Ever since I’ve started blogging about technology a couple of years ago, I’ve been consistently growing an immense feeling of hate towards press releases, and it’s not getting any better.
It’s not that I dislike the PR industry in general, although I often wonder how so many of these firms continue to be in business when the large majority of them have been doing it exactly the same way for the past few decades, instead of evolving.
When media distribution and usage was less fragmented than it is now, I guess it made sense for PR firms or consultants to write press releases using a given ‘best practice’ and pushing it out to a list of contacts in the publishing industry, hoping for as much coverage as possible. Regular TechCrunch readers know how we think about the PR industry – and some of its proponents – in today’s world, and in particular our stance towards embargoes.
I’d like to tackle a different problem in this post, one that reporters from around the world, whatever field they cover, will no doubt recognize. The issue I have with press releases, and the reason I think they are a thing of the distant past in their current form, is that they basically all look alike. Sure, the companies that are talked about can be different, and the type of news coming from them can be different, but the copy, form and style are often so much alike that for large parts of the announcements you could just as easily swap the names of the companies and keep the rest of the words. Oftentimes, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
My biggest gripe with press releases is that for basically as long as they’ve been around, they’ve contained the same damn words, rendering them completely meaningless in most cases and contexts. I wonder what the world would be like if these words were henceforth permanently banned from all press releases:
1 ) LEADING / LEADER
You know the kind: “Initech, the leading blah in blah blah blah, has partnered with Initrode, leader in blah blah blahblah blah blah blah.” Every single time a press release carries either one of these words in the first sentence, I cringe. Why? Because if everyone is leading, no one is. Period. PR people, next time you start writing a news announcement, ask yourself if you really should be using the words ‘leading’ or ‘leader’ just because it’s easy and everyone is doing it.
2 ) BEST / MOST / FASTEST / LARGEST / BIGGEST / etc.
Emphasizing the strengths of the company you’re pitching is obviously a good thing. But does anyone realize how meaningless these terms become when they are followed up by something so blatantly untrue or tied to a small niche that it’s just painful to read? I’m specifically thinking about press releases that commence with something like “Initech, the largest manufacturer of red staplers engraved with our company logo, has just won the Buzo Award for the most uncreative use of the word ‘largest’ in the history of mankind.” Handle these words with care.
3 ) INNOVATIVE / INNOVATION
The mother of all voidness. How many truly innovative products are launched on a yearly basis, regardless of the sector? How many times have you seen something get the ‘innovation’ label without merit? Unless you or your clients find a cure for all cancers, simply stop using it, starting today. Now that would be innovative.
4 ) REVOLUTIONARY
Much like the above, terrible word to be using in press releases. What exactly about your product is going to make people leave their houses to demonstrate, oppose their government, riot, etc.? Oh, sorry, you mean the company you’re pitching is not going to change the world but it is going to completely change the way an industry thinks about your business? Safe bet: it’s not going to. Likely you’re just doing the old ‘wishful thinking’ routine, and everyone knows you are.
5 ) AWARD-WINNING
Trust me, telling anyone willing to listen that you’ve been recognized with this or that award won’t be providing you with any goodwill right off the bat. There are exceptions to this rule, but very few (they include the Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer, a Crunchie or a Europa Award). Basically it’s like going around a party informing everyone that you’ve had sex with a human being last week: I’m sure it matters to you a great deal – and hopefully to the other person as well – but the rest of us likely don’t give a hoot. We also think it’s kind of sad that you are looking for someone to confirm or recognize your accomplishments that way. A tip: unless you’re announcing that you’ve actually won an award (which by the way is only very rarely newsworthy), leave it out.
6 ) DISRUPTIVE / DISRUPTION
Newsflash: a product or service is only very, very, very rarely disruptive. If there is a truly ground-breaking one, it’s also never disruptive out of the gate, for it can take years or even decades to turn an entire industry upside down. The fact that you’d use the word in a press release speaks volumes about your ability to tell your head from your ass: anything truly disruptive doesn’t happen overnight, and you can’t capture ‘disruption’ in a news announcement pushed out at a given time and date. Besides, if something is genuinely disruptive I’m sure it will require little push from PR people or firms to get the word out there.
