• Welcome to my Observations

    Online observations of public relations, marketing, advertising and social media; the occasional frivolity; and The Rundown show notes. Jump in, the water's fine.

    Please Note: Everything posted on this blog is my personal opinion and does not necessarily represent the views of my employer or its constituents.

  • My Pinterest

    Digital Social

  • LinkedIn

    View Luke Armour's profile on LinkedIn

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • The Rundown Podcast Live

    The Rundown

  • RSS Media Bullseye

    • An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.

  • Creative Commons

    Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

  • The Show Player

  • Pages

  • June 2023
    S M T W T F S
     123
    45678910
    11121314151617
    18192021222324
    252627282930  

  • Meta

Friday Frivolity: Celebrity Twitter Overkill

Posted on May 15, 2009 by Luke Armour

In this sequel to Twouble with Twitters from Current_’s SuperNews, Twitter jumps the, uh…whale and Darren…well, you’ll just have to see.

Which character are YOU in this interpretive animated sketch? The Celebrity? The Skeptic? The Pusher? The Flock of Sheep?

Even more important, which group does your audience, client, customer, vendor, or potential customer belong to? How will you reach them? Is this even a way to reach them? Before latching on to the next shiny new thing, let’s stop, look and listen to make sure we’re on target, on strategy, and on message.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Celebrity Twitter Overkill // Current“, posted with vodpod

[feed readers click through for video]

Hat tip to JayVee for flagging this video for me.

Advertisement

Filed under: Public Relations | Leave a comment »

Last Chance: 2009 FIR Listener Survey

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Luke Armour

fir2009survey160If you’re a regular reader of this blog – and why wouldn’t you be, since it’s so entertaining (also, easy to keep up with) – you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of the For Immediate Release series of podcasts featuring digital communication virtuosos Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. These podcasts include:

  • FIR: The Hobson & Holtz Report – a twice-weekly show recorded on Mondays and Thursdays with commentary and opinion at the intersection of online communication, business and technology.
  • FIR Live – a monthly live call-in show hosted at BlogTalkRadio where a topical issue is up for discussion by the two co-hosts and anyone who cares to call in or add an opinion in the chat room.
  • FIR Cuts – occasional clips from the virtual cutting room floor of The Hobson & Holtz Report.
  • FIR Interviews with newsmakers and influencers from the online technology and organizational communication worlds
  • FIR Book Reviews aligned with our theme of PR/communications and the online world
  • FIR Speakers and Speeches – occasional podcasts of speeches, keynote addresses, breakout sessions, and other recordings from meetings and conferences of interest to PR and communication professionals.

Tomorrow is the last chance to participate in the 2009 FIR Listener Survey to help educate the hosts on what you like/dislike about the shows. The survey they conducted in 2006 provided some invaluable feedback and helped make the show that much better. All comments welcome, which is good, since I plan to suggest they figure out a way to send microwave popcorn through the RSS feed to munch on during the shows. I know, I can be a very stern critic.

So please, if you listen to the show, take 10-15 minutes to complete the survey. And if you aren’t listening to the show (at least the Hobson and Holtz Report) shame on you.

Mmm, I can almost taste that popcorny goodness now…

Filed under: Public Relations | 1 Comment »

Friday Frivolity – Star Wars and the Curse of Knowledge

Posted on January 30, 2009 by Luke Armour

As communicators, we are sometimes so close to a story, product or social media tool that we have a hard time explaining it to someone “on the outside.” But we should always be keeping our target audience in mind as we write, present, and network. What do these people know right now? What am I hoping they’ll know when I’m done talking? How do I bridge the two?

In Made to Stick, the authors Dan and Chip Heath refer to the Curse of Knowledge in their story about Tappers and Learners (read exerpt). I think of this every time I explain or present anything anymore. Sometimes knowing too much becomes a hindrance – your job is to not get trapped by the Curse of Knowledge.

But sometimes it’s just funny, as seen in this hilarious video: 
Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) by Joe Nicolosi

My friend Amanda had never seen a whole Star Wars film. When I asked her if she wanted to watch the original trilogy she said that she would, but that she already knew what happens. So I took out my voice recorder and asked her to start from the top. I then created some very basic animation in Final Cut to go along with her narration.

