Don't Worry, Be Happy

As an optimist, I love stories that show the positive benefits of a good mood. Here's another, with emphasis on starting the day happy. Smile as you watch.

Still Haven't Learned

It continues to surprise me so many organizations are AFRAID of their employees use of social media websites.  I guess I understand why, but if they don't trust them, why did the hire them in the first place?  Here's an example from Sam Houston State University, which wanted the right to edit the social media website postings of anyone with a campus account. 

Again, as Chris Brogan stated at the 2011 PRSA International Conference, organizations should be looking to "get everyone involved" in their social media activities.  It is encouraged, of course, to have social media guidelines at your organization.  Here's a good example from IBM.

"Make the Customer the Hero"

One of the keynote speakers at the 2011 PRSA International Conference was Chris Brogan, an influential social media expert.  Chris shared a number of insightful one liners that really made me think about my individual presence on social media and how I can teach social media  to public relations' students.  Here are some quotes I found useful:

• Make the customer the hero
• Talk about other people on Twitter (rather than yourself)
• Record more video
• Exposure is not leverage
• Get your whole organization active in social media
• Facebook should not be your home base.  Get your own website
• Google+ is important because of searchability through the Google search engine

It's that last point I need to get a start on, as I have been delaying acquiring a Google+ account.  His reasoning to avoid the procrastination, though, makes sense.  Below is a video from PRSA with Chris speaking about media relations.

Round and Round

OK, I know I said I was going to blog the next few days about the 2011 PRSA International Conference, but I simply had to share this article and video with you from the Wall Street Journal about the reemergence of cassette tapes.  I love cassette tapes!  When I did more radio play-by-play of sporting events, I would record many of my games and listen to them.  I also bought most of my music on cassette tapes until about 1990.  One good point the article makes is a cassette tape makes it more likely you'll listen to every song on the album more than once, since it's not so easy to skip tracks.  Ah, the good ol' days!

PRSA International Conference

Over the next few days I'll be posting some thoughts regarding the 2011 PRSA International Conference in Orlando.  As you can see from the first photo, the setting at the JW Marriott was gorgeous.   

My overall takeaway from the conference is this:  Find what's newsworthy and tell it with passion and from the audience's perspective. 

 Soledad O'Brien, who gave a wonderful opening keynote address, said statistics are not a story.  Who those statistics affect and how they're impacted is a story.  She would know; Soledad is one of the better documentary producers on television today.

 I'll post more from my six days in Orlando in the coming days.

Is a Tablet Essential?

In one of my classes I generate a discussion about whether access to the internet is an essential part of today's world or merely a "want" or convenience.  Most students tend to settle on the convenience side of the argument, though I have a feeling if you took computers, the internet and their phones away from them for any length of time their thoughts on the topic might change.

I raise the issue in this post because of this news story that describes a $35 tablet computer now being offered by the government in India to help lift those who live in the countryside out of poverty.  This struck me as odd seeing as how the Associated Press reports there are still hundreds of thousands of Indian villagers without basic necessities like electricity and clean water.  While I'm all in favor of providing access to as much information as possible, I guess I'd like to see the government in India help their citizens take care of other basic necessities first.  

Learning New Things

I've been spending the past couple of days at strategic planning training for the university. While the main focus is a basic SWOT analysis, the method of implementation has been interesting. There is a lot of individual contributions, even though we're in a fairly large group of 40+. Providing input has felt easy, which is a credit to the trainer Pat Sanaghan.  In fact, I have learned several techniques that I will likely try in my classes to increase student participation.  Anything to get students motivated and talking is at least worth a shot!