NewspaperGirl

You must attend WordCamp.

Do you blog? You should be using Wordpress. Not only for your blog, but for your website. Wordpress keeps getting better and better and I’m planning to migrate all of my sites to it. I can then use all the great plugins or worry so much about code (since I’m not a programmer) I’m so rusty on Wordpress. I’ve been working on www.organize-utah.com and I’m jealous because my blog needs new plugins and attention too!
WordCamp Utah ‘08 is a Wordpress conference. Matt Mullenweg the founder of Wordpress is speaking (thanks to Joseph) and so is Alex King (king of Wordpress plugins). Other great speakers and friends will be there. I can’t wait. I’m not sure but it looks like it’s geared for intermediate to advanced Wordpress users.
When: Saturday Sept. 27, 2008 from 9:25am until 5pm
Where: Novell Campus
Cost: $20 (that’s it folks! and it includes lunch and a WordCamp t-shirt. Hopefully live music too!)

http://utah.wordcamp.org/

If you can’t come, I will blog about what I learn (contact me if I can write about it for your magazine - to keep me motivated). See you there!

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Oh, my head hurt! I moved and have tried to get my phone and Internet service set up. So many options, all so confusing, time consuming, and in the end, expensive. I would’ve stayed with my current provider AT&T but it was a group plan and the guy who had the plan was canceling. Plus I work from home part of the time now so that changes how much I use my phone.

• After an hour on the phone with Comcast I decided on a phone and Internet plan. Took over 3 weeks to coordinate a time they could install it. Needed Internet faster than that. Decided to go to Qwest.
• Signed up for Qwest and bought a landline phone. Phone had static. Called customer service. Said I needed a DSL phone filter. Never got it. Said DSL would be connected, never was. Called. Said it wasn’t available. Checked, said it was. Said it would be ready in a few days and they’d call me. Never called. Checked phone today. Worked. New customer service agent said she’s never heard of phone filter. No refund. One customer service person said DSL wasn’t installed, one said it already is. Not sure who to believe. Canceled.
• Got a Cricket phone. Talk about stripped down and no features! It handles like 1990. .Then so many dropped calls that I wanted to cry. I couldn’t understand people talking very well. Plus text messaging never worked even after multiple calls to customer service. Won’t refund $ for the phone because I talked over 30 mins on it. Paying for service, can’t cancel unless I go to store because I have no phone number now and customer service won’t take your call unless you have a phone number. No refund. Out $200 (will try to sell on ebay or something).
• Switched to Verizon unlimited, so far so good. That went well except I paid $150 for a phone that was free on their web site. But I needed it immediately and they ported my number on the spot.
• Using Verizon wireless card but miss having the Internet on more than one computer at a time. Works fine for now and great for travel. Wondering if I should call Comcast again but we have a contract so it’s a few hundred to cancel Verizon’s Internet. Not fast enough for video.
• Realizing just how expensive and time consuming this is and still not entirely happy. But at least my phone works well and I have Internet!

In this past several weeks has been crazy! I have:

• Changed phones, changed residence, work moved to another city, then my desk got moved, my phone number at work changed, phone at work disappeared, had 3 different phones at home, changed my last name, got married, changed last names.

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Identities are assets to protect and brands as well as people have to keep up with their various identities. As an individual I try to manage my identity, stop it from being stolen, and keep them all straight online and off. I wish I could change my name in search engines to cover my three different last names that have changed over the years. But I can’t really so I keep a different identity depending on the situation. I have various versions of myself across the Internet - mostly newspapergrl, newspapergirl, and grocerybike.
Now take this a step further - to clients - and I help manage their online identities to varying degrees. This gets confusing! My favorite illustration of this was when I worked for a demanding client who had me comment on other blogs. Well you can’t just spam bloggers, they’ll delete the post, so I made the comments what I really thought. The problem is I was so good at building relationships that bloggers started to notice and reach out to me. But they thought they were reaching out to the person I worked for, who wasn’t really personable at all. In fact, he didn’t respond and then I thought I was doing more damage than helping. We parted ways.
I had flashbacks to the time I was a clown at an event put on by my high school. I knew how to be a clown but then someone loved my clown act so much they decided to buy me a gift. I suddenly got confused between my clown persona and me, Janet. I sort of switched back and forth between them and it was uncomfortable for both parties. We’re acting without scripts, being authentic as much as possible for a corporation made up of people but not a single person or voice.
Corporations have multiple identities (brands) to manage. Now throw social media into the mix. Someone or anyone can impersonate them. It’s easy to start an account and pretend you’re someone else. Who’s fault it when someone pretends they are a company (in this example: ExxonMobil) without that company’s consent. But who’s to stop them? People impersonate people online and of course they impersonate brands, which can be a problem or if they are good, a blessing (Scoble didn’t ask Microsoft’s permission to start blogging about what it was like working inside of Microsoft - but it helped their image enormously).
This leaves me with all sorts of questions. Who’s job is it to decide who is who online? How about to police it? Is it Twitter’s job to make sure people are who they say they are? Is it the company’s job to keep track of their online identity and reserve spots so this doesn’t happen? Should you have put this into your corporate policy that an employee cannot represent the company online in any fashion without official consent? Is it ultimately harmful or helpful?
Until this is sorted out how can anyone trust anyone online?

