Forward Podcast 39 is a conversation with Bruce Brodoff, recently named Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Alliance for Downtown New York. Bruce Brodoff is a multiple-award winning communications professional who has extensive experience in communications, public affairs, marketing and advertising, and television news writing and production.

Bruce, formerly the Director of Public Affairs for the Alliance, started his career in Los Angeles seeking fame and fortune, but his interests and skills eventually led him to the communication field through many trials by fire. He worked for the Giuliani administration in New York City as the Director of Public Relations for the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management. He transferred to the Economic Development Corporation’s marketing and advertising division, where he created advertising and marketing plans and materials that helped attract and retain companies in New York City as well as promoted City property, markets, and business assistance programs and services. Bruce was Director of Communications for the American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Program and subsequently worked as a Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s FEMA Region II office during the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

Bruce keeps an excellent online portfolio (hint, this is a great idea folks) of his current projects, past experiences, job history, successes and contact information. You should spend some time reading more about him, his case studies and learning from this brilliant man and this site.

Show Notes

00:13: Intro by Luke Armour

01:00: Welcoming Bruce Brodoff

01:14: Who is Bruce?

03:12: The Alliance for Downtown New York

05:00: News Junkie heads to Hollywood

07:40: Trial by fire: Office of Emergency Management in New York

08:17: Writing skills are important?!

09:28: 2 years later – economic development corporation

10:42: Coming to communications from other disciplines

13:24: Networking

16:07: Personal Branding - Get an online porfolio

17:24: A News Junkie in 2008

21:00: Ideas from the unlikeliest of places

24:27: Setting yourself apart

26:08: Success Tips!

30:35: Crisis communication, “it’s cool”

35:33: Front seat to the greatest show on earth

37:37: Wrap up
Bruce has agreed to answer questions left in the comments here or you may feel free to contact him directly through his site. Thanks for listening to Forward Podcast 39.

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Forward Podcast 38 is an inspirational story of connection as Paull Young takes a look at the Frozen Peas Community that has risen up in support of Susan Reynolds.

Susan blogs at Case Notes from the Artsy Asylum and is recognized as one of the ‘most loved’ members of the Twitter Community. In December Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer - a journey she has been tracking at a new blog, Boobs on Ice and via her extensive Twitter network. As Susan began her personal battle, a remarkable story of connection and community sprung up as her online friends activated a support network through Twitter and other blogs in solidarity with Susan.
This resulted in the Frozen Pea Fund, a fundraising effort to support breast cancer research. If you’re new to this story, it has already been told better than I am able in the Washington Post. The author of that Washington Post piece, Craig Colgan (who also blogs at The Municipalist), joins us for this podcast as he discusses how he found this story through social media, took it through the editorial process and then joined the Twitter community (as @ccwriter) to follow the story even further.

It’s an inspirational story of the power of connection, caring and community. The story still continues and you can be a part of it by supporting the Frozen Pea Fund in any way you are able.

Show Notes

00:15: Paull introduces the podcast.

01:30: The interview begins as Susan Reynolds and Craig Colgan introduce themselves and share where they can be found on the web.

05:10: Susan, Paull and Craig explain what Twitter is (and Paull points to our earlier podcast on Twitter with Doug Haslem.)

06:30: Susan tells the story about the growth of her online community through Twitter and other social media venues.

10:30: Susan shares the back story that leads to her diagnosis with breast cancer and the story of the day she was diagnosed.

14:30: Susan continues to tell the story of the day she was diagnosed, including how she was Tweeting from her phone at the Dr’s surgery, without being able to see her friends response.

17:40: Susan tells the beginning of the PEAS as an emblem for her fight and her community.

20:30: Susan and Paull chat about the rise of the PEAvatars as the Twitter community showed their support for Susan by changing their avatars to feature peas as a symbol of support.

23:00: Paull asks Susan about how the rise of the Frozen Pea Fund came about through the work of Connie Reece, Cathleen Rittereiser and others.

25:45: Paull asks Craig how he first came across Susan’s story and how the story developed into his Washington Post piece.

29:30: Craig and Paull discuss the fluid relationship between traditional and social media that occurred around Craig’s WaPo story and Craig explains how the story grew extra legs through the support of the online community.
33:40: Craig shares his thoughts on the power of connection that are highlighted by Susan’s story.

35:50: Susan shares some of the things she has learned, along with some touching examples, from her journey with the PEAS so far.

40:30: Susan provides a call to action, highlighting some of the important ways she sees that people can help.

