The address was handwritten on the envelope. A plain white standard business envelope, buried under a stack of unread newspapers I hadn’t yet found time to peruse. I had given up hope and was throwing them out. Lucky for me, the letter was not.
The return address looked familiar, and a tweety-bird style sticker on the back sealed the envelope closed. I opened it and inside, I found the note, which I’ve scanned and displayed nearby. It was a nice touch: 140 characters sent by snail mail.
It’s a simple note by Jennifer Kane, a PR professional and principal of Kane Consulting, who I had a chance to work with, along with Jeremy Porter who pens Journalistics, in writing a research report on integrated communications.
A short, personal comment, referencing a laugh we had all shared about celebrity Twitter influence, was also handwritten on the back.
Writing words can be a powerful force, but there’s a certain polish to a well-constructed note that’s hand written on an old-fashioned medium.
Richard Laermer summed it up well in a piece titled, You don’t want to help, you just want help: A rant:
“Back when we sent messages through the U.S. mail, about a million years ago, we all needed to think through what we wanted to say. Now our written communication is disposable. We push buttons — our thoughts appear and vanish like spit on a griddle — and we rarely, if ever, consider how our messages are received.”
I’ll keep Jennifer’s note near my desk as a constant reminder about why words should not be disposable.
You can find more letters of wisdom on her blog: KaneCo Conversations.
Thanks, Jennifer! Best wishes in 2011 to you as well!
If you enjoyed this post, you might also like:
9 Timeless PR Positioning Strategies
