Master's Dissertation and the Increasingly Vast Communications Word Cloud

So you've gone through one full semester and part of a second and you have been exposed to theories and case studies and group projects and brainstorming. You have gotten excited over parts of a module and depressed over an entire module and it all leads up to one defining moment.

The selection of a dissertation topic.

It is probably the single most stressful moment of your academic career. And while you know you must select a topic that you are interested in or passionate about, there is also the other side - how much literature is available around your passion? Do you have a firm jump off point? What is already known about it - where are the areas of debate? And of great importance to an already stressed out student - what are the likely problems one can anticipate in planning to explore this topic?

My dissertation word cloud

There are a lot of ideas swirling around my head - a couple core concepts that I am exploring. Getting feedback from others is always a great way of drilling down from the general to the specific. The communications word cloud is expanding every day, challenging established theories and creating new modes of doing things. It's exciting as a practitioner, and maddening as a student on the brink of selecting a topic for a Master's dissertation. My personal word cloud - my dissertation word cloud - looks like this, and I need to drill down and be both passionate and practical. Easier said than done.

I am still soliciting feedback and suggestions, based on the topics floating around there in my word cloud. I have been reading and contemplating and speculating and planning and lots of other -ings. It should be pretty demanding and exciting to say the least. But should also include tonnes of learning.

Return of a PR Superstar

I must first apologise to everyone for being such a bad host. I have been beyond busy and the blog was a victim of my new life.

But I promised that 2011 would see me doing much better so please accept my apologies and give me another chance!

I guess I should tell you that I am now a full time Masters student in London - in what else? Communications (with a lot of Marketing as well). I have been here since September - hence the date of the last post. It has been a maddening pace. Maddening. The transition from corporate lush to library-beating student was not that traumatic - mainly because I was not a corporate lush. Part of any good employee's job function should be to constantly stay in the loop with the latest trends and developments in their field. This blog allowed me to explore some of these trends and to meet people who allowed me to see what they were doing in their roles, in their countries. So getting into a formal setting where we were being taught about what's happening - not that much of a stretch.

I have been learning a lot and often, contributed much more. Having job experience - and not just summer job experience - but considerable and hefty real-life corporate experience, has made this even more illuminating, because you can start applying stuff in your mind to real life experiences.

It's almost dissertation time and I am leaning towards a dissertation on sponsorship, but being the social media maven that I am, I want to maybe look at it from that angle. Suggestions?

My 2011 resolution is to be a better communications blogger. That sentence in itself is a bit of a contradiction. By way of being a communicator, this should be a non-issue. But sometimes life just gets in the way. I hope to see you guys more often this time around.

Happy New Year and welcome back to me!

PR in the City: Dismantling the Fluffy PR model

Two things inspired my Friday post - my chipped nail polish, and the new trailer for one of my "Must see" movies for 2010. Simply fabulous!

Carrie Bradshaw made writing look fabulous and I think I started my first blog somewhere around the time the show first aired. Of course my adventures were not as fierce but I enjoyed it immensely. I still do.

But I wonder if it is any coincidence that Samantha Jones was always my favourite SATC diva. In case you did not know, guys (cause the ladies would know), Samantha is a publicist and PR diva in the city. While I do enjoy her escapades, I don't think I am very Samantha-esque. My friend (free plug here) Soyini discussed the bunny/bitchy phenomena and to some extent I mentioned how there is this misconception that PR is all about glamour here as well. There is this notion that PR is filled with elitist excitement and is essentially poofy and fluffy, with nothing more than planning parties and getting clients into swanky venues or magazines, or doing photo shoots and sipping cocktails at industry events. Samantha's brand of PR definitely was but has this hurt the way that PR is envisioned, and more specifically how women in PR are perceived?

Pop culture has continuously shown women in PR as glambots, in high heels, sporting designer bags and sunglasses in a glam world, jetting off to exciting locations, hob nobbing with beautiful people in beautiful accoutrements. They don't always show the work behind it. The time spent on research and devising strategy and campaigns relevant to different audiences; how the messages are crafted, worded, delivered; how communications programnmes are measured for effectiveness, how collaboration both internally and externally can be often mind numbing because you need to get over the first hurdle of getting buy-in. Add the social media element and you are constantly dealing with the perception that you sit around idling on Facebook or Twitter all day, when in fact you're trying to better understand the tools to get your brand out there and get closer to your customers.