42:30: Craig points to the lesson he has taken from Susan’s story: “People are looking for reasons to connect, to help each other. People enjoy it, they love it. We forget this… but this shows us that people want to participate and do good”

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Seriously? What are are you doing to address globalization? 2008 is right around the corner and so is graduation or your next job or both. Chances are, as the world grows increasingly smaller, globalization will play a part in your career - and soon.

And to shake things up a little bit. Forward Podcast 37 will broadcast LIVE from BlogTalkRadio at 7 p.m. GMT / 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific on the Forward Podcast Channel. Since it’s live, we’ll be taking your calls at US +1 (646) 716-9941.

Who: Richard Bailey, Robert French, Paull Young, Luke Armour and YOU.
What: Forward Podcast 37 Live
When: Saturday, December 15th 7 p.m. GMT / 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific
Where: Forward Podcast channel on BlogTalkRadio

Tentative topics of discussion:

• Learning of languages
• Work experience overseas and in minority communities
• Issues like trade, aid, labor, climate change and religious fundamentalism
• What are you reading and watching?
• Whatever’s on YOUR mind

Don’t miss this special live show. Help us make history by making this the best first live Forward Podcast ever! But on the off chance you do miss it, you can catch the archive on the Forward Podcast Channel archive or through the Forward Podcast RSS feed, which I imagine all of you are subscribed to. Hear you then.

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The 36th Forward Podcast is an interview with Penelope Trunk, author of The Brazen Careerist, Yahoo Finance columnist and popular blogger.

Penelope’s funny and insightful take on the evolving world of work has made her a sought after resource and in this interview we’ve taken the opportunity to make the most of her advice for twentysomethings in the workforce - the precise audience of the Forward Podcast.

Penelope covers a wide range of issues that the new generation of workers will be dealing with on a daily basis. Her no BS approach, sense of humour and hands on experience in the area seperates Penelope’s thoughts from the norm. It’s widely different advice to what you’re likely to hear from your parents, boss or university lecturer - but that’s precisely why it should be helpful.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome - we’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Show Notes

00:14: Your standard ludicrous Forward intro

04:17: The interview with Penelope begins

Topics Discussed on the Podcast

• Opportunities in today’s workforce for young people and the myth of a job leading to happiness – “happiness comes from relationships, not jobs”
• Things young people might be doing wrong, including an over reliance on parents and taking the wrong expectations into the workforce
• Penelope discusses what she has learnt from starting a business alongside a pair of twenty year olds
• Penelope says that young people shouldn’t cater to a boss who doesn’t understand their different perspective and desires
• Young people struggling to adapt to a workforce that is not structured for their skill sets, goals or experience – “People spend their 20’s worrying that any misstep will mean they’ll miss out on the perfect life with a great job, great personal life and fulfilling relationships – the reality is this life doesn’t exist”
• The difficulties in the changes to social/personal life when you enter the workforce – “it leads to conflict when you are from the most socialized generation in history and you enter a workplace which doesn’t have a social life”
• The strengths young people have in working in teams, but the difficulties young people have when they must work as individuals in the workplace – “trying to translate your skill set to work can make young people feel really lonely”
• Penelope outlines the thinking behind her new company and her goal to allow young people’s voices to spread further and increase their authority – in short change the voice of Generation Y online
• Penelope discounts the concept that experience is the most important factor defining authority “
• The conservative nature of Generation Y, and why this is not a negative

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 Forward Podcast 36 - Penelope Trunk on Twentysomethings in the Workforce [41:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1424)

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Forward Podcast 35 hearkens back to Forward Podcast 26 :: A Tour of the PR Podosphere where Paull and Luke discussed other valuable podcasts for young PR pros. Forward Podcast 35 brings you Young PR Pros (YPRP), an online community of over 3600 young (and young at heart) PR professionals at all levels, in all industries, all across the world. Hmm, sounds a bit like Forward, doesn’t it?

Well it is similar, but different in technology and community. But it is another online place that PR students and professions should know about. YPRP started in 2001 as a Listserv (ask your parents) and is now a Yahoo! Group, a MySpace group, a Facebook group, and a MyRagan group. Not all are equally active, but all represent the same community of professionals sharing insights, advice and woes. Also, kickball, happy hours and successes, but you’ll have to listen for more.

Kevin Barry, moderator for all four groups, is a freelance writer, communications consultant and Facebook addict currently living in West Hollywood after numerous years working his way across the world. He is a testament to the YPRP community in action. He joins Luke to talk about what YPRP was, what it has become and how Forward helped.