7 ) CUTTING / BLEEDING EDGE
In the same boat as the words ‘innovative’, ‘revolutionary’ and ‘disruptive’: so often misused in the past that it now looks like you’re practicing your skills to write quality satire when you use it to tout a company or product in a press release.
8 ) NEXT-GENERATION
Overused. If you have an updated version of your product to announce, why not just say so? I simply cannot understand what people are trying to tell me when they say their new release is ‘next-gen’. Is it too advanced or complex for me to use and will only young children have the ability to understand what you’re doing when they grow up? Did your previous product version stink so bad that you needed to skip an entire generation of iterations to finally get it right?
9 ) STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
Partnering with other companies can be good – and newsworthy too, though not often – but it doesn’t help you get more attention or goodwill when you announce a strategic partnership, agreement or relationship. We’re assuming it fits in both your strategy and the one of the company or companies you team up with, otherwise you wouldn’t be forming an alliance, right? It’s not like your agreement suddenly gets a whole other dimension because it’s labeled ’strategic’, honestly.
10 ) SYNERGY
Simply defined, synergy means that the whole in combination is greater than the sum of the individual parts working on their own. Used properly, the word can describe the magnified effects of two drugs taken together, parasites that enforce each other’s destructive effects and compounded health risks due to toxic chemicals. When applied to corporations, it means a financial benefit that a company aims to realize when it merges with or acquires another corporation. As history teaches us, there’s rarely any synergy involved when companies melt together or one takes over the other (cough, AOL-Time Warner). PR people, you’d be doing yourself a serious favor banning this one from all future press releases.
Bonus words: enterprise-grade, world-class, turnkey, premier, unparalleled and unrivaled.
Can you think of any others that should be given the kibosh?
Update: awesome! The Gobbledygook Manifesto (PDF) by David Meerman Scott.
Also, if you have links to press releases that are ridden with the terms I’ve grown so resentful of, do let me know in comments. I’ll help you get started with this one about Akamai and Delve Networks’ recent forming of a strategic partnership:
“Delve Networks, a leading provider of video platforms, announces a strategic relationship with Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, that will enable Delve to offer customers a comprehensive and innovative video publishing solution that includes video management and delivery including support of next generation variable bit rate streaming technologies.”
See what led me to this post?
Someone had to say it…
But its not easy to get this stuff banned. If they point the product as NEXT-GENERATION, it should be atleast 25 years advanced technology
Everything I see Next-Generation I see http://en.wikip...a.org/wiki/NeXT
I work in the PR industry and I think the problem is this – many “old bulls” still run it.
If a young, up and coming PR exec wants to change the way the firm does business, he or she has to lay a lot on the line to tell the old fogies how much the world has changed…
Good tips. I’ll try to take a stand on Monday when I’m tasked with drafting the next PR abomination.
oh my, please tell me you were satirical while verbing the noun “task” …
@carlrjr Satirical since “task” was verbed in the 14th century?
http://www.merr...ictionary/task2
My sentiments EXACTLY!
LOL!!, That’s what even I think of
@robin,
Can you give us a text book example of a good PR? Or should we all just use trust TechCrunch.com for all PR?
Snarky! I’ll think about doing a follow-up post on what I think a press release should look like, at least imho.
Since you have highlighted some Don’ts it maybe interesting to see your Do’s.
I agree, it would be good to know what you think is essential to include if there is a need for a press release
Perhaps a good PR should be written like an SEC disclosure document (e.g., a prospectus). A disclosure document is rich in information, but given in an objective manner.
I agree!
from: http://www.cote...techcrunch.html
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That new guy that just joined your team is probably going to cringe when he sees this article.
@fb540582587,
Good catch.. TechCrunch bites the dust, again…
BTW, “Hybrid” reminds me of Toyota’s Greenepeace blig car Prius’ engine – “Hybrid Synergy Drive”, whatever that means!
This post is bogus. It should be called, “Why we need to rid the world of the press release.”
I agree with you Sarah. What if one has a really innovative or fastest or whatever thing to offer? Should one be “shy” and introduce it as a yet-another-of-the-kind?
If it works and brings in more sales: USE IT, this is the only thing you should care about.
you forgot “experience”
I compiled a nearly identical list back in March:
http://editoria...ine.com/?p=2679
Funny. I thought I had a very innovative and win-win idea a few months ago – II just found out last Friday, Silicon Valley thought of it in 2006. Most of the time an original idea, really isn’t. I am sure she thought hers was an original!
