Strategic Public Relations:

12/30/2008

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.”

Posted on 12/30/2008 at 11:02 PM in Advertising, Marketing, Public Relations, The Brand Called Me, wtf? | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

12/14/2008

Cincinnati is Hungry for (Social Media) Breakfast

Social Media Breakfast, Bryan Person’s experiment, has spread worldwide and Cincinnati’s version has brought together a great list of speakers, sponsors and attendees.

Person founded Social Media Breakfast in August 2007 as “an event where social media experts and newbies alike come together to eat, meet, share, and learn.”

Albert Maruggi planted the seed here in Cincinnati and hosted the first breakfast while passing through on business. From there MarketWire and Enquirer Media have sponsored PimpMyNews’ John Atkinson and Nielsen Online’s Pete Blackshaw as speakers.

Game Day Communications is sponsoring ShareThis CEO Tim Schigel on Tuesday at The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.

Content Marketing
The topic is content marketing. In a recent presentation for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, I discussed how we’ve moved from creating sticky sites to creating multiple streams of content that can be moved around the web by customers.

I cited a presentation noting Barack Obama’s online campaign for the presidency as a prime example of this. MyBarackObama.com enabled his supporters to get the word out about their candidate. Obama also created an official presence on other social networks. As a result, MyBarackObama.com, despite being his primary site, accounted for only 25 percent of his online supporters.

ShareThis brings us one of the tool’s critical to making this concept possible. We’re excited Tim Schigel is able to join us.

The Cincinnati Social Media Breakfast event has become exponentially popular. Attendance doubled from the first event to the second and has been capped at 40 attendees per event. The second breakfast sold out in less than 24 hours. The third event in 12 and Tuesday morning’s event sold out in 6 hours.

Get Involved
Between the above math and the sell out crowd at the Chamber event last week, there is a clear demand for this type of interaction. So be sure and check out two other groups focusing on social media and networking: Cincinnati Women Bloggers and New Media Cincinnati.

And If you’re out of market and find yourself in Cincinnati in the future? Let me know. You could possibly attend or perhaps even speak at a future event.