MC and the Super 8

For about four years, I worked for Malden Catholic High School as the Director of Marketing and Communications. I really enjoyed my time there. I enjoyed the dedication that the teachers and the administration put forth for the educational program. I loved connecting with the students and being part of the MC community. It was a great job and one that helped me get to where I am today.

One of the other cool aspects of the job was being able to attend a ton of sporting events - lacrosse, baseball, basketball, hockey, track, etc. During my last winter season, the hockey team really started to come to life. The hard work of the staff and the group of talent the school has collected over the past few years as the Lancers are steaming to a championship in the Super 8 Tournament. I'm convinced they are going to win the whole thing because I'm not going to the games. Every tournament game I went to during my last season, they lost. I was the jinx. I was sure of that. Well, needless to say, I'm stay far away this time.

They are a couple of games away from taking the whole enchilada.

GO LANCERS!



Side note: Major fail to the school for not updating website content. I obviously am not working there anymore. Then again, maybe I am. Read more!

Why Social Media is like Parenting

For those that have been following me on Twitter or reading this blog or just know me in general, you've probably heard me complain about the state of social media. I've been talking about how the "conversation" is not going anywhere and how it's time that "experts" start showing the world real uses of social media and product innovation like mobile apps for insurance agents (as an odd, but doable, example).

All this "talk" about the space has me thinking about how B2B companies, big consumer brands, mid-tier market players and non-profits the like can use Twitter, Facebook, Ustream, Qik, Plurk, Flickr, etc. for real and tangible interactions with their audiences - interactions that sell products, support a cause or raise money (which ever the case may be).

As I've struggled with a post on this very topic - a post with real examples of success, how-to's, etc. - I started to think about how social media is like parenting.

As a blue collar-type guy working in a white collar business, I consider myself a no non-sense thinker. I'm not going to write 700 words that will blow your socks off. I'm not going to write something so heady that it'll take you three reads to digest. I'm going to give it to you raw. And, for those that know me or follow me on Twitter or read this blog know, my first priority in life is my family.

With all that said, the wait is over, here's why I think social media is like parenting:

When you find out you're going to be a parent (in most cases), there's this wave of jubilation that crashes over you. You experience excitement and nervousness all at the same time. It's the unknown, but something that you're eager to experience. Social media is the same way. Companies are excited about using available technologies to engage with their audiences but have no clue how things will turn out. It is still the great unknown.

When the baby is born, you are sent on an emotional roller coaster. You are overwhelmed with the responsibility of taking care of another human being - feeding them, bathing them, ensuring they get enough sleep, take them to the doctor, etc. You are constantly monitoring their progress and are amazed at all the little things you notice: how they grasp your fingers; how they look when they sleep; how they scream in the middle of the night and you don't want to get up. Social media is all about discovery. Companies and organizations have a plethora of tools at their disposal, but really don't know how their audiences will react once they are engaged. Companies and organizations should constantly monitor how their program is working; what their audiences are saying about their brand; how their audiences are embracing or not embracing the "conversation." The process is forever evolving and companies and organizations need to be nimble and quick to react to changes beyond their control.

Once you think you have this parenting thing down, your son or daughter starts to crawl. No longer can you sit on the couch with the baby in one hand and a beer in another. The kid is on the move. You have to kid proof the house and make sure he or she can't snatch anything off a table that they could choke on or break. Luckily enough, you're quicker than the baby at this point so you can be prepared, sorta. Then the baby starts to walk and you find yourself constantly chasing after him or her. At this point, the kid is mobile and there's no stopping them. They want to get into everything, all the time. Social media is similar to this stage of parenting because just when you think you have your program running like a well oiled machine and all your ducks are in a row, it can blow up in your face. See the Motrin Moms case study as an example. Lesson learned here is that companies and organizations need to be prepared for the worst case scenario with all social media campaigns. Whether it's a technical or content issue, good crisis preparation and constant monitoring are keys to success. In the case of a crisis, quick strategic actions are needed to ensure the fire is put out quickly and mending can start immediately so the existence of the program is not jeopardized.

With parenting comes great rewards. The best part of my day is when I come home from work and I open the garage door. At the top of the stairs are my two girls who are beyond excited to see me. The feeling I get with that reception is something I will never forget and something that motivates me to work harder and provide everything humanly possible that my family needs and wants. With social media, the rewards are very high. Today's media landscape is such that a mommy blogger can have as big of an impact on a brand as a front page Wall Street Journal article. If executed in the right way, companies and organizations will receive a wave of support from brand evangelists who in essence will spread good will amongst your core audience. Basically, social media can fuel the fires of change in basically any corporate or non-profit environment.

