WHAT WE OWE OUR SOLDIERS

Memorial Day has always held a special place in my heart.  Each year, our high school choir was invited to sing at Memorial Day observances at Oneota Cemetery in West Duluth. 

Oneota lies on a lovely hill overlooking the Duluth harbor.  We'd stand there, our choir robes billowing in the breeze, and listen while politicians gave speeches and an honor guard fired a 21-gun salute.  A lone musician--sometimes a military man--would play "Taps," and the sound would echo mournfully off the rocky hillside.  Little flags placed by American Legion and VFW members fluttered over the graves of the fallen soldiers buried there. 

These ceremonies always touched me, but they held little personal emotional significance. After all, what do any of us understand of tragic loss or noble sacrifice at the tender age of 15 or 16?

When I became the mother of a son, I came to know the universal fear of all mothers--that their sons (or daughters, now) might be called to serve.  Thankfully, by the time my son reached draft age, the draft was history and the U.S. was into the all-volunteer army.  Now he is past the age where the military might consider him useful.  (Sorry, buddy, but they don't draft 41 year olds unless they're really desperate.)

Now, when we celebrate Memorial Day, my feelings are a jumbled mix of sadness, relief, guilt and anger.  I feel sad to think of the immeasurable losses experienced by mothers and dads, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives.  And the poor children--all those children who will grow up without their moms or dads because of "the war." My heart breaks for them.

I feel relieved that my son was not one of those who was called to make the ultimate sacrifice.  I feel a weird kind of guilt, as if somehow I was given a gift I didn't deserve at the expense of other mothers who did the heavy lifting, carrying the grief of their generation on their brave shoulders.

And I feel anger--an intense, up-from-the-gut anger that our world can't find better solutions to conflict than sending our sons and daughters out into the mess to kill or be killed. I believe it would be accurate to say that almost every war fought throughout human history was the indirect result of a previous war.  Boundaries change, religions change, leaders change, ideals and values change, tactics change.  But war still breeds war; aggression breeds aggression; hate breeds hate, and our children continue to die.

On this Memorial Day, perhaps each of us can vow to do everything in our power to stop the hate, and strive instead for understanding, tolerance and respect for the rights of others. It is the least we can do to honor those who died for our own rights.

A BOOKLOVER'S LAMENT

I'm getting ready to put my house on the market.  I almost put the "for sale" sign out last year, but a local real estate agent convinced me to wait and see if the market would improve in 2010.  I did--and it didn't.  So here I am, a year later, cleaning out my basement and trying to visualize cramming all the junk I stuffed into a four-bedroom, 3200-square foot house into a 1200-square foot, two-bedroom townhome. I'll be taking some of my furniture, selling off a few things, trimming down my kitchenware supply--but what about my books?

What is it about books--and I'm talking hard-covers here, not so much the paperbacks--that makes it impossible for us to say goodbye to them?  I've let go of relationships in my life much more easily than I can let go of a box of books.  As I rummage through the boxes, deciding which books to keep and which to donate to the Woodbury Public Library, I have to fight my natural instinct to put every other volume in the "save" pile.  

So far, I've come up with a couple of rules.  I can't give away any of my "collections" by favorite writers. I can't give away any of the old classics with the faded fabric covers. They are like dear friends: Imperial Woman by Pearl Buck. Katherine by Anya Seton. The Gentleman from Indianapolis, a collection of Booth Tarkington's work. Here Lies Dorothy Parker, her collected poems and short stories. An beautiful old illustrated version of Heidi by Johanna Spyri. The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. My mother's copy of I Capture the Castle, her all-time favorite book and mine too. 

And I certainly can't part with a very faded old book  enscribed on the flyleaf "To Babs, some of the recipes your grandma used to make, from Aunt Florence."  Babs was my mother, Barbara; Aunt Florence, my grandmother's sister, was the only one who ever called Mom Babs. The book contains many of my great-grandmother's favorite recipes.  

I was a reader from the time I first learned how to sound out the words.  Books have been my friends, my escape, my comfort and solace, my shield against loneliness and disappointment. It hurts to part with them, for sure. But they'll have a good home at the library, and soon they'll be best friends with hundreds of other avid readers who will love them just as much as I did.

I'M BAAAAAAAAACK...I THINK

A few of my loyal friends have noticed that it's been a while since I posted a new blog entry (January 10 was my last update).  After several inquiries about it, I thought I'd better fish or cut bait--either bunch the blog, or renew my commitment to it.  I know, this isn't a matter of great importance one way or the other. But I did feel compelled to review the arguments for both options.

On the "bunch it" side were these factors: 

1.  I tend to forget to blog when I'm busy with work-related stuff, suggesting that I believe blogging is not as high a priority as the work that pays the bills.  This, in turn, confirms that I view my blog less as a "marketing" tool for my business than a vehicle for personal self-expression. 

2.  I wonder whether I have anything worthwhile to say.  Do people expect profound insights from blogs, or do they just expect something interesting and fun to read? (You can help answer this question!)

3.  It feels self-important and self-indulgent to keep writing on the assumption that my personal views and experiences are meaningful to anyone else.  I've never been particularly good at self-promotion.

4.  I started out writing about new technology and social media, but ended up spending more time participating in social media than writing about it. (Yes, I've become Twitter-dependent.)

On the "renew commitment" side I listed these points:

1.  I like to write and the blog gives me a chance to express my own views in my own way, something I can't do when writing for business.

