Pretend for a moment you are a press agent for IBM and your boss comes in and says, "the company has decided to invest a significant amount of money in cloud computing. Make some noise for us".
Your options are:
- Compose a press release aimed at early adopters (geeks) who know and care about cloud computing
- potential outcome: a minor ripple is made in the technocratic news pond
- Compose a grandiose press release aimed at the mainstream media discussing how IBM is investing in the future of computing
- potential outcome: it could go many ways;
- the press may pick it up and go digging to learn about cloud computing only to learn that this is something they have covered before
- being a Friday in the middle of the summer the press may ride IBM's cloud to the beach
- the press may call bullshit, feeling they have been duped with a grandiose headline that they do not feel is anything new
- potential outcome: it could go many ways;
- Compose a well rounded Social Media Press Release packed with the following:
- Links to definitions of more obscure tech terms
- A cost effective video uploaded to YouTube (embedded in the release) that explains cloud computing and the reason that it is important for the future of computing
- potential outcome:
- Tech journalists/bloggers are interested because moves by IBM are significant no matter what they are.
- The story is picked up
- Non Tech journalists/bloggers are interested for the same reason
- The story is picked up
- The notion of cloud computing is introduced to a new constituent who may equate cloud computing with IBM
- The story is potentially picked up, but more important, an important impression is made
- Conclusions are drawn that IBM had not thought of, and the multimedia assets are spread across the web and the river of news flows into an ocean of buzz
- Tech journalists/bloggers are interested because moves by IBM are significant no matter what they are.
- potential outcome:
