Posts Tagged ‘Parker Mason’

After two and a half years of working for CNW Group, I’ve made the difficult decision to leave and pursue another opportunity.

I say it was difficult decision because CNW has been more than just an amazing place to work. I spent the majority of my waking hours since 2007 at the company’s Bay Street headquarters, and the people here have become more than just colleagues. I mean, I’ve probably talked on the phone more with people in CNW’s Western Canada offices than I have with my mom in the past few years.

CNW, and the people there, gave me a ton of great opportunities that I might not have had elsewhere, and for that I’m truly thankful. When I was just a guy with a tan, sleeping on my friend’s couch, Laurie Smith (now CNW’s VP of Culture and Communication) took a chance on me and offered me a position as a Communications Coordinator. Since then, I’ve had a few different roles in a couple of different departments. In each case, my colleagues and managers were always supportive of what I was doing.

I will always look back at my time with CNW fondly, and while I certainly enjoyed the work I did there, I’m going to miss the people that worked there more.

Thanks for the great time, CNW. I hope we keep in touch.

Yours Truly,

-Parker Mason

P.S.: As sad as I am to be leaving CNW, I’m also super-excited to start the next stage of my life and career. I’ll fill you in on the details in a week or so (I’ll still be in Toronto). You can always reach me via e-mail (parker@blogcampaigning.com) or at Facebook.com/ParkerMason.

Photo courtesy of Joe Thornley: @parkernow gets a laugh as he disses the title of his own session at the #CdnInst

A few days ago, I gave a presentation as part of the Canadian Institute’s Managing Social Media conference here in beautiful, downtown Toronto.

As often happens with these things, I agreed to participate in the conference months ago, and I’m not even sure how I arrived at the title of “Integrating Social Media With Traditional Media” for my talk.

As I began to put my slides together, I realized that I’d need some solid examples of organizations that had successfully “integrated social media with traditional media”.

The one that kept coming up was The Globe and Mail, and I think that communicators can learn a lot from the way this organization, which used to be a traditional, print newspaper, has morphed into combination of newspaper and social media portal at TheGlobeAndMail.com.

The main lessons that I think we can learn from them are below:

1.) Make it easy for people to get the information they want in the format they prefer: By this, I mean offer your content across different channels and in different places. The Globe and Mail has a print edition that I can buy at the newsstand, I can download a PDF version from their site, I can subscribe to their news via RSS, or I can read the actual stories on their website. The point is that I can access it in the way that I want.

2.) Embrace multimedia: The Globe and Mail is a newspaper, yet they use audio content in various sections on their site, and they also frequently embed video in their articles. This is similar to point one in that it offers the information in other formats.

3.) Easy URLs: Social media is about sharing. Make it easy for people to share your information (or access it in the first place) by giving them easy URLs. The example I use in my presentation is how The Globe and Mail has done this by telling readers of their print edition that they can access more information about the Toronto International Film Festival at globeandmail.com/tiff09. Its easy to share, its easy to remember and both of those mean that there is a greater chance that people will view it and give it to others to check out.

4.) Do It Live: The Globe and Mail used to print a paper edition once a day (they might have also had an evening edition or something), as most papers did. However, they constantly update their website. They also frequently hold live chats with reporters and cover events live using tools like Cover It Live. Communicators can adapt this kind of strategy by holding press conferences online, or making their spokespersons available for online discussions.

5.) Keyword-rich, easy-to-understand headlines: Admittedly, this isn’t something I learned from The Globe and Mail, but another source. (Props to my friend Michael Allison for pointing this out to me!)

6.) Be part of the community: Inspired by a quote I heard attributed to Mathew Ingram, that “Linking to other sources and reading comments makes journalists stronger”, I suggest that the lesson for communicators is to get involved in the community they are trying to reach. Their messages will be more relevant, and chances are the community will be more likely to accept the messages if they come from a trusted member.

7.) Keep it fresh: The reason people read the newspaper everyday is because it has new information everyday. Stories have updates. The take-away from this is that once a story goes live, you don’t have to forget about it. Follow up on it, provide more information, and keep the story alive in the public eye with a new angle.

