Brad Marley's Blog

The Weekly Grab Bag - February 26, 2010

It's baaaaaaaaaack.

For those of you not aware of its existence, "The Weekly Grab Bag" -- formerly called "The Weekly Grab Bag of Links," "The Week in Links" and "The Leek in Winks" -- is a repository for the interesting stuff I read during the week.

While the topics will vary, you'll notice most of the content revolves around all forms of media (digital, print, social), productivity, public relations, technology and writing.  (But I'm not afraid to throw in something from The Onion to keep you guys honest.)

I'm not exactly sure what the reception was like in its previous incarnations, but I want to share with you what I'm reading, and this is the place to do it.

Enjoy!

• What is a 21st Century Career? (WorkAwesome) - I agree with everything here, but it alludes to the idea that we must now work outside of work. Scary.

• The Best Writing Advice. Ever. (ProBlogger) - Tips #4 and #5 are my favorite. As Guy Fieri might say: "These are money."

• High Tech, High Risk, and High Life In Silicon Valley (Modern Mechanix) - This article is from the October, 1982 issue of National Geographic. The author prophetically refers to the work done in Silicon Valley as "the oil business of the eighties."

• Rules for Writing Fiction - Part 1 & 2 (The Guardian) - I don't write fiction. But if I did, I imagine these rules would inspire me to keep going.

• Improved Productivity: A 12-Step Program (Web Worker Daily) - I've been on a productivity tips kick lately, so this post is right up my alley. It should be up yours, too.

• How to Kill Innovation: Keep Asking Questions (Harvard Business Review) - Many a good idea has gotten bogged down in the details, never to emerge from the primordial goo, so to speak. The culprit? Questions.

That's all I've got. I hope you enjoy these links.

As always, you can find most all of my links on my Delicious page.

Six Steps To a Healthy Inbox

If you're like me, your stress level is in direct proportion to the number of e-mail that floods your inbox.

The higher that number gets, the more my heart palpitates and hands sweat, and the more I start to feel like I am being crushed beneath a pile of digital correspondence.  

So when my client told me on a call last week that he received 2,000 in the span of one weekend to an already jam-packed inbox (he has 52,000), I nearly had a heart attack.

(Now, before I proceed, I want the reader to know that there are a number of avenues I could go down with this information, not the least of which would be an indictment on the way we, as an industry, operate, turning number of e-mail into some sort of PR badge of honor. But you know what? I'm not going to go there.)

Think about that: if even five percent of those e-mail were action worthy, and assuming he isn't working on the weekend, he comes into the office on Monday already a day behind because he has to catch up. Soon, he's spending his weekends also getting caught up, which leads to a seven day work week, which leads to a build up of stress levels, which then leads to early death.

Obviously, the moral of this story is that e-mail can kill you.

That leads to this question, which you are already asking yourself: how can we change this practice?

Short answer: we can't. At least not industry-wide.

The problem is that e-mail is too easy. Anybody and everybody can easily fire out 300 e-mail in a day, if they so choose, with no regard for the receiver's well-being. And, the higher the number, the more work they think they've done.  But, really, they are just adding to the clutter.

Unfortunately, there are no rules and regulations in place to hinder somebody's e-mail usage, short of charging for virtual postage, which will never happen. We are slowly being programmed to become e-mail sending machines intent on burying one another beneath this pile of eRubbish that, after time, becomes impossible to dig out from under; our correspondence becomes matters of quantity, not quality.

But we can, however, change our personal habits, which just might lead to somebody else changing their habits, which leads to another person, and so on. We're not changing the world, but we might help somebody get home in time to build a snowman with their kid, and that's got to count for something. Okay, now I'm rambling. Let's move on.

In the spirit of better productivity, I want to share six tips loosely based on the "Take Back Your Life!" strategythat I implement regularly to create a healthy inbox.

Step One: Commit

If you're going to clean out your inbox -- and I mean give it an honest-to-goodness cleaning -- you have to commit the time. Probably on a weekend. I KNOW. That flies in the face of every productivity rule in the book, but trust me when I say this is a necessary evil. 

If you have 1,000 e-mail to go through, I'd block off 1-2 hours. 2,000 e-mail? 2-3. You get the picture. If you have more than 10,000? Cancel your plans.

Step Two: Plan

Once you have committed yourself to this Herculean task, you need to come up with a system for filing your e-mail. Personally, I create folders for each of my main clients, then create subfolders named after projects. Above all else, these folders must be established before you dive in.