2.  I am an opinionated person (I know, you're shocked--SHOCKED!!), and can rarely resist the opportunity to share my opinions, whether other people appreciate it or not.

3.  It's okay to be self-indulgent because I'm getting old and I deserve it.

4.  Every other PR hack on the planet has a blog and I will look like the lamest of losers if I don't have one too.  I've never been good at self-promotion, and this is a relatively painless way to elevate my profile without being embarrassed.

I think the "renew" side outweighs the "bunch it" side of the ledger, so I'm back in the game.  I'll try to be better about posting regularly, and I won't feel compelled to write about any particular topic.  Technology, current events, politics, food and wine, entertainment--I'm going to have fun expressing my "inner Ellen Goodman" and I hope you will stick with me for the ride.  

THE RACIST UNDERBELLY OF OUR "POST-RACIAL" SOCIETY

Today the Sunday news shows are replete with talking heads pontificating on the significance of Harry Reid's reportedly referring to Barack Obama some time back as "a light-skinned Negro with no Negro dialect." The comments were revealed in a book set for release next week, and they immediately ignited a firestorm of criticism directed at Reid.

However, another incident of racist language from a political leader went largely unremarked.  Republican party chairman Michael Steele was interviewed by Fox-TV's Sean Hannity about his own upcoming book.  In the interview,  Steele praised the Republican party platform as "one of the best political documents that's been written in the past 25 years." Then he added, "Honest Injun on that."

Honest Injun?? As a person who has worked with Indian tribes in Minnesota and elsewhere for nearly twenty years, I guess I should be accustomed to this kind of unconscious racism against American Indians, but I confess that it still has the power to enrage me.

I don't think anyone seriously believes that we live in a "post-racial" America just because a black man now occupies the White House.  Most African-Americans I know are proud and thrilled to have lived long enough to see a black man elected President, but they understand that racism didn't disappear the day Barack Obama took the oath of office.

A few years ago, my tribal clients wanted to test some print ads and billboards in a focus group setting to gauge likely reaction to the proposed campaign.  Focus group members were asked to look at a series of messages and share their feelings about the content.  One message had to do with the number of jobs created by tribal casinos, and the opportunities those jobs offered for Indian people with historically very high unemployment rates.

An older woman in the group dismissed this message as false, saying, "I don't see any Indians working at those casinos. They're all white people there." When another group member disagreed and said she had seen many Native employees in casinos, the first woman responded, "Well, maybe you're right.  I've noticed lately that there are some Indians creeping in there."

Focus groups are usually conducted under observation, in a room with a one-way glass window that permits clients and researchers to watch the process without being seen. (Focus group members are always told that observers are behind the glass.)

In this case, the observers included several tribal leaders.  Upon hearing the "Indians creeping in there" comment, one tribal leader just shook his head sadly.  "The more things change, the more they stay the same," he said.

Black leaders have done a terrific job of confronting racism when it appears, and calling out those who use racist language or engage in racially-motivated behavior.  The political strength of black America has been brought to bear successfully on politicians who cross the line into racist rhetoric.  Remember Trent Lott, who was forced to resign after saying that America would be a better place if Strom Thurmond, a virulently segregationist Senator, had been elected President.

Unfortunately, anti-Indian racism often goes unchallenged.  Sports teams still carry names like the Washington "Redskins." Can you imagine a football team called the Washington "Blackskins?"

Don Imus nearly lost his job after referring to a championship Rutger's women's basketball team as a "bunch of nappy headed hos." But years before, Imus and Donald Trump belittled members of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, many of whom are of mixed racial blood, because they "don't look like Indians." Trump referred to the tribe as "the Michael Jordan Indians."

On a previous Imus program, the deejay had belittled an employee who was marrying a Native American, asking if she would have a "teepee" wedding.

On these occasions, Native Americans were the only ones who spoke up against Imus' racist speech. No one else noticed or cared.

We will never have a "post-racial" America until the phrase "honest Injun" generates the same kind of outrage that Harry Reid provoked by saying, in essence, that Barack Obama might be able to win the election because he doesn't look or sound black.

SO WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?

You may have noticed that it's been some time since I updated my blog.  That's partly due to the fact that my schedule went crazy in November and December, between travel and the holidays.  But there's more to it.  I've been trying to figure out where to take my blog from here.

As you recall, I started blogging almost a year ago after attending a social media conference that inspired to start my own "journey from techno-dinosaur to social media wiz." Over the past months, I've written about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other online networking services.  In the process, I've learned a great deal about how to use these resources, and the benefits and downsides of each. I even dipped a toe briefly in SEO (search engine optimization) waters.

Now I'm at a point where  there's little I can write about social media that isn't redundant or old news to my readers.  Not that I've learned everything there is to learn--far from it--but I'm at the stage where further learning takes me into details and specificity that most of my readers don't really find very interesting.  (It's kind of like when you ask somebody the time and they tell you how to build a watch.)

So in future blogs, you'll see that I'm broadening my scope.  In addition to comments about new adventures in social media, you'll see a little public relations analysis, a bit of political and social commentary, and maybe even a book review or two.  If you have suggestions for things you'd like to hear more about, feel free to share them with me via email, stpaulgal@gmail.com, or via Twitter, www.twitter.com/stpaulgal49.

ANALYZE THIS!

