Blog Inspiration

Yup I started this idea on the last entry. Something needs to get me blogging again. It’s hard to believe that I got my undergrad degree in journalism because I love to write. Love to WRITE! And do I write? Very little these days. And it’s like pulling teeth. But once I get going, I remember why I liked it so much way back then. Usually it just flows and that’s that. So I’ll go with that for now.

Over the holidays I saw the movie Julie and Julia (loved it!). If you too are having trouble getting into the swing of writing again on a regular basis, watch that movie. I ended up getting it for Christmas too.

I’m still working my way through Gwen Bell’s challenging Blog Challenge for January. Well, it was for December, but I changed the rules on her!

I thought I would touch on the book that touched me most in 2009. I read a lot of books. Scratch that. I don’t read any books unless I’m forced fear of a failing grade! I listen to books. Lots of them, sometimes over and over again. This year the book I listened to over and over again (along with several other of her titles) was Byron Katie’s “Loving What Is”. Terrible title! But amazing book. Her central thought is that all suffering is caused by unquestioned thoughts. Question your thinking and suffering is gone. It’s radical, it’s weird. But it influenced the heck out of me.

So what am I learning about blogging by having these topics written out on a piece of paper? About having times and deadlines next to them? I wonder….

Reflections before the resolutions

Okay, I’m not even going to think about the last time I wrote in my blog. Argh…darn it, I’m thinking! But before I make the resolution to, I don’t know, blog a little more frequently, how about coming with me down a spirally path of reflection? Sound good? (Yes, I got Inglourious Basterds for Christmas!).

Gwen Bell inspired me this morning with her excellent blog post The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. So, since I’m coming into this challenge very late, I think I will change it up a bit, pick and choose some topics and see where it goes.

For prompt on tea: My favorite tea by far is a holiday blend by the Republic of Tea called Comfort and Joy.

For the prompt on blogs: My favorite blog of 2009 on the topic of Social Media is kind of an odd-ball one, because there are bigger names out there for sure! But this one resonated with me and I read it more consistently than any other. It is Outspoken Media. Great information, the tone works for me, and it has a good balance of resources and personality.

There are a ton of runners up on my list mostly in the realm of social media in higher education and I’ll be talking about them soon. For now though, as I start the process of reflecting on 2009, I’m feeling pretty darned grateful to all the people who have helped me along the way. So, for the word prompt: The word for the year I would choose is “change”. Almost all of it has been really, really good. Maybe a second word for the year might be “grateful”.

So what is your “best of” for 2009?

Questions social media people don’t get to ask

My office. November 20, 2009 — I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about how quickly and radically the Wold Wide Web is changing in terms of how we use it as a communication tool. He joked that in 30 years someone will come up with this cool “Retro” concept of static web site design where nothing moves and the communication only goes one way.

Interestingly enough, I just discovered a software program that I’m using right now to write this blog. It’s just a text editor, but the program covers your monitor in black and the only thing visible is the green text you are typing and a green cursor circa 1980. E-mail is hidden back there, so is Tweetdeck, instant messenger, Final Cut Pro, everything. Add Bach playing in my headphones. Everything in front of me is simple, uncluttered, and refreshingly peaceful.

Okay, it's just a picutre from my phone, but it was amazing!

As a social media marketing manager, I don’t imagine I have much to say about questions like is social media and the changing landscape of communication really good for humanity, or is it making us a little insane? Just like I don’t image advertisers get to wonder about whether television rots kid’s brains or billboards cause traffic accidents. But every once in a while on a sunny Friday morning when the sun is coming up over the Hocking River in its simple and timeless perfection, and a black screen is allowing me to slow down and focus for just a few minutes (on just one thing), I am wondering. And maybe for just a few minutes today, I’m turning things off.

Call it—practice for retirement.

Utopia and Social Media, my kind of cyberspace!

September 18, 2009 Yes, my office again!, Athens, OH — I subscribe to a blog called “Outspoken Media” and it is far and away my favorite blog on Social Media. Last night, Lisa Barone wrote about her crazy Italian father and her attempts to explain social media to him. What I found fascinating about her story was that when she sent him books about what social media was all about; being transparent, listening to your customers, building relationship, etc., and he got really mad. Was he insulting her? He, as a long time business owner, had done this all his life! There’s nothing new about this stuff.

