JPTearsheet, April, 2021 Vol. XIII No. 4 |
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"“There are two kinds of light – the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.”
― James Thurber
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The 600-pound gorilla in today’s media landscape is that there are more outlets and potential outlets than ever before. Content publishers of the 20th Century could not even imagine the media proliferation that we’re now experiencing.
As true as this is for the consumer, this is also so true for the business communicator as well. Despite some consolidation on the trade publication front, the possible landing spots for your messaging has never been greater. Social media. Websites. Online video. Podcasts. The list goes on and on.
Before you charge off in any direction chasing the latest and greatest TikTok bandwagon that may be rumbling down your street, take a step back and invest some time in some introspection.
Look at your business. Look at your industry. Look at your audience(s).
Where do your target audiences spend their time to get information? And what kind of information are they seeking? And in what format (i.e. video, print, etc.) do they prefer to get it?
One last consideration. As important as the questions in the previous paragraph are – and they are important – there is one overriding factor: YOU. Your business. Your messaging.
Does your messaging accurately reflect your business? If your message stinks, it doesn’t matter if you post it in a video on YouTube, or feature it in an ad (in any medium), or self publish through a newsletter or company podcast or a series of tweets.
Your message will resonate if it’s accurate and authentic, and placed in an appropriate medium. If you’re messaging stinks, where you post it doesn’t matter.
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No voter fraud here. NPR recently surveyed its listeners to vote for their favorite Muppet characters. The winner? Kermit the Frog, followed by Gonzo. Miss Piggy was #8. It somehow seems fitting that Oscar the Grouch was #13.
— Next Avenue
High speed lane. The typical U.S. worker spent 26 hours commuting in 2020. In 2019 the average was 99 hours.
— ArsTechnica.com
E.T. phone home. Americans received 4.6 billion robocalls in February – a 15 percent increase over January. Whatever happened to the do-not-call legislation?
— CNN.com
I’ll be back. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t do the German dub of his own role in “Terminator,” as his accent was considered too “rural” by German/Austrian standards.
— uselessdaily.com
Getting the band back together. Through social media, Paul O’Sullivan of Baltimore was able to form a band of musicians – all named Paul O’Sullivan. The band’s name? The Paul O’Sullivan Band.
— CBS News
Government sanctioned? Legislators in Oklahoma are considering establishing a Bigfoot hunting season in the state with specific time frames as well as fees for hunting licenses.
— KOKH-TV
Same old story. When police in Essex County, England were called to disperse an illegal “rave,” they saw that the disturbance was a group of old people lining up for their Covid vaccines.
— Echo News
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Is there a newsletter
in your future?
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If you think a newsletter should be in your future, The JPT Group can help. Download our free digital booklet – Getting Started with Your Newsletter – from the JPT Group website to get some basic questions answered as well as a little inspiration to nudge you forward. Be sure to check out “Something Special” at the end. |
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When Sigmund Freud learned that the Nazis were burning his books he said, “What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now, they are content with burning my books.”
— Sigmund Freud
Month of the Month:
April signifies spring. Spring is the time of year when everything springs to life. Therefore, in April we celebrate living things like National Ferret Month, National Frog Month, National Heartworm Month, and Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month. Woof.
Question of the Month:
This American film icon was a sickly child whose father died during the 1918 pandemic. He began college as an art major and joined the Student Army Training Corps. In his early life he worked as a junior architect, copy boy for a newspaper, a book custodian at the public library, a bellhop, a draughtsman and a night doorkeeper. After moving to Hollywood, this Oscar winner was president of the Screen Actors Guild. A devout Catholic, his funeral was held at the same church in which he was baptized.
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So much has been bandied about for the past several years about “fake news.” This accusation of fake news has been levied against virtually every major news outlet as well as all the bloggers, podcasters and everyone else with an opinion regardless of whether it’s valid or not.
The truth is that contemporary journalism is all about eyeballs. Or, clicks, depending on how you’re counting.
We’ve been told by working journalists that the content of your story doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter who it’s about; it doesn’t matter if it’s true; it doesn’t matter if accurate, or if there are any reliable sources to back it up. It doesn’t matter if it’s well written, if there are misspellings or other typos, if any editor has done more than just glance at it. None of that matters.
We have been told – in no uncertain terms – that all that matters is, “How many clicks did you get?” That’s the Holy Grail of 21st Century journalism. Accuracy. Well written. Factual. Well researched. They all take a back seat to clicks and eyeballs.
“The most truthful part of a newspaper is the advertisements.”
— Thomas Jefferson
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A gridiron MBA? OK, maybe that’s not possible, but see how much you can learn about business from football in my book, Hard Hitting Lessons. The subtitle says it all, “Some not-so-obvious business lessons learned from playing football.”
Most people associate football with learning things like hard work, discipline, teamwork, etc. That’s all very true. But what can you learn about business from football? According to Hard Hitting Lessons, a lot. This book will explain it all – from human resources to strategic planning and more. Yes, there’s a lot to be learned from playing football about business – and even about life itself.
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