I'm on Facebook...now what

Posted on May 20, 2008 
Filed Under Facebook, Social Media | Leave a Comment

facebook.jpgI finally did it. I took out a Facebook account yesterday. I have been so swamped lately (which is why I haven't posted in two weeks!) and I just added one more thing to my list: maintain and monitor a Facebook page. Why? I really don't know. Just seemed like the thing to do.

This is the thing with social media that strains me however. I realize the importance of social networking; I was sold on it three years ago when I saw how beneficial it could be to our organization to network with bloggers. But the flip side is that social media requires constant maintenance. It can sometimes be like the two-year old demanding attention - or at other times like the newborn with colic! Don't get me wrong, I'm not "dissing" the people with whom I network, the blogs of bloggers I read or anything like that. I'm simply stating that maintaining social media is not what I get paid to do.

There are those who say, "Well, if you don't make it your job then you'll be out of a job." I agree, to a point. My struggle is finding the balance between a useful level of social networking engagement that benefits our organization and the other elements of my job like helping our research department decide when to release findings, arranging interviews with various news outlets, participating in media training for various staff members new to such interactions, etc. I ask the same question raised by Jim Kukral back in November: What problem does Facebook solve?

I'd argue that it does creates additional problems. Maybe I'm too utilitarian. I see online social networking as a way to primarily connect professionally and build relationships with people who expand my network and hopefully for me to expand theirs in useful ways. WARNING: COLD, HEARTLESS STATEMENT AHEAD - I don't see the point or need in filling my Facebook page with people I see all the time. For instance, the guy I share a wall with asks me last week if it is possible to ignore Facebook invites to people he sees in the halls every day at work. Exactly. That's the same reason I didn't join a "social club" at the small university of 1,500 students I went to: I already knew all the people anyway so why subject myself to the idiocy of pledging!

Or go to the other extreme. There was a presenter - I don't remember which one - at the annual Society for New Communications Research Forum in April who mentioned the thousands of people who'd opted in as "friends" of his on Facebook who he did not know and admittedly would never know. It would sort of be like me saying I know Gregg Allman because I saw the Allman Brothers Band play at the Dallas Blues Festival in 1993. I was one of about 20,000 people there who'd probably call Gregg their friend.

Social media and social networking for me are job-related activities that build relationships with people I've met professionally. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. fill the space until I have a chance to reconnect with those people in the flesh. Otherwise I have enough of a challenge trying to find time to maintain the personal relationships here at work, home, church and other places I physically find myself.

So, I'll go with Facebook for a while and see what comes of it. However, if you're passing through Nashville and want to grab a cup of coffee, give me a call, I'll gladly socially network with you "the analog way."

Afterthought: I'd much rather spend my "socially networked time" culling through YouTube watching Allman Brothers videos. Here's a favorite of mine. Enjoy the "slide show"!

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=G1jpQu6qR1E">http://youtube.com/watch?v=G1jpQu6qR1E</a>

Media Relations the old way

Posted on May 8, 2008 
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Or, another title could have been: "The more things change the more they stay the same." I'm talking about old school, work the phone, labor to build a relationship, make a pitch and - if you are fortunate - score a win for your company with media coverage. Not glamorous stuff, but important stuff, and stuff that can't be forgotten in the age of social media and social media releases.

A couple months ago I responded to a blog post written by Kami Huyse,  titled The Golden Rule of media relations. I agree with everything Kami says. I firmly embrace the idea of creating conversations and that I'd rather have 10 people who really do something with my news than a million who do more than yawn at it. But sometimes hitting mass audiences is benefit and has value, especially if you're getting the 10 talking. In fact, I find something well placed in mass media can ignite micro media.

For instance, the reason I've been silent on my blog the past week is because of the vast amounts of time taken up helping in the release of three research projects (1, 2, and a 3rd coming Monday) from our research department. One element of that has been networking with Cathy Grossman, the very good religion writer at USA Today. The time spent working with her paid off. We landed a prominent spot in a prominent story. As a result, a number of bloggers picked it up and blogged about it.

This is why I said on Kami's blog that I see media relations as a both/and not either/or proposition. With all the talk about social media releases (and I recommend everything Brian Solis and Todd Defren have recently written  on social media releases and relationships)  one can't afford to forget the bread and butter of picking up the phone and calling people, be they reporters or bloggers. And on occasion, getting on a plane and going to visit, like I will next week when Cathy and I sit down at her local coffee shop.