My last PR job - I wore jeans and a polo and most days, and I would at least wear some pumps to keep some semblance of glam (failed), and if I was lucky, a bit of eyeshadow. I sat around tables with people who sometimes better understood obscene language than they did standard English. On busy meeting days, I would eat lunch at an outdoor table between meetings, or in my car, often out of a box with plastic cutlery. Sometimes I would be in meeings after hours, tired and hungry. Your office days were "catch up" days and meeting days about other things. It was hard work. Nothing glamorous about it.

It is not to be taken for granted yet communications teams and programmes are usually the first to go under the microscope when budgets take a hit for the worst. Collateral damage. But the role that they play both from an internal perspective in channelling information to employees and getting feedback and suggestions from them, as well as engaging the wider public and reinforcing the brand and reputation of a company is not to be underestimated nor is it a role which is carried out via luck and chance, or through good looks.

Don't let the movies and my girl, Samantha Jones fool you. It's a job like any other,with deadlines, bosses, naysayers, multi tasking and fatigue. I sat at my desk touching up my nail polish because I never have time to do it usually. It may be my one small contribution to the fantasy of the glam life, because Revlon Plum Attraction is very fab-u-lous, honey.

As I told Soy in my comment, I am a bitchy bunny, as per her definitions - a bit of the two because image is still important. Let's not get carried away now, folks. Let's keep our feet on the ground here. First impressions go a long way in ANY profession, so looking good, not necessarily glamorous or expensive is not a luxury. It's a must. And chipped nail polish is never a good look on any woman and these days, on any man (though I don't agree with that look!!). So being a serious professional, competing with a negative stereotype, does not mean you have to "go against". It may not be Gucci or Mahnolos but clean shoes, a pressed outfit, neat hair, appropriate accessories still are very much in style for the working man or woman, in any industry.

And networking is still important, so yes, we do attend events ever so often but so should anyone else. The demand and the competition in the job market means that you have to sell yourself now more than ever, and you have to go where the buyers are, don't you? That is something we can take away from the amazing Ms Samantha Jones. It is not however, all that we do - just keep that in mind.

But I am not hating. Come May 27, when SATC hits theatres (hopefully the same day here in Trinidad), I will be among the first to be there to take in the drama from Samantha and the rest of the SATC crew. I cannot wait!

Social Media Burnout - How much is too much?

I manage about 15 social media profiles (I really think it's more, but I have lost count...but 2 other blogs will add to this number), some professional and some personal. And it will keep growing, no doubt about that. How many do you manage?

And those are the ones that everyone else seems to use - YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Flickr. When I went to a social media conference last year, and realised how many sites other people were using, it was almost like a shock to my system. Ning, Yammer, Posterous, Tumblr...blah blah blah...more and more and more.

I have however not jumped on to every social media train at the station for three reasons:

1. Relevance: I need to be where my audience is and quite frankly, I don't think Ning for example is that widely used (if at all) in Trinidad and Tobago...yet.

2. Repetition: Some sites offer the same features of another. Though I do have YouTube, I can also upload videos directly to Facebook. Photos too. I can post events on my Fan Page, and build a discussion and community around it, and don't necessarily have to create an event on Meetup. Some social media sites are basically a one-stop shop...for my needs anyway.

3. Sanity: I have not cloned myself yet and the interactions should not just be about how wide one's presence but also how rich one's presence is, and I think it's good to focus on the ones I do manage and build on the relationships I have there, before boldly and blindly leaping into the unknown. I see it almost as diluting the concentrate to let more and more people have the opportunity to drink, but in the end, noone likes the drink.

Working all week with social media (in addition to doing other things) can be tedious and social media burnout is real. It can become annoying if you let it. Sometimes it's good to take a load off. I don't do any "heavy lifting" on weekends to give myself a break from all this social media hoopla. I either log on just to engage in things I enjoy doing online, like vacation planning, brushing up on my foreign languages with online tutors, or catching up with friends. If I am online at all.

One has to spend a lot of time with it if it is to be effective. It's a commitment akin to a marriage. lol. But do we want "noise" or do we want "value" when we spend our waking moments with social media? A lot of people talk about the tools which make managing various profiles easier, and yes, this is great. However, how much is too much?

