I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Blake Ewings’ closing keynote at last weeks’ Social Media Tulsa conference. One of the key takeaways for me was this statement:

It doesn’t mean only “tweet positive” but it does mean when sending thoughts, links, info etc. out into the world, we should all be mindful of the larger effect. It’s easy to say, “If you wouldn’t want your Mom to know, don’t post it,” but really, most of us feel a little more insulated in our online worlds than that. We use the public conversation to share our private frustrations. Sometimes, before we’ve taken the time to try to solve them privately. I have been guilty of this…

I’m still processing how and what I want to change about how I participate in the public conversation. What kind of social responsibility comes with a larger-than-average audience online? Mine isn’t anything like the superstars of the Interwebs, but it’s exponentially larger than the “average Jane” on Twitter, Facebook, etc. What obligations does that, or should that, entail as far as sharing?

And… based on some feedback I’ve already gotten on this post… does being more human actually give you more of a voice? Do people just care more if they “know you?” My instincts and experience tell me yes.

Like I said, still processing… and interested to hear your thoughts!

Because together is better.

I miss my blog (and blog readers!). I miss writing. And that is my resolution for 2011…. to write more. More often. More places. Covering more topics. In more styles. Just to write… MORE. And, further, I hereby promise that many of the yet-to-be-written sentences will be longer than three words and will contain punctuation other than ellipsis.

This past year has been one of the roughest I’ve ever been through. Losing my Dad to an awful fishing/boating accident 16 years ago tops the list, but 2010 comes in next on the list of years I could have done without. Part of the reason I’ve written less was because, as previously mentioned, I tend to be a private person and hesitated to overshare my personal struggles on this “professional” blog and website. I will spare you all the gory details (or I will protect myself by choosing not to share, however you want to look at it… ) and give you the short and dirty run down, below (note… if you’re just here for the marketing lesson in all this somewhere, you can skip this one. No hard feelings.):

In late 2008, pregnant with our fourth child, we bought a bigger (older, but bigger) home. We closed on Halloween… and the next month the housing market tanked. We hadn’t sold our previous home, either. ’08 was a banner year for my business, and the bank determined we could support both payments (!!) until we sold our first home. Since we only moved about 7 blocks and I was pregnant, we didn’t really “move” as much as we “transported” bits and pieces every day or so. It took awhile for the old house to be ready to sell… and by then we couldn’t sell it for even close to what we owed.

Fast forward to the last quarter of 2009. That year sucked as far as business went, and we’d been making 2 house payments for nearly a year. And then… we just couldn’t. There was no way to borrow, or take more from credit cards, or anything else, to take care of the bills for our now-family-of-six. It was either not pay the mortgage on the home we lived in or not pay the mortgage on the home we DIDN’T live in. Guess which one won?

So… 2010 brought a personal bankruptcy, a foreclosure on the old house, a repossession of a car (they don’t give you any grace period AT ALL after you go through a bankruptcy, just FYI, and getting it back is difficult and expensive), tax and IRS issues, and continued depressed business billings. Depressed, and depressing.

The bankruptcy, while a crushing blow to the pride and a burden of paperwork like you’ve never seen, was a good decision. It gave us a platform from which to plan, budget and begin to rebuild. I’m grateful that option exists for people who have done all they can, and then just can’t any longer. My car, which we recovered, is now paid off and altogether mine, and that’s comforting. The IRS thing is going to be a thing for a while, but we’ll get through it.

And the biggest thing that 2010 taught me? That the WE is important. The “WE” of our family, of my husband and I, of my extended family, and of my friends and colleagues who supported us emotionally through all the struggles. And the WE of you and me… everyone I’ve connected to digitally one way or another. Everyone who took the time to stop by, to read, to comment, to share, to tweet a reply… who kept me focused on moving forward, growing my clients’ businesses and thereby growing my own. Because while most of 2010 was dark and difficult, the last few months have taken a decided turn for the better. It’s time to move from the worry and stress of going broke to the excitement of going for broke. I intend to carry that outlook into 2011 as I shove 2010 forcefully out the back door of my life. Buh-Bye.

While this blog will remain mainly marketing and PR focused, there might be a few bits and pieces of me that creep in here, too. Because we’re a family, right? See you all next year… it’s time to rock some upward momentum.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeveeaar/4910032429/

Look, Mom... Sharks!