Social Media and education

Posted on April 30, 2008 
Filed Under Professional development, Social Media | 2 Comments

social-mediai.jpgI recently wrote a post titled "Blogging is the Mother of Invention" while attending the the Society for New Communications Research Spring Forum and after hearing a comment by Shel Israel about college journalism curricula. In response to that post, I received an e-mail from Mark Dunn, a fellow media relations practitioner, with some helpful links to some universities he says are doing some great training in the area of social media. He writes:

Auburn's PR department is doing top-notch work through Robert French, Mindy McAdams in journalism at Florida, and Karen Miller Russell in PR at Georgia. Karen's colleague, Kaye Sweetser, is also a researcher in new media. You may also want to check out Innovation in College Media. Great stuff there as well.

I'm certain there are others out there if these top universities are trending that way. It obviously reinforces what Robert Scoble and Shel Israel write in Naked Conversations about the survival of the publicist, what Brian Solis writes in his Social Media Manifesto, and what Geoff Livingston is addressing in his book, Now is Gone. Times are changing for PR professionals and for organizations. Social media has to be accounted for in corporate communications strategies and it is exciting to see those principles are being taught on the collegiate level. (It is also a wake-up call for those of us already in the field to get it together or be out of work soon enough!).

Note: The graphic is from Greg Verdino's excellent blog and a post titled "Social Media: How much is too much?" I found the graphic while searching for something to represent social media. Great find. I've added Greg to my blog roll and my feedreader. The podcasts are worth the listen.

What I learned at the SNCR Forum

Posted on April 25, 2008 
Filed Under New Communications Forum '08, Professional development | 2 Comments

bk_dove_000979.jpgPeggy Noonan, a former Reagan and Bush I speech writer once wrote a book titled, What I saw at the Revolution. It was a profound book for me. bk_dove_000979.jpgAfter flunking out of college and thankfully out of accounting, I returned to become a journalism major. I was a William Safire and Pat Buchanan fan - both speech writers in the Nixon White House (Buchanan crafted the phrase "great silent majority"). I had also marvelled at the great speeches Lincoln wrote. The written word powerfully delivered by great oratory changes history's course. Noonan rolled the curtain back for me and gave me a glimpse inside.

I promptly decided to forego political speech writing and be a sports writer. Too much politics!

I was asked to be  part of a Wednesday lunch forum at the Society for New Communications Research Spring Forum and the topic was basically what I learned at the SNCR forums, or in my case symposiums. Hopefully my comments didn't repel anyone to the point of finding a new career!

I have learned a ton of practical things related to social media, including being introduced to Twitter, corporate blogging policies and research that has been helpful as I make a case upline for the need to venture in this direction. However, the most significant thing that's come out of my association with SNCR has been relationships. I am starting some and others are older and growing. In a couple of previous posts, I outline a bit more how the experts in my list came to be. Actually sitting with people and asking questions, finding out how they are approaching the challenges they face, having tangible access to sharp people who are shaping the direction of social media and being introduced to the latest research being presented on the spot by the people who did the research are just a few of the benefits I've taken from the three SNCR events I've attended. It has been worth my membership fees.

And maybe, by being a part, I'll have a seat for what I saw at the new media revolution.

Blogging is the mother of invention

Posted on April 23, 2008 
Filed Under New Communications Forum '08, Professional development | 4 Comments

join-me-green3.gif"Mr. October," Reggie Jackson was once asked how he liked hitting against power-pitching great Nolan Ryan. He responded he didn't enjoy the experience, to which the interviewer said, "but I thought fastball hitters like hitting fastball pitchers." Without missing a beat Jackson said, "Yeah, I like vanilla ice cream too but I don't like it shoved down my throat a gallon at a time."

I wouldn't say the SNCR conference here in beautiful Santa Rosa, Calif., is as unpleasant as a 97 mph fastball blowing by your head, but there is a ton of info to digest in a short period of time. I've attended meetings like this before and I've tried to absorb it all. This time there are nuggets that have stood out. The incomparable Shel Israel made a statement this morning that really struck me. Not quoting verbatim, he mentioned that college communications/journalism curricula lag behind the actual practice of those disciplines in the real world. He mentioned he's seen a change in form but the content remains the same.

That really means that schools are giving students some basic principles of writing, video production, etc., but there is a wider gap between those foundational elements and the future of their application in the workplace than, say, way back in the 80's when communications fields were much more static than they are now. That raises the question: Are J-Schools cranking out obsolete parts?

If the arriving world of communications is going to be based around social media, and these elements aren't incorporated into undergrad studies, then it seems the future of journalism is a dying field. If however somebody is really proficient at social networking and influence, and major in basket weaving, then will he or she be the one who fills corporate communications roles in the future?

