The good folks at Common Craft have developed a three minute video that explains RSS in terms that consumers of traditional media can easily relate to.
This is a great example of clever people communicating in direct, simple terms. No PowerPoint. Video, paper and a white board. Brilliant.
Thanks to Mitch Joel for pointing to this. It’s never too late to share good things.
A hat tip to Kerry Ramsay on the launch of the Loyalist PR Blog.
As full-time professor for the Post-Graduate Public Relations Program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario, I am forever trying to keep up with my students and their various high-tech forays (yes, even Facebook!). So here it goes, everyone!
My hope is that my students (past and present) and other PR enthusiasts will visit to share their thoughts and ideas about this ever-changing field.
In my view, social media provides vast new opportunities for public relations practitioners who understand that their best future lies in connecting organizations and companies with their communities. Hopefully, Kerry’s blog will encourage her students to explore all aspects of social media.
I hope that all PR practitioners who see this post will click over to the Loyalist PR Blog, subscribe to it and contribute through comments on Kerry’s posts.
In the last year, Toronto has emerged as a social media hot spot. Last May, the mesh conference played a significant role in this by bringing the community together in an event that featured A list speakers and participants from across North America.
This year’s mesh conference kicks off on May 30. And we’ll have a special mesh-eve Third Tuesday on May 29 with the founders of mesh – Mark Evans, Mathew Ingram, Mike McDerment, Rob Hyndman, and Stuart MacDonald – as our special guests.
They’ll talk about about the developments they’ve seen in the social media scene since the first mesh conference and then we’ll have a chance to engage in a discussion with them about what the future may bring.
Thanks to CNW, who agreed to sponsor this special Third Tuesday, We were able to book Live@Courthouse for the evening. It’s a much bigger venue than we’ve used before. But we’re expecting that many of the mesh speakers and participants will join us for the evening.
If you’re in Toronto on May 29, come out to what promises to be a great kick off party to the mesh conference. Meet the speakers and mix with the attendees. And let’s celebrate social media in Toronto.
Register at the Third Tuesday meetup site if you plan to attend.
Exciting news for social media types in Canada: Dell’s Lionel Menchaca is making a swing through Ontario. On May 28, he will be the featured speaker at this month’s Third Monday social media meetup in Ottawa. 
The following day, he will be attending Third Tuesday in Toronto and then participating in a panel at the mesh conference.
Lionel Menchaca has been at the heart of Dell’s social media program. A 14-year Dell veteran, Lionel is the main blogger behind Direct2Dell. Beyond the blog, he works to coordinate Dell’s digital media activities. He says that, “These initiatives all have one thing in common: to provide Dell’s customers a way to interact or communicate feedback to the company.”
In my view, Dell stands out as a company that has learned how to engage with its community through social media. Last year, the company was delivered a double whammy of online videos showing Dell notebook computers going up in flames followed by Jeff Jarvis‘ now famous proclamation that he was in Dell Hell.
The company took its lumps. But it also learned from its experiences.
Since that time, Dell has launched a series of social media initiatives, including its Direct2Dell blog and Dell Ideastorm. It has demonstrated how a company’s relationship with its community can go from antagonistic to positive by using social media to personalize itself, to share its thinking and to solicit feedback. And most recently, through its embrace of community feedback regarding Linux on Dell computers, it has demonstrated that it can win back fans.
Third Monday-ers will have a chance to hear Lionel talk about how Dell has embraced social media and engaged its community.
And there’s a Canadian connection in Dell’s social media program. Richard Binhammer, who once worked on Parliament Hill during the Mulroney years and subsequently joined Dell’s PR agency and then Dell itself, has been a key member of the Dell blogger outreach program. Richard will be joining Lionel on his Canadian swing. We’ll be counting on Richard to add his first hand perspective on blogger relations.
If you’re interested in a great evening of intelligent discussion with others who are testing the potential of social media, register to attend this session at the Third Monday meetup site.
I received word today that Charles Fremes passed away.
I first met him when I worked at Hill and Knowlton in the mid eighties and Charles was the CEO of the Decima Quarterly Report on Canadian public opinion trends. Our offices were a couple doors apart. We both worked long hours and we shared quite a few meals together.
Charles was a person of great generosity. He shared what he knew and was always keen to help both novices and the more experienced whenever he could. I remember he had a wicked sense of humour. One of the quickest wits I have encountered. With a memorable laugh that could be heard down the hall and would bring people together.
He left Hill and Knowlton to take a senior marketing position at Molson Brewery. Most recently, he headed up Edelman in Canada. Thanks to Charles, they grew and developed a reputation as a top shop.
I have seen Charles only infrequently in the past few years. Still, I have always regarded him as a friend and admired his considerable achievements.
Charles’ passing is a profound loss for the Canadian public relations community. Charles, you will be missed.
UPDATE: Richard Edelman has published a personal tribute to Charles. Another personal recollection has been posted by Marion MacKenzie.
“Transparency plus immediacy can be fertile ground for idiocy.”
Doug Walker‘s commentary on Inside PR about the “shoot from the hip culture” that has emerged in social media.
If you are looking for a job, please remember that you only get one chance to make a good first impression. And in a highly competitive field, a negative first impression may eliminate you from further consideration.
As the CEO of a public relations and design company, I receive several job applications and requests for “information interviews” every day from prospective or recent graduates.
From the first word I read, I am assessing the writer as a potential employee. And I am amazed at how poorly most people present themselves in these requests.