8.) Try new things: As I said in a post earlier this week, stop thinking about best practices and case studies and just go out there and do something new and interesting. The Globe and Mail is undergoing all sorts of change, and I’m sure they are the first ones to try some of the things they’re doing. Let’s learn from that.

I’ve embedded the slide show below. Since I’m as much of a student of the Masnickian school of Powerpoint presentations as I am his thoughts on economics, the deck has 103 slides that I covered in just under 40 minutes.

You can also download it at ParkerMason.ca/globe.
Thanks to the Canadian Institute for giving me the chance to speak and to everyone in the audience for listening.

And special thanks to Joe Thornley for preserving on his blog what the Twitter community said online during my presentation. Credit for the photo above also goes to Joe.

-Parker

It brings a tear to my eye when I realize that Espen Skoland wrote the first post on BlogCampaigning three years ago today.

Almost 700 posts later and we’re still blogging. We don’t write about American politics as much as we used to, but there is still the occasional political post from Jens and I always try and mention communications or PR.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

I wonder if we’ll go another three years? And is there anyone out there that has been reading BlogCampaigning since the beginning? (if so, leave a comment or send me an email – I can be reached at  parker (at) blogcampaigning (dot) com).

Twitter is the RSS dream made real. (I repeated the headline here because I’m feeling pretty self-satisfied with having written it.)

If you’re reading this post, you’re probably pretty hip to the RSS scene (I know that the majority of BlogCampaigning’s readers read it via RSS). But you’re not mainstream—you’re probably a PR Pro with a Penchant for Social Media, one of my Blogging Brethren, a Conference-Attending Corporate Communicator

RSS never really caught on because even the simplest analogies made it sound complicated. I mean, between Rich Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication people can’t even seem to agree on what it stands for.

But Twitter… people seem to instantly grasp the concept of Twitter. They understand the idea that if they “follow” an account, they get updates from that account. No messing around with moving the subscription URL to your RSS reader.

Professional communicators should always try and make it as easy as possible for people to access their message, or at least make it possible for their audience to access the message in the manner they prefer.

While some people might frown upon feed-based Twitter accounts, I’m all for them and for that reason I’ve set up Twitter.com/BlogCampaigning. As I feel fewer and fewer people are checking their RSS readers and moving more towards their Tweetdecks, Twitter homepages and Twhirls, I want to make sure they’re still able to easily access the freshest BlogCampaigning posts. Hardcore BlogCampaigning fans probably don’t want to be bothered with the daily chatter that fills my personal Twitter account—they just want the hottest news from the BlogCampaigning team.

Even if you don’t want to follow the BlogCampaigning Twitter feed, you can still subscribe by email, RSS or even access the page directly (which, in case you haven’t noticed, went through a redesign recently).

Applied to the greater world of PR, don’t limit your campaigns to just a Facebook group, just a news release directed at traditional media, or just a Twitter account. Except in probably very unique cases, making your message accessible in only one place probably won’t result in much success.

How do you feel about feed-based Twitter accounts? Is there a better way we can be getting our news out?

-Parker

PS: Don’t forget to follow @BlogCampaigning!

Its been a while since we last posted on BlogCampaigning, and I know that a lot of our readers are wondering what happened: PR message boards have been flooded with rumours and speculation, and Jens and I have been getting emails and phone calls at all hours from fans. Everyone has been wondering what happened to BlogCampaigning.

The short answer is that we don’t really know.

The long answer is that the site got messed up and that I’ve been super-busy with real life (work, soccer and summer drinking). Thanks to Tommy Vallier at Wordpress by the Minute, we were able to get rid of the spammy links and Javascript that had pervaded our RSS feed (if you need any blog work done, I highly recommend his services).

I haven’t been writing much for the site because I was working on a product launch for CNW Group (more on that in an upcoming post), Jens hasn’t been writing much because he’s been “working on his thesis” (which I equate to playing Xbox), and Heather has probably just been busy with her own blog, Toronto Uncovered.

We still don’t know where Espen is, but we hope you like the BlogCampaigning redesign and that you’ll continue to read our thoughts about Public Relations, Video Games, Technology and whatever we feel like.