‘robust’
@robin, I don’t think PR industry will do this any time soon. I too discourage PR people who unnecessarily hype their press release with catchy buzz words. I think they are forced to do such things to stand out from thousands of other releases. If you don’t mind I want to post / link this article and create awareness among users who submit press releases to our press release submission website(pressreleasepoint.com).
Perhaps press release quality would improve if those writing them actually spend a little time working in the actual press. (Or at least reading some decent stuff.) A revolutionary, bleeding-edge option to cutting and pasting text from a bad marketing brochure into spaces in a “Press Release Template” from Microsoft geeks.
Hope these could be part of a change manifesto for PR guys!
Very critical with not much advice on how to improve.
Not so, the advice is just simple: stop using them.
How would you disseminate important news to the media then?
Better.
Unfortunately much of the world doesn’t work or think like you, or the rest of TC. I mean, if you look at the press releases that get attention in main stream press, they are filled with your top-10. If it works, don’t fix it.
I’d love to see you write a suggestion on how to write a press release. I promise to use it on our next PR and let you know if that sinks in better than the previous ones. My fear is that while it may go well with TC, it will fail in the mainstream media…
@Jani,
You’re right. Most of the world prefers sensationalized media, sparking a reaction out of people from exaggerated words and overused catch phrases. But that doesn’t mean that people with half a brain can’t be frustrated by it.
If you really think Robin has no grounds for complaining about the dumbed-down nature and sensationalism that are press releases, then I pity you.
complaining is just that, complaining. what’s the solution besides ’stop using those words’?
Agree. Companies do this because the media gives it play. If you don’t hype your product why would the media? They’d just ignore you and move on. I’ve even tried being matter of fact about things and they still write back, ‘give me a story.’
What is neglected here, is that media outlets(TC included) aren’t really THAT interested in new products(even ‘innovative’ ones), ESPECIALLY if it comes from a startup. They are interested in stories that give them traffic or eyeballs(like MG’s post on boobs and explosions) or the Huffington Post linking to Megan Fox pics. Outlets write about Google, Twitter and larger companies because it gives them traffic(people know company x, so they read about it). It is unfortunate, but it is what it is.
I have written several posts on how to write news releases at http://editorialengine.com. Click the “news release” link under categories.
I have a thought- if the press is disappearing, then why bother with press releases in the first place?
and use what instead? criticism without the ‘constructive’ part is pointless.
Exactly. He can’t tell readers how to write creatively.
You couldn’t be more right which is why we don’t send out press releases in our company — ever!
I am curious…what is your company’s name that it can go without ever sending out a single press release? And what is your business model?
Starney’s Mom & Pops store.
What’s all the rage about comparison who’s bigger, better and stuff like that? Look at what the rush for greed has begotten us…
Well, people do have to promote their company. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a responsibility.
Right, but when every company is claiming they are the leading company in X for innovating Y for next generation Z, then it doesn’t really say much other than each company is disillusioned into thinking they are the best.
Of course, it’s all a marketing tactic to make people believe you actually ARE the best, but after seeing it and reading it and hearing it dozens of times with little to no variation, it loses its effect, and it’s desensitized the customer and trained him to ignore it.
Haha! Great choice of words!
Game Changer
Wicked. Game changer. I hate that. I say it too much, myself. ahhhh
Impactful. Unprecedented. Next level.
OK, got to go throw up.
“I wonder what the world would like if these words were henceforth permanently banned from all press releases”
The world would like world peace.
Awesome. Entertaining and informative … A definite retweet!
That’s 22 words
I can understand the dilution argument… but I can think of a few press releases that could encompass all of these words and really mean it. Granted, my fictional press release below is an extreme, but no one would argue that Android was revolutionary for its open OS for mainstream phone manufacturers or that the Next-Generation iPhone wasn’t better than that of the last. c’mon now.
Fake press release follows:
Boeing, the nation’s LEADER in commercial aircraft, has just launched the MOST fuel-efficient passenger aircraft ever and is scheduled to fly initially with AWARD-WINNING airline, Virgin America.