No, I’m not talking about the spelling errors (please spell my name correctly), thinking that my first name is Thornley and my last name is Fallis (if you don’t know you are writing to, don’t bother) or just plain bad writing.
I’m talking about the fact that easily half of the information requests and job applications I receive are clearly generic form letters.
Here’s an example of an “information interview “request that I received today:
Dear Mr. Thornley,
Please allow me the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is XX XX and I am currently looking to break into the communications industry in an entry level position and was wondering if I could possibly set up an informational interview with you to learn more about Thornley Fallis and the great work your firm does. I’m a recent graduate of the University of YYYY with a Master’s Degree in Modern Middle Eastern Civilization and International Relations. After graduate school I went on to complete an internship at the ZZZZ Institute. I have previously held roles as a journalist, public relations and media relations representative as well. My resume has been enclosed with this message for you to review my qualifications and I look forward to your correspondence. Have a great day!
Best Regards,
XX XX
Take out my name and my company’s name and that letter could have been addressed to any potential employer.
Please, if you are going to approach me as a prospective employer, show that you actually took the time to learn something about me and personalize your letter. And no, putting my name in the salutation is not sufficient.
Don’t ask me to meet with you to tell you about my firm. If you simply Googled my name and the company name, you’d get a great profile of me and the people I work with. Show me why you fit with my company by telling me why we interest you and how you think you would fit in. Not generically. With specifics.
Remember, I may review five applications in one day. I probably only have time to interview at most one of those people. If you write a generic letter, you can be sure that someone else will have written a killer letter that talks directly to me. And that person will get the interview.
Third Tuesday with Yahoo! Canada’s Hunter Madsen is being held this evening.
And here’s a neat extra treat: blogger and podcaster Shel Holtz is in Toronto today and he will be attending Third Tuesday.
So, if you’ve ever wanted to meet Shel, hop over to the Third Tuesday Social Media Meetup site and register to attend (it’s free.)
Hunter Madsen. Shel Holtz. Meeting with Toronto’s social media community. What better way could there be to spend a Tuesday evening?
I couldn’t make it to this year’s Word of Mouth Basic Training (WOMBAT) conference in New Orleans. But Josh Hallett did and he’s filed a superb series of posts covering the two day long conference.
I’ve been following along during the conference. But there’s so much there, I plan to go back to 
them this weekend and re-read them all the way through. Taken together, they constitute a great overview of current thinking about Word of Mouth and social media.
If you missed Josh’s posts, you can read the entire series which he’s tagged as WOMBAT 07. It will be time well spent.
Thanks for sharing, Josh.
One of the great benefits of social media for me is the way that it has allowed me to extend my networks. I have developed working relationships with people several time zones and thousands of miles away. We rountinely exchange information and collaborate. All without the need to travel or be in the same physical space.
And I spend a lot of time exploring the potential for social media to extend my capabilities even further.
However, Jack and Suzy Welch’s column in the April 16 issue of Business Week (registration required) provided me with a reminder that remote work has a very real limitation in companies and organizations. The Welch’s argue:
“…what you can’t do very well from home is lead. To lead, it’s no good blowing into town for important meetings and showing up at retreats. You have to muddle in the muck in between.”
As the CEO of a PR and design firm with offices in two cities, I am regularly confronted with a fundamental challenge. How do I manage to stay connected enough with my employees that I can understand them and their state of mind and also convey a sense of the organization’s overall vision, direction and purpose?
At one time, I used to try to make efficient use of my time by scheduling back to back meetings during my visit to the office in the other city. I’d arrive in the morning and have meetings scheduled right until the end of my trip. Lots of material covered. Lots of decisions.
And how did that work out? Some people came to dread my visits to the office. They knew that they’d be dragged away from the things that they wanted to get done in order to participate in one or more meetings with me. They also knew that these meetings would yield even more work as we decided on new initiatives and assigned responsibilities.
Eventually, I realized that while I was physically in the office, I was missing out on what was really going on with the people in the office. The water cooler chatter. The easy going banter about things that people cared about outside of the office. The things that would give me insight into the people I work with and what’s really important to them in their lives. (Remember, most of us work to live. Only a few really live to work.)
So, I changed my routine. I started to spend two days in the office on every trip. I scheduled fewer and shorter meetings. The rest of the time, I set myself up in a spare office and just spent my time working there – just like I would work in my own office in my home city.
Then I watched my relationship with people begin to change. They saw that I was sitting there with an open door and they started to drop by to chat. Sometimes, it is just small talk or gossip. Other times, they raise work issues that are important to them. They pick the times that are best for them to raise issues with me. Things that I used to schedule in formal meetings began to move off my agenda and instead are raised in one to one meetings on the initiative of the people involved.
On top of this, I had the chance to join the brown bag boardroom lunches. To be part of the general discussion. And to just participate as one of many. A great leveller. A great way to learn more about people.
And that leaves me free to pick and choose the times when it is appropriate to convey information about the vision, direction and priorities that I see for the business. In the context of discussions. When they will make a contribution to moving things forward. With a greater likelihood that people who are already talking about something of importance to them will give me honest feedback. Honest feedback. The oxygen of intelligent decision-making.
So, yes, I try to get a great deal done via social software. But Jack and Suzy Welch are right when they say, “… for anyone who has dreams of leadership in any meaningful way, telecommuting can get you only so far. The road to the top is paved with being there.”