This new version of Firefox totally blows. It's not showing the background of my twitter page on my PC (works on my mac) and it doesn't pull up my blog (this one right here, if you can get to it and read it!) on either PC or mac.Firefox, please get better! We rely on you!

Today I'm loving the Twitter companion app Who Should I Follow, in which you plug your Twitter username it gives you suggestions of other twitizens who may be of interest to you. (hat tip to twitter pal, Laura Fitton for that gem.)

I'm also one of the beta users of new mobile/web app Brightkite, a "location-based social network" where you "track your friends" (not as creepy as that sounds in real life, I swear!), "see where your friends are and what they're up to, in real time" and "meet people around you."

It is cool. Today I meet via text, someone else who works in my office building. That was novel. What I wish it had, was the functionality of my beloved and much missed Dodgeball, which a huge group of my friends used in NYC and we could see where we all were as we bar hopped or dined and often, meet up later at the same location by texting where hanging out throughout an evening. In NYC, where bar hopping is the norm and the options are endless, dodgeball was a great way to meet up with more and more friends throughout the night, or keep at-home friends posted on our whereabouts and potentially persuade them, via our Dodgeballs, that they were missing out on a great time and lure them out to meet us. In Philly, I didn't find much of a Dodgeball community when I moved here, which was disappointing, but alleviated by the robustness of our tweeters.

I have high hopes for Brightkite as a Dodgeball place filler for me. I'll keep you posted!

Do you love this SouthPark clip as much as I do?



I will admit, I kept thinking, doesn't anyone in SouthPark have EVDO?

And local blogger-slash-fellow smores lover (long story), Citizen Mom, captures the photo of the night here in Primary Central aka Philadelphia.

When I was a little girl, my mother tutored me as a toddler so that I would be prepared or even advanced when I started school. She used to patiently show me flash cards of letters and numbers, quizzing me and helping me to start reading and counting. I remember it being hard to sit still for these exercises but she was consistent and patient in tutoring me. It was during this time that I remember my Mom telling me that when I grew up, I could be anything I wanted to be. From a dogwalker to a teacher to President of the United States.

I never realized the enormous significance behind my smart, optimistic mother telling me that in the 1970's, until Hillary Clinton's speech tonight. America has had 43 Presidents in its' lifespan. That's 43 men of various creeds, economic status and ethnic backgrounds. Not one woman. And in fairness, not a black man (that we know of!), either.

Just like social media is a global movement that the US must embrace, so are candidates of change.

Greenpeace remixes Dove's Onslaught video to raise awareness of deforestation

Just in time for Earth Day, check out this new social media campaign from Greenpeace directed at Dove:



According to Greenpeace, Unilever, the makers of Dove, "are buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia's rainforests". This video is supposed to raise awareness of this practice.

Update (05/15): Unilever has conceded to Greenpeace's demands to only buy the key ingredient in its Dove soaps from suppliers who can demonstrate they haven't cut down forests.

Greenpeace Multimedia Producer, Daniel Bird, who made the video, gave a presentation on what makes a video viral and posted his notes on the Greenpeace blog. You can read them here.

Virtual Guest Lecture: Valerie Jennings, CEO and president of Jennings PR & Advertising

I am happy to announce that Valerie Jennings, CEO and president of Jennings Public Relations & Advertising, Inc. (JPRA) will be joining us over iChat on Tuesday for our last guest lecture of the semester. Valerie founded JPRA, formerly known as Pure Eloquence, Inc., in 2003 after locating to Overland Park, Kan. from Minneapolis, Minn. Valerie started out providing public relations services to political candidates, but now the firm predominately represents companies and individuals in the private, government and non-profit sectors.

JPRA is a public relations and social media relations firm, specializing in local, national and international publicity campaigns for elite corporate, sports and entertainment clients. The agency has been very active in the social media arena and has taken a major interest in the art of storytelling and the science of generating quantitative results for their clients through the use of Web 2.0 technology, traditional public relations and dynamic Web site design.

To find out more about the agency's latest endeavors, check out the JPRA blog and news section. 

