Forget Press Releases - You Tube Videos Are the Way to Distribute News

Forget press releases, 2.0 or traditional. While PR types debate formats for bullshit news distribution, the truth is out. They're useless. (Read that any way you want, PR people are useless; Press releases are worthless.)

These days, if you want to make an announcement, you put a funny video on YouTube and bloggers write about it so mainstream media (MSM) can find it and not credit their source. This one features Vivi Kostakis (sp?) Costache. a Google software engineer with an endearing accent. (Full disclosure: I own three shares of Google stock. Yeah, I know, BFD.)

The video announces that Google Finance launched a re-design of its homepage yesterday, with much more info than its old layout.

The new features make information easier to find; information goes back as far as 40 years, and a news headlines are integrated into the stock results. Customization does not seem possible, and it is not possible to pull a widget off the page onto your own page so you can track an industry or a company.

Nonetheless, the page is interesting enough that some small-time investors, like me, may take interest in the market. That's a way to build some real traction in the long term, since every industry, including finance, always needs new customers.

Said a commenter on Tech Crunch:

"It’s funny, I have no interest or investments in the financial sector, but G finance is solid, and a lot of fun to use. I especially love how it ties big news stories to ups and down in the stock price. Plus all the other Ajax-y goodness is well done. Too many sites do Ajax “just because”, but as demonstrated with this site and Gmail, Google knows how to do it right."

via TechCrunch

Press releases are worthless. YouTube is where it's at.

Honestly, did a 9-year-old write this blog post? I guess when people don't know how to use PR, then sure it's worthless. But when you know what you're doing, it can bring enormous business for a low investment.

I always laugh when people summarily dismiss an entire media type. "Direct mail is dead ... email is dead ... press releases are dead."

It's the sort of childish bandwagon thinking that's usually wrong but is always fun to laugh at.

Vivi Costache. :-)