You see, when you sleep with the fishes at the aquarium, you sleep right beside the tanks and exhibits. On the concrete floor. My comforter-doubled-over-for-padding did not cut it in the comfort department. But I digress. Several things happened during our adventure that I thought were great lessons in PR, specifically in event planning. So here, without further ado (and because I’m still working the kinks out of my shoulder and back), are event planning lessons learned:

Prior Planning Makes For Perfect Events > You could tell, rather immediately, which troops and girls had prepared appropriately for the evening and which ones had not. Planning well is the difference between event panic and event accolades. Our troop leader rocks, by the way, and we were armed with flashlights, toothbrushes, vending machine change, and other necessities for the night. And in her defense, she’d recommended foam padding for underneath the sleeping bags. I (ouch) should have listened.

Do, Indeed, Sweat the Small Stuff > Someone, somewhere, decided “Alice in Wonderland” (the new, Tim Burton version) would be a great movie to screen in the big hall before lights out. Some of the girls in attendance were 5 or 6. All the girls had gone on a red-filtered flashlight tour of the aquarium exhibits to observe the animals in their nighttime modes just before the movie. So you watch a giant moray eel by flashlight and then see giant scary things on the movie screen and then you go sleep someplace unfamiliar in the dark? uhhh… not a win for the younger girls. Me, my daughter and her three other young troop members all bailed on the movie about 30 min in and went to settle down on the concrete instead. Be sure to think through all the choices… go visit the site for your event, for instance, at the time of day you’re having it. Are there traffic issues? Parking problems? What are the best sight lines for TV cameras? Do you have a need for or access to electricity? A microphone? Podium? Are there outlets so reporters can plug in anything they might need to? Refreshments? And if you’re serving food with napkins or containers, do you have a trash can handy?

Some Of Us Are Best Out Of The Spotlight > The flashlight tour was an amazing thing… so many of the animals that were, well, boring during the regular hours of operation were quite interesting at night. The story my daughter has told over and over? How she got to see the inside of a clam (really a mussel) and how when someone’s non-red-filtered light shone into the tank by mistake the “clam” snapped shut again. The “clams” are definitely at their best out of the spotlight. So are eels and some of the jellyfish. If you’re planning an event for a client, know the strengths of the people you’re working with and for. If the COO is not comfortable in large groups of people, gently talk the CEO out of making him speak at the event. Yes, it’s wonderful that Bill wants to share the spotlight with Ted, but in order for it to remain a big adventure and not become a big disaster, Ted needs to play a role he’s better suited for… perhaps welcoming guests one on one at the entrance, or simply hovering in the background, available for a one-on-one later on.

So there you have it… Plan, Prepare, Pick Your Performers. And take the foam padding next time you go sleep with the fishes. Trust me.

Event hiccups, disasters, funny moments you want to share? Please go ahead! It makes us all feel better to know we’re not alone in the moments we remember that we’d really rather forget.

– (Originally posted on the Journal Record’s Blog Hub, August 7, 2010)

Reflections? No time for that!

It’s almost my blog-o-versary… I started this blog on July 23, 2009. I have seen many-a-reflection post from other bloggers about their first year, or their fifth, for the ones who’ve been around a while. And this isn’t one of those posts. Mainly because I’m not one to do a lot of looking back… when you (or I) screw up, we need to absorb those lessons where we are and then move forward. Take the time you need to feel the pain and then, Just. Move. On.

So, in the spirit of moving on…

I’ll continue to write about relevance, digital convergence and future trends that connect people to other people, places, spaces and ideas, because that seemed to resonate with many of you who took the time to comment on a post or retweet it.

I’ll ramp up my posting frequency. Yes, yes I will. Even if it’s a short post… if it’s relevant to this blog, I’ll get it up here more quickly.

I’ll use Twitter more strategically to gather ideas, feedback and take the temperature of the audiences out there. Little less arrogance, little more serving the readership.

I’ll continue to tweak the blog and the site to better serve the readers… sharing integrated marketing insights, strategies, tips and foibles, seasoned with my Tulsa perspective. I’ll include public relations content more frequently and I’ll be inviting guest bloggers to post this year. I use this blog as my front door… people hire me because they want help thinking about, strategizing and implementing integrated marketing solutions. They want -need- to know how I think… and I want to attract potential partners, clients and build relationships with others who get, or at least are intrigued by, how I think and who see the value in relationships and connectivity. I want to connect with people out there who will challenge what I think, who will share what they think, who will help me grow and bring all of their goodness to bear on this blog and community we’re building.