Show Notes:

• 00:14 A warm welcome
• 01:25 Housekeeping:
• Paull phoned in from Atlanta from the Executing Social Media Conference for PR, Marketing and Communications at which he presented on Second Life.
• Luke spoke with the Bad Pitch Bloggers this week.
  
• 04:52 Interview with Kevin Barry

Please leave your comments for Kevin, Luke or Paull and be sure you’re subscribed to blog’s RSS feed as well as the podcast RSS feed in your podcatching program of choice.

Update: the original file had some audio overlap. This new one is clean. Sorry about that.

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 Forward Podcast 35 :: A YPRP Online Community: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4734)

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After a rather unusual introduction from your hosts, Luke Armour and Paull Young, we roll the recording Paull did at Podcamp Boston with some thought leaders in the online public relations and marketing space. Featuring Bryan Person author of the Bryper Blog and the voice of the always informative New Comm Road podcast as well as Anna Farmery all the way from England of the Engaging Brand blog and podcast.

Show Notes:

• 00:13 A very Young/Armour Intro
• 01:16 Housekeeping:
• 01:23 UGA wrap up
• 03:47 The rundown on The Rundown
• 04:16 Podcamp Boston
• Special Irish Pub Converseon edition of Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation #75 podcast. Featuring:
• Constantin Basturea – The New PR Wiki – Converseon.
• Christin Eubanks – My PRception – Converseon.
• Scott Monty – crayon – The Social Media Marketing Blog.
• Bryan Person – Bryper Blog - New Comm Road.
• Paull Young – Forward Podcast – Young PR – Converseon.
• 05:18 Paull thinks he’s funny
• 07:50 Interview with Bryan and Anna
• 09:10 Global vs Local hiring/Cultural Shifts
• 11:36 Social Media Resume
• 13:40 PR Tools You Need
• 15:30 Personal vs. Professional Online activities
• 18:12 Anna mentions Wal Mart stats and follows up via email with “Ryan Lohen of Wal Mart Stores Inc said in Wall Street Journal that he spends 1-2 hours per week searching through blogs for new talent or information about candidates. He says that he had filled 125 vacancies that way…”
• 20:45 Legal Issues
• 23:00 Wrap Up

Please leave your comments for Paull, Luke, Anna or Bryan about this podcast or any ideas you have for future podcasts. We are here to serve you! Well, Paull is, Luke is here to sip drinks with tiny umbrellas.

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In 2006 Dell had 78,700 global employees, revenue of close to $56 billion and Fortune magazine ranked it as the 25th largest company on its Fortune 500 list and 8th on the top 20 list of most admired companies in the USA. They’re kind of a big deal. So it is all the more noteable that they are having the culture of their organization changed by embracing social media.

In this interview Paull Young is joined by Laura Thomas, Lionel Menchaca, Caroline Dietz, Arlette Salcedo and Jacqui Zhou from Dell’s social media team as they talk in detail about their approach to social media. They discuss how they have used tools like their Direct2Dell blog, IdeaStorm, Studio Dell web videos and a Second Life presence to start a new relationship with their customers through two way communication. They also talk about what they have learned from the process that has seen a shift internally in their company’s culture which has been matched by a shift in online consumer sentiment from 50% negative to 23% negative in just one year.

The Dell team will be paying attention to this post, so please take some time to check out their work and leave a comment - it’s a case study worth learning from.

In other Forward related news - if you are anywhere near Athens, Georgia this coming weekend (October 19-20) be sure to come along to the CONNECT social media and PR conference at Grady College. Paull will be presenting a case study on Forward and also a couple of breakout sessions on Second Life and podcasting.

Also, if you enjoy the Amish portion of our Forward Podcast rambling you’ll be excited to hear that Luke has started up his own show with his employer BlogTalkRadio. It’s called The Rundown, it airs live every Tuesday at 1:30pm ET and I’m sure it will be an enjoyable and informative listen.

Finally, the weekend after next (October 26-27) Paull will be attend Podcamp Boston where he’ll be presenting on a panel about Reputation Management for Digital Natives. The event looks like it is going to be an amazing learning opportunity and I hope our panel will be particularly useful for Forward Podcast listeners - be sure to say g’day if you’ll be there.

Technorati Tags: dell, social media, direct2dell, Ideastorm, Studio Dell, online engagement, online community, online monitoring, conversational marketing, online relationships, crowdsourcing, blogging, corporate blogs, corporate blogging

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 Forward Podcast 33 :: Social Media in Action at Dell [42:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (978)

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Bill Sledzik, Associate Professor at Kent State University, joins us for Forward Podcast 32 to give a snapshot of PR academia. Bill is a blogger, PR professor and former PR professional (can you really be a former PR professional?).

