PR Communications

Colin McKay: Gov Web 2.0 Communications Pioneer

Colin McKay was an early Canadian pioneer in blogging and social media, but also in the Government use of social media. In my continuing series of interviews with Alumni from the Global PR Blog week, I ask Colin questions about the conference.

Colin looks back on the Global PR Blog week, its influence, what’s changed in PR since 2004, and how Government is embracing web 2.0 today.

John:  What did you learn from the Global PR Blog Week?

Colin: Global PR Blog Week was my first real opportunity to work with like-minded people from around the world. Collaboration, community and crowd sourcing are words that are thrown around quite easily today: just five years ago, it was unusual to pull together virtual teams working to a common agenda. YoungPrPros and other listservs were the most similar beast.

John: What did you learn about blogging, if you learned anything about blogging, from the blog week?

Colin: By July 2004, I had been blogging for nearly a year. I had been posting short observations, longer analytical pieces, and even commentary. I didn’t, however, truly realize the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience that could be shared if bloggers pulled their resources together and focused on a common series of topics.

John: Did the conference give you any new insights into PR, and if so what were they?

Colin: I had been aware of the different fields of PR and communications, but hadn’t really spent much time really thinking outside my own day-to-day work. PR Blog Week really demonstrated that there were inspired and influential bloggers who could bring insight to issues common across all these fields.

John: What were the lasting effects of the Global PR Blog Week?

Colin: Personally, I am still in contact with many of the contributors. Participating encouraged me to write longer form posts and articles on my blog and elsewhere, and to consciously look to other bloggers and online sources for inspiration and ammunition.

John: How did the Global PR Blog week influence you and the industry?

Colin: I’m not sure how influential PR Blog Week was for the industry. We’ve certainly seen an explosion in the number and quality of PR pros expressing themselves online. I’d hope that PR Blog Weeks 1 and 2 demonstrated that sold, well-reasoned and influential work could come out of blogging, and that blogging was not just a distraction for disaffected employees.

Interestingly, I look back at the list of participants, and I notice many names that are still influential in the field – personalities that have remained consistent and have continued to contribute, often without a care for being identified as influential, or a guru or a thought leader.

John: Reviewing the post(s) you wrote for the Global PR Blog week what has changed? What has not changed, since you wrote your post?

Colin: In year 1, I covered crisis communications. I notice that I didn’t cover online tools in any detail. That would definitely change today, but my advice on the preparation, attitudes and approaches to a crisis would not.

In year 2, I focused on the intersection between online communications and the development of government policy. For the longest time, that article remained current – it seems that the ground has begun to shift over the past nine months or so. #Gov2.0 has taken a great leap forward with the arrival of the Obama administration and the experimentation of the Labour government in the UK.

John: Give an update on what you've been doing in the last five years, and what you are doing now?

Colin: Well, canuckflack is still well and alive, although it has received greater and less attention over the years. I continued as a communications manager at the Department of Industry until 2007, when I joined the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. At the moment, I’m the Director of Research, Education and Outreach, and have been able to launch some fairly novel outreach tools that draw from my experience blogging and fooling around with social media: http://dpi.priv.gc.ca, http://blog.privcom.gc.ca and http://youthprivacy.ca. Not to mention our fledgling Twitter account http://twitter.com/privacyprivee.

Thanks for this, John!

John: Thank you Colin. Great insights into the virtual event, how PR has changed and not changed. Also I think your point about the faster pace of change in Government is very true.

NE XPO Social Media Panel Live Blogging

Here's the CoverITLive reader for the Social Media panel for the NE XPO tomorrow.

What To Wear To The AMA Booth?

Last Saturday morning I attended the working meeting for AMA Boston's New England Xpo event. The event will feature over 34 speakers, over 10,000 attendees and many sponsors. The chapter is helping to support and sponsor the event.  

Mark Zieff, VP of Brand for the chapter, discussed creating a post card that booth staff for the AMA can use to give out to Xpo attendees. Included on the post card would be: Introducing AMA Boston on a local level, and what we do. The post card would provide a list of activities members can undertake; including events, the social networking site, our mentorship program, the LinkedIn group. We'd explain why the AMA is relevant to businesses, and how people can get involved with the AMA by getting connected.