Filed under: Frivolity, Public Relations | 2 Comments »

Friday Frivolity – A Series of Tubes

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Luke Armour

Not much else to say here:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Ted Stevens Is Found Guilty | Tuesday…“, posted with vodpod

Filed under: Public Relations | 1 Comment »

Friday Frivolity – Social Networking Wars

Posted on September 12, 2008 by Luke Armour

I’m on a huge Social Network kick these days. So you reap the benefits of that.

On the business side, there are plenty of discussions going on about them. An interesting recent eMarketer study claims Social Networks Are Not Yet Universal, with the totally great subtitle “Not everyone is pokable.”

Remembering this is key for a marketer. Also, remembering which ones are suitable for which audiences is also key. Here’s a no brainer from the PMA Summit: MySpace Is Out; Facebook Is In
by Karl Greenberg, which makes me wonder why we needed a summit to answer that one.

And now, on to the frivolity. Here’s an oldie but a goodie – the Social Network Wars. Hilarious.

Filed under: Digital Marketing, Frivolity, Public Relations, Social Networks | Tagged: , , , , | 4 Comments »

Friday FAIL – PR Fail and PR Win

Posted on August 15, 2008 by Luke Armour

To pay homage to the twisted twins PR Fail and PR Wins set up by Jonathan Hopkins and Brendan Cooper (a new overseas FH colleague) respectively, I’m turning this week’s Friday Frivolity into Friday FAIL. Actually, it’s also just an excuse to highlight some of the hysterical things that brighten my day from the Fail Blog (Pictures and Videos of Failed moments).

So in honor of PR Fail and PR Win…

fail owned pwned pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures

fail owned pwned pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures

fail owned pwned pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures

I actually have my own thoughts about PR Fail and PR Win and they boil down to:

  1. I’m tired of PR people getting bashed, but
  2. I understand why some of us deserve it

I know a lot of great PR people who are trying to turn that image around – and I hope I’m one of them – but it’s a big, dumb boat to turn.

Incidentally, here’s a REALLY provocative and interesting post from Sweeney, bashing Michael Arrington bashing PR folk – definitely worth a read. Also, for more information about PR Fail, visit Brendan’s PR Fail commentary and the subsequent conversation he had with Jonathan.

Filed under: Frivolity, Future of PR, Professional Development, Proud of PR, Public Relations | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Is this MY 47th Hat?

Posted on March 27, 2008 by Luke Armour

A while ago I pitched a story to Web Worker Daily for BlogTalkRadio. I got an email from writer Bob Walsh who, in addition to setting up an email with me, complimented me on my pitch. Nice to hear.

47hatslogo Not long after his post about BlogTalkRadio came out did he mention to me that he had a side project site, 47Hats.com, for developers and MicroISVs. He wondered if I’d author a guest post for the site on how to send a decent pitch email. Flattery gets you everywhere with me, so I agreed. The post, entitled “PR for MicroISVs from someone who knows” went up last Friday, but I was starting my vacation, so I’m only now writing about it. Bob prefaces the post with this:

[Note: I ran into Luke when I as a writer for Web Worker Daily I got his press release for BlogTalkRadio. I was so impressed with how he crafted that PR, I asked him if he’d share some of his expertise here. Be sure to check out Luke’s recommendation at the end of this post – it’s excellent.]

In addition to my article, I made sure to plug Brian Solis‘ PR Tips for Startups eBook (that’s what I think Bob’s referring to there), which I think is a fantastic foundation for online entities – actually any entity – that thinks they understand PR, because, guess what? You don’t.

Skim through it anyway, if you DID know everything in there, then you can leave me a snooty comment telling me so.

Love your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree.

Filed under: Online PR, Public Relations | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Rundown – Live from Kent State Today

Posted on March 7, 2008 by Luke Armour

imageThe Rundown is going on the road today as I head to Kent State for the hands-on PRSA Akron event “You, Too, Social Media Boot Camp and Leadership Summit” where I’ll be teaching a session on podcasting and, of course, BlogTalkRadio.

Should be a great event, the leadership summit includes former U.S. Congressman Dennis Eckart and NEOhio PR legend David Meeker. Others include Mike Connell, CEO of New Media Communications, whose company provided the Internet strategy to the Bush-Cheney campaigns in 2000 and 2004, and Jenny Camper, president of the public affairs firm Lesic & Camper.

