The slide deck from today's presentation on the Mobile Web at IABC Houston are below. And for the attendees, here are the results from our poll "Houston Should Be Known As?"
Tip of the hat to @happykatie for all of the assistance!
Presenting "Social Media Optimization: Putting the Relations Back in PR" tomorrow in Miami. Wish me luck!
Looking forward to being on the panel with the Houston Arts Alliance tomorrow following Patricia Martin's presentation on RENGEN; the Renaissance Generation.
So what is the RENGEN and what is this about?
Patricia Martin , the author of RenGen, and a panel of Houston business leaders, new marketers, artists and arts institutions will define the rise of Houston's renaissance generation - the RenGen - an emerging demographic of enlightened individuals and communities that are dramatically changing the society in wish we work and live.
Registration is here but may be closed soon.
Update: Read Patricia's recap of the presentation on her blog here.
From my talk on Friday at the Public Relations Society of America's SW District conference in Little Rock Arkansas.
I did enjoy meeting a few folks in particular, although the whole group was awesome. But a definite twitter shoutout to some new public relations pros on twitter:
and of course I am on twitter here causing the usual amounts of trouble time permitting.
I love this photo from Dr. Sketchy's in Houston. And I realize this is a talented model playing a role. Yet it reminded me of a famous story from the history of public relations that few are aware of. Bernays was truly a double edged sword.
From the BBC article on Edward Bernays.
Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.
His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.
From SandraSays's blog via twitter - Fraser Seitel on Becoming a Successful PR Professional. Fraser Seitel is the author of The Practice of Public Relations. Excerpts from the video but skipping around a bit.
"Public Relations is the easiest profession in the world to get shuffled off to second class citizen status."
"What you want, what you must have, is a seat at the management table."
"You want to be appreciated for your contributions. How do you do that? I say it takes three things:"
- A knowledge base "you've got to be the best communicator around" "that means study"
- Experience "part of the job of a pr professional is learning about the organization"
- Judgement "you have to have judgement"
View the video of Fraser Seitel on Sandra's site here.
I wish I could remember where I read that. Or if it was just a saying someone told me. But I do know that this:
The Opera Singer is Never Famous in their Own Hometown
is true. The familiarity factor makes people assume you are of lesser value. For the opera singer the solution is simple - go spend a year studying in Rome. Then you are the "Italian trained opera singer" and not from wherever you are really from. Unless of course your Italian in which case you have to go someplace else, but I digress.
And it isn't just my opinion. For example best selling author Tess Gerritsen, someone far more prominent that little old business me, comments on the hometown not famous phenomenon in Maine on her blog.
YOU'RE NEVER FAMOUS IN YOUR HOME STATE
A few months ago, I was delighted to be invited to be one of the two commencement speakers for the University of Maine graduation ceremony in Orono this May.
only to have a student write a letter to the editor including the following comment.
When the University of Maine announced the commencement speakers, the names Tess Gerritsen ... fell on somewhat disappointed ears. Students may not be aware that Tess Gerritsen is a local mystery author
Surely we all realize calling a person of such accomplishments a "local mystery writer" is an injustice. But yet we all think this way.
While I have personal Houston based anecdotes, it wouldn't exactly help me to blog them. Humans are so funny sometimes. Apparently even Faulkner wasn't famous in his hometown. Go figure. Does anyone have a name for this phenomenon from psychology? I am very curious.
I saw this on blogrunner and thought it relates to the Public Relations community debate on social software. Excerpt regarding the courts' view of bloggers versus reporters. (note: emphasis added by me)
No US court has yet weighed in with authority on the debate about whether bloggers count as journalists, but the recent federal decision from South Carolina does indicate that at least some bloggers are journalists. It's not about the title, it's about the content, said Judge Henry Hurlong, Jr.; a journalist turns out to be anyone who does journalism, and bloggers who do so have the same rights and privileges under federal law as the "real" journalists.
Unlike pornography which is much harder to define, "a journalist is some who does journalism". Interesting. And, well, there it is.
In the day and age when the Public Relations industry should be focusing more on interactions with the public and less on media relations, someone decides the best solution is to FAKE media relations. Brilliant.
From Bulldog Reporter:
FEMA employees last Tuesday posed as reporters at a news conference in Washington about the Southern California wildfires. The briefing was called on short notice and no journalists were on hand when it started. Instead, FEMA deputy director Harvey Johnson stood before a FEMA camera feeding live images to television networks and took questions from agency employees posing as reporters.
Still crazy after all these years. Just a lot less cleavage. Brian Connolly has come out of the closet and relaunched strumpette with the less-cleavage brand name of "futhermore". So if we weren't sure, yes, we now know he definitely wants the last, the further-mostest-wordest. Thanks for coming out of the closet Mr. Connoly.
Update: Had a somewhat funny conversation with Brian about this earlier this week. Very insightful actually and hopefully I'll get my thoughts organized on a future blog post about PR in general.
A few things to be clear about.
Update 2 - checking my links for this post - it seems Amanda's back (NSF link as usual). This is a good thing. I think. As long as the talons are pointed at me. But then again I would never bait someone like Amanda, now would I?
