What's on Bill Smith's brain

At the End of 2011

2011-12-28T13:35:00.000-08:00

I have been quite reticent this year, not one to pump out content for the sake of it, if I have something to share, I share it.

Christmas has been a good this year and I'm thankful to have a great family and friends in my life. It wasn't the easiest December, I was in a bit of a funk, not "bah humbug!" more an upper case meh. Of course it didn't help it looked like an extended November minus the daylight in Southern Ontario, it felt like nothing was going right in a couple of different areas.

Getting back into the running groove helps courtesy Nike Plus, the most ruthless electronic personal trainer out there. So far I did 15.55 km this week and this will keep me on track and I need all the endorphins I can get.

The other thing that brought me joy was handing off some prints to my friend Anne from a family portrait shoot with her partner Glenn and their son I did back in the fall. Those prints in turn became christmas presents in their extended family. From what I found out, the prints were a hint in the Headon and Barley clans.

I'm still single and this holiday season it bothered me, there's still stuff I can't really talk about needless to say I took some control. No I'm not going back to online or speed dating, you could not pay me enough. I recruited an old friend Shelagh I have known off and on 31 years to be matchmaker. I trust her emotional intelligence and judgement, granted she's going through her second divorce but that's a story for another time. Anyway, Shelagh did two set ups resulting in happy marriages. Not bad from where I'm sitting.

What I did was give her an open deadline and my FB feed and account along with blogs be research material. Getting set up is one option for me, I am not out there actively looking but open to something magical happening. My friend Anne, the one I did the portrait session with, thinks someone is going to cross my path and sweep me off my feet. Now do I already know this woman or is someone new, Anne did not elaborate. Shelagh thinks the same way, sometime in 2012 someone special will cross paths with me and change everything.

Until that day comes I have a lot of cleaning house to do on the personal front to get ready.

Professionally, I am stepping up my job search a bit. The North American economy is stepping it's game a little bit provided events outside don't get in a way of cautious optimism.

So 2012, I'm ready for you.

The End of the Common Online Experience

2011-12-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

I found this TED video in my Facebook Feed from my friend David Headon and it got me thinking, are we seeing the end of the collective online experience. With that I'm worried on two fronts, professionally it's bad enough to craft a message to break through the digital noise. A new problem I'm not sure even search engine optimization can address, your key message in your communications campaign might get lost courtesy algorithms used by Facebook and Google that will tailor your online experiences exclusively to the users preferences and online behaviour when it comes to searches.

On a personal level I'm a little scared at the loss of the common online experience, my searches will yield different results compared to yours courtesy my web use on any given subject. Thing is I don't know what the outcome will be with such a subtle shift with searches.

Fun with Online Dating NOT!

2011-04-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hi, can I take your picture?
About me: Healthy Early 40 something gentleman working in PR and marketing with a passion for fine art photography, the sporting life, great outdoors, laughter, good company and intellectual pursuits.

Seeking that elusive practical chemistry with:

An attractive, intelligent, athletic, woman(30-42) with a creative bent, a sense of humour, loves skiing, hiking, running, exploring the hidden gems of Toronto neighbourhoods, dining out, and to be my co-pilot on road trips (bonus points if you can drive stick).

For dating and possibly more if the chemistry is right.

Here's how it works, it's easy: We meet for coffee and we'll see what happens from there.

I just pulled the plug on my Match.com account this morning, after a couple of months I was just not meeting the right woman for me and had enough. I gave online dating a second try back in January to widen my dating pool and to move on from a personal situation I am not comfortable sharing here.

I wound up connecting with 18 women online and met six face to face for coffee/drinks over the course of the winter and early spring. They were all nice, smart and attractive women but the chemistry was just not there. Of all of them, only two dates were curious about what I was really into.

It was not a total loss as I learned something very valuable, my next girlfriend/partner must have an artistic/creative bent, preferably with a passion for photography. I already have a professional network if I want to speak PR and communications, that’s easy. In my personal life, my creative outlet is what gets my motor running and I want to share that with someone who is speaking the same language I am, can bounce ideas off of and collaborate on personal projects.

Oh don’t forget chemistry. Even if you have the personal CV but the chemistry is not there, sorry it’s just not going to work; I learned that lesson the hard way.

I don’t know what’s going to happen next, I just want to lay low for a while and work on myself for a while. I Could use another lost weekend in the Beaches, no, make it a month.

Interview on TV Cogeco

2011-02-27T12:08:00.001-08:00

I had a last minute interview on TV Cogeco earlier this month regarding Capture Oakville 2011. Usually I media train the Oakville Camera Club president however this time out she was was quite sick with a nasty cold. I stepped in at the last minute with an hour of self media training and did well considering the short time frame.

2011-02-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

Printed in today's Oakville Beaver

RE: Arts Funding in the 2011 Municipal Budget.

To the Editor,

As a board member of the Oakville Camera Club, it is my sincerest hope that funding for the Arts Council and the grants is left alone in the 2011 municipal budget. Looking at the big picture, municipal funding of the arts brings a multi-fold return on investment which in turn means more tax revenue for the town of Oakville.

To refer the October 2008 article Harnessing the Power of the Arts: Capitalizing on the Economic Power of the Creative Industry from the International City Management Association newsletter, all three levels of American Government spend less than $4 billion USD per year on arts investment in form of grants yet reaping nearly $30 billion USD in revenue for all three levels of Government. That’s a seven to one return on investment.

The other argument I’m putting forth against cutting arts funding (Arts Council and grant program) is that while yes, it would save some money in a tough year but it will diminish community involvement. It also sends a rather mixed message with the finishing touches put on the QE Park Community Centre which has a significant arts programming component to the facility, yet funding to groups who will be tenants get cut.

It’s sad this issue gets re-visited every couple of years at budget time. I appreciate the tough choices our councilors have to make. Times are tough for municipalities even with ones in decent shape like the Town of Oakville and allocating scarce tax dollars for competing priorities is a task not taken lightly.

Regards
William Smith, Vice President
Oakville Camera Club
Oakvillecameraclub.com

On Running

2011-02-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

I am big on personal fitness and over the past few months I have been on a running kick for my cardio. Of course due to winter, I’m on a treadmill, bit of a wuss when it comes to the bitter cold. I can handle it skiing, running, not so sure.

It began with a 5km running clinic two years ago and I got back into it over the Christmas Holidays while working out at the local Y. I was neglecting my cardio and I felt it, especially with the sleepless nights and feeling sluggish.

Some people find solace in religion or the bottom of a scotch bottle. I find it through putting one foot in front of the other at 5.5 mph, making sure my stride is quiet, shoulders relaxed, my gaze straight ahead and I land on the balls of my feet, not my heel. One foot after another, mindful of technique, just like weight training, bad form just invites injury. Sounds Zen but it works for me.

Being focused on my stride and breathing, running helps me deal with all the crap that life insists throwing my way and I feel clarity when I’m done.

So for now it's 20-25km per week and I plan to go further when my endurance gets better.

Here's a TED talk by Christopher McDougall why humans run.

Thoughts on my New Toy: The iPhone 4

2011-01-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

I picked up my first smart phone just before Christmas, an iPhone 4 and I love. I had some Fido Dollars burning a hole in my loyalty program and my plan was due for renewal and it made sense to take the plunge.

In my quest for a smart phone I had three choices within the Fido stable, the Blackberry Curve, Android represented by the Acer Liquid and of course iPhone. The Fido product team chose not to carry the new Torch so that fell platform fell out of contention right away.

With my research I developed a high respect for both Android and iPhone handsets, however the Apple product won out. The Acer Liquid, a powerful piece of technology was cursed with cheap and cheerful materials plus I wanted something that can survive the harsh rigours of everyday living.

The transaction at my local Fido kiosk in Oakville Place was painless and the customer service reps were great. I even kept my long grandfathered City Fido unlimited talk time plan adding on a one Gigabyte data plan and see how that works for me.

So living with an iPhone is nice, I found the touch screen keyboard easy to adapt to, much easier than I thought, though I’m still prone to the rare typo courtesy a misplaced thumb. The big pull is all the apps in the iPhone Store and I’m slowly exploring (suggestions welcome).

The only challenge if you can call it that, I lost a couple of columns on Tweetdeck compared to my laptop, I think I’ll live.

I'm happy with my choice. It could have been different if Fido offered more Android phones in their lineup.

Year End 2010

2010-12-30T11:35:00.000-08:00

Looking back on 2010, it’s one of those years I felt like I walked three steps forward only walk backwards two steps.

It’s been a good year on the personal front, I hosted my first photography exhibit at Sovereign House, represented the Oakville Camera Club on the governance advisory board with the future Queen Elizabeth Park Community Cultural Centre and negotiating rental terms for our future meetings in 2012 in the same facility.

I made some headway on the IABC/Toronto Marketing Communications Committee with the partnership file, I opened up a new relationship with the MESH Conference and I know the executive board is excited. Two other partnerships are coming back which is good but like everything the devil is in the details.

With my job search in what amounts to a stagnant economy I learned something valuable, while there is one posted job description you see as an applicant, there’s another, in the head of the hiring manager or committee, and you won’t know about that job description until you are actually in the job interview. It comes down which of the “nice to haves” become must haves in terms of skills and experience.
I think 2011 will be much better on the job front, more interesting leads are coming to the surface which is good (fingers crossed).

Somewhere in the back half of this year I fell in love, been a long time since that last happened and unfortunately it’s unrequited. We known each other for a couple of years now and we have what I call a practical chemistry between us along with shared interests and goals. I have not told her as of yet and I’m not sure if it’s even meant to be, thank lousy timing for that.

For me 2011 is a blank roll of film, I have no idea what images will appear over the course of the year. I don’t make resolutions as a rule. Piece of advice, you want something to stick make the change on your birthday. That being said, I do want to give yoga a shot and get back on the running bandwagon again...

Travel is another part of my plans for the coming year, I’m overdue to revisit New York City and I have a place to stay in Manhattan, all I have to shell out for is travel and food.

Finally I have plans for another photo exhibit this time with my brother Alex and it’s going to be really cool. Stay tuned for developments on that front.
Happy New Year and may 2011 bring prosperity and happiness to you and your family.