Some people like to rush the numbers. Build the follower base. Grow the number of fans. Bosses like to see numbers - lots and lots of numbers. Yes, that's all well and good but how many of these people are genuinely interested in the long run, in what you have to say? How many are really giving "tit for tat" when it comes to generating content that is beneficial to your business? I have followers on Twitter, who could not give two hoots about my tweets. It's for this reason that I don't just add any random follower. The noise is loud enough, without adding meaningless chatter/haggling to it.

Do we ever consider whether our audience is getting burnt out as well? Is it just too much, in too many places? And is it being managed in such a way that the human resources available can keep these sites fresh and exciting for the audience?

Not only that, but the attention span of contemporary audiences are getting shorter and shorter. I remember when Hi5 was THE THING. Then came MySpace and that was THE THING. Now Facebook and Twitter, among others, are running the scene, but for how long? And while the myriad of options means you can further segment your audience, as well as create opportunities for increased communication delivery, one has to be mindful that the myriad of choices does not begin to become stale and that interest/attention from your audience does not start to wane.

How do you manage your social media profiles, and avoid social media fatigue, both on your end and the audience's?

Planning, Consistency and Results

I thought I would just mention consistency this morning. Firstly...

Every Good Friday, for as long as I can remember - since I was a child, there have been some constants

- Smoked salmon for lunch
- Ben Hur on television

It has become part of the Good Friday "brand" as it were. Consistent. Regular. Expected. I have come to expect it every Good Friday, and they are part of what makes Good Friday the day I have come to enjoy. (Okay, so I don't watch BenHur anymore cause I think I can recite the entire dialogue word for word by now)

Secondly...

Exercise. I have been having some knee issues lately so my active levels have gone from a high A to a low D in recent days and I can feel the difference. If I am not being consistent with my workout regimen, I know I will start to whine about not seeing results. But such is the scenario - steady as she goes equals results. And I have a plan as well. I do cardio every day and target various areas using weights on certain days, and know when I will totally mix it up to not only achieve best results, but also to avoid boredom and annoyance cause in my world, exercising is not fun. It's necessary.

Thirdly...

Public relations must be consistent if it is to be effective. It has to be planned if it's going to work - the 4Ws and the H come to mind. You cannot expect people to know about your brand if you're not talking about it regularly and getting it out there, and you cannot hope to build reputation and trust if you don't stick to one message. Reputation and brand strength don't come by chance or luck. It's part action and part talking about the action in a consistent and clear fashion. I worked in an organisation that was not talking. At all. Lots of things happening but noone was talking. That in itself is a strategy of course, but is it a good one? Would you want to work for someone that noone else knew about?

Sadly (Good Lord!) I have also worked in an organisation where there was no plan. Hard to believe it but it's true, so the communications directives were random and often reactive. It often seemed like an after thought (public service) and there was no who, what, why, where, when, or how about it. Just "whoever, whatever, wherever, whenever, or however".

So ask yourself

• Is my message out there regularly?
• Is my message consistent?
• Is my message vehicle the right one for my audience?
• Is my audience reacting to my message positively (or negatively)?

A plan helps you stay on message and to be more strategic in how you craft and deliver that message. And like anything else, it needs to be reviewed and assessed regularly to ensure that you are indeed getting the results you are hoping for. If not, then you need to tweak the plan and fix the areas that need fixing so your messages are not outrun and outcommunicated by your competitors.

And this goes for internal communications as well. Inconsistency can lend to lack of trust and create misconceptions which can derail your entire communications strategy.

And just to add finally, with new media, one has to stay on course there as well. There are some organisations that tweet 2 days a week, then maybe once in the next 2 weeks, then 5 times the next week, and then maybe 3 weeks will pass again before another tweet shows itself. You just never know if you're going to get a response, or when you will get it. Blogs stay stagnant for days without an update, after promises of greatness from its owners. Simply because there was no plan or a contingency plan because let's face it, sometimes things happen and you just get swamped or someone goes on vacation or what have you. But this should not affect your customer, should it? Have a plan, darn it!

So my plan for tomorrow involves some Smuckers sugar free strawberry preserves for breakfast, with smoked salmon for lunch and maybe if I feel like it, an afternoon with Charlton Heston, coupled with some weight training. I expect excellent results! What's yours? Communications or otherwise?