Step Three: Delete

Now comes the fun part: deleting the obvious junk. The quickest way to remove useless e-mail is to group by sender. You will be amazed at how many newsletters you subscribe to, but never read. I'm not kidding when I say you wouldn't miss 90 percent of your e-mail if it disappeared overnight. Grouping is a quick way to identify what needs to go. Believe me, you'll know.

Step Four: Critique

The one point I want to stress during this step is do not be afraid. Really give the e-mail a critical eye. Chances are high that if it's older than two weeks and you haven't referred to it in a span of two weeks, you can delete it. Go ahead. Click the 'delete' button. There. Don't you feel better? Under no circumstances do I want you to keep it because you "might need it someday." That is why inboxes are overflowing and IT departments are pulling out their hair. Of course, if it's a fit for one of those folders you created, move it! At least it's out of your inbox. If there is an implied action, leave it. We'll cover those in step five.

Step Five: Act

Now that the e-mail that must be deleted is gone (you're amazed at just how much junk you had in your inbox, aren't you?) you're left with the mail that contains an action, whether that be a response to your client, or an article that needs writing. What you do with these is up to you, but I like to keep a list of what I need to do, and I try not to get ahead of myself by peeking to see what e-mail has come through while I'm acting on another. That's a surefire way to get behind. (Try to ignore those red exclamation marks.  At this point, they're starting to resemble the boy who cried "Wolf!".) Again. I try not to do anything else until that mini-project is done, and that includes checking my e-mail.

Step Six: Repeat

The kicker, here, is that this isn't a one-time deal. In order to keep your inbox spotless, you have to set aside time on a regular basis -- daily, weekly, monthly -- to go through the incoming e-mail and either act on it, file it, or delete it. I try to do it daily, but that rarely works. I admit that I need to get better about my e-mail hygiene. Find a schedule that works well for you, and stick to it.

***

I am a firm believer that e-mail should function less as a way to correspond at lightning speed, and more as a way to deliver value to the people on the other end.  They are much happier when you send them a completed project than they are with a myriad of questions. When we fall into rapid-fire e-mail habits, everybody loses.

Therefore, imagine every e-mail you write is a handwritten letter. The care in which you draft the copy should spur others into a desired action without them feeling the need to follow up with more questions. That's a prescription for more e-mail.

Finally, pretend that every e-mail in your inbox is an actual letter cluttering your desk.

What kind of state of mind would you be in if you came to work every day to find your workspace overflowing with letters?

You're probably so used to a hectic inbox that you have no idea what it feels like to have an organized central point of command that allows you to actually get work done.

I suggest you try it.

 

Books I Kinda Like: The Ruins

 

There may not be a book premise more ridiculous than one involving super smart vines with the ability to perfectly mimic a chirping cell phone, for instance, in order to lure unsuspecting adventure hunters to their gory deaths. But try reading this book two weeks after a newborn arrives on little to no sleep, and then tell me how ridiculous it sounds.

Terrifyingly ridiculous, that's how.

Scott Smith's The Ruins tells the story of a group of young adults on vacation in Mexico who follow a German man they've recently become acquainted with into the jungle to help find his brother who was supposed to meet a woman on an architectural dig, but failed to return.

Armed with only limited food, some hard liquor, and their wits, they soon find themselves terribly unprepared to face the most terrifying literary situation I've ever read (and I've read Gerald's Game.) And, as any group of well-fed, privileged human beings would do when faced with scorching heat and maniacal foliage, this one deteriorates quickly, but not in a way you would readily imagine, or else you would be writing horror novels.

I won't go into great detail in case you want to scare yourself silly, but a large chunk of the survival situation involves one character's hands-on quest to find the sickness that has invaded his body.

If I have not yet completely scared you away from reading this book, here are a couple things that will enhance your experience:

1. Only read in the daytime.

2. Make sure you have had ample sleep (i.e. wait until your kids have gotten past the newborn stage.)

3. Remember it's just a book.

But I suppose if you're into reading horror novels, the horror is the best part, and this book certainly delivers. 

Five and One With Christa Shalhoub.

In honor of the newly-minted "Help a PR Pro Out" Day, today's guest on the "Five and One" is Christa Shalhoub, a talented PR professional from the suburbs of Detroit, and creator of "Christa Shalhoub's Recession Tips."  

