Wide-eyed and Jaded

On Sunday, I attended (and volunteered a little, but was barely needed due to excellent organization!) PodCamp Toronto 2008. I had such a good time basking in being a huge nerdly nerdstrom. But, I decided to challenge myself a little at this event.

A posting by my colleague Kristen Zemlak today reinforced my belief that I need to take more risks in social media, PR education and life in general. She wrote:

As we have recently learned during in-class interviewing modules, it’s common practice for interviewers to ask questions to which they already know the answers. Their intent being to get their source to tell the story.

I responded:

I agree with that statement 100 per cent. I know what I find interesting, and sometimes it’s difficult to ask questions that aren’t intended to reinforce my beliefs.

Some of my classmates consider me ahead of the pack when it comes to involvement in social media. One of them asked me today why I didn’t ask a question during Inside PR’s 100th episode recording session. I told her I already knew the answers to the questions I wanted to ask, and felt it would be pointless to revive the dead horse. I know this is a weakness of mine, and I am trying to take more risks.

At PodCamp, I sat in on sessions about TalkShoe, interpreting web stats and Yahoo! Pipes among others. I knew next to nothing about any of these topics before Sunday, and I am very excited to see how I can put new tactics to use.

I’m not gonna lie—I was in heaven while listening in on a Twitter panel discussion with Connie Crosby, Dave Fleet, Adele McAlear, Eden Spodek and Tommy Vallier. But, I could have attended more talks about topics I’m well aware of.

The most important thing I learned this weekend is:

I can have just as much fun learning something new than looking to talk about something I’m already passionate about.

I’m sorry for the tease; I will write a more detailed post about PodCamp Toronto soon. I just needed to let some steam out of my personal air ducts tonight.

I haven’t been motivated to update this thing as of late. It’s not for lack of things to talk about, because I have a list of topics I’d like to discuss and ask questions about. There are many reasons why I’ve been less excited about blogging than usual, but this post is about only one of them.

I’m addicted to Seesmic, which is “a video micro blogging web application,” according to Wikipedia. The Seesmic blog explains the company:

Until now, online communication has lacked personality as it’s been limited to text (IM, SMS, email). Now, Seesmic brings conversation alive through video. See and hear people share their experiences straight from their webcams, join in live conversations, and engage in real interactions with real people.

The site is unbelievable, really. I’ve become friends with people who live in Brazil, Colombia, France, Puerto Rico and various American and Canadian cities. The platform is incredible, and it’s still in developing stages. In fact, those participating in the alpha release testing (such as Miranda and myself), are encouraged to voice their opinions on the site and provide suggestions. But, it’s really the people who make the site so enjoyable. I’ve never felt such a warm sense of community online.

I could go on about Seesmic forever, but I’d rather share with you some creativity I’ve been part of as a member. I can’t post a video in my blog yet (presumably because prblogs.org isn’t as advanced as Wordpress), but please visit the links below and let me know what you think.

During some musical exploration one night, I posted this video of me playing a cover of Piazza, New York Catcher by Belle and Sebastian.

Today, Lucas, a lovely boy from France, and I performed a duet of Anyone Else But You by the Moldy Peaches (made famous through the movie Juno).

There has been a lot of experimenting with collaborations on Seesmic. One night, I played my own version of Anyone Else But You, and was thrilled to have several people add their own parts to it (cello, saxophone, flute, drums). I won’t post any more videos right now, but please let me know if you are interested in seeing them.

EDIT: “The Seesmic Players” were featured on this episode of Seesmic Cafe.

There was a thread today about how PR professionals can use Seesmic. Some interesting ideas were presented both by creative folk interested in PR and those who are skeptical of PR people regardless. Miranda pointed out how Seesmic can improve video conferencing, which I think is particularly applicable in PR today because the platform allows the person creating the post to think about their response instead of busting it out without considering the consequence of their words or the reaction of others.

What does everyone else think? In what other ways can a tool like this be useful in the professional world?

Last night, I participated in an online video conversation with Joseph Jaffe, Len Kendall and three others. Well, two others—technical difficulties got in one’s way.

According to ooVoo’s website, the tool is:

the next evolution in online communication — a remarkably easy way to have a face-to-face video conversation with friends, family or colleagues, no matter where they are in the world.

“Like Skype with video,” is the easiest way I’ve been able to explain it.

My ooVoo Day With is:

a week-long experiment in blogger to fan interaction. Notable bloggers from across the ’sphere will host interactive conversations on hot topics, facilitated by the multi-person video chat technology from our friends at ooVoo. Get face-to-face with your favorites and move beyond the post-comment-post world.

And, at 8 p.m., as the Grammys were starting, I joined the conversation lead by Joseph Jaffe. Here’s what it looked like (thanks to Len Kendall for the screen shot)*:

This was not only Joseph’s first session, but one of the first of the night. Sessions were only supposed to be 15 minutes long, but you know how social media folk get. After brief introductions, Joseph taught us a little more about the platform (a client of crayon) and its future potential. This is clearly a program a lot of people are excited about.

