Media Relations

Ego Epidemic Online - Are You in a Nasty Chokehold? A One-winged Bird Has Symbolic Advice

Whew, I cannot believe the "ego epidemic" taking place online.  I've been caught up in it myself...and have chosen to back off.  The result?  Happiness!  And guess what else?  It has not led to poverty or lack of business or the respect of my colleagues.

When everyone is a reporter, publisher, blogger, has their own radio, TV station, film studio and ways to track how many friends and Klout they have, it is easy to see how this has happened.

To my fellow PR practitioners and professional friends, let's all take a deep breath and realize that the universe will continue to affect our lives, regardless of our online popularity or power.  Step back a bit.  Big ego can lead to big pain.  Dismantle it.  You might be surprised how much easier life starts to flow.

If you like symbolism to drive a point home, read this set-up and poem I wrote from my own outdoor observation.  You CAN take a moment to rest and ponder.  And if this post appears egotistical, please accept my apologies.

 *****

Several springs ago, my husband and I noticed a bird in our yard that couldn’t move very well.  A tiny sparrow was feeding on the ground and there are cats in the neighborhood.  I wandered after him/her and she was able to fly as high as a bush.  She even jumped onto my fingers and greeted me for a moment.  She was there throughout the spring and I observed her closely.  She was a survivor.  She fed off the ground.  When the wind would blow and the rain came down, she would cover her face with one wing and hold on tight.  Sometimes she was so weak, she would simply fly to the ground where she didn’t have to balance, and would rest and sometimes shake in exhaustion.  I watched her heavy breathing and knew that she was close to dying or had a wing injury.  I didn’t expect to see her for long but she survived two seasons.   She didn’t return last spring.

Last year, I sat on the porch a lot, watched the birds and I wrote this poem…which has heavy symbolism about the quality of humility.  Thought you’d enjoy it, and the photos of One Wing, my nickname for that darling little sparrow.

A Finch Who Bows

-jeri cartwright

Such haughty green finches.

You dine at my feeder,

in so much arrogance,

hurling seeds to the ground

in gluttonous glee.

There will always be more.

 

And me,

I kowtow to beauty,

permit the wasteful sin.

 

Yet today,

beneath my empty

fast-food-hut for the feathered,

I glanced below

at seeds in mushy mud,

and there, just one of you,

one who has realized

it can bow its head,

flourish in dirt

as others flash and fly away.

 

He sees,

and eats

the wasted seed

as others starve in heavenly trees.

 

Pride aside as he picks between mud and stone.

The greatest feast is his, alone.

 

 

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New Year Wishes For Me. What Are Yours?

What are your New Year wishes? This year I will continue to give full attention to mine:

1. Live in the moment, even when it hurts. There will be many times when it will be joyful.

2. If you have forgiving to do or forgiving to ask, do it now. You may not have tomorrow.

3. Find the world within yourself. You won't find it anywhere else.

4. Cease shopping for possessions. Stroll through more mountain paths.

5. Learn to love the joy in solitude. Once done, you can invite your friends back into your life for all the "right reasons."

Happy New Year my friends. 

A Worldwide "Media Addiction" Study. This Is Getting Serious.

 

                                   Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com☆

It involved five continents and 1,000 students.  The results were quite "raw."  All participants were asked to abstain from "media" for 24 hours. 

Reaction comments were disturbing:

"I was itching like a crackhead because I could not use my phone."

"It was as if my real life and my virtual life were coexisting in different planes but in equal time."

"Sometimes I felt 'dead' ".

"Sad, lonely, depressed."

"A difficult day, a horrible day."

The study was a partnership between The International Center For Media & The Public Affairs and The Salzburg Academy On Media & Global change.

I can't encourage you enough to read on....

Head over to The World UNPLUGGED.  Don't forget to take a look at the "addiction grid" by country. 

 

Overtime Vs. Undertime...Which One Is Your M.O. ?

We constantly say we want balance in our lives.  Many of us constantly fail.  But today I ran across an interesting column on The Firm Voice that claimed:

People who don't work very hard are the biggest complainers about work-life balance!  And those who work many overtime hours just consider it "another day at the office."

Hmmm......read on.  And when you're done, if you are an overtimer, please give us advice on work/life balance.

