RHetoric

If you do business with the government, and 2009 was decent for your business, get ready for a blockbuster 2010.  Because of the delayed effect of the stimulus, 2010 will introduce us to the businesses that will lead the government market into the coming decade.

That is because most of the stimulus money has not even found its way through the labyrinth of red tape that exists between the passage of the Recovery Act early this year, and the actual awarding of contracts to prime and subcontractors in cities and towns across America.

We know this because our client, Onvia, is tracking this stuff closely - more closely than even the federal government itself.  When the administration proclaimed the stimulus had created or saved hundreds of thousands of jobs already, the analysts at Onvia were wondering how that could be possible given that much of the stimulus had not left Washington - and the money that had was still a long way from reaching the contractors that actually crate or save the jobs.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress have really gone after the administration on this point.  It makes for tantalizing news stories - but the good news for businesses in the government space is that 2010 is where it’s at.

So now is the time to get ready.  Get your competitive messaging down, make your brand more relevant to the times, enhance your web site with simple video and social media tools, get your customer testimonials in place, start talking to reporters and bloggers about your offering, and equip your salesforce with good research tools.

If you wait until January or February you will be playing catch-up in a furiously competitive - and potentially lucrative - market.

I've had this book on my shelf for several years:  The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR.  I dusted it off today after reading a New York Times story indicating the book's prophecy is closer than ever to being realized.

When the book was written, in 2002, the term 'social media' was not part of marketers' or PR pros' lexicons.  However the authors' premise was that in the 21st century, successful brands are born with publicity and the credibility generated by PR.  Advertising's credibility is increasingly marginalized because it is a bought-and-paid-for message.  The authors claim advertising's true value is brand maintenance, not brand definition.

So no wonder then that new research finds that advertising continues to contract, while PR and 'word-of-mouth marketing' is expanding.   See the full article here.

This is not to say that spending on more credible forms of communication will overtake ad spending - not even close.  But projections that place the media industry as the third-fastest-growing economic sector in coming years (after mining and construction) are due primarily to the growth in PR and word-of-mouth marketing.

This is all good news for brands with great stories to share, and good news for those of us in the business of telling great stories.

So, I’ve finally done it. I’ve finally set up a Twitter account and begun using it–@delisadavis if you’re so inclined to become a follower. This could very well be the most productive waste of time since Scrabulous! I’m currently following some pretty incredible marketing/PR/tech greats: Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki), Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan), Robert Scoble (@scobleizer), Steve Rubel (@steverubel), and many more.

So, as many of my friends have asked, “What the hell is Twitter?” The answer is, it’s a bit like text messaging on steroids. People on Twitter keep in touch with one another by answering the basic question, “What are you doing?” Answers can be uploaded from cell phones, but are limited to 140 characters–forcing brevity and, ideally, poignancy.

For me, it’s been an incredible way to keep abreast of cool social media and tech advances the minute they are unveiled. Seriously, the minute! I’m also following the NY Times (@nytimes), CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk), and Reuters (@reuters), all of which put out links to stories that are breaking as soon as they occur—making Twitter a lot like a RSS feed.

One of the recent new tech tools I discovered via Twitter is an app that converts PDF to Word. Thank you for tweeting that, Guy Kawasaki!

The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, defends and explains Twitter well in this interview conducted via Twitter and published here on MIT’s Technology Review.

Twitter has spawned what seems like a billion other ridiculously named tech tools that work with it; the merits of each also highly debated: Tweetsville, FriendFeed, Twinkle, Twittelator…the list goes on.

So while some like Scott Karp may argue that Twitter is just a big waste of time; others, like me, see promise in productive time-wasting. Besides, how else would I have known about this cool new search engine that populates results as quickly as you can type?

Of course, I’m open to comments…