More Social Media Rules

Like those magazines that headline 5 Ways to Fill in the Blank or 8 Things You Should Know, we've now got another list of 10 Rules for Attaining Success in Social Media - click here.

However, this time the advice is coming from a worthy source - Guy Kawasaki.  After surviving two stints working for Steve Jobs at Apple, Kawasaki has become a go-to guy about all things Silicon Valley and start ups.  His advise in the article is spot on IMHO.

The only "What???" moment I had was that he tweets the same stuff all day because of the way people jump on and off Twitter.  We used to do that in radio news as well.  We figured the average listener was in the car for a max of 90 minutes, so the first 90 minutes at work was writing all new newscasts.  After that, we would rotate the stories every 90 minutes.  You also find that in TV on CNN - although I think that they rotate every hour....

Special thanks to Joe Nalven at the Digital Art Guild for turning me on to this story!

Centerfold

My Viva Cuba show made the cut for the centerfold for the Portland Press Herald today.  I had a story with legs (not many Mainers have been to Cuba apparently) and submitted the information in the right format and met their deadline for a photo.  And most of all, I was lucky!  PR is such a crap shoot. I don't mind giving Imogen Binnie and Space Gallery a little extra coverage either!

I know I'm kinda cheating here with just re-posting what I had up for my Waiting for the Muse blog, but it shows that perseverance and luck will eventually win out!

Blogs vs. Social Media

If someone were to walk up to you and ask you if social media had more of an influence on you than blogs when it comes to buying something, what would you say?  Off the top of my head, I'd guess that it would be social media.  Mostly because many of my friends hang out in Fakebook. It takes Technorati and the Social Media Examiner blog to prove me WRONG.

Apparently when folks are not hanging out on FB, they are reading and researching blogs!  Go figure.  Of course blogs are in third place as retail sites and brand sites are the top two when it comes to influencing a purchase.  But this does show how important it is to continue (or start) a blog presence in addition to making your company or services known on FB and other social media.

Steal Your Face

OK... that headline only works if you're hip to the Grateful Dead... but at least it got your attention and today's post is about stealing or appropriation as we say in the art world.  Sometimes small businesses should look to the Bigger Ones, especially when it comes to how they are using social media.  While the article here is mostly about marketing since it deals with image building, it's also PR related.  But I think they do make some good points in terms of using social media in a strategic way.

Maybe you've wondered what's been going on in my life as it's been over a month since my last post?  Even if you didn't wonder, I'm going to tell you.  I traveled to Cuba as part of a cultural exchange with other photographers from the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop, led by Elizabeth Opalenik.  If you'd like to know about life in Havana (mostly), click here and then scroll back to the beginning of February. 

Where Does the Time Go

Many apologies gentle readers, what with the holidays and travel, I've got egg all over my face when I see that last post I made here was in the beginning of November.  Hope ya'll had great holidays and that your PR tasks are not too terrible this time of year.  For me, this means gearing up for the Portland Performing Arts Festival - gotta get those magazine news releases out - as well as my on-going consulting for Constellation Gallery in Portland.

I also raised money on US Artists for my next photography project which will shoot in February after I get back from a much anticipated trip to Havanna!  I'll be going on a cultural exchange with the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops led by Elizabeth Opalenik.

Fakebook?

With traditional media outlets putting the squeeze on editorial or just plain disappearing, I have been a big fan of social media taking it's place.  Facebook seemed like the perfect site for letting people know what you're doing either via a fan page or as an individual.  Remember how your FB friends howled when they changed the timeline?  Did you notice that you weren't seeing as many of your friends posts as before?  Changes coming down the pike again according to the folks at Dangerous Minds, and it will cost you an arm and a leg.

Learning to Like Facebook

I help out with PR at Constellation Gallery here in Portland Maine.  We're trying to get the word out about our shows and gain a reputation with local media so that when we do have a "big" news story, we might get some ink.  But one of the other things we need to do is to keep up the work in social media. 

Today I met with another member artist (we're a collective or cooperative that runs the gallery) who is going to help by posting our information on local websites and the like.  He's old school and came up through the ranks as a graphic designer and then a journalist in Europe.  He is skeptical about Facebook.  But he also sees how editorial inches and the papers themselves are shrinking.

I think it's that he doesn't like the idea of it.  But it certainly is a way to get information out there.   But there are effective and ineffective ways to go about it.  Just about the whole industry is in a learning curve. 

That's why it's good to listen to all voices out there even if  they're talking specifically about marketing rather than just PR, like the folks at Synapse Marketing are in this article.