Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

How to think about video (first, get a brain)

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I'm the new editor of ContentWise, a six-times-yearly ezine that goes out to a few thousand lucky but hungry dogs like us who make a living making words and pictures and videos and stuff.

For my first issue, a special thing on video, I leaned on pal Steve Crescenzo to tell us when to use video and when only writing will do. It's not rocket science. "Problem is, too many communicators are just churning stuff and reacting to stuff," Steve says. "They just never go through that thought process." His points are illuminated by winners of the inaugural Strategic Video Awards.

Go here to see the issue, and if you like it, go here to subscribe.

Like its motorcyclist editor, ContentWise is handsome, and it's free.

It’s a crazy trick, but it just might work

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Back in the 1960s, a few communicators, all of them crazy, suggested that if you wanted to create a truly compelling employee publication, you'd hire a real journalist from the outside and leave him to his work. No approvals. Chips fall where they may.

Well the closest thing I've seen to that actually happening is the 100-year-old Rotarian Magazine, a once-sleepy rag for the do-good association. Now it's staffed by several erstwhile Playboy editors and writers and it's totally kick-ass. Learn all about it here.

Anybody wanting to do something similar with their corporate publication should get in touch. I have some ideas.

(Yeah, I didn't think so.)

The best way not to be seen as hypocritical is not to be a hypocrite. And so on.

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The PR guru and longtime correspondent Fraser Seitel has a good piece today at Ragan.com self-explanatorily titled, "Like your PR job? Then keep your Twitter trap shut."

Lamenting the fate of several PR pros who have recently Tweeted their jobs away, Sad & Wise Seitel elaborates:

"… you want to keep your job, especially in the practice of public relations, then you must subordinate your right to tweet or blog to the interests of your client. If what you would like to tweet or blog won’t reflect well on your client, then you simply shouldn’t do it—unless, of course, you are willing to part with that portion of your income."

Impossible to disagree with that, but another obvious point goes unmade: The foolproof way to avoid saying something that would cross your client is to find clients whose interests generally don't disagree with your beliefs and whose brand matches your communication style.