Joseph also talked about marketing strategies he used in promoting his most recent book Join the Conversation. One of which he didn’t necessarily expect was the snowball effect of discussion about his book caused by others’ reviews.

I asked the group what it thought of the infamous debate about whether or not students should be getting involved in social media. I think I can finally put the issue to rest after hearing feedback from professionals who work in other fields in other parts of the world. I still think we are doing a good thing. It’s probably not as simple as that, but maybe it can be.

We had to work through some technical troubles at the head of the conversation (voice echoes for those without headsets, irritating buzzing at intervals), but all-in-all, I think disturbances were minimal.

Thanks to Joseph Jaffe for inviting the public to be part of this conversation (are you getting tired of that phrase, yet?). I’m excited to explore further ways I can use ooVoo in both my personal and professional life.

Finally, he offered up a copy of the book to all participants, so look forward to my thoughts about it some time down the road.

*Please ignore the nerdly nerdstrom face I am making.

The Toronto PR blogosphere is buzzing with praise of Talk is Cheap, a social media unconference that happened at Centennial College’s Centre for Create Communications last Thursday, November 15, 2007. The event was created by my professor Gary Schlee, and 15 students of the Centre’s Corporate Communications and Public Relations program helped with the organization and roll out.

I regret not helping in the planning stages, but I’m more than pleased to have helped with registration and other details during the event. Event planning is an area I am not even close to being attracted to, but I love the execution. Gary has posted a picture of me and my classmate/good friend Joe helping with registration. Check it out!

I only had the chance to attend one session at the event, but it was worth a whole night of networking. I saw Terry Fallis, of Inside PR fame, speak about using social media to build an audience and drive demand for a novel before it’s even published. The 7:50 p.m. time slot was the only I could get away from the table for, but it just so happened that Terry’s session was the one I most wanted to attend, and it landed in that time frame.

I was so excited when I read what Terry was speaking about because I’ve co-written a short novel and I’ve been looking into getting it published. I’m so busy with school and work right now that I haven’t dedicated much time to this process yet, but I’m aware that I’m in for some road blocks. It’s comforting to learn that someone with as much professional experience as Terry had difficulty doing the same thing I’m doing. At the same time, IS it comforting, Rayanne? If this guy can’t get his novel about Canadian politics published, how does a lowly student’s book about falling in love with a boy over the Internet stand a chance?

As a start to self-promotion, Terry podcast (wait–can “podcast” be a noun and a verb?) his novel chapter by chapter, and it was eventually picked up by European satellite radio. He then created a Facebook group to promote the podcast, which promoted the novel. I’m not doing the process justice, but it’s not my fault if you didn’t attend Terry’s session!

After hearing so few words that explained so many ideas, I thought, “I can do this!” So, I came home and contacted the co-author of my story and started brainstorming. I recorded some samples just to hear what it would sound like (and to be a little vain). I have so much work to do to get where I want to be with this, but I am excited and excitement drives me.

I’ll keep you all posted about my progress.

Time for a little self-promotion now, people. Most people who know me even a little bit know I am an amateur musician. I often say that I’m not very confident in my skills, but I’m happy to say that I’ve left most of that attitude behind.

My MySpace page is very minimal, both in sound quality and aesthetic appeal. I have better recordings, but I haven’t replaced the original files I recorded in GarageBand. Why? Because MySpace tells me how many times my songs have been listened to, and I am not willing to wipe that number out. I’ve had the site for about a year and I’m proud of the fact that I’ve been able to put my name out there.

I’ve been on MySpace forever. Seriously, forever. I hate to be one of those people who claims to have been there and done that before anyone else and before it was cool… but, I was! I live to live online. I prefer to meet people and form relationships on the Web before in real space.

I heard about MySpace through a friend who lived in Toronto while I was living in Ottawa. None of my friends were on the site, so I befriended a band from Hawksbury. Yeah… I did it–I added a (gasp!) band. I didn’t know how annoying independent bands would soon be–sending 30 friend requests per minute to innocent MySpace members who just want to connect with real friends! Right.

Well, here I am, three years later, accepting friend requests from everyone who sends them to me. To my music MySpace, that is–I accept very few bands on my personal page. I’m cool with them wanting to be promoted on my site because I get promotion on theirs also. And, I didn’t have to be annoying to do so!

I visit every band’s MySpace page that wants to be my friend. I may not give them a huge window of opportunity, but I give them a chance. Once in a while, I’m asked to be a friend of a band who I fall in love with, and I’m so appreciative of MySpace for continuing to do what it was created for–to promote and support independent artists.

That being said, check out my music if you get a chance. And, tell me what you think! It’s not how I plan to make a living (my heart is in communications), but it’s how I plan to keep on living.

So, here I am starting another blog. Hopefully I don’t get bored of this one. I wanted to write about my experiences (or lack thereof) in PR now that it’s what my life is largely about. Having this venue will force me to think creatively outside of my personal interests.

I started surfing around many Toronto-based PR blogs last night and became overwhelmed with how many there are. I will never learn everything there is to know, but I have to start immersing myself in this culture. I want people to recognize my name and I want it to be synonymous with good work.

Let the networking begin!