Boeing and Virgin America announced their STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP today before the first flight of the INNOVATIVE aircraft. Among the the new CUTTING-EDGE technologies found on the 769, the ability to run on 100% bio-fuels could truly DISRUPT the airline industry.
The Boeing 769 aircraft’s REVOLUTIONARY technology heralds in the NEXT GENERATION of efficient Boeing aircraft.
…and so on.
Synergy is a word that should be used only if both companies will truly benefit from one-another.
Crunchie, Europa??? Are you serious? What kind of inflated sense of self-importance do you have today??? Only the readers of this blog–many as they are–even know what those awards are.
Crunch that in your pipe and smoke it.
@LucasD,
Good one… The “Europa” is the ultimate joke that TechCrunch – global leader, tech media empire – had last month. These guys even named it wrongly as “Europas” and went on great length to defend their logic….
Old pr companies feared, which has probably carried right over to online pr.
A release going to the Wall Street Journal would look the same as one going to The Village Voice, and using the same language over and over was safe.
You don’t have to be afraid of being creative anymore, but it takes way more time to create custom releases.
So, I guess templates are necessary when you’re dealing w/ so much volume, but switching it up a little is the only way to stand out.
Like all industries moving online there’s growing pains and only those that change with the culture will survive.
Are there any words you love to see?
** ps I’m not in PR
If those words are elliminated from a press release, it will be down to 1 sentence.
You don’t want that.
Very funny.
See David Meerman Scott’s The Gobbledygook Manifesto (2007) where he researches the most used PR words.
http://www.davi...ucts_ebooks.htm
Shaun Dakin
@IsCool, @EndTheRoboCalls, @PrivacyCampDC
Brilliant, added to the post.
Right on money. 100%. Bravo!
I hate when people write ‘well-heeled’
why?
Because it’s another overused adjective. Just say wealthy.
It’s how wealthy people say that somebody’s wealthy; maybe you didn’t happen to be a member of a Country Club.
“Going forward…” Well what other bloody would you be going??!! Backwards, sideways???
Go up. The sky’s the limit.
Nice post Robin, but you lost me after you put a Crunchie award in the same bracket as a Nobel prize or a Pulitzer.
My humor is obviously lost on you. It’s probably my fault
It seems only fair that you ban these words from TechCrunch as well, no?
site:www.techcrunch.com disruptive (613 GHits)
site:www.techcrunch.com “revolutionary” (690 GHits)
site:www.techcrunch.com innovative (2490 GHits)
(To be fair, some of these search engine hits are from the comments, but if you browse through you’ll see that most of the results in the first few pages are in the content of the article itself.)
Also, does this mean you’ll no longer be giving the “Disruptive Innovation” TechFellow award? http://www.tech...ds-the-winners/
+1
Granted, reporters use those words too, but these are really low numbers of mentions considering the volume of posts published on TechCrunch since 2005. Also, could be from comments as you indicate but also quotes from other people.
As for the award: we’re still going to give it out, we’re just going to rename it to “Leader In Cutting Edge-ness TechFellow Award”
next up: “The Totally Awesomeness PR TechFellow Award”.
not.
In homage to “The Simpsons,” you could also rebrand the TechCrunch honor as the “Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.” http://en.wikip...o_Dimes%3F#Plot
Weak award programs could be another post in a series.
+1
The Economist magazine gives out annual “innovation” awards. Each of the candidates are carefully researched for evidence that, indeed, their inventions/innovations made an broad impact on markets and lives. http://www.econ...ory_id=10676339
I think some of the words on the list are needed, because some companies truly are innovative. Some inventions truly are best. But for every such claim, there should be supporting evidence. If you say you’re a “leader,” prove it with comparative sales figures or other data like that.
What a (welcome) revelation! Words in a PR should actually accurately describe the subject. Awesome. Now if that could be tatoo’d on the hand of marketers/pr’s, lists like this wouldn’t be needed.
Thanks!
Hero.
This post is so spot-on. Thank YOU!
Your synergy definition? wtf? learn English please.
This complaint about press releases has been around for many years, even when “classic media” was still in command. Its probably why PR people are held only in slightly higher regard than HR people: necessary evil.
By showering every little bit of news with superlatives, the PR folks are at once trying to call attention to the company and ensure they have work. Of course, by trying to make EVERYTHING a stand out, NOTHING is a stand out, and all it does is generate “press-release fatigue”, followed by irate posts by bloggers.