Other highlights include PRSA’s John Elsasser, editor in chief of PR Strategist, who will moderate the panel. Steve Shannon of BurrelleLuce will present on “Copyright Compliance in the Digital Age.”

Good boy Bill Sledzik at ToughSledding referred to me and some other locals as “big names in social-media,” which is kind. I’m looking forward to meeting Matt Dickman, director of digital marketing, Fleishman-Hillard Cleveland, who’s blog I read, Dino Baskovic, principal with Vincena, an Internet and social-media consulting firm based in Detroit and my little Twitter pal Kait Swanson. I’m also pleased to be meeting up with Sage Lewis, founder of SageRock.com for our annual run-into-each-other-at-some-event meet up.

Listen to The Rundown on internet talk radio

I’m going to be broadcasting live whenever I can today during the event, so check out The Rundown Live at Kent State to listen in or catch the archives, I won’t be taking calls today, but I’m hoping to get some great interviews.

Filed under: blogging, Podcast, podcasting, Professional Development, Public Relations, Social Media, The Rundown | 2 Comments »

The Rundown on The Office Convention

Posted on February 16, 2008 by Luke Armour

Many moons ago I posted about a PRWeek article involving a great initiative by the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania to host The Office Convention in honor of NBC’s show The Office. At the time I was curious as to how they pulled it all off. This week I bring you Tim Holmes, director of community newspapers for Times-Shamrock Communications who helped organize the event to the show to give me The Rundown on how they pulled it off. As always, The Rundown is my LIVE Tuesday BlogTalkRadio show featuring an analysis or summary of something by a knowledgeable person – and me. (I work for BlogTalkRadio).

The Office Convention was Scranton, Pennsylvania’s capitalization on NBC’s hit show “The Office,” which is based in Scranton, PA.

Listen to The Rundown on internet talk radio

Join us live this Tuesday, February 19, 2008, at 1:30pm Eastern on BlogTalkRadio to listen, to text chat or to call in at (646) 716-8329. Hope to see/hear you there.

Filed under: Public Relations, The Rundown | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Social Media is NOT a Free for All

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Luke Armour

For too long I feel we’ve had folks on both sides of the issue of social media. One side blindly pushing for the adoption of new media tools as tactics and even as the new order. On the other side – and it’s interesting since we don’t see them much out here – are those who flat our refuse to accept that social media and all it apparently represents has no business in, well, business.

I am oversimplifying the issue quite a bit, but you can draw a line in the sand and form sides around much of the blogosphere and certainly around business lunches, professional groups and in the C-Suites. The divide gets worse when you move geographically around our country and into certain industries.

The truth is, social media is not a free for all. Business is business. And you can’t join the two all willy nilly. So it’s nice when you see a strong advocate of social media who puts on his business hat and reframes the picture for you.

Shel Holtz wrote a strong post called Business adoption of social media: It’s not about employee rights that I will share with any communicator who will listen, social media fan or not. Business is not a democracy and organizational leaders do what is best for the company. As communicators, our jobs are to provide counsel that allows them to do that. Sometimes that advice employs tactics like social media, sometimes it doesn’t. One thing I have learned about Public Relations is that there are more publics out there than most people realize – and you have to relate to them all. What are you saying to all of your publics? Even if it’s nothing?

Shel writes:

My position on employee engagement in social media is based on my belief that doing so will produce far greater benefit—in the form of enhanced constituent relations—than risk, particularly when it is managed strategically. There are many dimensions to these benefits, some of the most important of which include the following:

  • Recruiting and retention
    • Employee engagement
    • Increased customer satisfaction
    • Improved brand experiences

      And he goes into great detail. Shel also writes “There’s probably a whole book in this topic…” and he’s right. And I hope he writes it, cause I’ll buy it. I come from the academic side of Public Relations and this is not the first time Shel has echoed my thoughts and put them into words in a way that I wish I could. But I can’t, or at least didn’t, so read the post.

      Filed under: Corporate Communication, Future of PR, internal communication, Public Relations, Social Media | 4 Comments »

      Next Page »