Boxing Day Sales and Brooks Brothers

2010-12-29T13:14:00.000-08:00

As a rule, I try and avoid shopping malls like kryptonite during the holiday season, especially on Boxing Day. As I get older I can’t stand the crowds anymore, however there is one sale I got up early for, the Semi Annual Brooks Brothers blow out.

The best time is first thing in the morning like around 8 AM when the store opens, my friend and colleague Lindsey rode shotgun with me. She surfed the Brooks Brothers website but never got a chance to shop in person. We shopped to our hearts content, she picked up some sweaters and a pair of cords and I walked away with three sport shirts. I think we left around 9:30 AM and went for coffee.

I’m a second generation Brooks Brother’s customer, my dad used to shop there when on vacation in the US for their dress shirts, especially the oxford cloth button downs. I got a taste when traveling to Chicago on business back in the late 1990s but a .63 cent Canadian dollar held me back. When they opened up here in Toronto, I picked up some OCBDs in blue, white and in the blue university stripe. I wanted a connection to dad’s memory and I am evolving towards a timeless personal style.

So why get up early to shop at Brooks Brothers under the Royal Bank of Canada headquarters? I started shopping there back in the spring and what sold me was the customer service along with classic style. Yes it’s not cheap but Brooks Brothers does not make disposable clothing either. Those OCBDs I mentioned one paragraph ago are going to get about eight to ten years of wear out of them. H&M it’s not. I rather own a few pieces of high quality timeless clothing rather than a closet full of threads that will date quickly and fall apart, don’t get me started on men's shoes.

Year End

2010-12-23T12:08:00.001-08:00

Wow, 2010 went by fast. I have been quiet of late for a couple of reasons, namely working on the Capture Oakville 2010 exhibit launch which is hanging until the first week of January 2011. Other things cropped up too and was not in a chatty mood, I had to sort out some personal issues which kept me up at night. It's ok now, I figured things out and I feel great.

The job hunt is what it is, 2011 will be a better year.

I finally picked a smart phone, an iPhone 4 and I could keep my old voice plan and tack on a 1 GB data plan on top of that. I have a learning curve because this is not my old Sony Ericsson.

Stay safe out there and enjoy the Holiday Season.

Edit:(Hug someone you love and have fun, lots of it)

Bill

Jazz on my mind.

2010-11-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

My taste in music is far and wide ranging but jazz has a special place in my heart. I got the bug from my Dad, while other kids parents were playing Neil Young or bad '70s soft rock, I had Count Basie and Miles Davis playing on Dad's stereo in the background.

I started listening to jazz myself sometime in the mid 1990s bringing joy to dad especially when I started asking him what to buy for my CD collection. Generally if I am doing any PR writing, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock or Oscar Peterson will most likely be in the background to get me into the groove.

My taste in jazz is focused on the post big band era with be-bop, hard bop, cool and latin, basically anything with a groove.

2010 Oakville Municipal Elections, Cast Your Vote Carefully

2010-10-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

The 2010 municipal election has put Oakville at a crossroads, as a long time resident and voter I have been following the race for Mayor closely.

In reviewing the candidates for mayor I keep coming back to Ann Mulvale and her campaign tag line, “Oakville needs Ann Mulvale.”

Why do we need her back? The former mayor disappeared for four years from the public eye and all of sudden she wants her old job back. Mulvale lost in 2006 for a reason.

For a self appointed guardian of the public purse Mulvale complained about spending at Town Hall. My question, why set up a campaign headquarters in some of the most expensive retail space at the corner of Trafalgar and Lakeshore downtown, it does send out the wrong message in my mind.

In the past four years under Mayor Burton I have seen Oakville take a big leap forward, in terms of creating an official plan, caught up on the infrastructure deficit and led the council and town along with C4CA to get the TransCanada power plant project killed by Queens Park.

Courtesy my involvement with the arts community I spoke in front of the budget committee and Town Council on a few occasions and I found the meetings to be very well managed under Mayor Burton. The talk of council being out of control is spin on Ms. Mulvale, nothing more.

Speaking of spin, Mulvale wants to pay for new hospital through developer charges. When I last checked you can’t do that in the province of Ontario. If it were legal, we would need over 300 thousand new houses to make it work. It would be difficult when there is only room for 60 thousand.

The big question I ask of my fellow residents, why do you want to turn back the clock when so much has been accomplished? I don’t think Oakville needs Ann Mulvale, we have great council with Mayor Burton and I don’t think she is up to the job.

The Birthday Blog Post

2010-09-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are personal “New Year’s” and I’m having mine this week. I have done a lot over the past year volunteering for my local professional association chapter IABC/Toronto, doing some pro-bono work for the Bronte Historical Society, continuing my vice presidency with the Oakville Camera Club and the accomplishment I am most proud of is putting on my first photo exhibit on with two friends at Sovereign House in Bronte.

The job front is still a work in progress; I found during networking with professionals both inside and outside the PR/communications and marketing community I am not the only one who has been out of work for an extended period of time. The repeated comment, it is a weird job market this cycle. The one upshot, there are a lot more opportunities to apply to than last year.

One thing I am being very careful of in keeping my spirits up during this job hunt is avoiding business articles with the two words “economic depression.” I prefer to see the glass half full and the bartender is not far away for the top up, optimism and persistence will get me through.

I’m at peace with my extended bachelorhood; the secret was stopping looking which I did four years ago. Recently I posted a blog entry on a recent blind date and the joys of 21st century dating in general. The recent set up re-enforced why I don’t do it anymore because life is just too short for bad dates. There is enough angst on why 21st century single men and women can’t find what they are looking for in a mate, google “dating” if you want to get your fix.

Right now job hunting is my priority so I’m out of circulation for the foreseeable future. Maybe when I get into the right frame of mind down the road I will post on what I am looking for in a woman and a relationship.

One last thing before wrapping up , over the past little while I realized I am not just a communicator but also marketer, writer, photographer, and gentleman journalist, local arts community volunteer and proud uncle. I do all these things and not recognize to myself and the world that I actually do them, about time I corrected that oversight.

On working out: changing up the routine.

2010-08-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

I am a self confessed gym rat, working out on average four to five days a week and I have been doing it for ten years steady. I do it for health reasons physical fitness, conditioning for skiing and other outdoor activities and yes, vanity.

In the past few years the workout routine got stale and I found I was not going anywhere. So this year I modified my routine from doing three sets of a particular exercise at the same time, go through a circuit and end off with a cardio burst of 5 minutes to keep the heart rate up. That way I keep moving.

Day One:

Start 20 min cardio on the cross trainer or treadmill, then ab crunches,lat pull down for the back, dead lift 10-12 reps, bench press with dumbbells, bicep curls and upright row as one circuit. I hit the cross trainer or treadmill for five minutes and repeat doing three sets in total.

Day Two:

Just like day one with the cardio but the weight routine is this:
ab crunches, push ups: 25 per set, triceps pull down, walking lunges holding 30 lb dumb bells each side, shoulder press with dumb bells and squats holding a 75 lb dumbbell in front of me. Again end off each circuit with five minutes of cardio to keep the heart rate up, repeat with three circuits.

Funny thing happened all of a sudden in the past two weeks I became stronger. I am now performing better now than six year ago for upper body strength, for example earlier this year I was benching 110 lbs with 55 lb dumb bells in each hand. Now I'm bench pressing 150 lbs with 75lb dumb bell weights in each hand and it’s not easy like an Olympic barbell set up or a machine.

I have two goals I'm working on for the medium term, better core and lower body conditioning and to get back onto the running bandwagon which I have been on and off the past few years.

Outside of the gym I have been skiing in the winter for the past 34 years, I should ride my bike more and get back into running. To do that I should date another runner to force me to keep up, come to think of it I wouldn't go out anyone who wasn't as physically active as I am, it is an important part of my life.

Dating is about as fun as job interviews

2010-08-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

I went on a blind recently and I was not expecting it as I have been on a dating sabbatical for a couple of years now. A friend set me up with an interesting attractive woman, while there was an age difference; everything else on paper indicated a good possibility of success.

Like a lot of dates a few years ago that caused me to swear off dating while working on my PR certificate, the experience pretty much left a lot to be desired. Although we both grew up in the same neighbourhood and went to the same schools, Sarah (name changed for privacy) put in a subtle dig on my living back here in Oakville, she lived in a loft in downtown Toronto, red flag number one. Two, the conversation went into an odd tangents from weekend plans to a graphic novel about convicted bike thief Igor Kenk and Sarah’s disagreeable neighbours.

Red flag number three, Sarah is a foodie, no issue of that, but when I made reference to the gastro pub The Rebel House she did not recognize that and made a face when she found it was located in Rosedale. Turns out she prefers expensive martini bars on King St. West and “it spots” on Queen West near Parkdale near the Drake Hotel. Ok my cool kid visa had expired a while back but not knowing the Rebel House? That’s bad.

Ever the gentleman, I paid for the coffee and followed up two days later by phone when I promised, I guess thinking, maybe a second chance could be salvaged out of this, sometimes we put our worst foot forward in social situations. I got a note a day or two later in my inbox that gave me message in between the lines, “It ain’t happening.”

The recent Robert Cribb piece Three beguiling women talk dating in the Saturday July 31, 2010 Toronto Star lays out what I have been experiencing in my dating experiences with the women I have been meeting in the past eight years off and on.

So from a single man’s point of view my thoughts on the whole dating ritual, you can be movie star or swimsuit model gorgeous with a fabulous career, that catches my initial attention (hey, I’m a single straight man) the hard part is finding middle ground, its tough meeting a total stranger in a dating situation. Ask me about what I do for fun, stay away from controversial subject matter and engage me please!

For the record I am in PR/marketing, yes I’m between jobs but life is much more than about career, I’m a passionate fine art photographer, co-founder of a camera club with membership over 100 people, active in the Oakville arts community and pretty much well read in current affairs. I’m an avid outdoors enthusiast and firm believer in an active lifestyle. There’s enough to talk about, believe me.

