September 30, 2011

Nominate a Colleague Today!

Today is the final day to nominate a colleague for "An Evening of Stars!" It's a great way to honor those who have made an impact through their volunteerism in the chapter, or have shown exemplary support to the public relations profession. Take a moment today, and send a nomination to nominations@swmoprsa.org (limit 250 words).

September 20, 2011

Mike Koehler's "Recommended Reading List"

Whether or not you attended SWMO PRSA's Professional Development Conference this afternoon, here is a helpful list of recommended books from presenter Mike Koehler.
  • "Crush It" by Gary Vanyerchuk
  • "Thank You Economy" by Gary Vanyerchuk
  • "Tribes" by Seth Godin
  • "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson
  • "Good to Great" by Jim Collins
  • "Entreleadership" by Dave Ramsey
  • "Little Big Things" by Tom Peters
Mike also recommends following Mashable and TechCrunch.

September 16, 2011

Subscribing on Facebook

Facebook has a new subscribing feature. You may have heard. While it will have very little implication for most of us in our personal usage, it could directly impact how you use it for your business or organization. Do you want to know when you get a new subscriber? Do you want everything you post to be viewable? The key to everything we do should be this: strategy.

Read "The Complete Guide to Facebook's Subscribe Button."

September 15, 2011

St. Louis event with Valeria Maltoni

See the message below from Ben Smith, Social: IRL.

I'd hoped to bring Social: IRL back to Springfield this year with a follow up to February's boot camp with Sarah Evans.

Unfortunately the timing didn’t work out for this year, but I hope to schedule another event in Springfield for the Summer of 2012. In the meantime, we will be in St Louis on November 3 with "Relationships and Brand Building in the Social Media Age."

Since I wasn’t able to return to Springfield this year, I'm offering each of you who attended the Sarah Evans boot camp a special $50 discount if you'd like to make the drive and join us in St Louis. I can promise an event that is well worth the trip, and the $50 discount can be applied to both the regular rate and the early bird rate this is currently available. If applied to the early bird rate it would take registration to just $95.

This  event delves a lot deeper than the event you attended with Sarah and features Valeria Malltoni, known online under the "Conversation Agent" brand. Valeria brings more than 20 years of real-world business experience, specializing in taking companies to "what's next" in their business cycle by planning and building value creating systems that add momentum and performance to deliver strength, resilience and endurance to the business. Valeria has been responsible for overseeing engagements for companies including Busch, InBev, Allstate and GE Appliances. During her career, she's held senior business roles executing growth strategies at global Fortune 500, mid-sized businesses and small start up companies in five industries. Her Conversation Agent blog is consistently ranked among the top 30 marketing blogs in the world on the AdAge Power150. You can also connect with Valeria on Twitter @conversationage.


You can learn more about the event and register at:


If you attended the Feb. conference in Springfield, use discount code IRLSGF to get the 50% discount.

Hope to see you in St Louis.

Ben

September 14, 2011

Distractions Detract from Work

Ironic that I'm blogging about distractions detracting from work, when I probably could be doing something more productive myself. I just saw this article being tweeted about by Vocus, and I was intrigued.

Once, after a loss, former Tennessee Titans’ coach Jeff Fisher made this statement to the media about his team’s effort:
“I think you have to be able to deal with distractions, put them in perspective and move on. Distractions are the primary reason for losing football games. ”
He didn’t chalk up the loss to a poor planning, a bad strategy, or lack of effort. He pinned the losing effort on distractions.

Read more about "Why Distractions Mean Failure in Football and Marketing."

September 9, 2011

Reflections on Sept. 11

I've been challenged for the past week with the numerous options of mediated remembrances of Sept. 11. I have avoided consuming most any of it because I was skeptical of the motivations behind some of the programming (ratings vs memorials). Until now.

The PRSA Tactics post by John Milton Wesley is a must read. And, if you don't develop a little catch in your throat, and maybe a teary eye, you're not human.

Growing up, I remember my parents and a few teachers talking about how they remembered what they were doing when they heard Pearl Harbor had been attacked and JFK was assassinated. After Sept. 11, 2001, I understood this completely. To this day, I can tell you absolutely everything about that day.

Sept. 11 was a turning point for this country, for business and certainly for the profession of public relations. Wesley's personal story is heart-wrenching. But, his five rules are good reminders when we, as professional communicators, are put in difficult positions sharing the stories of tragedy and loss.

10 years later: Reflecting on the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001: PRSA