He’s right.

Two other things came to my attention this week along these lines. I heard a story this week about a situation at a hospital where the administrators were very concerned about a patient who was using social media to tell people about her surgery. Fortunately, everything went just fine — whew, good publicity. But what if things hadn’t gone just fine?

Then this morning I read another blog PRBreakfastClub that raised the question, is social media creating a landscape where businesses will no longer innovate or take risks for fear of being hammered in the social media world? My response was it sure shouldn’t.

Which brings me…finally!… to my two points today.

Point Number One: Social media will separate the businesses, organizations, institutions, etc. who are doing a good job from those who are not doing a good job. That’s my prediction, and I’m sticking with it.

From now on, when doctors and nurses treat you badly, they will have to worry about the repercussions. When an airline baggage handler tosses a $3500 Taylor Guitar and smashes it, there are repercussions.  If that chicken smells just a little bit off, you might want to trash it before serving it to your customers.

A lot of people are very wary of social media and they probably should be. Our mistakes will certainly be magnified, but let’s apply a little Stephen Covey wisdom here. If we’re mostly doing a good job, if we’re building relationships and providing people with genuine service, if we are quick to admit our mistakes, our emotional bank accounts with our customers is going to be high enough to withstand our humanity. But if we suck at what we do, we have considerably fewer places to hide.

Point Number Two: Lisa’s dad is right. The things that worked a long time ago, things we already know, still apply. Sometimes I think people are making social media more difficult than it needs to be. The tools are different, the philosophy is still the same – or at least it should be. Learn the tools and get on with it already!

Now… that’s the Utopian view of the subject no doubt, and I readily admit I have Utopian tendencies! The next question is… what do you do with Trolls?

I should write about that next week, but I already promised a blog post on video editing that I haven’t delivered on yet so next week’s post will remain a mystery!

Until then, enjoy the weekend.

P.S. this video has nothing to do with anything. I just loved it and thought  I’d share!

For the love of Flip Video Cameras

My office (I’ve got to get out more!), September 2, 2009, Athens, OH – So I get this e-mail from my boss asking me to show her how to use our department’s “Flip” video camera and I’m thinking, okay, that’ll take about 25 seconds. Suddenly it dawns on me. You know, I said to myself, I am a video producer. There is probably more I could fill her in on than how the camera works. So I thought I would share that here since video is such an important part of online communications.

Before I do, here is how the flip video camera works. Ready? Charge battery. Point the little circle on the front of the camera toward something. Push the red button on the back. Wait. Push it again when you’re done recording. Yup, that’s really it.

A few ideas to improve your videos if your last name is not Spielberg

1. Keep the camera as steady as humanly possible. Always, always, always use a tripod. Really. Unless you really know what you’re doing, hand held shots that tilt from side to side pretty much never work. Lock it down and hold still. If you don’t have a tripod – get one they’re dirt cheap for these cameras! Okay, okay. If you’re sitting, rest your elbows on your knees and hold the camera in both hands. If not, find something to rest your elbows on. Concentrate on your breathing keeping it steady. Repeat in your head over and over, “steady, steady”. Stay relaxed. Don’t zoom in.
2. No zooming. Really. None. Get your shot where you want it, then hit record. If your subject is moving follow carefully keeping them in the “rule of thirds”.
3. Keep the rule of thirds rule: Think about the scene you’re looking at on the back of the camera and imagine it is divided into, well, thirds. Keeping the action to the left or right of center adds visual interest to your shot. If it is a person and they are talking or moving, give them space in the direction they are looking or moving. Are they looking left, make sure there is space in front of their face. Are they looking at the camera or looking both left and right, put them in the middle.
4. Video (television) is a close up medium. The closer you are to the subject the better. If you can, get physically close to them. If you have to, use the zoom on your camera to get close (then hit record). Just keep in mind, the more you zoom the shakier the video will be so if you’re zoomed in, that camera must be on a tripod.
5. If you do zoom in or out while you’re recording (please don’t, but if you must) do it excruciatingly slowly. Oh wait, you can’t control the zoom on the Flip camera so refer back to rule 2. Don’t do it more than once.
6. Get lots of different shots when you’re interviewing someone (adjust the camera between questions). Get close ups, medium shots, and wide shots. Make sure there is a big difference between each of those shots. There is a complicated thing that applies here too called the 180-degree rule. Google it, I never do a good job describing it.
7. Don’t shoot a subject in front of a window. You need experience and equipment to pull that off. Having said that, the more light you have the better.
8. Control the sound in the room whenever possible. Eighty percent of the success of your video is in the sound – people will put up with rotten video, once the sound goes, your audience will bail quickly.
9. Gets lots of shots of people doing things. It never ceases to amaze me how people will pose for a video camera and wait for a flash. I never know what to say. Got it, thanks? If you can catch them doing things there were talking about in the interview or at the event, that’s gold.
10. Hand the camera to a video editor. Okay, you can plug it into your computer and there is an editing program you can download from the camera to your computer but I’ve never used it. I bet though, that it’s pretty easy. Take the bad parts out, drop some music under and Shazam! You’re a producer!

