Correct Me If I’m Wrong :: San Francisco Chronicle

Podcasts are just one way that newspapers are trying to enhance their news delivery. But, the San Francisco Chronicle, on their SFGate.com site, is taking the idea one step further. Talk about consumer generated media, SFGate.com now offers an Open Mic Line for readers - Correct Me If I’m Wrong and many other podcasts.

Correct Me If I’m Wrong is actually a category (or channel, as they call them) in their larger Chronicle Podcasts blog.

There is a very funny example of how this tactic can turn viral and have other readers take the audio and do that CGM thang’ - consumer generated media. One person’s telephone rant about the use of the phrase “pilotless drone” (mp3) has been turned into videos on YouTube. See the YouTube group with two videos.

Visit Correct Me If I’m Wrong…: “Pilotless Drone”

Now, that was good, but there is more.

I listened to the most recent post and found a slur against Alabama. Just couldn’t resist sharing it with you. The latest was Open Mic: Your thoughts on the Newsom Affair? Speak your mind!

Read more

Emily Melton and CSTV Mission: SEC Team Win Three MarCom Awards

Remember when we shared the exploits and adventures of our lovable Auburn grad Emily Melton and CSTV’s Mission: SEC Football?

Congratulations to Emily Melton and the entire CSTV Mission: SEC team for winning three MarCom Awards this year…

The previous posts were Emily Melton Takes SEC Football on a Wild 100 Day Ride and Mission SEC Football :: New and Notable on iTunes.

The project ended yesterday when the clock wound down on the SEC Championship in Atlanta, GA. Florida Wins SEC With a 38-28 Win Over Arkansas.

Well, there is more news. Great news.

All of their hard work and travels across the nine states that make up the SEC - all the while creating videos, blog posts and the “CLOG,” a comic book blog - have paid off.

CSTV’s Mission: SEC Football won three - count ‘em, three - MarCom Awards. The MarCom Awards are “the largest global marketing communication awards competition.” The big news is that “CSTV.com’s Mission SEC Football web site won three prestigious MarCom Awards, including Platinum for best overall web site.” Those quotes from an email Emily shared. Thanks, Emily - and congratulations. We love ya’.

Here is Emily in just one of the many videos they created during the 100 day odyssey. (CSTV doesn’t allow embedding of their videos. Goobers! Think viral.)

Here are the details:

Read more

Ted Demopoulos :: What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting

Blogging is a difficult concept for some people to embrace. Often, the best way to learn how you might be able to use a blog for your own benefit is to hear how others use it.

This is where Ted Demopoulos comes into your life. Ted has written a book - What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere. (Amazon)

Ted agreed to sit for an interview and we discussed many of the individuals he interviewed. He has stories from around the world. Big names and relative unknowns. But, they have all found positive (even profitable) uses for blogs and podcasts in their personal and professional lives. The book includes stories from “Seth Godin, Large John, Guy Kawasaki, surferdude/deep thinker Dave Kesel, Dave Taylor, Andre the Siberian Splogger and reindeer breeder, and even my (Ted’s) favorite, ANONYMOUS!” We discussed several of these people in our interview.

I have edited this down from a one hour conversation. It now runs 21:06 (7mb download), and I hope you will enjoy it.

Full disclosure: I am in the book. Ted kindly included our discussion which is condensed down to the quite simple section - It’s All an Experiment. Thank you, Ted. I’m grateful and honored you chose to include our interview.

Despite my good fortune to be in the book, I’m still grateful for the opportunity to read it. Stories like those Ted has compiled will serve me, and you, well. Check out the book at Amazon. It was released yesterday. My apologies for being a day late.
Here is the interview.

Edelman Earshot :: Ethics in Social Media Communications

Rick Murray addresses Edelman University following their Wal-Mart blogs issue, uploaded Oct. 27. Phil Gomes explains that the recording is from a “global mandatory worldwide presentation of Edelman University.” I’m sorry, Phil. That’s not all-inclusive enough for us.

Key excerpts? Phil Gomes calls the recent problems “exposing a systemic issue” for the firm. Rick Murray states “the rules are changing” and “we’re defining them as we go.” I believe Murray is speaking of the global we, as in all communicators.

I like this podcast. Go listen for yourself at earshot. I’ve listened to it twice and will listen to it again.

Maybe we can do another class phone interview, this time with Phil Gomes, about this?  Maybe not, though, because Phil is apparently out until Thanksgiving. So, maybe Steve Rubel will talk to us? I did not hear him on the podcast, though. How about Michael Wiley?

