Trafcom News

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Thanks for visiting the Trafcom News Blog, where you’ll find strategies and tactics for communicating in person and online, with an emphasis on content marketing and storytelling, content curation, social media and multimedia, particularly podcasting.

We have moved to a new site. This old Typepad site will remain online for a while, but no new content will be added to it, so I encourage you to visit the new site and subscribe there. The original RSS feed will remain active, so if you are already subscribed, you should continue to receive new posts.

As always, your comments are most welcome.

Cheers,

Donna

Remembering Michael O'Connor Clarke

Dear Michael has succumbed to the esophageal cancer that struck him this summer. Such a cruel fate for such a kind man.

After meeting Michael for the first time, you remembered him always. For me, it was at a Third Tuesday Toronto gathering more than six years ago. On the second meeting, a big smile and a hug seemed natural. After that, I’d always be pleased to run into him at the mesh conference or Podcamp or elsewhere around town, to hear what was on his mind, to laugh with him.

Like many people, I admired Michael’s intellect. He had a razor-sharp mind and a wit to match, yet his hilarious comments were usually aimed back at himself. Still, he was a genius at poking holes at pomposity and ignorance.

Michael was a generous soul. He was a driving force behind the spectacularly successful HoHoTO fundraiser for the Daily Bread Food Bank. Many young people have expressed thanks to him for his mentorship. Colleagues speak of his warmth and willingness to listen. He was kind to strangers too. I particularly remember a conversation via Twitter a couple of years ago. Someone mentioned giving loonies and toonies (one- and two-dollar Canadian coins) to street people. Michael asked: “Why just coins?” Good question! Yes, Michael was known to empty his pockets to help someone in need.

The PR community mourns the loss of this beautiful soul, who leaves behind his loving wife Leona and three young children, Charlie, Lily and Ruairi, as well as his parents and siblings and extended family in Canada and abroad.

Through the tears this morning, I smiled at a Facebook post by Michael’s brother Kieron:

“Goodbye big bro. Going to miss you.
Not gone, we just haven't worked out how to subscribe to your feed.”

Michael, you will be missed.

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A few months ago, friends of Michael set up a fundraising page to help his family.

If you weren’t fortunate enough to know Michael O’Connor Clarke, you can learn more about him here.

UPDATE: Visitation and funeral details have been announced.

O Canada

This is an update of a post I first wrote in 2007.

As an American-Canadian, I always find the first week of July somewhat jarring. Up here we celebrate Canada Day, while down south, the big holiday is Independence Day. Some relatives still wish me a “Happy Fourth of July,” even though it’s just a regular day here.

Since crossing the border from New York to Ontario 20+ years ago with all my worldly goods, I’ve adjusted to my new home, and can even pass for a Canadian, despite my lingering Noo Yawk accent. With all those years of Canadian experience under my Roots belt, I’m happy to share some tips with my American compatriots who may not be aware of what life is like north of the 49th parallel. (After all, some of you are threatening to move north if "Obamacare" becomes reality. The irony of this is not lost on us northerners.)

1. In Toronto, winter arrives in late October and doesn’t depart until April … or May. For the first time in your life, you’ll purchase long underwear, mittens and a toque (a practical, yet decidedly unattractive knitted cap). And you will wear them. Gladly.

2. You can count the number of years of Canadian residency by the salt rings on your boots (unless you live in Vancouver, where the people wear Birkenstock sandals all year, apparently).

3. Thanks to universal health care, you can say goodbye to HMOs, co-payments and deductibles, but you may have to wait in a queue, I mean, a line, no matter how high the balance in your bank account.

4. A check is a cheque, a two-dollar coin is a toonie, milk is sold in plastic bags (in Ontario anyway), and you boil water in an electric kettle from The Bay or Canadian Tire.

5. Starbucks is ubiquitous in cities, but every block seems to sport a Tim Hortons, where the drink of choice is a double-double.*

6. The geography stretches not from sea to shining sea, but from coast to coast to coast.

7. There’s no death penalty here. And it’s a mosaic, not a melting pot.

8. You’ll soon understand this sentence: "Gord, please pass me a serviette; I’ve spilled some poutine on the chesterfield."**

9. We have a prime minister and a Parliament; Queen Elizabeth II is our head of state.

10. And, last but not least, you’ll finally have to learn the metric system.

*A double-double is a coffee with two creams and two sugars.

**Translation: Gordon, please pass me a napkin. I’ve spilled some gravy-and-cheese-curd-covered French fries on the couch.

 

 

Can a 20-something be a social media expert?

At last night’s IABC/Toronto Professional Independent Communicators (PIC) meeting, Anita Windisman did a terrific presentation on LinkedIn, which I’ve blogged about here. In reviewing the tweets generated during Anita’s session, I noticed a single criticism:

Great networking & presentation at #pictips tonight. Some good tips, but I was surprised by 1 of the comments …

Ppl under 30 aren't all 'kids'. Just b/c someone has their MBA doesn't mean they're more of a 'SM expert' than someone younger #pictips

Let me put this in context. Anita mentioned that she has an MBA and 18 years of marketing and business experience. She made an offhand comment that she’s not a “kid” doing social media training.

