Five Secrets about Joe

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Shel Israel and Kami Huyse tagged me in the five secrets meme. Normally, I don’t give out secrets about myself. But, hey, it’s Shel and Kami who asked. So, I’ve just gotta stand up and salute.

1) I worked my way through university playing keyboards (Hammond organ, Fender electric piano and Leslie amplifier) in cover bands. The bands were good. I was the weak link in each one. But heck, we had a lot of fun and it paid the bills.

2) I grew up on British sports cars. I initially owned a Triumph Spitfire and then an MGB. After I rolled the MGB (and lived to talk about it), I opted for the TR7. It had a hard top. Because of my love for British cars, I soon learned what wiring smelled like when it shorted and I became very familiar with the inside of garages and mechanics’ bills.

I've got a secret3) I learned my first hard lesson in media relations at the 1978 Liberal Party National Convention. I was the President of the Young Liberals of Canada that year and, as was expected of Young Liberals, we sponsored a policy resolution calling for the decriminalization of marijuana. It was a slow news day and one reporter, Doug Small of Canadian Press, kept asking me whether I was supporting the resolution because I smoked marijuana myself. I dodged him through the day. But late at night in the hospitality suites, he grabbed me again. I was pretty taken by the fact that a nationally known reporter kept talking to me, so I gave him a smart alec comment that “I wouldn’t want my mother to know.” Yep. You guessed it. The headline on page one of my hometown newspaper the next day was “Young Liberal President smokes pot; doesn’t want his mother to know.”

4) The first record I ever owned was The Last Time by The Rolling Stones. I preferred the Stones to the Beatles. Street smart vs. pop.

5) My middle name is Lloyd. And yes, I took a lot of school year teasing over that one.

So, there you have it. Five things you didn’t know about Joe Thornley. And probably don’t care to know.
Now, to pass it on. I hope that Jeremiah Owyang, Shel Holtz, Josh Hallett, Tod Maffin, and Michael O’Connor Clarke will share with us five secrets about themselves.

76design's Bored of Cork!

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The new 76design Website incorporates a really neat web tool that the 76designers have developed: Bored of Cork.

Bored of Cork

Visitors to the 76design Website can use Bored of Cork to write and place sticky pad notes directly on the site. In this way, you can join us in creating our collective space.

Bored of Cork is the first project to come out of 76labs, the “playground” that the 76designers established to provide a focal point for the new ideas, experiments and playing around that turns them on.

We hope you like the Bored of Cork tool. If you do, please tell us. And if you think we can make it better, we’d like to hear about that too.

Bored of Cork. Enjoy.

What do you think of our "Social Media Websites?"

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76designMy colleagues at 76design have launched their new Website. I think it rocks! And I hope you like it as well.

The 76design site is a companion to the Thornley Fallis site. Both sites are built around the blog and podcast content of the employees who work at the companies. This “social media design” enables visitors to learn about the companies through the blog postings of the people who work here. People like Michael O’Connor Clarke, Chris Clarke, Terry Fallis, the PR Girlz, the 76design team and me.

Thornley FallisWe designed our Websites this way because we understand that companies are in essence the people who work for them. And we want visitors to come to know us through the eyes of our people. If we are successful in creating an environment that attracts and supports creative, thoughtful people who are passionate about their work, this will show through. And we will be successful.

At least that’s our belief. And as time passes, we’ll test this belief through experience.

Please let me know what you think of our sites. Do you like the approach? Does it work? How can it be improved?

Have you had experience with Expertclick.com and the Yearbook of Experts?

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Yearbook of ExpertsHave you had any experience with Expertclick.com, which publishes the Yearbook of Experts? If so, please tell me whether it was good, bad or indifferent.

Expertclick offers its paying members an opportunity to list their biographies and areas of expertise in a searchable database and a printed Yearbook of Experts. In addition, they also offer their paying members the opportunity to publish monthly news releases on a release wire which they claim is distributed to over 11,000 journalists. Finally, they claim more than a million hits per month on their website.
One of my clients has asked me whether he should pay the $2495 US listing fee to appear in the Yearbook of Experts and to use their weekly news release service. I haven’t used this service before. So, I’m hoping to get some feedback on whether the actual results justify an investment of this type.
If you have used this service, I’d appreciate it if you could leave a comment or email me to let me know if it met your expectations. Did it yield any real results for you or your clients? Did reporters actually use it to identify sources for articles?

Thank you to anyone who can help me with this research.

Moving Day

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Moving Day - 76designSo, you’re really busy. Business is booming. New people are joining the company. You’re bursting at the seams.

What’s a good way to throw a spanner in the works? Well, move the office to bigger space.

At last, I’m unpacked. It’s good to be here. But, am I ever behind in my work – and my posting.

Moving Day - Joe's office

A session I'd like to see at Mesh 07 – Social media, Corporate Brand and Personal Brand: The Employer's Dilemma

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Mesh 06 was a seminal event for Canada’s social media community. Happily, Mark, Mathew, Mike, Rob and Stuart, have decided that one good event deserves another. And that means there will be a Mesh 2007.

Mesh ConferenceHere’s one session I hope the organizers include in this year’s program: “Social media, Corporate Brand and Personal Brand: The Employer’s Dilemma.”

In the past year, we have seen several prominent bloggers and podcasters leave their old companies for newer pastures. Some examples: PR uber blogger Steve Rubel left CooperKatz to join Edelman. Podtech made Microsoft’s prize blogger Robert Scoble an offer he didn’t want to refuse. Blogging reporter Mark Evans decamped the National Post for the excitement of new media startup, b5media. And close to (my) home, Fleishman Hillard recruited David Jones from my company, Thornley Fallis.

In each case, these bloggers had been encouraged (or permitted, in Mark’s case) to blog by their original employers. In each case, they built up their own personal brand. And in each case, their personal brand and their employer’s brand were closely linked.

Then they left. And their now former employers were challenged by this departure. What did it say about the company that they had chosen to leave? What did it do to the company’s brand? Did it diminish it? How did each company react?

I think a discussion on this topic could yield some valuable insight into how employers should approach the challenge of encouraging blogging employees while recognizing that their success makes it more likely that they will be more mobile than other employees. What attitude should they take to employee bloggers? Can companies develop enduring brand equity through the activities of these bloggers or will their equity and good will depart with them? Do traditional approaches to Intellectual Property apply or do we need a new set of rules?

I hear these questions from many of the business executives who discuss blogging with me. I think that a good panel of employers and bloggers who have already experienced this social media effect would provide insight that others can apply in future.

What do you think? Would you attend a session like this? How about panelists? Who would you like to hear discussing this topic?

As if things weren't already bad enough for the PR industry

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Merchants of DeathZap2it reports that NBC is developing a television series pilot based on “Thank You for Smoking,” the movie adaptation of Christopher Buckley’s novel.

For those who missed it, the movie/novel’s protagonist, Nick Naylor, is a PR spokesman/lobbyist for Big Tobacco. He consorts with fellow “Merchants of Death” who represent the gun and alcohol lobbies. While ultimately Naylor emerges with a vestige of integrity, the overall context portrays PR at its worst: amoral, facile and mercenary.

If this one gets picked up for the prime time season, PR practitioners everywhere should get used to friends failing to return telephone calls and neighbours’ kids refusing to come out and play with their children.