Some of mine:

1. Turn down all offered board positions for six months.  Karma will understand if you need a rest.
2. Turn down all no-pay speeches for six months.
3. Attend only two business lunches per month.  You might have time to get some work done! And done work leads to free time.
4. Turn off your cell phone in the evening for two hours.  Same goes for the rest of the family.
5. Stay away from all electronics for eight hours every weekend. And yes, that includes TV.  Electronic can openers, microwaves, computerized washers/dryers, etc. are OK.
6. Buy a hard copy book.  Don't scan it.  READ it.
7. Ask to meet a reporter in-person.  It will be hard to get her/him to do it, but it really works well.
8. Go for a stroll.  No aerobics.  STROLL slowly.  Study flowers, dirt, rocks, urban animals.  Stand under a pine tree.  The language of nature speaks volumes of comfort to frayed nerves.
9. Stop goal setting for six months.  Let yourself fall into your own personal cycle of expectation and achievement.
10. Dismantle your ego.  Every time you catch it being offended or fluffing up, fold it up neatly like a soft down blanket and put it on a shelf.  That done....you'll start to learn who you truly are.

 

Daily News Indigestion

After a long break from blogging, I’m back.  My ideas have bubbled to the top and here I go:

This Is Not A Critique Of The Media

I dedicate the majority of my days tracking the news.  It’s part of my PR job.  I wish it weren’t.  The rapid rabid updates about every living breathing thing or issue has left me feeling a bit angry, cynical and sad.  The world seems a very mean place.   Do all the rumors, talk shows, Twitter updates, and headline mobile alerts do anything to improve my personal sensation of “well being?”

Everyone has an obligation to educate themselves about important issues.  But must I track every move in congress, reactions to every “mean spirited” quote, and every tragedy  in such detail?

I Don’t Blame The Media

If I were in a comfy leather chair at this moment and a therapist told me I was a news addict and should do something about it, I doubt I could.  I like the rush of being one of the first to know.  Perhaps it comes from a deep-seated fear that if I’m not on top of the headlines, the world might spin off its axis and we’d all die.  Now that’s arrogance.

Weak Resolve

Made to be easily broken, my personal resolution, as it has been over and over and over again for the last several years, will be to go on a news diet.  A 50 percent cutback.  Whenever you kick a habit, I’m told you must replace it with something to be successful.  What should I do?  Knit? Read novels? Take up tatting?  Take a walk?  Talk face-to-face (gasp) with friends?  Cook a great meal?  Play with my pets? Stay current with long time friends? 

Inspired By Radio

Driving slowly through rain wet streets today, I accidentally turned on NPR and heard the poetry of Rumi, a 13th century mystic, being read.  Once home, I went to the Website, anxious to download the program.  There I saw an unattributed quote that moved internal mountains:

“Time is limited and the water is flowing anyway.  Drink before you fall to pieces.”

Social Media Burnout? New Research.

I burned out badly last spring.  I quit posting to my blog and barely paid attention to all of my social networking.  But my own personal experience is no gauge for the reality today.   The power of social media continues to increase and cannot be denied.   nielsenwire (the same company that brought us the "Nielsen Ratings") has research via Jeff Bulla's Blog.  Take ten important seconds and scan his post to remind yourself to become as educated as possible in social media.  To whet your appetite:

1. 54 percent of the world's Internet users now use or visit Facebook.

and...

2. They spend one out of every four-and-a-half online minutes interacting with blogs and social media.

If Everyone's A Celebrity, Who Is The Audience? Do All Social Media Dreams Come True?

Disclaimer:  Don't get me wrong.  Social media is amazing. I love it and respect those who've harnessed its power. 

When you meet a high-level blogger, Tweeter, FBer, etc., can you see the stars in their eyes?  They've tasted the drug of celebrity.  Addiction levels are off the charts.  Visions of speeches at conferences, their books sold at the back as the audience exits. Webinars, Amazon orders & profits rolling in.  Attorney level consulting fees and the joy of the freebies.  It's a heady rush.

When Seth Godin spoke in Salt Lake several years ago, an audience member cried out, "we want to be like you!"  For some reason...that made me sad.  It seemed to bother him a bit, too. 

The slice and dice of once powerful media into cell sized morsels has brought power to the people.  May we use it wisely.

Can this be sustained?  Some questions I'd like you to ponder with me.

1. If we can all get our 15 minutes of fame, who will be our audience?
2. If we each publish our own newspaper, blog, have our own TV & radio (podcast, YouTube) outlets, how many followers can we attract before the excitement levels drop?  How much information can one human consume in a day, let alone generate? 
3. And now that we have all written and published a book (or plan to), who will read it?  What profit, if any, will we see as our copy joins the thousands of advice books outdated within mere months?

Online activity resembles a blur of swarming bees, all buzzing around each other, all frantically trying to give each other attention....and asking the same in return.  Pedestrians, drivers, people on dates, kids at the dinner table...eyes locked on mini-screens as their latest Google alert, Alexa rank, and online analytics confirm their new star status.