Unfortunately, getting PR people to stop such behavior is about as likely as getting people to stop needlessly using their car horns when stuck in traffic. They KNOW it doesn’t help, yet they do it anyway.
I couldn’t agree more, but I guess I’d still rather read a cliched release than the ones that are made “twitter friendly” by removing all the vowels.
I would add the words “user experience”. I have a Google Alert set up for those words and probably 80% of the results I get every day are press releases touting an improved user experience. But, in reality, maybe only 10% of them have anything to do with the user’s actual experience of the product.
meanwhile, how many articles have you written where you lifted content directly from a PR and passed it off as reporting? love when journalists complain about bad PR, but meanwhile, they’re engaged in bad journalism because they repurpose PR every day. glass houses.
I just wish companies would include a decent size photo of the product they want us to tell the world about. Maybe even two. How about a video while you’re at it or do I have to scour YouTube? grrrr
What words are left?
+1
“rich”
@erickschonfeld, what words are left? Just the ones required by legal departments based on SEC regs.
Robin – while I completely agree with the silliness that is the traditional press release, I think you are overestimating the role of PR agencies and flacks and underestimating the influence of CEOs and board members who like to project their hyperbolic views in the company press releases.
Because I felt this way about press releases, I experimented with alternate formats early on at Tesla – http://www.tesl...room.php?id=588
The media loved it. The board hated it.
I am glad to see “synergy” on the list. That’s the word they seem to use when they can’t produce any real honest reason for acquiring a company. (Which is probably because the company being acquired is owned by a relative of a board member.)
Any decent PR school worth a damn teaches NOT to write this drivel. And please don’t paint every flack guilty as charged. Oh, and for the record, nobody is sold on the social media release, either…
That all said, I LOVE the post and am sharing this with many a colleague. Keep us flacks in check — just remember that we are watching you tech hacks with keen eyes these days, mwoo ha ha ha.
This a great Saturday morning read, I passed it along, a fluffy piece of reading to enjoy over a cup of coffee. This could be an ongoing series. Wired has a good one too – 5 Atrocious Science Cliches to Throw Down a Black Hole http://www.wire...ackholescience/
“The chief enemy of clear language is insincerity.” — George Orwell
Steve, thanks.
Hahaha. Brilliant !!
Even better, the full Orwell quote reads:
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”
How’s this; any better?
“Delve Networks, a trailing provider of video platforms, announces a tactical affiliation with Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), a follower in powering bland media, static transactions and stove-pipe applications offline, that will enable Delve to offer customers a narrow, old-school video publishing solution that includes video management and delivery including support of last generation fixed bit rate streaming technologies.”
By the time an organization thinks it’s a market ‘leader’ in one area or another, it would have established a niche market in a particular product.
The whole idea of being a leader in one sector or another is actually about innovation: If you think existing service providers are not providing a required service, you can assert you are a market leader!
Agree with almost everything you say in this post. Almost. But I’d like to point out that PR is not an industry. It’s a profession. We are part of the media industry, but we practice a profession.
Would you find acceptable to see those words in a business plan?
I mean, to me a press release needs to be a statement of facts and show little or no opinion, especially with the use of superlatives.
On a business plan however, as you’re trying to sell your product to investors, the use of things like, modern technology and innovative idea should be allowed (with care).
Do you agree?
Great question. I’m leaning towards thinking they should be avoided in business plans as much as possible too.
Business Plans, like Business Cards, in the web/online space, should go away. If you follow best practice of lean start ups, the plan becomes dated the moment you finish writing it.
PPT/DEMO, excel files and maybe 1 page Google doc that you keep updating daily – that’s the deck you should have. Anything else is noise.
Things to Make Sure We Murder Death Kill on the Way to the Next Killer Product:
1) Business Plans
2) Revenue Projections
3) Press Releases
and
4) People Who Spend Too Much Time & Money on 1, 2, & 3.
Despite agreeing with you on the first 2 at least, the sad truth is that often investors will ask for it and you have to have them.
Also, writing my business plan has actually helped my company internally. It is a place where we log our business model ideas, our list of features, our unique selling point, how we compare to others, etc.
Had I not written all that, I wouldn’t be able to so quickly defend my business when talking about it. Writing it makes you remember the main points more.
