It’s January 31. Do you know where your New Year’s Resolutions are? Gone? Time to dream about what you’ll do in 2012 already?
(I don’t do them anymore. There are a few lifestyle changes I envision–improve fitness and drop some weight, for example–but I don’t write down a list of resolutions. I just have a vision of where I’m going.)
Last week was another one of those “visit the office” weeks. That means very little work gets done as I spend time in meetings. Late nights and early morning meetings ruin my discipline.
Readers of this blog come from a variety of professions and backgrounds. Some of you are marketers. I know my friend Walt Boyes sometimes posts to his “PR Wall of Shame.” Well, how would you like to be on the PR Wall of Shame of a blog that reaches something like a million readers? Someone hit a nerve with TechCrunch recently.
It’s a problem we face in our niche, too–press releases that appear to have information, but don’t in reality. In this case, a company’s PR people sent a release saying the company grew by x%. Well, percentages tell nothing. A percent is a ratio–it doesn’t have context. We get these all the time. Analyst firms are especially good at this. If there is no number or context, then it’s really worthless information.
Please, give the readers something. They know when it’s just general promotion without meaning. Readers are smart people. They’re hungry for meat, don’t give them a Twinkie.
I’ve written on marketing before–for example try this Marketing 101 piece.