NY Times Multimedia Report Dissects the Pentagon Propaganda Machine

The New York Times today published a really interesting story on how the Pentagon orchestrated an elaborate propaganda campaign aimed at dismissing calls for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation in 2006. RollingStone called it a story destined for a Pulitzer. I like this story for a number of reasons: 

• First, it's a good example of why so many people think poorly of public relations. When the media talks about ethically questionable Pentagon propaganda and refers to it as a "PR" campaign, that certainly doesn't help paint a favorable picture of the profession. Of course, the fact that the government is involved in this type of unethical behavior doesn't help either.

• Second, it's a great piece of investigative as well as interactive journalism and does a wonderful job illustrating the promises of online reporting. The NY Times article is accompanied by a multi-media feature which examines primary source documents related to the story and gives the reader a chance to examine those documents more closely. In other words, the reader gets to review the documents the journalist used to put together the story. Think about how different from traditional forms of journalism this is, where all the reader gets to see is the edited end-product. Think about how this is empowering readers to formulate more informed opinions about news stories. Case in point: After reading this story, I downloaded a 30 page transcript of a meeting between Rumsfeld and his military advisors, a 6 page analysis of the media coverage received by the propaganda campaign, and a series of memos - much more info than the media could convey in an 11 minute interactive video or a traditional feature story.

Although this Pentagon-sponsored propaganda campaign seems to have primarily relied on traditional media to gets its message across, the Pentagon has long noted the power of the Internet and social media technologies as a dissemination tool for its propaganda efforts. As Rumsfeld noted in the meeting with his military advisors: 

"This is the first war that's ever been run in the 21st Century in a time of 24 hour news and bloggers and internets and e-mails and digital cameras and Sony cams and God knows all this stuff, and wire transfers, all the electronic things that are going on, and it's a different world. We're not very skillful at it in terms of the media part of the new realities that we're living with. Every time we try to do something someone says it's illegal or immoral, there's nothing the press would rather write about then the press, we all know that. They fall in love with it. So every time someone tries to do some information operations for some public diplomacy or something, they say oh my goodness, it's multiple audiences and if you're talking to them, they're hearing you here as well and therefore that's propagandizing or something or it's not fair or it's not right. We don't have the right rules or the right understandings yet for this century."

It sounds like his frustration is referring to Pentagon infop initiatives such as the Magharebia.com project - a Pentagon-sponsored Internet news website aimed at the Maghreb region of North Africa, which was investigated for breaking a U.S. law that prohibits the government from exposing its citizens to propaganda. The problem was that although the site was aimed at the Maghreb region, it was a public website open to U.S. readers - readers who could therefore be exposed to government propaganda.

Another indication of the Pentagon's interest in new media technologies can be found in a report published in 2006 by the the Strategic Studies Department of the Joint Special Operations University. The report, entitled "Blogs and Military Information Strategy" suggests the military should clandestinely recruit or hire prominent bloggers (click here to download the report).

New Template for Social Media Releases

Since we just covered social media releases a few class periods ago and "attended" a webinar on The Evolving Social Media Release, I thought you might be interested to hear that SHIFT Communications just released an updated version of the SMR template we discussed. You can read about the template's new features on the PR Squared blog.

I know, I know, some of you who read this blog may taser me if I write another Twitter entry, but trust me, I have good reason. First, thanks to fellow Philly Blogger and Twitter friend Amy Z. Quinn for including me in a story about twitter that she filed for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

I know that companies big and small are still toeing the waters on connecting with people via CGM and social networks, having heard horror stories of bloggers and their readers that have criticized or bashed corporations online. That said, I recently had a personal experience with a major corporation actively participating in a social network so fluidly and helpfully, that I have to share the story.

Comcast, a major corporation that has taken a lump or two from unhappy customers online. (NOTE: Comcast is a client. However, I did not counsel or work on the tactic I am going to share with you. Comcast did not ask me to blog this. Nor did my employer.)

