Two Things That Go Great Together: E-Waste and Chocolate

Posted on 10. Oct, 2011 by

Fall is here, and lucky for us – this past weekend was a beautiful one throughout New England.

Kristena and Nicole were at E-Waste Recycling Event in Manchester, NH which was held by Small Dog Electronics.  Small Dog hosts these free events in Vermont and New Hampshire each year collecting tons of electronic waste. They partner with WeRecycle who ensures that all of this waste is recycled responsibly in the USA. It’s a fun time for our team to have the chance to work side by side with our clients and seeing smiling customers who are doing the right thing – recycling responsibly!

Elizabeth and Ken were hosting reporters for PMG client Lake Champlain Chocolates. We partnered with Stowe Mountain Lodge to host our media guests, where they were feted. Our team then headed up to the factory in Burlington with the media for an in depth tour and some hands on experience with the chocolate. We rounded the day out with a fantastic lunch at the Farmhouse followed by a cheese, chocolate and beer pairing.  Here’s a shot from the factory floor… and from what we heard they were able to taste the product coming right off the line… LUCKY!

Oh, and no food event is complete without a picture of Ken in his hair net and lab coat!  [Editors note: look at the top of the blog, soon Ken will not require the hair net... ;) ]

 

Will You Be My Friend?

Posted on 28. Jun, 2011 by

I’m stuck not knowing what to do, here. On an almost daily basis I am getting friend requests from people I have not met before – or, at least I don’t think I have. You see, I do a lot of public speaking, guest lectures at colleges, and attend many networking events. I blog, tweet, and publish my writing whenever I can. So, one might say I am a pretty public person. Though I would not consider myself a “public figure”.

Here’s the issue: with all of these new found “friends”, who I will enjoy getting to know and network with, how do I manage my privacy? I have a family and friends who I share information with about life, post pictures, etc. that I do not necessarily want to share with the general public.

At first, I was managing this well. I only used Facebook for actual friends and drove all professional contacts to LinkedIn. Then I started confirming friend requests of associates, clients and people I met at trade shows and events. I created groups and went through and tagged each person (a tedious task), and then set permissions. This worked… for awhile. I found that this could be a cumbersome process and made me evaluate each and every person. I had (or still have) too many categories or buckets to qualify people into and they are starting to become too mixed.

Some people manage their social media connections with the “accept everyone” mentality. That is just not for me. Others have set parameters for the various tools, similar to how I was managing Facebook and LinkedIn previously. Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motor Company, has done this on LinkedIn stating he will only accept connections who he has personally met. Given how LinkedIn works, this is a good idea. After all if you accept someone into your circle, they can network with your other connections. Spelling it out in your profile is a great idea. Scott has also established a Facebook profile and a public figure Facebook page for himself.

By no means do I have Scott’s following or have I achieved any sort of celebrity, but I think he’s on to something here.

So, I’m going to organize my social presence as follows:

  • Facebook personal page: a place where I communicate with friends and family and share my non business life
  • Facebook public figure page: a place where I share my business life, stories, failures, successes, and engage with people I connect with professionally. Family pictures and stories will be spared from this page
  • LinkedIn: a place where I network with people that I have met and would be happy to make connections with and for

And then the dozens of other channels will remain open as they have been.

How do you manage your online profiles? Any tricks or tips you can share?

 

 

 

SxSW Day 2: “We all have #tigerblood”

Posted on 13. Mar, 2011 by

Woah. What a FULL day. I got a late start and missed about 15-minutes of my first session, which was a real loss, but I caught up fast and then kept pace throughout the rest of the day squeezing in a few meetings along the way.

I am adding in transcripts of the twitter streams as many attendees are live-tweeting these events. I tend to bounce back and forth from taking notes on the iPad and tweeting and reading tweets during sessions. Somehow, I cobble all of this together – and it works for me. Here’s my notes and thoughts from the sessions that I attended, followed by links to each twitter transcript:

Brave New World: Debating Brands’ Role as Publishers
Let me first begin with the fact that I have a HUGE professional crush on NPR’s Tom Ashbrook (really, who doesn’t?) who moderated this panel. So, it started off well even though I sat on the floor (my penalty for being late).