So as I said… Reflection doesn’t suit me, but red does… and we’re going full-on, redlined into the future here, and I hope you’ll not only come along for the ride, but help build the engine.

Photo Credit: flickr user becksshaw

If you’ve been there, you know it stinks… and sometimes the worst of it isn’t the financial difficulty, it’s the confidence shattering, ego body blow that does you in.

While I own my business so I can’t technically “get fired,” it feels very much the same when a client decides to go another route and either cuts ties with Crossroads Communications or reduces our role in a project. I’m thankful that it hasn’t happened often, but it did happen this month.

And the worst part is that I know, on some levels, at least, it was the right thing both for the client and for us. It wasn’t the best fit, from the beginning, but it was a referred project and I take the trust someone places in me and in Crossroads Communications when they recommend us very personally.

Some lessons learned….

If the fit isn’t right, it isn’t right. Period. Better to disappoint a little by not taking the project than disappoint a lot through a difficult relationship or less-than-wonderful execution.

If there is criticism, maybe you earned it. Listen carefully, think, take the time to understand what went wrong and why. Fix what you can, apologize sincerely if you need to do so and take those lessons with you to the next relationship.

Unless your mistakes were really core business failures (you didn’t perform work you contracted to do, for instance, or you stole content) don’t dwell on the problem beyond the lesson-learning portion. You’ll just kill your confidence and your drive. No good comes from that for either you or the client.

If the relationship is salvageable, save it. Even if that means the best thing you can do is recommend someone else for the job. Just because this client’s project and needs aren’t a good fit for us right now doesn’t mean they don’t know other businesses who ARE a good fit for our brand of integrated marketing strategy and know-how.

That’s my story… if you’ve been fired from a job or a project and you want to share your experience or your lessons, the comments are yours

And that’s a very good thing. Unfortunately, it means that I haven’t had much time this week to write. I have a post titled, “What I’m Doing Differently and Why,” half-written and definitely not ready to share. One of the things it talks about is making sure the activities that build my business and build community don’t take a backseat to the “urgent” things that often take over chunks of time on any given day. As you can see, that’s one I’m continuing to work on… !

In the meantime, I am going to share this post with you: Crisis Communication: When You Can’t Escape. It’s one bit of public writing I did get accomplished this week, and I hope you’ll take a moment, read it, and let me know what you think. It’s not only for PR people… if you’re in business for yourself or working for a company in any kind of public-facing role, it’s applicable.

Oh… if you have ideas, tips, or commiseration you want to share on the whole, “What I’m Doing Differently and Why” post idea, please tell me. I’m hoping we can all help each other do better.

Happy Friday!

My brother is a 29-yr-old police officer in a mid-sized town in Kansas. He is also pretty close to squeaky-clean. Knowing those facts makes the following story even more funny. Trust me.

So…. my brother is in Nashville for an FOP convention (for the uninitiated, that’s the Fraternal Order of Police). While wandering around the sights after the convention wraps, the sole of his boot starts to separate. He, being the McGyver type and also a serious cheapskate, decides to use superglue to reattach the sole. He makes the repair, and satisfied with the results, winds up the trip, packs and heads to the airport.

As he goes through the security checkpoint and goes to pick up his belongings from the xray conveyor belt, he notices his boots are sitting atop the xray box and TSA agents are approaching him. They let him know that they’ve discovered a discrepancy with his shoes… can he explain?

He tells them the story of the separated sole and the resulting repair. They “uh-huh” him, ask for his ticket, photo ID, when his plane is supposed to be taking off and where his flying companion is (“Did someone just drop you off here, sir? Didn’t you arrive with anyone else?”) My brother points out his patiently waiting (and quietly laughing) buddy. More TSA agents arrive and escort my brother and his suspicious shoes to a little room for further questioning.

He tells the separated sole story another 3 times to various agents. He tells them why he’s in town… they “Uh-huh” him again and huddle in the corner of the room, discussing the suspicious boot. An agent explains that they’ve seen a round metal disc inside the sole of the glued boot and this is the problem. My brother, being the resourceful guy he is, volunteers to cut open the boot to retrieve/examine whatever the thing is… saying, “If I dropped a quarter in there, I want it back, of course!” The agents don’t see the humor and tell him they cannot cut it open to look (what if it blows up?) and they can’t ask him to cut it open, either.

