INK PUBLIC RELATIONS

Identity and data protection seem to be odd topics to address at SXSW when it seems like the majority of festival-goers are over-sharing via Twitter, Facebook and the latest and greatest location-based social networking apps. Yet INK client, CSID is speaking on three panels over the course of the conference all dealing with how consumers and businesses can protect critical information like email addresses, passwords and credit card information.

It truly is an interesting topic that addresses an ever-growing problem (data breaches resulting in stolen customer info were at an all-time high last year) with no real solution. If a group with the right skill-set decides to hack your business, there is no stopping them. As a matter of fact, some businesses plan for and act like all their customer information has already been compromised and focus security efforts on confirming the right person is logging in.

The theme of CSID’s three panels is preparedness. As a consumer, preparedness means proactively monitoring your personal information for misuse, keeping an eye on your credit reports and billing statements and using common sense when creating passwords, sharing information and clicking on suspicious links. As a business, preparedness means, among other things, having a crisis communications plan in place that can be rolled out in the event of the breach.

Joe Ross, president of CSID, pontificates to the SXSW crowd

You can learn more about CSID’s three SXSW panels at www.CSID.com. Also, keep an eye on CSID’s blog for summaries of each panel. Lastly, be wary of what information you share during SXSW. You never know where it may end up!

Because it is Wednesday, and because I spent the last four hours writing an article and can no longer string coherent sentences together, I’ve decided to use my blog post to regale you with two of my favorite new internet finds. Brace yourselves!

Summify is a service that creates a summary of the most relevant news stories from all your social networks and then sends you five to ten stories in a nicely packaged, daily email. Summify’s magical algorithms evaluate a handful of factors to create each list: article links you click through on your social networks, news stories that your friends share and retweet.  The service is supposed to replace the overwhelming task of keeping up with the news shared on all your social networks.  I’m a news junkie, so Summify’s daily email just adds to the list of things that I read daily. Luckily, the service is pretty on-target with the news I like to read so I make it a point to peruse the email each day. As a matter of fact, I discovered my next favorite new internet find through Summify.

Oh how I love OhLife.  OhLife is like a private journal, except instead of putting pencil to paper to write down your innermost hopes and desires, you type them out and send them to your own password-protected site. At this point you may be asking what the point of this service is. I mean, how hard can it really be to put a pen to paper and keep a diary of your thoughts? Apparently, for me, it’s REALLY HARD! I have a journal at home, plenty of pens, and the best intentions, but nary a word has been recorded. I find it so much easier (and faster) to type out my thoughts.

OhLife makes it so easy to keep a journal. Once a day (you get to decide on the time) OhLife sends you an email asking the question “How did your day go?” All you have to do is reply to the email, press send and OhLife adds your day’s musings to your online, password-protected journal. You can even attach pictures to your emails and OhLife will include them in your post. But wait, there’s more! As an added perk, OhLife includes a random post from your past in each email so you can see what you were doing/thinking on that day. Fun!

Our prolific INK intern, Rachael Genson, has written another great blog post. Read below and if you are interested in donating to Rachael’s triathlon, click here.

Currently I am training for a triathlon.  I have always considered myself to be an athletic person, but this is an entirely different animal.  Triathlon training, like many other long-distance events, demands a certain determination to succeed, unmatched by other sports.  While I am committed to my triathlon training, I still have a hard time seeing the big picture when all I can think about is how exhausted my training makes me.  So during my distance runs or endless laps in the pool, I try to think about anything and everything unrelated to exercise.  In my attempt to clear my mind of thoughts of exhaustion, I had an epiphany: training for a triathlon, or any event, is a lot like public relations.  While that sounds slightly outlandish, the more you think about it, the more connections you can draw between the two. For example:

1.  Much like a triathlon, a PR campaign is comprised of different parts.

While they are unique on their own, each part combines together to create the whole.  A triathlon wouldn’t be what it is without the running, biking, or swimming, just as a public relations campaign wouldn’t be the same without its multiple different components.  For example, you can create outstanding social media profiles, but your clients won’t get the full value out of them if you don’t back those profiles up through customer engagement.  Similarly, maintaining an engaging website means nothing if you are unable to secure media coverage to drive traffic to the site.

