Strategic Public Relations

Free Agent Nation 2.0

The news media have been making a lot of historic comparisons when serving up various economic statistics. The journalists are simply trying to depict the level of economic turmoil around us. But, more often than not, their readers are already living it.

In fact I started working four-day weeks in January. So I launched a new site promoting my consulting practice. It’s hard to believe I’ve had my vanity URL parked since March 11, 2000. But nine years later, I proudly launched kevindugan.com.

And the timing couldn’t be better for my launch. As of April 1, I became a full-time, free agent. So my silence here has been due to my full frontal consulting efforts. I’m also exploring full-time opportunities.

Powered by Ample
The site was created in Ruby on Rails by the team at Ample. Josh, Rob, Bobby, Kevin and Adam do great work and I enjoyed working with them.

Eating my own Dog Food
The site design is based around the concept of content distribution, something I’ve written about before. The definition of content has changed and, more importantly, how content can be shared and served up in new ways. Kevindugan.com serves up my content from a variety of online properties. I’ve aggregated these content streams into one site to “get credit” for all of it in one spot.

So I appreciate your patience as my reports might be a little spotty until I either settle comfortably into free agent nation or find another full-time gig. In the meantime, there’s plenty more on the concept of slippery content to dig into. Henry Jenkins calls it ”spreadable media.” Check it out, stop by my shiny new site and watch this space for (so. very. much.) more.

A Tale of Two Syndromes

The more you talk with people about the “next shiny new thing,” the more you see camps of thought evolve around it. Each camp is rapt with a unique syndrome.

One Thing Syndrome
Let’s be honest, it’s annoying when a wave of hype hits around the next shiny new thing. It’s deemed to be a “killer” of the last technology everyone had tattooed on their laptops and distracts everyone from Arrington to ZDNet.

Instead of distilling this hype and figuring out what the new technology means to them, some people learn the “one thing” about it with which they disagree. It’s one negative element that allows them to pigeonhole the entire topic, concept, technology website or even a political figure for that matter.

“Twitter asks ‘what are you doing’ and WHY would I care about what Joe had for lunch?”

And if Twitter comes up in conversation? You can see them tune out as they wait to tell you their one thing, regardless of how relevant it is, like Pavlov's pooch.

The cure for this is trying the technology out for yourself and forming your own opinion. I’m proof of this as I used to have a slight case of One Thing Syndrome. It manifested itself in this cartoon.

Everything Syndrome
At the other extreme, we have the Everything Syndrome where folks act quite the opposite of those with One Thing Syndrome.

“Twitter has changed my life and it’s changing communication as we know it. A friend of my brother’s heard Twitter healed a boy with smallpox. It cures more disease than Robitussin. It’s cleaning my oven right now.”

Everything Syndrome hits people that are more than just passionate about the next shiny new thing. In fact they’re blind with appreciation for the new topic, concept, technology website or political figure. This translates into effusive praise which gives the next shiny new thing more Google juice than any technology is worthy of receiving.

The cure for this is a mantra reminding yourself that every next shiny new thing is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Focus on the larger puzzle before you tattoo “next shiny new” on your forearm.

To be honest, the above syndromes are completely understandable. But the truth is somewhere in the middle. So when the next shiny new technology comes up in conversation, consider if the person you’re talking to has one of these syndromes or if they have been cured with a healthy dose of pragmatism.

Let’s p0wn 09

"PR's here today and gone tomorrow. It don't mean nothing."

When I read the above quote from a 42-year public relations industry veteran upon his retirement, my jaw dropped and my blood boiled.

To be fair the 72-year old pro was pointing to a career achievement that made a positive impact and will serve as his legacy. He was saying that making a positive impact is more important than your day job – regardless of your industry. But after 42 years in the public relations industry, would you want this to be your last quote in the last graph of your last story while on the job?

Whether or not I take his quote out of context, I guess my point is that if you have passion for what you do, keep doing it…well. If you want respect for what you do, earn it and then pay it forward to those earning that same respect from you.

And at the risk of sounding like Stuart Smalley, let’s step into 2009 fully aware of what we’re facing. It will be (much) harder than years past, full of change at a minimum. But we'll come out of it stronger and smarter than before. "Do not go gentle into that good night."

For 2009 lets be “here today and better tomorrow. That means something.”

The Neo Monoliths of Chicago uploaded by Stuck in Customs
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | advertising | marketing

Daryl Toor is a Tool

This is being posted here while Blogger holds the Bad Pitch blog hostage.

I'll spare you the explanation of why I posted this.

But I would like to extend my sympathies  to the families of Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes.

Subject: Is Samuel Jackson Next? Death Comes in Threes…

From: Daryl Toor
Date: August 10, 2008 9:23:38 PM EDT

Yesterday, it was Bernie Mac. Today it was Isaac Hayes. Could Samuel Jackson be next?

Daryl Toor, president of Attention!, an Atlanta based publicity firm, a former music reviewer and record company executive notes:

"This photograph, taken from Isaac Hayes' official site is as eerie as the time I read a newspaper obituary on its own obituary writer…."

Daryl Toor
CEO & Chief Awareness Officer
email, phone
agency URL

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | good pitch | bad pitch | bad pitch blog

Blogger Blocks the Bad Pitch Blog

Last week there was a snafu at Blogger and a robot mistakenly identified a lot of blogs as being spam. Blogger claims to have fixed that problem.