As many of you know, I've been Tweeting now for about eight months. I've learned a lot about how valuable Twitter is for me, but I haven't really known how to figure out whether my Tweets are valuable to anyone else. I know that I get responses and retweets more frequently now, but I still have a fairly short list of followers (about 220 at last count; they come and go like Glenda the Good Witch"). What can I do to make my Tweets more valuable and interesting to others? How do I expand my "sphere of influence" on Twitter?

Take heart, buds. Now I have some answers to those questions. I've discovered a site called Twitalyzer.

Twitalyzer analyzes your Twitter performance against five key measures: influence, signal, generosity, velocity and clout. As I read about each of these categories, it became clear to me that there's a lot more to Twitter than is apparent at first glance. I'll give you a quick summary, and you'll see what I mean.

The first measurement is influence, and for the most part it's pretty obvious. Twitalyzer gives you a score based on the number of followers you have, how many times your Tweets are retweeted (a sign that others find them of value), how many tweets you post in a day or week, how often you retweet the messages of others. My score is pretty low so far, although it's improved in recent weeks as I've gained confidence in the Twitter arena (would that be the Twitterena??)

Second, Twitalyzer measures "signal." This is the substance of your tweets. Although many people think Twitter is nothing more than a series of "I'm brushing my teeth now" messages, the fact is that the majority of tweets are much more substantive than that. The more you provide links to useful information, references to other Tweeps (including their @ names), retweet the meaningful posts of others, and comment on current topics, usually identified by hashtags, the higher your "signal" score is. My performance has been rated "astonishingly high" in this category. So we know that I'm putting out lots of good stuff, but not many people are seeing it yet.

The third key area is generosity. I think it's cool that Twitter performance is judged in part by how generous you are in retweeting the posts of others. Being retweeted makes a person feel that what they have to offer is of value, and giving that kind of reinforcement freely makes you a very effective Tweep.

Velocity, measurement #4, is simply the frequency of your tweets, measured against a "theoretical maximum" of 1500 tweets per week. Since I'm now averaging between 100 and 150 tweets per week, my velocity score is quite low. I think this is directly linked to confidence and understanding of how Twitter works; the more you feel comfortable in this environment, the more frequently you're inclined to participate. (I can't imagine what it would take to get me up to 1500 tweets a week.)

The last area is clout, which is measured by the number of times other people refer to you in their tweets. If they retweet your posts or mention your name, that enhances your clout score. Mine is still very low, but it has increased in the last month, a sign that others are starting to notice some of what I have to say.

Everyone has a different purpose when they engage in social media, and Tweeps are no exception. Some are in it to have fun and meet people; others are deadly serious about promoting their products and boosting the public profile of their businesses. I'm somewhere in the middle--having fun, growing my network, looking to increase my own visibility, and at the same time, learning how to use these tools effectively so I can advise my clients.

The best thing of all about Twitalyzer is that it's like a blueprint for becoming a more influential Tweep. It's all there in black and what. Read what it takes to become influential, and then do what it says. You'll do great!

BACK FROM BLOGWORLD

I've just returned from the BlogWorld and New Media Expo (#bwe09) in Las Vegas. It was a huge conference--about 5,000 attendees, I gather. I've never attended an event before where at least 70% of the audience was typing away on their laptops during the sessions and in the halls at break time. Electrical outlets with room for one more charger were harder to find than sober guys at a bowling convention. These were definitely some plugged-in people.

BlogWorld organizers created a number of different content tracks targeted to specific users. Since much of the conference was designed for bloggers, there was a track for military bloggers, one for real estate blogs, a track on blog monetization (making money from your blog), and a "mommy" blogger track. Who knew that mommy bloggers were such a widely recognized force that there is now an "ethical code of practice" for them? Apparently some companies provide free products and other considerations to high-profile mommy bloggers in order to win favorable comments, hence the risk of ethical conflicts.

There was a separate track for social media, and that's where I spent most of my time. I wanted to learn more about how businesses and organizations are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, podcasting and other online communications tools.

I was a little surprised at the informality of the sessions. Out of the seven or eight sessions that I attended, only one included a formal presentation (with Powerpoint slides) on the topic. The others consisted of panels with three or four people each, mostly answering questions from the audience. Answering questions is a good thing, but I found myself wishing that these sessions had included at least a short initial presentation from each of the panel experts. Audience questions don't always hit the topics the speakers know best.

The informality became a bigger problem during the first day's luncheon. The "luncheon keynote" speaker was Scott Monty from Ford Motor Co. Monty has been one of the driving forces behind Ford's blogging and social media efforts. I would have enjoyed hearing him speak about the successes and failures associated with those initiatives.

Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to hear Scott Monty--or to see him, for that matter. Instead of having the guy stand up at a podium where he could be seen, they had him sitting down on the platform to be "interviewed" by a moderator. Neither person could be seen. To make matters worse, the sound system was so poor that neither speaker could be heard either.

In addition, they began the program at the start of the luncheon service. So instead of focusing on the speakers, the audience was busy getting served, passing the rolls and butter, asking for beverages, and trying to figure out whether their coffee cups were to the right or left of their plates. It was virtually impossible to give the speaker our undivided attention.

Periodically, the poor moderator demanded silence, but it was impossible. Midway through the presentation, someone had the brains to turn up the mikes so she and Scott Monty could be heard, but by then it was too late. Half of the audience had finished lunch and left, while the other half stayed out of courtesy, most checking their e-mail on cell phones or browsing the latest on Twitter.

