I don’t know Doug Haslam personally, but consider him to be one of those friends whom I have not yet me. He’s a Red Sox fan, I’m a Red Sox fan. He writes for Media Bullseye, I write for Media Bullseye.
I have a soft spot in my heart for noble charities, and Doug is contributing to one of the most noble: the Jimmy Fund. Doug is going to be riding his bike for the Pan-Mass Challenge, a grueling bike trip/fundraising effort with proceeds going to be Jimmy Fund.
It’s one thing to stroke a check or to get one’s head shaved on St. Baldrick’s Day as I did a couple of years ago, but Doug is putting his body to the test where others have their tiny bodies at risk — children. Childhood cancer is, for me, the cruelest of diseases. It does not have to be, however. The are fine organizations like the Jimmy Fund that raise millions to fund childhood cancer.
Two years ago at Jimmy Fund Telethon Day, I happened to be at Fenway Park with my then six year-old son, who, thank God (and I still do) is perfectly healthy. We watched then seven year-old Jordan Leandre, a recovering childhood cancer victim, round the bases in what was one of the most emotional scenes I have ever witnessed. I posted a YouTube video below; fast forward to the end and you may not be able to keep a tear out of your eye as well.
If you read this blog semi-regularly, you’ll note that I occasionally fill in for Chip Griffin as a co-host on Media Bullseye Radio Roundtable. It’s always fun and we always have a few laughs. And I always learn something.
With a guest who has forgotten more about podcasting that I will ever know, I have to admit that I was a little nervous. Have a listen and see if you think I pulled it off. And if the Roundtable folks had conducted random drug testing (read: Manny Ramirez) I would have been banned from the show because I managed to throw myself down a flight of stairs the day prior – and was in a slight percocet/flexoril/celebrex/neck brace haze.
Hope I did you guys proud, Jen and Chip. Or maybe I’m better when I’m higher than a kite? Jen Zingsheim sums things up much better than I can — her summary is below.
Mark
This week, Jen Zingsheim was joined by co-host extraordinaire Mark Story, and the very special guest was Neville Hobson, from the UK–of FIR podcast fame. The Roundtable discussed the recent results of a survey of FIR listeners, the World According to Mom blog-tag effort, and whether PR is suffering a slowdown borne of the recession, or if there are other reasons for budget declines.
First, the Roundtable spent quite a bit of time discussing the results of the FIR survey, calling out some noteable findings. Jen was surprised at the gender split (77 percent of FIR listeners are men), and Mark offered his thoughts as someone who took the survey. Neville provided a lot of insight as to why they collect this information–and why they make it publicly available.
Next, as Mother’s Day is this Sunday (still time to get flowers and a card, and don’t forget to call mom!) the group discussed Catherine Connors of Her Bad Mom, and the effort to “go around the world in 80 clicks.” This effort linking mom bloggers across the globe demonstrates the international power of community, and the ability to link to one another through a shared experience–motherhood–in addition to shared interests.
Finally, the group touched on an article that ran in the New York Times about PR facing a downturn during the recession. Is the recession really the reason for a decline in business, or is this a correction, and does it take into account the introduction of new tools, such as social media?
I consider myself fortunate because I get to learn a lot from some very smart people. I do social media in my day job, teach it at my night job, blog (duh) and get to so some freelance writing and podcast work on the side.
The best part? Just about every day, I learn something new.
I have to confess, however, that my daily reading does not include some of the real blogosphere luminaries (I promised, no more about Scoble). Aside from Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson (whom I consider A-Listers), my daily reading consists of some of whom I consider to be the “hidden gems” of the blogosphere. And that’s why I came up with the wacky idea (boldly stealing #followfriday) with #blogmonday.
My dream is that, through blogging about other bloggers, we all can increase the reach and scope of our own blogger networks, help promote some really smart people who just don’t have the high Technorati rankings (yet) as well as share our own online rolodexes of “must reads.”
