I was recently inspired by a friend @NicFletch‘s recent post which shared her longing for a blogging throne in her future life. I was so excited by the idea of a place that would cater to your preferences and allow your creative juices to flow that I quickly set out to find my ideal version of the ultimate blogging throne……
As long as it’s a summer afternoon, this lounge would suit me just fine.
What does your blogging throne look like?
I sat down today to write a quick testimony about why I feel so strongly about personal brand authenticity across social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, etc. I’m constantly challenged and questioned about why I feel that it’s crucial to be as transparent via social media outlets. While I agree that you need to be careful about what you post, tweet and share. I’m sticking to my guns, and the biggest reason for that is trust. Sharing the bad (or the real) with the good shows honesty. When others (clients/co-workers/etc) see that you’re honest and forthright, they know they can trust you. In my experience, this honesty helps you to build better relationships more quickly. And if you ask me, there are few things as important as trust and honesty in this life.
To my surprise as I was browsing my twitter feed today, I came across this post by Anthony Juliano that echoed my feelings — of course, I just had to share.
Perception is limited. Others–even those closest to us–never really see us as we truly are. Factor in all the propaganda, half-truths, and outright lies told about us, and you’ll quickly see that there’s no one real version of the truth.
Collectively, then, as it’s told by you and those who know you, the story of your life is a work of fiction. The only thing you can control is the story you tell, so you may as well be yourself.
So friends and followers, today I charge you with this…..be honest, be yourself.
This year, the International Builder’s Show in sunny Orlando was buzzing about the very latest innovations in light construction and the most advanced building products and services ever assembled. But the show was also buzzing in a different way — quite literally buzzing, and the buzz came from thousands of smart phones in the hands, pockets and bags of attendees and exhibitors. “Power up?” Yes, IBS attendees definitely had to be sure their devices were powered up and charged throughout the show, or here’s what they would have missed!
NAHB Application
For the second year, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) provided IBS attendees with a mobile application to enhance their experience at the show. This year’s app allowed attendees and exhibitors to view a schedule of the show, navigate the show floor, receive show alerts, download exhibitor information and even search Orlando attractions while they browsed the show floor.
CertainTeed’s QR Codes
CertainTeed Corporation featured a branded Quick Response (QR) scanner and codes at the show, allowing booth visitors to walk away with videos and information about CertainTeed’s newest products right on their phone. CertainTeed calls its QR codes the next wave of technology for the building industry. Utilizing this new technology is also a perfect example of how exhibitors did their best to be green by decreasing on paper materials at the show.
Facebook Check-In Challenge
The NAHB kicked its social media engagement up another notch this year with a Facebook Places Check-In Challenge during the show that offered participants a chance to win a $100 iTunes gift card or an iPad for visiting certain sponsored booths! While this challenge may have been slow to catch on this year, kudos to the NAHB for finding new ways to increase engagement and interaction during the show. One can only imagine what they will bring to the table in 2012!
Official Tweet Up
NAHB and Masco informed show attendees that it was “time to put a Face with an @” with an official IBS Tweet Up during the show. The Tweet Up encouraged attendees to meet the faces behind the IBS2011 and Masco Twitter feeds, have some drinks, and mingle with fellow Tweeters in the home-building Twitterverse.
During the show, NAHB kept its own social media updates flowing via all of our favorite outlets, including Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. By using the hashtag #IBS2011, attendees were able to follow the constant flow of activity during the show, including education courses, special events and giveaway opportunities. The NAHB even shared builder interviews, updates and more on its YouTube channel to engage folks who couldn’t make it.
As I walked the show floor, I enjoyed learning things through the constant stream of social-media updates, from what new products were on the media’s “hot lists” to where exhibitors were lunching in the food court. By the end of the show, I realized that when it comes to Facebook Places and QR codes, building professionals have a bit more adapting to do – and in some cases were most interested in freshly baked cookies being offered at the Sears booth. However, kudos to NAHB and several tech-savvy exhibitors for being on top of social media trends! I look forward to seeing what will be featured in 2012!
