I’d say that few young people want to become MPs because generally speaking MPs are seen by teens as crusty, out of touch oddballs at worst or chino wearing try hards at best.  I am not sure if this video will help… but social media certainly provides an opportunity for politicians to connect in a more meaningful way with this constituency.

In a great article for The Guardian, Catherine Bennett, writes that (the video)…“gives the impression of an unusually intelligent alien who has made a careful study of human beings, without ever having had the opportunity to meet one.”

Gordon and the Labour Government have since come under fire for 1. announcing the video on YouTube (as opposed to in Parliament) 2. trying to gain political advantage on an issue that effects all MPs and 3.  presenting a proposal that will clearly get voted down.

Oh dear… check it out:

I think some small changes could dramatically improve the video.

I would have had Gordon sitting in his actual (natural) work environment. That would prevent the body sways. It might also be advisable to present this in more of a Q and A format so that its more discursive – YouTube isn’t well suited to speeches.

The Downing Street YouTube channel needs a host – someone to take the audience into the heart of the Government and someone that the audience can relate to.  This host would interview the MPs by asking the questions that the audience want answered. These stage managed presentations don’t feel very authentic at all.

The tone of the expenses video is far too earnest and self important and the randomly interspersed smiles are disconcerting. Gordon has undoubtedly received a lot of training and its not reasonable to expect this stuff to come naturally to everyone but some simple changes could dramatically improve the content.

Comments have been suspended but were initially open, according to Bennett’s article.

In other half-baked YouTube video news…

Last week we had the worldwide President of Dominos Pizza on YouTube responding to the fall out caused by another YouTube video, which was created by two employees in North Carolina.  Dominos received a lot of positive coverage for their handling of the crisis but I felt all of the good work on YouTube was undone by that fact that Mr. Doyle did not respond direct to camera. I reckon he looks well shifty.

The title of the video is unfortunate.

Here is some off-camera action from Gordon Brown this time. More good work undone…

I am living overseas but I think Gordon Brown’s chances of returning the Labour Party to Government in 12 months time are very slim.  Will the Labour Party risk it? I can’t help feeling a bit sorry for the guy and I am definitely on his side of the political spectrum but I sense that there is strong support for change across the country.  Gordon’s tenure has been somewhat tenuous from the start – remember his shall we, shan’t we have an election stumble?

By Newsroom, I mean the area within a corporate Website that hosts press announcements and other types of news content – Just to be clear.

You’re probably asking yourself why?  

The Newsroom is a basic, low maintenance and inexpensive way for corporations to share content with journalists, analysts and bloggers, so you’d think that the most successful companies in America would make it as easy as possible to get access to the information, right?  

Second, the Internet has placed pressure on corporate communications to engage in a conversation with the audience and this, in turn, places pressure on newsrooms to change. The one directional communication (i.e. the press release) is increasingly irrelevant. As a result, the traditional newsroom is out of sync with what most major corporations are doing now in social and digital media. 

Out of the top 50 corporations in the Fortune 500, 42 do have a direct link to their newsroom i.e. it’s one click away.

Of the 42, ten have direct links to their most recent media announcements.

The ten are:

Ford Motor (Fortune 500 rank: 7); Bank of America (9); JP Morgan Chase & Co (12); Verizon (17); Goldman Sachs (20); United Health Group (25); Boeing (27); United Parcel Services (46); Time Warner (49).

These companies have brought news to their home page.

The eight that don’t have a direct link and which force users to go via the ‘About Us’ section (as an example) are:

AT&T (10); Hewlett-Packard (14); Home Depot (22); Costco Wholesale (29); Dell (34); Wells Fargo (41); Microsoft (44); Lowe’s (48).

These companies are effectively hiding their news from journalists, bloggers and also their customers.

It seems odd that only a small number of companies are bringing their news to the forefront of their Web presence, since this is the content that changes most often.

One of the disconnects that I see in corporate communications is between the conversational and authentic voice that companies are adopting in social networks and social media channels and their persistent use of gobbledygook in news announcements.

I continually see examples of big corporations putting out media releases, which flout the basics of press releases writing and are more or less meaningless due to the heavy use of marketing speak and jargon.

Some organisations are responding to this disconnect and re-working their newsroom in way that becomes more useful for bloggers and journalist. 

Ford is a high profile example of this. For major products, Ford is breaking content into snippets which can be re-purposed and re-compiled by the receiver in any way they like. You can find out more from Ford here; commentary from Geoff Livingston and Jason Falls.

The newsroom is going to change shape and form in the years to come as it gels with and responds to the demands of social media and an ongoing increase in rich media, such as video. The companies that take the lead will be desirable places for corporate communications execs to work and they’ll more effectively engage their audience groups, resulting in better exposure.

I think we’ll see News content move up the site map to corporate home pages in the years to come. 

Finally, there are some noteworthy sites within the Fortune 50. 

I think the Goldman Sachs site is outstanding, it very succintly tells a story and has a clear message unlike many corporate home pages. 

At the other end of the spectrum, Berkshire Hathway with a market valuation of $206,976 million dollars has a Website that would do my local community centre proud. I’m guessing they don’t pick up a lot of clients via the Web.