I raise this because the current state of journalism consists in some measure to the scrambling of old reporters to learn new tricks, like video and audio for newspapers and the competition with local news stations. Throw into the mix the shrinking ad dollars, competition with user-generated content and you have a significantly changing profession.

It would also be interesting to know if there are any universities out there with a PR 2.0 class that requires the initiation of a social media campaign as part of the course requirements.

Until universities prep students in the fine art of social media as it relates to PR and journalism, blogging may very well become the mother of invention, or at least the qualification for future jobs in communications fields.

Integrated Social Media Campaigns

Posted on April 23, 2008 
Filed Under New Communications Forum '08, Professional development, Social Media | 1 Comment

join-me-green1.gifI've been looking forward for some time to both meeting Kami Huyse and Geoff Livingston and hearing what they planned to present at the Society for New Communications Research Spring Forum. I had the chance for both today when they co-presented a session titled "Integrated Social Media Campaigns: How to leverage new media in existing communications plans." The session was full of practical help and case studies, which I always find helpful.

The session was affirming in many ways. I do feel our offices is stumbling in the right direction in trying to incorporate new media into a traditional strategy.

That said, some take aways were:

"When we make a promise verbally or visually and we don't match it with action then it creates a significant brand identity problem. " - GL

Wow, Geoff said this right out of the chute. This couldn't be more true and the thing that holds me back on doing a full-court press with social media. I believe there are several departments within our organization that are ready to embrace this challenge but I don't think we are there with the majority. I'm thinking more in terms of truly going social and intentionally engaging our customers. I believe a challenge facing many large organizations is their ability to change internal structures to keep up with the pace of opportunities presented by social media. I don't always believe it is intentional not to change, it just doesn't happen over night. I believe it comes incrementally.

Richard Binhammer, of Dell offered this comment:

"Google search is your homepage."

That puts a lot into perspective. The conversation migrated to the fact that if you don't own the top spot on Google you are losing a competitive edge. The fact is that a majority of people type a proper noun into a search engine window instead of typing a URL If you don't learn all you can about search engine optimization (SEO) and if improving your ranking is not top of mind, then it could be considered job negligence (my words not theirs).

Slide included in Kami and Geoff's presentation:

"You can’t take something off the Internet. That’s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool." Joe Garrelli (aka comedian Joe Rogan), NewsRadio.

True....and nuff said 'bout that!

One other thing they covered that is practical and helpful for anyone looking to venture into the social media sphere is to listen, participate, contribute and evaluate. It begins with listening. Charging in and expecting to apply traditional PR practices to social media is a recipe for disaster. The point to their whole presentation was that you don't own your brand and you don't tell your customers what to do like the old days, as if that even ever worked. You have to integrate the old and new to create a strategy that benefits the community formed between customer and organization.

Headed out to San Francisco

Posted on April 21, 2008 
Filed Under Professional development | Leave a Comment

join-me-green.gifI didn't spend four lonely days in a brown LA haze, but I am headed out to San Francisco none the less. I'll be attending the Society for New Communications Research Spring Forum. I am also part of a lunch panel discussion Wednesday. I'll blog it all as it happens. Gotta go catch a plane.

Social media reality

Posted on April 19, 2008 
Filed Under Social Media | 4 Comments

Bruce Springsteen got it right years ago. There's 57 channels and nothing on. Just ask half the people in the breakout group I led last night during the sent08_corner_logo.jpgActs 1:8 Sent Conference. They don't even have a television....period!

The title of my session is: Realities and Challenges of Communications - Missions in the 21st Century. I've been given a 50-minute slot for a presentation that is easily 75 minutes. I went through as many slides as possible in 40 minutes and left 15 for comments, questions and discussion (which wound up lasting another hour!). I flash a slide up with the following information:

Audiences are migrating from “broadcast” media to the Internet. “On demand” culture is only going to become more prevalent.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. last year announced 3 new global marketing execs who will dramatically reallocate media spending away from broadcast to spending on “nontraditional” media; from 10% in ’04 to 25% in ’07..

The only other over 40 guy in the room out of 15 people asked, "How many of you even have televisions." Eleven of those attending the session were under 30; six of them did not even have television. They are getting their favorite shows on the Internet, and watching shows like American Idol on YouTube. Social networking is alive and growing.

Reality: much of life has migrated to the web and social media.

This conference is all about mobilizing Christians to move out into the world and some of us are here talking about the use of media to support and maximize that opportunity. In contrast, one of the executive directors of a Baptist state convention recently issued an edict condemning and criticizing blogging (which as we all know is the most visible tip of the social media iceberg). Very soon he's going to

Reality: People like this are rendering themselves irrelevant to younger and future generations because they are TOTALLY missing where the world and people now are.

