By Danny Sullivan
I’ve been approached by a few companies over the past few weeks, all of whom were offering some PR tool or another designed to make the life of the PR consultant that little bit easier. Often at first glance, these tools seem to offer some snazzy new features, but after you sit down and think “what is this actually going to do for me, and more importantly, my client” you begin to realize that, in many cases, these tools offer little in the way of true value.
Now, of course, I’m not saying that we should all arm ourselves with nothing more than a phone, pencil and paper. Technology is a marvelous thing and there are some great PR tools out there, many of which I use myself, but some careful discernment should be used when making the decision to add a new one to your arsenal.
The technology products and services available to PR folk are many and varied and many of them perform the same or similar tasks as others. Don’t end up in the position where you are paying for three separate tools that all provide the same basic functions. And never assume that some great-sounding features will mean the thing actually delivers on its promise… always try before you buy.
Also, it must be remembered that, while software, web services, outsourced resources and so on can go a long way in helping lower the poor flack’s workload, they still do not understand your client’s stories the way that you do. Putting your faith and your client’s PR program in the hands of a piece of code is risky business.
By all means, use technology, but remember who is supposed to be the expert here.
By Francis Moran
There’s an ongoing debate in my household, where both adults work in technology marketing, about whether I’m a geek or not. I maintain that since I don’t build technology, I merely enthusiastically embrace it, this makes me an early adopter rather than a geek. (In fact, I recently ordered the vanity license plate RLYDOPTR to trumpet my self-proclaimed reputation.) Also, I don’t play video games, I’ve never had a Second Life and I own less than a handful of little plastic figurines, all of them Tintin characters that are more souvenir of a trip to Paris than symbol of any kind of protracted adolescence.
But even as an early adopter, I embrace only the technology that I believe constitutes a genuine advance over what I’m using now. So it was that when my wife and I were in New York last October, she nearly had to physically restrain me from buying an iPhone when we visited the Apple store in Soho. At the time, there was no way I could use the phone here in Canada, but I so badly wanted one of the sleek, multipurpose devices that were taking the market by storm.
In mid-January, I got my way. I bought a hacked iPhone on eBay and was so delighted by its performance that several weeks ago, I decided to make it the standard mobile device for all inmedianauts. We’re a cool and forward-looking technology PR agency, right? So we should have some of the coolest toys. Last week, everyone else in the agency received their iPhones.
And productivity immediately plummeted.
Actually, I’m mainly joking about that. But there is so much that can be done with an iPhone, and so much fun to be had, what with Apple’s web-apps and countless third-party applications already available notwithstanding the software development kit was released only recently, that hours could be idled away enjoying it all.
A few observations, then, from our early experience.
First, and most important, being a Canadian wireless telephony customer sucks. Big time. Not only is Canada lagging nearly every other western market in having this new device available on a domestic network and so forcing us to pay a premium for a hacked one, the cost of deploying a data-intensive device here in Canada is obscene. Danny, our Glasgow-based colleague, blithely walked into an O2 store and picked up his phone for about half what we paid for ours. More to the point, though, he signed up for a monthly plan that gives him 500 minutes of talk, 600 text messages and unlimited data for a mere £35. That’s less than C$70 at today’s exchange rate. Meanwhile, we Canadian members of the inmedia team share a monthly wireless bill that usually runs well north of $400, and often tops $600.
Perhaps the current auction of new wireless spectrum in Canada will inject some badly needed competition into this disgrace. I can’t wait.
My second observation has to do with the device itself. The iPhone, simply put, is a joy to use, with an incredible user interface. It is not, however, business ready. Although key applications like voice, email and web work wonderfully, the device does not allow me to manipulate documents. I can download and clearly read any type of attachment, including documents, spreadsheets and PDFs, but I can’t work on them. I loved my Treo, which I had loaded with enterprise-grade software that meant I could travel and often leave my laptop behind, confident in the knowledge that I could do any quick job on the Treo that might be required of me.
Interestingly, on the same day last week, Apple announced more robust security so the iPhone would appeal more to corporate users while RIM, makers of that ultimate corporate tool the Blackberry, announced a partnership with a hip hop site to polish its street cred.
I fully expect the release of the iPhone’s SDK will soon usher in third-party, enterprise-grade applications, like Desktop To Go that I used on my Treo, that will fulfill my business needs.
In the meantime, productivity around here has mostly recovered. But the fun continues.
