Media Relations

Digital Exhaustion: My Scary New Diagnosis

Was it Steve Rubel who predicted it?  A coming “attention crash?”  Well Steve, I think a new superbug hit me today:  Digital Exhaustion.  

Are you at risk?  Read on.  This morning, a glorious Saturday full of sunshine, I choose to skip a walk and stroll to my computer, determined to make my first blog post in several weeks.  I couldn’t do it.  My heart was heavy.  My back, my wrists were limp. Brain fog did not respond to caffeine.  So I wrote this instead (sick sick sick).   

The information in my daily workload has been sliced so thin…my brain and the splintered messages it receives feel pulverized like Jamba Juice in a blender.

Don’t get me wrong.  The digital world is a blast.  I love it…to my own detriment.  I think we call that “addiction.”

 

Here’s my story:

Each morning….

1.  Hundreds of daily emails arrive.  Scanning to find the urgent ones in record speed is mean to the mind and the eyes.

2.  My email software informs me I send 3,000 – 4,000 emails each month.

3.  The social and new media world grabs me by the throat asking me to acknowledge new friends on LinkedIn and Facebook or come up with “30 things about me...”

4.  I hit the brakes to visit Twitter, TweetDeck and others…just getting a grip on a new world of communication spinning out-of-control.

5.  Dozens of online industry newsletters with the latest research and great advice scream for my attention…and I really do try to read a few of the stories.

6.  Incredible free Webinars tempt me to log on and use my lunch hour for more digital education.

7.  More Google alerts arrive….more than I can manage.

8.  Oh yeah...the news.  I remind myself it still exists and pay a visit to my aggregator, hoping my community and the world survived the night.

9.  Rigormortis sets in.  I give myself the luxury of holding a newspaper in my hand, resting on a couch.  New blood pays a visit to long-numb body parts.  An ergonomic work space can't perform miracles.

10. Clever and highly professional phishing has forced me into regular and unwelcome investigative duties.   Precious free time ticks away.  I must make sure those emails warning me of breached and compromised credit card, stock investment info, etc, ARE NOT REAL.  “Just ignore them you say?”  Impossible.  Sometimes I’ve found that a phish isn’t a phish.  Spooky.

11. I can’t contain all the passwords in my head.  “Write them down,” you say?  I once had my password lists stolen.  I’m too paranoid to do that again.

12. A nice organized email no longer exists.  Now it contains things like “yes,” “no,” and bit after bit of a major assignment.  My daily job?  Piece 5-10 emails together to discover what they want me to do.  More time, more work.

13. Those who can't cope with managing minuscule email threads ask me to do the searching and resend it all to them….more work.

14. As I write this piece, my blog host, Typepad, is uncooperative and irritating with my format attempts!  It loses my posts so easily, I must remember to "save" at least every minute while writing.  Better hit save again....excuse the interruption.

And then there’s the personal absurd stuff that further raids personal time:

1.  The phone rings.  An automated voice warns me someone has stolen my credit card number…saying: “For more information please press any key.”  I press any key.  Nothing happens.  But the calls continue, so I call my credit card company and find out that yes, my card has been stolen.  Weary fingers reach for the keyboard to go online immediately and create a new account.

2.  The phone rings.  It’s an automated voice from Delta Air Lines.  A voice reminds me of an April flight and coyly encouragesme to go to the Website for further details.  I think that means there’s been a flight change…but the company is vague.   Once again, I’m forced to go online.

3. I receive five airline emails about flight changes for one trip.  I can’t keep track of the data. I set up an airline and trip change filing system - on paper for safety.

Have I said enough?  Way too much.  I bet no one makes it to the end of my rave on Digital Exhaustion.  Not even past the first paragraph.  

Why hello!  You did hang with me and read this entire email – congrats!  There’s hope for you.  You believe in living for the moment.  You refuse to scatter your attention as I have.  You are not the adrenaline junkie I seem to be.  You, my friend, have a healthy immune system….sure to fight off Digital Exhaustion.

 

Funny Headlines: We All Need A Good Laugh

With all due credit to a wonderful publication, The Columbia Journalism Review, another installment of funny headlines (most about women...). 

   

Layoffs Can Lead To "Scorched Ego." Ten Steps To Heal And Thrive While Unemployed

I've been through a number of unemployment experiences. It hurts like hell.  I call it "scorched ego."  Your logical mind says "it's not personal."  Your heart says it most definitely is...if you were that good, they would have found a way to keep you. 

