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Category Archives: PR

That Thing You Have

Posted on September 24, 2010 Posted in 2010, communication, Dilbert, MR, PR .

After meeting me, the average person isn’t surprised to learn that I work in communications or that I’m someone who enjoys public relations and media relations…

Perhaps it has something to do with not getting ride of that thing I have. LOL

 Dilbert.com

 I <3 Dilbert. There have some recent comics on social media that I’ll be posting up here and commenting on. Perhaps on the weekend.

Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig

Posted on June 22, 2009 Posted in communication, NL, Photography, PR .

My husband and I are in St. John’s, Nfld. until June 29. One of my closest friends is getting married and I’m her Matron of Honour. We’ve been friends since we were 12 and have been through a lot together. Darleen and Mark’s wedding is going to be so much fun with lots of friends and family together celebrating.

This is going to be a rather busy week for us, but hopefully there will be time to relax here and there. I’ll be helping Darleen with various wedding things and of course helping her to stay relaxed before her big day. The bachelorette happened this past weekend and wow, we had a hell of a time! If you’re ever stuck at a party for a game that involves a lot of people, seriously consider playing Dirty Pictionary. Trust me, everyone will have fun and be laughing all night long.

During the bachelorette, I also incorporated some video into the evening that involved the groom. Normally at a bachelorette, you’ll ask the bride questions about her groom and for every question she gets wrong, she has to drink. In my past experiences, a groom normally answers these questions by email or sits down with a bridesmaid and answers them before the party. I decided to take it up a notch and instead video the groom’s responses the day before so that we could play them for Darleen after she provided an answer. There were some technical difficulties that came up (and caused me a lot of stress!) but it all worked out in the end (mainly because one of the groom’s sisters is awesome and provided on-site tech support). I also set up my new point-and-shoot, a Canon Powershot SD970 IS, on a tripod and videoed Darleen answering the questions. I’m hoping my friend Steve can help me edit the videos to mash up both Mark and Darleen’s answers to be something fun they can watch together.

I love coming home to visit. Newfoundland will always be my “home” no matter where I live. It’s hard to explain, but there’s just something about being here that puts your soul at easy and leaves you feeling connected to the land.

Logy Bay, Nfld.

On Saturday, Darleen the bride, along with two of the other bridesmaids, Stacey and Sabrina, and I took the bride out to spend the day doing some fun things before the Bachelorette. We went out for lunch and then headed out to Logy Bay to visit Memorial University’s Marine Institute. This is a beautiful area, but you have to be so careful if you try to go near the water. It looks lovey and you want to go down on the rocks and get close to the crashing waves, but if you get swept up or slip and fall in, it’s unlikely anyone will find your body.


Seal

Seal

At the Institute, they have seals (four to be exact) and you can come and watch them play and splash around. We didn’t stay long because it started to get cool, but I was able to grab some decent photos with my Canon 55-250mm lens. It’s a great zoom lens for the price and I’ve been able to use it in a number of situations (including last year when my husband was Dragon Boating).

We have exactly one week left here and I plan to take a lot of photos and possibly video as well.

Speaking of video, I recently created my first video that ideally will be part of a continuing series. Feel free to take a look and provide feedback and suggestions. I’m also planning to try and get some footage while I’m home to have for future use and probably another video.

ADMB

Posted on April 18, 2009 Posted in communication, PR, technology .

Abbreviations Drive Me Bonkers!

No doubt I’m not the first person to feel this way, but when abbreviations are used without an explanation at all, how is a mere observer or  reader who has stumbled upon the scene suppose to understand?Sad-computer

Example:  I was on Ravelry and came across a pattern that referred to a shawl KAL (it’s one of the most popular patterns right now). Huh? “KAL”? What the hell is that? After a thorough Google search, I finally found out that it means “knit along”.  Now that’s all fine and good, but I’m more annoyed that I had to actively search for a term and felt helpless and confused when I first read the term (until I used the magical power of teh tubes).

As someone who is in Public Relations, I know the importance of communicating your message to a broad audience. And that’s when jargon often comes out to play and mess around, especially in the corporate world or a focused industry. At work, we often make references to my office’s SLT (Senior Leadership Team), but anyone outside of our organization usually looks at me bewildered when I ramble on about “I read an article on *insert topic* and sent on info to the SLT to keep them in the loop”.