Finally, as a parent you wonder how your kids will turn out as they get older. You wonder if they will do well in school. You wonder if they will get into good colleges. You wonder what career path they will choose. You wonder if they will be successful and have a family of their own. It's THE big unknown. Social media is the communications unknown. Where is this space really heading? Will Twitter ever mainstream like mobile banking? Will the investments you make up front pay off in the long run? There are just no answers, just more questions.


As you strategize about what your company or organization wants to do in the social media space, think about tangible, measurable strategies - like crawling then walking. Don't announce that you're going to be on Twitter or launching a Facebook group. How are you going to use it as it relates to your business model? What's the strategy behind it? What are you looking to get out of its use and how are you going to measure it? How will you continue to mold it so it's continuously of interest to your audience (keeping in mind the short attention span of online audiences).

Let's move the "conversation" to "conver-actions." It's time to stop the talking and time to start acting.

So you might say, "great post Don, but you're basically saying the same thing as everyone else is - all talk, no action." Well, you're right...for now. Stay tuned to the PR Finish Line - the work-related blog I write for - as we'll be rolling out something on this very topic: an actionable, tangible point of view on cause marketing with a social media slant that really can help companies and organizations move the needle.) Read more!

Avoiding Performance Review Surprises

Check out this blog post on the Juggle, a WSJ blog about the work-life balance. Read the opening line. My only comment about this is if you're the bread winner for your family, you never, ever lose sight of your responsibilities and performance at work. You do your job. You excel. You meet and beat expectations. There's too much riding on it. Be seen as a performer and a go-to person in the office. Help others even when you're at capacity. Work on things over the weekend if you have to. Do whatever it is you have to do to keep climbing the ladder and provide for your family. It's really that simple.

Avoiding Performance Review Surprises People with family responsibilities sometimes have trouble keeping their eye on the ball at work. Many of us are reminded of that as performance-review time rolls around.

This month and next are prime time for performance appraisals, reports Sarah Needleman of The Wall Street Journal. To avert nasty surprises, review the goals that were set for you in your last review, the article recommends. Then, evaluate how well you’re meeting them, and document your progress and your successes in writing. If you have any doubts, ask your supervisor what is expected.

(Via WSJ.com: The Juggle - WSJ.com.) Read more!

Annoying work habits

Listening to WFNX yesterday morning and the Sandbox characters were talking about annoying work habits. Here's a few that I've come across in my career:

- the close talker: always up in your grill when they talk to you. Best way to avoid them is to talk behind your desk.

- the linger-er: loves to chat about anything and everything. never shuts up and you can't shake 'em.

- the gossiper: fuels the hatorade cooler of the office. this person stirs it up, talks as much smack as they can about everyone in the office, including yourself to others.

- the un-PCer: we all know this person. f-bombs galore. hitting on the ladies. announces elongated trips to the john. Oh wait, that's me (less the hitting on ladies).

- the to-doer: this is the person who needs to do everything that they are assigned quickly in order to get it off their to do list. the list freaks them out and they can't handle juggling tasks.

- the energizer: this person brings a high level of energy to everything he/she does. whether it's making coffee, brainstorming, ordering supplies, going to lunch, etc. this person is a ball of energy all day, everyday. It annoys the crap out of everyone else though.

- the hobit: this is the person who sits in their cube/office all day long, just working away. no interaction with the rest of the office. no talking. no schmoozing. no networking events. no nada. the loner.

- the i'm important: this is the person that thinks he/she is above their title. they want to be in on everything. they stick their nose into business that's not theirs. they feel that the company will crumble without their help. however, for the most part, they are just a role player.

- the 9-5er: these are the peeps that clock watch. they are in right at 9 and leave right at 5. god forbid that they are their early or stay a bit later to meet deadlines.

- the complainer: we all have these too. this is the person that complains about everything, all the time, all day long. you start thinking that this person has never had a happy day in their life and that you wish they would just jump out of the window and go away.

- the "guy": we all have these people too. it's the guy/gal who is the IT person, but they are not the IT person. This person thinks they know everything about computers and can fix any problem. they are a nightmare to the REAL IT people because these folks get into the kitchen and move all the pots and pans around.

I know I'm missing some, so let's hear 'em people. Post your most annoying work habits. Read more!

Social Network preferences tied to ethnicity

Read this story this morning about a recent study on online behaviors. It talks about the online habits of males vs. females, Hispanics and African-Americans. The cross section of data is interesting to me as a PR professional and one who looks to infuse digital PR into all our client programs.