Realities and challenges of social media

Posted on April 18, 2008 
Filed Under Professional development | Leave a Comment

I'm from the south and often we Southerners bruise the English languagebca-image.jpg by substituting (this is an understatement) vernacular for real language. However, if the overalls fit, where 'em!

So, every time I give my Realities and Challenges presentation I have people staring back at me like a calf staring at a new gate. It is a shock. I confess: it is designed that way. Understand, most of the groups/people I've spoken to are communicators working in situations with very limited budgets and personnel. There is little time or resources to create separation from work long enough to then intentionally learn about social media, assuming they've even heard of it. I still have people who are unfamiliar with blogging. So, I've designed my presentation to shed some light on the evolving reality of today's communications landscape then provide some practical ways for them to engage. I don't claim to be the author of these, just repeating what others have said with my own twist on them. Here are a few of the statements I make that seem to always create a response:

  • Mass culture is breaking apart and doesn’t re-form into a different mass but into millions of micro-masses. Finding ways to connect with this reality of massive parallel subcultures will be necessary.
  • One size doesn’t fit all and will not even more so in the future. We are facing the largest spectrum of generational audiences in history with those under 40 years old being much more online oriented. Welcome to the age of “Netizens.”
  • We will increasingly be competing not only with other “content producers” and companies, but also with individuals producing their own content.
  • Content is no longer in the exclusive control of professionals but in millions of independent amateurs who have the ability to create content and solicit an audience.
  • Companies are going to increasingly be publicly challenged and confronted by an engaged audience that has the means to “fact check” and provide immediate feedback.
  • We can no longer be one-dimensional communicators but must become communications strategists thinking across platforms.
  • Content is going to have to include a built in marketing strategy and Marketing strategies in the future MUST include networking strategies.
  • We’ll need to redefine success and find relevant ways for ROI (return on influence) to become a legitimate metric.

Bottom line, I tell folks, is that if you are in communications and you don't get this stuff, it is only a matter of time before a career passes you by. It has to be not only on your radar but becoming a part of your vernacular...and practice.

 

Baptists are Communicators too!

Posted on April 17, 2008 
Filed Under Professional development | 1 Comment

The only other time I've been to Phoenix was in June, 2003. bca-image.jpgIt was hot. REALLY hot! I said then if I never came back it would be too soon. Well, although the bad place may have frozen over, Arizona didn't, but that's OK. I'm here, in April, and it is really nice. I'm enjoying it!

It's the Baptist Communicators Association annual workshop that's brought me here. It is exciting to see both the recognition of new media by this organization and the emphasis on it in this year's program. This is a major evolution for an organization of people who come from a primarily print-driven culture and antiquated PR practices. People are migrating in the right direction.

The theme is appropriately titled "Perceptions and Reality," which also allows for flexibility in the application of the theme. The presentations scheduled vary greatly. I just finished leading a session titled, "Speak for Yourself," a workshop on being a spokesperson, both in preparing for media interviews and communicating with "constituents." A component of that in today's world obviously involves blogging and bloggers. The organizations of those represented in the session vary significantly, but they all have great stories to tell about the ministry they are doing. A few of the more notable points I taught were:

  1. Q=A+1: The idea is that when asked a question, answer it (unlike most politicians) then add one of your speaking points, something you want to communicate about your organization.
  2. The ABC's of preparation: Ask Questions; Be Prepared; Craft Messages. I encourage at least some general messages about the organization be prepared and handy at all times.
  3. How to evaluate interview requests. It is my experience that most people, whether media, bloggers or somebody who walks up to you at a conference and asks a question, are really seeking information about your organization. There are times when they aren't. It is important to know the difference.
  4. Bridges to the Q=A+1 such as but, however, at the same time, in addition, nevertheless, etc.
  5. Media traps, such as soliciting opinion, blind sources, speculation, bait and switch, etc.

I lead a second session this afternoon titled: Realities and Challenges. This presentation focuses more on the state of social media and social networking and the significant importance of engaging that or facing the death of your organization. I drew from a number of sources when putting this presentation together and even though it is about 18 months old, it is still new to many who are either being introduced to the socially networked world or those looking to make the jump to engagement with their constituents.

A personal note of satisfaction for me is to see co-workers from our communications staff also making presentations on topics such as blogging, podcasting, internal communications, and effective employee surveys. We've come a long way from just a couple years ago and it is awesome to be a part of such a talented team of communicators who have a passion for communications. And we like each other too!

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