(As seen on the Miller Brooks blog!)
I have so much to be excited about and grateful for this holiday season, I don’t even know where to being. While I am celebrating today with just my sister and parents, in just a few days the masses of family and friends will be home to celebrate, be merry and ring in the new year. Since Thanksgiving raced by, it only seemed appropriate that I finally take a second to sit down and soak it all in. God has been great to me this season. In fact, he has been more than great, he really out did himself this year! Here’s why….
First off, the love of my life proposed last month during Thanksgiving, and both of our families were there to help us celebrate. Now, we not only get to plan an amazing, November, San Diego wedding - we also get to plan the rest of our lives together. Lucky, lucky me. (Check out our wedding website!) And along with the recent engagement, I no longer have one single family to celebrate with. This Christmas I find myself with an extra set of parents, sister, brother, niece and nephew to celebrate the season. I consider myself beyond blessed to have been welcomed with open arms into the Monaco family.
Next, the 2010 Holiday Bowl President is none other than my Dad, Eric Graves. Not only does this mean a slew of luncheons, parades (I’ve been practicing my wave), parties, tail gates, a lot of family in town, and a whole lot of fun.. it also means that my Dad is having the time of his life coordinating a bowl game he’s been involved and in love with for as long as I can remember (1993). We are all so proud.
Lastly, this season I find myself being stretched and challenged as a person. As you all know, a year ago exactly I picked up my life, drove (with my now-fiance) across the country, and moved to Indianapolis. Do it while your young right? I continue to love my new home. I can’t get enough of the snow, Midwest people and way-of-life. But — here it comes — it’s hard. I miss San Diego, my home and my family every day. I am faced with the realization that I might never make it back to the west coast. It’s for that reason that I’m grateful because I know it’s the hard things in life that grow and stretch you as a person. Some recent advice I received from a very best friend was right on — “Never be afraid to miss something”. This Christmas, rather than struggling with the 3,000 miles between my family and I, I’m heart-overflowing grateful that this is a city I will always call home.
So for the friends, the family (new and old), the fiance, the season, the cities and of course, the football — I am grateful. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays, everyone!
Rapidly gaining popularity among social media lovers and companies ready to jump on board with the latest tech trends — the QR code tipping point has begun. We’re right around the corner from seeing them just about everywhere, on garbage trucks, e-mail signatures, trade shows, magazines, and billboards. If you haven’t come across them yet, you will. Here’s what you need to know.
What is a QR Code?
A matrix bar code readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera and smart phones. QR stands for quick response and they makes getting URLs or SMS texts on your phone quick and easy.
How are they being used?
Dream it, and it’s probably being done. Here are some examples of fun ways this new technology is being used:
Garbage trucks in New York City takes the technology mainstream by posting codes on their trucks that lead to a video from the NYC Media Show called, “The Green Apple: Recycling.”
Bar code campaigns are also cropping up in transit hubs. For example, in Denver International Airport, Colorado-based FirstBank offered a free download of an e-book to passengers scanning the bar code on posters mounted in terminal corridors. A perfect way to catch travels as they are passing through.
How can you use them?
I have seen people replace their Facebook pictures and Avatars with a QR Code that links to all of their contact information.
PR professional Sarah events tell us how we can best use QR codes, including companies placing QR codes in their windows in order to link to their online listing, and wearing a QR code on a t-shirt as part of a marketing campaign.
How can I create one?
It’s easy, give it a try, here: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
What will they replace?
Offering new ways to connect, I would say that QR Codes easily have the potential to permanently replace business cards in the future.
That’s my take, but what do you think?
A look inside Twitter’s new interface
(originally posted for blog.millerbrooks.com)
The new Twitter is here. The social-media giant has re-engineered its interface to provide a richer experience, more room for information and content, and something new called “Promoted Tweets,” which is of particular interest to advertisers.
