Monthly Archives: November 2009
Try One Thing Tomorrow…
T Day Table - Photo By JFer
Turn it off.
That’s right. Just do it.
Shut down the iPhone, turn off the Blackberry, sign off of Twitter and power down the Macbook.
Nobody cares to see your tweets about how Uncle Bob’s toupee is about to fall off or how Aunt Martha just won’t stop gabbing away about her smelly cat.
Thanksgiving is about conversation. In person conversation between you and your family and friends. Cherish this time. Look people in the eye and converse………
and then power back up and take part in Tweetsgiving.
Safe travels!
Cheers,
Scott
Using the Web to Plan and Keep Tabs on Holiday Travel
Photo by Caribb
T-Day has managed to sneak up on us yet again! Strange how that happens every year.
If you’re like me, this week is always a blessing and a burden. Hands down, the anticipation and excitement of a fun visit home to the family always conquers any potentially botched travel plans. But, the reality of living in Chicago is that you sometimes have to tolerate less than desirable weather in November and December along with a slightly (*wink*) busy airport at O’Hare.
Unfortunately, when an airport like O’Hare has severe delays, it’s usually a telltale sign for delays across the country. In the past, I’ve had mixed experiences with different airline websites serving as reliable resources for providing automated text updates on various flight delays. Sometimes they arrive on my phone, sometimes not and sometimes they show up days later – seriously.
Worry not. I’ve provided a few resources below to help you keep tabs and plan for any potential travel chaos this week.
Flying?
Before you head out to the airport this week, I’d recommend following FLT Advisor on Twitter for good snapshot updates on various delays (CHI folks – I’d recommend following ORD on Twitter, but they seem to have halted tweets! www.flychicago.com may be your best bet.). You can also take advantage of a 30 day trial on FLT Advisor’s site or also check out this Airports List on Listorious to see if your local airport is tweeting updates. Those with iPhones can also download this Airport Flight Delays app.
For those that are a bit more visually inclined, be sure to check out FlightStats or USA Today’s Delays Map which also allows you to drill down on specific reasons for delays by state. Flight Aware also provides a very interesting albeit more technical look at live flight tracking.
Last but not least, for any severe procrastinators out there, be sure to check out lastminutetravel.com to see if you can snag any deals. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that contrary to initial trend snapshots from this summer, last minute deals may be the way to go.
Driving?
If you’re opting to stick to the roads for your T-Day trek, MSN offers a nice real-time traffic map for tracking traffic around most major and mid-sized cities.
Last but not least, if you’re still looking for some fun things to do over the weekend to walk off those newly acquired Turkey pounds, hop over to the Twisitor Center. Created by the stellar team at @travelportland along with GoSeeTell, the site provides an interactive national map with easy access links to various visitor centers that are on Twitter. A very simple way to fire off a question or ask for a recommendation about a location you’d like to visit. Here’s a quick video on how Portland operates their Twisitor Center:
Feel free to leave any of your recommended resources below to help ease travel over the holidays.
Happy T-Day and safe travels!
-Scott
Effective Public Relations Starts With Trust
I’m currently in the middle of reading two good books – Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents and Chuck Klosterman’s latest, Eating the Dinosaur.
I’ll likely do a video review of Trust Agents when I’m done but there is a reason I mention both. Chuck Klosterman happens to be one of my favorite authors. Early on in this latest book, he talks about the art of interviewing and picks apart the actual interview process, noting preconceived expectations that arise from both interviewers and interviewees. At one point, he interviews NPR’s Ira Glass (I’m also a huge, huge fan of Ira and This American Life), to dig deeper on Glass’ extraordinary ability to take seemingly minor details and moments in people’s lives and transform them to make an audience fully realize the profound impact of such moments.
Glass notes:
“Sometimes I will be talking to journalism students and they will ask how I get people to open up to me, and the answer is that I’m legitimately curious about what those people are saying, I honestly care about the stories they are telling.”
In one word – TRUST.
Or as Brogan/Smith harp in their book, you need to be a trust agent to be an effective communicator.
For PR pros, trust is the foundation of our industry. Our clients trust our strategies and tactics. They trust us to be exceptional brand stewards and to represent their company or organization with complete honesty and transparency. On the same token, traditional journalists and bloggers alike trust the information we provide for public consumption. Social networks thrive because of trust.
Where Does Trust Originate?
To echo Mr. Glass, you have to honestly care. You have to have a legitimate interest in the client or issue you represent. Does this become difficult in PR world? Absolutely. When times are tight, firms begin to reach outside their sweet spot to soak up new business. The problem is that clients will inevitably be cheated if they are not assigned an account team that actually cares about their project. It’s one of the main reasons I love where I work. As a firm, we review new business opportunities together and make sure everyone is onboard and excited about a new client opportunity as opposed to just submitting for any RFP that comes our way.
My current primary clients include the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network and Rush University Medical Center. I love travel and am passionate about organ/tissue donation as well as healthcare marketing. If my job entailed promoting a new soap product, I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t last a day and it would show in a heartbeat.
As we all know, the social Web is amazingly good at picking apart legitimate interests and sussing out those that are simply attempting to plant PR seeds. Do yourself and your clients the service of digging deep to make sure there is legitimate care and interest in a project. It’s the only way to ensure that you’re establishing the necessary foundation for trust.
-Scott