I find a sense of humour to be sexy and since I discovered girls in my teens, only one girlfriend put a smile on my face intentionally. I’m still close friends with her long after the relationship ended. It saddens me women either don’t show that they have a sense of humour or have no sense of humour at all. Put a smile on my face, that’s brownie points, make me laugh, you sold me.

Please give me a reason to be interested enough to want to call you to talk further, waste time (in a good way) and ask you out for a second date, it comes back to engaging me.

I’m a Gen Xer so I have been around the block a few times so I know how this all works believe me the only differences between job interviews and dating are dress code, the environment where it takes place and desired outcome.

What now? I’m back focused on my job search and other projects; I’ll leave the fabulous single women with their unrealistic expectations in their natural habitat wondering why they can’t meet a decent single man, if they are really fortunate at some point self awareness will kick in.

My first Gallery Exhibit.

2010-07-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

Great news from the photography side of my life:

My first exhibit In the Shadow of the GTA Greenbelt starts on Saturday July 17 at 1 PM at Sovereign House on 7 West River St. in Bronte Village in Oakville Ontario. My co-exhibitors are fellow Oakville Camera Club members and friends Gary van Eijk and Les Lengyel.

My hand made prints will be available for sale at $200 each and they make a great addition to any corporate art portfolio.

Sovereign House is Open 1-4 PM Saturday, Sunday and Wednesdays and In the Shadow of the GTA Greenbelt runs from July 17 to 28, 2010.

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A little Nostalgia for long lost crushes.

2010-07-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about a long lost crush from high school recently, she pops up in my thoughts every once in a while. I met her in grade 10 back in 1984 in french class if memory serves correct.

Our paths crossed again in the mid 1990s in our mid twenties and we spent a lot of time together. Unfortunately, the happy ending did not happen, I was crazy in love, she was thinking "just friends" and I think you can piece together what happened next.

We last talked in the spring of 1997 at a party a month or two before I joined Carlson Marketing, it was one of those awkward conversations, I think she wanted to know what I was up to and not gone off the deep end.

We last crossed paths I think in 2001 on Lakeshore Rd. in downtown Oakville, we didn't speak.

As far as I know Tracy is married with two kids living in Guelph. I know what you, the blog reader is thinking, "Do you you want to see her again Bill?"

My reply, there is a quote I remember from somewhere but I can't attribute it, "Sometimes a prayer answered is going to give you a lot more grief than a prayer unanswered."

Something akin to being careful what you wish for. Through wisdom and a few relationships later, the realization is that high school crushes rarely come together regardless if it could be a plot to a John Cusack movie.

Right now the only thing I'm wishing for is my job search to bear some fruit, preferably with something resembling a dental plan attached. Long lost crushes can stay lost.

Well from that more innocent age, how about some David Bowie from Let's Dance.

What's Going on?

2010-06-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

Things have all gone to hell downtown Toronto this weekend. The G20 is having their summit which ends Monday I think and of course you have the circus that follows it in terms of protests and bad street theatre.

While I'm a fan of free speech and its peaceful expression, I am not a fan of the random destruction done by anarchists. Watching video footage on Facebook and the local newscasts I am sad to see the path of destruction down Yonge St.,King and Bay and along Queen and Spadina.

A little note to those who organized the Anti-G20 protest here in Toronto, you should have been very careful who you got into bed with. By not condemning violence and property damage, you have aligned yourself with Black Bloc and other anarchist factions in the minds of people you are attempting to reach and failing.

Damaging local businesses which provide jobs to make an incoherent political statement is not cool and cheering on those who do it, even less so. It's my hope as many of the anarchists are arrested as possible.

I want my city back.

The Winner is Public Relations

2010-05-23T09:52:00.001-07:00

I like Christie Blatchford's columns in the Globe and Mail, she has a no bullshit attitude when it comes to digesting issues and making sense of them. Yesterday her latest column called the The Winner is Public Relations caught my eye.

There are a few things going on this piece that while separate became interconnected via IABC/Toronto's annual Ovation awards. While the Leaside girl's hockey league ice-time issue does not affect me (don't have a daughter, play hockey or live in Leaside)Christie's attention towards IABC/Toronto caught my attention in spades.

First off, my opinions are that of an individual member of IABC/Toronto and in no way reflect that of the executive board and other members. I felt uncomfortable with the implication that PD and networking events were mixers.

For me IABC/Toronto is for professional development and networking with the goal of full time employment and furthering my communications career and I don't regard it as dating pool. Yes I am single and yes there have been a few female communicators that caught my fancy over the past few years but I have not acted on it because I am there for professional not personal reasons.

I don't know if Christie has much experience attending professional association events but I can safely speculate IABC/Toronto events are not that much different than those held by any other professional associations like HRPA (Human Resources), CMA (Marketing professionals) or CICA (Chartered Accountants).

Personally I don't care what Christie thinks of me as a communicator or her opinion on my profession in general. She's free to hold whatever opinion she wants, it's a free country. While we have drummed in our head on how journalists think and view the world, I think a fair number journalists have a very weak understanding what we do.

Sometimes old school is better: Wet Shaving

2010-05-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

By posting this, the chances of me working on Gillette's marcomm or PR accounts will be near zero. I partake with daily ritual of shaving the old fashioned way, with a double edge single blade safety razor, along with a brush and shaving soap.

I have been using shaving soap and brush for about 15 years now for a combination of environmental reasons with shaving foam packaging and it dried my skin out. Over the years shaving with modern multi-blade razors, I found I was bleeding too often from nicks, as a result I sported stubble between jobs.

I found my dad's Gillette Slim Adjustable razor made in 1966 two years ago. I did some research online and purchased a 100 pack of safety razor blades (over a years supply) online roughly the same price eight Multi-blade razors that would last me about two months.

So why shave with a single edge DE razor? Well, once you get the hang of it, wet shaving is better for your skin, cuts down on nicks, reduces ingrown hairs and it makes a morning ritual enjoyable. The secondary benefit is environmental, single blades are much better on the environment, steel breaks down over time, the plastic from multi-blade razor cartridges doesn't.

I could go one step further and shave with a straight razor but I don't quite have the courage yet.

From NBC's Today Show.

From my Flickr account.

The Guergis Meltdown

2010-04-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

It's pretty much old news by the time I write this that Helena Guergis "resigned" from her cabinet post and subsequently exiled from the Conservative Caucus to the cheap seats in the House of Commons.

If there is any object lesson out of this and there are a few, one politicians are a certain breed, I have observed them studying political science at university many years ago and up close more recently. Helena did not have that particular mojo to get right to the top of the heap.

That magic mojo I am talking about is a gregarious personality, coupled with a sharp mind and grace under pressure when the brown mushy stuff hits the wall. Well a lot of that happened in the past few weeks. I don't know her personally thankfully, media reports paint Helena as a special (read: haughty and prickly) personality and the meltdown at Charlottetown Airport displayed a very unflattering side to her.

The next lesson Helena should learn about is who you get into bed with, her husband former Edmonton MP Rahim Jaffer damaged her political career, with drunk driving and drug possession charges along with the attempt to sell access to the Prime Minister's Office. Unlikely because Rahim lost is Edmonton riding in the 2008, a safe Conservative seat I might add because he spent way too much time with Helena instead of sticking to his knitting. Losing a safe riding does not win friends in the PMO. Allegations of conducting personal business through Helena's office is not good for the reputation. So take away lesson, you want a life partner who is in your corner for better or worse, not be there for themselves.

The final lesson is an old one,"The people you meet on the way up are the same people you run into again on the way down."

Throughout my career I realized the people who hold the real power are the executive assistants and receptionists, I make a point of making friends with them. Why? The assistants and receptionists control access and information that can work for you if you are a mensch or against you if you are a tool. It also helps to build relationships with outside vendors, peers in the field because one day you're going to need those relationships.

Helena had a reputation of not being nice to her constituency office staff, bills did not get paid, I get the impression that riding office was not a joy to work in. I doubt Helena will get a glowing reference from her staff when she is back on the job market.

Thing is Helena didn't burn her bridges, she dropped a Hydrogen bomb on them.

Blog Direction

2010-04-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

I am on the horns of a dilemma with this blog. When it launched a few years back I used as a repository for writing samples until my sites resume got off the ground, then it became more a generic PR/Marketing blog, which I really have not done a post like that for a long time.

Reality is marketing/PR/social media blogs are more common than dirt and honestly I think no one is going to miss another PR blog. So, I am a PR and marketing pro who dabbles in social media and no, I am not going to talk about any of the three previous subjects. I'm going to talk about everything else.

One of my favourite "non" PR blogs is written by Palette PR co-owner Louise Armstrong called A Call for Class. She focuses on the lost art of good etiquette in modern day living.

Another "non" PR blog is by Danielle Simpson who focuses on modern art and galleries.

Going forward there will be a lot more on my brain hopefully.

Cheers

B.

Foursquare, I don't get it

2010-03-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

I don't get Foursquare. There I said it, my cool kid wannabe social media guru status has been revoked. As a communicator part of my job description is to leverage a variety of tactics to execute communications plans I create to make my client/employer happy. This includes a whole toolbox of Web 2.0 tactics from this platform, Facebook, Twitter etc.

Foursquare is the shiny new toy for the next 15 minutes, it's an app for your iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone where you can announce your physical presence to your followers/friends and earn badges with the regular visits to certain locations. I don't get it.

Marketers will love it. In conjunction the Foursquare enabled smart phone, merchants can pull up your data so custom pitches could be made to you depending where you are. Think that Tom Cruise film based on the Philip H Dick book Minority Report.

I don't think we are at that level of sophistication yet for a few years yet, I hope. Besides, do you really want to be pitched personally while buying a new pair of jeans the next time you you are visiting Banana Republic?

On a personal level, I jealously guard what I want to keep private and that includes my exact physical location. I think I am staying away from Foursquare, it has too much an Orwellian vibe about it.

In Memory, G. Douglas Smith 1937-2005.

2010-03-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

I want to introduce a big influence in my life to you, my dad George Douglas Smith. He never liked George preferring to go by Doug and he was what I would term one of the quiet smart men in the room.