I don’t know but I do really like Popeye’s attitude. They recently started Twittering, here is part of an interview from ZDNet:

Q. What did you expect to get out of being on Twitter, and what results (of any kind) have you achieved?

A. We are still experimenting with social media and have no real expectations. As for results, we have generated a good amount of interest (folks like you) and we are definitely being noticed.

Q. Any other thoughts you’d like to share on either Twitter or Popeyes Chicken’s social media strategy overall?

A. We will continue to explore social media where appropriate and hope to utilize it even more in the future as we continue our efforts to engage younger consumers.

So they admit their goal is to engage younger crowd but beyond that they don’t have expectations. At least not expectations we’re used to (like ROI). They want to be present, listen, participate, and respond. So, what does that say to me - it says they get it. Really - that’s the point!

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I just wrote about how Google is selling off Performics search engine marketing services and keeping the affiliate division. I wish Google would sell the entire division of Performics but they kept the affiliate marketing part. Both seem like a conflict of interest. (Sidenote: Has anyone signed up or tested the Google Affiliate Network?)
What’s interesting to me in the industry is the whole issue of print vs. online advertising or marketing. Clients want PR and advertising to be more seemless - to have both in one place and to measure results across both. But the PR side and the online side are so different that each struggle to figure out how to combine them.
I see it on both sides. We (OrangeSoda or myself) offer press releases to clients for online visibility. To get search engine rankings and a permanent link and online distribution. Clients also want to get press coverage, which we don’t measure. We don’t find and distribute press releases to traditional media or even to individual blogs - but maybe we should. However, it’s not our expertise.

On the other side, PR firms are trying to expand their online offerings to include search engine optimization and social media services. Often it’s tough to define and charge for - as I eluded to in my last post (what terrible anchor text!). Obviously, the biggest players are trying to sort this out, as is the rest of the industry.

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I’m very interested in the intersection between PR and social media. PR pros are trying to figure out how to “leverage” social media and measure it in the ways they are used to measuring things. Chris Brogan wrote an insightful post with advice to PR pros. He warns how “messy” it is to embark into social media - most will need a lot of direction as they do.
When it comes to approaching bloggers, it’s a very different approach than pitching stories to a publication. Chris says: “I’m writing to you as a human being who likes people, community, innovation, and business, not to mention art, creativity, play, and many other things.” So are the people you’re trying to reach. He explains it like this:

“Bloggers aren’t all the same. I’m definitely not the same as Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. I’m not the same as Seth Godin. I’m not the same as most bloggers. I’m just doing my own thing, and they’re doing theirs. It pays to understand which of us you’re trying to reach for what, and reading the last 10 things we posted, just to get a sense of whether we’re the right kind of person to write about your thing.”

One thing is no matter how high up you go people are still learning, whether we’re professionals or just starting out. This industry evolves quickly and involves a lot of creativity and unintended or expected outcomes, we all continue to learn. Which is what makes my job fun.
So you will make mistakes - getting involved in social media and various online communities has an element of unpredictability. As Chris wrote: “If you mess up, say sorry fast. Acknowledge that you made a mistake, and then act on what you can do better next time.”
In the comments: “Whats hard for us agency types is the transition between “old school” marketing strategy, where ideas and plans were what was sold to the client; and today, where in social media, participation is the product. Its all new to us, but well get there.”

Participation as product. Is that enough - to simply show that you are participating? Should we tell clients - we’re selling you a Facebook profile. We’re selling you our expertise. Right now I’m trying to figure out how to charge, what to offer, and how to define these types of services. So are PR firms.

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Pet peeve: You say you’re a web marketer but their are no search results on your name. You’re not on social networks and are unfamiliar with the techniques that you recommend to your clients.

