Feb

5

I hope we can

February 5, 2008 |  Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

I like this video. A person shouldn’t choose a president based on a video. And I’m definitely not going to.

Most times I wish rhetoric and…well, politicking in general were left out of the mix - It’s hard enough to make a decision based on facts alone. But at the same time, I can appreciate some good old fashion propaganda (though I guess YouTube and viral video aren’t exactly old fashion channels). There’s a certain beauty in it. It’s compelling. It moves me.

If I vote for Obama (I ain’t tellin), it won’t be because of this video. But it’s still totally worth a watch:

Hat tip to my twitter friend, Kait Swanson (who is not a hippie)

Feb

4

Something for the new kids on the blog

February 4, 2008 |  Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Last Monday (no this isn’t timely; my posts never are) I had the special treat of speaking to Robert French’s new crop of social media students. In addition making digital social media resumes, learning to podcast/videocast and writing for their group blog The Loveliest Village, they will be encouraged to participate in the social media/PR blogging community by reading and commenting on other blogs. (You can read all about what social media bootcamp was like back when I did it, if you’re really curious.)

This week they’ll start blogging and (ideally) reading and commenting - who knows…maybe even twittering. Robert will undoubtedly give them a great list of social media leaders to keep an eye on, plus they’ll have Marcom and its awesome contributors. That’ll surely keep them plenty busy. But just in case this class has some budding social media stars, who might want to go above and beyond, who might be taking this class really seriously, who might be reading right now…

I give you my personal picks. Some of my favorite young PR (yes, he’s one of them) bloggers, that no student feed reader should be without. These are bloggers to admire, emulate, learn from and (most importantly) connect with - they were in your shoes not that long ago. Go ahead, don’t be scared, link, comment, follow on twitter; that’s what all this social media stuff is about. Auburn students (and any other students who still read), meet some of my favorite social media personalities (and friends):

Flackette - Marie Williams

PR Blogger - Stephen Davies

Some Sangs - Kait Swanson

Observations of Public Relations - Luke Armour

Sandying - Sandy Kalik

Contributing Comments - Mike Denton

BlogString - Sarah Wurrey and Nathan Burke

Fake Plastic Noodles - Melanie Seasons

Young PR - Paull Young

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive list of PR bloggers, young and…umm…old not quite as young, Paull and Constantin keep one at the New PR Wiki (no doubt I’ve left some excellent ones out).

Happy reading ya’ll.

Nov

4

Reputation Management for Digital Natives :: Conclusions

November 4, 2007 | | 5 Comments

The thing about Podcamp is…you come back home with a pocket full of business cards, a camera full of great flickr shots, a head full of knowledge and all of this enthusiasm for blogging and twittering and podcasting…and all you wanna do is sit down and blog it…and all you have time to do is all of the [paying] work that piled up while you were partying with your geeks at Podcamp. Thus, an entire week late, here I sit writing about my session from Podcamp (a roll call post about all of the peeps I met there to come later). And so, without further grumbling, I give you…

Reputation Management for Digital Natives :: Conclusions and Frustrations (warning: this is going to be wordy)

The plan: We kicked everything off with blog posts specifically asking young people and educators (we knew these groups would have a lot to say on the subject) and anyone else who happened upon the posts to give us 3 DOs and DON’Ts of online reputation management. We got some excellent material! Couldn’t have done without all of you. Using a technique loosely based on Grounded Theory (Young’s idea, no doubt) we used the data (your suggestions) to come up a theory of broader categories, almost a checklist of sorts, that digital natives can consider each time they publish something online.podcamplogo-thumb1.png

The problem: How to define ‘digital native.’ We started off our planning thinking that the session was going to be mostly about young social media butterflies and what they should or shouldn’t do online. After all, the Wikipedia definition of a ‘digital native’ is a person born after 1980. The three of us fit that definition, but we were having a hard time reconciling it with the fact that some of our most valuable social media lessons learned, had come from people born a few years before the cut-off date. Luckily, Digital Natives, a research group from Harvard, was thinking the same thing and started following us on twitter (Don’t you just love this stuff!?). The definition we found on their wiki much better fit what we had been thinking all along, so we shifted our focus to digital natives of all ages and further discussed this topic with our stellar crowd.

