My September 2010 video clip of the month features Conan O’Brien revealing the name of his new TBS series using a Sharpie and some white paper in a YouTube video.
I picked the video because it shows how social media is changing the way major announcements are made. For most of the last century, major public statements were made through press releases and press conferences for the media. Today, press releases aren’t just for journalists anymore, and they are coming in more flavors (many press conference free):
- Social media releases
- E-mails sending journalists to custom landing pages
- Blog posts
- Tweets with announcements or links to YouTube videos (which are so much easier and cheaper to produce than yesterday’s video press releases but without the potential ethics headache)
Indeed, the world of public relations is in a flux as practitioners experiment with these new distribution channels to find out which ones serve best the audiences they want to reach.
The jury is still out on whether Conan’s choice of a YouTube announcement (preceded by a hint on Twitter that one was coming) will help him make “Conan” a hit. Yes, “Conan” is the name of his new show not “Conaw” as you might think from watching the amateur-style video!
What do you see in the future for press releases? Share your predictions in the comment section below.
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Mashable postsed an interesting article this week about Conan trying to go “Old Spice” with video Q&A. In a new YouTube video released September 13 Conan asks his fans and followers to submit questions about his upcoming show on TBS. He will then answer said questions in another video. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4aVTBebh-4&feature=player_embedded.
Thanks for taking the time to post an update on Conan’s activities on my blog. The Mashable article definitely sheds more light on Conan’s social media strategies.