What do you think, students? Want to ask them? Maybe they’ll see this and drop by. Any 5:00 p.m. (CST) Monday thru Thursday will do. (Those links aren’t too blatant, are they? I have no shame. I apologize.)

One pet peeve issue of mine was addressed. This is a bad practice of some street marketers. (And, it doesn’t relate solely to Edelman, actually, but all street marketing.) The word is passed along … no more hiring actors to enter an environment (absent disclosure) and say “Hi, I love (product).” This is no longer accepted. Disclosure must occur. Good.

Things to listen for:

• Honesty of Relationship
• Honesty of Opinion
• Honesty of Identity
• Taking Responsibility
• Respecting the Rules
• Do an audit of the above.*
• As An Extra Measure of Assurance, Ask Yourself…
• Would I be uncomfortable if my family or friends were involved in this campaign?
• Is there anything about this campaign that we would be embarrassed to discuss publicly?

Visit:

WOMMA Ethics Assessment Tool, “The Ethics 20 Questions” Discussion Draft For Public Comment

Now, the big question is - for everyone, not only Edelman - “Will people do it?”

Subscribe to Earshot through iTunes to download. It runs 38:15. Phil cut the sections where they were going through slides in a Powerpoint presentation. I wish he’d left them in. I would have listened. The audio did have some glitches in it for me, but I don’t know if it is my computer or the audio file. I think it is the file as it was recorded from a phone conference.

* The audit referenced above will likely be available for Edelman employees to use in the middle of November.  They are going to have a hotline - or clearinghouse process, too.

Mission SEC Football :: New and Notable on iTunes

Jeremy Pepper - POP! PR Jots - tipped me off to this recent development regarding Mission: SEC Football. That project features our own beloved alum Emily Melton. Thanks, Jeremy.

Their site is now listed in iTunes (Subscribe to podcast). In fact, Sunday evening their podcast was listed in iTunes’ “New & Notable” section. Congrats to Emily and the members of her team. The site is filling up with many interesting videos as they trek across the SEC for 100 days leading up to the Dec. 2nd SEC Championship game. Visit the site. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Alexis :: Just Precious, That’s All … Just Precious

Alexis. She’s so cute. See Alexis at the Waterpark activities.

Alexis attended Easter Seals Camp ASCCA last week. You can also view a video of Alexis and her counselor Christy.

This is just a truly precious young lady.

Katie and Danielle have been sharing profiles of campers and counselors in their summer social media internship at Easter Seals Camp ASCCA. All of them, about eight posts a day, appear in the Camp ASCCA Journal, ASCCA’s blog.

I’ll be honest, I keep hoping to see PR people visiting and commenting - or writing about it in their own blogs. I’ve tried to refrain from blatant pitches via email and only highlighting the effort by writing about it here in my blog.

…social media internship reaching out to parents and campers to spread the word about Camp ASCCA…

I hope you’ll check out the Camp ASCCA Journal and write about it. A few kind people have gone there and/or commented or written about it. Thanks Kami and Karen. But, alas, few others have gone there - or seen value in it to write about it. This makes me sad. I know of no other similar experiment with social media - anywhere. If you can show me one, please do. The students are trying and would really appreciate some interest and feedback from the PR blogging community.

I hope my fellow PR bloggers will go and check out the site. Critiques and criticism are welcome, actually. We want to get it right and improve. Also, the interns will likely take input from outside and put it into action. Hope you’ll visit the Camp ASCCA Journal and give it your consideration for a post in your blog. Thanks.

University President Podcasts :: Hollins University

Interesting development. I haven’t seen this before. A university president taking to iTunes for message delivery.

Hollins University, a small private liberal arts university in Virginia, offers “women’s undergraduate and coed graduate programs with a liberal arts focus.” Hollins has “819 undergraduate women and 238 coed graduate students. From 46 states and 9 countries.”

In their first program, President Nancy Gray chats about the school.

Hollins University president Nancy Gray talks about happenings at Hollins and answers listeners’ questions. This bimonthly podcast is hosted by public relations director Jeff Hodges.

…focusing on exceptional alumni, new campus facilities and programs, and faculty activities, this podcast serves a useful purpose…

It is billed as a bimonthly podcast. I think once every two months is too little for them to build an audience, but we’ll see. Since I don ‘t know about their staff and resources, it may not be possible for them to do more. Now, a school like Auburn could easily fill one each week (if not each day) with interviews from administrators, faculty and students. A lot has been written lately about professors using podcasts for their lectures. I hope university PR offices start to join in, as well.