Red Carpet Customer Service and PR

Yes, it is Carnival Tuesday and yes, I am at home, in my jammies, blogging. I did not anticipate I would be on the blog, but minus that I would not have had this day any other way.

So though I have been offline from the world of news and important stuff, I had some time off from vegging last night to catch up on news and came upon the Southwest Airlines/Kevin Smith situation. Talk about drama. I was not on the plane and cannot say whether the situation was handled badly or not, nor determine whether the airline was really in the wrong. But someone asked me whether the LUV airline  would have responded so quickly to Kevin Jones, from Nowhere, USA or Nowhere, Trinidad.

I think the fact that they are even using social media should signal that they are actively trying to monitor customer experiences, for better or worse, and proactively address them. The fact that Kevin Smith is a celebrity, with over a million followers on Twitter and the fact that his rants were relentless (he tweeted from beginning to end, and after, and also did an entire podcast on the event...I mean really!)  just made the situation a PR nightmare for Southwest. One look at their Twitter page and these guys are busy keeping on top of the tweets in which they are mentioned.

Customers also need to remember that often there is only so much a PR person can do in the blink of an eye. When an incident unfolds, in an area far removed physically from the team, or out of their sphere of expertise, ultimately any good PR person would need to first get the facts, find out exactly what has transpired from the relevant sources within the company and otherwise, all before giving the disgruntled, often impatient customer some feedback. In my own role as professional tweeter, I often do not have all the answers and have to either forward a request to the relevant persons or do some research in order to ensure accuracy of information being given to a customer. Depending on the nature of the request, I cannot always guarantee an answer within 30 mins, or an hour, but I let the customer know that I am working on it and he/she usually gets a response.

BUT the key is to always let the customer know that you're listening and that each and every piece of feedback, for better or worse, is important to you. Communications is not just about talking and getting defensive, but allowing the channel to be interactive and giving the customer not only a voice but more importantly the opportunity to be heard. I have called customers, or dropped them an email, while I wait for an answer to their issue to let them know their feedback is truly important and is being actioned so they do not think it's pointless sending a DM, a tweet, or leaving a comment. It does not matter whether the customer is a housewife watching soaps or a CEO. It has to be equal opportunity day, everyday, with customer service, customer feedback and followup.

The fact that Kevin Smith's tirade would surely have been a catalyst for swift(er) action from the Luv folks. I don't look at it as responding to him any faster because he is a celebrity, but responding to him to manage a very volatile situation - one that quickly had the attention of millions and millions of people, many of them Luv customers. You want to minimise the damage done to your brand as much as possible and the truth is noone knows about Kevin Jones. Does it mean he is not being attended to? No. It means you're probably just not hearing about it. Maybe his 103 followers know about it, including the spammers, but that may be as far as it goes. His audience and his sphere of influence may just not be wide enough to make the news or "make the web" in this case. It's natural for the louder voice to get a bit more attention, and ultimately because he is louder, he would also be more visible and inevitably a greater risk to your brand.

Just wanted to say though, Luv's "Not so Silent Bob" post - the title alone makes me cringe cause it immediately, in my mind, makes the "victim", the bad guy. I did not feel the title, Luv, and this was before I even read the post. It really does not suggest any empathy with the passenger and almost mocks him. I would have taken it the wrong way if I were Mr Smith. The other entry is much more conciliatory and even-keeled and clearly underlines the point that though we are humans and get snarky, we should really take a moment, count to 10, have a cookie or a glass of Pinot, and not act in the heat of the moment. The Not So Silent Bob reference was snarky, to say the least. Bad idea.

Anyway...

I am not a Luv customer but I have used social media to raise concerns about the airlines I do use and always have gotten a response. Same goes for the other companies I follow using social media. They are out there trying to keep the communications channels open and if they're not, you better believe they find out the hard way. Would Kevin Jones have gotten a phone call from a Southwest VP? I am not sure. I do not know enough about the company's culture to say yay or nay, but I have no doubt Kevin Jones, in an age where negative comments can circulate with a single (re)tweet, blog post, or status update, would have gotten some type of response. If not, then that company would need to immediately review its social media "strategy", if you dare call it that.

Back to vegging.

