While e-books are growing in popularity, they represent only 8% of all books sold today. Sales will continue to climb as new concepts hit the market like the iPad-based Official Stoker Family Edition of Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula.

• Can’t read a page because it’s too dark? Light a candle, then move it closer to the text.
• A heavy gravestone slab is blocking your path… so… drag it and listen as the stone scrapes and moves away.
• As Stoker describes Lucy being hypnotized, she appears in illustrated form, eyes open. Move your finger across her face and she falls into a trance.
• Press the tip of a transfusion needle and blood flows through the tube.
• Tilt the iPad and a character’s face changes from glorious to macabre.
• Blow leaves off a tombstone so you can read the text beneath.

Snow falling across the page…Touch an envelope and out comes a handwritten letter…Press a (blood) red word and it launches you to a just-received telegram…Rats scramble across the page… Open the window of an insane asylum and peer inside…Unlock a mausoleum’s door with a key…Feed sugar to flies as they buzz across a page.

• The entire 1922 film Nosferatu, based on the 1897 Bram Stoker Dracula
• The entire Orson Welles radio adaptation of Dracula
• The death certificate of Bram Stoker

As I watched The Office the other night (missing its original cleverness & quirkiness), I wondered: what’s jumping the shark in the world of tech?

But what’s jumping the shark before our eyes? Consider the following candidates - some are unquestionably declining; others remain arguable in their pending sharkiness :

There was steady chatter from 2007 through 2009 about the potential death of PR. Social media - the new game in town – might make PR irrelevant. Companies and organizations could now go direct, building their own conversations, communities and visibility.

Like many others, I shared my points of view along the way via blogs like Pitching is passé, What PR isn’t and Tired, faded and dead PR words.

But true public relations practice isn’t publicity. It’s much broader, taking into account every stakeholder (or “public”) with which an organization interacts: 

Strategically practiced, PR takes on a wide-ranging role, focused on earning a trusted reputation by acting in the best interests of these publics – not the organization’s own myopic agenda.

Social media is the latest expression of relationship building (a two-way model that’s far more inclusive and participative); other exciting new iterations will follow. Solis and Breakenridge were right, we’re the industry in the best position to “put the public back in public relations” and keep it there by never staying put.

Wednesday I experienced a cool one-two punch: Enterprise 2.0 & Vinnie Mirchandani.

If you’re not familiar with Vinnie Mirchandani, he’s a former Gartner analyst, active blogger and author of “The New Polymath.”

Vinnie said the characteristics of E2.0 organizations are these:

He believes “polymathing” (if I can turn it into a verb) is the key to innovation because it encourages curiosity and “an openness to accept ideas from left field.” It also triggers the “building of widely-rounded enterprises” that are more adept at discovering new markets and technologies. Polymath thinking is helping our world tackle and resolve the “grand challenges” of our day.

Vinnie believes the world of E2.0 is creating a need for more “black swan” public relations as crises reveal themselves instantly and spread more virally than ever before. “Look no further than BP and Toyota,” he said, “it could happen to any of you.”

For communications professionals, branding gurus and PR experts, there are five takeaways:

5.  Good communications starts internally, not externally. Engage and empower your employees first – start there. Adopting new enterprise 2.0 technologies will help. 

4.  The functions of communications/branding/PR no longer reside within the confines of a “department.” These walls are breaking down and should keep breaking down.

3.  Communications 2.0 must be holistic, embracing the entire organization and all stakeholders. Communication experts can strategize, monitor and help shape, but “non-communication experts” will positively contribute to brand enhancement when properly engaged.  

2.  Transparency remains a vital idea, not a cliché. Top-down autocracy is dead. Two-way communication triggers curiosity and fresh ideas.

1.  Public relations is in an ideal position to catalyze this historic change. Remember what Vinnie said: the world of enterprise 2.0 is defined by organizations that are “people-centric,” “globally well-connected,” “advocates for transparency” and “media/PR savvy.” That’s us, right? 

Checkmate readers are corporate communications, branding and public relations professionals. They’re Independents, Republicans and Democrats. There might even be a few Libertarians in the mix too.

