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RUNNING AN INTRANET FOR THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN A LARGE COMPANY,
ORGANIZATION OR GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT?
Hear Gerry McGovern speak live on how you can increase
productivity and reduce costs by identifying and better managing
your employees' top tasks. Join our FREE webinar on Tuesday, May
27, 2008 @ 15:00 (GMT, Dublin). SIGN UP TODAY:
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Ottawa: May 5-6: Creating Customer-Centric Websites masterclass
http://www.neoinsight.com/workshops/mcgovern-overview.html

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PRESS RELEASES: SPIN AND PROPAGANDA

Press releases are a form of propaganda. Publishing them on your
website shows your customers how you are attempting to spin the
media.

The Web is where we go because we don't believe the hype,
because we don't like being spun. The Web is the land of the
thinking customer. So, why do so many organizations still
publish press releases prominently on their websites?

Have you visited any North Korean websites lately? If you did,
you will have come across lots of pictures of heroic leaders,
and read glowing eulogies of magnificent achievements. It is
easy to laugh at these ham-fisted attempts at propaganda until,
that is, you have the need to visit a government website for
your own country.

Last year, I lost my passport. I needed to go to the Irish
Department of Foreign Affairs website. The first thing I saw was
a big picture of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, followed by a
slightly smaller picture of the Junior Minister for Foreign
Affairs. How North Korean.

The Irish government is not alone in its amateur ham-fisted
attempts at using the Web for propaganda and electioneering
(even when there is no election). Vanity publishing is alive and
well on most of the government websites that I review. (And I
have reviewed a lot of government websites in a lot of
countries.)

Press releases abound. Were press releases published before the
Web? No. They were released to the press in the hope of
generating media coverage. A website is a publication. The
website editor should review the press release, and if there is
something interesting in it, turn it into a well-linked story.

A press release nearly always begins with the name of the
organization. Why? Because it needs to exist among many other
press releases. Journalists will often look for a specific press
release based on the organization name. You should never start a
web heading/sentence with the name of your organization. Why?
Because they're at your website. They know who you are.

A press release will always have a couple of contextual
paragraphs. Why? To give the busy journalist some context. But
if someone comes to your website, the context has already been
established, and reading such paragraphs will be a waste of
time.

The first sentence of many press releases includes the word
"today". Why? Because press releases are like bread; if not
consumed quickly they go stale. How do you think a press release
with "today" in its text reads tomorrow, or next week, or next
month?

Bismarck said that you should never see how sausages and laws
are made. The press release shows customers how the story is
being made. It shows how the organization is trying to spin the
media. The press release has a behind-the-scenes function. It
was never meant to see the light of day.

The Web is not where you announce; it's where you do. Let's say
you have launched a new program aimed at encouraging more men
and women over fifty to get screened for colon cancer. How
should you use your website? Make it fast and easy for people to
sign up for such screening.

When people arrive at your website, you already have their
attention. Let them do what they came to your website to do.

Gerry McGovern
mailto:gerry@gerrymcgovern.com

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Comment on this post at our Giraffe Forum Blog
http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress/2008/04/19/press-releases-spin-and-propaganda/#respond

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PIONEER, BBC, TETRA PAK, IKEA AND ROLLS-ROYCE USE CUSTOMER
CAREWORDS. SEE WHAT IT CAN DO FOR YOU
http://www.customercarewords.com/
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RELATED LINKS

Writing for the Web
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/class/web-writing.htm

New Thinking Subject Classification
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/class/index.htm

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NEW THINKING NEW THINKING NEW THINKING NEW THINKING
By Gerry McGovern - http://www.gerrymcgovern.com
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April 21, 2008 - Volume 13 Number 16
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You may quote freely from this issue once you give proper
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appreciated.)

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PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
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week break during August and December).
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_________________________________________________________________
Published by Gerry McGovern (mailto:gerry@gerrymcgovern.com)
Copyright (C) 2008 Gerry McGovern. All rights reserved.




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