I jumped on board moments after Twitter launched the new interface on September 14 and heard Twitter’s COO, Dick Costolo, explain the new interface the very next day at ExactTarget’s Connections 2010 conference.
The rollout has begun — eventually everyone will have the new Twitter.com — until then, here’s what you need to know.
1. Split Screen: One way the new Twitter provides a richer experience is by featuring a split screen. Information is now shown in two panes: on the left is the standard Tweet stream, and on the right is more detailed information, including video, photos, profile details, maps from geo-location-enabled Tweets and more. When you click on a Tweet, the details pane shows information related to the author or subject of the Tweet.
2. Infinite Scroll: That’s right, you never have to go to page two! The new Twitter allows you to scroll your heart out without ever having to click “more” to view additional Tweets.
3. Embedded Media: New Twitter allows you to view videos and photos without ever leaving the site. The official Twitter Blog acknowledges partnerships with an impressive list of companies that enable it to have this new never-leave-Twitter feature, including DailyBooth, deviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube.
4. Promoted Tweets: Designed for companies already on Twitter – and using it successfully — Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to push to a wider group of users. Twitter launched its Promoted Tweets platform with a few innovative advertising partners, including Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America. Clearly labeled as “Promoted”, these Tweets will appear at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages.
All Promoted Tweets are organic, meaning they’re already a part of Twitter and not technically an advertisement. Promoted Tweets will be timely, delivering information relevant to you at the moment like any other Tweet. The biggest difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet is that Promoted Tweets must hit a higher bar, resonating with their users. If people (Tweeters) don’t interact with a Promoted Tweet (@reply to it, Re-Tweet it, favorite it, etc.) then the Tweet will disappear.
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Check out Twitter’s new video that shows some great screen shots of the brand-new interface.
And, if you’re going to share your feedback with them, don’t forget to use the #NewTwitter hashtag to join the conversation!
Happy Tweeting!
When I moved to Indy from San Diego, one of the fears I had was that I would miss the sunsets from my parents cliff-side home in Point Loma. By then, after having spent 4 years in Ohio, I knew what I had at home in San Diego. The gorgeous pacific ocean, unexplainable beautiful sunsets, and evening spent drinking with a glass of red wine and family watching these sunsets from the porch.
Now 8 months down the road, feeling settled and… (are you sitting down?) almost at home in Indiana, I’ve truly experienced what it’s like to live in the Midwest. I moved in the midst of winter (yes, I was here for the snow days, and yes I was sliding around on 465 in my Jetta with terrible, no-traction, west coast tires), I’ve seen the seasons change from winter, to spring, to summer. Now as the air is getting crisp, pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks, and we’re trying to fit pool days and camping trips in before the weather gets frigid — I’m realizing I’ve been here a while, and I’m happy.
I have countless friends and family on the west coast who simply don’t understand my move (and some that do… thanks Dad!), and I’m convinced no amount of explaining will do the trick. But as fall comes barreling around the corner, seemingly out of no-where, I was forced to evaluate my last three seasons here. It made me realize once again that my home will also be San Diego, but I love the Midwest and sometimes the sunset can be just as beautiful here.
Just in case you missed my recent guest post on Kyle Lacy’s blog last week, check it out, 4 Tips to Discover the Value of Twitter Chat and have a great week!
Last week I had the unique opportunity with the Hoosier PRSA Chapter to be a passenger on an in-flight refueling missing on a KC-135 at Grissom Air Reserve Base as part of the 434th Air Refueling Wing (the largest Refueling Wing in the Air Force Reserve Command) in Peru Indiana.
The experience was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. At the end of the day, I walked away having learned much more than I expected. In addition to the flight, the day also consisted of a Crisis Communications panel in the morning (more posts on that coming soon), and a lot of social media use as we shared our real-time experience via our favorite social media outlets. I gained new perspectives on the way that social media can work for us, and a new appreciation for the U.S. Air Force.