Dad was by training a chartered accountant but wound up in the investment field managing pension fund money first with Sun Life then with Canadian Pacific Limited. He was a Vice President, Portfolio Manager of Canadian Equities. Put simple dad looked after a big pool of money (roughly a billion dollars) for a defined benefit pension plan.

Dad was one of the wise old men of pension fund management and did not suffer fools gladly. I remember hearing second hand Stock Brokerages would send rookie analysts to pitch dad. If they survived the meeting, they would have a career. Dad also generated a lot of loyalty from the investment community because he was an honest man and not a afraid to speak his mind if the need arose.

I think my first memory of dad was him taking me up for walks in Summit Park in Montreal’s Westmount neighbourhood. When my brother Alex came along he had the delicate task of giving us equal attention. Dad got Alex and I interested in skiing first in the Laurentians north of Montreal and later at the Caledon Ski Club when the family moved to Ontario in 1980.

One of my favourite memories was skiing with dad on the weekends which we did up until early January 2005 when his health went south. Dad had a very sharp and dry sense of humour and lived by the philosophy of, “Laugh at life or life is going to laugh at you.”

When not managing other people’s pension money Dad dabbled in photography but became passionate about making replica antique furniture in Upper Canada, Quebequois and Americana styles with period tools. Yes, he cut the dovetail mortise joints by hand; dad was a stickler for authenticity.

I still remember the last few weeks like it was five minutes ago, Alex took it a lot rougher initially, I was much closer to the situation and was pretty much numb. He followed dad’s footsteps in becoming a CA too and they talked a lot about particular companies and investments. In a way Alex is a lot more like dad than I am.

The weekend dad divided up his camera gear to Alex and me because we both developed a strong passion for photography, it was a rough one. Dad probably regretted not giving us his Leicas and Nikons sooner so he could see enjoying them.
We both thought maybe, just maybe the doctors could buy him some extra time. Alas that was not to be.

Dad passed on five years ago from cancer 8:30 pm March 23, 2005 at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital with his immediate family by his side.

I think it took me a while to realize that I inherited a lot of qualities from dad too, his strong sense of honesty, integrity, work ethic, being passionate in what you do, never giving up your dignity and oh yes, laughing at life.

One thing I could never bring myself to do is take his ski poles from the family locker up that the Caledon Ski Club. The PR certificate program I started in May 2005 took my mind off his death to an extent but seeing his poles up there the following winter made me wonder if dad was already out on the slopes wondering why I was taking so long.

So the ski poles stay up at the hill.

March goes out like.....

2010-03-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

One thing I have noticed since Podcamp 2010, the job market all of a sudden sprung back to life. I think the past three to four weeks I sent out applications to about 14 opportunities. I have not seen it this busy since before Lehman Brothers went off the cliff in September 2008 taking the world economy along for the ride.

What I am focusing on is sending updated resumes to people I met in information interviews last year with the objective that they know I am still looking and interested. The other project is creating a list of people I want to approach in professional services and consulting and find out how PR/Corporate Comm is executed in their world.

I am not going to fool anyone,I am scared that I could be perceived as damaged goods for being out of work so long. Bad timing to graduate when I did from Ryerson University's PR certificate program but ever the optimist I am going to land the right opportunity for me.

Volunteering goes a long way to keeping yourself up to date and I took on the Bronte Historical Society here in Oakville as a pro bono client. A friend of mine recruited me and I am glad he did. The game plan is to get the Historical Society up to date with their PR and marketing mixing media relations and social media tactics raising awareness and increasing attendance at their events. Stay tuned on what I have planned.

So what else is going on? I am a finalist in the visual arts category for the Stars Among US-Oakville Arts Awards. Here is a link to my portfolio submission. The awards gala takes place in May, you will be in the loop.

I am also organizing a photography exhibit with two other photographers at Sovereign House Gallery run by my client the Bronte Historical Society called In the Shadow of the GTA Green Belt
towards the end of July.

Podcamp Toronto 2010.

2010-02-22T13:31:00.000-08:00

I went to my first Podcamp this year, for those who have not gone to one, it is a volunteer driven free conference for the following people: digital marketers, public relations/corporate communications professionals, community managers and hobbyists.

Of course due to the cost, the quality of the sessions can be all over the place, I got to see some great ideas presented by Chris Barger regarding GM's reputation repair after Chapter 11 filing last year using social media as key tactic in reaching stakeholders. I wish this session went on a lot longer than the 30 minutes allotted.

The other reputation management session was When Social Media Becomes Unsociable led by David Bradfield and Miranda McCurlie on how to repair reputations when the online conversation gets rough.

I also had a good take away on social media analytics facilitated by http://twitter.com/podolsky of Sysomos and he gave me some ideas on how to track the performance of a social media campaign. The most valuable part of Podcamp was the networking, I reconnected with some people I conducted information interviews with a few years back and made some new contacts.

I am sacrificing another ski day next year, I found Podcamp quite valuable and the price is right.

Help This PR Pro out.

2010-02-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

I found out about Help a PR Pro Out day through my twitter contacts Danny Brown and Dave Fleet. It's a great idea to hook up PR Pros in need of work with potential opportunities.

I am a PR Pro based in the west end of the GTA who needs the right entry level opportunity. My situation is a little unique, I am a mid career transition, which in simple terms makes more seasoned than your average junior.

I graduated from the Ryerson PR certificate program and worked with the Rubber Association of Canada on their Be Tire Smart community relations pilot project launch as project manager. Currently I'm doing pro bono work with the Bronte Historical Society here in Oakville to raise awareness of their arts and cultural programming through community and social media.

So what makes me different than other recent grads breaking into PR? I bring to the table from my previous life is experience in project management, vendor relations, managing multiple projects, working on a diversified team ranging from senior management to call centre associates and I can get up to speed fast on projects. Most importantly I bring my enthusiasm for the profession what I have done so far in PR I have really enjoyed.

My main focus is in either agency or a corporate opportunity in Downtown Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville or Burlington.

I can be reached through my twitter account, via email at william_b_smith(at)hotmail.com or you can get all that and more at my online resume site. Alternately, I am attending Podcamp Toronto tomorrow at Ryerson University and we can talk in person at some point during the day.

Either way you find me, I would like to get the conversation going to see how I can help you out with your PR challenges.

The Curious Case of Adam Giambrone

2010-02-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

This is not Adam Giambrone's week or year for that matter.

For those not living in Greater Toronto, Giambrone is a baby faced Toronto City councilor and chair of the Toronto Transit Commission. he used to teach archeology at University of Toronto and former president of the federal New Democratic Party all before the age of 30.

The public transit file is a mess all you have to do is google the sleeping TTC ticket agent to get an idea of what's going on. Of course this does not trouble Giambrone with his mayoral ambitions, however his personal life put an end to the dream today.

Coles notes, Giambrone was living with his long time girlfriend Sarah McQuarrie and at the same time having a side thing going on with a 20 year old university student, and as it turns out a few other women as the story later unfolds.

So what you say? Here's the deal in text messages to the Kristen Lucas (the first other woman), Giambrone dropped the bombshell he had a long time girlfriend living with him and that she is at his side at public events for political reasons. Let me repeat this, he tells his friend with benefits that the live in girlfriend (reality common law wife)is around for campaign optics.

I have a big problem with that. Yes Giambrone is technically not married but having cheated on Ms. McQuarrie and calling her for lack of a better term a political prop in a text message behind her back is just plain beyond the pale. Cheating on someone you are in a relationship with is one thing, talking about your partner like that is something else.

Speaking as man who's been around long enough, I'm telling you it comes down to strength of character and how you value your personal and professional relationships. It's clear Giambrone does not value his and is also guilty of trying to try and lie to manage the story in a vain attempt to get ahead of it.

It's Ms. McQuarrie's personal business on how she deals with her wayward former wannabe mayoral candidate boyfriend and I am not going to speculate what will happen next for them. It's safe speculation Giambrone is sleeping alone tonight.

There are some takeaway lessons, most obvious being tattoos can be removed but text messages like tweets and Facebook status updates are forever. Careful what you text/tweet/update, it's public and if you are politician or aspire to be one, it's public record.

The next lesson, strength of character, it's how you treat the people in your life, the way you deal with situations that impact others and are you a decent human being. This in turn translates into perceptions what kind of person you are and decide if you are the person for the job or romantic relationship material. That's where Adam Giambrone had his massive failure this week.

Brilliant Comedy Sketch

2010-01-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

I discovered this video courtesy the Socialized Blog which was originally found on Youtube. It's called Pub scene from Bremner, Bird and Fortune’s ‘Last Show before the Recovery' and I love it. It puts Social media into perspective and it's a good laugh.

End of the year and the decade

2009-12-31T11:03:00.000-08:00

Wow, 2009 went by quick, same thing for the 00s. I am in a reflective mood today being the end of the year and the decade. As a rule I don't make resolutions, more on that a little later.

The 00s were not the nicest decade for me. I started off in loyalty marketing at Carlson Marketing at the beginning and now I am at the other end ten years older, wiser and ready for the next chapter of my life.

I tried new things, some didn't work for me like my career in sales. While at Servco I realized I was great at communicating to a wide variety of different audiences. Calling on Home Depot and Rona took their toll on me and I was ready for a change. The smartest decision I made was enrolling in the Public Relations certificate program from Ryerson University.

The toughest thing this decade was saying goodbye to my dad in 2005, his cancer was so fast in spreading, he really did not have much of a chance. In way I also have that PR certificate to thank in keeping my attention focused for the remainder of that year. I miss dad terribly to this day, especially heading up skiing with him, his sense of humour and wisdom.

I have two things I am really proud of, founding the Oakville Camera Club with my friend Kieley Kitagawa taking it from 24 members in 2006 to over a hundred at the end of this year. The OCC is an established itself as a member of the Oakville arts community, hosts successful Capture Oakville competition and gala, and built the reputation of not being like other camera clubs in the region.

My first PR job I got work on was the Be Tire Smart community relations pilot project in 2008 with the Rubber Association of Canada. I took an idea with an initial plan, made some changes due to time constraints and the Green machine hit the road with the key message of regularly checking and maintaining your vehicle tire's air pressure to owner's manual specifications. I got work with a great team at the RAC, their PR agency Xposure and the two PR Interns Lindsay Fedchyshyn and Ken MacDonald.