In a way, this was reflective of the tone of the entire conference. Informality is great, and generally I'm in favor of less structure rather than more. However, informality at the expense of content is counterproductive. The Web 2.0 generation is mostly kids under 35 (these days, everyone under 50 is a kid to me), and I love their creative energy and confident command of the new technologies. But maybe just a little more structure in the interests of effective content delivery would be beneficial.

On the other hand, maybe this just isn't the right conference for people like me. As my sister says, "You need a journal that has lines on the page, I need one without lines. That's the difference between us."

If this conference had had a few more lines on the page, I would have enjoyed it more. And I bet many more people would have heard what Scott Monty had to say.

PEACE AND THE WAR OF WORDS

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the forces of darkness are doing their best to punish President Barack Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It's bad enough that we have a black President in the first place, right? We can't expect those good ol' boys to stand still for seeing the guy HONORED. It's just too much.

Honestly, you'd think Obama went over to Norway and demanded that prize. You'd think the Norwegians committed an international crime by giving the prize to a leader who has, according to his critics, "no accomplishments" that merit the award.

These people really don't have a clue. They don't understand ANYTHING.

The Nobel committee was very clear about why it unanimously selected our President. They said he has "created a new climate in international politics."

"Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position," the committee wrote in its official press release. "Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts."

Although the Nobel Committee's nomination process closed in mid-February, only a few days after Obama took office, the vote took place just a few weeks ago. The committee has had ample time to watch the President in his interactions with the world. They recognized his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

What the Neanderthals in the conservative movement don't seem to understand is that words are often more powerful than action. The French revolution began when Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake." (She didn't really say that, exactly, but no matter--heads rolled anyway.)

Here in Minnesota, the Dakota uprising began when a government official refused to give the region's Sioux Indians the food provisions they had been promised, even though they were starving. That official said, "Let them eat grass." When soldiers found his body a few days later, his mouth was stuffed with grass.

How can any American--especially anyone who understands history--say with a straight face that words don't matter? What about "Remember the Alamo!" Or "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Or "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Or "I have a dream."

And then there's "Mission accomplished." And "Bring it on."

Words matter. Attitude matters. Tone matters.

There's a great irony here. Conservatives have used every nasty, abusive, hateful word in the dictionary to attack Barack Obama. They've shouted hostile words at members of Congress trying to reform health care. They've called the President a liar.

They've raised name-calling to an artform. Since the day Obama was sworn in, they've used words as weapons of war.

Now the world has honored our President for his words of peace, mutual respect and global cooperation--and the conservatives are outraged.

I have one word for these people: sick.

BABY STEPS

As you know if you've been following this blog, I've been climbing the learning curve of online communications and social media. Teaching myself about blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, media aggregators and so on has been and continues to be a daily challenge. Just when you think you're starting to get it, you notice that you've missed something. In my case, I missed something pretty important--how to get my blog to feed directly into my website.

It is humiliating to confess that I was retyping my blog entries into my website because I couldn't figure out how to make the RSS feed work. RSS, as you may recall from my most recent post, is Really Simple Syndication. It is a tool for allowing people to follow your blog and get alerts when you post new entries.

When I set up my website, the iWeb template I used had a blog page, and it offered the option of setting up an RSS feed from my blog to the site. But when I tried to set up the feed, I kept getting an error message.

Today, I finally figured out that RSS feeds have their own URL. Instead of entering my blog URL, http://marshakellysblog.blogspot.com, I entered feed://marshakellysblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default. This is the URL that shows up when I click on the RSS symbol on my blog. Presto! It worked.

Now, instead of retyping each blog entry on my website, the new posts will automatically appear on my website. At least that's the way it's supposed to work. When I finish this post, we'll see if it shows up on my website. If it does, congratulate me. If not, I'll be back at the drawing board.

A READER'S READER

I spoke on the topic of social media at a recent workshop. Don't laugh, I didn't promote myself as an expert. I might have been able to fool some of them, but I could never fool anybody who's been following this blog for the past six months. You guys would "out" me in a New York minute. But I digress.

Quite a few of the people at the workshop were unfamiliar with online "media aggregators," the tools that let you get material delivered directly to you instead of having to visit a dozen different websites every day. You can subscribe to most of these sites by email too, but sometimes the emails pile up, we don't have time to read them, and they take up valuable space on our mailboxes and servers.

That's why they created these media aggregators, or readers. The service allows you to subscribe to different blogs and news feeds via RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and get all those feeds in one place without utilizing email.

The two aggregators that are easiest to use for a beginner (like me) are Google Reader and Bloglines. They are both free, and simple to set up. Just choose one, open an account and then visit the sites you like to check every day. Most websites that offer syndication will show the RSS logo (shown above left) in a prominent spot.

When you click on the RSS logo, you'll see a screen or dialog box that asks you which reader you want to use. Just click on the reader you've chosen, and follow the instructions from there. You can add as many subscriptions as you like. I've set up about a dozen so far, ranging from news sites (MSNBC, Washington Post, New York Times) to blogs (NakedPR, The Fix, Talking Points, Huffington Post). I'm using Bloglines, which I find very user-friendly.

Then, when you have time to catch up on your reading, just go to your media reader site and you'll see all your feeds listed. Most readers show you if new pieces have come in since the last time you checked, and how many total pieces are waiting for review. You can set your reader up to show you headlines only, or to provide the entire story or blog.

Sometimes I can't figure out why everyone is so busy all the time, but I guess we are, so using a media aggregator is a great way to keep up with your favorite sites without having to mess with bookmarks, passwords, slow downloads, and the other aggravations associated with moving from site to site.