I like this idea. Just imagine how many news organizations would love to have this to check out each week, or so. A 9:52 production, the program is short enough to get listeners and long enough to have some purpose.

They are calling it the “Ask the President Podcast.” Many universities have had radio actualities online, in the past. The practice seems to have diminished as they go after more and more television and print placecments. Just my anecdotal observation, really. This is an interesting way to get audio online and easily available to media and stakeholders.

Now, a bold step would be to have some unscripted conversations between the president, students and faculty. Wonder if they’ll go out on the limb with their’s?

This podcast is clearly scripted. If it isn’t, then I’d be amazed. Listen and I think you’ll understand. But, the process will - I hope - develop a more conversational tone along the way. Hey, it is new. Let’s cut them some slack.

Still, this is a good example of how podcasting’s growth has begun to catch on in education. Check it out. It was a good podcast. The podcast is listed in iTunes under public relations. They also have a Web page devoted to the podcast’s feed and it features another podcast on creative writing, too. No blog, yet. But, perhaps that’s coming in the future. I’d love to see university presedents blogging … with comments on. Don’t know if any of them will ever take that chance, though. We’ll see.

OUCH! Podcast :: BBC Takes Disability Into Flying Circus World

ouch! Finally, a podcast about disabilities that you can laugh with - not at - and not feel guilty.

Irreverent comedy, by people with disabilities, where no topic is safe. I have not been this happy in a long, long time. Finding the ouch! podcast is a special treat. For me, this is as if Monty Python took on the issue of disabilities and gave it proper comedic respect. Yes, I imagine this podcast will not be received by everyone with the same glee as I’ve expressed here. In fact, in show #2 the hosts report some rather unhappy listeners have shared their unhappy thoughts.

Actor Mat Fraser (on left) and comedian Liz Carr (on right) are the hosts. You will laugh. They are brilliant. Both Mat and Liz have disabilities. Actually, the site says that vitually all of those involved with the Web site and podcast are disabled individuals. A recent listener comment on the site stated about the most recent show, “Even better. Coupla ‘Oh my God, you did not just say that!’ moments. Fantastic.” Please listen to it - now!

Mat is, in his own words, “a thalidomide survivor.” Liz is “a wheelchair user.” You have likely never heard a more satirical view of disabilities. Some might call the program a dark comedy. I don’t. It is refreshing, actually. A social satire that, probably, only British comedy can pull off. They poke fun at all of the disability related programming that the BBC has produced in recent years. In particular, they speak of the BBC series of programs called “What’s Your Problem.”

In show #1, Mat and Liz take aim at the Paralympics. Terms like cripple and spastic are tossed about with ease. The show has old-style radio jingles interspersed. One says, “Confined to wheelchair. The ouch! Podcast.” A monthly podcast, Liz and Mat also conduct a gameshow like contest. They describe it on the site as “Another outing for our fiendishly unpleasant quiz, Vegetable, Vegetable or Vegetable. Can Mat and Liz guess ‘what’s up with’ a genuinely disablified member of the public on the end of the phone?”

Mat, in particular, likes to say, “You are very, very brave and special.” Another jingle-like aspect of the podcast is a “buffer/bumper” of someone with a very un-politically correct speech pattern providing the URL to the show’s Web site - “bbc.co.uk/ouch“. Trust me. This podcast has (or will have) all of the socially unacceptable references and parodies of disability. It is not for the faint of heart. Still, I hope you will check it out.

From the site: Ouch is a website from the BBC. Its aim is to reflect the lives of disabled people right here and now in the third millennium.

It’s not a help and support site. If we were to give it a label, it would probably be closest to lifestyle. We pride ourselves on not being a resource for useful information, though I’m sure you’ll find most things you’re looking for here. There are many help and support sites out there that do a fantastic job, far better than we could, so we in the BBC’s Learning & Interacitve department felt it would be good to do something completely different.

We’re about personal stuff, minutiae of everyday life and that fantastic dark sense of humour and inevitable cynicism that we disabled people tend to have. Oh, and we don’t shy away from subjects that other people might be a bit wary of.

The show is barely two months old. Both episodes are available from the BBC site and in iTunes. Go listen now. The shows last about thirty minutes each. I’ve listened to both twice. Best two hours I’ve spent in a long time.