Okay, maybe next week I’ll throw out some editing tips. Have more shooting ideas? Add them to the comments.

Team summits Twitter – because it is there

My office, Athens, OH, August 28, 2009 – In the past two and a half weeks I’ve had 20 meetings where I talked individually with everyone on staff at UCM about social media. Twitter in particular. I said a few things, listened to a few things, laughed, pulled my hair out, and learned a lot. My goal was to get everyone on staff at least signed up with an account, talk about resistance to social media, and help everyone start thinking about a game plan for getting started in professional networking with social media.

So why did I start with Twitter (and blogs for the brave)?

The primary reason I chose Twitter was because it was there. Just like big mountains that people climb.

Same reason I Twitter

Twitter may not always be here, but it’s here now. It is a tool of social networking and my theory is that you cannot learn how to integrate social media into your communications plan until you actually understand how social networking works. I’m pretty certain that you can’t understand how it works until you participate. Successfully.

By setting up individual twitter accounts (and even better, combining it with a blog) that is targeted to professional networking within each person’s area of expertise, a number of benefits are very likely to occur.

Number one, you will learn more about your field by following people you respect. Number two, you will serve your profession by providing guidance and insights to others. Number three, you will establish yourself as a thought leader within your field (also known as personal branding). Number four, you will ultimately strengthen the image of the institution just because you are as cool as you are. And you’re talking about great stuff you’re doing at work.

At any rate, I think it’s a good start and ideas will start germinating as social networking and social media start creeping into our thinking about how we can communicate to students, faculty, alumni, friends, and staff at Ohio University.

We may be a little slow getting into the game, but look out – we’re catching up fast.

Dealing with the negative

August 12, 2009, My Office, Athens, OH -  It’s kind of funny that dealing with negative feedback was on the agenda for today’s blog post. We got a big hunk of it on Facebook this afternoon, which happens from time to time. Some of our beloved fans didn’t like the quality of a video we posted. Ouch.

“Ouch” being the key word here! Negative feedback gets beneath our skin like the nurses warning just before the needle goes in, “you’re going to feel a little prick here.” It’s not a “little prick” it hurts and no on likes things that hurt. Well, most of us don’t! Negative feedback hurts whether or not it has merit. So why open yourself up for it? Why give mean people a chance to hurt you?

I’ll give you 5 reasons.

Medicine
In the case of our Facebook fans, they were spot on. While the content of the video was quite good, there were too many cooks in the kitchen that day and that wasn’t our best production work.  Lesson learned: content still needs a pretty package every time. We are now better producers. Be gracious, because if you don’t crumble, you will get better.

Credibility
No one, and no business, is perfect. The grace with which you handle negativity speaks volumes about your character and the character of your organization. Let’s face it, a reputation is impossible to control, but character is the one thing in this world you can control. Well, your own anyway!

Influence
Stepping for just one moment into reality, conversations both positive and negative are happening about your brand. If you give that conversation a place to live where it can influence you to become better – and where you can influence it so it doesn’t fester into something horrible (like lost sales, for instance) then you begin to reap the rewards that social media marketing can bring.