By the way, you can now sign up to get my blog updates this way. To the top right of the screen, you'll see a box that says "Subscribe To" and then two options: Posts and Comments. If you click on "Posts," you'll see a list of the readers you can use. Just pick the one you've signed up with, and follow the on-screen instructions. Then, you'll automatically get my new blogs when they appear.

Imagine the thrill.

TWITTER AND THE IRON HORSE

Earlier this week, I attended a conference in Milwaukee focusing on economic development for Indian tribes. It was a great session, and small enough so that participants had ample opportunity to ask questions and chat with the various speakers.

Most of us were housed at the Iron Horse, a terrific little boutique hotel (100 rooms) in the city's warehouse district. For the record, the Iron Horse is not my client and I'm not a shareholder, so I have no vested interest in promoting the place, but I'm going to anyway because I LOVED it! Very industrial-loft old-warehouse, but yet warm and cozy, very chic but still comfortable. And the food in the hotel restaurant ("Smyth") was absolutely excellent.

I was surprised to see that the hotel's owner and marketing guru were the final speakers at the conference. The owner had some interesting insights on financing development in disadvantaged areas, but it was the marketing guru who really got my attention.

Her name is Brigette Breitenbach, and she's the principal of Company B, a marketing and PR firm in the Brew City. The marketing program she designed for the Iron Horse relies very heavily on online communications and social media.

When the Iron Horse opened in September 2008, Brigette said her goal was to have 25% of all reservations come directly to the hotel. She wanted to avoid using sites like Travelocity and Expedia, which apparently take 30% of the revenue from the reservations they generate. So she began using Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to the hotel's website, www.theironhorsehotel.com.

Now, a year later, nearly 75% of the hotel's reservations are coming directly to the hotel, either through the website or the hotel's call center, which means that the business gets 100% of the revenue from every room it sells. The Iron Horse now has 2,717 followers on Twitter and 1,566 Facebook fans. The hotel asks its friends and followers to post a review on Tripadvisor.com, one of the top websites for travelers. It gets consistently terrific reviews, and has emerged as the #1 most popular hotel in Milwaukee.

Brigette supplemented her online campaign with direct outreach to major travel publications such as Conde Naste Traveler, which has added the Iron Horse to its "hot list" of exceptional new properties. Since the hotel is located across the street from a new Harley-Davidson Museum, she also contacted motorcycle publications and reached out to motorcycle fans online through social networking. The "hogs" are very much a part of the hotel's interior design, so bike groups feel as welcome as business execs there.

The bottom line: after only one year of operation, the Iron Horse is operating in the black (unlike most new hotels), has gained a national reputation for excellence, and is regularly featured on international lists of the top boutique hotels in the world.

There's a cool irony here--the Iron Horse, of course, was the Indian way of describing trains, which were "cutting edge" technology 150 years ago. Now Milwaukee's Iron Horse is benefiting from a different kind of technology--one that the first passengers on those early steam trains never could have imagined. I love that.

THE INTERSECTION OF PR AND SOCIAL MEDIA

When I started this blog a while back, it was part of my decision to leap off the social media cliff into the swirling waters of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn et al. As you may recall, I was inspired to make the leap after attending a conference that explained how online resources and social media can be used as tools in the practice of public relations.

So here I am today--six months older, a whole lot smarter than when I started, but still looking uphill at all the stuff yet to be learned. That's one of the amazing things about this social media thing. New tools and resources spring up every day. New applications for making better use of existing tools appear overnight. You could spend 24/7 doing nothing but checking them all out.

As a public relations professional, you might say I've drunk the online/social media Kool-Aid. In fact, believe it or not, I've become such a missionary for integrating social media into a broader public relations effort that I'm now invited to speak at various client meetings on this subject. Obviously, I can't promote myself as a full-fledged expert because my social media knowledge base is still pretty limited. But I now have enough experience with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to know how valuable they can be as part of a comprehensive communications campaign.

One thing I've learned, and this is a principle that extends across virtually all of the social media tools. The art of "getting your message out" has changed in a profound way. In the old days, you'd send out a press release and hope for pick-up by mainstream media who usually had much more important news to cover. It was an impersonal, one-way process--hierarchical and, in retrospect, maybe even arrogant. We gathered information about our reputations or our corporate "images" through polls and surveys--rows and rows of tiny little numbers, cross-tabbed, requiring a magnifying glass and an advanced degree in statistics to comprehend.

Those days are long gone. Want to get your news out? Post it on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Wonder how your customers feel about you? Monitor key bloggers, and look at Twitter "hashtags" to see what people are talking about. It's a new world out there, for sure.

I'm off today to meetings in Wheeling, West Virginia, and later Santa Fe, New Mexico. I'll be speaking to my clients about how online communications and social media can help us reach our PR goals. I don't have all the answers, that's for sure, but I'm happy for the chance to share what I've learned.

A MODERATE PASSION

I went to see "Julie and Julia" last night. I loved the movie, and found that it stirred up an interesting mix of reactions in me. First, of course, it made me ravenous. Spending two hours watching Powell and Child serve up one glorious dish after another was delicious torture; thank goodness we want to the early show so we'd have plenty of time for dinner afterwards.

The movie also gave me a serious case of cooking lust. I like to cook but tend to do much less of it in the summertime when the kitchen is hot, appetites are light, and you never know who's going to be home for supper from one minute to the next. But after seeing this movie, I wanted to rush right home and start peeling something.

