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 clients.
Podcamp Ohio goes live this weekend in wonderful, wacky Columbus Ohio. In the spirit of unconferences everywhere, it’s FREE, fun and guaranteed to be educational. The 2008 version is the first and I have to applaud the organizers of this event led by Angelo Mandato. I’ve been on the email list for the planning committee and the work they’ve put into this is incredible. I did my share by complaining and offering unsolicited advice. They’re probably all like, who IS this Armour fellow anyway? I’ll be sure to provide more Kudos, I’m sure, after the event, but I wanted to get that out here.
So, Podcamp Ohio, the details as Miss Abby Laner so excellently details them, uh, in detail:
WHAT: A conference that helps connect people interested in blogging, social networks, podcasting and new media. Attendees can learn, share, and grow their new media skills with others.
WHEN: June 28, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
WHY: You will learn all sorts of really cool things about the various aspects of social media. It’s also a great way to meet new folks who love to do the same things as you! (translation: NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK)
Your favorite Ausssie (I have no way of knowing if that’s true) Paull Young and I will be presenting an interesting look at the world of social media with our “What NOT To Do: Podcasting and other Social Media Anti-Tips” session. Due to the Law of Two Feet, there’s sure not to be a full chair in the room when we’re done.
To see the full list of sessions, please click here.
I’m looking forward to meeting Abby (I’m assuming that’s her on the left, I stole the photo from her post) in person as well as the infamous Constantin Basturea (whose name you may recall from my Murder Mystery virtual geek dinner, yes I’m still plugging that thing), the Ohio-native-turned-New Yorker Michael Denton of whom I’ve heard so many disturbing things, and Todd Cochrane, who I’ve actually talked to on the phone before and whose podcast I sometimes listen. Also, of course, fun to see Kait Swanson and Mr. Young again.
As soon as I get some twitter and blog tags, I’ll be sure to post them here so you can keep up with our weekend exploits. Follow me!
The 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.â€
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.
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.
Readers of this blog will know that one of my favorite podcasts is “For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report.” If you’re reading this blog and not listening to FIR, stop reading right now, go to ForImmediateRelease.biz and sign up for the blog and podcast feed. Or, as an introduction you can check out this Saturday’s live episode on BlogTalkRadio.
This Saturday, February 9, at 10am PT/1pm ET/ 6pm GMT, hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz will host a special live call-in edition of “For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report” on BlogTalkRadio.
The call-in episode will focus on the blurring of the lines between internal and external communications. If you work in external PR, how do employees of your (or your client’s) company affect your communication efforts? If you work in internal communications, how does your role change in order to prepare employees for their growing role as points of contact and brand experiences in the social media sites where they participate?
It works just like my show, The Rundown. Visit the FIR BlogTalkRadio profile page to listen or call 347.324.3723 to join in the conversation, (you may also listen via phone, pressing ‘1’ to be put in the talking queue).
If you miss the live show, the audio will still come through the podcast feed, so no worries. Should be great show and I hope to hear you there.
(as per usual, I tell you that I work for BlogTalkRadio)
This week I bring Kami Huyse, PR professional, APR and Blogger at Communication Overtones to the show. As always, The Rundown is my Tuesday LIVE BlogTalkRadio show featuring an analysis or summary of something by a knowledgeable person - and me. This week we analyze why the blogosphere is more volatile than nitroglycerine and as an unpredictable as a rabid dog. Not unrelated, we’ll also be discussing a recent interview she conducted with Pat Philbin over FEMA’s questionable communication practices. This is going to be a fun show, you should join us.
Kami Watson Huyse, APR, principal of My PR Pro, writes about public relations and communications. She has a background in crisis communication and reputation management, executing social media campaigns, conducting focus group research, and media relations.
I recently got word - first from Kevin Dugan and then from Angelo Mandato, one of the spearheaders - that there will finally be a Podcamp Ohio. I’m stoked. Rest assured I’ll be there, maybe speaking, but there for sure. Will you?
I’ve yet to get involved in the planning (bad, Luke, bad!), but Angelo has been heading up the charge to organize PodCamp Ohio and doing a fine job. Over the past month or so, they’ve got a location and launched a Podcamp Ohio web site.
PodCamp Ohio will be on Saturday, June 28, 2008 from 9am to 5pm at the ITT Technical Institute in Hilliard (just west of Columbus), Ohio. The organizing committee is using all the available tools, except one, I don’t see BlogTalkRadio on the list…hmm. If you’re interested, you can stay up to date with Podcamp Ohio with:
This week communication guru, blogger and podcaster Shel Holtz joins me for The Rundown on BlogTalkRadio. As always, The Rundown is my weekly LIVE podcast featuring an analysis or summary of something by a knowledgeable person - and me. For those of you who read this blog, Shel Holtz needs no introduction. Okay, here’s one anyway:
Shel has spent 30-plus years in organizational communications in Fortune 500 companies, consulting firms, and as an independent consultant since 1996. Shel also provides counsel and guidance on traditional online communication and conventional media.
Shel is the author of five books, including “Public Relations on the Net,” “Corporate Conversations,” “Blogging for Business” and the recently released “How to Do Everything with Podcasting.” He has also written countless articles for magazines and journals. He is in demand as a speaker at conferences and workshops around the world.
He is also very passionate about employee communications and, discouraged by corporate banning of sites on the net, started StopBlocking.org:
Companies everywhere are blocking employee access to the Net, fueled by questionable research and irresponsible pronouncements of self-serving individuals and organizations. This site is designed to serve as a hub information resource for those who believe the benefits of providing access far outweigh the risks.
