Dear other person besides me who is subscribing to FlackRabbit on the Amazon Kindle,

Thank you! I don’t know if you are actually my mom or granny or Pavis, (I know you aren’t Dave because Dave was super excited to hear about you) but whoever you are–I love you. And I hope you feel you are getting your 99 cents a month worth of public relations, social media and technology ramblings. Read More…

Some folks claim Twitter performs all sorts of magic marketing spells. But we all know Twitter was really created to share on the Internet AWESOME stuff like this that makes me some people spit Sprite onto the keyboard: Read More…

From the latest issue of the Levick Strategic Communications e-newsletter:

While social media sites are as diverse as the millions of people that use them, they are all, for the most part, interrelated. This is precisely what makes the digital space ‘viral.’ Today, a single reputation-damaging blog post, Facebook update, tweet, or YouTube video can reach around the world in a matter of minutes. If you’re not actively watching and listening for mentions of your company, its brands, and your own leadership, you lose critical intelligence that can be utilized to stem a crisis before it happens. Read More…

I blog because it’s important to me that I share my passion for/expertise in reputation management in a public way. On the record. Out there for the world to critique and hold me accountable to.

Readers of this blog are chiefly nagged about four things:

1. You must take every opportunity to build and maintain your personal brand;
2. You are smart and talented.  You must be able to communicate that and advocate on your own behalf with gusto and confidence (a skill that Clay Shirky believes is more often utilized by men than women); Read More…

My hometown of Nashville boasts an abundance of talented PR firms, but D.C. is truly bursting with fabulously useful PR events.

This week, I’ll be attending two flack-tastic gatherings. The first because I’m hosting it, the second because it features a rockin’ panel of D.C. journalists I’d like to get to know. And because the hostess makes for a delightful coffee date.

So, if you are a Washington D.C. PR pro (or just wanna hang out with cool people who like to talk a lot), I hope you’ll show your face on:

Wednesday, January 13 at 6:30 p.m. — it’s time to resume our monthly DC Flacks happy hour at the District Chop House downtown. Join us for cheap beer (a near-impossible find in this town), talented PR, PA and Web professionals, and onion rings. We’ll see you at the upstairs bar; membership is free. Read More…

This is a morbid, buzz-killing topic, but it’s really important. My January Her Nashville Chic Geek column pushes you to  think about who–if anyone–will take over your online identity, accounts, etc. when you leave this world.

Here’s teaser; read the full thing at HerNashville.com:

If I should die before I wake, my Facebook password my husband should take. Oh, and an auto-reply message on my Gmail he should make, but my Twitter, LinkedIn,eBay, and PayPal accounts he may forsake … Read More…

Humor me, folks; pretty please, take the quiz. I want to see how well this WP Poll Plugin works. Especially you, Feed Readers and mobile surfers: were you able to take the quiz in your reader? Or did you have to come to the site to take it? Phone folks: did it work for you?

 Loading ...

Just in case you think this post/poll has nothing to do with social media, public relations or online marketing: read this. See, thanks to playing around like I do, when someone asks me if I’ve ever inserted a poll into a blog post, managed a Twitter contest, or started an online Meetup — I can say yes!

What have you done to be your own guinea pig lately?

• NYTimes: 36 Hours in Nashville http://s.nyt.com/u/Dln – some recs are boring, but at least they found Marche! #
• OMG what is Lebron wearing in that interview? He looks like Erkel! #
• Droid drooling: Her Nashville Chic Geek Droid review http://tinyurl.com/yc3obo9 #fb #
• If you care about early childhood health/development/education/safety follow: @PreKNow @FSSimon @FightCrime @LizSzabo @FirstBook #FF #
• RT @evula: "Where are my pants?" is one of those questions you hope to never find yourself thinking. And yet, here I am. #

• RT @Hammarstrand: @MargieNewman to Stop DM-SPAM: go into Twitter's "Settings" > "Connections" & click on "Revoke Access" to application. #
• Lots of DM spam from friend's accounts today; change your passwords often, folks! And please, if you get spam from me, please let me know! #
• Testing out the Motorola Droid for the next two days; it is fast and fabulous. Verizon loyalists rejoice! #fb http://twitpic.com/o8yqi #

In this town there is a Meetup, Tweetup, Festival or Twestival every night — at least it seems that way. Over the past three months, we’ve been hitting up social media happy hours like nobody’s business. In fact, Team Newman was recently included in a verbal listing of “the usual suspects” at “these kinds” of D.C. events. We weren’t sure if we should be flattered or embarrassed.

So far, we’ve: attended the NextGenWeb re-launch party, taken a free trip to New York courtesy of @SouthwestAir, partied with Social Media Club DC, eaten tasty brie at #Hyatt4Good, giggled at the DCBlogger’s Meetup, won a free dinner at the @destinationDC Tweetup, declared a winner of our very first Twitter contest and even started a Meetup group for digitally minded DC Flacks. Oh, and along the way, we’ve made some incredibly smart and talented new friends.

Yep, The Hill is alive with the sound of geek-ness — this particular social scene is just another reason why we heart The District. What’s your favorite thing about D.C.?