So please, feel free to join me in promoting some of the smart people out there. And trust me; I plan to make this a weekly occurrence in the hopes that it takes off. If you’re not in this one, you will more than likely make it into another. So here are my entries for the inaugural #blogmonday.
Tried, True and Terrific
Occam Razr’s – Ike Piggot’s blog not only makes me think about more things that just social media, I learn something new every time I read it.
It’s Not a Lecture: David Wescott makes you think; and he developed (and executed) a brilliant idea on the “Global Moms” initiative. Plus. he’s smart as hell.
Katie Payne’s Measurement Blog. Katie literally wrote the book on public relations measurement and has helped me solve many an argument at work or consulting on the value of public relations. She figured out the answers before many of us came up with the questions.
Blogs That You Might Not Read – But Should
Shilpika Das’s “Wired Conversations.” Full disclosure: Shilpika is a former student of mine, but writes amazingingly insightful posts. She is smart, a great writer and someone who makes me think. The student has become the teacher in this case.
Matthew Chamberlin’s “Clearcast Digital Media.“ Matthew has been both a social media marketer and a video producer, so writes stuff that makes you think about the the differing aspects of social media converge.
Random Blog of the Week:
Over the Monster – As a die-hard Red Sox fan (and I died hard many times before the first Red Sox World Series Championship, like in 1975, 1976 (Bucky Effing Dent) and of course, the Bucker-led 1986 team). But if your are a Sox fan, add this to your blogroll.
Bonus Feature – Online Magazine and Podcast Series
That today’s inugural entry. While it’s not as easy as #followfriday, won’t you please consider a quick post giving props to those whom you think are deserving of it?
It’s usually towards the end of the year when I become somewhat reflective; I always have. What did the last year bring and what is likely to happen in the coming year? And increasingly, my interactions, concerns and yes, partial happiness come from the world of social media. Social media is about making connections with people, and human being humans, we often take our interactions to the next level and get to meet face-to-face.
A few events in the last weeks have me think of how impactful connecting with people through social media has been in my life – and how it can only increase.
Just today, I learned that my friend, Chip Griffin is going to have a heart procedure this Monday. Chip did a post about it and is realistic about describing it as a fairly low-risk procedure/surgery, but like I told him, quoting Homer Simpson, any time that they “tinker with your ticker,” it is something serious. Be well, my friend.
Jason Falls, as well, did some hospital time over the Christmas holiday for a strep throat that went out of control like a Kennedy at an open bar. Jason not only kept those of us following up to speed, but he admitted, Tweeting helped calm his nerves. He even did a video from his hospital bed (below). Get well, my friend and the next Maker’s Mark is on me.
Shel Holtz recently had some surgery, not going into a lot of detail, but Neville Hobson reported that after 400+ episodes, he was flying solo, unwillingly, without Shel. Shel is doing fine now, from what I understand.
Over Thanksgiving, I watched and connected with my Indian friends who were lost — or leading — or drinking from the information fire hose that was the tragedy in Mumbai. I have some pretty strong personal emotions regarding September 11 in the United States, and to me, this was India’s September 11th. People like Shonali Burke helped lead the Tweets and keep them sane while other smart people like Shilpika Das were asking the question we all were: WHY?
And so it’s not all bad stuff, I had drinks with three of my all-time favorite Georgetown students, and like a Proud Poppa, learned that one of them, Kristen Wesley, submitted a simple, elegant and “totally her” submission about what sort of superpowers she would have if she were a computer and — whammo bammo — ended up in “Wired” magazine. No kidding. I take zero credit for this, but teaching 20-some new students twice a year keeps me always on my toes, often feeling young at heart and more often than not, like in Kristen’s case, extremely proud and happy.
I would go on and on, but my point is that I have met some of the people above and I have not met others. But I consider them all my friends. So yes, I scoff at people who think that we who blog or Tweet or vlog all live in our mom’s basements and speak Vulcan fluently.