A Blast from the Past

Yesterday while  looking for something on my bookshelf, I found this. Don't laugh.

Okay, I know you laughed. I remember when I bought that cell phone back in 2002. That phone was the hottest thing on the market and there were ooh's and aah's when I bought my new Nokia. Now, it's nothing more than a paper weight. I never got rid of it because it was my first phone and then, my kids could probably laugh about it one day, the way we laugh about 8-tracks with our parents. I can hear it now.

- So ummm...what did this phone do? Could you take photos with it? Can you check email on it? What about blogging...can I send a blog post with it? What does it do?

- Ummm..you could call a friend and get calls and...oh...you could send text messages!

- That's all??

But it goes to show how communication has changed and keeps changing. 2002 was not that far off was it? But then, think even further back to when we used to put pen to paper and write letters. In high school, pen pals were all the rage, You paid like $5 and got 4 pen pals, and you would spend your weekend writing letters in your best penmanship to teenagers like yourself in Africa or Europe or North America. You would wait weeks for a reply and would light up like a bulb when you got home and there was your letter, waiting to be opened.

Then came email and the death of personalised stationery and the birth of the term "slow mail" which now described that fun activity of writing out those epistles to friends in foreign countries. But emails allowed not only faster delivery of your messages, but also allowed you to send photos and helped to foster these relationships on a deeper level since you could communicate more often, without any expense.

Chat came and the email was not the popular kid anymore. With instant messaging services like MSN and Yahoo, who needed to sit and write an email and wait for the person to check it and hopefully respond immediately? Now you could see if the person was online and talk in real time with him or her. With chat later came video chat and stuff like Skype, which signalled the near death of the telephone in our homes. I cannot tell you the last time I got a phone call on my landline.

Facebook became the ultimate relationship builder and social hot spot. So I had one of those slow mail penpals and after a while, we just sort of stopped writing and lost touch. After almost 20 years, guess where we reconnected? You guessed it. Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with dozens of people I just simply lost touch with and now it is where we all keep in touch, some simply want to macco and some like to be macco'ed (don't deny it!), share their opinions on stuff and meet new people.

And worse than me picking up the phone in my home, is me picking up a newspaper. Besides getting that yucky press ink all over my hands, the www world has made getting the news so much more convenient and accessible. And with newspapers going electronic and also with media gurus and just people with opinions on the news creating blogs and forums, feedback and discussion on current events is more prevalent and there is no longer that one-sidedness which news was all about in the past. Sure you had letters to the editor, but you had to hope your letter got chosen and then that in itself is limited cause noone can comment on your letter in real time, if anyone chooses to at all.

Blogging has brought so many different topics to so many different people. There are blogs about everything - sports, technology, food, fashion, travel (yaay), media, entertainment, sex, dating - you name it, there is a blog out there that hashes out the issues and has readers hashing right back. Isn't it fantastic?

And for the people on the move, who want to process info quickly, who want to not have to scour the cyberverse for details, there is microblogging. Twitter has really exploded over the past several months and Facebook also allows people to just simply answer the question "what am I doing now?" as well as share links to articles, news, videos, podcasts etc.

Businesses have come a long way too. The way we communicate in business has evolved as well. I always smirk when I have to print a memo in this day and age, but paper trails are still important, though I think cyber trails can work as well. Some businesses have harnessed the power of technology and employees are keeping in touch via email, Office Communicator, intranets, internal social networking platforms similar to the external ones like Facebook and Twitter.

And you were no longer slaves to your pc, but the mobility of communication changed too, with laptops and wireless internet almost anywhere you go so is it any wonder you see people sitting in airports, coffee shops, on the beach, in their hotels, typing away - getting things done, staying in touch, downloading, meeting people.

And then, coming back to the cell phone I dug out of the stone ages, there came the smart phone - which allows you to do everything discussed above, bringing you right at the edge of the action, 24/7. I sat in a room once and everyone was inflicted with BB-itis. Symptoms - dropped head, eyes locked on Blackberry screen, oblivious to life around them, fingers tapping away at keyboard frantically.

It's a serious ailment which has afflicted many people around the world, in addition to iPhoneitis and other smart phone related afflictions.

But it's immediacy on the go. You can now send an email or an IM and get a response faster than the time it takes to get a cup of coffee at your favourite Rituals or Starbucks as the case may be.

