news industry uncomfortable.

But that’s far too limiting in scope. Everyone has a need to communicate, not just journalists.

Let’s think big-picture - but again, the media plays a role in this.

The PR industry has long (and rightly) considered itself the Magic Gatekeeper to the Media - the ones that hold the secrets in methods and abilities to inform the media, who in turn have that oh-so-precious power to let the masses know what your firm, organization or what have you is trying to promote. And once the hand-off is made, you sit back, and hope they call - and after they do, you wait and hope and pray that they understood the message, and get it right, without editors "fixing" it to ghastly oblivion. That’s what happens far more often than all involved in the process care to think about.

I’ve never worked in PR, per se, and I know they are using the newest technology tools to help their clients tell their message to the public. But keep in mind, I come at this subject from the RECEIVING end of all that info - some great, a lot good, others truly dreck - and I know full well where 90 percent of it ends up, whether it arrives by e-mail, fax, phone call or carrier pigeon: the round file. Not always because they are rejected, as much as they don’t make the cut in a business where there’s never enough room, space, time or bodies to do all the stories you WANT to tell, much less the ones someone is shamelessly, breathlessly promoting.

You don’t have infinite time, money or resources. But the Net IS an infinite "news hole," so to speak. A meeting hall of infinite capacity, you might say. So why not move to take FULL advantage of it? Not hang out, nervously, in the corner, but truly circulate and network, like you would any big meeting of like-minded souls?

I know for a fact that while many big businesses and organizations must turn to marketing pros, in-house or the stand-alone PR firms, to help them communicate, others only need a bit of help to move in a new, exciting direction of TELLING THEIR OWN STORY to their audience, learning as they go - and gaining unique, valuable insight a PR firm might never pass along.

And that audience, mind you, has grown increasingly intelligent about the very nature of PR - and thus, increasingly tired of being "spun" and "sold" and marketed to. They want to be talked to - no more, no less - and many will be downright impressed by the companies or entities that do so, honestly and forthrightly.

Of course there’s a big part of me - the dog-eared journalist part, who went from wire service to daily paper to Web to radio to TV - who knows that the traditional media won’t be going away any time soon, because of the vital role they play, from asking the hard questions of politicians to packaging and assembling the news in the most easy-to-follow formats for the broadest numbers of people.

This isn’t about supplanting or usurping their role - in fact, the tools of direct communication can also be used to greatly increase one’s success in getting a reporter or editor’s ear at the Daily Blatt or your friendly neighborhood TV station.

But primarily, it’s about coming to the realization that NOBODY CAN TELL YOUR STORY BETTER THAN YOU. And that, with the Web and e-mail and the like, YOU can hold that Magic Microphone, without a middleman, and not have to pray that those who buy ink by the barrel will grant you an

audience, some ink (and a fair, balanced, accurate piece of your message).

It seems most companies, especially, even small ones, use their Website as a glorified Yellow Pages ad, rather than to communicate what they do, why they do it and INVITE participation. The often touchy issue of letting your customers/members talk among themselves in an online forum - helping each other solve problems, for example - is not for the feint of heart, and thus, not for everybody. But it IS what a growing segment of that precious young demographic wants you to do, and will respect you for offering - if your stomach lining can take it.

Writing is a gift not universally shared. Not everyone can be a Cronkite or Shakespeare. But whatever is lost in lack of professional polish and glitz can be gained - perhaps intensified ten-fold - in the recipient’s knowledge that you are attempting to engage in a mutually respectful dialogue. About next month’s guest speaker. About what the new flavor of salsa or pop does for (or to) you. About - well, about ANYTHING.

So the second part of this book also offers up a bunch of practical advice about the do’s and don’ts of a basic news release - notice I didn’t say PRESS release, as you’re skipping that step - as well as my attempt to provide some information and provoke some thought about the wonderfully changing nature of how we can communicate with each other - for support, for profit, for whatever needs you have. The basics of good (and pitfalls of bad) writing transcend every medium, from stone tablets to cyberspace.

Oh, and about that mutual respect part. Online veterans know well about the term "flame wars," and how a dialogue can turn into a nasty battle over big or small things. There’s no perfect medium or method for communication, and those who are willing to try these new ways to engage in dialogue must be aware that some will use them in distasteful, even harmful ways.

Call me naive, but I think the hassle of wading through (or better yet, effectively filtering out) such scum is worth it. Because that next letter or phone call or e-mail may well be the one that prompts a whole new train of thought - one that solves a long-standing problem, or helps to do so. Or perhaps, one that improves your product, or brings a better speaker to town for your group’s next meeting, or helps you learn the painful truth - why the hall was half-empty for that latest concert, or why employees are getting very, very restless down at the factory floor.

The Net, like any tool, can be (mis)used as a weapon, but that doesn’t make it any less valuable a tool (if you use it properly and safely).

Some of these subjects have been addressed in countless whizbang books, but always in get-rich niches or gimmickry, it seems to me. The Big, Universal Picture - the common threads from small to big firm, non-profit to government - haven’t been explored in a way that helps everyone advance and get their message out. At least, not from where I’m sitting.

It’s truly an exciting time to have a product, service or message to share with those whom you’re

trying to find, reach or convince. The Internet’s promises are finally coming to reality - not with a big cymbal crash (or stock spike), but with the quiet clicking of fingers on keys, and a PC screen that gives you an equal voice to Ford, Gallo, a national political party or anyone else on the planet that wants someone’s ear. The "great equalizer," indeed.

If you ventured forth five or 10 years ago and gave up in frustration with the technology of the time, it just may be time to give it another shot. It’s finally happening, folks. And while that first step or two can be scary, it’s getting easier all the time.

I’ll try to help - here, of course, and online - the place where no book really has a "final chapter," and where the dialogue can be forever new. That’s quite a hopeful thing, symbolic of just what I’m talking about, don’t you think?