Food for thought

I'm almost at the end of a very interesting 2 hour podcast - a CPRS roundtable discussion on blogging do's-and-don'ts - courtesy of Inside PR.

You can listen to it here.

Toward the end of the podcast, you'll find a series of great arguments that we can present to our clients, as we try to convince them to come around to the idea of investing in social media initiatives. 'How to build their business through authentic public relations.'

I'm hearing the same reassuring message that I heard at dinner last night. At least I choose to see it as reassuring, considering as always that to laugh is infinitely better than to cry. The message? That the people in the room -- those interested in social media in Canada -- are in a good position. Because our country is behind other places, like the U.S., as far as blogging goes, Canadian PR practitioners honing their social media craft today are actually ahead of the curve. And that's a good place to be. Because, as they say, when it happens, you're going to be ready. This takes for granted, of course, that social media lasts.

My gut feeling? I'm betting that it will. Betting a lot of my time and contemplative energy on it, anyway. MySpace and You Tube might metamorphose into something else, but the bottom line is that technology has provided mankind with an inexpensive and accessible means of communication. Mass communication is no longer the privilege of a handful of media moguls. As PR practitioners, it's time we learn how to engage in conversation. How to move beyond media relations to engage in true public relations.

Speaking of food, yesterday's Geek Dinner was very pleasant and I met a lot of very interesting branding, marketing, media and web strategy types. Not too many PR reps at my end of the table, although I did see Marc Snyder there. Thanks again to Mitch Joel for the invitation and to Shel Holtz for his attendance.

On casse la croûte entre Geek ce soir

Geek Dinner avec Shel Holtz, ce soir. Merci, Mitch, pour cette belle occasion.

Je vous en parlerai demain, avant de me diriger au YulBiz.

Je viens de m'inscrire à Podcasters Across Borders 2007.

Les détails de ces 3 événements dans la section Événements à venir, à droite de votre écran.

Occupée, la petite!

Turf wars

In his latest article, Matt Shaw, VP of the Council on Public Relations in the US is decries marketing's incursion in the realm of social influence.

Yes. This is what I'm talking about : if Quebec PR practitioners don't wake up and take hold of social media, if they don't understand it and sell the concept to their clients, someone else will.

Why are we being so timid?

Thanks Matt: now I'm even more pumped to participate in the upcoming Geek Dinner and YulBiz events. I'm curious to see how many PR reps there will be in the mix. And how many of them are serious about incorporating social media into their strategies.

The simple truth is that clients want the best idea. Period. If it comes from their PR firm, ad agency or their next door neighbor, it is the breakthrough idea, not the messenger that is essential.

The public relations firms that are excelling, and there are many, have several key things in common: forward-thinking management, motivated staff and extremely grateful clients. They are all inextricably linked, but the first point is the engine. Firms that are bold and not afraid to take chances, and that provide their employees with the knowledge and tools that will create those breakthrough ideas … those firms will win more than their share of turf battles.

Masked Nude Competition To Invade Streets Of Montreal (or the varied uses of social media)

Noticed this item on the newswire this morning:

Reminder: Masked Nude Competition To Invade Streets Of Montreal

Controversial New Event Promises To Provoke And Entertain City

Attention: Arts/Entertainment Editor, City Editor, Lifestyle Editor, News EditorMONTREAL, QUEBEC, MEDIA ADVISORY--

(CCNMatthews - March 16, 2007) -
Citizens of Montreal may notice some strange behaviour on the streets this month. An extreme scavenger hunt called Faceless Invasion will send hundreds of students across the city to perform a list of shocking tasks. The students work in teams which are independently of one another but coordinated through the Faceless Invasion website, SMS, and Social Networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Full release here. March 16, 2007 - 09:01 ET

Talk about a hook. You have the words 'nude' and 'invade' in the same lead.

And it's not even frosh week.

More on this later, perhaps - we'll see how it gets picked up.

Convergence

Le CRTC se penchera sur la question de la convergence des médias cet automne.

"La vague actuelle de fusions dans l'industrie canadienne de la radiodiffusion et la possibilité que d'autres transactions importantes surviennent soulèvent de sérieuses questions concernant la diversité des voix au Canada", a affirmé Konrad von Finckenstein, président du CRTC, dans un communiqué.

Il dit ça comme si c'était une nouvelle préoccupation.

On verra où tout cela mènera. Et moi qui commençait à être capable d'appeler les réceptionistes de Transcon par leur petit nom ..

source: Infopresse

What RSS and Oprah have in common

Finally! An easy, for-dummies explanation of how to take advantage of RSS, from Stephanie Quilao.

Now I just need someone to give me the same version for how to incorporate RSS feeds into my own blog. I'm convinced of its worthiness, I know it's possible, I know it's within reach, I know it's probably not that difficult. I just need a step-by-step guide on incorporating it.

I'm finding it difficult to find one-stop shopping for the basics. It's hard to plunge into a new world when everyone's speaking a language you don't know and are having a hard time trying to figure out. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

It's like being back in school : no one seems to want to raise their hand and ask for help finding the answers.

So there it is: my hand is up. I don't want to become a techie - I just want to understand the technology to be able to help my clients understand it, so I can hire a techie to make it all magically come to life.

SOS!

Le Directeur se prononce

Et voilà. C'est officiel. Le statut du blogue est reconnu par le Directeur Général des Élections du Québec.

Je cite ici notre ami journaliste Bruno Guglielminetti :

Selon le DGE, un blogue pourrait être assimilé à une sorte de « réunion virtuelle » entre un certain nombre d’internautes, et donc, le blogue ne serait pas considéré comme une dépense électorale. (...) Par contre, le Directeur général des élections du Québec réaffirme qu'un message diffusé sur Internet qui impliquerait de la conception, de la production et qui se rapprocherait d’une publicité, pourrait être considéré comme une dépense électorale, s’il favorise ou défavorise directement ou indirectement un candidat ou un parti durant la période électorale.