Illusion
By avoiding social networking, by hiding from the conversation and pretending it’s not happening, by sticking to the tried and true models, you are controlling your message. False. Control is an illusion. Social media is democratizing communication and trust is shifting from the all-power institutions of society to the “wisdom of crowds”. Influence is possible, control is not. In reality, it never was.

Humanity
Social media allows people to get to know each other (hence the name, social) and a lot of people are uncomfortable about that. But I think it is a good thing. Yes, we get to hear first hand how people feel about our products and services, but they also get to hear from us, the people behind the ideas, and most of the time it surprises the heck out of them. When you reply back with a genuine “thank you” – a gracious response of some kind, you will often find the tone quickly changing. Sometimes people even delete negative comments or otherwise retract or soften their responses. You create a connection. Connections are good, ‘mkay?

Hope that helps. Do you have more ideas? Let me know in the comments.

While you’re at it, monitor the buzz – here are some tools: Monitoring Your Company: The Caffeinated Blog

Some books and articles and ideas that influenced my thinking about this topic:

The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg (twitter @tamar)
Brand Influence
Social Media Damage Control
How to deal with negative feedback
The Work, Bryon Katie

Bud-dum-bum… Puttin’ off the blog

My office, August 5, 2009 – Wednesday caught me by surprise this week. I know what you’re thinking, she’s seen a few Wednesdays in her lifetime, surely she knows they happen pretty much every week – right around the middle. But here it is, less than 2 hours from ending and I’m just now filling the first paragraph of my blog. Maybe it’s the fact that I have to open Word to do this (I guess I don’t but I do), or maybe it’s the topic I’m writing about today. Kind of an unpleasant one, but what are you going to do, it’s the topic of the week. Gotta write it!

Resistance.
There. I wrote it.

People in my industry are resisting social media. At least from my chair, that’s what I’m seeing. I remember not too long ago saying to some friends that kids today are living their entire lives inside a computer – and it’s not good! People who don’t use social media have some very strong opinions about people who do and the same goes for those who do use it. Unfortunately, I think we may be bringing those ideas into our thinking about social media marketing, and I think that’s not so good.

I read an article a while back, in which the writer (college student) said that he was interested in the silly things his friends did all day because these are the people he cared about. I realized that although this isn’t necessarily how I want to experience life, there is something happening between these boxes and wires. Humans are connecting and forming communities – for better or for worse. I still hate the idea of someone texting that they are at the Louvre instead of looking at the stuff on the wall, but that’s the fuddy-duddy inside me, what can I say?

Facebook has reconnected me with dear friends I never should have lost touch with and the people I follow on Twitter teach me how to do my job better or encourage me to meet my running goals for the week (and I hope I’m helping them in return). I have tweeted once about food (well it was Plantains, for Pete’s sake!) and then promptly apologized!

I have to admit though, that I was forced over my hurdle, I didn’t go willingly. I had to have a Facebook account to buy ads for work. Then people started finding me and I was hooked. When I started to realize what powerful marketing tools we have at our disposal, I knew my career was changing. What appeals to me most is how social media tools are changing marketing. It’s forcing us kicking and screaming, or excited and relieved, into a focus on service. How can we help, not, what will you buy. Who are you? Not, how much do you have. I am a human – kinda like you, not, I am part of the machinery.

What are your fears about venturing into social media? Is there a possibility that your fears are not necessarily absolute truth? If you were able to let go of your fear, where might social media take you? I double-dog dare you to answer those questions.

Next week I’ll try and tackle the fear I think most of you are feeling… the dreaded flame-throwers! What do you do with negativity?

Getting it all done

Front Room, Ohio University, July 29, 2009 – Sometimes there is nothing like getting out of the office for a moment to gain a fresh perspective and get the writing juices flowing. As I waited in line for my latte, I was surrounded with soon-to-be Bobcats taking a break from Bobcat Orientation. They look a little overwhelmed! And they are a sure sign summer is winding down and fall is fast approaching. I think I’m a little overwhelmed, too!

Overwhelmed is a word I hear a lot among campus communicators (among others) but maybe now more than ever. Our world has changed and continues to morph before our eyes. We have huge opportunities before us if we can just break though this “overwhemedness”.  I jotted down a list of seven tips I use to try and get my hands around my social media tasks, but before I do, let me talk about why I find it important to tackle social networking at all.