Data like this is critical to hacks like me because the PR/marketing/communication game has become so one-to-one or very granular. Shotgun approaches are dead. The tough thing is to get our hands on real data like this. It's becoming harder and harder to track online usage patterns and even harder to marketing to specific groups without that data.

Wish there were more resources out there that we, as PRs, can use to help with client programs. If we're really embracing a free Internet, such data should also be free.

Read more!

My Joe Burgantino story

Rumor has it investigative reporter Joe Burgantino is yet another veteran TV reporter who is departing from WBZ-TV. See ya later Joe. The Boston TV landscape is better off with out you.

Why am I hating on Joe?

I had an incident where I was working a crisis assignment for a client. It was a high profile case and the media was all over my client like white on rice. After repeated calls from Joe and other journalists, the media started to get frustrated because they weren't given access to anyone within the organization to conduct interviews.

Joe, being the pompus a-hole he is, called the office one morning and made a comment to me that attacked me personally, my character, and my profession. I can't get into all the details because of the sensitivity of the case, but needless to say I was shocked as to what he said to me. I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle him. It was probably the rudest I've ever been treated on the job or just in general. I've dealt with some rude people before - lots of them being TV "journalists." Joe was by far the worst.

Every time he'd call the office to request an interview, he got ruder and ruder. My tolerance for his lack of professionalism brought me to the point where I was extremely close to confronting him in person. Cooler heads prevailed and I let his childish antics go.

So Joe, if you're reading this, I hope that McDonalds or Burger King will hire you because as an investigative reporter, you were horrible. You never broke any real news. You often got beat by your competitors. And you looked like Beavis on camera.

The Boston media landscape is better off without you. Read more!

How photography is like PR

I have my first wedding of the season today. I'm honored that Lindsey and Billy selected me to part of their special day. As I was cleaning my equipment last night and mentally prepping for the shoot, I started to think about how both of my careers (photography and PR) are very similar.

With photography, you have to do a good deal of preparation before the shoot. You have to make sure your equipment is clean. Your memory cards are formatted. Camera settings are ready. Your shot list is finalized. Finally, you communicate often with the client to ensure their needs are met.

In PR, all you do is prepare. You prepare for client crisis', upcoming news and announcements, events, etc. It's critical in PR to ensure that your messaging is fine tuned (like equipment). Additionally, you want to make sure that all your marketing materials and external communication vehicles are well written and on-message (shot list). Lastly, PR is all about client service. Make sure the client is happy. Do what they need you do to and do what they don't expect you to do. Keep 'em happy and get results. Read more!

The thrill of the chase

No matter how long I've been in the PR business, the blood flows a lot faster when I've nailed a media opp for a client.

Today I landed an opp with the Associated Press for the YMCA of Greater Boston. The story is about teens and summer jobs. The Y does a fantastic job at getting kids off the street and getting them in constructive, life-lesson type programs as well as jobs. Mission driven orgs like the Y are a sore sight in a world that's filled with teen violence. Props to the Y and other orgs like it for doing their part. Read more!

Catching up on bloggy goodness

Been extremely busy as of late, which has contributed to the neglect of this blog. We couldn't be busier at work, which is great. New business pipeline is full and we're pumping out proposals faster than Former NY Gov. Spitzer was spitting out "I'm sorry's." As part of our efforts to keep the pipeline full, we launched a blog. Actually, the blog is part of a larger marketing campaign targeting the top 400 private and public companies and organizations in the state of MA (with a few odd balls in between). We've developed an eight week post card campaign that touches upon eight different PR/communication issues. Each card has a call to action, which is visiting the blog to find out more about the topic. It's a traditional direct mail campaign with a digital twist. So far so good as we're seeing some traction in terms of visitors and RSS feed subscribers. If things work out the way we hope, the rest of the year will be extremely busy...which is a good thing.

On to some personal tech things.

I have a computer that's about two years old. It was built by the computer club at Malden Catholic High School, my previous employer and one that I won in a raffle. It runs well and has a ton of hard drive space and RAM (as I've tweaked it here and there to maximize its use). Recently, however, I've experienced slow performance. Come to find out, I have been experiencing some memory leaks. A number of the applications I would normally run started to use more RAM than they were supposed to. I've yet to isolate the issue, but have since googled each of the applications that are using too much memory and have had to patch them and tweak other system utilities to get the machine running smooth again. It's a pain in the butt. I can totally see how non-tech consumers go out and buy new machines when their's is "running slow." It's a very complex thing. PC's are a nightmare IMHO. I am yearning to go Mac.