If you are in fear of losing your job during these queasy economic times, rest assured, there isn't a single person I know who hasn't said in retrospect, "that was the best thing that ever happened to me.  Look where it led!" 

As for me, I've been laid off and fired in my career.  Allow me to share how I coped, and even thrived.

First, if humor is nothing but "tragedy plus time," some humorous personal background for your enjoyment:

I have suffered many times from "scorched ego."  You see, once I worked in broadcast news...one of the most volatile industries in the 1980s.

In radio news:  I was fired for not having talent.  My boss accused me of deliberately going on the air and sounding bad to hurt ratings.

In TV news: Laid-off while doing regional cable news cut-ins (via KUTV) for the now defunct Satellite News Channel (SNC).  Ted Turner, who then owned CNN, bought SNC because he didn't like the competition.  He then turned it off.  On my last day of employment there was no exit interview.  I stood in front of a TV and watched as SNC threw the switch, became non-existent and faded to black.  I was fortunate that KUTV (CBS affiliate - Salt Lake City) hired me shortly thereafter to be a local news reporter.  Yet somehow, TV and I never got along. 

Thus, I decided to get into a less volatile industry, hence...

Politics/government: What was I thinking?  After nearly three years, elections and new bosses told me it was time to voluntarily leave. 

Another layoff: Prompted me to start my own PR firm  - going strong since 1996.  Soooo glad it happened!

This will be my fourth recession (unless it becomes a depression - then it'll be my first - whoopee).  I've been unemployed in two of them.  Once for more than a year.

Ten Tips For Maintaining Sanity While Unemployed - Healing Your Scorched Ego

1. Join an inexpensive gym. Work out a lot.  It helps prevent depression.

2. Have structured weekdays when you call your peers, check for jobs, and network for openings that haven't even hit the radar yet.

3. Make a list of all the things you always wanted to do but didn't have time.  Try to do one every day.  Several on my list: Chalk art (lasted one day), visits to neat food delis, visits to zoo and Aviary, people watching at parks.

4. Stay in close contact with friends.  Don't lean on them, just enjoy their company. No need to risk the friendship with constant talk about your problems.  ENJOY the moments.

5.When the bank account grows lean and you haven't shopped or treated yourself for awhile, stroll into a Big!Lots (or a similar drop-dead discount store).  Have lots of swagger in your step as you tell yourself, "I can afford anything in the place!"

6. Stay healthy, eat well, don't scrimp on what you spend for groceries, vitamins and health care.  Cut other things first. You cannot afford a bout with bad health at this juncture.

7. Realize there is still work available - it just might not be a full-time job with benefits. Write down a list of all the important and powerful people you know.  Begin setting brief appointments with them.  Ask them for their advice as you ponder your next career step: "What are the trends, etc.?"  DO NOT ask for a job or if there are current or future openings.

8. As you leave these appointments, always ask if your contact knows of any other people she/he would recommend you meet with.  Take the names down and ask if you can drop the name of your current contact when setting up these future appointments.

9. After any appointment, and based on the information you gleaned during the meeting, redo your resume to reflect the talents (don't make them up) that might actually one day land you a job with the company/contact you just visited.  Send it with a thank you note and most importantly indicate: "I'd love to do some freelance or project work for you."   This was a great strategy for me.  I picked up all kinds of odd and exciting work.  Each experience taught me an important lesson: Did I like or not like this type of work?  Better to find out in a freelance situation than after accepting a full-time position.

10. My final advice... I don't recall the author, but I'll never forget a small essay I read while feeling terribly frightened about my life situation.  It went something like this - and if the author is out there - please make yourself known so I can give you credit:

"We live our lives like a trapeze acrobat, constantly going from one swinging bar to the next.  Yet there is a moment, a rare one, that takes place when the artist must let go of one bar, and reach for the other.  It is a vulnerable and nervous second when the performer is literally suspended in mid-air.  One bar flung behind them and an anxious hand stretched to grab the bar swinging toward.  Most of us kick and scream during this transition and grab the first safe bar we can find.  But why not take another approach? 

Savor, relish, don't dread the time in between the swinging bars.  We have so little time as it is.  Use these precious days, hours, minutes to reflect on your life, your achievements, where you want to go, and who you want to become.  Be with those you cherish most and learn the art of solitude."  

