IABC

Why shout, when you could communicate?

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Friend_TrafalgarSquareA few months ago I blogged about a street vendor (left)  in Trafalgar Square, and some interesting things he told me about ‘making a statement.’

I expanded that idea into an article that appeared in the latest issue of Communication World. For those of you who are not IABC members, here is a link to the PDF.

I wrestled between  givinng this article the headline”Stop shouting and I will pay attention!” and “Silent Messages in an Over-communicated World.” The editors settled for “Picture This!”

Let me know what you think of the article.

Quotes for the week, ending 15 August 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“We’ve just had a demonstration of democracy.”

Senator Arlen Specter, after a person attending a town hall meeting shouted at him. The man was escorted out of the room, at a Harrisburg Community College.

“The Obama administration has delivered … a message of tough love. We are not sugarcoating the problems. We’re not shying away from them.”

Secretary Hillary Clinton, summing up her trip to Africa

“The Internet disrupts any industry whose core product can be reduced to ones and zeros ..it is the biggest virgin forest out there”

Jose Ferreira, founder and CEO of education startup Knewton

“Doing sustainability is fine, but being sustainable is where we want to wind up.”

Michelle Bernhart, author of “The Rules of the Game” in an upcoming edition of IABC’s Communication World magazine, interviewed by Natasha Nicholson.

“FriendFeed, in my mind, is the new RSS reader.”

Robert Quigley in Old Media New Tricks

“Macaca Day, for those of us who make our living from video on the Internet and elsewhere, is a holy day – the day that marks the birth of YouTube politics, and reminds us that citizens with cellphone cameras and a YouTube account – or at least an election.”

Dan Manatt, at Tech President, on the infamous comment by senator George Allen during the election campaign

“Google Voice “is merely symptomatic of that larger question.”

Ben Scott, public policy director of Free Press, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group in Washington, on the investigation on whether the carrier (AT&T) and handset maker (Apple) had anything to do with banning Google’s voice application from the iPhone.

“This is a decision based upon consumer experiences, child protection and our strategic investment to build up MSN Messenger.”

Geoff Sutton, GM of MSN Europe, on the decision to shut down Microsoft chat rooms in 28 countries.

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Twinterview with Johna Burke of BurellesLuce

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Today I am starting a series of Twitter interviews. It is at twitter.com/heyangelo

The first is with Johna Burke, Vice President of BurrellesLuce, the largest media monitoring and measurement company in the United States.

Time: 10.00 am Pacific

Johna is a hands-on PR and social media  practitioner, plus a  great speaker who talks about the changing practice of public relations, especially PR in a time when the media is in a state of attack/transition/re-design –pick your description. She recently moderated webinars and round tables on real-time communication and measurement.

You could follow the teinterview by following me on @heyangelo or her on Twitter @gojohnab

Quotes for the week ending 27 February, 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Orbiting swarms of junk careen into each other like billiard balls, creating unpredictable sprays of debris, which in turn meld with other space garbage to weave a moving net around the atmosphere.”

The Wall Street Journal‘s Robert Lee Hotz, on the debris of space junk caused by colliding satellites.

“My love of TweetDeck just keeps growing …Love, love, love it.”

IABC Chair, Barbara Gibson, on the new features of Tweetdeck.

“Twitter users may donate their avatar and replace it with an image of the red female sign.”

“NCMFathom, which is asking Twitter users to micro-blog to raise 0.10 a tweet from March 2 – 5 this year.

“After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you.”

Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz, on her blog, Yodel Anecdotal, about her first one and a half months on the job, and the changes being made.

“Sometimes the face of a brand is a fictional character.”

Chris Brogan, on the Bigelow Tea company’s project, Constant Comments. The company’s president Cindi Bigelow is a prominent figure in its communication.

“There is a differance (sic) between op/eds and news.”

Reader comment on the Rocky Mountain News web site, in response to the last story of the newspaper, “Goodbye, Colorado.” The paper began in 1859. The reader suggested that it demonstrated market forces were doing the right thing.

Twitterhawk could kill golden goose

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

If you like Twitter (and wonder why it was not overrun by spammers) prepare for this killjoy. I was alerted to it by an IABC colleague –through what else? Twitter– of a tool that could kill the golden goose.

This crappy service, Twitterhawk is a way to turn it into a marketing machine. One look at what it promises and I can see the end times.  The company is brash enough to say that “We have many measures in place to reduce the liklihood (sic) of your posts being seen as SPAM, but instead look much more natural and real.”

Meaning: we can help you smile, and be a devil.

I can’t wait to see what the Amway / Quixstar types might do once they take hold of this! (Don’t kid yourself, they a lready use social media –chec this!) I don’t think it is the only robotic service out there, but if Twitter does not officially respond to this, we know where micro-blogging is gonna end up.

One more reason to enter Gold Quill

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I have to admit I have been avoiding entering for an IABC Gold Quill for some time now. I have my standard response: “I am not an awards-type person.” But having listened to a webinar this morning by Towers Perrin, with folks like Jennifer Wah on the panel, makes me want to give it a shot.

Three things resonated with me. Maybe it will inspire one of you too.

  1. Jennifer boiled it down to this: “Think about telling your story.”
  2. What grabs a judge’s attention is your audience description –if you show that you *know* your audience, then you have a better way of framing your solutions to fits the objective.
  3. There is an entry this year for Social Media work.

#2 sounds pretty basic, esp for most of us who wear a marketing hat, and preach to others about knowing thy audience. But I guess that’s often overlooked –the shoemaker’s children effect –when you’re working on your own project.

Interested? Here’s a good place to start. Entries close 9 Feb.

That’s like 16 working days from today! Get sprinting!

2008: IABC milestones

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Many things to be thankful as 2008 comes to a close. As a member of IABC, I attended some great events, connected with some of the smartest people, and witnessed a huge shift in communications at a local chapter and international level. These included:

  • IABC Students started their own blog TakeThree

If you’re not a member of this professional, global network, 2009 will be the year to join.