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« Older Entries | Newer Entries »For a Monday.
Monday, August 9th, 2010
“You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.”
This quote by Rosalyn Carter is one to write on a blog, on Twitter, on my hand, my refrigerator, on a billboard in my front yard, and, well, you get the idea. And if you don’t, that idea being that success, in whatever realm, takes confidence, but not only confidence, it takes work. Lots of it.
So, despite the power going out this morning, which led to my oversleeping, despite the distraction of the much-anticipated Arcade Fire show tonight, despite the fact that I can’t get this needy cat off my keyboard, there’s no substitute for hard work. Here’s to a Diet Mtn. Dew and some effort to get me through a busy week.
Do you have a routine or a beneficial way to start off your work week?
Tags: cat, monday, motivation, office, public relations, quote, work ethic
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Dragonfly Weekend
Saturday, July 31st, 2010
I thought you should meet our new tenant in our garage.
Happy Saturday!
Tags: bike, bug, dragonfly, photo
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I’m with J. P. King
Friday, July 30th, 2010
I know the majority of what I post on here is photography-related. Photography has been a recent hobby of mine that I’ve really gotten into, but it’s not my full-time job. It’s something I enjoy to do on the side at reasonable prices for people because I don’t have to do it full time. On a 40+ hours a week basis, I work as the communications manager for J. P. King, a luxury real estate auction marketing firm. I primarily focus on public relations and social media and tying the two together. When you combine the way PR is changing because of technology and social media along with the fact that I’m dealing with a completely different media base for every event (J. P. King has worked in all 50 states — just this past week, we were in Oregon, Wyoming and Tennessee), it keeps me on my toes, and it’s challenging. Or, it’s challenging to me, at least, but I need that in a job.
Like I mentioned earlier, we were in three states last week, and I worked two of those sales: a luxury estate in the mountains of Big Horn, Wyo., and 18 lofts in Memphis, Tenn. Both went well, as we sold the Wyoming property for $2.09 million and the Pie Factory Lofts for $1.16 million. Here are a few photos to highlight the events.
I could wake up to that view every morning. How about you?
Double H Ranch in Big Horn, Wyoming
Double H Ranch will be the new home of these two. That was on Thursday, and on Saturday, we were in Memphis. The lighting in the ballroom was terrible for photos, so I hope you can excuse the quality.
At each of our events, J. P. King brings in food and a musician. This is Davis with one of our project managers, Grant. We get Davis for as many of our sales as we can. Because he’s awesome.
This is Lanny, one of our finest auctioneers. 
And Scott, a forth-generation auctioneer at J. P. King and an agent for this sale.
Tags: auction, double h, j. p. king, memphis, personal, real estate auction, wyoming
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Funk Proof
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
I’ve been in a funk all day. My day started late because I wasn’t feeling well, then I checked my e-mail and realized a mistake I had made, and it completely impacted the rest of my day.
Rather, I let it impact the rest of my day.
This wasn’t one of those things that we as marketers deal with where the client just doesn’t understand what we’re trying to do. This was me. All me. I just messed up. And I sent it to a person whose opinion I value and whose respect I want to have, and she was the one who saw me at what is to date — professionally, at least — my worst. It wasn’t that bad of a mistake. I didn’t send it to dozens of media. I was just embarrassed at myself and froze.
I hated it. I fixed the problems quickly, but I was upset about it, knowing she was right, and became almost too frustrated with myself to move forward with my day. It’s 2 p.m., and I’m just now convincing myself to get. over. it. That’s it. Mistakes happen. Do what it takes to move past them. Now I have made a list of all the things I need to accomplish for the rest of my day and convinced myself I couldn’t move forward in the list until I moved forward with this. I finally proofed the releases for what had to be the eleventy billionth time and hit send. Finally, hoping this one isn’t screwed up. [Cue sigh of relief]
Now, I’m resolved to keep going. Progress. Tiny steps. Me? Personally, I do that by blasting Thao Nguyen for a couple of minutes while multitasking between dancing in front of the window and making a sandwich. Now I’m zoning in on finishing my shiny, hand-written to-do list as I begin Season 4 of Scrubs and pretending like I’m here:
What about you? How do you overcome messing up at work and keep it from derailing your day or getting into a funk? I’m sure Jonathan would appreciate suggestions that don’t include me singing or dancing in his presence.
