We’ve been keeping an eye on Steve Case’s new playground, RevolutionHealth.com.

We’re not as interested in what they’re all about, but rather how they’re going about starting up and letting the world know about their existence.

Today RevolutionHealth launched what it’s calling a “preview” of its site. To kick things off, they secured an exclusive with the Wall Street Journal and pushed out a video and print news release. Traction has been fairly light so far with local Washington (D.C.) Business Journal writing a story based on the release along with CNN Money and MSNBC doing the same. Reuters has a wire version with a couple of syndications, but that’s it so far.

One has to wonder why Revolution is opening its PR jaws right now and not saving up the gusto for a whammy of a launch. It could be that:

• There are some investors who are starting to get antsy. Rumor has it that they’ve burned through millions just to get this far.
• They just can’t help but to show off the slick design. When you’re a Web company and are sitting on something that looks great (and probably cost an arm and a leg), it’s very hard to sit on it and watch other sites evolve into what you already have.
• As the title of WSJ piece indicates, the Web is crowding up with health properties and they want to start to stake out their ground and sign up users, instill loyalty, and get that social juice flowing.

The risks involved are pretty obvious too. You tell the world to come check out your site and then half the links they click on lead to no content or functionality, but you hope that the little “preview” word passes muster as an excuse for lack of completeness.

Lack of completeness in the Web world only exists when you set expectations for future content or functionality. After keeping an eye on the many sprouting 2.0 companies that are out there, we’ve learned to respect the philosophy of release early and release often (made popular by 37signals). That way, you only over deliver when adding new capabilities. Prospects aren’t sold on the future, but rather on what exists today that you can commit to as a company. If you’re doing the right stuff and constantly delivering minor improvements to your customers without charge, they’re going to continuously be happy.

The trade off comes in communications gusto. Speak up today about the stuff you kinda have ready with the hope and expectation for tons more and you’ll get some coverage. Only saying that you have a couple of things that are kinda ready isn’t quite as impressive.

For Revolution, today isn’t so much about quantifying PR reach so much as it is about establishing a credible corporate mantra of integrity. We wish them the best and will be watching.

Via PsychCentral.com

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 10:57 am and is filed under Interactive, Marketing, Media, PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.