20 years ago school PR was a snap (Want proof?) – SCN Encourager
Oh, how I long for 1999.
Where all I had to worry about was prepping for Y2K.
Yep, those were the good old days.
In those merry days of yore, we school communicators didn’t have to think (aka “work”) all that much.
And when we did have to get off our butts, we didn’t have to move all that quickly.
The pace wasn’t so rapid fire.
We didn’t have to fret about how our work would look on watches, smartphones, and jumbo-trons, either.
We could just keep layering our messages and piling them on.
No lie.
Back then, all school communicators had to do was generate enough words to touch upon every departmental and “temperamental” base in their organizations and then push ’em out to an eager community.
Sure, there was still the hassle of meeting deadlines, but making tough calls and strategically deleting and editing to achieve greater clarity and brevity was never on our radar.
Ah, life was good.
In 1999 it was QUANTITY that rocked.
But oh my – has that all changed!
Now QUALITY rules.
And we’ve got to speedy-kwik about delivering it, too!
Today we’ve got to be ultra-uber-sooper-dooper-accelerator communicators.
(Or in my case, just a master the dooper part…)
Now here’s the hardcore evidence I promised.
And I’m grateful for “young” Eric and Julia over at Kapwing for illustrating why little “old” me isn’t wrong for feeling the way I do.
Their Museum of Websites makes my point beautifully.
For example, take a look at the Netflix website from 1999.
What a work of art.
I love it!
If you had something to say – or your boss told you to get the word out about something – you could just whip something up and cram it in somewhere.
No fuss.
You could treat your website just like the junk drawer in your kitchen!
But not anymore.
Here’s the Netflix website today.
Concise.
Creative.
Connected.
Dang, it’s all pretty discouraging if you ask me.
But oh well,
if concocted and convoluted communications ever come back in vogue,
I’m ready!
(Just like I was for Y2K.)