So, what's next? I don't make New Year's resolutions. I already started running this past Summer and I am taking that up again in the spring, switched to circuit training a week ago and will carry that on going forward. When I make changes to my life I rather do them in September or before Christmas, it has a better chance of sticking.

The ongoing big project is the job hunt and in 2010 I am going to land at the right place. I am looking for the right employer, I have been doing a lot of information interviews this past year and I realize what I am after is the holy grail, the transparent organization. You know the one, where people are engaged, happy, the mission statement has substance with everyone from the intern to the CEO and everyone believes in the brand. I want to work at place like that.

In saying goodbye to 2009 and kicking the 00s out to the curb, have a safe happy new year and have an exciting decade.

Been busy

2009-12-17T11:23:00.000-08:00

I have been quiet over a month so an update is in order. I am volunteering on two IABC/Toronto committees, Marketing Communications as a partnership manager and Professional Development as person without title who takes event photos and does the write up for the Communicator newsletter. I have the unstructured time so I am blessed with the chance to work with both committees and I find it rewarding.

The job search got put on the back burner for the most of November, due a rather nasty cold and lingering 100 day cough that goes after it. I am back on the search with a potential information interview with Dave Fleet over at the Toronto PR agency Thornley Fallis. He is very interesting guy with a lot to say on social media, I strongly suggest you check out his blog.

I am still looking to break in at the agency and corporate level. I think the past few months my interest in Government has waned to zero, I think the size of the bureaucracy at all levels will shrink over the next few years and that includes communicators.

What else went on? The Oakville Camera Club had an another successful Capture Oakville photography competition, gala and awards ceremony in early November. The exhibit will be up until the first week of January 2010 at Oakville Town Hall. I have a few pieces showcased in one corner.

I took care of media relations with stories in the Oakville Beaver, Oakville.com, on the OCC group page on Flickr and got the club president on TV Cogeco for an interview. The event went off flawlessly and we have a lot of goodwill with the Town of Oakville and the local arts community.

Swine Flu

2009-10-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

I am writing this post with a sore throat, slight cough, stuffy nose and thankfully no fever. I am not writing today on how different levels of Government are communicating about H1N1 flu, no my sharp observations are reserved for the execution of the vaccine clinics.

To date health units have set clinics in central points, with the understanding the local population will come to them. This has resulted in chaos, the thought of pregnant women in their second or third trimester waiting out in the rain for seven hours is bad optics on it's own. The big thought that medical personnel and first responders (Fire, Police and EMS) have to visit the clinic for the vaccine is dumb.

yesterday here in Oakville, Bronte Road was closed in both directions because of the numbers of people looking to get inoculated. Here's my thought take the vaccine to the people, that means clinics in shopping malls, schools, and first responder stations (Fire, Police and EMS)

My Take on Michael Bryant's Spin Class

2009-09-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

I was reading the the Saturday September 19th edition of the Globe and Mail and an article on the media coverage on Michael Bryant's current troubles after a vehicle accident involving a cyclist on Bloor Street in Yorkville.

Bryant is well within his rights to hire a PR firm and in terms of crisis communications and reputation management, Navigator is considered the dream team and it's $600 per hour rate reflects that.

Few things bother me though, one Bryant came out of police station looking like he is headed to a high level meeting. I would have suggested more casual attire, Bryant after all most likely spent the night in a holding cell and in some corners of public opinion and in the media it's seen as a class issue.

Secondly one got the impression that Navigator was going to do a full court press on the media to get Bryant's side of the story out. Reality as outlined in the G&M piece, reporters did their own in depth research and came up with a profile of Alan Sheppard the deceased bicycle courier.

The other thing that sort of bothers me is how Navigator positioned itself in this whole affair. If I am a Crisis Communications expert and I am at the top of my game, I want my client to be the one that shines. It's not about the PR firm or the consultant handing the file. If I am part of the story, then I have not done my job properly, an impression would form that I am manipulating opinion, that's the kiss of death for our chosen profession.

The PR firm helps get the story out to help the client rehabilitate their reputation and blend seamlessly into the background, that's the way it should be.

I think Duncan Fulton of Fleishman-Hillard has it right, it's not so much the winning of the media cycle but the enduring memory of the crisis, especially if you are Bryant in a job interview five years down the road.

For the record while I have an interest in Crisis Communications from an intellectual standpoint because every PR practitioner has to understand how it works, I would prefer being in a consumer or technology practice.

What I learned

2009-09-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

I am getting more information interviews which is a good sign the PR world is starting to come out of it's collective bunker following the economic events last year. Most agencies are still really cautious to hire and I don't blame them, you want clients willing to spend on campaigns before you can bulk up the staff.

I met with a senior communicator on contract with the Town of Oakville, while it's a great place to work and the corporate communications department has a very interesting portfolio however getting in is downright near impossible courtesy a hiring freeze and tight municipal budgets. While my path might not be communications in municipal government, it's good to know how it's done and I have a big respect for what the corporate communications department at Oakville Town Hall does.

Next week I have a meeting with IABC Toronto and Apex PR Vice President Linda Andross on Thursday afternoon and I hopefully will have an information interview lined up with Optimum PR soon.

In other news of a personal note, I am now Vice President of the Oakville Camera Club and I will be sharing the PR duties with the Club Secretary Bill Dimmick who has a journalism background and edits an industry magazine for the Dairy Farmers of Ontario. As a co-founder, I am happy how this turns out as I want to continue to build the OCC brand in the regional arts community and encourage photography as an art form locally.

John Hughes RIP.

2009-08-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

For those of us who were teenagers in the mid 1980s, there was a strong chance you saw 16 Candles, Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. John Hughes nailed mid 1980s suburban North American teen culture complete with a cool soundtrack. With his sudden passing a few days ago from a heart attack, I felt old for the first time.

Hughes’ 1980s teen movies all took place in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, not too dissimilar to where I grew up in Oakville just outside of Toronto. While none of his work would be considered Oscar material in its time. Hughes films with the Brat Pack had almost a Frank Capra vibe to it and I think members of Generation X of a certain age are mourning not just the loss of the creative filmmaker who created these movies but also a lifeline to a slightly less complicated more optimistic time.

The high point of Hughes’ later work included Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck, I never quite got Home Alone. The thing all the good movies provided so many decent quotes, my favourite being from Ferris Bueller’s Day off, “Life moves pretty quick, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

In closing I should disclose when I was 16 I had a crush on both Molly Ringwald (16 Candles, Pretty in Pink and Breakfast Club. Thank you Mr. Hughes for getting it right and entertaining us.

Postcript

Please check out this blog for more insight on why John Hughes left the movie business. It is a well written post that packs an emotional punch. be forewarned.

Mid Summer Update

2009-07-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

I have been quiet for a while, I have been getting out on information interviews more frequently which is good, it gives me a boost navigating this tough job market. I am widening my search scope beyond PR agencies to include Professional Services firms and Industry Associations. One place I won't be looking at is the City of Toronto, I think the recent as yet not wound up municipal workers strike has laid bare a very dysfunctional organization, I think I'll pass.

I have upcoming tentative information interviews with the New IABC Toronto President Brent Carey recently transplanted to KPMG and Scott MacFadyen at Apex PR, an agency I hear a lot of good things about.

In other project news, I am grappling with specs for the Oakville Camera Club's, digital darkroom, Exhibit Gallery and meeting space requirements for the proposed QE Park Community Centre in Oakville Ontario. I am thankful to have contacts in the pro photographic lab and architectural community I can leverage some knowledge. I will be meeting with the project architect in the fall for a more in depth meeting.

Other than that, it has to be the worst Summer weather in Southern Ontario. I think I saw less sunlight this July than in December with all the rain that fell.

2009-06-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

Years ago when I was designing incentive programs for Carlson Marketing Group I got invited to a customer appreciation night with a vendor that distributed one of the Swiss Army Knife lines. I was admiring the new line of watches on display (I have a weak spot for nice watches) and one of the account managers who looked after the retail channel and started to bad mouth the other Swiss Army Knife company’s watch line. Back then I thought it was in poor taste trashing someone else’s product as a result I bought more from the other Swiss Army Knife company.

Flash forward to this past week, The Economist published an article highlighting the trend in advertising where one brand trashes another. That brought me back to that night in the product showroom and why that made an impression on me. The one bit of marketing advice I stand by is this, DO NOT TRASH OR BAD MOUTH YOUR (CLIENT’S) COMPETITION’S BRAND OR PRODUCTS/SERVICES. Did everyone hear that clearly? Good.

I am well aware times are tough, I am looking for work in PR during a recession, I know how rough it is out there. I am standing by what I said above, trashing your competitor’s products/services in earned and paid media, along with web 2.0 is cheap and smells of desperation. Companies/clients who choose that tone for their key messaging usually are in trouble with their own business.

I am a firm believer in speaking up the attributes of your company’s product/service along with a third party endorsement goes a lot further in earning trust from consumers over the long run. Going down and dirty on a competitor’s product or service could blow back and customers will question the integrity of your products/services.

It’s a small world, if you were the one who signed off on key messaging for a marketing communications campaign and later on through circumstance are interviewing at your competitor for a position, it could be an interesting conversation. Taking the high road in terms of Messaging will earn more respect for the brand you are working for and you.

Official Graduation from the Ryerson University Public Relations Program and other things

2009-05-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

I received a letter today from the Office Of Curriculum Advising, I have officially graduated from Ryerson University's post degree certificate in Public Relations. I am getting the certificate mailed to me in a few weeks, it is an important turning point but I just want to move on, I still have this job search to contend with.

In other news this morning I met an independent PR practitioner and photographer Helen Grose for coffee at my favourite local meeting spot, the Green Bean. It was productive meeting, we talked about PR, Helen gave me some sage advice on managing managers, how to approach certain people in the Southern Ontario Public Relations community and provided all important contacts for me to follow up with.

I met Helen online through flickr, as both of us are photography enthusiasts. I admired her work for several weeks and it also turned out we had mutual friends. Moral of today's events, potential contacts are everywhere including your extra curricular activities that have nothing to do with work, so always be at the ready for potential networking opportunities.

