Taking A Bow On BNET

Exactly a week ago, something really really really good happened to/for me.

Even though I couldn’t officially spill the beans, I had to tell my friends (of course).

They were equally happy for me and, I suspect, a little frustrated that it would take me a week to come clean. This was my Facebook post that day:

A week hence

Now, that day has come, and I can officially tell you…

Today marks my debut as a BNET blogger.

Woo hoo!

In case – just in case – you’re not familiar with it, BNET is “the hub of the CBS Interactive Business Network, which

” … provides working professionals with the advice and insights they need to get ahead in today’s workplace. It isn’t a site for those who merely punch the clock: It’s for business leaders—of today and the future–who believe in the meaning of work and who know that nurturing excellence in their staff and their organization is the true measure of success.”

A lot of media properties make similar claims, but having been a regular BNET reader for a while, my personal opinion (and you can decide whether it’s humble or not) is that BNET provides real value for those in, and who care about, business.

So I’m absolutely THRILLED to bits about this!

Image: Ross Hall via Flickr, CC 2.0

My first post ran today: Are you listening to – or shouting at – your customers online?

Those of you who interact with me on various social networks know that this is a pet peeve of mine; when organizations don’t understand what a “two-way street means,” and instead opt for what I call the Billy Mays approach.

Do have a read, and if you like it, please share it, Facebook “like” it, Stumble it…

In other words, do pass it around to those you think would enjoy it, much as we share crudités at parties. They’re just enough to whet our appetite for more without making us feel engorged and sated.

Dude. Let’s make this the broccoli of crudités!

Because if you do, then I have a real chance at staying on as a blogger for BNET for a run of more than a few weeks.

And who wouldn’t want that?!

So. Please read, share, and let me know what you think – good or bad. If you have ideas for more posts (I’ll be posting once a week for the next few weeks, primarily on PR and social media), please let me know.

My crudités and I will thank you!

Bloop Bloop: The Conference Call

Thanks to my friend Kami Huyse for pointing me to this in the spirit of keeping the laughter going.

After I watched it, I LOL‘d, LMAO‘d and ROFL‘d following the LMAOing.

The beauty of acronyms, eh?

If you’ve ever suffered through conference calls (and who among us hasn’t?), I think you’ll enjoy this.

Happy Saturday!

Today, I Am

Today, I am

Tired of trying

Weary of worrying

Frightened of failing

Scared of succumbing.

Today, I am

Invisibly clad in sparkling scarlet spandex

Hair buffeted by the breeze

Muscles awake and alert

Spring in my step, shine on my soul.

Today, I am

Rediscovering romance

Reiterating reason

Reveling in retreat

Rejoicing in redemption.

Today.

I.

Am.

Bookmining on Twitter

Stuck for reading material?

Image: David Pritchard, Creative Commons

Just ask your social networks for their recommendations.

I had a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble that was burning a hole in its sleeve.

I have a habit of using gift cards to get gifts for others, but this time I decided to treat myself.

W00t!

Look at some of the great recommendations I got (and am still getting)

on Twitter:

and on Facebook

I ended up buying:

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (I heard about it on NPR and have been wanting to read it),

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, who is one of the best Indo-Anglian writers EVER,

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee-Divakaruni (ditto on the Indo-Anglian author thing, and because I think her take on the Mahabharata might possibly be better than that of Peter Brook’s), and

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, which Leah Betty mentioned on Twitter while we were chatting:

And the $50 covered them all (including tax, free shipping).

Double W00t!

So now I have four great books coming my way, and a whole host of others to add to my “must read” list, especially when I need a new book fix.

Yes, I know I could use the library, but I’m one of those people who likes to keep the books they love.

They become some of my best friends, and there’s nothing like going into your home library and sitting down for a cuppa to get reacquainted with characters you haven’t seen in a while.

Just another way social media makes my life better.

So what if you’re not saving the world?

My social networks didn’t help me save the world today, or save a dog.

But they added immense value by opening up my world just a little bit more.

And it’s only by inhabiting an open, forward-looking world that we can progress, not one that shutters and bars the doors to change.

Thank you, SM; and thank you everyone who gave me such great suggestions.

I’m here because you are.

Five Things I Didn’t Expect About Alaska

It’s been two weeks since my last blog post?

What in the world have I been up to?

Sorry.

I’ve wanted to write, truly. I just… got caught up with stuff… fell ill… went into my bubble…

I know, I should stop with the excuses. And just try to do better.

What better way to come back from a “dry” spell than to share with you seven five things I didn’t expect to find about Alaska, following my trip there?

It’s incredibly green.

I don’t know why I didn’t expect this.

I suppose it’s all those images of frozen, shimmering skylines I visualize when I think “Arctic” or “sub-Arctic.” Thank you, television.

But, duh, they have summer there too. And it’s gorgeous.

Santa Claus lives there.

Yes and no.

I figured the big man would have some kind of presence in the north pole. What I didn’t expect was to find North Pole in Alaska, and to get to sit on the big guy’s knee, to boot.

See, sometimes it pays to be on the “nice” list (thank you, whoever put me there).

The sun feels very, very close.

I know we’re not really closer to, or further away from, the sun when the seasons change (I suppose you could argue we are/not, depending on how Earth’s axis is tilted… but then you have that whole rotation thing to factor in as well).

But there’s something about the Alaskan sky – particularly in Fairbanks, where this photograph was taken – that makes you feel it’s very close.