We go way back to our days answering phones in Ford Motor Company's Media Information Center. She's a relentless pursuer of the story, with the fiery attitude that is often needed in this crazy business of ours. And I mean that in a good way.

You can find her on Twitter at @ChristaS.

Let's get to it.

Brad: You were, unfortunately, a victim of the recession. What was that like?

Christa: Everyone is really a victim of the current recession. Even before I was laid off last year, my spending habits definitely changed, and instead of buying something, I would think to myself, "don't get it - we're in a recession." At first it was a joke and something I said all the time, but then I lost my job due to layoffs and really began to think of the current economy and how to control my spending. I am extremely fortunate. I have amazing parents, siblings and extended family that I can lean on when things get tough. Since no one was waiting on my paycheck to buy groceries, I took the time off to sleep, catch up on reality TV and spend time with my niece and nephew.

Brad: But "Christa Shalhoub's Recession Tips" was kind of born out of your unexpected free time, right? You know, when you weren't watching "Keeping Up With the Kardashians"?

Christa: Not just from my free time, but really from always thinking about how I could really stop spending like I used to, before money was tight.

Brad: How did you come up with the idea?

Christa: I realized that avoiding spending wasn't that hard and I needed to make people around me aware of my need to change. This way, when I was taking all the leftovers from my parent's house, letting my big brother pick up the bill for dinner and unplugging all the appliances in my apartment, it made sense to everyone. Also, some of my tactics were a little weird and since I am clearly hilarious [Editor's note: Clearly.], it just made sense to share my crazy with everyone. These tips allowed people into the life of someone who wasn't working, staying up late and trying to just get by. People could relate to everything I was saying and, luckily, I was able to communicate it all through humor. Of course, not all of them are as funny as I want them to be, but I am not perfect.

Brad: What has been the reception?

Christa: The reception has been great! I know this because originally I was providing the tips on my own personal page and then one day I wrote a normal status update and people got annoyed that it wasn't a recession tip. That is what really made me realize people liked them and that my genius and humor needed their own domain. I also judge how funny each tip is based on the "likes" and comments. If nobody interacted with a post, I know it wasn't that funny.

Brad: You recently surpassed the 500 fans mark. Any plans to take it out of Facebook, so to speak?

Christa: Ideally, I would love to write a book which would include new tips that haven't been showcased on Facebook yet. Until then, I am happy growing my fan base on Facebook and challenging myself with new and creative ways to avoid finding my pocket book.  

Brad: Finally, I ask everyone a random question that has nothing to do with the communications field. Here's yours: If there's one movie out there that describes your life, what is it? And, why?

Christa: The original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." We all feel a little like Charlie Bucket sometimes. We are always a day late and a step behind, until we get the Golden Ticket and our dreams come true. Then we spend the day with a bunch of annoying kids, drink the fizzy lifting juice and get screwed out of the chocolate. I am just waiting for a crazy man to give me his factory.

Brad: Bonus question! Ideally, what type of work are you looking for?

Christa: In a perfect world, I would love to continue my career in PR and marketing, while staying in the Detroit area. My PR skills are pretty awesome and I have provided media relations support for major corporations like Microsoft. I would love to work for a company that is passionate about communications and is looking toward different digital and social platforms to share their message.

###

 

One Year Into a Blogging Life

One year ago today I started writing this blog without a firm idea of where it was headed. 

And you know what?

I still don't.

The only thing I can say, with certainty, is that I'm not famous.

But I can say some other things with certainty. 

This blog:

• Has allowed me to expand my network through relationships with people I never, ever would have met otherwise. (Unless this is like "Lost" and I am destined to meet these people at some point.)

• Has improved my writing. While I still struggle with my voice, sometimes that little writer inside my head screams, "Stop! Go back and read that last sentence. That's what I'm talking 'bout!"

• Is slowly improving my self-confidence. Even though I am still trying to escape the clutches of caution, I am slowly growing more daring. Whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen.

• Gives me the motivation to find content in strange places. I mean, who knew Dexter and Jimmy the Greek could teach us about public relations?

Above all else, though, this blog has made me realize that blogging ain't easy. Posting two or three times a week does not seem difficult until you actually try it, even though the couch and the television are far more compelling options.

But we press on because somebody reads it and leaves a comment.  Somebody retweets your blog post because they like what you wrote. Your great-aunt on your Dad's side can't stop raving about your way with words to anybody on Facebook who will listen.