But don’t spend too much time reading BlogCampaigning—get out there and enjoy the summer weather.

-Parker

I am by no means an expert at public speaking, but over the past few years I’ve found myself in front of an audience more and more often. Some times I’ve excelled, sometimes I’ve bombed, but I’ve managed to learn a few things along the way.

Eat before your presentation Especially if it is a presentation centered around a meal, like a “lunch and learn” or if you are the speaker at a dinner. Normally, you’ll be scheduled to speak at around the same time others are eating. Even if is a casual setting and you’ll be dining with your audience, you don’t want to look like a glutton. Your audience is there to hear what you have to tell them, not watch you eat.

Eating beforehand also ensures that you don’t spill anything on your shirt.

More water, less coffee Coffee gives me the jitters, and I tend to speak too quickly and excitedly. Water keeps me hydrated and my mouth moist so that I can keep on talking.

Know Your Material Your audience will be able to smell bullshit more easily than fear. If you don’t know your material very well, then you shouldn’t be speaking about it. If you understand your material well enough, no amount of distraction, nerves or difficult questions will throw you off.

Engage your audience Look them in the eye, ask them questions, make them feel like they are part of a conversation rather than being lectured at. Look around at different people in the crowd (rather than at the back wall, as I used to do) gives you a better idea about who is paying attention and who isn’t so that you can measure the level of information getting across. If all you see are glazed eyes and people praying into their Blackberries, you need to be doing something different to get their attention.

Make sure your fly isn’t open and that your shirt isn’t tucked into your underpants Seriously. It takes two seconds to check. (Hilarious anecdote related to this tip available upon request.)

Any other advice?

-Parker

Speaking Gig: Social Media For Government

Just a quick heads-up that I’ll be leading a workshop about Social Media Releases at the upcoming Social Media For Government conference taking place in Ottawa from September 15-18. From the program description of my workshop:

In this workshop, you will learn about one of the hottest topics in Public Relations (PR) today, the Social Media Release (SMR).

The Social Media Release is similar to the traditional news release in that its goal is to provide journalists with information with which they can craft their story. However, rather than being limited to text, the SMR incorporates multimedia elements. Photos, video and audio can all be included, as well as links to additional resources.

The “social” aspect of the release is the addition of a system allowing users to comment on it, as well as the ability to easily share the release and use or embed its multimedia components on blogs, websites and social networks. From being a static medium designed for one-to-many communications (from one point of origin to many possible readers), the SMR turns news releases into a kind of many-to-many communications tool – allowing people to interact with, comment on, share, and redistribute the content of the release. It can be an ideal way for government agencies to communicate with both professional and traditional journalists and new, citizen journalists like bloggers.

This workshop will consist of a brief overview where you will learn about the origins of the SMR and how it was originally used. We will walk through examples of the social media release that are available today, including examples of successful and unsuccessful uses of the SMR in communications campaigns.

In the second portion of the workshop, we will discuss the ideal types of media to include in an SMR. At this point, we will also discuss when it is or is not appropriate to use an SMR to communicate a message, or whether a traditional release or other methods will suffice.
By the end of the session, you will take away an understanding of:

* How to use SMR’s to maximize your communications – including examples of successful and unsuccessful uses of the SMR in communications campaigns
* When it is appropriate to use a SMR
* What you should include in a SMR to leverage the power of this communications tool
* The Future of the SMR and how to begin using this new communications tool right away

Attend this session to learn why you need to integrate the use of SMR’s into your government organisation now, and gain insight into the future of one of the most widespread topics in PR today.

As this will be an interactive workshop, participants are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop computer so that we can more easily explore and experiment with these online tools.

Although I do presentations in front of clients on behalf of CNW Group quite often, this will be my first time speaking at a conference. As an employee of a newswire, I have a very unique view of the Social Media Release and I’m looking forward to sharing what I know with a group of people who have paid to learn about it.

Thornley-Fallis’ Bob LeDrew and the always-entertaining Colin McKay (from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner) will also be speaking at the conference. For more information about some of the other topics and to register, visit the conference website.

-Parker