The other reaction the movie triggered--and this surprised me--was envy. I found myself envying the intensity of the passion these two women brought to cooking. What must it be like to love something that much?

My sister and I have had many conversations about our "life themes." We've concluded that hers is excess. She is an actor, so every experience--no matter how wild and crazy--is like a deposit in her creative bank. She embraces it all. That's passion.

My life theme, on the other hand, is moderation. I have a thousand interests, and I'm enthusiastic about all of them--to a point. But passionate? Dedicated to one thing to the exclusion of all others? I can't imagine investing that much of myself in any one pursuit.

It took Julia Child eight years to write her culinary Bible, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." What commitment. What focus. What passion.

Julie Powell decided to spend one whole year of her life cooking every recipe in Julia's book--365 days, 524 recipes. She did it--with commitment, focus and passion.

Does moderation preclude excellence? Is it possible to live a balanced life and still excel? Is passion a prerequisite for exceptional achievement? What do you think?

LITTLE GIRL WITH A CURL

I remember a nursery rhyme that went like this: "There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good; but when she was bad, she was horrid." I thought of that old chestnut last week when Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites were shut down by a hacker attack.

When our internet technology is working as it should be, we take it for granted. Email, blogging, Twitter and Facebook have become part of our daily routine, at least for a fair number of people.

Since I began my exploration of social media back in March, I must confess that I've developed a Twitter addiction. I love reviewing a.m. Tweets while guzzling my morning coffee, and I usually take a few minutes to review the evening's posts before I hit the sack at night. It would take a separate blog column to tell you how much I'm enjoying the relationships I've developed on Twitter.

I'm on Facebook every day too. Since many family members are on FB, I rely on daily checks to see what's going on with aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, etc. That's how I found out that my Uncle Len's painting company (Pekkala Painting) had been selected to work on the new home being built this weekend in Duluth, MN by the ABC-TV "Extreme Home Makeover" crew. How cool is that?

I've also become a LinkedIn fan. As a member of several PR-related groups, I find lots of useful information in the group discussions. The other thing I love about LinkedIn is that every day it tells me who was looking at my profile. It's kind of like having secret admirers!

So my daily routine now includes Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, at a minimum. That is, it did until last week, when it suddenly became impossible for me to post Tweets or update on Facebook by computer or via cellphone.

The dastardly hackers who rocked our internet world last week were apparently after some guy from the Republic of Georgia who said some things online they didn't like. I don't know whether they intended to bring the whole system down--maybe they hit the wrong button, realized what they had done, and had one of those stomach-churning "WTF did I just do?" moments. Or maybe they didn't even blink.

But I can tell you--I sure blinked. It drove me nuts not to be able to Tweet in response to the messages I was seeing. I couldn't block sleazy spammers who followed me. I couldn't answer direct messages. I couldn't comment or post on Facebook. It threw my whole evening schedule off. Everything was still out of commission on Saturday.

Now those problems have been solved, but our electrical storm on Friday blew out my broadband internet service, and the technician can't come fix it until Tuesday. Until then, I'm online courtesy of an AT&T USB wireless device that's only giving me two bars worth of reception. Periodically, the connection just disappears, leaving me feeling helpless, frustrated and tempted to heave my computer out my office window.

This on top of the hackers. It's just too much. Technology is a mixed blessing. When it's good, it's very very good. But when it's not working, it is really, truly, absolutely without a doubt--horrid.

MEETING IN MY JAMMIES

Remember when you were a kid, and you'd dream that you went to school in your jammies and everybody laughed? Well, it appears that those juvenile dreams were prophetic. I've just signed up for an on-line meeting service, Webex, that makes it possible for me to convene and attend meetings while sitting at my computer in my bathrobe, slamming coffee.

For the record, there are other providers of on-line meeting services, so this is not intended as a commercial for Webex. I haven't really used the service yet, so it remains to be seen whether it works as well as advertised. But the demo I watched online surely impressed me.

I decided to scope out Webex after talking with one of my clients. We were commiserating over what we anticipate will be a low turnout at our midyear meeting. Between travel costs and staff cuts, many companies are sending fewer people to industry gatherings. I suggested that the Board of Directors hold its mid-year meeting online instead.

The Webex system enables you to convene a meeting with up to 25 people. Each participant receives an invitation email containing a link to your Webex meeting center. The email also contains a password so that you can be admitted to the meeting when you arrive at the site. If the host wishes to have a conference call while gathered at the site, a toll-free number is provided.

The amazing thing is that once you're at the Webex meeting site, everyone sees the same documents you see. As host, you control the cursor, but you can hand over control to another group member at any time just by pushing a button.

For example, you might review one part of a new business proposal, and then turn the cursor over to someone else responsible for another portion. The host can reclaim control at any time.

If your computer has a built-in camera, as mine does, you can activate it so group members can see each other during the meeting. I quickly confirmed that this particular feature is optional for each participant. Since the whole point is being able to meet while still in my jammies, I'd probably skip the video, although I suppose I could make an effort to look presentable from the neck up.

You can even take an audio recording of the call so that people who were unable to attend can listen later.

I can't wait to have an excuse to use this service. Talk about feeling like a kid with a new toy!

DID YOU HEAR A COUGH??

Tonight I watched the President answer questions about health care and other issues during his prime-time news conference. I've watched Presidential press conferences dozens of times in the past, but this time was different. I was listening for something in particular.