Those are the reasons why we continue, even when we are struggling. Because we know, when we lay our head on our pillow at night, the hour or so we spent trying to find the perfect way to explain why Tiger Woods' PR team really screwed the pooch was far more valuable than the time spent watching "House."

And, like Matt Chevy so succinctly puts it: I have "shit to say."

You've been warned. (Again.)

 

Trying to Rage Against the Machines

Smartphones.

The scourge of humanity; the destroyer of work/life balances the world over.

For all of the ways technology has improved our lives, these guys are not one of them.

Thanks to their "always on" capability, we can now work from, literally, anywhere.

In fact, I am convinced that these seemingly harmless mini-computers were invented by evil managers to trick their employees into unknowingly adopting a tech tethered lifestyle.

"Here's your smartphone. You can check e-mail, surf the Web and be available to me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Isn't that grand?"

And now, everybody has them. (Except for my Dad, of course. He's still learning how to check his voicemail.) They are so vital to our success that we must carry them wherever we go -- meetings, the bathroom, church. You never know when an e-mail with a bright red exclamation mark will hit your inbox.  But when it does? God forbid it takes you two hours to respond to that email. (Ironically, these devices invented -- and cornered -- the urgency market. We are all a little less patient now.)

The only time I yearn for one is when I step off an airplane and want to check my e-mail to see what I missed while traveling 500 miles per hour at 30,000 feet, and even then the world continues to spin on its axis as I travel to my hotel.

When I'm working, I have my computer open in front of me. When I'm not working, I'm not working.

The first time you respond to an e-mail at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday night, you destroy that oh-so-precious work/life balance. You might as well tell your client that your personal time means nothing. Sleep? Relaxion? Who needs it. I am here to serve you. And do nothing else. 

I have successfully avoided this tether for five years, but like a convict on death row, I realize my time is nearly up.

But until it is, I'm going to rebel.

Not sent from my smartphone. Please excuse all typos.

Five and One With Brian Barthelmes.

I'm excited this morning because I'm finally posting the first entry in what I hope becomes a regular feature on my blog: the "Five and One" series.

It's where I grill people in the communications field with five questions related to the industry, and one random question.

So, without further ado, my first guest is public relations practitioner extraordinaire and colleague, Brian Barthelmes. (On Twitter he's @bdbarth. Go follow him.)

I chose him for two reasons: 

1. He's really good at what he does and all of us in PR could stand to learn from him.

2. He sits on the other side of the cubicle wall from me in our office, so I could easily pester him to stop doing work and answer the questions.

Let's begin!

Q: Why did you decide to pursue a career in public relations?

Brian: I graduated from Michigan State University in 2000 with a degree in advertising. I was always curious about public relations, and signed up for the one and only "public relations concepts" class offered in my sophomore year. I learned two things: (1) public relations is about helping people and organizations communicate a message despite all the "clutter" around them; and (2) writing was the centerpiece of the profession. Not only did I do well in that class, but it made me want to roll up my sleeves and jump from "concepts" to "application" to really get a feel for what the field was all about. As it happened, MSU offered a specialization in public relations during my senior year, and I'm the first "enrollee" in that program. A benefit of being part of the specialization was access to a very substantive advanced writing class. From writing and perfecting a press release with a 10-minute deadline to daily AP Stylebook quizzes to an end-of-class professional portfolio project, it was that class -- and the professor who taught it -- that made me realize a career was for me.

Q: What is the biggest challenge facing PR practitioners in 2010?

Brian: PR professionals will continue to be challenged to leverage -- and stay ahead of -- the pace, manner and methods of communication in the world today. When I graduated 10 years ago, social media didn't exist, and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were barely visions in their creators' heads, and even the Internet was in its infancy. After having been successful in the public relations field for more than a decade, it's as though I've got to learn the practice of public relations all over again. All of us as PR professionals owe it to ourselves to roll up our sleeves, learn the social media landscape, understand its value, and be counselors to our clients looking to leverage it strategically.

Q: Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

Brian: At its basic level, PR is about helping people. The uninitiated might say we're not saving lives, but then again, maybe we are. Whether it's a recall of an unsafe product, the discovery of a harmful prescription drug or the response to the aftermath of the massive earthquake in Haiti, somewhere there are professional communicators -- PR people like me -- helping to tell people how to stay safe, how to help, how to get help, and how to prevent. And it's not all about communicating in a crisis. When deciding whether to pursue a career in journalism or public relations, our CEO told me and a roomful of employees that her choice was between reporting or making the news. Like her, I chose the latter, and I haven't looked back.

