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About.me is a social media tool that allows you to streamline your online profiles. You can create your own “personal splash page” that either directs users (or prospective employers!) to any of your pages — or shows your content right on your splash page! You get a direct link that you can use anywhere (think resumes or business cards). 

I made my about.me splash page this week and I found it super simple to navigate! The site has a very specific purpose and there is not much to it. It also has great analytics for you to understand how many people are visiting your page, where they are coming from and how long they stay checking you out. 

Check out my about.me page and get your own splash page!

Here’s a screen shot ;) —

What do you think of about.me? Is it useful for you?

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are jumping into social media. You can find them on Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Youtube, Linkedin, blogs, Google+, Yelp, Vimeo and other platforms. They’re reaching, engaging and interacting more potential clients/customers than ever.

BUT — Should all businesses jump onto the train? Probably not. It’s easy for small businesses especially to give in and get on Twitter because they see it as a simple, low-cost, possibly effective way to market new products or core values. In reality, it’s not that simple. The following should be taken into consideration before making the decision to join social networks. 

1. CONSISTENCY

How often will you update, post or tweet? If there is no consistency in your content, you will lose people. With all the information and marketing thrown at people on a hourly basis, businesses need to keep up. 

2. RELEVANCY

What will you tell customers and/or followers? Will they care? Maybe you run a business that really doesn’t have much to say on a continual basis. Then, Twitter is probably not the best social media option. Maybe a page on Facebook may be more useful because it would allow you to maintain an online presence while being more static than real-time tweeting.  

3. MANPOWER 

Who will man your tweets, respond to questions/comments and update your blog? Depending on the social media plan, this can require a full-time social media manager! Keep this in mind — does your business have the capability to get into — and stay into — social media? 

4. PREPAREDNESS 

It’s likely that you will commit an online faux pas. It’s just the nature of the beast. What separates the casual social media business users from the invested, savvy users is their level of preparedness for effectively handling crises. A crisis in this context doesn’t mean a tragic life-threatening occurrence — it’s when an issue results from or is made worse by your social media presence, and has the potential of stirring up some real nastiness for your company (think $, image and reputation). Creating a crisis management plan that addresses social media mishaps is critical to a company’s continued online success. Social media is important, people. It’s not just an ancillary part of your business plan anymore. 

What else would you consider before taking on social media as a marketing strategy?

Ahhh, the Internet - our daily masquerade ball. 

At its advent, the Internet was a platform for the anonymous and the wild. Now, anonymity is really hard to achieve thanks to social media. We live a large part of our lives online. We communicate with friends/family/strangers/celebrities online, we use the Internet as an online soap box, we find jobs online and we discover new information online.

Because of the variety of ways we use the Internet and the permanency of every.little.thing you post, we’ve learned to divide our personality and only show certain parts of it to limited segments of online audiences. We’ve become very cautious of our online presence. 

I know I have edited myself and thought twice before posting because of the image I need to portray in order to remain marketable for a broad range of jobs and … well, other reasons. 

In professional online personas, we value transparency, honesty, intelligence and integrity. Sometimes our personal lives (think of all the dumb stunts you did in high school or college) are at complete odds with our professional selves. Other times, our own personal values and ideals may cost us our current jobs or the job we are currently looking for. 

Personal online personas are often saved for close friends, certain acquaintances and family. However, does this sterilize our professional profiles too much? Are we creating pro-bots? There has to be a balance — but how? 

Should we maintain three Facebook profiles, three Twitter handles, three separate blogs and three FourSquare profiles? Sounds exhausting and confusing to me. Google+, Google’s new online sharing platform, strives to be the solution to this conundrum by introducing circles and a lots and lots of sharing options. Still, Google+ is only one social networking website. 

How, if at all, do you draw the line between your professional, personal and anonymous online personas? Also, have you edited your online self? 

(Image via Gawker)

Let me catch you up to speed — Bethenny Frankel, former Real Housewife of the Real Housewives franchise and reality-star-turned-business-maven, created and purveys the mostly natural Skinnygirl Margarita.

You can find it at almost any liquor store, and up until last week, Whole Foods. Whole Foods only sells natural and organic foods, so when it came out that Frankel’s margaritas contained sodium benzoate, a preservative that may cause cancer when mixed with Vitamin C, the drinks were taken off the shelves. In addition to refusing to sell the drinks, Whole Foods issued a written statement about its decision. 

Well, in true Frankel-fashion, the Bethenny-Ever-After star had a few choice words for the retailer. 

“I’m not making wheatgrass here. If I could put an agave plant and some limes on a shelf I would. [The Skinnygirl Margarita] is as close to nature as possible, while still being a shelf-stable product…”

Can I just say I love her response?! It’s just the right amount of attitude and information. Her statement is realistic and not wrapped in a pretty PR bow — it’s all Bethenny! She’s the face of Skinnygirl products and we expect her to be edgy and she did not disappoint in this instance. 

A rep for the company that purchased the Skinnygirl line, complemented Frankel’s statement by assuring that the drink has “extremely low levels” of the “very common” preservative. 

What do you think of her response? 

We all have those days. You know, the kind that make you want to lock all the doors, turn off all the lights, jump under the covers and hibernate until the next [better] morning breaks. Unfortunately, most of us can’t put off business until we feel like taking care of it - especially not in the PR biz because timeliness and reputation are everything. So, how can you put on a peppy face and get work done?