In the 14 or so years I’ve worked professionally in communications, I’ve always enjoyed my job – granted some times more than others! But I’ve always thought this is a darn cool way to make a living both as a journalist and in public relations. In my eyes, social media provides communicators with something a press release or a breaking news story just cannot provide: the chance to build a community through communication.

What’s so great about community? I guess you need to be a believer in the notion that people working together can create something greater than people working in isolation. Personally, I am such a believer. That doesn’t mean I’m going to be subject to the group-think, but it does mean I will listen and value the thoughts and voices of people invested in the success of our shared mission.

Okay, enough of that! On with the tips:

Getting it all done

1) Accept that it isn’t all going to get done.
Maybe not the tip you were hoping to see, but this is reality. Chances are pretty good none of us are going to perfectly accomplish every social media goal, answer ever question, comment on every blog, etc. But we can….

2) Make a Plan/Know Your Voice
This is actually the best place to start. Figure out which social media tools you want to focus on (like which ones your target audience is using, that’s usually a good place to start – the tools are changing, not the principles of marketing). Know your voice means figure out what you want your audience to think about your brand and gear the messages toward that end. Plan your content on a calendar in advance, this helps a lot.

3) Choose Your Battles
This has a lot of meanings, but if you did tip #2, this becomes easier. Distraction is a big danger in social media, there is a lot of interesting stuff out there once you start digging (and ironically that stuff makes you more interesting so don’t be totally disciplined about getting off track). But do your best to stay on track, stick to the plan.

4) Divide and Conquer
Enlist help! Get other people in your division/department/office involved in social media. Easier said than done, I know, but your voice is eventually going to get boring (unless you’re Barack Obama or Oprah, if you’re not, it will get boring)! Get students involved and listen to them.

5) Use Technology
Do some research and find a tool that is easy to use and helps you manage your accounts. I use Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) and Nambu (www.nambu.com). Tweetdeck also lets you manage Facebook… nice extra.

6) Carve out time for learning everyday
And I mean carve. I know it’s not there, put it on your Oracle calendar as an appointment if you have to. I start the day with it. I follow key players in Social Media that I think are doing a great job and listen to their recommendations for articles to read and I diligently read every article my boss Renea Morris sends me. Every one. I know a lot of social media people frown on reading social media books and I agree the technologies will change and they grow outdated quickly, but there are books out there with great strategy ideas that are unique to social media. One I’m reading right now is Barack Obama’s Social Media Lessons for Busienss by Brent Leary and David Bullock. Don’t ask, I don’t loan!

7) Jump in.
The more you do it, the more you understand it. The more you understand it, the less icky it becomes. Be careful though, there is some danger that you could come to really, really enjoy what you’re doing for a living.

Walter Cronkite

On Sunday morning I was sitting in my recliner with my Boxer in my lap watching CBS Sunday Morning, a ritual I picked up in high school. I hadn’t watched any television or read any news all weekend and was shocked by the opening story that carried the rest of the show: Walter Cronkite is dead.

He was my hero.

He was a lot of people’s hero, but those of us who worked in broadcast journalism looked at him as more than a guy who did a great job reading the evening news, he set the standards, he embodied what we strove toward.  I read one of his books while driving (I wasn’t driving!) to my first real job in television in Greenville, Mississippi. I hope I’m remember this correctly, but I believe he wrote (paraphrasing) “if I can cut one word out of every story in the newscast, I can fit one more story in.” I thought that was pretty cool, so I did it too.

I realized that in my little PR world as I’m caught up in all the downsizing and re-education, I’ve let some things slip a bit. Things that used to matter a lot like tight writing, excellent grammar, good research, and most of all, getting the story right. I haven’t been doing a lot of writing at all, lots of videography and video editing, motion graphics, and compressions, negotiating with clients, sweetening audio, and getting lighting perfect. These aren’t the skills I went into this business to learn, but they’ve been necessary to hone and they’ve served me and my employers well.

Still, I realized on Sunday how much I missed my words. So I threw my Beford Basics in my bag and put it on my shelf at work.  I can give it a few minutes a day, I’ve done it before.

Back to the quest for the perfect sentence. That one wasn’t it!