Expert Network Archive

As more new readers join CN each week, I realized that many of you may have missed great content over the last year from our CN Experts. So I’d like to share some of the best of CN over the past year that’s worth a look if you are new to our family. These stories apply to our loyal regulars as well. If there’s a story you think would be good to highlight, let me know.

Adrian Chan – Influencers, Promoters, Inviters and Other Social Media User Types
User types and how they affect the conversation and ultimately marketing, branding, or advertising interests.

Darren Herman – Google Ad Planner Helps You Find Hot Escorts
Darren Herman from The Media Kitchen takes a look at the new Google Ad Planner and how it can help you find that special someone.

Tara Hunt – Healthy Community Metrics
Tara looks at qualitative and quantitative metrics along with proper goal setting.

Hank Williams – The Theft Economy
Hank wonders if we teaching our children that stealing is ok?

Rick Turoczy – Managing the Embargo Process
Rick takes a look in this multi-part series on how to properly manage an embargo.

Matt Harwood – Is Web 2.0 Affecting Real-life Yet?
UK Consultant Matt Harwood takes a look at whether Web 2.0 technologies are bringing together online and offline to enhance both.

Patricia Handschiegel – How to Build a Successful Startup Business
Patricia’s StyleDiary service was acquired earlier this year and here she offers tips for the newbie entrepreneur.

Jake Dahn – The Getting Things Done Phenomenon
Jake explores how to effectively use the "Getting Things Done" (GTD) techiques.

Embargoed press releases—a hold-over from public-relations practices in the world of print—remain a constant source of discussion in the world of online publishing. Should they still be in use? Should they be honored? Is "breaking an embargo" warranted?

Long story short, questions abound. So, I thought it might be helpful—for startups and bloggers alike—to take an objective view of the embargo and how it is used in media relations.

Let’s get really simple.

What is an "embargoed release"?

An embargoed release is a press release or announcement that is shared with the media well in advance of its publishing date. Unlike "off the record" (the source of a-whole-nother post) which is never supposed to see the light of day, embargoed information is meant to be published. But, it is meant to be published sometime in the future. It is akin to "sharing a secret." And, it is shared with the understanding that it is to remain a secret until the publishing date.

Why did this practice even come into being?

Using an embargo on a press release became a popular practice for a number of reasons:

1. Embargoes give journalists fair warning of upcoming news. Allowing them to prepare their stories in advance of news "dropping." They are shared with the hope that, with sufficient lead time, the journalist will provide additional insight that might not be part of a breaking news story.
2. Embargoes help manage the relationship between the journalist and the PR person. Sharing secrets has a tendency to build a relationship. And with time, that relationship becomes a symbiotic one, built on trust.
3. Embargoes enable companies to synchronize the release of news items in a world of asynchronous publishing schedules. Newspapers are generally dailies with tight timelines. Magazines have longer publishing timelines and may actually "go to bed" weeks in advance of actual release. If you want your news to appear in the papers and the magazines at the same time, embargoes are one way of managing that.
4. Embargoes help keep your executives out of orange jumpsuits. When you’re working for a publicly traded company, you live in fear of a journalist publishing something before "full disclosure." For public companies, everyone needs to hear news at the same time or else the SEC comes knocking at your door. Sharing the information early, under embargo, can help prevent these "leaks" from happening.

It’s those "controlling the timing of the information" points that cause the most headaches in the today’s brave new world of online publishing and blogging. If publishing schedules have been reduced to a matter of seconds and publishing scoops that land your site at the top of Techmeme could mean the difference between ridiculous amounts traffic and no traffic, does the embargo still have a place in public relations?

I would argue it does. Perhaps now more than ever.

Embargoes, plain and simple, are about respect. Respect for journalists, be they bloggers or traditional media. Respect for their time and their insight. And, ultimately, the media’s respect for your company and the way you mange public relations.

So, that’s a brief overview of the embargo. Do you think the embargo still serves as a viable means of distributing information? Do you think it’s an archaic practice whose time has ended? I’d love to hear about, because in the next installment, I’ll be addressing how to manage the embargo process.

Rick Turoczy is one of the CenterNetworks Experts and he writes for the Silicon Florist, a blog covering under-the-RADAR start-ups, blogs, and events in Portland, Oregon, and the Silicon Forest. He can be reached, most readily, via Twitter.

Last week we announced plans to expand CN with a network of experts around the world who will provide content in their areas of expertise. Today I’d like to share the first three experts: Darren Herman, and Rick Turoczy. Darren will focus on marketing and advertising, Gary on building a brand, and Rick on PR and Portland startups. Here is a brief bio on each and their columns will begin later this week. If you have any suggestions for experts, please let me know.

Darren Herman

Darren Herman is a globally recognized digital media pioneer who is inspired by the white space that exists between advertising, media, and technology. Over the past 10 years, Herman has started five companies, sold two, and raised more than $40M in venture capital. His companies achieved numerous awards including Avenue-A | Razorfish’s critically acclaimed “Breakout Company of the Year” and AlwaysOn’s “Top 100 Private Company.” He also personally won BusinessWeek’s Top Entrepreneur award in 2006. He has been featured in an MTV documentary and is frequently quoted in global marketing, technology and financial periodicals.

Over the past decade, Darren has stewarded clients such as Viacom, Panasonic, Sony Pictures, MTV, AT&T, eBay, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, American Eagle Outfitters, and PBS (amongst many others) into digital media campaigns utilizing search, rich media, traditional display, digital video, video games, mobile, and digital out-of-home.

In 2008, he released his first book, Coloring Outside the Lines: Confessions of a Digital Native.

Rick Turoczy

Rick Turoczy has helped Portland, Oregon, startups with traditional and Web-based communications activities for more than a dozen years–from spectacular dotcom IPOs to working with some of the best and brightest Web companies in Portland, today. A blogger for nearly a decade, Rick currently covers the startup tech scene throughout the Silicon Forest on his blog, Silicon Florist. He is most easily reached via Twitter.