Sure, my main social circle consists of my family, but I am so, so fortunate to have a group of people whom I can reach out to when they might need a little cheer and I have certainly benefited from my online and offline group of friends through my own surgery this year.
So whether you are reading this through a tweet, my Facebook page or you have stumbled across my little corner of cyberspace, I am grateful for you all. We support each other, joke with each other and laugh with each other.
My philosophy of PR is summed up in six words: be amazing, be everywhere, be real.
You don’t need a PR firm, you don’t need an in-house PR person and you don’t need to spend ANY money to get amazing PR. You don’t need to be connected, and you don’t need to be a “name brand.” Today, many bloggers lament how much press folks like Kevin Rose and Robert Scoble get. They say that they get too much attention and that they got this attention too quickly and without earning it.”
This was a hot topic and I am firmly in the “NO” camp, prominently represented by my pal Chip Griffin. So here’s the deal from my perspective of someone who worked on the agency side for 15 years and is now in-house. If you are a start-up CEO, please move away form the post. Slowly and carefully…that’s it…
I think that Jason has done an amazing job of making public relations work for him. Good for him. But he also notes that:
For over ten years I’ve been in the unique position of being both a CEO and a journalist in the technology space. My first company produced Silicon Alley Reporter magazine, where I held the dual titles of CEO and Editor. At my second company, Weblogs Inc., I was a blogger and CEO.
Here’s where we part company.
Jason clearly has communications expertise. I have no statistics to back this up, but my guess is that the overwhelming majority of CEOs have a good idea (or not), some money (or not), but lack the fundamentals of how to create their own public relations machine. I have a few other nits with this. They include:
Public Relations or Lead Generation? A lot of what Jason describes is promotional in nature, most of it earned media is some high profile outlets. But remembering that the true definition of public relations is “establishing mutually beneficial relationships with your target audiences,” much of this seems more promotional and less conversational. Sure, the lines between marketing and public relations blur, but when earned media is designed to generate awareness that is designed to generate sales, this smacks of marketing, not public relations.
The ABCs of Communication. I continue to be aghast at the lack of communications skills in even some of the most senior public relations practitioners in large corporations — and I won’t even get into my series of “How to Sell Social Media to Your Dumb-Ass Boss” posts – but you can get authentic and real all you want, but if you do not have the right messages that are reaching the right audiences at the right time, you are wasting your most likely scarce communications dollars. And this is Public Relations 101 – define who you want to talk to, the channels through which you can reach them, offer messages that are relevant to them and then make sure that you measure your campaign so you can swap things out that are not working (thanks, Katie Payne for the lat one). Forget startup CEOs, I have met very few senior communications professionals who can do even these basic steps. Most (gasp!) hire agencies, who, if you have selected carefully, have existing relationships or expertise that can get you there.And the most important word in the preceding paragraph is channelS – with a big “S” at the end. It seems impossible to me to keep up with all of the different online and offline channels if you are one person. Monitoring and reacting when you really kick things in gear can be a full-time job.
No Time, No PR. I had one brief and very unhappy experience as a start-up COO (without someone else’s “money” – and “money” is in sarcastic quotes because when I told Mr. Moneybags how much it would cost to make his idea a success, I was out on my ass). Fast. But I can tell you that the life of a startup CEO is grueling – you have to make your widget, get new business, make payroll, seek out and hire talent that works for you, balance your books, make payroll, etc. For those CEOs who have the time for this, your Red Bull consumption must be a significant line item in your operating budget.
Finally, Jason’s piece is detailed and offers some solid points. What is lacking is that I sincerely doubt that most startup CEO’s have the skills, time and human capital to carry out the recommendations.
people like 
But I can tell you that the life of a startup CEO is grueling – you have to make your widget, get new business, make payroll, seek out and hire talent that works for you, balance your books, make payroll, etc. For those CEOs who have the time for this, your Red Bull consumption must be a significant line item in your operating budget.