“I mean, to me a press release needs to be a statement of facts and show little or no opinion, especially with the use of superlatives.”
I strongly suspect you’ve never had to write a release for a company before, have you? Or had to get approval for one from a CEO or company executive?
I have only had to do it for my own company and I believe you gain more respect from the publisher if you don’t make it sound like a cheap sales pitch.
I worked for a marketing director once who preferred gobbledygook to fill pages of brochure copy. I said it didn’t read well or make a lot of sense. That’s the point, she said. It was a start-up company. We didn’t have a lot of experience or results. We just needed to fill pages with meaningless copy & pretty pics. No one ever reads the copy anyway, she assured me. The company went under.
Oh yes. Especially the first one you mentioned – “leading”. Horribly misused. Now, let’s take an incredibly annoying example: “The SCO Group, Inc., a leading provider of UNIX(R) software technology and mobility solutions…”. WTF? They’re broke, have been slowly dying for years, delisted from NASDAQ, etc. If they’re the leading company, things in the technology business is looking really bad.
Hmmm…I’m not totally dismissing what you say (I do think some sort of evolution would be nice) but it must still be working to some degree hence no change.
“Necessity is the mother of invention…” and all that jazz. My guess is that when the current way of writing PRs becomes less and less effective, then changes will happen.
I also think that when more people embrace online media (not just us techies), we may begin to see a change in the way news is written and disseminated: there are still a HUGE number of folks that are unwilling to move into the 21st century.
Have you seen http://www.gomy.co.uk yet? – It’s the next generation, revolutionary & cutting edge website to hit the UK. Designed to be the leading and fastest growing innovative directory on the market, GoMy has an award winning strategy combined with strategic partnerships be the biggest ground breaking social and local hub around.
I like what you did there.
“Delve Networks, a leading provider of video platforms, announces a strategic relationship with Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, that will enable Delve to offer customers a comprehensive and innovative video publishing solution that includes video management and delivery including support of next generation variable bit rate streaming technologies.”
—-
Do you have something against adjectives and adverbs?
How would you have wrote this paragraph if it were your responsibility, without losing any meaning? I’d be interested to see if you reply.
Easy:
Delve Networks has joined forces with Akamai to offer customers a new video publishing application. It will include video management and delivery with support for variable bit-rate streaming.
You can describe both Delve Networks and Akamai in the notes to editors at the end of the release.
Why would you save all that info for the notes for editors? This story is the type to get copied and pasted onto a tech blog or site. You need to include that info in the press release itself, albeit in one sentence and in plain English.
To me one of the reasons the web/social media is interesting, isn’t the social part – it is the real part.
In our pre web 2.0 world, we had to rely on corpspeak to get our information. And everything, from PR releases, to ads, to packaging were about this perfect world we knew to be true.
Yes, Innitech is a leader and their products are revolutionary nextgen products. If it said anything else, we would be more suspicious.
But when bloggers and tweets start saying somethng is relvolutionary – and the tweets are coming from people known to be accurate, then it really means something.
Corpspeak is a necessary evil of the old non web world – and it actually makes the web more reliable.
Don’t matter if you don’t use these words, TechCrunch still are not picking up your story!
Great article…although I don’t know if I necessarily agree with the whole thing. I was trying to be convinced the entire time, but upon reading some of these comments, I know I’m not the only one with concerns.
PR, in its more intrinsic nature, is speaking as the voice of a company. As a PR person, I struggle daily with applying a huge vocabulary to talk about how a client is great. I try to customize and liven the words I use in these releases to make each stand out, but there are really only so many words to imply “greatness” or “different.” The fact of the matter is there’s always going to be a competitor, but as a company with PR representation, you DO want to represent yourself as a competent and progressive “leader.” If you don’t paint yourself as such, why would major news media have an incentive to care about the 34th most recognized option in a market?
I mean, when you speak to the world about your company, you don’t want to go out without enthusiasm and declare to the world that, “oooh, X company has this sort of interesting development and is really only mediocre compared to all the other competitive options out there.” Part of PR is embracing that particular company’s offerings and SELLING it as one that can very well compete and deserve to be given the chance to be competitive with the next of its kind. If you, without luster, deliver that, you’re screwed. The media won’t care.