2.  In both cases, the details are often times tedious and time consuming, but they have a big payoff in the end.

Let’s use swimming as an example.  It’s quite a pain to relearn the proper way to kick your legs and how to make sure that your body rotates just the right amount with each stroke.  But come race day, these little details will increase your efficiency in the water, helping to shave seconds (or minutes, in my case) off your time.  Similarly in a campaign, the creation of media lists consistently proves to be one of the most repetitive (and potentially boring) tasks a PR professional can find themselves working on.  However, those countless hours spent determining the proper media contacts all seem worthwhile when your product or company lands coverage in an important publication.

3.  There will always be bumps along the way.

Like a flat bike tire, there are always going to be challenges and unexpected obstacles in even the best laid PR campaign.  But with the right tools and preparation, any problem can be overcome.  A bike clinic and a portable toolkit will provide me with the know-how and the tools to get me back in the race, much as an up-to-date crisis communication plan provides the necessary information to put out even the biggest PR fire.  If you prepare for all the potential bumps, come race day, even the worst case scenario won’t keep you from crossing that finish line.

4.  It takes a team to make it through.

If I have learned anything through my time training, it is that you need a team to survive.  While running, biking, and swimming are all individual sports, there is nothing more important than having a support system to help you along the way.  Different people have different strengths and without a team to train (or work) with, you will never be able to maximize the potential of each area.  Even more, being part of a team provides a much-needed support system.  You have someone to revel in your highs and help you forget about your lows.  I would be nowhere without my triathlon team, and I imagine many PR professionals can say the same.

While this was all just a simple thought in my head while I was swimming, it’s a comparison that I intend to take with me in my future public relations endeavors.

Training for the triathlon

This is another guest post from INK intern, Rachael Genson.

In today’s world, technology is king.  We have come so far in the last few decades. Not only has the burden of taking notes in class been made immensely easier through the ability to transport computers, but we can even use technology to create energy through harnessing wind power.  Our society is constantly growing because of technological improvements and it seems pretty unanimous that our world is changed for the better because of them.

Despite all the benefits technology has brought, I somehow find it becoming my enemy, which makes me wonder – is it possible that something so good can also be bad?

Until recently, I was the only person I knew who didn’t own a smartphone or tote my laptop around regularly and I’ll be honest, I loved it.  I relished in the fact that, if even for just a few hours, I was electronically “unreachable” simply because my phone had limited capabilities and my portable computer was sitting on my desk at home. However, a few months ago, the pressure from work, school, and other commitments forced me to give in and accept my spot in the smartphone world.  Since then, I have fallen for my Google-powered mobile device – and I have fallen hard.  Checking emails on my phone, constantly updating my Twitter and Facebook, and always searching websites became a necessary part of my phone usage.  I just couldn’t get over having access to the entire e-world with the touch of a finger.

It’s not that I dislike technology.  On the contrary, I love all the giant leaps forward we have made as a society thanks to advances in technology.  I simply dislike that it suddenly seems that our society has chosen to forgo face-to-face communication for the more impersonal form of technological communication.  As a public relations student, I realize the importance of maintaining personal relationships in your professional life.  While potentially less convenient, face-to-face contact with clients, coworkers, even reporters (when possible) adds that extra bit of personality and care that technological communication lacks.

So in order to pay homage to my inner chatterbox, it’s time I make a change.  For the next month, I am going to try and put all of my technological comforts on the backburner in an effort to return to the days of good ol’ face-to-face conversation.  My hope is that by giving my fingers a much needed rest and my communications skills a much needed workout, I can learn to strike a balance between technological and personal communication.  Wish me luck!

Below is a guest post from our fabulous intern Rachael Genson, a senior majoring in Public Relations at UT Austin.

Last week marked the first week of my last semester as a college undergraduate and I’ll be honest, I am utterly unsure how to react.  On one hand, I am more than thrilled to put the piles of homework and endless hours of study sessions behind me.  But on the other hand, I am slightly terrified to step outside of my school bubble.  School has been a constant in my life since those first years in Pre-K and it will definitely take me time to adjust to my soon-to-be reality that is a full-time job.

For those who know me, it’s no secret that I find change difficult.  It’s not that I am against it, but it seems to take me longer than most to adjust, especially when a major shift is involved.  In order to help myself cope, I opt to ease into change rather than diving in head first.  Because of this, I am comforted in the fact that I have already taken the first step towards getting used to a post-college life. A mere day into this semester, I started my internship at INK Public Relations, and I have to say, the outlook appears promising.  After just a week interning with INK, I couldn’t be more excited about the next four months.