And to think, I loved that phone so much that I did not want to let it go. And to think, everything mentioned here is just the tip of the evolution iceberg as far as communication is concerned. If I had to talk about everything out there, my head would hurt. There is so much happening out there that soon some of these things may be as dead and archaic as that old Nokia, with its analog service. It's exciting find out though.

How far do you go with the "You can't please everybody" adage?

Beyonce is one of the biggest names in pop music today, if not the biggest. And Ms B is heading to Trinidad and Tobago. And Ms B is creating quite an uproar before she has even stepped on the plane to Port of Spain. Unbeknownst to the lady, she is the centre of a media frenzy revolving around a myriad of issues

• The money being forked out by telecoms giant, TSTT to bring her to our shores. The Communication Workers Union obviously has some issues over the alleged $10million price tag.
• The management company hired to coordinate and handle the logistics of staging such an event
• The timing of the concert - in the midst of the greatest show on earth, when  our culture is in full bloom, and when a lot of small businesses and vendors cash in on the Trini love for liming.

The last issue is the latest in the furor over Ms "Single Ladies". Now, while this does not personally affect me since my Carnival seems to have ended before it started (no HD!!! what??), I can see where cultural organisations have issues with the timing of the concert.

What makes it worse, from a CSR perspective, is that a TSTT-sponsored event for the Carnival,  the extremely popular B-Square series has been "blanked" this year and most people have indirectly shifted blame to poor Ms B for this unfortunate event.  The company attributes the cancellation to the absence of Mr HD this year (no HD!!! what?), the timing of this particular cancellation cannot help but add to the negative press surrounding the February 18 concert and creates a perceived notion that the company cares more about an American performer than our local culture.

As such an imporant corporate citizen, whose track record in sponsoring so many events, groups and causes is stellar, some may say the move to bring an American artiste so soon after the largest local cultural expo on our calendar is a bad move. But what about all the other events that the company continues to support? Does the fact that TSTT has supported and continues to support other local cultural events, including the capstone event for soca, the Soca Monarch competition, an event that broadcasts our culture internationally, and attracts thousands and thousands of patrons, count for anything? Or is the fallout from this one concert the day after our Carnival ends, going to be that thunderstorm in the teacup?

What will TSTT do in coming weeks? The fact of the matter is, for every person who is upset about the concert and take issue with all the supporting issues, there is another, or a few hundred, who cannot wait to get to the concert to see Beyonce perform. The rush for tickets so far has proven that there is indeed a ready and willing market for the post-Carnival performance from an American artiste, and hundreds had no hesitation in forking out their $1600 for their VVIP tickets to the show. So, does TSTT now then just subscribe to the adage that "You just cannot please everybody" and keep on truckin' or will there be strategic communications to the relevant parties and the public in coming days to counter some of the negativity coming out of the announcement to bring Ms Knowles to Trinidad and Tobago next month.

Never a dull moment in good ole Trini.

If anyone wants to buy me a VVIP ticket, you can leave a comment. (lol)

A Tale of Two Phenomena: Reality TV and Social Media

Last night, I was flipping through channels, trying to watch 2 shows at once - Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (I heart Benson and Stabler) and Lifetime reruns of Grey's Anatomy (McDreamy!!!). But the flipping stopped at 7.30pm when I hit VH-1 and there was the season finale of "I Want to Work for Diddy" which I had missed due to sheer exhaustion the night before. There are a lot of things one can say about this show - like, how can a grown man and a grown woman have Diddy treat them like a couple of school kids in a spelling bee? How does a grown man not know how to spell legitimate? How much public humiliation are these people willing to take for a bit of fame and maybe a job? Seriously. It's addictive! lol.

I admit it. I love reality tv. Now don't get me wrong, I don't see any deep lessons in these shows, besides "I am blessed to have common sense", and reality tv does not keep me up at night with burning questions about current issues, but reality tv sure is entertaining. And not only is it entertaining but reality tv is making these networks a whole lot of money and giving these wannabe stars their 15 minutes.

And I think if you want to go further, reality tv is akin to social media in its rapid growth in popularity and ability to transform an entity from nothing to something in quick time. How many people knew about Twitter a year or so ago? How many know about it now? How many people knew anything about the Jersey Shore? How many people are googling it now because of the controversial MTV reality show of the same name?