I’ll be having a live discussion with Shel about this campaign, what he’s trying to do with it and why he thinks we shouldn’t be blanket banning entire sites to our employees.
You are welcome to join the discussion if you can drag yourself away from the latest Facebook movie quiz or zombie attack for 30 minutes. Geez.
The Rundown airs on Tuesdays at 1:30pm Eastern. It’s live, so just call in at (646) 716-8329. You can also email your text or audio comments to me before the show and I’ll fit them in. The archives will be available at my BlogTalkRadio host page or by subscribing to the show’s RSS feed. You can also subscribe to the show on iTunes. Also, I am the PR Coordinator for BlogTalkRadio.
As always, The Rundown is my weekly LIVE podcast featuring an analysis or summary of something by a knowledgeable person - and me.
As principal, Defren leads client services and business development efforts for SHIFT. More importantly he and his team have been instrumental in bringing the Social Media Release to life. I have some questions of my own about that, about what prompted him to get involved in the whole movement and what it means to public relations and journalism. I also plan on asking him what it’s like to bop from Boston to San Fransisco like a tennis ball. Don’t miss this exciting Halloween edition.
The Rundown airs on Tuesdays at 1:30pm Eastern. Because it’s live, your calls are welcome. Whenever I have I guest you’d like to talk to, question or heckle, just call in at (646) 716-8329. You can also email your text or audio comments to me before the show and I’ll fit them in. The archives will be available at my BlogTalkRadio host page or by subscribing to the show’s RSS feed. You can also subscribe to the show on iTunes.
Yes. It’s true. To answer a question Mitch Joel posed to me at Podcamp Toronto in February: Tuesday, Mitch, this Tuesday.
I’ve started a show on the BlogTalkRadio network entitled that focuses on public relations, the web, promotions, publicity, internal communication, media relations, investor relations, online marketing, writing, public affairs, social media, issue management, blogging, crisis communication and any other form of public relations. The live-show-turned-podcast is entitled “The Rundown with…”
Since I’m not entertaining nor smart enough to hold your attention by myself, I’ve decided to do an interview-style show and get some smart folks to spend 30 minutes with me LIVE. Then I’ll do zany things with them for my own amusement. I think I can make that last until future guests listen to archived shows and start rethinking their commitment to talk to me. Anyway, the interview style definitely takes the most advantage of BlogTalkRadio’s live talk-show format.
The Rundown will air Tuesdays at 1:30pm Eastern. Because it’s live, your calls are welcome. Whenever I have I guest you’d like to talk to or question, just call in at (646) 716-8329. You can also email your text or audio comments to me before the show and I’ll play them. The archives will be available at my BlogTalkRadio host page or by subscribing to the show’s RSS feed.
At the risk of turning my personal/professional blog into a billboard for my employer, I’m posting this post. I can’t help it, it’s too exciting and also one of the reasons I haven’t posted anything else since my last BlogTalkRadio post.
Today we launched a new site with new features and great new social media components. It adds more “social” to podcasting and Internet radio than ever before.
One of the biggest benefits to podcasting has also been one of my biggest complaints: asynchronous communication and community building. We all love podcasts because they’re “on demand.” We can listen when and where we want. But there’s always been that lack of immediate interaction. Most podcasts I listen to are community based and comment driven, but there’s that gap among when it was recorded it to when it was downloaded and when it was actually listened to and, finally, when it a comment was sent in.
For Immediate Release hosts Hobson and Holtz tackled this problem by having a few SkypeCasts in the past. Those were great shows and allowed the audience to directly interact with the hosts and each other. They had even set up a text chat on the backend.
But BlogTalkRadio does all that for you now. And it’s one of the reasons I joined the team. It brings community close to home. Well now it’s gone one step further and added a social networking component and text chat to the site. Hosts and Listeners can set up profiles, link to each other and build a bigger, stronger community on the network. I’m excited about it. Plus, cool new logo. Check out all the new stuff.
If podcasting was something you’ve wanted to try, but didn’t like the technical aspect of it, try BTR. Live, easy and still delivered via RSS.
Oh, and in full disclosure, I work for BlogTalkRadio if you haven’t figured that out by now.
Update: CEO Alan Levy has a good run down of the new features with a top level perspective.
I’m very excited to announce that I’m co-producing the Forward podcast with Paull Young over at the Forward blog. Forward is an online resource for young PR Pros and students. I interviewed Peter Shankman, CEO of The Geek Factory, for Forward Podcast 28 this week. Peter may be surprised to find out (or not surprised at all) that he was my guinea pig interview.
Peter is an unique PR professional with scads of experience, skill and understanding for such a nice young man. He authored the recent book Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts and Why Your Company Needs Them, which is an entertaining, informative business book for anyone, but especially PR pros.
Give it a listen to and let me know your thoughts on my interview style, podcasting skills or anything we talked about. And check out Peter’s book, I highly recommend it. Forward Podcast 28.
Podcamp Ohio goes live this weekend in wonderful, wacky Columbus Ohio. In the spirit of unconferences everywhere, it’s FREE, fun and guaranteed to be educational. The 2008 version is the first and I have to applaud the organizers of this event led by Angelo Mandato. I’ve been on the email list for the planning committee and the work they’ve put into this is incredible. I did my share by complaining and offering unsolicited advice. They’re probably all like, who IS this Armour fellow anyway? I’ll be sure to provide more Kudos, I’m sure, after the event, but I wanted to get that out here.
Readers of this blog will know that one of my favorite podcasts is “For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report.” If you’re reading this blog and not listening to FIR, stop reading right now, go to 
I’m very excited to announce that I’m co-producing the Forward podcast with 