The Oliphant Inquiry or the Mulroney/ Schreiber Circus

2009-05-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

I replied on Twitter recently to a posting the Joseph Thornley made in regards to the current Parliamentary inquiry exploring the business dealings between former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and German businessman Herr Karl-Heinz Schreiber. I took an opposing view to his, stating that inquiry has lost its relevance in the grand scheme of things. Thornley begged to differ on my comment in that regard.

Here is my take on the whole thing, freed from the 140 character confines of Twitter, it’s pretty much a given that Mulroney’s behaviour does not pass the ethical smell test. He is what I best describe is a flawed individual with bad judgement accepting $75 thousand cash payments from a sketchy character as Schreiber, I should also point out has an outstanding date with the German legal system regarding bribery scandal with the Christian Democratic party of Germany that makes this one small potatoes.

The Germans take white collar crime seriously so of course Schreiber wants to avoid the one way trip home. At the moment he is a star witness of this inquiry and is going nowhere near an international departure lounge anytime soon. The big question, what will be gained of this inquiry other than providing a nice platform to boost the careers of some opposition MPs, make some expensive lawyers happy and keep one German lobbyist away from his homeland’s justice system?

I think Canadians have already by and large made up their collective minds on the whole Mulroney/Schreiber bribery scandal and moved on. The former PM is not going to jail and has already settled with the Canada Revenue Agency, so what’s being gained from this exercise? Mulroney had few fans going into this and has even less now. How can you damage further the reputation of an unpopular Prime Minister? Canadians are already cynical about the political system and that pre-dates this current scandal. I don’t think that opinion is to change any time soon.

If you want to see a real scandal, follow the events in the United Kingdom where Conservative, Labour and Liberal-Democratic MPs are on the hook for raping and pillaging their expense accounts. This will sink political careers on both sides of aisle in Westminster and could affect the outcome of the next British election. Our bribery scandal is over events that happened in the early 1990s, the players are out office and the medium-long haul Airbus aircraft Air Canada purchased that triggered this mess at that the beginning are going to be replaced shortly with Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

Know when to let one go

2009-04-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

There was an opportunity I was considering applying to, a think tank based in the Mars Discovery District in Toronto, decently funded and focused on promoting Social Innovation. What they are doing is pretty interesting, I wrestled with the requirement of the application for Communications coordinator position, a 700 word essay on why Social Innovation is Important and I realized the opportunity is not for me.

It's rather interesting to use a short essay as screening device, on the surface it is a writing test for employers but more importantly it forces perspective communicators to think seriously if the organization and cause is for them. I decided I would not be a good fit for Social Innovation Generation. I have the hard and soft skills to the job and what I don't know I learn pretty quick. My problem, I am not a "just drank the grape kool aid" believer, the SIG is looking for someone who believes. I am not, I find what the SIG is doing with social innovation is interesting but the reality is it would be a square peg in a round hole situation.

Fit is everything and I don't think it was right for me for this particular communications position. The secret is know thyself to the core and understand what will work best for you, if you don't, it could get really uncomfortable really fast.

I stopped working on the 700 word essay and I am going back to lining up networking opportunities with different PR agencies.

Two pieces of news

2009-04-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

First Piece of News
My write up of Ron Shewchuk's PD Seminar on the roll of Social Media in Internal Communications has been published in the March-April 2009 IABC Toronto Communicator.

Second Piece of News
Under my "Other Duties as Assigned" as PR Director and Membership Coordinator of the Oakville Camera Club I act as the club representative on the Community Arts Space Advisory Board. It is a grass roots organization that has worked very hard to get an arts centre for Oakville. Guess what, Town Council has approved the renovation of QE Park High School into a community centre with a almost 60,000 Square feet of arts centre within the complex.

Entertainment Publicity Scares Me

2009-04-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

One part of the public relations realm I have no interest in is handling publicity for celebrities. I think Billy Bob Thorton's interview this week on CBC Radio One's Q is a good case in point. For those who have not heard the interview, here is the youtube clip, I would not have been so gentle with Thorton if I was in Jian Ghomeshi's chair.

I give credit to the members of The Boxmasters (Thorton's band) for stepping up in the interview while their famous front man was being an asshole. If Thorton is genuinely interested in taking his career in a different direction with his Modbilly band, he scuttled it with is interview behavior. What I found interesting is how fast this spread all over new and old media outside of Canada and how the consensus was not flattering.

Truth of the matter, when the brand (Thorton) itself is behaving erratically in media interviews, that's bad thing and it does not take a PR pro to realize that. Doing a quick scan online the consensus is either Thorton potentially sabotaged his singing career or he is doing a lame attempt at mimicking the erratic behaviour of actor turned rapper Joaquin Phoenix

My suggestion, don't buy Thorton's music on iTunes or the CD, instead check out Wilco's Summer Teeth or Big Star's self titled debut albums.

A Quick Postscript

Billy Bob Thorton and the Boxmasters received a rough ride at Massey Hall opening up for Willie Nelson and have since pulled out of the their Canadian tour. A big surprise? I don't think so.

At a loss for words this week.

2009-03-31T17:43:00.000-07:00

I am at a loss for words this week, however I have been very prolific with my photography lately. If you are interested, please visit my photography blog via the link below for something different.

My photography

Helmet buying for next ski season

2009-03-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I have been a skier for the past 33 years and consider myself of aggressive advanced ability and take appropriate judgement. This is my last ski season without a helmet, Movie and stage actress Natasha Richardson's ski accident this past is my tipping point.

She took a spill on a beginner run at Mt Tremblant north of Montreal late yesterday afternoon on spring snow which is heavy, wet and soft. Richardson took a spill, hit her head on the snow, was attended to by ski patrollers and her instructor, 24 hours later is now lying in a hospital in New York, condition unknown. Richardson was not wearing a helmet.

Brain injuries are scary as there is so little knowledge in on the human brain, we do know sudden impacts are a bad thing for grey matter. I wear a bike helmet in the Summer while cycling because it is a given human brain and skull plus gravity, speed, pavement and sometimes stupid inattentive motorist do not mix well together. The Outcome after such an encounter is really simple, you're dead or your choice of salad ingredient.

Most head injuries involve out of control skier hitting trees and as you read in newspapers or watch on the evening news, in most situations, the tree wins. In case of Richardson, she was not moving fast and took a spill in some heavy wet conditions, it does not take much. As someone skiing for most of my life, spring snow is tricky and you can catch an edge of your ski easily and fall.

So come August when my local ski store haunt Corbetts opens up for the season, I am buying a new Ski Helmet. I'm going to lose on the peripheral vision but reducing a chance of head injury even by a small percentage is a good thing. Helmets are not a cure all, being in control and aware of your surroundings while skiing will go a long way ensuring you are at the apres ski bash not in an ICU.

Why Twitter?

2009-03-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a free (for now) micro blogging service where you can share ideas 140 characters or less, so why Twitter?

A little bit of background first, I heard about Twitter at an IABC Toronto Social Media breakfast last spring with Shel Holz as the keynote speaker. My first thought, “Oh joy, yet another social media platform to keep track of.”

Eight months later I set up a profile and now I am on there way more often than Facebook. It is the ongoing conversation that got me hooked with professional peers and friends with mutual interests.

Who is on Twitter? It is a mix of people I am following and being followed by PR practitioners, journalists, marketing professionals, web gurus, industry thought leaders and the odd photographer, for the most part early adapters from communication based professions. That is my universe, there are millions signed up (no exact figure known), the Tweeting population demographics are probably more varied than my group.

So why Tweet? For me as a freshly minted PR and seasoned marketing professional, it is almost a given, I have to understand this technology for work. I find interesting articles relating to my profession, it is an ongoing conversation with your network and a news feed. For example, I found out about the closing down of the 150 year old Denver newspaper Rocky Mountain News four days before it hit traditional media. Twitter is excellent for reaching a very specific audience with your key messages 140characters or less along with a link.

So should you Tweet? Good question, I will ask you are going to be on Twitter representing your clients/organization, as a civilian or both? The usual rules governing journalism or public relations apply depending which side of the street you are on even as a civilian. If you are planning to tweet as the designated spokesperson of your organization, get buy in from senior communications executives, risk management (if that plays a role in your organization) and your corporate legal consul. The last thing you want to do is spook them, interesting things happen when you do. Remember, tweeting is the equivalent of speaking in a public place, be careful what you share, which leads to the next paragraph immediately below.

A strong word of caution, think before you tweet. While a tattoo commemorating a fling from a lost weekend ten years ago can be removed, Google is forever. All your Tweets are searchable by clients, present and future employers, colleagues, family, friends, lovers, you get the idea. To further re-enforce the point, type Ketchum and Twitter into Google and you will understand exactly what I am talking about.

With the above caveats, don’t be a afraid of Twitter, it is part of the remaking of the media universe, influences how receive information and it’s fun interacting with people with like minded interests all over the world.

Is it Time for Employee Communicators to Make Friends with Social Media?

2009-03-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

More than 90 communicators braved the early March bitter cold to attend Master Communicator Ron Shewchuk’s presentation Is it Time for Employee Communicators to Make Friends with Social Media?

After a brief review of different Web 2.0 platforms to an experienced audience Shewchuk pointed out business is slowly adapting to social media with only a 30% using blogs, RSS feeds, Wikis and social networks. Sources of resistance include senior executives uncomfortable with social media, concerns from the company legal consul and objections to new applications from the IT group. At the same time employee engagement on average are at record lows with some of that blame placed on Corporate Intranets, Web 1.0 technology.

To ensure success with social media as an employee communication tool, Shewchuk recommended make a business case for the particular medium, pick the right application that works for your organization, do not fall into peer pressure for the CEO to have a blog just because his/her competitor has one. Social media can be used for collaboration for projects, storing institutional memory, training and reaching out to internal and external stakeholders.

Shewchuk left the room with the following thoughts, figure out why you want to use social media, does it make sense for your organization, is there a business case to justify, and can social media be integrated into the workflow of your organization?