The rules (if you can call them that): So we used all of the great wisdom and tactical suggestions collected through crowdsourcing and managed to boil it all down to 6 categories that (we think) encompass everything. Here they are, with some of our favorite quotes included:

  1. R-E-S-P-E-C-T — Yep. That’s the first one. You had to know it would be in there after all of the discussion about respect online preceding Podcamp. But it’s not just about young people, and it’s not just about writing inflammatory posts. This category encompasses…well, basically everything your mamma told you about respect — Be honest, transparent, ethical; don’t think you know it all; be open to new things, new points of view; disagree in a civil, constructive way.
  2. Personality — Now this is my favorite category, as it provides the biggest opportunity for success or failure. (This was also a fun one to talk about with our audience.) Be original — don’t copy someone else; get your own authentic personal brand; represent your complex self online (this includes personal and professional); to quote Lee Hopkins (he pretty well sums it up): “Show your thought leadership, your intelligence, your humanity, your humor, your insights, your wisdom, your passion, your enthusiasm, your personality, your creativity, your energy, your self…”
  3. Conversations Friendships — “Conversation” really has become a buzz word lately (it’s even the slogan on the back of our Converseon business cards) and for good reason. Conversation and discussion have made the blogosphere the vibrant space that is. Conversation is great, don’t get me wrong. But it can’t replace friendship. The key point to take away from this category: don’t let Facebook photo horror stories and talk of Google tattoos scare you away from participating in this welcoming, friendly space. The benefits far far outweigh the costs. I’ve interacted with some of the smartest people all over the world, and am doing my best to form friendships — not just networking opportunities or business connections — with as many of them as possible. Yes, do all of these other things, but (perhaps most importantly) don’t forget to be a friend and make friends.
  4. Learning — This one is pretty obvious. No matter who you are, you don’t know everything; go into the space with an open mind and an eagerness to learn from your peers; take advantage of the collaborative nature of the blogosphere; be active, not ani-social — seek out knowledge by reading and commenting; make valuable contributions to the community; make mistakes and LEARN from them.
  5. Awareness — This one is about audience, the first thing any good communicator should consider, whether online or off. Keep your most unintended audience in mind (for me, this means not posting something my parents couldn’t forgive me for); pause to think, listen and understand, sometimes your first reaction to something isn’t the best one; edit yourself — while allowing people to see your complex personality is a great thing, you can share too much; consider how others will perceive you based on what’s online — is that you?; keep an eye on what others are saying about you; Google yourself, for goodness sake!
  6. Consciousness — Although technically a synonym for ‘awareness,’ we thought it deserved its own category, as it encompasses slightly different principles. While awareness focuses more on audience, consciousness focuses more on self. Think about how you are presenting yourself online; don’t turn off your “brain-to-finger/mouth filter;” don’t be rash; realize that what you publish could be a part of your reputation forever.

The frustration: We had a tough time slot (after lunch on Sunday afternoon) and a small crowd. But boy was it a smart one! We were lucky enough to have some of the best discussion and crowd participation I saw at Podcamp. And I, for one, learned a ton (which was really my goal for the whole thing). Ultimately, after all of the good discussion, what did we come up with? That it’s really frustrating to be a digital native sometimes. Sure social media present this excellent opportunity to show your personality and create a personal brand for yourself, but what ever happened to the time when we didn’t care about our brands, a time when the internet was this special, unrealistic space where we could all express ourselves however we chose. Since we are so ahead of the curve, what does the rest of the world (in suits) think when we show our complex, unprofessional selves online? With reputation management fresh on thier minds, Bryper and Anna Farmery discussed this and other issues relating to employment right after our session for the latest Forward Podcast; worth a listen (although you may question Paull Young’s personal branding strategy when you hear the outro).

The things is: there really are no hard, fast “rules.” Because we are all so different. I don’t know what Paull’s take on this will be, as I’m writing this before him, but I think one of the biggest take aways from our session was that it’s important to approach reputation management, whether you are the digital native or the one wanting to hire him/her, with an open mind. There’s no special algorithm or formula for how to do this stuff. Some of us are heavier on the personality and friendship and lighter on the awareness. Some of us are way too uptight about our reputations for our own good (that’s what Paull says about me, fyi). The best way to approach it, I guess, is to find your own, AUTHENTIC balance among all of these.

In any case, we had a blast presenting and discussing. I hope that all of you digital natives out there find our conclusions insightful and helpful. I’m sure you’ll let us know either way ;)

[Since I’m still getting around to commenting on all of your blogs, I want to give a special shout out to everyone who contributed to the crowdsourcing initiative: Richard Bailey, Robert French, Karen Russel, Heather Yaxely, Jeremy Pepper, Bill Sledzik, Joe Cascio, Ryan Shell, David Parmet, David Phillips, Stephen Davies, Micheal Allison, Melanie Seasons, and all of the people who commented on Paull’s post (too many to link). Also, if you were in our Podcamp session and I’ve forgotten to link you, please drop me comment and I’ll add immediately.]

