Last Blogenberg I wrote that “accuracy is what accuracy does” when noting why the mumbling in the distance heard by traditional media is the last rites. That is, unless traditional media stops pretending it controls information and, most important, has a monopoly on accuracy.

Citizen journalism — where your neighbor feeds your need for information — will overtake traditional journalism as the trusted source of information in the coming years. That’s because it’s all about control and accuracy. Technology allows consumers to control where and how they get information. Journalism, advertising, marketing, etc. no longer have control over what information you get and where you get it. You do. And traditional journalism no longer decides what’s accurate. You do. People assign credibility where they decide to assign it.

What do you think people find most credible? The New York Times, Washington Post, or Los Angeles Times? Or different feeds of information from neighbors, colleagues, family, the clerk at the local drugstore, etc., all creating a tapestry of information from which they determine their version of accuracy. Because accuracy is what accuracy does.
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I usually pay no attention to the Public Relations Society of America online discussion group for independent and small PR shop owners. But a recent thread about marketing caught my eye. Several contributors raved about a certain marketing consultant. They touted his books, his websites, his talks. They said he can revolutionize your marketing.

I was intrigued. Goodness knows, bringing in new business is one of the biggest challenges I face. So I clicked through to the marketing genius’ website. It was a cluttered mess. It was the online version of the proverbial everything but the kitchen sink. My reaction? If you can’t put together a clean, tight, attractive website that easily and quickly tells me what I need to know, why in the world would I pay the brain that created that website to think about my marketing?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Communications, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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