Recently, I learned that Comcast is actively using social media platforms to monitor mentions of their Brand online, when I read this incredible story by TechCrunch co-founder and blog mogul, Michael Arrington. In the blog post, (which you should read), Arrington explains how his comcast broadband went out, he called Comcast to find out what was going on, only to be told it was a California wide outage. However, when he spoke with other area friends with comcast, their cable was working, and Arrington ended up taking his laptop to work at a friend's place, which turned into a major distraction (read the story!). Frustrated, Arrington began tearing into Comcast on Twitter, and within 20 minutes of his first tweet, an executive from Comcast in Philadelphia, called him to sort out the problem.

It was, big business using social media to connect directly with customers and offer a better user experience. It is, essentially underheard of.

Since this modern day miracle last week, I have been following Comcast Customer Outreach guy Frank Eliason, the person behind the username ComcastCares on twitter. This guy is absolutely incredible. From answering questions to helping resolve appointment and billing issues, using only the 140 characters Twitter allows!, he is speaking with Comcast customers in the Twitter community promptly and like a real person. Comcast, is HEARING and RESPONDING TO, their customers by trusting one smart and reliable employee, to represent the brand and products in community. Even more incredible, is that Frank doesn't just twitter 9-5PM, he keeps the extended hours that many of use in the tech community keep, as we use the tool like our right hands.

This week, I had a comcast issue come up, but it was minor and I didn't want to bother Frank, as word has spread among the broadband-reliant community - many of whom are comcast customers and live in breathe in twitter, so speaking to comcast where they live and breathe is a dream come true. A twitter friend urged me to ask Frank about my problem and I heard back from him in under 10 minutes. He personally resolved my problem in under 24 hours, via 140 characters and a couple of follow up emails.

I applaud Comcast for being an example of how to be a valued Brand/Corp in community. You'll keep my business.

I am freshly back from Travelcom 2008 in Chicago, where I was invited to join Yahoo's panel discussion of quantifying the social media behavior of online travelers. I was invited by Yahoo's Brad King, who heard about me through Forrester's Sarah Rotman Epps, whom previously interviewed me about Philadelphia's unique uwishunu social media campaign. Sarah analyzed our social media work for uwishunu and wrote about it as a case study for a new social media analysis model she/Forrester created (collaboratively with Compete Inc., I believe). Sarah used the uwishunu case study in this session and I was particularly pleased that she included the point that it was a team of people at GPTMC who made uwishunu and our social media tactics a success. A social media director is a great start for an agency or organization but it takes the dedication of a whole team to make it all work.

Also on the panel were Greg Saks from Compete and Aaron Cooper from Orbitz.

Pretty diverse group of us and it was an interesting discussion all around.
~*~
Of course, it wouldn't be a trip without a travel fiasco for me. I was caught up in the American Airlines debacle en route to Chicago. Fortunately, I had the sense to immediately call their 1-800 number as we all queued up to be rebooked and I secured one of the last seats out of Philly that night. Unfortunately, there was a lightening storm in Chicago, and my flight was forced to move on to Indianapolis, where we touched down for about an hour and eventually headed back to O'Hare for a very late arrival.

I arrived at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, a massive hotel complex, only to find that the day shift had allegedly made some mistakes with bookings that left me without my reserved room with a king-sized bed. Instead, this massive hotel complex told my tired and harried self that they had a sofabed room for me. Huh? Wha..?

Frankly, I was too tired to fight. I was too tired to hit the streets with luggage and a laptop and find another hotel after midnight. I was *speaking* at a conference in *this* hotel in the morning!

Unhappy but resigned, I sighed and asked if the sofabed was at least pulled out and made up for me. The front desk clerk assured me it was. So I schlepped with my luggage - not a bellhop in sight, even when I stepped out of the taxi at the front entrance - over a skywalk and to the West Tower.

Of course my key card didn't work for the elevator, luckily another guest arrived and his worked. I went up to my floor, 36 (the top floor, maybe there's a view!). I arrived at my floor, confused, because I stepped out and saw conference rooms. One said "Chicago Board of Trade" on it. Clearly this is not right. These aren't hotel rooms. Additionally, there was a group of security huddled around the body of a semi-conscious drunk man laying on the floor next to my room door.

Honesty, I didn't care about the drunk guy. I was TIRED. Get me a bed. I keyed into the room, and I found...a meeting room. Yes, you heard me, a meeting room. Two couches, neither are a pullout. Now I was pissed.

