Obama's Rhetoric Tops My 2009 Comms Wish List

It has been a long, long time since we've had a president or other national leader with the rhetorical skills of Barack Obama. It is going to be a treat to listen to him talk and use the power of communications to push his agenda.

So Obama tops my 2009 Comms Wish List. Here are my five wishes for 2009:

1. That Obama's powerful rhetoric and use of language begins to spur a rise across the nation in literacy, and in the business world, that more comms professionals are inspired to raise the quality of their language and communications skills in their business communications


2. That the economic downturn is less severe and less widespread than feared, because often, comms and marketing are among the first cutbacks


3. A corollary to the above: that there are lots of examples of top managers deciding to maintain or even increase their comms and marketing budgets this year because they realize, correctly, that now is the time to boost communications spending, not cut it


4. That I start to see more PR practitioners embrace, really embrace the power of social media and new online technologies to spread their message, instead of just putting out an old-fashioned press release and then praying for traditional media pick up.


5. Here's my curveball: that I see lots of goofy and inane PR and marketing stunts that defy logic and provide juicy fodder for bloggers like me!