[I did not write this down verbatim, but I think I’ve captured the spirit of what she said.]

I’ve always maintained that a social media “expert” is not someone who merely can train you in the mechanics of Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or GooglePlus or Hootsuite or TweetDeck or whatever. Anyone can learn how to retweet, how to tag, etc. These are necessary skills, but they do not in and of themselves yield business results.

Plenty of my clients attend seminars on social media, then walk away saying, “OK, so now I know how to do the mechanics, but what do I tweet about? Do I have to be on Facebook? Why would I connect with someone on LinkedIn? What do I say? How is this stuff relevant?”

These are important questions about business strategy.

So, yes, one does not need an MBA or any other degree for that matter to be a social media “expert.” [You’ll note I keep putting the word in quotation marks because I’m not sure that the word “expert” is even appropriate.] But I do believe that business people want to work with a marketing specialist or a communications consultant who can help them solve problems, using social media or some other tactic.

In a field as young as social media, there are bound to be many young practitioners. Last year I attended an event where I met one such woman. She described herself as a social media trainer who’d been in business about a year. When I asked her what she’d been doing before then, she said she was a wedding photographer. In fact, she still was.

I’m sure she’d be proficient at explaining how to retweet on Twitter or tag someone on Facebook, but I doubt she’d be able to advise a senior executive on a blogging strategy or a content marketing campaign.

After a decade or so in business, one’s degree is largely immaterial. I don’t think I’ve mentioned my own Masters in Public Administration to a client, with the exception of some of those in the public sector, who like to see consultants with these particular letters after their names.

But business experience is another matter. It’s a prerequisite, in my humble opinion, before one can advise another person.

One’s age is not a prerequisite. Someone can be 40 with two years in business. But I doubt that a 25-year old, unless he’s a prodigy of some kind, could have more than a couple of years of real-life business experience.

I’d love to know what you think. Does a person need business experience to be a social media “expert”?

Please share your thoughts on this. Am I off base?

The fallacy of the digital native

We’ve heard it repeated so many times that we start to believe it: the myth that millennials are automatically savvy about technology and – by extension – social media. I have not found this true in my own business and my life, and was glad to see it debunked in this post by Dan Pontefract. Definitely worth a read.

Hat tip to my friend Joan Vinall-Cox for tweeting Pontefract’s post.

Back-to-school advice for PR students

Earlier this week, I was gratified to see a contingent of students from Lynn Gough’s class at Durham College at our IABC/Toronto PIC meeting. Apparently she had assigned them the task of going to an IABC meeting. Smart prof!

Around this time of year, advice for students abounds. This morning at the gym I caught the September 15 edition of Inside PR, in which Joe Thornley, Gini Dietrich and Martin Waxman shared some wisdom for students in PR and communications. (Yes, I’m a little behind in my podcast listening, but I refuse to delete episodes of my favourite shows.) Among this trio’s tips are:

• Build a professional profile online from day one.
• Blog on a regular basis; be active on Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Read, subscribe, read!

If you’re a student or newcomer to the communications world, I strongly suggest that you listen to this podcast in its entirety.

25 things I’ve learned after 25 years in business

This month, I’ll reach the milestone of 25 years as a self-employed communications consultant. When I began, I was actually a freelance writer, but awarded myself a promotion after taking on corporate clients.

I haven’t quite decided how to celebrate this longevity, but thought I’d jot down a few thoughts that have occurred to me during these 25 years.

1. The nuns in school were right: Poor grammar and spelling make you look less intelligent or just plain careless. (Gosh, I hope there are no typos in this piece.)
2. As technology advances, organizations need even more help to tell their stories – or “create content” in today’s parlance.
3. You never know when you’ll cross paths with a person again; always be gracious.
4. Keep learning. Especially during the last decade, the pace of change has been exploding, and you must keep up to remain relevant and helpful to your clients.
5. You need a sounding board. Seek out a mastermind group or advisory committee for advice.
6. Time off is absolutely essential. Step away from the keyboard and silence the smartphone.
7. You need to be accessible, but not 24/7. If a client wants you to be available evenings and weekends, be sure you’re comfortable with this arrangement before taking on the assignment.
8. You will make plenty of mistakes. As long as you learn from them, it’s OK.
9. Hire an accountant. Why spend time figuring out arcane tax laws?
10. Learn to say no. If you don’t, you’ll inevitably burn out.
11. There’s no need to put down your competition. Let your fans speak for you instead.
12. You will experience highs and lows; they’re part of the independent territory. On some days, you’ll question your own sanity.
13. Take the call when the headhunter phones; have lunch with the agency person who wants to recruit you. It’s always useful to find out what’s happening on the agency and corporate side.
14. Find a niche. Your area of specialization may change, but you must have one. Gone are the days when you could flourish as a generalist.
15. Encourage your clients to set up online payments via wire transfer or other means; don’t rely on cheques and snail mail if you don’t have to.
16. Try to bill according to value, not hours.
17. Remember to put aside money for income tax and other levies, such as our beloved Harmonized Sales Tax in Canada. And be sure to set up your own retirement account since you don’t have a company pension.
18. Take the time to talk to students and newcomers to your field.
19. Develop skills as a public speaker, to increase your visibility.
20. Network, network, network – with the right tribe. You may find a tribe online or in person or both.
21. Some of the trappings of business are still necessary for independents: business cards, a decent computer, and a phone line not answered by a three-year old. Fortunately, the noisy fax machine and expensive letterhead are obsolete. (I still have several rolls of fax paper and 500+ sheets of fancy stationery in my office closet.)
22. Donate your expertise to a charity. They’ll appreciate your efforts and you’ll feel great about contributing.
23. Join a professional association and attend their meetings and conferences. I’m grateful for my membership in the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Halton-Peel Communications Association (HPCA).
24. Seek out the positive in everything; it’s there.
25. Keep looking ahead for your next adventure.