Mark showed several designs for banners. Interestingly he showed the banner his team would pick first. That was the one I liked. For the next ten minutes we debated the relative merits of several of designs before deciding that design selection by committee was not a good idea, and suggested Mark should choose a design, though he did write down a number of suggestions from the group.

Michelle Holsberg, who has been helping the chapter with booth and show design elements, discussed the proposals for T-shirts. Cecil Dorman suggested we should have aprons, and Lily Chou recommended smocks. We decided to go with the T-shirts!

Michelle proposed the final booth design for the show, Sponsored by The Moran Group, you can see the final design here below. The decision about the booth design means we have a large portion of the show preparation completed.

Trade Show Card Tricks

I attended the executive committee meeting for the AMA Boston this morning. The American Marketing Association’s executive committee meetings are typically held on Saturday mornings at a cafe or board member’s house. At each meeting we pick a topic to discuss, and team members pitch in to work together.

Today’s project was the New England Business Xpo, a big event AMA Boston is supporting to be held on May 19th at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Over 10,000 people are expected to attend this free event on the theme of growing New England business.

The Boston chapter is supporting the event in a big way – a booth, eight seminars in two meeting rooms, three workshops and an evening social networking event.

Today’s meeting was very much in the weeds of event management…Decisions about ordering banners, the booth, sponsorship and volunteers. We talked about the details of the design for the booth including; plasma screens, computer stations and logo positions.

The discussion about the management of the Xpo is exactly why I joined the chapter; whether its booth management, social media, or CRM, as a member you get to see volunteers work on projects, learn from them and pick up professional skills and experience you might not have the opportunity to do so at your job.

Bob Hackenson, Director of Membership for the chapter, runs a company that specializes in rocketing client’s event management techniques at a trade show. He gave us a demonstration of how to attract people to a booth.

Bob made the point you how you approach prospects at a trade show is very important, you also have to invite them into your booth space as that will increase the chances of the prospect staying to learn more about your company.

Bob then surprised the group by conducting a card trick with Cecil and Myles. Bob pretended to invite Myles into a booth and gave Myles one of his business cards; he then invited Cecil into the booth and asked him to pick a card from a deck of playing cards. He picked a card, and Bob asked Myles to turn over his business card, the name of the playing card was written on the business card and suggested that the trick would be an opening to introduce the company’s booth.

I agree with Bob, waiting for trade show attendees to approach you is a recipe for disaster when it comes to booth tactics, be proactive, introduce yourself to passersby, and ask people if you can introduce your company.

Attendees go to a show to find vendors, get ideas and be entertained. Most people will smile and listen if you introduce yourself as they walk down the aisle. If you give a short pitch about what your company does and start asking questions, if the person is looking for your services they will most likely be okay with passing along a card or having their badge scanned.

Knowing When To Say No...

I first started volunteering with AMA Boston in 2003. I'd just arrived in Massachusetts from Seattle, didn't know very many people, and wanted to get involved with the local chapter of the AMA. I'd been a member of the AMA in Seattle, but was actually more active with the Seattle PRSA through my job with a local agency.

After sending an email to the chapter office to find out how I could volunteer, I was surprised to be asked if I'd like to join the board, but readily accepted the position of VP of Volunteers, my career in AMA Boston has since been from President Elect, to President and Past President. In total I served on the board for four years.

A lot of my volunteer time with the AMA has been spent asking people to volunteer. Being responsible for finding volunteers and motivating them to stay with the chapter, means I've met many great people. One thing I've realized over the years is that each of us does not have to do it all. And whether you are the person asking, or being asked to volunteer, understanding your own limits and the limits of others is an important way to keep people connected with the chapter and volunteering.

I'm not currently on the board, but I help out the Volunteers committee, and the chapter blog through the communications committee. I call an occasional volunteer, and write a few articles for the chapter. While not as active as I was a few years ago, I enjoy helping to build the chapter, and keep in touch with old friends.

