Over the years, this website has been home to my rants and raves about PR, communications, social media, geek stuff and productivity.  I’m grateful; this virtual garden o’mine has played an important role in the creation and maintenance of my personal brand.

People complement FlackRabbit.com quite a bit. Thanks, folks! Don’t be fooled, I didn’t design it! I’m lucky to be married to a talented web dude who created my logo and website long, long ago.

Of course, I realize that not everyone is married to a web designer. Still, you can do a lot to shore up your personal brand even without the customized creative: Read More…

I’m no social media expert, let’s make that clear right now. The digital PR and social media landscape changes daily, so if anyone tells you they are the social media guru – run like the wind. Tip: these are the same folks who will tell you they can “make something go viral.”

The only thing I can say with absolute certainty about the ever-evolving social media landscape is that successful use of these communication tools isn’t hard unless you are lazy. The more I read up, the more I find social media best practices among those that are smart, active, succinct and sincere. Read More…

Over the holidays I read The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR, by Al and Laura Ries. I don’t recommend you buy it and read it; it’s a much better library check out and scan type book.

For one thing, it was published in 2002, which makes reading it’s tales of Segway, Pets.com and The Red Tent pretty boring and stale.

Also, it’s clear the authors are terribly sad to see the age of advertising slip away and do not see a value in PR. I’m not even sure why PR is in the title, honestly. Here’s a gem from Chapter 9, page 85. Emphasis mine:

Perception is the name of the game, and advertising is perceived as the only way to create a better perception. Not true, but that the perception.

And that better alternative is publicity or, as its practitioners like to call it, PR, or public relations.

Whatever you all the function (publicity, PR, or public relations), the objective is the same. Tell your story indirectly through third-party outlets, primarily the media.

There are many disadvantages to PR. You can’t control the content, you can’t control the timing, and you can’t control the visual appearance of your message. You can’t even be sure that any of your messages will be delivered.

But the one advantage of PR makes up for all of its disadvantages. PR has credibility, advertising does not.

Gosh, too bad PR only has ONE advantage. How the heck would ANYONE hope to build up sincere media relationships that will one day help get your message out? If only there was a person one could turn to for media strategy and message control! (sigh).

Clearly, I’m still processing the tone and take-away message of this book. It has been on my read list for a while, which is why I’m sort of bitter about how disappointing the read was.

What about you? Have you read it? What lessons did you learn?

More importantly: Do you agree that PR offers no message control and only boasts ONE advantage, credibility?

So, you are new to Twitter and wonder where to begin. No worries, as it is with all new and uncharted communications tools there are plenty of blogs ready and willing to tell you exactly what to do. Enter TwiTip, the blog focused solely on helping you making the most of Twitter.

Here’s a sample of two great how-to posts:

10 first steps for beginners – this will walk you through setting up your profile, how not to be an idiot (read: spammer) and how to join in the conversation (this is social media, after all).

10 people beginners should follow – if you want to make the most of Twitter, you’ve got to follow folks; the more you follow, the more followers you get. The more you follow and follow you, the more conversations you have, etc. You can’t expect to get anything out of this communication tool if you don’t communicate …

Now, if you are in PR or Marketing, I suggest you peruse the 50 tweeples to follow list, complied by Sarah Evans. It’s a pretty decent list and should get you started with folks who talk about things you care about AND have a good mastery of Twitter usage.

And don’t forget to follow my favorite Twitter user, Shaq. You can find me here; the hubby here. And the list of all Nashville Twitter users here.

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CAUTION! No matter what you do or how much you use Twitter, please keep in mind that your Twitter account and updates are PUBLIC unless you mark your account as private. Also, if you use your full name on your Twitter accout it will turn up in Google searches of your name.

I take for granted that folks know the power of their digital footprint; clearly they don’t. It’s all on the record folks – so use it wisely.

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My most  recent Her Nashville column is an ode to my obsession with the handwritten note. For all you folks out there losing sleep over what to get me for Christmas, I’ll take some cute stationary.  And yes, mom really did ask me to stop writing to her; the moratorium was lifted after a few months.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Read More…

Have you seen/downloaded/squealed-out-loud about the brand-spanking-new Productive Magazine?

The pub’s name alone was enough to catch my eye. Then I saw the bright shiny object that is David Allen and I was sold. If you are into tips and to-do lists, go grab you a copy. It’s free; and if you don’t print it off you’ll be saving some trees.

If you’d rather be shot than read something like this, then at least check out the 17 Things You Should Stop Doing. It’s a quick, helpful read.

I’ll be soaking in the 33 pages of geekish goodness over the holidays, but had to share my pre-read excitement. It’s like they peered into my itty bitty self, had an editorial meeting and then produced a magazine just for Team Newman.

Oh, and if electronic reading isn’t your cup of tea, no worries; you can order a color or black/white copy on LuLu.

Hope it’s actually good!

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• Download the Free Inaugural Issue of Productive! Magazine [Free]

Wow. No denying I’m from the South after listening to this PR News 15 to Watch interview podcast where I profess my love of their term “digital PR,” To-Do lists and Getting Things Done. Could be worse though; I didn’t say anything patently offensive. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

Can’t wait to dive into the other 15 to Watch interviews this evening!

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