Being a police officer, he understands that for what it is… we can’t ask you to do it, but you can do it yourself if you want. So, given that they are in a TSA area, no one has a knife. My brother takes a key and saws at the glue. After a while, an agent procures a knife, cuts a hole in the sole, examines the metal plate inside the boot, and returns the boot to my single-shoed brother.

He made his flight and is determined to repair the boot. But not with superglue and not right before a flight.

The moral of the story? No matter how sensible, logical, well-meaning or well-thought out your actions may be, in the wrong context, they’ll make a TSA agent cut open your shoe.

Always consider the context.

I don’t write as much about Public Relations on this blog because I write A LOT about Public Relations over on the Journal Record’s PR blog.

This week’s PR post is about Waste Mangement COO Larry O’Donnell’s trip to the trenches to experience what his employees actually do during their work day and the chronicling of that experience on the new TV show “Undercover Boss.”

This week’s episode, airing Sunday, features a Hooter’s exec doing the same thing. So… first garbage and portable toilets and second hot wings and hot chicks.

Aside from the potential PR benefits and pitfalls, which I talk about in the Journal Record post, consider for a moment the PR possibilities for the show itself by starting with something everyone thinks is awful (cleaning toilets) and following it with something highly controversial (hot pants or hot wings… why do you go?).

Undercover Boss is pulling out all the stops to launch successfully and letting the buzz in the leadership, management, business, environmental, feminist, manly men and reality TV camps and in social media drive the ratings.  What do you think? Too much calculatedness on the part of the show? Do you “trust” that the experience matters to the companies?

via StuckInCustoms photostream at Flikr

We’ve now completed two full weeks with the team at Fox23 Tulsa, and its been a whirlwind. With station newsroom schedules, our team of Ron Hudson, Cindy Morrison, Mike Henry, Sr., and myself deliver four presentations each week to Fox23 employees. Fox23 News Director Todd Spessard and the rest of the leadership team at Fox embraced the idea of elevating their social media interaction to a new level and have been incredibly supportive as we’ve worked together.

When I posted previously about the launch of this project, I mentioned that we chose a traditional media company to approach about this project… we felt they would potentially have the most to gain. What we didn’t realize until we started discussions with the Fox23 team is how passionate they are about growing and evolving and becoming what their market wants and needs. To put it another way, they may be in a traditional media space, but their approach is anything but traditional. Could we have picked a better partner? I don’t think so.

In the staff meetings, we’ve seen people who were already using social media effectively and we’ve seen some who had no idea at all how to get started or why they should try. We’ve worked through both the hows and the whys as we’ve taken the news and production staffs through the basics of Facebook and Twitter. The sales staff has learned about LinkedIn and Twitter. Next week we’ll be talking LinkedIn with news and production and Facebook with the sales group. Hopefully you’ll begin to see some of the Fox23 staff start to engage via social media more frequently and get to know them better. Here’s a list of the Fox23 on-air personality Twitter accounts (20) so you can choose to follow if you’d like. Rather find them on Facebook? Here’s that link.

First Two Weeks’ Takeaways:

Facebook encourages deeper digging. Implement privacy controls so you can share without worrying. It’s an ideal platform for behind the scenes looks, personal connections to stories and transforming viewed personalities into people.

Twitter is real-time… as a news organization, the value of Twitter is immediate action and reaction. Use it to share relevant content, engage with potential viewers, gather ideas, find out what local people are thinking or worrying about, and to respond to viewer requests, ideas or critiques as appropriate.

LinkedIn uses the power of connections and networks to reduce or eliminate cold-calling. Come pre-recommended and with instant credibility because all your credentials, experience and recommendations are visible and sharable. Use it to share knowledge and experience to help build your reputation as a subject-matter expert and to maintain connections even if you or someone in your network changes positions or companies.

I’ll continue to share some of the project highlights as we go through weeks 3 and 4. While we are excited about helping the Fox23 crew, we want to give them the very best insights out there and that means they need to come from the community as a whole. What traditional media outlets do you think employ social media well? What are they doing differently than the other guys?