As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I've become quite active on Twitter. In the process, I've established chatting relationships with some exceedingly interesting people. There's Tanka_BarLinda, who is in charge of marketing food products produced on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (buffalo bars with cranberries). There's Keewatinrose, an Iron Ranger whose path I crossed many years ago in Northern Minnesota. And there's WestWingReports, a journalist who Tweets regularly about what's happening in the President's house.

I first noticed WWR (that's how he refers to himself in Tweets) when he made a couple of comments faintly critical of Obama. Although I'm an Obama supporter, I thought his criticisms were fair. But what really impressed me was that he also took a swipe at Obama's critics when he thought they were off base. Hm. A fair, even-handed--dare we say OBJECTIVE--reporter. Imagine my delight.

When Walter Cronkite died, I posted a Tweet mourning the loss of "one of the last real journalists of our time." That caught WWR's attention, and we began Tweeting back and forth about our views of the current state of journalism. It was a thought-provoking and satisfying exchange. I was amazed that a White House reporter would a) care in the least about what I thought, and b) take the time to share his own views with me.

So yesterday, when I told WWR I'd be watching the President's press conference, he promised to cough loudly, precisely at 8:12 EDT (7:12 St. Paul time) just so I'd know he was really there.

At 7:00 tonight, when the President took the podium in the East Room, I was standing six inches away from my TV wearing my cheaters so I'd be able to make out individual faces in the White House press corps, just in case WWR was on camera when he coughed up our secret signal. My sister and brother were watching too.

And at precisely 7:12, we heard a resounding and enthusiastic cough from the press section. The three of us looked at each other and grinned. That must have been WWR! Can you believe that, he really coughed--just for me! We have a secret buddy in the White House press corps! How cool is that??

Keep in mind, please, that I still don't know WWR's real name or what he looks like. I don't know what news outlet he works for or how long he's been covering the White House. I could walk right by him on the street and never know it. And while I'd love to meet him in person, that's almost beside the point.

Twitter created a personal connection between this slightly jaded, just-a-tad disillusioned PR hack sitting in her living room in St. Paul, MN, and a White House reporter who still believes in and honors the standards of honesty, balance and fairness in the tradition of journalistic giants like Walter Cronkite. I wish I could explain how good that makes me feel.

THE MAN IN (ON) THE MOON

Forty years ago today, I sat on a lawn chair in the empty living room of my brand new house (new for me, that is) and watched Neil Armstrong take mankind's first step on the moon. In my arms was my newborn son, Patrick (about 3 months old at the time). I remember thinking as I looked from his rosy little face to the TV screen, "I can't even imagine the wonders this tiny boy will see in his lifetime..."

I was dazzled by the sophistication of the technology that made our moon landing possible. Science reporter Jay Barbree might as well have been speaking in tongues as he explained some of the technical aspects of the flight. I didn't understand a word of it, but I was filled with admiration for the geniuses who made it happen.

A few months later, I returned to college for my junior year. I managed to dodge science classes, while gobbling up courses in language, literature, history, speech/communications and music. The most complex technology in my life was a stick-shift Dodge Dart.

Fast forward forty years. Journalists covering the 40th anniversary of the moon landing are telling us that our cell phones are 200 times more powerful than the massive room-sized computers that powered the lunar lander. That completely blows my mind.

Every day, I work away at my Apple laptop, which weighs a little over two pounds and fits in my purse when I need to carry it with me. I climb into my computerized car, use my hands-free cell phone, get directions from a GPS unit, and go to dinner at a restaurant that I discovered online and e-mailed for reservations. I read my favorite mystery novels on an electronic reader that can store a thousand books at a time and is the size of one skinny paperback.

I support revolutionaries in far-off places, talk politics with journalists working in the White House, chat with Native groups in South Dakota and Montana about how to help American Indian kids, follow greyhound races at my favorite tracks, read recipes from up-and-coming chefs, encourage new entrepreneurs, get updates from distant family members and check the latest news, all on the internet. And, most amazing of all, it seems easy, natural--routine. What a difference forty years makes.

We've run a million miles since we walked on the moon. But I wonder. Will technology and human achievement ever dazzle us like that again? Now that we've run so far, will taking one little step ever again be so exciting?

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

Fans of the classic Victorian fairy tale, "Alice in Wonderland," will recognize the words in this blog title. They were spoken by Alice, the little girl who fell through the looking glass into a strange new world where nothing was as she had known it before.

Before the events in Iran began to unfold, Twitter was already something of a social phenomenon. Network news types, celebrities and politicians were giving out their twitter "handles" like free yardsticks at the state fair. Business types were racking their brains trying to figure out how to sell on Twitter without looking like they were trying to sell on Twitter. Analysts were trying to determine whether Twitter was just another high-tech fad, or a game-changing milestone in the 21st century world of online communication.

Others still may be struggling with that question, but for me it's a done deal. Twitter is a game-changer. The election-cum-revolution in Iran has proven it beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Last Saturday, I spent virtually the entire day on Twitter tracking events in Iran. Brave Iranian students were finding all kinds of ways to circumvent the blocks and controls imposed by their government in order to get messages out about what was happening on the streets of Tehran. Minute by minute, we read about which Tehran neighborhoods were safe and which were under government control. We knew where protesters were gathering, and what time they planned to meet. When key protest leaders didn't get home when they were supposed to, we knew about it. We saw cell-phone video of courageous kids marching peacefully for democracy, and the plainclothes thugs known as "baseeji" beating them until the blood ran.