Back to the knitting example above – I suppose one could argue that because I was in a very focused community (we’re all knitters and/or crocheters) that I should be aware of the common terms. And the counter argue is that in the many months I’ve been on Ravelry, I’ve never heard of a knit along shawl (or anything like it). Not to mention that I only started knitting about a hear and a half ago, so I still consider myself to relatively new to the craft. Heck, I’ve only ventured into crochet in the last month (so I’m a total newbie!).

I will admit that sometimes it’s a lot easier to say a few letters than it is to garble out a mouthful of words that may seem commonly used, but for anyone who is new to the scene, they could bet thinking “WTH (what the hell) does that mean?!” and are probably not even listening to the rest of the conversation.

There’s also  room for misinterpretation. OK I’ll confess… for months, when I first saw “FTW” I thought it was “f*%&-the what?” Alright, go ahead and laugh, I understand.  I just thought it was a play on l33t speak and a fun way to express confusion; as if your taking WTH or WTF to a higher level of exclamation. For anyone wondering, FTW means “for the win” which is still within the nerd-l33t genre.

So the next time you’re writing or talking to a group of people, try to remember that there may be a reader or attendee who has NO idea what those few letters you just spewed our mean. By spelling it out (literally!) you may have a better chance of someone saying “wow I see your points that’s really interesting *continues conversation and you get into a deep discussion*” instead of “um yeah, that’s… ah, interesting  *insert changing of the subject*”.

An inevitable situation

Posted on February 13, 2007 Posted in Introduction, PR .

May 4, 2001 2:02 a.m.
That was my first debut into the blogging world.

Since then, many things have happened. My first blog emerged while I was finishing off a second year in university. My heart had been broken early in the fall semester and I was still feeling the sting of naive young “love” (or so I thought).

Some friends had mentioned that they had online diaries in which they wrote and others read; an equilibrium relationship. I thought it was odd, but one day noticed the link for a friend’s diary in her ICQ (remember that old chat program?) profile. I didn’t know what to think at first. It seemed interesting because I actually knew the person. But soon I discovered friends of that author (people I had never met) who also had their one place on the Internet. Eventually, through reading, I began to feel as though I was getting to know these people on a personal, but anonymous level.

I’m not surprised that my first online entry occurred on a Thursday night at 2:02 a.m. I was probably working on an assignment… that was due the next day. It being late and I getting distracted, decided on a whim to take the plunge and start a blog (we all called our blogs “diaries” since the hosting site was called diaryland.com at the time). After signing up and creating my layout, no doubt I had to publish something!

Yes, through my first online journal, I made numerous friends and eventually lost touch with many as well. My main readership consisted of people I saw on almost a daily basis. Odd I know, but sometimes it’s just easier for people to open up to their closest friends if you can avoid communicating in person and if you have the option to ignore a comment.

I have continued to blog since that faithful day in May. I’m not someone who posts everyday, and I’ve been known to take an unannounced break now and then; life does get busy you know! I have another blog that is used to communicate with friends from all over the world: friends within my close circle from out east, new friends I’ve made through various happenings, and friends I have online that only know me through blogging and online communication. I have some special friends whom I’ve never met in person, but we communicate regularly.

This is not a “flog blog”, it is simply me claiming my piece of territory in this huge community we call the global online community, the World Wide Web, or simply- The Internet.

Why am I here? Well why not? There is an obvious presence of the “me” generation online. Why are we all here; posting for all to see. Does each of us have something important and profound to share with the world? Are we all frustrated with the world around us and hoping to make a difference on some small scale? Or do we just like to hear our own voices and thoughts… just through a different medium instead of verbal communication.

My answer? Perhaps I’ll just suggest a forth choice: all of thee above (in some form or fashion).

I have a plan for this blog and who I want it to develop and grow. In time, there will be a rhythm that regular readers will recognize. Some of you may return regularly; some will possibly wander back once in a while; some of you may stumble upon me while perusing various blogs. Either way, all are welcome.

As a new player in the PR world, I am familiar with social media and the unique dialogue that occurs between the various populations online. Perhaps we’ll explore some of these qualities through discussion here.

I’ll post more information later. I plan to explain the meaning behind the blog’s name, provide my personal disclosure and post some person requests I have for readers. But for now, I’ll let you roam free. Please play nice.

“Some go to where the buildings reach to meet the clouds”

I want to read about…

Been there, done that

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