Engage in PR

The idea of community and it’s human ability to grow, outside of technology use, has been discussed a lot recently. My guess is that this comes from something I’ve been feeling a bit…”Facebook Fatigue” or “Twitter Tiring” or “Widget Withering” (I could do this all day).

Recognize the Symptoms!
Symptoms are often time mundane, a persistent headache, nausea, a light head or even blisters on your fingers. Don’t let these symptoms persist, for it will become a full fledged case of SMTP (Social Media Tipping Point…of course). SMTP is debilitating, painful and often times results in institutionalization.

But What Can I Do??
It’s fairly simple my friend, take at lease two doses of F2F, once a day, until it wears off and you are back on your feet. F2F is available in all cities, towns, townships and villages. People can sometimes be a bit confused on how to inject F2F, especially if it has been a bit of time since their last injection. My recommendation is to use tools like Twitter or, shudder, Facebook and post something like this:

And it turns into F2F scenarios like this:

More than an hour later you are refreshed, invigorated, inspired and ready to engage with your community once more using your voice, your words, your images…YOU.

–Kyle Flaherty

As most of you know I’m on the hunt for an opportunity, NOT a job. This search has brought me to interview with more than a dozen people and has even brought me here to Austin, where ESPN2 was NOT up and running when my alarm went off at 5am yesterday morning for the Sox game. I’ve spent the past 48 hours talking with various folks about the opportunities in Austin, just as I did all of last week back up in Boston.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind, mostly because of the tremendous support of all of you. The ability to process everything coming at me has been made a bit easier with my “What Kyle Wants List”. I put this together before I announced making a career move and have edited it during the past few weeks. This list provides me a way to measure the best opportunity whether it be freelancing, start-up, large corporation or agency.

I want an:

• Opportunity to prove social media works.
• Opportunity to provide a better future for my family.
• Opportunity to learn new facets of marketing from a proven professional.
• Opportunity to have fun while working.
• Opportunity to experience something new.
• Opportunity to work with an executive team that is smart, genuine, honest and focused.

What more could you want? What do you want?

–Kyle Flaherty

P.S. For title explanation:

Going through the interview process the one consistent question you get is “Tell me about your management style“. It is certainly an important question, but one of those that often times gets you the typical response from folks, something akin to:

“Oh, I’m a hands-off kind of guy who supports you when needed, but knows when to let the team function without me. Selfless…yeah, I guess selfless would be the word I would use to describe my style. If I have one weakness it’s that I’m a perfectionist. A selfless perfectionist, that would be my management style.”

We’ve all heard something similar over the years, typically followed by my eyes slowly rolling into the back of my head. Now I’m on the other side of the table and I thought about my answer to this question a lot as I prepared for interviews. Here are my thoughts, would love to know yours.

My ‘management style’ relies on three key attributes, to be:

1) Flexible
–Different people demand different styles of management at different times. The ability to roll with the punches is critical for any manager, but also the instinct of when to shift management tactics on the fly.

2) Intuitive
–Flexibility is great, but knowing when to stretch is as important. When do you shift from constructive critique to motivational speaking? Understand what motivates your team, individual by individual AND by the team as a whole.

3) Focused
–Be decisive when making moves, in whatever the direction. Ultimately, managers need to manage and doing it solely by committee will not work over time. You team deserves two things at all time; a call to action and the tools to make that action possible. Your ability to stay focused, make decisions and stick to those decisions is paramount.

There are certainly more attributes, I know, but these are the three that most often come to me when I describe a good manager and those that I try to adhere to as a manager. What would you add to this list?

–Kyle Flaherty

Read an interesting post from Chris Brogan over the weekend, which pointed to this post at GigaOm. It mentions and demonstrates a new widget from PicApp. More importantly though it discusses the problem with bloggers using pictures illegally. Have you posted a picture illegally on your blog? You probably have and perhaps are not even aware, particularly when you want to include a pic of a famous athlete or actor.

PicApp gets you the most appropriate picture for your post when you put in some text describing what you are writing. It then gives you photo options, puts it in an embeddable widget which includes subtle advertising and presto you have a legal picture for your blog. The revenue model is based on advertising, so the chances that this succeeds are certainly minimal, but as Om Malik points out it is more likely than bringing litigation for copyright infringement.

What did I type in to PicApp for my photo? Go #BoSox!

prim·er (/ˈprɪmər or)–noun
1. an elementary book for teaching children to read.
2. any book of elementary principles.

The life of a communications professional looking for their next great opportunity means that I also get to pursue many activities for which I did not have time during the past few months. Jogging, cooking and reading being the three primary avocations which I have been able to accomplish this week. Being that time is on my side for at least the next few days I thought it would be beneficial for me to review with you one of these accomplishments. Since running with me is painfully slow & sweaty and cooking is difficult to do together over a T1 line I’m going to provide some thoughts on my reading.

The first book, as you may have guessed from my opening, is “Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs” by Geoff Livingston (with Brian Solis). Geoff was wonderful enough to send me a copy of the book when it first came out last fall and I immediately jumped in and got to page 93 before life stepped in the way and I unfortunately ended up shelving all reading…until this week!

There have been some really great reviews of the book and I’m quite certain that mine would hardly add much to those. Instead I found myself reading the book as I waited in the lobby or coffee shop for another meeting to begin, thusly I was using the book during these interviews. Some people probably thought I was getting royalties as I discussed what I had just read out on the comfy leather chair. This has been particularly true with corporations who know they need to face the dawning of ‘new media’ but have reservations (rightfully so) and just want some education. During one meeting I actually quoted from the book, feeling a bit like a preacher:

“Without trust there is little hope of success.”

Geoff writes these words on page 60 when talking to folks about Step 6 for preparing to be ‘new media ready’. Step 6 is “Ethics and Transparency” and serves as an example of why this book is a great resource. When educating people on the different actions they must take and how to prepare to engage with communities it is often best to spell these out in simple to follow form.

The book not only takes the reader through the detailed steps of what new media entails and what to be prepared for, but Geoff describes how to properly establish a blogging strategy, interact with social networks and even pitching new media outlets. As I read the book for the second time this week it felt familiar, perhaps because many of the folks who contributed their thoughts to the book are people I now communicate with, but also because much of what I’m trying to accomplish in my next position will encompass these strategies and tactics.

Chapter 6 however provides me with my favorite referencing information, not because it is the shortest chapter, nor because I actually made the footnotes, but simply because it gets to the reason I believe in social media:

“Ultimately, conversation marketing in social media needs to produce results. You can achieve the results you want by engaging communities on their own terms with principle-based approaches. Remember: Corporations and organizations will be rewarded for being good members of the community.”

If I were truly a book critic I’m sure I could pontificate about some areas of the book that needed help or rubbish like that, but I’m just a member of the community Geoff is trying to reach with this book. Rereading “Now Is Gone” during this interesting week in my life helped me to focus on what I am looking for, ask the right questions and at times make me look smarter than I am.

–Kyle Flaherty

P.S. Check out the bottom of page 54 where Geoff mentions the social media prowess of three Presidential campaigns. At the time there were probably 10-12 viable candidates on the march, but Geoff mentions MyMcCain, Obama and Clinton…coincidence that these are the three left standing?