A word of warning: If you don't enjoy your time between the trapeze bars, trust me, you'll be pretty angry you didn't once you are told "you're hired" and must start work on Monday.  No more sleeping in or long mornings sipping juice and reading the news. 

Life is full of cycles.  This too will pass.  And who knows where it might lead you.

Overwhelmed by Advertising. Stop the Madness, Entertain Instead: Toyota and Le Misbarack

If you want to sell your product, stop thinking about it.  Offer your customer a break with creative entertainment in your ads (a little like mini-movies and sit-coms).  This will cut through the deafening screams of your competitors.

We've all been blinded by too much marketing....ads on the inside of restroom doors?  Please.  Advertisers, creative teams, only you can stop the madness.

Two great examples of entertainment,while pushing product. Funny videos!

Example #1: Toyota calls itself the "Make-out" king. (Scroll down to #5 video).

Example #2: Le Misbarack - I suspect this was shot by Obama fans (or even by the campaign), but even if you aren't a Barack fan...this is a funny video!

Make us laugh, make us cry, help us live life to the fullest, and we just might open our wallets and buy your product, even during a down economy.

Nuns And Text Messaging - Great Friday Humor!

Instead of face-to-face conversation, the ubiquitous cell phone is now a veil between human-to-human communication.  Just imagine how our ancestors would react if they could step into a time machine and view today's cell phone behavior  : )

For a great Friday laugh and funny illustration of our tech-insane world, watch one of the top viewed commercials this week - Nuns who text message - with thanks from AdForum.

If you sign up for the free newsletter, you'll get the top viewed commercials emailed to you on a regular basis.  They can be touching, amazing, funny...and yes, sometimes a little on the distasteful side (depending on your "taste" threshold).

Funny, Strange Headlines and Barack, McCain Roast Each Other

All tension aside (I'm not so sure), McCain and Obama roasted each other last night at a New York charity dinner. McCain speech here, Obama's here from YouTube.

And, with all due credit to The Columbia Journalism Review, more strange headlines collected from newspapers around the nation-scroll down (apologies if they offend): 

    

    

     

Tiger Woods and a Fantastic Response to Fans on YouTube

How would you respond if someone made a video on you or your product or company and put it on YouTube?  Tiger Woods has a great marketing team that gets it! Be sure to watch the "A fan posted on YouTube" video first, then watch "This Video Response."

From Steve Rubel's blog Micro Persuasion:

"This video response is brilliant marketing on the part of Electronic Arts and Tiger Woods. A fan posted on YouTube that it's possible for Woods to hit a golf ball in Tiger Woods 08 while walking on water. How does Tiger react? By showing how it's done and promoting Tiger Woods 09 in the process. It shows they listen and bring in the big guns to engage." (via John Porcaro)

Funny Headlines

A local Utah reporter (Dan Harrie) and The Columbia Journalism Review are responsible for helping me collect some funny headlines over the years. I'd like to share them with you.  If they offend, my apologies in advance :)

 

Saying "I'm Sorry" Too Much Like "Crying Wolf"

Every day in the news, someone apologizes for something they said that truly offended a group of people or an individual.  I think "I'm sorry" beats being defensive.  The public has a heart and knows how to forgive.

What concerns me is that some people in powerful positions say radical things all the time and when called on the carpet, are now simply saying "I'm sorry,"  and expecting it to go away.

What about thinking before you speak?  What about pulling back on the anger, and the inside joke humor and seriously considering the words you use?  Has being hurtful or mean-spirited become so profitable (and secretly fun to those of us in the conversation) that we are choosing to lose our civility?

Luckily, some are catching on to this.  Whether you love him or hate him, according to Radar Online, Rush Limbaugh and staff had a scary PR moment yesterday concerning Barack Obama.  Here's how they handled it.  Did they do well?

Pay for the Priviledge to Scream?

When your customers are willing to pay to yell at you, something is wrong.    

New Yankelovich research indicates that consumers are so tired of dealing with automated high-tech customer service, that one in four would actually pay to speak to a real human.   This practice has truly created some of the worst PR on the planet. 

Research details at the Advertising Age site (free registration).

If "paying to talk to a human" was actually implemented, the ultimate question would be: How much will companies have to pay the poor soul who gets to answer the line?  If it were me, I'd demand six figures and fully covered mental health counseling.  The anger in consumerland is near nuclear.