Here’s my personal list:  

1. Shake off your bad mood!

Turn up the volume on that iPod and shake what your mama gave ya. Grooving to your favorite tunes can stimulate the production of serotonin - your body’s happy pill - and get you in a better mood faster than you can teach me how to dougie.  

2. Take a few minutes to straighten things out. 

Breathe, remember that stuff happens and take a seat for a few minutes to calm your mind. Foul moods seem to have a ripple effect - you know, you wake up upset, then you can’t find your keys, you go to grab milk from the fridge and the eggs crash to the floor, you rush out the door because now you’re late and you realize you.forgot.to.take.the.dog.out. Makes you just want to scream and wish you could press rewind and start the day all over again. Before making a bad day worse [just think, your clients will be on the receiving end of your bad energy!] think happy thoughts and get yourself together. 

3. Browse.

Read your favorite websites before tackling the days’ to-dos. Here are a few of my favorite five-minute pick-me-ups [don’t judge!]: Pinterest, Perez Hilton, Yahoo!, Swagger: New York, and Tiny Buddha. 

4. Treat yourself. 

Skip the egg-white omelette and go for the cupcake, venti frappuccino, muffin, bacon - whatever’s your guilty pleasure! 

The bottom line is that you don’t want to miss a pitch, rub a client the wrong way or look flaky because a bad mood has got you feeling like you can strike at any moment. 

What do you do to put your game-face on?

Someone call an editor! Somethings gone missing! English majors, journalists and linguists EVERYWHERE are up in arms. Where did that damn apostrophe go?! What happened, Old Navy? How could you miss something so elementary?

Im curious. How did someone let this shirt, sans apostrophe and all, get designed, printed, photographed and uploaded onto Old Navys website? I have to wonder if this was done on purpose. Publicity stunt? Hmmmm. 

Regardless, I want to applaud Old Navy for its savvy response to all the arresting grammar-police-backlash. Heres what youll see if you try to buy the offending shirt on Old Navys website: 

This was a great way for Old Navy to join in on the fun. It acknowledges the mistake, apologizes, makes a funny little pun, and gives customers the option to continue shopping. 

A Gap (Old Navys parent company) spokesperson also apologized and told us how the company would be making things right - it was simple and to the point.

“We’re sorry about the error in some of our Superfan Nation graphic T-shirts,” said Louise Callagy, a spokeswoman for parent company Gap Inc. “To ensure Old Navy customers can enjoy this collection fully, we’re replacing the faulty [T-shirts] at our stores and online as soon as possible.”

In my opinion, its all good. I forgive you, Old Navy. Im just glad you found that pesky, trouble-making punctuation mark. 

So, last Friday’s robust discussion re Talib Kweli and relationship building/maintenance was great and I hope to fire up some more fun debates in the future. However, today — we move forward! 

With all the Hurricane Irene hubbub this weekend, it’s got me thinking — are news channels and shows our new reality series outlets? 

It seems to me that the dramatization of current events and the consequential public hysteria is a goal for news channels lately. What’s up with that? It’s like they follow anti-crisis management principles. Instead of providing us with clear, neutral information, they revved up the dramatics and left people feeling vulnerable and scared. 

Sure, in a sound crisis management plan, public information officers would want to convey a sense of seriousness but it’s important to strike a balance between serious, calm and realistic tones. [Even former president George W. Bush got this right — during National Geographic Channel’s 9/11 special he said it was important for him to portray a sense of calm so he did not incite panic!] 

I understand for the Northeast a hurricane — regardless of category — is a frightening prospect because that area is not accustomed to hurricane preparation. However, Irene was a Cat 1. Just a step above a tropical storm. 

What do you think? Was the media too theatrical this time around around, or was it just right? 

I posed this question on twitter yesterday after reading tweets to and from Talib Kweli. He tweeted, “Happy birthday Aaliyah, RIP. Brooklyn loves Baby Girl.” 

Kweli was quickly corrected by his fans — yesterday was not Aaliyah’s birthday, it was the 10-year anniversary of her untimely death (a big deal in my world because my 15-year-old heart loved her!). It was an honest mistake but instead of acknowledging his mistake, correcting himself without being defensive, and moving on (this is PR 101)— he tweeted defensively and with an attitude. He tweeted, “I seen an email abt Aaliyah, asked someone why everyone talking about her and they said it was her bday. Fuckin sue me.”

This isn’t the first time Kweli has left a bad taste in his fans’ mouths because of his tweet-itude. Many of his followers have called him out on Twitter for being full of himself, mean, and annoying. He even has the habit of nastily responding directly to his critical tweeters. So, here’s the question — does this boost his cred or does it just polarize his fans? 

It’s always fascinating and exciting to know you can reach (and maybe even get a reply from) your favorite star simply by sending a short tweet. However, it’s disheartening to discover they’re kind of a jerk in real life.

Is keeping it real worth losing fans?

Ok, I know I said yesterday’s post was my last blast-from-the-past post but I wanted to share this too! I helped come up with the design concept for this website. I also wrote some copy for the interior pages!

[Note: the serif typeface was not my doing- that’s a pet peeve of mine.]

My last blast-from-the-past post. This is another story I wrote for Shands Healthcare. After today’s post, I’ll be posting communications-related commentary by yours truly!