More and more people are usinng reality tv to further their own personal goals. You have the average Joe who wants to be a star. Noone can tell me these girls who go on shows like "For the Love of Ray-J" REALLY think they will walk down the aisle with him one day?

If you're good enough, and you create a character compelling enough, you can segue into something else that can bring real financial returns. "Flava of Love" and "I love New York" made Tiffany Pollard a household name because this girl worked her brand. It may not be a brand that most normal people may want to be associated with, but it's HER brand and it clearly worked for her, to an extent.

Diddy himself is a marketing machine. The attention his reality shows have garnered have gone a long way I am sure in ramping up his personal image and that of his Bad Boy/Sean John/I love myself empire. The same goes for Donald Trump, the Kardashians, and all the other people who are doing a pretty good job at establishing and strengthening a personal brand via reality tv and our love for it.

Diddy has gone a step further via his Twitter presence. He is the self-proclaimed "King of Twitter" and pushes everything from his vodka, to his music to himself via the microblogging site. With over 2 million followers, he is getting his brand OUT THERE!

And then let's look at reality tv and social media and the question of hype and relevance. MTV has come under fire for not living up to its name - Music Television. When is the last time anyone saw a music video on MTV? I mean...seriously! They have reality shows all day about everything under the sun, most not even related to music. Reality tv is everywhere. On every network. Starring everyone - from washed up celebrities to fame-hungry small towners. And while some of the shows have been around for a long time and may be around for even longer - The Bachelor, The Amazing Race, The Real World  (yes, I watch 'em) for example - a lot of the others crash and burn because they just don't have the staying power or bring anything unique to the table or are so ludicrous that even the usual reality tv fun of laughing at silly people becomes obscene.

What about social media? I cannot tell you how many new social media sites I encounter or hear about every day. If you were to sign up to all these things, you would not have a life! And while Facebook and Twitter have really made an impression on people the world over, how many of the others are relevant? Depending on where you are in the world, some tools may work more effectively than others in social media marketing. We all know how huge Facebook is here in Trinidad, and Trinis are also blogging, tweeting, Youtubing and Flickr-ing, but how many Trinis know about Ning, for example? In business especially, you really have to understand your audience and what they may be interested in. So while you may think the hot new tool is fab, trying to force your enthusiasm on a target group , who may be just catching up with the Twitterverse is not the way to go.

It would be like forcing me to watch "Frank The Entertainer in a Basement Affair" which is such an agonising thought that I don't know where to begin in describing how annoyed I feel about it. I can't. I just can't bring myself to think of it.

p.s. There's an app for that! - did you know there is actually an app for I Want to Work for Diddy??? My God! What's next?

Social media

So I am back from the Big Apple, and one can say so many different things about this single experience.

On the one hand, the actual work/reason I went to the city in the first place. I was pleasantly surprised that there were quite a few men in the room. Here, you go to a communications meeting or forum or anywhere where one has to network and you encounter more heels than loafers. It was quite refreshing to have so much testosterone in the room.

Some of the presenters went over pretty well.

James Lynch of Amex basically opened the first morning session with a well thought out presentation of an equally well thought out social media strategy. I was quite impressed with how they have revolutionised the blog and made it hip, interactive and highly dynamic. And even though I have never met and may never meet Ed Gilligan, Vice Chairman, American Express, kudos to him for leadership in actively leading employee communications at the company. It is not every senior executive who would take such a hands-on role in speaking to employees about issues that matter to them - engaging them on such a deeply personal level.

Steve Crescenzo was also quite an animated and compelling speaker, and I agree that you cannot force a social media policy. You have to have a communications plan before you plan any type of social media strategy. Too often we get caught up in wanting to be in and on every app available and to what end? To have your brand uselessly saturating cyberspace?

Great presentations as well from the Fleishman-Hillard duo and our keynote speaker, Aedhmar Hynes. I am sorry I missed the Dow Jones brand reputation session but hopefully the presentation will be comprehensive enough to make up for this.

It was a good conference. There could have been greater opportunity for social networking. I mean, so much was crammed into the 1.5 days that you really could not get around and meet everyone, but the conversations that were had proved to be meaningful nonetheless. Hoping to keep the conversations going as we all go back home and back to the proverbial drawing boards.