Much like social media acts as a force multiplier to get our messages, stories and news across to the public, I learned that the 434 Air Refueling Wing (ARW) acts as a huge force multiplier for our Air Force. On this particular day, I was able to witness both.
Social Media can be used to allow others to work for us, spreading our key messages, good news and best pictures (we love our twitpic apps) to the masses. Through our friends and followers on Twitter and Facebook, and through our loyal blog readers, we are able to advertise ourselves (or our companies) and broadcast our messages to a much wider audience at a much faster rate than ever before. Throughout the day the 13 of us in the group tweeted, twitpic’ed, recorded and updated our status’. We were able to use our favorite apps to share with our friends and followers a little piece of what Grissom does on a daily basis.
Similarly, in-flight refueling missions allow the Air Force to conduct several operations much more efficiently. It allows pilots to fly longer missions and cover greater distances — bringing troops and supplies to different US military stations around the world. The 434ARW runs more of these missions per day than any other Air Force Reserve Command, acting as a huge force multiplier for the U.S. Air Force.
At 31,000 miles above the Appalachian Mountains, traveling at a ground speed of 405 mph, sitting on approx 120 thousand pounds of fuel pouring out at a rate of 6,500 pounds per minute into the C-17 flying next to us (also traveling at 406 mph)… I realized just how vital (and cool) these missions actually are, and how important the 434ARW is to the Air Force and the defense of our nation.
It’s a situation many of us have been in before: You have an important dinner coming up, and you need to provide the appetizer, a side or maybe the dessert. A perfectly selected, expertly prepared recipe that you’ll be remembered for for years to come.
No pressure.
The planning and work that goes into that prize-winning dish is, in many ways, similar to the job of media relations. Instead of an important dinner, though, it’s the release of big client news. Here are five ways the media relations desk parallels with the kitchen stove.
1. Shopping around – A cook pores over recipes, debating methods and comparing choices. Then you spend time at the optimal grocery store, circling the aisles and choosing the perfect ingredients for the dish.
A successful PR pro or media relations specialist knows their client’s industry inside and out, or is at least able to speak that way with the media. They spend time researching and gathering all of the necessary information or ingredients they need to be able to conjure up the perfect mix of information that intelligently positions their client’s news.
2. Preparation – My dad always said, “All it takes to be a good cook is preparation.” A cook cleans their kitchen, sets out everything they will need, and plans the preparation so everything comes together at the right moment.
In media relations, a significant part of the process is preparing the perfect media list that reaches the right media for the target audience. Then they’ll supply hyperlinks that direct the media to the right information and attachments that will ensure they have everything they need.
3. Timing – In the kitchen, one of the most invaluable tools a cook uses is a timer. No one wants to serve a burned dish.
At the desk, a media relations specialist must be aware of media trends, so they can jump on timely opportunities and meet deadlines — giving their clients the chance to be seen and heard.
4. Presentation – For a cook, it’s all about visual appeal. Nobody wants to eat something that doesn’t look great. What will make mouths water?
In media relations, you want to position your client’s information the right way. As Peter Shankman says, be a helper. You are not just helping your client – you’re also helping the media by providing relevant and interesting content. It’s all in the presentation and how you deliver that information.
5. Share and provide council – Your dish was a hit! When you’re asked about your recipe, you can respond — explaining why you substituted olive oil instead of butter to make the meal healthier or taste better, for example.
When a client inquires about why you chose to bypass an opportunity, as council, you must be able to explain the strategy behind that decision, keeping that client’s best interest (and reputation) in mind.
Both media relations and cooking require a certain amount of preparation and positioning to provide the most appetizing and successful result. So PR and media folks: remember, take time for the right setup, perfect ingredients, and a tempting presentation… and then, bon appétit!
(Originally written for post on MillerBrooks.com)