Can’t find Old Website Samples?
I recently attended CPRS’ National Conference in Edmonton, Alberta where one of the keynote speakers was Tod Maffin
Tod is one of my most favourite techie speakers, and I’m not just saying that because at one time I could call him my co-worker as we both were employed by CBC.
One of the neat things that he mentioned was a search site called Way Back Machine that takes random snapshots of websites throughout the year. Their repository is surprisingly large and you can see the evolution of a company’s website by plugging in the URL.
I spent about half an hour playing with this, looking up old websites that I helped revamp, looking at previous website versions of my current organization, and marveling at an easy solution for those who leave companies without screen captures of the web communications samples they had meant to include in their portfolios.
Numbers Rule
I was reading the latest version of the CPRS Vancouver newsletter, Essentials, and came upon Della Smith’s article on crisis communications.
She uses the 27/9/3 rule in preparing for catastrophic moments:
27 words, 9 seconds, 3 messages.
Although she uses this in the context of crisis communications, I wonder if it’s a good rule of thumb for communications planning in general.
I was also reminded of Guy Kawasaki’s great 10/20/30 PowerPoint rule:
10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font size.
I’m usually anti-PowerPoint as I think it’s a medium that has replaced the overhead projector in terms of delivering excitement and value, but Kawasaki’s points are well-taken for those still clinging to it as a presentation tool.
Both Della and Guy’s number combos remind me to keep diction short, punctual, and driven.