Then on Monday, the Bad Pitch blog was locked out. Nearly a week later, we’re still waiting to get access. Somehow it’s fitting I’m alerting you via my Typepad blog.

PR Week Competition
One of the first posts we need to publish will congratulate Vove Nation for their win in the PR Week blog competition. Both of our blogs had more votes than anyone in the first round of competition (A and B) so far. It's hard to be anything but thankful for all of the folks who voted for us. And losing to folks like Josh Hallett and Mike Manuel at Voce Nation is easy to accept.

Nothing is Free
It’s hard being patient waiting for a human at Blogger to correct a robot’s mistake. And it’s been impossible for me to find a phone number or email to an actual Blogger employee. In the meantime, Blogger has our data…our posts, our code – everything.

Find us on Facebook
While we figure out our next move, we created a fan page for the Bad Pitch blog on Facebook to keep in touch with folks.

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | bad pitch blog

Online vs. Offline Reading | Friday Flickr Fix | 08.01.08

From the “kids get off my lawn!” department:

It bugs me when people treat social media as a final destination. Social media is part of a circuit that’s completed through personal interactions. Terms like lifestreaming imply that someone’s whole life is online. And, well, it’s not.

This adds to my growing concern around online’s unintentional negative impact. Take reading for example. Part of my attachment to print media is nostalgic. And I realize that the newspaper industry’s failure to evolve its business model is bringing its current pains.

But Andy Lark points us to an article noting how we read can impact our critical thinking.

Back to my nostalgia, and the point of this post…at the Mercantile Library’s First Annual Cincinnati Blogger convention, I spoke with the library’s Executive Director, Albert Pyle, about the demise of the card catalog.

While computer tracking of the books is more efficient, card catalogs offer the reader a form of discovery and I’m told sometimes contain more information about each book than most library computer systems.

The Mercantile Library cannot afford to keep its card catalog as up to date as they would like. And as a result Pyle levels a challenge to anyone that feels passionate about the card catalog system. “If you like it so much, then use it.” Point taken.

As we lose tactile experiences like the card catalog and print media, do we lose (discovery, an extra level of information) as much as we gain (efficiency, accuracy)? Or am I just showing my age?

Card Catalog – Use it or lose it uploaded by prblog
tags | public relations | PR | media

The First Mash-Up, Circa: 1977

The AP tells us that "some retailers are giving vinyl records a spin" (get it?).

This reminded me of another long-lost recording format. As I wistfully combed the results of a Google Image search for the perfect image of an Eight Track, I found evidence of the first mash-up.

The interactive 8-track looked like the average 8-track, except at the bottom, where the Atari cartridge was connected. These 8-tracks, or "double-enders" as the music/video game fanatics called them, were an instant success and proceeded to change the music industry for at least a couple of weeks.

The double-ender was a hit. Magazines like Rolling Stone and Gamers Monthly hailed the Foghat Live 8-track as the start of the new music and video game revolution. And it was, for the next four years at least, but in the end it was not enough to save the interactive 8-track from the trash heap of nostalgia.

-- Via The Van Gogh-Gogh's

Is it me, or is that guy so beyond smiling that he looks in pain? UPDATE: Yeah, it's a joke. But a guy can dream, can't he?!

You Need Serious Play*

In lieu of a Friday Flickr Fix, I’m serving up video. Last week I won a webcam and this video is the result of my special effects test. When I watched it, the Radiohead mashup came to mind. The two complement each other (and redefine goofy in the process).

This is not my first webcam or my first video. But I’m posting the video to prove a point.

Playing around with new web sites and new gadgets can lead to some serious benefits. My presentations have improved since tuning into Flickr and using video to kick off a slide deck. So this post is to encourage and inspire – while hopefully making you laugh (with me, not at me).

Far too often, I think people want to fully understand new technologies before they start using them. But instead they should just jump in, experiment and engage in serious play. *Serious play is also a design conference and a book.

Seeing is Understanding | Eternal Branding | YouTube Timeline | Self-Defense for the Online Brand | Four Links | 05.12.08

1) NewsWare | msnbc
“NewsWare is msnbc.com’s laboratory for news-infused games, tools and other experimentation.”

The games and graphic news visualizers are fun while informing. Game on.

2) Brands on Tombstones | Ad Lab
From the “ads on every inch of humanity” department, it looks like Mercedes is the car of choice amongst the Russian mafia.

Speaking of mafia, I’ll bet a horse head wake up call you’ll find examples of “eternal branding”(tm) here in the United States. Based on this anecdotal evidence, I’m willing to bet the Scarface character is one of those brands.

3) Timetube: The YouTube Video Timeline | Information Aesthetics
Anything you can do to make information easier to understand and digest is a good thing. This YouTube mash up seems to fit in that category. It looks cool too, which doesn’t hurt either. Bonus link: The Top 10 Brands That Own YouTube

4) Manage Your Online Reputation | Lifehacker
Great article that gives hope to every college kid freaked out that a recruiter might Google them and find “those pics.” Also helpful for us whiny, older folk annoyed that someone found and posted “those pics.”

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | advertising | marketing | YouTube | brand

Biting Hands That Build Feeds

No, it’s not about you.

Props to the ringmaster of reality checks, Jeremy Pepper, for inspiring this cartoon.

Comic via Build Your Own Meat