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Since it’s my dream to be a philathropist someday, I took notice of another company doing amazing things. Geoffrey Beene gives all of their profits to causes they believe in:

• Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center
• Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer’s Initiative
• Programs for Women and Children
• Educational Scholarships: CFDA and YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund
• Animal Medical Center and ASPCA

“All net profits from Geoffrey Beene will be donated to philanthropic causes that support innovative research with cutting edge focus on signature solutions to a host of medical, educational and societal issues.”

Amazing.

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As always, if you read my blog, you read about things as they relate to whatever is going on in my life. This week it’s to Fish Lake and then straight to Atlanta, Georgia. I’m here for a meeting for First Command financial planners. Today is my 5th week anniversary being married and I’m being a supportive wife. It’s much easier to support something you can believe in.

Not only have a learned a more organized life from Stephen, but today I learned about his career as a financial planner. It is something I’m not good at but appreciate, partly because it’s so radically different from my industry. They plan everything, from the luggage tags to the next sales meeting two years out (something my industry can’t do - where the average stay at a company is around 18 months!). With how things are growing we’re lucky to plan ahead two weeks.

Business meetings are business meetings so it’s not amazing (but the SOB band was fun), but I’m impressed with First Command so far, and here’s why:

• This company walks its talk. Just like my husband, they plan ahead and build on a solid foundation based on principles and values. The First Command Bank is financially secure, ahead of its peers when other banks are teetering or failing.
• Their target market is middle class America and the military - people who need to plan financially and who too often, don’t. There is a lot of talk of making a difference. There is a lot of genuine appreciation (from the chef at the hotel, to the execs), kindness, and camaraderie.
• Unlike conferences where people hook up or cheat on their spouses, there is example after example of devotion to family and fidelity. Spouses seem to work as teams. People who cheat don’t last here.
• They motivate with good examples. Today a journalist Myerl Comer spoke about caring for her husband who has Alzheimer’s. She shows a video of what she does every day and the love she infuses into her interactions with him. It’s almost unbelievable. I know how I feel getting woken in the middle of the night or early in the morning…I’m inspired. I remember my dad caring for his dad who had Alzheimer’s the entire time I knew him.

As far as Atlanta goes:

• They don’t sleep! The subway was crowded past 11pm and activity seemed to be going on at all hours. I’m used to a night life that ends at 9.
• We’re not in Utah - from the wine in the hotel snack bar fridge to the cultural diversity - it’s obvious and refreshing (though I’ve gotten used to and love Utah).
• It’s HUGE. I have been to Atlanta before but I remembered again how big this city is.

A lot of us live for today without thought of tomorrow and it has gotten us in a bad place. Some are good in their financial life but cheat in their personal lives. First Command has earned my respect as they stand for goodness in both.

My only advice is after seeing their search results, their online reputation needs an upgrade.

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I just got off the phone with my friend Chris and we talked about how we hardly blog anymore. Also about how nothing seems that exciting in tech lately. It’s mostly about Google and the iPhone over and over. Are we just cynical or have things quieted down considerably?

My take is when something is new and beginning it has a certain romance about it that is alluring. The charisma pulls you in. You’re willing to make sacrifices (go for longer periods of time without sleep or eating) and spend a lot of your time thinking about the Internet, web 2.0, your blog posts. I used to really track my numbers and have regular conversations on the phone about who said what, how many reads, the comments we got.

But later you reach a different stage - maintenance. Things are more old hat. You go to work, you come home and it’s possible you don’t get online (at least not for hours). We’ve noticed we have less to blog about and the community feeling has faded. Bart, who sits next to me chimed in that he blogs less too. I’m not saying that blogging is a waste or that it doesn’t work (it certainly does), it’s just not as exciting as it once was. The news in the tech world seems to be the same.

What have you noticed - are you still blogging as much? Is it the economy (we’re all working hard rather than talking)? Are we burned out? Or is this just a natural evolution?

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Comcast is on Twitter and I’m pretty impressed with their responsiveness. I complained about my experience, and they asked how they could help. How they could help - a cheatsheet to all the deals, when they expire, what they include, what the prices are, and what fees they have.
I’m trying to figure out the cost/benefit of getting Comcast and wade through all the deals and when they expire. If I have cable internet for 6 months at $19.99 that’s straightforward. But I could get 3 months of cable TV free and get a better deal with a package price for the two services. But one will run out and then the regular pricing applies. Each offering has a million choices and different hook up fees.

Then there is trying to get a technician to come when I can be there. You schedule a block of time, and the days I can do that are the days they can’t. At least not for several weeks.

Also, I can’t decide whether to keep my wireless card so I can work anywhere (but isn’t as fast and won’t work for video and other things that require more bandwidth) or get Comcast at home so all computers there can be online. It will cost a few hundred to break the wireless contract. If I keep both I’m paying $100 a month.

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