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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Guest post from Auburn grad, Evyan Mischke …

Last Monday marked my second month at Evins Communications and looking back, I can’t believe I’ve only been here for 60 days. I feel like the advice I’m going to give to college students I heard over and over, but never listened to. The best word I have for the last two months is “whirlwind.” I thought I knew so much after my internship this summer, but that internship only skimmed the surface of public relations in NYC.

It’s important to keep in mind that the agency I’m at is small and my role here is a little untraditional. Technically, I’m supposed to work 50 percent on clients and 50 percent on social media. Finding the balance of this has been a little more difficult that I had anticipated. I’ve been thrown pretty quickly into two accounts and have been working on social media things on the side. However, my focus lately has been a lot more on social media and the company plan for 2008.

What does this mean for students who are about to be young PR professionals? To me, it means to give it all you can give. One thing I have learned is that it’s ok to be wrong, and it’s ok to ask questions (actually, a tip: I think they like it when you ask questions).

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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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I took a group of students to London in May 2005, for a two-week tour of communication agencies, firms, and government officials. It was fantastic. I wrote this article for our Alumni newsletter, but it never made the cut. As so many of our readers are recent graduates, I thought I’d edit and share what I learned. I still feel, two years later, that it’s apropos. - Luke

“Look Right.” Two simple life-saving words are painted on nearly every crosswalk throughout London. As Americans cross the street, our first instinct is to look left first – since that’s the side from which our traffic comes first. In England they drive on the left side of the road.

So what?

So it means if you want to make it across the street without incident, you need to look right first.

I spent two weeks in England, leading a group of students on a PR tour of businesses across London. Our mission was to meet with journalists, CEOs, and professionals covering all aspects of the art and practice of relating to people.

“Look Right.” It seems like that could be a PR practitioner’s motto, too. PR strategically monitors and alters the environment for the benefit of the organization. But in order to effectively enact our strategies, we have to be able to see properly…or look right.

How do we find out what’s going on? How does one environmental alteration affect one’s company? How do we get people to listen? The people we met with had answers. The following is a compilation of intellectual gems I gathered from these professionals.

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I’ve just enjoyed an enthralling afternoon at the British Museum. Amongst their Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotomian collections were some of the earliest known examples of writing, which really brought home to me the sheer power of words.The earliest known examples of writing appeared in Mesopotomia (what is now Syria and Iraq) in the fourth millenium BC. Shortly afterwards writing began to flourish in Egypt (the oldest surviving texts date to 3200 BC), as tombs were decorated with heiroglyphics. It was amazing looking at the primitive writing and seeing the very roots of a young PR’s stock-in-trade.

Writing was a rare skill in this culture. Few could decipher it, and the majority saw it as magical. Writing was the domain of the rich and powerful, and scribes were members of the upper echelon of society. One of the displays in the museum featured the following on the power of writing:

The God Thoth was believed to have invented writing. The ancient Egyptian phrase for hieroglyphs means ‘god’s words’, emphasising the associations between script and the god’s power.

The signs themselves could have a divine power and were sometimes called ‘gods’. The could also act as embelems or amulets. Stelae inscribed with magical texts had water poured over them, the water was drunk to ingest the magic of the text.

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The following is also my blog post on Todd And - The Power to Connect.

Recently there has been a lot of debate over the value of accreditation. Are stamps of approval by professional associations really necessary? Based on my quick research of the related blog posts and comments, the arguments on both sides of the question are pretty even. Here’s the score as I see it:

For Accreditation

1. Kami Huyse (”The principles learned in the accreditation process are framework that encourage PR professionals to think strategically.”)
   
2. Marie Williams (”Getting your APR establishes the core principles of PR and also forms good planning habits for campaigns.”)
   
3. Stuart Bruce (”I’ve worked with and known far too many talented PR people who simply don’t know what they are doing.”)
4. Linda Jones (”The day you stop learning is the day you may as well pack it all in.”)
5. Mary Ann Carolyn Dalangin-Tordecilla (”Accreditation is useful because it reminds PR professionals that they are ‘professionals’ and their service should abide by right conduct and manner.”)
6. Lauren Vargas (”I agree that during this process I have become a professional, a counselor, in truth.”)
7. Scott Baradell (”I think accreditation is a good thing and needs to go further.”)

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Still within the first few months of my PR career and I just thought I’d share some observations. After all, that’s what I do, make observations. I’m sure the other newly employed PR flacks can join in here, the seasoned can attest, and the students can learn from my misjudgments.

Dusk. Dusk is a pretty good transition. From the bustle of the busy day to the quiet of the sleepy night, dusk gently leads us from one to another. And, really, it’s your perspective of day and night that changes your opinion of dusk. From good to bad, from bad to good, or just from one stage to another. Your call.

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Does writing matter in public relations? You bet. The written word is frequently the ‘product’ by which we’re judged. However personable and persuasive you are in a face-to-face meeting, if your follow-up is poorly worded then this will count against you.

Don’t believe me? Then take note of a couple of senior practitioners arguing the case for writing as a key public relations skill: Marcel Goldstein and Todd Defren (interviewed by Marie Williams).

But you already know that (you’re reading Forward, after all, so you’re at least a step ahead…) Next question: how can you improve your writing skills? This came up in a recent phone conversation with a PR graduate who is several months into her first job. She’s someone I back to do well in public relations, but her supervisor was clearly unimpressed with her writing skills, an essential task in her role as a press officer.

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Recently, as written by Justin Estes on this blog, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola got into a little bit of a corporate espionage fun.

But, there is even more to the story. Because of the corporate theft, many companies are now re-evaluating how they are handling confidential corporate information - such as new products. The Associated Press went into it a bit more in this article - read it, as it is a good primer for this post.

Here’s the lesson to think about. As you begin your public relations career, you are going to be privy to a lot of confidential client information. While you will occasionally be reminded during brainstorm meetings that what you are about to talk about is under extreme confidentiality, and to not talk about such issues outside the office.

As entry-level PR persons, you get information that is not for public knowledge. It’s not just at brainstorms, but it is during morning meetings, during conversations in the hallway, etc. You do not necessarily get told “hey, this is confidential information,” but you have to be careful about what you are doing wth the information, where you talk about clients, and who you speak to (at times).

It goes back to the old WWII adage: loose lips sink ships. Be careful what you are talking about, as you might inadvertently be talking about confidential information. That includes talking to family, even.

So, it is not about paranoia … but about good work practices. Be careful out there, as it’s a war.

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Here’s an article from the New York Times by Anna Bahney that really boils my blood and has already generated a little buzz in the blogosphere. It’s not the article that angers me, I love the article. It’s the chowderhead subjects.

People have been stupid for years, so there’s nothing new there. What is new is the lightning fast way in which you can prove your stupidity to hundreds or thousands of people within seconds. And do so in a way that might never go away, bonus! Yes, the Internet is the recorded, megaphoned soapbox that morons around the world can now utlize for the embarrassment of us all.

I’m being harsh, but truthful.

Trevor Cook points it out, Denise Howell has an interesting take on it, and Slashdot weighed in for example. There’s not a lot of discussion about it, just traffic. The article pretty much says it all. It’s humorous, to the point, and pertinent. The most quoted part in blog postings I’ve seen from the article is this:

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