Oct

20

Crowdsourcing :: DOs and DONTs of Online Reputation Management

October 20, 2007 | | 19 Comments

So I’ve been MIA for a while (don’t you hate it when bloggers do that?)…Ok, 6 weeks is pathetic; I can hardly call myself a blogger anymore. I didn’t really want this to be my first post back from the dead, but I had to get it out there. So, quickly, my apologies for the lack of attention. On to more important things:

As my Aussie explained in his post, he, Mike Denton and I are presenting at Podcamp Boston in a week. Our topic is Reputation Management for Digital Natives, and we could really use your help.

You see, we thought it might be way more fun, and way more in the spirit of social media to poll the collective consciousness for ideas. There has been some great discussion lately about how young people should be presenting themselves online and even some case studies about what happens when we type before we think about how others might react (or when we knowingly write about controversial topics).* For better or worse (I tend to think better), we are the first generation to live with Google tattoos. How do we react and modify our online behaviors to deal with these implications? Are there ground rules for this stuff? Is tweeting about your unmentionables taking transparency too far?

So because we aren’t experts and because we don’t want our whole presentation to be Paull telling bad Australian jokes, we’re asking for your input:

Give us your top 3 DOs and DON’Ts for personal online reputation management.

That’s all. Just 3. We’ll take your comments and points to Podcamp and feature them in our discussion. With the audience (here’s hoping we have one ;) ), we’ll come up with some underlying principles and guidance to pass on to our peers. So leave a comment here, or better yet, blog it yourself. In your post, tag others and start a meme. The more opinions the better!

Paull tagged other young PR bloggers, so I’m going to kick things off with the educators. If you’re anything like my past profs, you will all certainly have strong opinions on this topic. Poll your students or tag some of your seasoned professional friends, and do what you do best by spreading the knowledge (and link love).

So: Robert, Richard Bailey, Philip Young, Karen Russell, Bill Sledzik, Kaye Sweetser, Heather Yaxley, Les Potter, David Phillips, Christine Smith, Kelli Matthews, Ross Monaghan, Greg Smith, Tom Watson, Gary Schlee, Derek Hodge, Tim Penning, Walter Carl, Bob Batchelor, and the folks at Cac.ophony and anyone else reading (you don’t have to be an educator) discuss. Go.

As an added incentive to participate, Paull is threatening to get his own Google tat (to drive his point home, of course) if enough people participate in this little meme and attend our Podcamp session. I’m calling his bluff, but you really never can quite tell with him.

*Sentence has been slightly altered from the original. See comments.

Sep

6

Joining the Converseon team

September 6, 2007 | | 11 Comments

It has been a slow two weeks here at my PRception, mostly because it’s been a very busy two weeks in my life. I have not only moved to New York (a big step for most; a huge leap for a girl from Alabama), I’ve also started a new job! A job which I am thrilled to announce here on my blog–the place where it all started.

As of this week, I’ve joined the Converseon social media team in NYC as an account executive. I have the pleasure of working alongside Constantin Basturea and Paull Young, two of my favorite PR bloggers from my days as a student (Paull writes at YoungPR and Forward, both great resources for newbies like me.)

As I’ve said before on this blog, and to echo a post written by my good friend MK (thanks, by the way), relationships made through social media really do matter. Time spent over the last year particularly on blogging, social networking and microblogging (that’s Twitter) has not only been an investment in my education, knowledge base and relationships. As it turns out, it has also been an excellent investment in my career. With the help of relationships formed strictly through social media, I was able to land a dream job, doing exactly what I want to be doing, with some of the industry’s best teachers (if I may brag on them a little). Patience, persistence and (yes, Robert) social media really did pay off for me.

For those who don’t know, Converseon is a full-service social media communications agency founded by Rob Key in 2001. Of the many notable things that attracted me to Converseon were its commitment to ethics and transparency, its innovation in the field, and its strategic approach to social media involvement; if anyone “gets it,” it’s these guys. I’ll finally get the chance to put all of that social media knowledge and strategic PR thinking that I learned at Auburn to work as I research, plan, monitor and help implement social media strategies (and conversations) for our clients. It should be fun!

Read a little more about me and the new gig:

Aug

26

A makeover

August 26, 2007 | | Leave a Comment

For the few and faithful regular readers, my PRception does, indeed, have a new look. I was having a little bit of trouble with comments in my other template, so I picked the only other tolerable 3-column theme. Yes, I am too lazy to make my own template or bother to modify this one very extensively.

So here it is: my solution to the comment problem and a simple, more mature theme. Let me know what you think, and definitely let me know if this one has IE7 compatibility problems. Also, I’m not totally sure this one is my favorite yet, so bear with me if I need to make additional aesthetic changes. Happy reading.