The other thing is, you’re criticizing certain types of press releases as well, such as awards and partnerships. The fact is, whether you consider these newsworthy events or not, reporters and editors do, which is why we as PR people continue to send them out.
But, on the whole, I do agree with the purpose of this article. PR should not get lazy and fake. There always should be substance behind a press release, but a lot of the time, those words that you mentioned above are relevant to the cause.
“Next generation”: there is an exception: you can use it if you describe what you have in your LABS. But not the product you are releasing.
State of the art..
How about [product]-killer?
“Google-killer”, “iPhone-killer”..
“Google-killer Wolfram Fail launched this week.”
+1
Remember when neon paper was all the rage. You would have your flyers printed on it so it would stand out, then a little time goes by and everyone is printing on neon paper so yours no longer stands out.
That is what using these Gobbledygook words do. They are all using the same words so noone stands out. Write it down how you would actually talk to someone aobut it.
You’re so right. It’s like nuclear proliferation. If you don’t do it, you’re left out and you (or your clients) fear that you won’t be perceived as important. But every time you write those words, you cringe as a professional writer.
The most leading, cutting-edge best practices should speak for themselves if that’s what they truly are. It takes more effort, but we need facts to replace the ambiguous and overused buzzwords.
To frame this let me say that I’ve 1) run my own PR agency and 2) worked as a journalist, including writing a regular newspaper column. I’ve had clients and their demands as well as editors and theirs. I’ve been on both sides of the fence.
In my experience the fruity language is usually coming out of the client’s marketing department. Working was usually a constant battle to say journalists don’t respond to writing like that because 1) they’re immune and 2) they can generally read past a 3rd grade level.
Regardless, writing an article about how stupid PR people is silly because 1) most people come here to learn about trends in technology, and 2) you’re attacking people you know really can’t fight back. (Unless they want to lose their jobs.)
I’ll admit that PR is kinda lame. If you’ve done it for any length of time, you know it’s a giant shit sandwich. But, like many marketing (and media) professions, it has a strong heritage of an apprenticeship system. That means it’s not so much about who you are or where you went to school, but what you can get done. For a lot of people that’s the difference between having a good life and struggling to pay the rent.
My advice is to write about technology. Technology is cool. I personally load this page (often several times a day) to read about just that. Attacking people who are just doing their jobs, however lame, is not. Peace.
I didn’t call PR people stupid and I didn’t attack them.
no problem, I’ll do that for you.
I’m calling [95% of] PR people stupid and I have no problem attacking [95% of] them.
there are exceptions, but they are few & far between, and most of them worth their salt won’t disagree with me.
the profession itself has largely become sidelined by blogging and social media, and while there is still a place for it, it is usually FAR down the list of priorities for most [consumer internet] businesses, relative to SEO, SEM, widgets, viral, social networks, blogging, video, screencasts, email, etc etc.
in the end, it is very rarely the case that great PR will make up for a shitty product enough to make a company, and only in a few cases do companies with great products suffer from absolutely terrible PR (as
opposed to other incompetent Internet marketing) enough to merit high priority attention.
while I am obviously making a sweeping generalization and negative stereotype across a wide range of businesses and situations, nevertheless as a former geek & marketing person who (re-)wrote numerous press releases, a few of which had national publication pickup, it’s not high on my list of skills & budget priorities.
now as a VC, it’s rare that I don’t recommend most startups save their money on PR and simple hire 1 or 2 talented young writers recently out of college (or laid off from print pubs) that cost 1/5 to 1/10 the amount of most PR retainers and work 5-10x as hard, not to mention typically better results.
if you detect a touch of dripping vitriol here, it’s not a coincidence. the best PR people I ever worked with was one I hired in-house (who now runs PR & Comm for LinkedIn), and another someone else hired as an initial in-house blogger for Mint.
again there are exceptions. if you find one, hire them right away. otherwise, hire a college student or laid-off writer to start doing a daily blog, and find some good SEO, SEM, and social media gurus. Hint: most of them don’t work for PR firms.
I’m so happy to read this article !
Every day I read some press releases for my websites, almost all of them begin with a sentence containing at least two of the things listed ABOVE, just to be sure anybody reading it will be bored to death instantly.
Cut the crap guys… please !
#11 should be best-of-breed