The parting wisdom from the presentation, Shewchuk pointed out there is no substituting for face to face contact and the printed employee newsletter. Social media while very effective when used correctly, not every employee in an organization has access to a computer and communicators can’t overlook that.
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Facebook Update

2009-02-18T06:45:00.001-08:00

Funny what can happen in 24 hours, Facebook cried uncle and reverted back to their old terms of service agreement. Looks like Zukerberg and the senior management team got the message loud and clear from their stakeholders.

Why didn't the Facebook team state right off in plain english that they were not interested in claiming ownership rights to users' creative work and the reasons why the user agreement changed. All it would have taken was a team consisting of Corporate legal consul and the Communciations team consulting Facebook users along the way to come up with something that works for everyone.

The take away lesson is this, consult your stakeholders before making changes to something as important as terms of use.

Facebook Follies: The New Terms of Agreement

2009-02-17T08:34:00.000-08:00

I am a user of Facebook for about two years now,my account is largely for personal networking with friends, family and professional colleagues in the Greater Toronto Area.

Late last week I found out Facebook changed its terms of agreement, when I found out what the ramifications were, two words "holy shit" entered my mind immediately. Essentially boiled down, once you post something onto Facebook, they have the right to licence and sub licence your creative works even if you decide to delete your account. They own your family pics and other content and reserve the right to use them for purposes of promotion long after you are gone.

I am not posting any of my photographic work to Facebook until this is clarified. I think Mark Zukerberg has a lot of answer too with his stakeholders (myself included) with this overkill terms of agreement. I think he and the Facebook executive team better listen to the stakeholders with this, if the Facebook groups against the new terms of agreement grow into the the hundreds of thousands, a little change in the legal fine print becomes a big problem. I think I am going to need a little more from Zukerberg than,"Trust us, there is no hidden agenda."

Will I stop using Facebook? No, but I am going to be a lot more careful what I share in terms of my creative content. My suggestion for those keen to share photos with friends and family, get a Flickr Account, at least you can control the copyright of your images on there.

I went to National PR this week and the art of the handwritten thank you note.

2009-02-05T12:02:00.001-08:00

I had an information interview at National Public Relations back on Tuesday with Sandra their Talent Retention and Aquisition Manager. It was a great meeting however Sandra pointed out like a lot of other agencies, National was not aquiring talent at my level (or any level for that matter), however I am in her database in case a future opportunity comes up.

I took this as a small victory, I am now on the radar of another organization I really want to work for and I enjoyed meeting with Sandra. One thing I did after dinner that night was write a thank note. No, I did not email the note but wrote it out by hand mailed it the old fashioned way.

There is something about a handwritten thank you note that gets attention. We are bombarded with information, don't ask me how many emails I get daily, I am on twitter,Facebook and run two blogs a hand written thank you note gets my attention and I keep them. An emailed thank you note disappears after the delete button is hit and is quickly forgotton. I make it standard practice to write by hand a thank you note to anyone I meet in regards to potential employment opportunities.

If you want to do this, invest in some decent letter paper, Clairfontaine, G.Lalo and Cranes make great product. Do go with an off white shade without decoration other than the makers watermark funky colours or decoration are distracting. Use a nice pen with ink that does not smudge and write concisely.

So, what have you been up to?

2009-01-30T12:50:00.000-08:00

So, what have you been up to?

That's one question everyone gets asked in job interviews when you are in the "between opportunities" zone. To answer that I have been busy networking, sending off resumes and staying current with industry blogs however it is my involvement with the Oakville Camera Club that has kept my PR skills honed during this recession.

I co-founded the OCC back in 2006 with my friend Kieley Hickey as there was a gap in the Oakville arts scene for a general interest photography club catering to all ages. Three years later we have an organization 86 members strong and meeting twice a month at the Oakville Public Library. I serve on the board as membership coordinator, PR director and "other duties as assigned."

Put simply I do the following:
1) Maintain the membership database, act as first point of contact for new members and send out renewal notices for lapsed memberships.
2) Work with rest of the board to organize the Capture Oakville Photo competition and related gala at Oakville Town Hall annually.
3) Pitch local community media stories related to the OCC and Capture Oakville, this includes the Oakville Beaver and TV Cogeco.
4) Maintain the social media presence on Flickr with the OCC forum and photo pool. I write about future meetings and monitor feedback.
5) I am the main contact with the Oakville Arts Council and I write the application each year successfuly optaining operating grant money for the club.
6) I also sit on the advisory board for the proposed Community Arts Centre as a representative of the OCC.

I should explain #6 a little further, The town of Oakville never had a general purpose arts centre like other municipalities in the GTA. Most arts groups be it visual or musical (OCC included)have scramble to find meeting and rehearsal space. My neighbour Britta Miles spearheads a group called Commmunity Arts Space, lobbying Town Hall and fundraising to create an arts centre for Oakville. The Town purchased the QE Park Secondary School property three years ago and it is currently vacant. The idea proposed was to renovate the school and half goes to a community centre and the other half becomes the arts centre Oakville desperately needs.

The OCC is running out of space at its current meeting location and the proposed arts centre could solve several problems at once: a meeting space for at least 100 people, a mac lab with photo printers and negative scanners and access to studio space for workshops. Hence my involvement on the Community Arts Space advisory board to represent my clubs interests. At some point the arts centre will transition from grassroots organization to appendage of Oakville Parks Recreation and Culture, Government Relations might be in my future as well.

Yes I do find time to go out and take pictures and get in the darkroom and make some prints. I keep my writing skills warm, practice some media relations, plan events and practice a fair bit of community relations with my club involvement. What is frustrating I can't cram this all under my volunteering section on my resume.

It's Alive!!!!

2009-01-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am a little dramatic, I finally got my new and improved online resume ready for public consumption. Please find the link on the right hand column. Sites is a pretty cool Google application once you get the hang of it.

Why IABC?

2009-01-14T08:32:00.000-08:00

I saw an interesting link posted by IABC on Twitter last week to an article by Shiela Coriveau on the blog PR in Canada on which is better a membership in CPRS or IABC?

When I started my PR education in spring 2005 I joined CPRS Toronto like any good student, at the suggestion of my second PR instructor Susan Macdougal I took out a student memberhip in IABC Toronto a couple months later and have been an active member ever since.

It was my experience at my first IABC Professional Development event, an excellent seminar on media relations by Ed Schiller(if you get a chance to hear him speak, do so), I was welcomed by Leslie Hetherington then VP (now president) of IABC Toronto. I never got the same welcoming experience at CPRS Toronto, that makes an impression.

I find my IABC membership valuable because it is a global professional organization that believes in sharing information across different regions through CW, the CW update and through social media. If a communicator/PR professional in say Sweden wrote an article on a solution to a problem I have here, I would like to know about it. The other attraction with a world wide organization is if I wind up say in the UK or the US ten years from now, I can tap into a local IABC chapter.

I am sticking with my IABC Toronto membership aside from the decent career resources and high quality PD events, I have made some valuable networking connections. The global resources is a big attraction for me as practicing PR/Communications in the
21st century there are no more boundaries.

For me the cultural fit with IABC is much better and that is an important consideration when looking at multpiple associations representing a profession, find what works for you.

Playing with a new Google App

2009-01-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

I was updating my online resume this morning on googlepages. When I signed out I saw the notice that Google was no longer accepting applications to use the platform and will be phasing it out at the end of 2009. Wonderful, but not all is lost, Google put together a better website platform called Sites.

I became a fan after putting together my online resume V2.0. It's not quite ready for public consumption yet but the content is the same as the current pages site. I just find it much more functional in terms of navigation and most importantly the portfolio pieces get their own separate pages. Google did their homework, as much I loved Googlepages, it was pain to update if you had a new contract, volunteered for something or gained new credentials.

I became a fan of online resumes after receiving advice during a brief with Shel Holz last spring at a PD event put on by IABC Toronto. A very valuable piece of advice I am glad I followed.

I will be posting a new link to my V2.0 resume when the finishing touches are complete.

Heads up, Interesting article in today's Financial Post: Now is the time to be bold

2009-01-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

Please copy and paste: http://www.financialpost.com/executive/story.html?id=1146803
in your browser of choice to read the FP article.

I am not a regular reader of the Financial Post as I am a Report on Business fan but this morning at the gym I read an interesting article written by Argyle Communications President Daniel Tisch. Essentially the article is an earned advertorial for the PR industry in terms of branding and maintaining conversations with client customers through earned and social media.

As a freshly minted PR professional, I want to thank Tisch for writing Now is the Right Time to be Bold. As It is a call to action for senior executives to consider the services of public relations professionals to build brands and connect with customers through earned and social media. Tisch's optimism is a breath of fresh air in all of the gloom out there.

First post of 2009, more odds and sods.

2009-01-05T10:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2009, despite what the pundents are saying I think this will be a great year. Today I am talking about media consumption, etiquete at seminars regarding social media and my thoughts on client conflicts.

The great what ever you want to call this economic event (recession, depression, downturn, enema, etc.) has changed my media consumption to a point. I recently switched my clock radio from CBC Radio One to Jazz.fm. The news got so bleak one day, I decided enough, I would rather be woken up at 5 a.m. to say the Oscar Peterson trio than hear another downer news story. Switching from a current affairs laden channel to mostly music sounds drastic but I now get most of my news online from the Globe and Mail, CBC.ca, CNN, Marketing Magazine and the Inside PR podcasts. I also like watching the BBC World News on CBC Newsworld and I graze between the Business News Network and CP24. I still like reading a paper Globe and Mail on Wednesday's Fridays and Saturdays and I look forward to my copy of the Economist.

I am on that divide as a member of Generation X consuming both traditional and online channels of media. As a PR person I think this could a fascinating topic, has the downturn/recession/economic enema (still love that term Julie R. of Maverick PR coined)altered people's media consumption habits. How are they getting their news and more importantly what stories are the publics' reading/listening/viewing? How do we as PR people deal with that?