Aug

17

Social media gets real in NYC

August 17, 2007 | | 1 Comment

I recently had my first blogger dinner in New York — by “blogger dinner” I mean dinner with friends made through blogging (or other social media); it wasn’t official or anything.

It was a first for many things that night. First time to meet any of those people in person. First time to be having dinner as a bona fide adult with PR colleagues and not classmates or friends. First time to be the only American at the table. All of those firsts really could have made for a perfect disaster. But they didn’t. Instead, it was a wonderful evening full of enlightening conversation and many laughs (mostly at Paull’s expense :) ). And a perfect example of how you really can get to know people by reading their blogs or following them on Twitter.

How do four people from four different countries, who have never met in person all together before, hit it off so well? nyc_dinnerThe power of social media and a common interest passion for PR. Among the many topics discussed by Constantin Basturea, Ocatvio Rojas, Paull Young and myself : the value of Twitter (also a hot topic for discussion among bloggers and podcasters of late), blogger transparency, how Spanish young people use / view social media, and other fun themes like culture, world travel and the craziness of American politics.

Later that evening, we hit up a rooftop bar (less Octavio) where yet another social media friend joined us. Kristen (aka: Kroosh) was a Twitter friend /follower of Paull who was passing through NYC on her way home to Boston.

All in all, good times and adventures for me (and I hope everyone else) made real by virtual networks. Not that there was ever any doubt that real live, fascinating people were behind the words I’ve been reading, but what a great example of the “social” aspect of social media.

Aug

15

8 random things meme and more

August 15, 2007 | | 1 Comment

So many things to blog about these days and so little time.

First, welcome everyone who found me through Robert or MK; they are always such great cheerleaders. My blog has been dormant now for about a week because of vacation and then travel (I should really get a Blackberry), so I’ll try to make up for that in the next few days.

Second, I’m having some comment submission problems in IE7 (Firefox users are fine) and will be changing my template as soon as I find a suitable replacement. I apologize to those of you who tried to comment but couldn’t. Ideally, I should just change over the whole thing to my own domain and template, but who knows when I’ll get around to that.

Finally, 8 things: (I was tagged by Robert, who was tagged by Kelli Matthews, who was tagged by Nedra Weinreich, and that’s about as far as I’m going to go with this)

  1. I have a pet Chihuahua. Her name is Lulu. She wandered into our lives (technically our backyard in Mobile) after hurricane Ivan in 2004. I also have a Boxer named Tiger. Today is his 12th birthday, in fact.
  2. The red hair isn’t natural. I’m a fake; I admit it. I’ve just always really loved red hair, so one day I bought a box of Desert Sunset and didn’t look back. I think it goes back to my desire as a child to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
  3. When I was a kid I had a rock collection — super nerdy. I was also on the Science Olympiad team. Then I grew up and went to college for a liberal arts degree; go figure.
  4. I’m terrified of heights. Really really terrified. I don’t look out the window when I’m in airplanes, and I hated that elevator in Eiffel Tower. I guess that’s why the Empire State building doesn’t excite me, Paull.
  5. The dumbest thing I ever did: jumped off of a cliff because everyone else did… No. Seriously. I really did. Not one of my finer moments. I was trying to conquer my aforementioned fear of heights by jumping off of a 50 ft cliff into the water. The force of the water hit me so hard that I thought I was paralyzed for the first 30 seconds. I had bruises on my legs from the impact for weeks. Needless to say, the fear of heights conquered me.
  6. I own more than 100 pairs of high heels. I love them. I’d rather be fashionable than comfortable any day. I wear them everywhere.
  7. Despite my prissiness, I also like backpacking. I’ve hiked the Roan Mountain section of the AT (some would say that’s the toughest part).
  8. I am the third generation of Auburn grads in my family. I hope my kids go there someday and keep the tradition going.

Now that you have way too much information about me, let’s see…who will I tag…

my sister, Amanda, who just started blogging about interior design; my new friends, Octavio Rojas and Constantin Basturea (I’m sure you two are way too intellectual for silly memes, but I had to do it; I promise, some legit links coming soon); Kroosh, who is a much braver girl than I could ever hope to be, washing her hair in bus stations and sleeping on Paull’s couch in Harlem. (Technically Kroosh doesn’t count because she’s already done this thing, but she’s a very cool girl with some mad social media skills; I was so impressed I had to give a link anyway.) That’s only four. This is too hard; everyone I know has already done this. I think I’ll just cop out and hit Robert’s new bloggers (who start tomorrow). You’re in for a hellofa semester, kids. Enjoy the ride.