What do you think. Could I get away with this at the Camp ASCCA Podcast? Would I want to even try?

Life Lessons :: Spirit, Character and Accomplishments :: Allison Wetherbee

Along the way, we all meet people that truly change our lives. Allison Wetherbee is someone that has done that for me. So, I’m sharing this podcast from the Camp ASCCA site with you here, too.

The photo is of Allison in 1986 and clicking on it will take you to a larger photo of her with Paige and Katie, the two interns that worked with her that summer.

Allison began coming to ASCCA in the late 1970’s and later worked with me at camp doing public relations. She was only a teenager then, but so incredibly intelligent and her personality so engaging. This is one person that I believe everyone should meet.

Allison never let having a disability stand in the way of her dreams. Trite, you may say, but never more true than in her life’s story. She went on from camp to attend university and gain two degrees. Today, Allison is a mental health counselor in Russellville, Alabama. She has her own home, lives independently - with attendant/roommate assistance, and is still changing people’s lives for the better.

Admittedly, the podcast is more like two friends chatting than an interview. But, that’s because I love Allison and she can make me chuckle.

The podcast runs 21:46 and is a 19mb download. I hope you’ll listen and enjoy Allison as much as I do.

Australians, Americans, Mexicans and Spaniards :: Education in Blogs and Podcasts

Coincidences. I love them. Of late, the podcasting coincidences are overflowing, and this is a good thing.

Over the past few days, I’ve been communicating with some of the good people at Deakin University in Australia. Ross Monaghan has his students blogging with us at PRblogs.org. He has begun a podcasting site with his colleague Colleen Murrell entitled themediapod.net.

At the same time, Ashley Imsand is writing about podcasting at the Forward blog. She references Octavio Rojas and Eric Schwartzman. Schwartzman shares some selling points about podcasting “for a client proposal” he created recently.

• Allows listeners to time-shift and place-shift media consumption
• 100% efficiency, since episodes are only downloaded by listeners on an opt-in basis
• Easily accessible to a global audience that is not defined by geographic boundaries
• Access to an educated, influential audience with a high disposable income
• Ability to leverage electronic programming without an outside news media filter
• Most cost effective electronic media distribution channel available

Ashley’s colleagues, Erin Caldwell and Luke Armour, are being featured in the Edelman earshot podcast, hosted by Phil Gomes. The podcast has, by the way, a rather funny (yet morbid) postscript to it. You’ll have to listen. (To Phil: Mine was forest ranger.)

That’s a whole lotta podcasting and discussion of podcasting, folks.

I’m loving this. Why, you ask?

Above you see several examples of wonderful information being shared. No pot shots were taken. Everyone signed their names. All of the discussion is relatively transparent. Comments are allowed and add to the learning experiences. No one is hiding. All are taking chances by sharing their thoughts. And what, I ask you, is wrong with that? Nothing.

I offer these great examples in advance of my next post about social media. Hey, there is a dead Greek and more. It’ll be fun.

Brendon Connelly and Sean McKay :: George Fox University Does Wikis Right :: Podcast

HEBC George Fox University is doing great things with wikis. Meet Brendon Connelly and Sean McKay. They can help you get started with wikis, too.

“A wiki is a collaborative web-based content management system in which all users can edit the web pages that are part of the site. Wikis provide a flexible and adaptive web-based environment for admissions (and other higher-ed) departments to develop knowledge bases and repositories of group experiences … Because of its nature, a wiki web site evolves over time and adapts to work with the content that its users contribute.”

Get the PDF presentation.

Brendon Connelly

George Fox University

http://www.slackermanager.com/

Sean McKay

George Fox University

http://academic.georgefox.edu/~smckay/

There is a screencast in “.mov” format available to compliment the PDF.

And, we have a podcast that I recorded with Sean and Brendon awhile ago. Sorry for the delay in sharing it, but - as with Nancy Prater’s podcast - I’ve experienced a computer crash and had to retreive and restore a great deal of information - plus, buy new software.

Now, this is not your usual podcast. The files were corrupted, but I could recover their voices. So, what you hear are their responses to my questions. I have tried to make it comprehensible. If you download their PDF file and read that, then listen to the podcast, I believe it can work for you. Think of these as audio notes on how they got into the wiki business at George Fox University.

The podcast link is below (23 minutes). Please visit Sean and Brendon’s presentation, too. Using Wikis to Facilitate Communication, Collaboration, and Knowledge Sharing Among Admissions and Administrative Personnel.

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