My second thought today is a point of etiqutte, the Christmas eve podcast of Inside PR covered the topic of someone doing live updates twitter of a speech given by CBC producer Ira Basen. The person twittering/tweating is a PR blogger of some note but Basen apon finding out after the fact was less than pleased. I am going to give a personal experience, I am the de-facto event photographer for IABC Toronto, I try and make the speakers at events aware either verbally or non verbally that I will be wandering around and taking their picture at different angles while they speak. The blogger in question if we could rewind, could approach Basen and introduce themselves and say, "Look I am going to give live updates on Twitter, is this ok with you?"

Chances are Basen would not have a problem, well what happened, happened and a small closed door speech is being talked about in PR circles far and wide. That may not be a bad thing, take away lesson, pay attention to the speaker.

The final thought topic on Christmas Eve Inside PR podcast I found interesting was client conflict. I think Martin Waxman is right to suggest calling the incumbent client X and lay out the situation that you have been invited to bid with Client Y on this piece of business, would this be an issue?

The accepted thing to do and I aggree wholeheartedly, stick by the incumbent client.

I experienced something similar years ago at Carlson Marketing Group when I was in the Rewards Group, the Royal Bank Visa Gold incentive program came up for grabs and it was a huge piece of business worth millions. CMG had TD Visa Gold travel incentive business for years and it was fair sized profit centre for the firm. In the end a "Chinese Wall" was erected and RBC and the TD account teams were on opposite sides of the building and only crossed paths rarely. To my understanding CMG never did get RBC Visa's incentive travel business and that makes sense.

Why I dig the Economist and More Intelligent Life and other odds and ends this New Year's eve

2008-12-31T11:54:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

My favourite news magazine is the Economist, a weekly "newspaper" focusing on Politics and the Economy, every current affairs junkie should read it. I prefer to get a "big picture" view of issues facing Politics and the Economy and the Economist has a no BS slant I value. The Economist is great for in depth features on technology, industries and countries or regional blocs. This is a must read for any PR person looking how the big picture will affect their employer/client's world.

Now the other publication, sister to the Economist is More Intelligent Life. Unlike the Economist, MIL looks at arts culture and life in depth from the same independent opinionated slant. It can be accessed online through the link I posted on the side and if you are passing through the UK or Europe, it's available at the newsstand level. I like MIL because it is a smarter arts and culture magazine on a global level. Where else will you read an article by the Mail on Sunday's editor David Bennun on Why Canada Rocks and American pop is in the doldrums. MIL is cool read for the PR practitioner because all work and no play makes you a dull person.

Finally, Happy New Year! Overall 2008 was great for me, I Completed my PR certificate, worked on a community relations contract and made some good friends. I think 2009 is going to be a better year despite what is said in the media. Let's stay optimistic gang, pessimism is not an option.

Regular Feature in the Friday Globe and Mail Report on Business Section

2008-12-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

There is a feature in the ROB section of the Globe and Mail section called Persuasion which covers off the marketing scene in Canada. Jennifer Wells has a great column today that covers off the problem faced by marketers and PR people, the dreaded budget cut when times get really bad. There must be some institutional amnesia, everytime the economy goes down the toilet anything tied to promoting the business and it's brands get the axe while accounting, finance and legal survive.

Part of the problem is if you will pardon the film reference,"We have a failure to communicate here." PR and marketing people are great at promoting the brand but when it comes to promoting ourselves within the organization especially when the cash gets squeezed, all of sudden we develop a speech impediment when it comes to getting the budget we need to make things happen.

Sounds counter intuitive but it makes sense to ramp up PR marketing budgets as to keep relationships between the brand and customers going. Developing an organizational speech impediment or worse being struck mute for six months to save money on the balance sheet is short sighted and damaging to organizational brands.

The big call to action is to explain ourselves and why what we do is important to the organization's bottom line both near and long term. Legal and finance do it really well, time we got our act together and push back because our efforts facilitate sales in the near and long term

The link to the ROB story is below, you may have to cut and paste as blogger's link function does not seem to like me for some reason.

http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081218.wadhocracy1219/BNStory/robMarketing/home

Old School is sometimes better: why I use a fountain pen

2008-12-17T17:20:00.000-08:00

I write with a fountain pen. I was taught cursive writing (becoming a lost art) with one as boy growing up in Montreal at Elizabeth Ballantyne Elementary School, moved over to a ball point when my family re-located to Toronto. My handwriting suffered and I pity anyone who had to read it. I re-discovered the joys writing with a fountain courtesy a former girlfriend nine years ago and have not looked back.

Aside from the tactile pleasure of putting a proper pen to paper, I find I think differently drafting communications pieces on paper than on say a LCD computer screen. It is my rebellion against the disposable society we live in, yes fountain pens can get insanly expensive, more reason not to lose them and the ink is water soluable. A well cared for fountain pen will outlast me and will be handed down to the next generation.

I think also writing with fountain pens opens rapport, turns out my first Public Relations instructor at Ryerson David Turnbull has the same fascination for fountain pens I did and we wound up comparing collections. Fountain pen people tend to wind up in the most unlikeley places. Yes, I have a collection and rationalize along with my other hobbies, it's cheaper than owning and racing a late 1960's Porsche 911. I co-chair the Toronto International Pen show which is held every fall and you meet a wide cross section of people.

I am partial to my Pelikans and Parker 51's which I talk more of later on. My ink colours of choice are deep blue and blue-black but then Blue is my favourite colour.

Book Recommendation: On Brand by Wally Olins

2008-12-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a book worth looking into for those of us in the PR and marketing world. It's called On Brand by Wally Olins. I stumbled apon him in a panel discussion on TVO's current affairs program the Agenda about six months ago on the subject of branding countries.

The book On Brand is an easy read, Olins is very british and unlike North American Communicators who write books, he keeps in a conversational tone. The book explains branding, why it is important for any organization to be aware of it and realize that they don't own their brand (or brands) but act as stewards. the case study on the evolution of Volkswagen's brand over the past decades was very interesting.

On Brand in a way also ties in with Reputation Management and how organizations have to be very proactive in protecting it.

I recommend On Brand as a read for PR and marketing people because I think Olins has the track record to speak on the subject, he writes well and I like his no B.S. attitude.

Welcome to the re-boot of Freshprprofessional.blogspot.com

2008-12-15T06:39:00.000-08:00

I am done my public relations certificate at Ryerson University as of last weekend. I feel a lot lighter all of a sudden, like a huge load is off my shoulders.

A lot of things have changed in the past few months and I thought it was time for a re-boot for this blog. I have to come up with a better mousetrap for my writing samples in an online context, that will be one of my holiday projects along with sending off resumes.

So what's going on this blog? It's my new soapbox for things related to PR and marketing subjects, current affairs, and my non photography personal interests. Few people know I have an interest in mechanical watches and fountain pens. For those looking for my photography blog funwithcameras.blogspot.com, there is a link on the margin that will take you there.

Facebook, the New Frontier for Public Relations

2007-05-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have been playing with Facebook in the last month it is my new toy. If you are under a certain age, it is a fact of life and if you are over a certain age you are wondering what the fuss is all about.

Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 conceived Facebook as a means for University students to get to know each other. More recently it has been open to the public at large and currently has an online population of 24 million members and the revenue is generated with banner ads. While all walks of life are on Facebook the demographics are skewed towards Generation X and younger.

So how does it work? Facebook members need an email account to create and account. From there a profile page is created where you can put down as little or as much about yourself you feel comfortable. In my case I deliberately left off my phone numbers and only have a yahoo account as my point of contact for security reasons.

Once the profile page is set you can join networks, which are set out by geography or by school, for example I belong to the Toronto network and the Oakville Trafalger High School Alumni list. Anyone can join a network; more specific are groups with any theme under the sun in my case since I am an amateur photographer I belong to Advocates for Traditional Photography and Nelson Foto. You require permission to gain group membership.

Where the fun comes in is you can track down “friends”, they can be colleagues, former co-workers and classmates going all the way back to elementary school. This element can come in handy for communicators and I will explain a little bit later. The big boon as members see it, is connecting with friends they have not seen in years and the method of communication is somewhere between email and instant messaging.

At the moment Facebook is banned site for employees by the Ontario Government and the City of Toronto, stands to reason the private sector will follow for productivity issues. Facebook is addictive and has come by the nickname “Crackbook” honestly. You can get sucked in exploring networks for hours on end, like looking for that long lost love from high school.

Another issue to keep in mind with Facebook is privacy, or the lack there of. There have been issues of high school students being suspended after trashing one of their teachers on Facebook. It is a public forum and can be searched by law enforcement agencies in conducting criminal investigations, pity the poor freshman from the University of Oklahoma who got a visit from the US Secret Service after making a joke about assassinating President George W. Bush.

Facebook is public domain, everyone and I mean everyone from employers, and audiences you want to reach, your friends, romantic partners (or potential romantic partners), law enforcement and intelligence agencies will scan the site. Put on information you feel comfortable disclosing and refrain from more extreme behavior on some of the more esoteric forums.

I am what can be called a senior member of the Generation X cohort and I joined out of curiosity. I know at some point a client or my Director of PR or EVP is going to come to me and ask, “Bill how does Facebook work, how does it impact our organization and how can we use it as a communications tool?”

I am going out on a limb and say Facebook should not be feared but it might be a very powerful tool for internal communication for reaching younger workers. Having an organizational presence on Facebook allows you to connect with current workers who are in Generation X and Y, as well as connecting with alumni networks of former employees. Especially if it’s message that cannot wait for the newsletter and the internal emails are not going to reach everyone.

The main challenge is Facebook is not one way like traditional media relations but a direct two-way conversation with your audience. For some organizations used to one way channels, this can be a scary experience. Coming back to the Government of Ontario and the City of Toronto banning Facebook from their workplace computers, this makes both respective bureaucracies more distant from the people they serve. People will participate on Facebook from their home connection

For the more adventurous, Facebook can be used as means of building awareness for your organization, the CEO can fill this roll as the public face of the organization. Now here is where it gets tricky, like blogging you have communicate in a conversational manner, no MBA or management-speak. You have to be honest, authentic and transparent or that connection to that specific audience you are courting will evapourate instantly.

To wrap up, Facebook is the social network of the moment, with half million users in Greater Toronto alone speaks to the penetration into peoples lives. Used properly, it can be a very powerful Public Relations tool reaching internal and external audiences and should not be feared by organizations.