So it has come to this.  A country that strives to be so respectful of individual rights is now packed with citizen celebs.  In the anxious grab for audience...any audience...whatever audience is out there, to what lengths will people go?  Balloon boys?  Crashing presidential dinners?

New YearTech Memories....The Funny, The Frightening

I knew something was wrong when, while working in a hotel room...technology gadgets spilling off the table, I picked up the TV remote and dialed it like a cell phone. 

Feel like you've crammed a lifetime of tech learning into ten short years? 

Fire up that gray matter and remember with me...

1- Remember when your fax machine was busy?  Now it’s just bored.

2- Remember when the phone rang and the air burst with lively conversation? Keyboards now click quietly in little office cubes.

3- Remember when we used to have a "live" conversation? Now a simple "yes, go ahead," "no wait…," "OK, go ahead," is pieced together via texts, voice mail, email and a Twitter.

4- Remember when you could use a "white lie" and say you never got the message?  Now the sender madly searches digital archives and emails it to you (and sometimes your boss).

5- Remember when you placed mere phone calls to line up a news interview?  Recently, I helped set up a TV story with a reporter on Facebook. I found the interviewees via Twitter. 

 6- Remember when cell phones were just cell phones?  In 2000, a new client handed me a digital phone with a large screen and said, "Guess what?  You can go online with this.  Play with it and tell us what you think."  I fell asleep in my hotel room, phone cradled in my arms...not knowing I'd accidentally ordered $250 in software from Amazon.com.

7- Remember when talking to yourself meant something might be wrong with you? 

8- Remember the world before PowerPoint?  Where do all dead overhead projectors go?  

9- Remember when you rarely knew "whatever happened to" all your old friends?  

10- And remember when life ran slower, brains were permitted to pause, and private time was a right, not a privilege? 

Happy New Year!  May we all make it through with our heads and hearts intact.

 

Social Media Exhaustion...Observations

I've been bad in the eyes of social media experts.  I haven't posted on my blog for a few weeks.  Why? Too busy, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY - I didn't have much to say.  Sure, I inhaled a lot of new information, and exhausted myself with FB and Twitter.  Some observations for your entertainment.

1. 1. Tried to buy the book, "The Four Hour Work Week."  After 30 minutes of keyboard arguing..couldn't get Amazon to let me (didn't recognize me as a regular customer...which I am).
2. Hired a virtual assistant in Kentucky. I live in Utah. This feels weird.  Maybe I'll learn to like it a lot.
3. Helped hold a blogger seminar for a client.  Fast and furious debate.  It was really cool ;)
4. For the first time, sent a news release with this wording: Media/Blogger Contact Numbers.
5. For the first time, sent a client news release to reporters via Facebook and Twitter...THEN proceeded to do some emailing and phone calling.
6. Hired an SEO consultant. Exhausted myself over Thanksgiving following all his advice.
7. Got mad about no longer being the top spot if you search Google for Cartwright Communications.  A tech firm and a PR firm in England now beat me out  :(
8. Helped a TV station coordinate a story on the new FTC guidelines for bloggers.  Couldn't get through to bloggers for the story via phone or email.  It was twittering them that got response.  Oh yeah, the reporter and I went back and forth through Facebook.  He said to me, "don't any of these bloggers have phone numbers?"

And life, however hectic and hard on the hands, arms, neck and back, goes on.  What's your week been like?  I'd love to hear about it.

Disabling The Addiction. My Techology Fast Begins Now.

Bless them!  According to Mr. Jared Nichol, "Many hotels are now offering technology packages where they take your Blackberry and laptop away for a period of time."  See his post here.

And the following tidbits came from a post on LiveScience:

A research paper, published in 2007 in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology by a psychiatrist at Tel Aviv University, recommended that Internet addiction be regarded as an extreme disorder on par with gambling, sex addiction and kleptomania.

Eugene Samoza, director of the Addiction Research Center at the University of Cincinnati, said that addiction hijacks the brain's natural reward center, the nucleus accumbens. This center rewards humans for acquiring things they need biologically, such as sex and food, by releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with happiness.

Today.....big breath (and blowing it into a paper bag)...I intend to do it cold turkey with no hotel assistance.  I'm officially on a ten day vacation in a few hours, and bidding my technology farewell (except for an occasional call home to make sure all is well).  I tried this last spring and it resulted in a deep sense of contentment which lasted for about 2-3 weeks. 

If you've tried tech-breaks and would like to comment on how they went, please share your story. I'll be back to moderate your posts and put them up on this blog.