I called the front desk, explained my problem and they transferred me to a general voicemail for the hotel. I kid you not. I called back, asked them to please not transfer me again and explained there was no pullout in my room. The woman on the phone gaves me attitude, like I am making this UP! I asked her to just send a cot up.

The cot took about 20-25 minutes to arrive. In the meantime, I stepped into the hall and briefly chatted with security, who were still huddled around the unconscious drunk; then I fell asleep on the couch. The cot arrived with no pillows or blankets. The housekeeping man told me to take them from the closet. I found some musty pillows and blanket, wrapped a towel around the dusty pillow and used it. Basically, I reverting to tactics one might use in their 20's while staying in a European hostel.

At this pointed, I'd twittered the whole saga.

I used my phone as an alarm clock and hit the hay.

I will say, the Hyatt Regency Chicago charged me half price for the room and gave me a voucher for breakfast, but why didn't they find me a room in another Hyatt in Chicago? Or another hotel?

You can bet I won't stay at the Hyatt Regency Chicago again, even though the clerk at check out made me smile. After he apologized twice for the room ordeal, he looked at me and said, "Miss Heckenberger, I can only hope that the Eagles or the Phillies win a championship for you this year." I don't know how he knew I was from Philly, I checked in with my passport which identifies NYC as my hometown, but he won me over for a moment and I twittered that too;)

Social Network Site Usage Stats from the U.K.

I just came across some interesting government statistics on the use of social networking sites in Britain (via the Textdepot). The report was released by the British Office of Communications and "seeks to understand how people are using social networking sites as well as their attitudes to this form of communication". I encourage you to take a look at the report.

Speaking of social networking sites, Facebook just announced a new chat feature that allows users to communicate in real time.

Social Media Resume Assignment

The semester is quickly coming to an end, which means that it is time to start working on your last project - the social media resume! The point of the social media resume is to demonstrate your social media skills to prospective employers in a creative manner. It is also designed to tie together all the different technologies we have explored in this class (such as blogs, podcasts, webvideo & social bookmarks).

For this assignment you will create a social media resume which will “announce” your qualifications, goals, job expectations and anything else you deem necessary. Since the social media resume will be published on your blog (and therefore available online), please don’t include any personal information such as phone number, address, DOB, GPA, etc. If you want to list your email, spell out the @, so spam engines won't be able to pick it up (i.e. userid at stedwards dot edu).

Your social media resume should include the podcast and video you created as part of your class assignments. The finished resume should be published to your blog. Please proofread your resume carefully. There's nothing worse than a resume full of typos.

Required elements:
1. Contact info - again, don’t give out personal info here. Listing your blog, or other online ID will be enough
2. A brief introductory paragraph
3. Your qualifications, desired position (the typical resume items)
4. Multimedia files

• Photo (optional): Please note that you are not required to add one. Only add it if you are comfortable having your picture on the Internet
  
• Podcast: Embed or link to the podcast you created earlier this semester (and any additional ones if applicable). If you will be linking to it, add a podcasting icon to your link.
  
• Video: Embed or link to the webvideo you created earlier this year (and any additional ones if applicable). If you will be linking to it, add a video icon to your link.
  
• Graphics (optional): Consider this an online portfolio. If you have created a print ad for an advertising class for instance, add it to show off your skills.
  

5. Links (optional) – if you have authored other pages on the web, or have other web presences (LinkedIn, Facebook), link to them here.
6. RSS, social bookmarking, & Technorati buttons – add these buttons on the bottom of your resume.

Helpful Resources:

You can create your social media resume in a number of ways:

1. Create it as a regular blog post and edit/format it within your blog editor
2. Use PRXBuilder to format and publish it to your blog
3. Use VisualCV, a free online resume creation tool, and link to it from your blog
4. Create your resume using GooglePages. It will create a page on "http://yoursitename.googlepages.com", which you can link to from your blog

Grading Criteria:

• Contains all the required elements listed above
• Is well written and free of grammatical or spelling mistakes
• Is well formated
• Contains relevant/substantive information