Since I've had my newest toy this yearning over everything Apple has increased. To add salt to the wound, my brother in law just bought an iPhone. I have never had the case of tech envy in my life since playing around with that thing. Yea, the iTouch is great, but it's nothing like the iPhone...well, maybe it's similar, but it's just in a different league.

Here are my issues though:

1. Verizonwireless is my provider and has been for a long time. I like them. Network is great.

2. I need access to work email. Yes, I know they are starting to roll out enterprise solutions for the iPhone, however, it doesn't include the antiquated system we are using - Lotus Notes.

3. I need at least 32 gigs. I've had two other iPods before I got my hands on the iTouch. Each time, I've had at least 20 gigs to play with. With all the music I listen to, videos I watch, TV shows I download, I use at least 15-25 gigs. the iPhone comes in 8 and 16.

4. The AT&T contract with Apple expires in 2012 I think. That really stinks. I don't know if I can wait that long. What if they sign up with AT&T again...keeping VZW and other providers out? Then I might have to force myself to switch. Not sure I can stomach the hassle and BS to make that happen. I guess we'll have to wait and see how this plays out. In the meantime, I'm addressing my tech envy with the iPod touch and it's working, sorta, kinda.

The last bit of tech news comes in the form of virus protection. I finally got rid of Nortons (because it was hogging my system resources) and went with AVG. It's a not so well known anti-virus software package that also monitors the websites you go to for malicious stuff that's embedded in the pages. It's great so far. It's not a RAM hog either.

Last bit of news I'll share is that my god daughter had her first baby the other day. Check out the post over at my photog site for a pic. It reminds me of when my kids were born. You forget that sort of stuff because everything happens so fast. You forget how small and fragile they are. You forget that all they do is sleep and eat. You forget how light they are. You forget that they like to be tightly wrapped like a burrito. It reminds you of how quickly they grow up. It's nuts.

That's it for now. As they say in the tweeners world, l8tr. Read more!

Work & Blogging

I realize that I do my own part in terms of generating online content. I blog in three places (here, here and here. I have a twitter feed. I tumble. I pownce. I also have a "pulse". Lastly, I'm on myspace and facebook.

I never, never, never, talk directly about work, those I work with, clients, etc. It's just a bad practice.

See this as an example. Read more!

Don't cry, you might get fired

Interesting story about crying in work.

Read more!

Love free lunch

Today, we are dining on:


...for lunch, courtesy of the office. Love free lunches. Read more!

This is how monday's make me feel

Read more!

TMI

One of the dangers of blogging is that you can let the entire world into your world, your personal, intimate world.

For example, I work with this young lady and I enjoy reading her stuff. It's all about being a professional and being a mom at the same time. Tough job to do. Her child cut his first tooth.

That's not the story. Read more for the TMI portion. Read more!

The problems of a gadget guy

Being a gadget guy, I'm always looking to get my hands on the latest and greatest. On the other hand, I'm a family man and am supporting a wife and two kids.

See my dilemma?

My latest tech crush is on the Blackberry Pearl 8130.


I am not nuts about the SureType keyboard. I like the full qwerty keyboard of the 8830 World Edition that I currently own (and wish work would pay for in terms of the service).

I used to have a tech crush on the iPhone, but really need access to work email wherever I am. It's the nature of the PR business. Client crisis' happen all the time. The media needs stuff. Clients want feedback, have requests and are always checking in on ya.

Long story short. Being a gadget guy and being a family guy just doesn't mix. It's like oil and water. They mash around for a while, but really never get in sync. Read more!

Stay at home dad?

Interesting piece over at the WSJ about being a stay at home dad. The reporter reflects on whether or not he could do it. That got me thinking, could I be a stay at home dad?

Hell yea! All I'd have to do is give the kids crap to play with all day long and I'd be all set to watch espn news over and over and over again. No more Dora. No more Super Why. No more Little Einsteins.

It would be Daddy's Sports World. All day. Every day. And oh yea, I'd get a little photography in here and there. Read more!

Sharing work stories with the spouse

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting blog post on their site today, asking how much people share work stories with their spouse when they get home.

I find this interesting. Most of the women who have commented share as much as they can, look for feedback, etc. The guys, we don't care. Once we leave work, it's a wrap. Unless I have something dramatic going on at work, got a fat raise, or there's something going on that Mrs. Big Guy needs to know, I don't bring work home. It's boring. I don't want to bother her with it. She doesn't like the gossip and the drama (as most women do), but there's really not much of that going on these days at the PR shop. Read more!