Truth be told, last Monday I was extremely nervous about starting an internship with a technology and clean energy firm- two subjects I know nothing about.  How would I ever be able to call myself INK’s best intern if my head started spinning every time I heard about LED thermal management or wind turbines?  However, it didn’t take long to see that each and every member of the INK team is more than willing to teach me a thing or two about their areas of expertise.  I left my first day in the office feeling exponentially more confident about my new internship, which got me thinking:  If it was so easy for me to settle into an atmosphere that is completely unknown to me, then what is stopping me from having the same approach to my final semester?  Nothing.

So rather than spend my last months as a student stressed and worried about the upcoming changes in my life, I can use my first week at INK as a lesson: change is constant.  Technology changes.  Energy resources change. Life is full of changes and with this change comes growth. College was my time to grow as a student, but this last semester will help me grow as a professional and I’ll have my co-workers at INK to thank for that.  So instead of taking the baby steps that I am so fond of, it’s time to take the plunge.  Bring it on “real world.” I’m ready.

Settling in at my desk!

The topics of digital assets and digital life after death fascinate me.  Think about it – as our lives become increasingly digital (Facebook profiles, blogs, Flickr accounts) the question of what happens to our digital stuff after we die becomes increasingly important.

Our photographs are no longer printed and pasted in scrapbooks but rather hosted on online photo sharing sites.  Videos are uploaded to YouTube rather than recorded to DVD.  Blogs and Facebook profiles have taken the place of journals and letters.

What happens to all of this after we die?  Will parents and siblings be able to access and record for posterity or will the content be lost in the ever-expanding realm of cyberspace?

In the past few months, I’ve seen a number of stories related to this topic including a piece by NPR’s All Tech Considered host, Omar Gallaga, about the book “Your Digital Afterlife,” an NPR interview with the authors of the above mentioned book and, most recently, an exhaustive New York Times article outlining the complexities of bequeathing your digital self to your loved ones.

All stories agree that estate law on this topic is still murky.  All stories also cite a number of interesting businesses that are already trying to monetize this issue. (Virtual Eternity allows users to create an intelligent avatar of them to leave behind for family members to interact with. I wonder if you have to feed them like a Tomagotchi?) Finally, all contributors agree that it is important to have an offline backup for your important things like photographs and blog entries and to bequeath someone you trust your online passwords so he or she can take care of things after you’re gone.

My digital assets consist of my Facebook page, my Twitter account and two rarely updated blogs. Not much in the grand scheme of things.  But what about those with content rich blogs, Flickr streams full of years of memories and thousands of Twitter friends?  The importance of leaving behind instructions for taking care of your digital self seems more important when you live a lot of your life online.

Las Vegas is surreal.  From the lights and sounds of the Strip to the sheer grandness of the casinos, Las Vegas can be overwhelming and fun, exhausting and invigorating – all at the same time.

CES takes the surrealism of Las Vegas and multiplies it by five.

The show is huge and those who work it are not exaggerating when they talk about how much you walk!  I was worried I would have only bloody stumps left for feet by the end of the week. (Okay, maybe a little exaggerating.)

The week itself was one of the most hectic and stressful weeks in recent memory, but also one of the most memorable.  As geeky as this sounds, I got to meet some of my favorite tech bloggers. These are guys that I follow on twitter and read religiously.  Meeting them was surreal.  I know so much about them – hobbies, tech preferences, even favorite foods and yet, to them, I am practically a stranger.

The show itself was larger than I could have imagined. The Central Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where all the big guys are, was a spectacle – two story booths, blaring music, booth babes handing out swag, all vying for the attention of the 140,000 attendees.  I even got fleeting glimpses of “the other show” that coincides with CES in the form of very high heels and very short skirts – or maybe that is normal for Vegas.

I may be biased, but I am proud of the work INK did for our clients at CES.  Using creativity and good ol’ fashioned PR, we secured some high quality coverage for our clients.  Not a small feat when competing against the big budgets and publicity stunts of some of the world’s largest companies.

With six days of rest and a normal eating schedule between me and CES 2011, I can honestly say I am looking forward to next year’s event.  I know what to expect now and I’ll be ready to take on CES 2012 with caffeinated drinks and a comfortable pair of shoes to lend support.

Yesterday, I was reading about some of the Bluetooth SIG Best of CES finalists. These products are amazing and just a tiny drop in the bucket of all the new tech out there. I am only 26 years old but technology has advanced exponentially since my childhood.