I think one of the reasons I've been able to keep my connection with the AMA despite having moved onto other things in my life, a kid, new job, and more active with a national non-profit, is that I've kept my volunteer activities to a manageable level. That's one piece of advice I'd give to anyone who is the member of a non-profit. You don't have to do everything, split up tasks and have more people work on projects.

If you volunteer with a non-profit how do you manage your time?

New Look For The AMA Boston Website

The Boston chapter of the American Marketing Association has a new look for their website, www.amaboston.org. The site looks fresher and has more pictures of members, a great advancement when you think that the AMA is all about its members. This site is the third version of the website since I've been involved with the chapter, I believe the first website was developed in the late 90’s.

When I moved out to Boston in the spring of 2003 from Seattle, I was already a member of the AMA. Once in town I contacted the chapter to ask about volunteer opportunities, there were a number of board positions available and I joined the board as VP of Volunteers, eventually, I stayed on the board for four years, and was President for the 2005/6 chapter year.

The website also has links to the chapter's blog, at http://www.amaboston.net/, which is still residing in the old chapter creative template for the moment. That blog is also new this year. I've been helping out with some of the strategy for the blog, and recruiting writers.

This week's launch of the new AMA Boston website coincides with the national website's re-launch at marketingpower.com.

Defining Brand

My colleague Steve Halling, as President of the Boston Chapter of the American Marketing Association writes a simple elegant post on the subject of brand. How do you define yourself. He ends the article with a simple question.

how do you define yourself, or your business?

New AMA Blog Opens With Controversial Definition Of Marketing

The American Marketing Association has launched another blog about the AMA. The first post is all about the AMA's new definition of marketing. One that I don't like, partly because I have enough trouble remembering the one I learned in the 1980's (I am too busy learning new songs to sing to my son Bram), plus I don't think the new definition deals enough with the value that is provided to the seller or provider of products or services in an exchange.

Social Media At Tucson’s American Marketing Association

This week I visited Tucson to give my presentation on social media to the Tucson chapter of the American Marketing Association. The chapter has about one hundred members and a very active board.

Jason Zeider, the Marketing Director for Tucson Federal Credit Union was my host for the trip, Jason is the chapter's VP of programming. This is his first year on the board. In addition to inviting me to speak, Jason was also kind enough to arrange a meal the night before with himself and several other board members; including Diane Struse, the chapter's President Elect, and Marketing Manager at Madden Preprint Media and Lynn Perez-Hewitt, VP of Collegiate Relations and former chapter President and also a Consultant for Hewitt Consulting Enterprises.

I had asked for some local southwestern faire so we went to El Charro Café, a really good Mexican restaurant that is celebrating its 85th Anniversary. El Charro Café states on its website that it is the “The Nation's Oldest Mexican Restaurant in continuous operation by the same family”. I went to the speedway location so I did not see the old restaurant downtown. On the recommendation of my hosts I ordered the Carne Seca - which was delicious, if you are in Tucson I’d definitely visit El Charro Cafe. We talked about social media, marketing, chapter operations and local sports and had a really great evening.

On Thursday I gave my presentation to the chapter, we had about 65-70 people attending, and my presentation was well received. I included a slide on avoiding gaffes in social media, basing a lot of the information on that slide on the work I conducted for an article for the Journal of New Communications Research for the Society of New Communications Research earlier this year. As a Research Fellow with the Society several colleagues and I developed a tips sheet, I mentioned a number of these for avoiding social media gaffes in my talk. To me the big issue about avoiding gaffes is to think about training your employees on how to use social media even if your company does not attempt a social media campaign.

Jason had to rearrange the schedule of the speech because my flight left early in the afternoon, so I needed time to get to the airport. I did not get as much chance to answer questions, as I would have liked. However, if any chapter members have follow up questions they are welcome to post them here or send me an email.

Boston AMA Blogging Event

I have a presentation with the Boston chapter of the American Marketing Association, looking forward to everyone's questions.