  • How will you get the attention of customers without telling compelling stories across your channels?
  • One you connect with customers, how do you keep their attention?
  • Marketers have a lot to learn if they want to become publishers.
  • Earning customers trust… You can do this be becoming curators of content – not just pushing your message
  • Nobody (brands) is asking why they need to use social media anymore… They know they have to do it, they just have to figure out how.
  • You won’t be successful as a brand unless you are fighting for “mindshare” (Joe Pulizzi)
  • Signal strength is an issue but active citizens can overcome that. A good example is BP – the brand had great strength, but the PEOPLE helped reveal the truth.

My apologies for not being able to attribute all of the points above – I just could not see who was saying what from the floor. Here’s the Twitter transcript for #curatedebate.


To Reply or Not to Reply? Facebook Conversations

I have attended a few Core Conversations in the past, and they either work really well or they bomb. This one surpassed my expectations. Lead conversationalist, Jeannette Arrowood did a good job sparking conversation, keeping the dialog going, and keeping people on track. I took fewer notes here, and the session seemed to fly by – but for what it’s worth, this is what I wrote down:

  • Businesses big and small need to decide if they bring someone in or manage social media from inside. If it is the former, it has to be authentic. How do you achieve this?
  • Monitoring tools vary depending on needs, here’s some that were mentioned: Hyper Alerts, Shoutlet, Ubervu, Social Mention, and Social News Desk (for news rooms).
  • Facebook insights and admin capabilities have changed. Be sure you understand their full capabilities.

Here’s the Twitter transcript for #fbreplyornot.

I did attend the Keynote with Seth Priebatsch of SCVNGR and have a TON of notes, which will make for another stand-alone post. For now, you can see the Twitter transcript here.

Bloggers vs. Journalists: It’s a Psychological Thing
This was an interesting session. The presentation was very quote heavy, but that format did work to spark conversation during the Q&A section of the session. As much as I like Jay Rosen, I would have liked to have heard more from co-presenter Lisa Williams, who did not speak until the Q&A, and that was very limited. Here’s what I jotted down:

  • There’s an old rule in sports journalism which is still handed down from older journalist to younger: No cheering in the press box.
  • Bill Keller of the New York Times wrote “All the Aggregation That’s Fit to Aggregate” to appear on Sunday. According to Jay Rosen, Keller is incorrect in thinking that the New York Times does not aggregate—it does when it publishes a review of a movie, restaurant, play, etc.
  • “Bloggers will not replace journalists” – Andrew Marr
  • John Case of the Chicago Tribune writes, “Tribune writers use their own names and are accountable for what they write.” Julie DiCaro from Tribune owned Chicago Now site retorted, “Being derided by reporters at the Tribune for no apparent reason probably isn’t the best way to attract new bloggers to the Tribune’s network. And, if I’m being honest, grumbling about bloggers these days is tantamount to yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off your lawn. It makes you look really, really old.”
  • From the Washington Post’s social media guidelines: “When using these networks, nothing we do must call into question the impartiality of our news judgment. We never abandon the guidelines that govern the separation of news from opinion, the importance of fact and objectivity, the appropriate use of language and tone, and other hallmarks of our brand of journalism.”
  • “Kids are not going to see Google and the New York Times as separate industries,” said Lisa Williams. Geeks are helping to transform this.

Here’s the Twitter Transcript for #bvj

Welcome to the EGOsystem: How Much are You Worth?

When a session starts with the moderator saying, “Everyone at SxSW is running around with #tigarblood in them” – you just never know how it’s going to go. I was half expecting Charlie Sheen to make a cameo, but that did not happen.

I was really looking forward to this panel and was surprised that it was not more well attended, but that was most likely as it was the last session of the day and had to compete with the parties and happy hours starting. Brian Solis moderated the panel. If you know anything about Brian, you understand that he is an extremely intelligent guy who can articulate how and why people engage using social media. Brian was joined by Arnie Gullov-Singh and Sean Rad of Ad.ly, Joe Fernandez CEO of Klout, and filmmaker Jon Chu.

For me, the big takeaways for the intro from Brian were that you should know how you are being perceived online. Tools like Klout and PeerIndex (among others) can help you determine what this is. Why should you care? Well, increasingly brands are evaluating your scores and who you are and making decisions on how they treat and interact with you. And if you’re “big on Twitter” and you are able to mobilize your audience, this is of particular importance to many brands.