The amazing thing about all of this is that virtually no first-hand news was available on the mainstream media. MSNBC has virtually no news programming on weekends (apparently they didn't get the memo about news being a 24/7 business). CNN and FOXNews, along with other world media, had been prohibited by the Iranian government from shooting video or reporting from the streets. Their hands were tied, and their correspondents were muzzled.

So CNN and FOX covered the drama on Twitter. They ran the grainy, terrifying video clips we were getting in Tweets from all over Iran. They quoted messages from people like @persiankiwi, @change_in_Iran, and @oxfordgirl. They read official statements from Moussavi's Facebook page, which became a primary source for "official" information about the protests.

Think about it. While the mainstream media were completely disabled, it was Twitter and Facebook that gave us front-row seats to a revolution.

Even more amazing, we weren't just observers. At the request of Iranian students, we turned our Twitter avatars green to show our support (see photo below right). Tweeps in the U.S. set up proxies (I've only a vague idea of what that means) to help protesters continue getting their messages out. We retweeted important messages "outing" government agents posing as students and posting misinformation. We spread the word about their courage and the brutality of their fundamentalist oppressors.

Lying on my couch on Saturday night in Woodbury, Minnesota, with a heating pad wrapped around my sore arm (my diagnosis: bursitis) and my Macbook in my lap, I felt as if I were part of the fundamental change sweeping through the streets of Iran. I remembered the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran thirty years ago, and the anguish of watching 52 American citizens seized and held by Islamic revolutionaries for 444 days while our nation watched, helpless and frustrated.

When I recalled those events of the past, I realized that I had a stake in Iran's future. A whole new generation of Iranians was seeking to undo the mistakes of the past and replace theocracy with democracy. Even if we continue to disagree on key foreign policy issues, it would be great progress to see a more moderate Iran governed by people who see themselves as part of the world community. By supporting young Iranian freedom-fighters via Twitter and Facebook, thousands of Americans welcomed them into that world community.

Twitter asks the question, "What are you doing now?" Now we know what Twitter is doing--it's changing the world. Really. Literally. Changing the world. Wow.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

I traveled to rural Kansas recently to provide media training for a new client's key staffers.  As I loaded all my equipment into my suitcase, I remembered the first time I did a media training session about 15 years ago.  

We had a huge broadcast-quality Sony video camera that weighed at least 15 lbs; if I had tried to put it in my suitcase, there wouldn't have been enough room left to hold a toothbrush.  It came in its own heavy-duty carrying case. A second shoulder-strapped bag held spare batteries and sound equipment. A third tote, this one made of canvas, held the tripod, which was heavy enough that it took two hands to lift it.  

Video production is very different now.  My camera is so small that it fits comfortably in my hand.  I packed it, as well as the batteries and wireless mike equipment, in my carry-on. The tripod is light enough to carry under my arm and still handle my purse and briefcase.

Part of the training process is taping interviews, then playing them back so we can critique each performance.  No more messing with heavy TV monitors and long two-headed cables; now we just plug the camera into my Macbook Air and watch the interviews onscreen.  

In my journey from techno-dinosaur to social media whiz, video is the next milestone.  I have yet to dip my toe in YouTube waters, but I will--and soon, because in this high-tech world we live in, video is vital.  To paraphrase the Haines underwear commercial, "It ain't real until the video says it's real."

REMEMBERING NORMANDY

Today is the 65th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy and the beginning of the end of World War II.  As I watch the commemorations on MSNBC, I recall my visit to Normandy in October, 1994, with my son Pat, who is, like me, a lover of history.  The beaches, the cliffs, the cemetery--as the cameras move from scene to scene, I remember the two of us there, moving from place to place in respectful silence, asking our questions in hushed voices to avoid disturbing the profound quiet of the spot.

The guide explains how the Allied armies set up to receive the liberating soldiers and their equipment as they landed.  Military engineers designed and built floating docks that would enable the troops to move vehicles and heavy equipment from the landing craft to the beach in the brutally stormy seas.  It was the latest technology in wartime logistical engineering.

Our tour group is full of D-Day veterans, many of whom are back in Normandy for the first time since June, 1944.  That was one of the things we had hoped for when we booked with a tour group instead of traveling on our own.  The vets, now mostly in their late sixties and early seventies, are a little reticent to share their stories at first, but after two or three days and evenings with us, they become more comfortable and begin to reminisce.  They don't go into detail, but give us a general sense of where they were, what they remember, how they felt.

We are deeply moved when we realize how vivid the memories are for these brave men. We watch the wives' eyes moisten as they listen. The women realize, as all women must when they marry veterans, how miraculous it is that the men they love are standing next to them instead of lying buried in the quiet peace of this memorial garden. They think of the husbands and fathers, brothers and sons who were lost in the name of freedom, and how their own lives were changed forever by those losses.

I look at my own son, who is 25 on this day in 1994, and feel profound gratitude that he has not been called to serve and die for his country. Pat's dad was a veteran of the Korean conflict, and active in the American Legion.  He gave our son a profound respect for those who serve, and a lifelong interest in America's proud military history.  

As I watch Pat interact with these D-Day veterans, standing among the thousands of white markers in the American cemetery at Omaha beach, I am deeply moved and filled with pride--pride in the selfless American boys who set the world free on that day, and pride in my son, whose heart and soul are so visibly touched by their sacrifice.