Q: What's one piece of advice you would give somebody who is exploring a career in PR?

Brian: Invest every minute of your time striving to be a professional who doesn't just write well, but writes well for public relations. What's the difference? The former is about adhering to the rules of grammar and usage, forming proper sentences, writing cohesively and generally following the rules. The latter is about all of that -- plus writing strategically to reinforce a particular message. And when it comes to the written word, more words don't mean half as much as using the right ones strategically.

Q: What is one skill that is imperative for somebody who wants to succeed in PR?

Brian: Commit to continuing your public relations education after graduation. To keep up with the pace, manner and methods of communication, continuing education is essential. The good news is that educational resources are everywhere. Look up your local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and take advantage of monthly luncheon events that offer the chance to network with professionals and learn from them as well. Sign up for a PRSA committee and work to line up topics that you want to learn more about. For example, I attended a "Social Media in Healthcare" panel discussion through the Detroit Chapter of PRSA last week, led my director-level social media professionals working in hospitals, physician practices and the media. It's this firsthand perspective about the challenges and opportunities associated with social media in healthcare that I'm now able to take back to my clients, which empowers me as a PR professional and a counselor to my clients.

Q: Finally, today's random question comes from Glassdoor.com's Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions Of 2009: What was your best MacGyver moment?

Brian: I once used a LARGE amount of duct tape to keep the bumper of my first car from dragging on the ground. Make no mistake, duct tape is probably the single best (and stickiest) product ever invented. Maybe the duct tape people need PR.

###

 

How To Win at Public Relations: Be Smart (Or, Don't Be Stupid)

This is part three of a never-ending series on how to win at public relations. Read part one and part two.

As a PR person, there's one thing you should take away from Apple's iPad press conference last week: when Apple CEO Steve Jobs appeared on stage to announce the new product, reporters clapped.

Why is this important to you?

Because Apple didn't waste those spray painted invites on media who would not be interested in attending. 

They only invited their fans.

This might seem logical, yet, some firms still employ the strategy of carpet bombing the media, which is the mirror opposite of Apple's tactic.

Here's a made-up example with real world implications.

The client is releasing a new product -- the Snow Blaster 3000 -- just in time for winter.

In an effort to prepare for the media blitz that will accompany the launch, the coordinator on the account is instructed to build the mother of all media lists. This media list includes every single reporter in the United States of America whose past coverage has ever included some combination of the words "snow", "like a hot knife through butter" and "back pain."

At 12:01 a.m. EST on the day of the launch, the release hits thousands of inboxes.

That morning, the technology reporter at the Miami Herald sits down at her desk, logs into her e-mail and sees a press release announcing a snow blower that is going to "change the way you attack snow."

Delete.  

This action repeats itself in newsrooms in various parts of the country.

Meanwhile, the client verbally undresses their account staff because they didn't meet the astronomical metrics.

Everybody involved decries the lazy journalists for covering fluffy news instead and retreats to their cubicles.

We're not yet at the point where we can pronounce the press release dead, but sending out a mass e-mail to reporters hoping one or two will bite certainly is.

(I've recently seen media lists passed around that included defunct newspapers. Try explaining to your client why you didn't land a story in that paper.)

While you cannot control the quality of the product that your client is paying you to promote, you can control the quality of the time you spend pitching the product.

Let's go back in time for a moment.

You get a phone call from your client to talk about the strategy you'll use to pitch the Snow Blaster 3000.

This time, instead of promising 100 stories in metro newspapers all over the country, you suggest to the client that outreach efforts focus on papers and media outlets in cold weather cities. Not only will the odds of positive coverage increase, you say, but from a professional perspective, you're making a name for yourself as somebody who knows their stuff.

In this situation you are managing expectations with your client and helping them to understand why they're paying you good money to do this for them.

Oh, one more thing: reporters are busy people. The reason we monitor coverage is to not only see when our client's coverage runs, but also see what the reporter is writing about on a daily basis. Daily monitoring of our target media gives us a great understanding of their interests and, thus, what they would be interested in writing about.  It also eliminates the erroneous pitches.

I've never been told this by a reporter, but I'm positive they like targeted pitches that are in their sweet spot. Besides, the quickest way to a reporter's black list is heavy use of the mail merge feature found in most e-mail clients.

In fact, pretend I never mentioned those words.

Now go out there and don't be stupid.