Thanks to Brian Solis for putting this session on.

I caught a little of the intros on video… here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Here’s the Twitter transcript of the session.

After all of this, I was able to meet up with the guys from Comcast who will be at the March #BTVSMB event on Social Customer Service. If you are in Vermont and planning on attending, get your tickets NOW… you won’t be disappointed.

From Austin… bring on day three.

SxSW Interactive: Day 1

Posted on 12. Mar, 2011 by

I am in Austin, TX this weekend for the interactive part of SxSW. Here, I’ll be attending educational sessions and networking events… and maybe a party or two with other social media, digital, advertising and public relations professionals in an effort to learn more about what is to come in the interactive field. My particular focus is on communications, journalism, and social good. Over the next few days I will blog about what I’ve taken away from the event. You may also follow me on Twitter for more up-to-the-minute updates.

I attended three sessions on Friday… here’s what I thought was most useful:

Writing Workshop with @BettyDraper: Saying It Short
Helen Klien Ross was a great presenter and made a lot of great points. The biggest take away for me was to review your social bios – what have you said about yourself? Don’t be bland.

Here’s the rest of my notes:

  • Don’t belabor in social media.
  • It’s much more important what you say and when you say it.
  • Elmore Leonard said it right: “Never use a verb other than ”said” to carry dialogue”
  • It’s not about telling it all… it’s about telling it right.
  • Say it different.
  • What others say about you is important to your story.

Why Everything is Amazing But Nobody is Happy
I have to say, I had high hopes for this session, but 20-minutes in, I was not feeling like I chose the best session to fit my needs. This session was a “Core Conversation”. So, I left the session early. What I did take from it was something that I need to reinforce in my own life – which is TURN OFF THE PHONE. It is so easy to get caught up in your technology and not be present with the people you are with IRL (aka in real life). Those spending time with you do deserve your attention… so give it to them and be good, old-fashioned respectful. (note: not always possible – but something to strive for)

Not My Job: The Ultimate Content Strategy Smackdown
This was a GREAT and lively panel. I was a few minutes late, meaning I did not get to the session until 10-minutes before it was scheduled to begin, and I got the very last seat in the room. This session was so popular that the speakers repeated it immediately following the scheduled session to another FULL room. Rather than list all of my notes on this session, check out what I had to tweet as well as others here. The biggest takeaway for me was a reinforcement of the fact that you need to build the content strategy first by performing the classic marketing function of defining your audience, determining what “language” they speak, and then as the brand – speaking that language so nothing is lost in translation.

On to day 2…

PR Bag of Tricks: Vlingo

Posted on 27. Oct, 2010 by

Each week we will highlight one tool from our PR bag of tricks. This could range from “old school” books or gadgets to a social media tool or client… and anything in between. Feel free to give your feedback on each tool/trick and tell us about yours.

What is one tool, app, website, etc. that you love at the moment? Without a doubt, Vlingo has changed my life. I’m not joking. HUGE props to PMGer, Tom Kupfer, who brought this app to my attention. For living at a million miles an hour, like MANY flacks – this is the perfect tool!

Why? I have been a Palm user for MANY years and recently switched to the HTC EVO. Poof!! No more handy keyboard (or little mirror on the back of my Pre – which I would have said is the best thing – so handy for reapplication of lip gloss ;) – and I now have to type on the screen, which is no easy feat! Vlingo is an app for your smartphone that is voice recognition software that translates your voice into text. It follows directions and is super say to use. For example, I say: “Text Ken Liatsos. Message Don’t forget to do billing.” This is converted to a sms text on my phone and assigned to the proper contact in my address book. It then appears on the screen for me to approve and press send. For life on the go – in cars, running through airports, walking in town, etc. – this makes outbound communication really easy.

But wait! There’s more! Vlingo also reads me all of my inbound text communications – including text messages, emails tweets and Facebook posts. This is invaluable when driving – eyes stay on the road, hands stay on the wheel and you don’t miss a beat!

How do you use it? I use it in my car with my Bluetooth. I have been known to use it when I do not want to have to fight with the screen-based keyboard. It is amazingly accurate, though you do have to speak slowly which can be a challenge for me.