If I knew then what I know now

In her Teaching PR blog, Karen Miller Russell tossed out a few blog topics for PR bloggers, all aimed at enlightening students. One of these was: “If I knew then what I know now.” How could I resist?

My full answer would be the length of the Encyclopedia Britannica or perhaps the whole of Wikipedia. However, I think I can share the Reader’s Digest condensed version in one quick post.

Here it is: When I first started working full-time, I thought my job was to work as hard as possible and to do everything perfectly. It didn’t take me long to discover that my REAL job was to make my boss look good.

I’m not trying to be glib here. Yes, you must accomplish your tasks on time and with competence, but no one expects you to be perfect. You’re going to make plenty of mistakes along the way. If you can support your boss’s efforts, however, you will do well and you will be recognized for doing well.

So how do you make your boss look good? Find out what makes him tick. Uncover her greatest needs in the organization and then try to help her meet them. Is Project A more important than Project B? Does he need assistance in a particular area to make HIS boss take notice?

If you make the move to your own business, as I have done, you need to transfer these skills to making your clients look good. (Yes, now I have 20 bosses to please.)

Here’s a question for the students: What do you think of this advice?

Singing the hard drive blues

In my former life, I toiled as a systems analyst, where backups were built into everything we did. We drew up schedules for backing up the files on our disk drives, which today seem laughably huge compared to the number of bits and bytes they contained. When I started my business in 1985, I carried this philosophy with me, and backed up all client files on a regular basis. For years I was quite rigorous about backing up. And actually proud of it.

Last year I bought a spanking new MacBook. For some reason, over the last few months, I became a little lax about copying my files onto other media. I can’t explain why. (No excuse would be good enough anyway.) A couple of weeks ago, at lunch with a friend, we began talking about computers, and I told her I was going to buy a backup system I’d seen at the Apple Store. Well, a week later, before I had a chance to get to the Apple Store, I faced a dead hard drive on my desk one Monday morning. It just sat there, mocking me, refusing to boot up my system. Yes, I have other Macs in my office, but this one was my baby.

You don’t need to hear the whole sorry tale. Bottom line: the data was unrecoverable by conventional means, and I decided not to ship it to a data-recovery firm. As I told my friend Sallie Goetsch, author of the Backup Blog, ALMOST all my files were backed up, except for the ones that weren’t. Yes, lesson learned. Ouch.

I am disappointed that a 13-month old machine, which is treated as tenderly as a newborn child, could fail so completely. And, yes, I am now backing up my files about four times a day to a second hard drive and to my virtual iDisk. My former systems-analyst-self would be pleased.

P.S. My Apple dealer handed me my dead drive without a fuss, despite Apple’s much-maligned policy of keeping drives that have been replaced under warranty. I’m displaying it on my desk as a constant reminder.

Geeking out with Shel Holtz in Toronto

It’s always a treat for us Toronto types when Shel Holtz flies into town. Fortunately, he was here for a consulting gig this week, and put the call out for a Geek dinner. Last night I had the pleasure of dining at Il Fornello with a wonderful bunch of passionate people: Shel (pictured here with Eden Spodek and Rob Clark), Terry Fallis (pictured with me), Chris Clarke, Connie Crosby, Kathryn Lagden, Omar Ha-Redeye, Barbara Dundas, Gary Schlee and Sonja Andic.

What a gathering. Conversation topics zinged around – from children to corporate blogging to spelt flour to podcasting gaffes to music trivia to the finer points of English grammar. (You had to be there.)

I recorded a quick interview with Shel about his new book, How to Do Everything with Podcasting, co-authored with Neville Hobson. The audio will appear in my next Trafcom News Podcast.


Thanks for making the time for us all, Shel.

UPDATE::: The interview with Shel is now available on the Trafcom News Podcast blog - Show #59.