1. Crisp, consistent messaging still rules - Obama started off his campaign with “change” and “hope” and stuck with it until the end. McCain, by contrast, embraced multiple messaging points, particularly in the last month of the campaign. Maverick. Country first. Fighter. Experienced. Leader. Independent. Straight talker.
2. Social media changed the ballgame forevermore - both candidates embraced social media. They both understood its power to engage, mobilize and raise gobs of money. Obama had more success, yes, but they both leveraged it. There’s no going back.
3. The big three got bigger – Facebook, YouTube and Twitter emerged as vital strategies. Obama’s Facebook network exceeded two million and McCain’s was nearly 600,000. Obama's YouTube presence was five times greater than McCain's, including subscribers and videos.Obama has over 118,107 Twitter followers to McCain's 4,942.
4. Traditional TV was still king – although millions were spent online, the big bucks went to the “it’s so yesterday” boob-tube. Obama spent more than $100 million alone; his half-hour infomercials exceeded $3 million.
5. Storytelling works – prior presidential elections used this technique, but in ‘08, it was more popular than ever. Tales were told through colorful characters, from Joe the Plumber to the 106-year old lady. Proving the value of storytelling, the latter example was used in the very last speech of the campaign by Obama Tuesday night.
6. Soundbites stick – people remember a few oft-repeated phrases and slogans. Hockey Mom. Joe Six-Pack. Maverick. Socialist. Lipstick on a pit bull. Soundbites are not only vividly recalled, they also shape our perceptions and opinions.
7. Teleprompters are double-edged –yes, they improve delivery but teleprompters can also create a false sense of reality. Sara Palin, for example, did a terrific job at her coming-out-party speech at the RNC, but subsequent interviews created the impression she was effective when controlled and scripted, but less so in impromptu conversations.
8. Body language matters –the Town Hall debates helped shape public opinion when people had the chance to see the candidate in more natural settings. Voters repeatedly stressed Obama’s calm demeanor. Polls revealed McCain came across erratic and less even-tempered.
9. Repetition works – both candidates understood the benefit of repetition. No new taxes. Yes we can. Essential points have to be emphasized over and over to break through and stick.
10. Great Web sites are part of a larger conversation – official campaign Web sites were vital but only one element in a much broader conversation that took place online, in real-time, everywhere. News, ad campaigns, campaign accusations and rebuttals broke on YouTube, Twitter and social news sites long before they appeared on mainstream media. The debate was shaped online.

We call them cell phones, but they’re also little text machines. Now it’s official: Americans are doing more texting on them than talking. Youngsters 13-17 are leading the charge, with the 18-24s right behind them, says a Nielsen Mobile survey. Only at age 45 and beyond do calls still outnumber texts.

Then why so much texting? My guesses:

• Kids are texting when talking is impractical, like in class, like when parents are “over shoulder,” like when they’re in a group and want to have a back-channel conversation. OMG, cn u b leev she’s wearing that?
•  Texting is convenient. You don’t have to “answer” it like you do a ringing phone, so we’re texting a lot for the same reason we email a lot.
•  Texting is polite. Rather than interrupt someone’s meeting, sleep or vacation, you can quietly send a text.
•  Texting doesn’t tie up the phone, so you if you have fast fingers, you can carry on multilateral conversations not just bilateral ones.
• Texting makes driving exciting.

What does hyper texting mean for business? Well, phones with QWERTY keyboards are no longer status symbols; they’re standard tools for anyone who interacts with a team or customer base. If you’re not texting, it’s time to learn. And if you’re texting on a phone-style 0-9 keypad, you really should think about upgrading.  

For communications and branding, the ascendancy of text means words still have a central place in a world dominated by images and icons. Just remember to kp it brf. 

Homeowners tend to cast a cold eye on their electric utilities, particularly when it’s time to pay the bill or when the power fails. So it’s no wonder that a new clean technology initiative from the utility industry called Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) has consumer advocates suspicious with some calling it a Big Brother-like intrusion into folks’ homes.

In a nutshell, AMI aims to help conserve energy by enabling two-way communications between the home and the utility through a wireless network of smart meters and smart devices in the home. Picture a smart air conditioner that the utility can turn down remotely when an over-extended power grid starts straining.

AMI will let consumers and utilities work together to conserve energy consumption in the home during peak energy demand periods. It will also let homeowners see when, how and why they’re sucking down kilowatts so that they can make smarter, greener lifestyle decisions. Consumers benefit by saving energy and getting discount rates for playing ball with the utilities. Utilities benefit by avoiding brown-outs and black-outs during demand response periods. 

Despite the obvious merits, it’s a potentially huge PR challenge that the utility industry has yet to take seriously, which is unfortunate because the critics are on the wrong side of the debate this time, IMO.

What’s not to like? Opponents claim it's a waste of ratepayer money that hasn't proven it will reduce electricity usage. They say that fluctuating time-of-day pricing will give utilities the opportunity to raise, not lower, prices. And they don’t like the idea of giving the power company the power to reach in and have their way with your home. Ratepayer advocates such as TURN, The Utility Reform Network, have already launched aggressive legal and political campaigns against the initiative in California and elsewhere.

As a skeptic who never likes to pass up an opportunity to stick it to The Man, I should be wary too. But homes and buildings are worse polluters and energy guzzlers than cars. And ever-growing energy demand, wars for oil and climate change are just a few good reasons for taking risks on new technologies that stand to conserve energy in homes. It will be interesting to see how well the utility industry can counter the ratepayer backlash and rally support for its new initiative.

{Disclosure: Beaupre client, Ember, makes wireless chips that enable AMI applications}

---

UPDATE: Celeste LeCompte at GigaOM covers the issue from the home appliance perspective.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal also weighs in.