Tags: embarrassed, mistakes, motivation, public relations, work
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Tweet Peeves and Twitter Etiquette
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
As the world of public relations continuously evolves and adapts to changes in technology and trends, an up-t0-date PR pro has to adapt to the world of social media.
I’m a pretty firm believer that there is no such thing as an “expert” in social media at this point, though. Every time we think we have a process figured out, social media changes. You master Facebook, then comes Twitter. You learn Twitter, then comes YouTube and Flickr and Foursquare and all of Google’s so-far-failed attempts to join the social media world. Marketing, instant media and location-based services will continue to evolve, and to stay relevant, we must evolve with them.
So, while I am by no means an expert in these tools yet, I have figured out a few things that irk me while using Twitter — which is, to me, the most powerful social media source, especially in the PR and marketing fields.
1. Selling in your tweets
If you have a blog, by all means, promote it. I love when people provide original content rather than re-tweeting everyone else’s links. If you have a message, let us hear it. But contribute to us, too. If your profile is full of how you can help me save money with your program and has no advice, articles or tools to help me do so without your program, I’m not interested. I’m much more likely to tune into your message when you don’t make it all about you. There should be a balance of your content, links, retweets and conversation.
2. Automated tweets
If I get a direct message from you immediately after I follow you, we’re done. I don’t care about your “Thanks for following. Check out my website!” tweet. It tells me that you use an automated program rather than your own time and voice. Twitter is about conversation, not broadcast.
3. Too much too soon
There is a certain Twitter stream that I follow called Social Media Today. The people behind it offer great information to teach you about social media and marketing and how to integrate the two. They really do have some fantastic content. But I rarely see it. Once a day, they go on a tweet spree, posting six articles at one time, then they don’t post again all day. I’m much more likely to actually pay attention to their content if the six tweets are posted sporadically throughout the day. C’mon, guys, Hootsuite is free and can take care of that problem.
4. Mixing social media
You have a Facebook account, a Twitter account and other social media accounts like LinkedIn, Foursquare, Gowalla, etc., for a reason: They all have different primary functions. I don’t post my Facebook photos on Twitter. I don’t want to succumb my Facebook friends to my tweets on PR and social media. My audiences are different, and so is my content. Yours is too. Don’t connect your Twitter feed with your Facebook feed, your RSS feed or an automated news wire. Be human.
5. Quality vs. Quantity
This is probably the biggest one for me. Having followers is important. Your voice isn’t worth much if no one is listening to it. But, when someone follows me that seems to have little to do with any of my interests and follows twice as many people than are following them, I usually ignore them. More times than not, they unfollow me just a few days later, meaning they were just seeking followers. Focus on your voice, and people will listen.
6. Be patient
Sure, if you go on a mass following spree of people that promise to follow you back (There’s actually a twitter account whose “name” is I WILL FOLLOW BACK), you’ll get followers. But to me, that’s the equivalent of advertising a life insurance policy on the Disney Channel. You’re not reaching your audience, and your followers are essentially worthless. Building quality followers is like building a brand: It takes time. Investing in a social media plan isn’t something that happens in a couple of weeks. It takes time and constantly evolves.
My tweeting ideals are demanding, I know. It’s just my opinion, and you’ll find plenty who disagree with just as valid of an argument. If you haven’t already, go ahead and get started. Don’t worry about the “rules;” just give it a shot, experiment and learn it. Don’t wait around for a social medial formula for success because it’s not out there yet. If you wait around for someone to figure it out, it won’t be you at the front of the game. And when you get there, give me a shout @caley!
What about you? Do you give a hearty “Amen!” to these points, or do you disagree?
Tags: public relations, social media, twitter
Posted in Public Relations, social media | 4 Comments »
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