It’s only new once

You can’t call yesterday’s news new. In fact, you probably can’t call it news either. And yet, it has become a habit for some marketers, most notably those on Twitter, to use the word “new” or even worse, the word “breaking” to set apart their content. Now, if something is truly new or breaking, then that’s fine, but keep in mind that calling something new or breaking is a one-time-only proposition.

Once you have called something new or breaking, you can’t do it again. Why? Here are three reasons:

1. It is false advertising: it is no longer new.
2. It undermines your credibility: you are trying to get me to believe something that is not so.
3. It’s a cheap tactic: is this the only way you can get attention for your product, service or idea?

If I see a Twitter stream replete with the words new or breaking, it better be from a wire service, newspaper or news broadcast. A post that you wrote two weeks ago is not new. An idea that you tweeted out last week certainly is not breaking.

Remember it’s only new once, everything else can be classified as gently used or old or even outdated!