Aug

8

My life on the D-list

August 8, 2007 | | 5 Comments

With all of this chatter about lists, lists, lists — are they useful? are they accurate? – I’m left to contemplate my own spot on the D-list. It’s nice here. And quiet too (which is conducive to contemplation).

I’m also left to ponder this whole little microcosm that is PR blogging, and I can’t help but think it’s a lot like the high school caste system (except the geeks are king in our world). All of this existential musing makes me wonder:

Are the cool kids cool because everyone likes them (or in this case links them), or does everyone like/link them because they are cool?

[I should probably disclose that I am proudly guilty of linking to and reading the cool kids, and will continue to do so until I can come up with better ideas, suggestions and tidbits of wisdom than they can…likely never. Such is my place in the hierarchy — forever longing to be like popular bloggers, and in doing so, perpetuating their popularity. I should also note that this post is just a tongue-in-cheek perspective on all of the hoopla, and that I’m fully aware it contains no real substance.]

Update:
I’m in Pownce now (christineubanks). My cool factor has gone WAY up. It’s like being invited to sit at the cheerleaders’ lunch table!

Aug

5

Back to blogging and better than ever

August 5, 2007 | | 1 Comment

I’ve been answering this question a lot lately, so I thought I might just explain it here. After all, this blog is the window to my mind on all things PR. So here goes. Why I blog:

I started back in 2006 when I was forced by Robert. Blog or fail, he said. (I’m not big on making B’s, much less failing.) Prior to that I had read plenty of blogs (not PR), but never really saw the need to write my own. Frankly, I thought people who blogged must have either (1) really insightful information or knowledge that no one can think of on their own or (2) an infatuation with their own thoughts, good or not. I didn’t have either. And even when I started, I failed to see much value in my personal blog. But the personal blog wasn’t all we did. (See Looking back…) We also blogged and podcasted for the Loveliest Village, a social media site about Auburn University started by my class. We also commented on Marcom, where we interacted with social media superstars like Lee Hopkins, Kami Huyse, Allan Jenkins, Neville Hobson and Josh Hallett (to name just a few off the top of my head). We also read and commented on all of their blogs. And that was just the extracurricular stuff. The focus of the class was really on learning Photoshop, InDesign, HTML, Flash, Dreamweaver and building our own sites. To say a LOT was expected of us, would be a gross understatement. I spent way too many hours staring at the computer that semester.

By the end of class I had come around to the ways of blogging and seen the value in Rob’s attempt to help us network and promote ourselves. But before I could really fall in love with my blog, I needed a vacation! So I took one — a semester-long hiatus from blogging. I was still reading, occasionally, but for the most part, I was just getting news and emails from the Internet. Without the nagging presence and distraction of my blog, I finished that semester with a 4.0 and an outstanding senior project. But I finished the semester dumber…at least I felt dumber. Without the pressure of blogging and reading blogs every week I had no reason to really think (yes, you can get a degree without ever thinking). Sure, I could sit around and contemplate the meaning of my existence on my own; people have been doing it since the beginning of time. But it’s awfully easy to go through the motions of life and school and your career (when it’s not challenging) without ever having to do so.

So that’s why I started blogging again. Because I was bored. And I needed something to think about. And I realized that blogs aren’t about sharing some profound and elite knowledge about a subject or rambling on about conspiracy theories, etc. More than anything, they are catalysts of thought and discussion and more thought and evolution and collection of knowledge and change.

My new friend, Paull Young, asked me the other day what my passion is (I get the feeling he asks everyone this). Not really thinking about what he meant, I embarrassed myself and gave some trivial likes and dislikes. Being a nice guy, he gave me a second shot at the question. “This!” I responded, as if it wasn’t obvious. (This being: learning, social media, having conversations, making PR a better practice) The convo was via Google chat, so Paull probably didn’t realize the epiphany I was experiencing.

I wish I could have been like Paull and been as enthusiastic about all of this when I started, but I wasn’t. I was bogged down and ready to graduate. I guess some of us need a little vacation and a lot of soul searching before we can get excited about blogging, but it doesn’t make us any less excited when that moment of epiphany finally comes. Sometimes it even makes us more.

So for my sister and parents who wonder why I spend all of those hours reading the hundreds of feeds (and growing) in my reader, and for my friends who question why I write a blog about a subject I admittedly know so little about, and for my former classmates who would call me crazy for doing this post graduation :: I’m back to blogging with more fervor than ever, because I finally realized why I do it . I do it because I’m passionate about learning, writing and about increasing my understanding of not just PR, but lots of things. I don’t blog for Robert anymore, or anyone really. I blog for me.