The Best PR is Giving People Useful Information
“You have to stop thinking like a marketer, an advertiser and a communicator and start thinking like a publisher. Create information your consumers want, and they will share it…”
- David Meerman Scott
Lee Odden’s blog has a great summary of a presentation by David Meerman Scott’s on PR and marketing.
I love this rule: “Nobody cares about your products (except you).” And I’ll add, get over it.
He also said to stop using your own corporate speak and use the language your customers are using. To find out what words they are using, look at customer reviews for your products or products that reach your audience. There is a lot of information online. I like using it to write my product descriptions. Amazon reviews is a great start.
David shared the top ten overused words from a recent study:
* Next generation
* Robust
* Flexible
* World class
* Easy to use
* Scalable
* Cutting edge
* Well positioned
* Market leading
* Mission critical
Stop the fluff. Get to the point quickly. And give us a reason to care. That’s good marketing - and good writing.
4 Responses to “The Best PR is Giving People Useful Information”
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November 18th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Hi Janet, This is simple stuff, really. However so many people just default to advertising their damn products. My question - “How’s that working for you?” Thanks! David
November 18th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I totally agree. Every word on that list is annoying and I have never even used one of them in a review of a product on my blog. I don’t even think most of those words are in my vocabulary. Well except for flexible and I only use it when I am talking about yoga poses with my daughter lol.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Oh, and this one: Award winning.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
On the social web especially, it’s less about “marketing” and more about providing value. “Give to Get”. David’s presentation was excellent and I highly recommend companies and organizations to hire him for speaking events.