In this segment, Bill answers the tough questions that are on students’ minds. What are professionals looking for in a new hire? What questions are you getting from other students? Does blogging matter? How? What about Facebook? Where will I find a job? Is this thing on?

As mentioned in the interview, Bill posted a two-part summary of a study with Kent State and Burrelles Luce. As promised, Bill has threatened to send the full academic tome to anyone who requests it at wsledzik [at] kent.edu

• Study post Part I
• Study post Part II

During the Intro, Paull plugged the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication “Connect” Public Relations & Social Media Conference. Well, look at that, Paull’s speaking at that conference! He’s right there on the Agenda talking about the Forward Blog. The conference has an all-star cast of some of Luke’s favorite PR bloggers. Paull, Kevin Dugan (twice the pr blogger), Constantine, Josh Hallett, and Katie Delahaye Paine just to namedrop a few…and Karen, mustn’t forget Karen. Seriously, if all of those blogs aren’t in your feedreader, get to it.

Paull then bravely mentioned that we’d have links in the show notes, which is easy to say because he’s not doing the show notes this week. So there they are.

Please let Bill, Luke or Paull know what you really think of them. You can email luke [at] forward-moving.com with all your sincerest and most personal thoughts about this or any Forward podcast or leave a comment right here on this blog.

Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, forward podcast, pr students, pr education, career advice

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Forward Podcast 31 responds to some recent hot debate in the PR blogging space about just how vocal young PR professionals should be, both in the office and offline.

This episode is an interview with Edelman’s Phil Gomes in response to his post about the importance of young PR professionals ‘managing up‘ - talking up to their boss or colleagues when they feel they have a deeper understanding of an issue. Paull and Phil also discuss the debate that has recently sprung up about whether inexperienced communicators could be doing their reputations harm by speaking up online.

The podcast ends with some brilliant thoughts from young PR professional and blogger Kait Swanson. Her thoughts really put Phil’s theory into practice from the point of view of a young communicator. She’s clearly a fair bit smarter than Paull and Luke, so hopefully she’ll start commenting regularly. Of course, you can join the conversation at any time by leaving a comment or sending us an audio file to include.

This episode is the second time Phil has appeared on the Forward Podcast, he was previously the subject of episode #6 on the dark art of podcasting. Paull has a post at his personal blog summarizing the numerous mentions of this debate so far, there are some excellent thoughts across the blogosphere that can teach a lot to young professionals.

In other housekeeping news, Forward will be the subject of a case study at the Connect: PR and Social Media Conference at the University of Georgia, Athens, on October 19-20. The conference is intended to educate public relations professionals and educators on social media and Paull Young will be presenting on the mission and history of Forward as an example of how social media can be used to attempt to help both young communicators and the industry as a whole move Forward.

We strongly suggest you take the time to read through the entire debate - there’s a post covering the conversation from start to finish at Paull’s blog. The discussion to date on this topic, from both experienced and inexperienced viewpoints alike, is really a case study of the power of social media to move our industry forward.

Technorati Tags: Phil Gomes, managing up, decision support, reputation management, pr blogging, young pr blogging, marketing blogging

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Forward Podcast 30 tackles the topic of interviewing with special guest Nettie Hartsock. Nettie wears many hats. She is a book publicist, a freelance journalist, a PR professional and a blogger. She authors the Professional PR and Must Read Business Books for Allbusiness.com as well as her own blog. To fully appreciate what you hear in Forward 30, read about her extensive and incredibly impressive career.

Nettie and Luke talk about both sides of interviewing: being the interviewee (think: job interview) as well as the interviewer (think: what does my client actually do and how do I tell other people). Nettie shares her experiences and advice on everything. As PR professionals, I think it’s important to remember there are more chances you’ll be interviewing someone else rather than being interviewed. It’s more than setting yourself apart in that first job interview, but also dragging information out of that CEO or engineer who hired you to communicate what they do to people who don’t understand what they do. Whether it’s a white paper, brochure, press release, media advisory, speech or doctor’s excuse (alright, I made that one up) you need to know how to get that information.

As always, leave your comments or questions here for Nettie, Paull or Luke. As an added bonus, Paull will now be making rash, inflammatory statements at the beginning of each Forward Podcast. Tune in twice a month to hear the irrational ramblings of an Aussie in NYC (and the dulcet tones of a guy in rural Ohio).

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