Growing up, my two favorite electronic toys were my Teddy Ruxpin and my Nintendo. Teddy would read me books, complete with moving mouth and blinking eyes – although I swear I saw his eyes blinking at me in the middle of the night once and made my mom shut him in the closet after that.  With games like Zelda and Final Fantasy, the Nintendo was an endless source of entertainment and also an endless source of sibling-discord, as my brother and I would often fight over the system.

Today, mobile phones could be more aptly described as mini pocket computers. I remember my family’s first cell phone.  It was as large and as heavy as a brick.  My mom would make me take it when I went out with friends.  I hated this partly because it was so not cool to have my mom calling me every 10 minutes and partly because carrying it around caused neck and shoulder pain.

Remember beepers?  I never had one, but I do remember a popular radio advertisement for the store JJ’s Beepers.  In his ads, JJ would always yell, “I am JJ and I am the KING of beepers.” I wonder what ol’ JJ is up to these days?

I don’t remember our first computer but I do remember our first computer game: Kings Quest.  It was an adventure game where you had to type in what you wanted your character to do and solve puzzles and defeat monsters accordingly. “Walk to haystack.” “Look in haystack.” “Take hammer found in haystack.” “Throw hammer at troll that is now gnawing on your foot because you woke it up while rooting through the haystack.” Seriously, this game rocked… and I apparently played a lot of video games growing up.

I remember the day my dad brought home a CD player. I can never remember where I put my car keys or what I need from the grocery store but I do remember the first CD my Dad bought and played on that CD player – Eric Clapton’s Greatest Hits.  My first CD player was bought with birthday and Christmas money I saved up.  It came with a free CD: John Tesh Live at Red Rocks.  My cousins still make fun of me for listening to John Tesh.

All this makes me wonder where tech will be in another 10, 15 years. Will we finally get the jet packs we were promised?

Feel free to chime in with your favorite tech memories from days of yore. I love waxing nostalgic about these types of things.

Image this guy blinking at you in the middle of the night! You'd be scared too!

Blair and I were discussing remembering names the other day.  The truth of the matter is, I suck at it. When I am introduced to anyone new, whether it is at a networking event, party or family gathering, names usually go in one ear and right out the other.

When Blair and I were having this discussion, she mentioned a scene from the movie House Bunny (rumored to be Blair’s favorite movie) where the main character repeats names in an exorcist-like voice in order to remember them. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, a clip can be seen here.  Although the House Bunny’s solution is not plausible for a work environment, there are a number of other tricks you can use to help commit names to memory.  Here are a few I picked up from an Austin Young Chamber of Commerce event I attended earlier this year.

Repeat: “Nice to meet you Jen.” “Jen, what do you do for a living.” “Where did you get that lovely brooch, Jen?” When you hear a name, one of the best ways to remember it is to keep using it. I remember learning in a college psychology class that you need to hear something at least three times before it is committed to memory.
Name Association: Bucktoothed Becky. Freckly Fran. Hunchback Heather.  On the few occasions I remember names, it is usually because of name association.  Example, I use Disco Derrick for a friend with super curly, afro-like hair.  Works like a charm. Now all I have to do is avoid the “disco” part when speaking to him.
Concentrate: So simple a solution and yet this is usually my downfall.  When you meet someone new, pay attention, concentrate and make a conscious decision to remember that person’s name.

Remembering a person’s name is the first step in building a relationship.  Forgetting a name is a good way to embarrass yourself … so is this.

If I ever make it on the show Hoarders it is going to be because of books.  You’ll see the camera crew come through my front door and pan over piles of books and I’ll be sitting on one of the piles (because there is nowhere else to sit) tearfully exclaiming, “I am planning to read them all. Really, I am!”

Most of the books I buy are for pleasure: novels by Michael Chabon, Christopher Moore and Glen David Gold, to name a few.  However a handful of them are for professional development.  One of my favorites is the quintessential self-help book, “How to Make Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie – a perfect book for those wanting to know how to win others over to a certain way of thinking.  Another of my favorites is William Zinsser’s classic, “On Writing Well.”  This how-to book, although long, is surprisingly digestible and provides many useful tips and tools: avoid jargon, how to beat writer’s block, how not to bore people to tears with your writing, etc.

What I want to know is what do you read? What do you read for professional development? What do you read to unwind during the weekend?  What books have blown your mind?

I need more books to add to my piles….

I’ll let you all know when my episode of Hoarders runs.