Which can lead to some interesting and rambling musings on being. Which I won’t go into now.

You’re welcome.

The Exxon Valdez spill has been memorialized.

This, I definitely did not expect to see at the Anchorage Museum (which is lovely, you should go). It was really interesting, though and again, probably not surprising when you think of how much of Alaska’s economy depends on oil.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Louisiana will ever do the same for BP.

Alaska Baseball League games are more fun than MLB.

This Mat-su Miners game was the first of its kind I’d been to. I loved the casual atmosphere, the absence of hype and hoopla and the focus on the game itself.

Simple is so often much better… and isn’t that one of those life lessons we can apply to PR as well?

I could go on, but I’ll stop here.

Suffice it to say Alaska was everything I thought it would be, and lots of things I didn’t think it would be (you can see all the photographs I took, if you like).

Thanks again, PRSA Alaska!

My Day Off

Today’s my 11th wedding anniversary. So I’m taking the day off.

And I leave you with one of our favorite songs.

Have a good day for us!

Do You Know The Words To Your National Anthem?

Today will be the 11th year I mark Independence Day as a resident of the United States, and the third as a citizen.

But long before I became a citizen, or permanent resident, or had any idea my life would bring me to this country, I knew all the words to The Star-Spangled Banner.

Image: Still Burning, Creative Commons

You might think that’s a little odd for a girl from Calcutta (ok, Kolkata, though I’ll always call it “Cal”) who’s extremely proud of her Indian heritage.

But I grew up playing the piano, and that was one of the songs in one of the several music books my parents would ferret out for me whenever we’d go to Braganza’s, an old-fashioned music shop that provided our piano, tuning, my sister’s violin, my brother’s recorder, which I appropriated after a while and ended up playing in the school band with.

(In fact, the piano I played on – one of two we had in our home at the time – was rented, not bought, for a minuscule monthly fee, and still is, believe it or not. I guess my parents didn’t want to invest in buying a piano unless they knew we were serious about playing, and by the time Braganza’s realized the piano was never coming back to them, it was too late to do anything about it. Besides, who wants to take a piano away from a little girl?)

Anyway.

I loved The Star-Spangled Banner. It’s a great melody (originally a drinking song, as Steve Lubetkin reminded me, but still a great melody), and you don’t have to be a citizen of any country to be inspired by its anthems. At the time, I had no clue what the “rocket’s red glare” or the “bombs bursting in air” meant, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t play or sing it with all the verve I could muster.

Fast forward to the U.S.

My first PR gig was at a boutique agency in San Francisco which, at the time, primarily worked on marketing and publicity for Bay Area engagements of Broadway shows. The drama queen in me (I’m not joking, I actually studied drama) was thrilled to drum up publicity for shows such as Sing-a-long Sound of Music, Saturday Night Fever and Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai.

Over and above the aggressive media relations we pursued, we’d also look for events where our “stars” could sing the national anthem. Giants’ games, A’s games… you get the picture.

And nine times out of 10, they wouldn’t know the words.

How can you not know the words to your own national anthem?

Fine, the actual poem has four stanzas. But how can you not know the words to at least the first, which is what we all sing?

Regardless of your political leaning, regardless of your nationality – how can you not know the words to your own national anthem?

The media, Twitter, YouTube (and pretty much everywhere you look) are filled with op-eds, remembrances and messages such as “remember to be grateful,” “thanks to our troops,” etc. etc. This is not unusual; in fact, there are so many of them now that they’ve almost become a cliché.

But clichés are usually born because they ring true.

And if you’re truly grateful for the legacy of your country; for the truths “you hold to be self-evident;” for the rights you probably take for granted by now – you should remember how it came about; why they’re self-evident; and the reason(s) you have those rights.

And that means you should know the words to your national anthem.

This is not about being jingoistic. This is about acknowledging your heritage; whether you were born into it, or chose to adopt it. Like I chose to adopt it.

We should know the words to our national anthem.

Happy Independence Day.

A Very Special Day

Today’s my husband’s birthday.

He’s not like me at all. He doesn’t like much being made of him; he’s content to be the strong and silent type while I blather away.

Perhaps that’s why we’ve been happily married for almost 11 years (coming up in July).

I’ve met a great many wonderful people in my life, and I’m sure a great many are to follow. But I can’t imagine, for one moment, anyone who would top this wonderful man.

… who puts up with my ABBA and Elvis manias …

… who has never questioned – but, in fact – encouraged – me in everything I’ve done …

… who is the most intelligent, funniest, kindest, lovingest person I know.

He’s the bees’ knees. And much, much more, except he’d blush if he read it here.

To my wonderful husband, John: happy birthday!

Of Hard Drives, Hallelujah and Trust

Well, it’s finally done. My old hard drive is dead and I will shortly be giving it a funeral service. But, as they say, it’s an ill wind that blows no one any good.

Let me bring you up to speed.

As you may have followed, I had a bit of a meltdown last week, when my hard drive crashed. Having (stupidly) not backed up my data recently and being between laptops, I was ready to do anything – anything – to get my data back.

When the Geek Squad didn’t come up to snuff, I turned in desperation to Arthur Zilberman of LaptopMD, who was referred to me on Twitter by Janet Falk. Even though Arthur and I are not in the same physical location, I felt comfortable enough with him to ship my drive off to NYC, to see if he could retrieve what I needed.

I heard from him last night.

The bad news: my drive was in the 30-odd-percent of drives he receives that he can’t do anything for.

The good news: he works with a company in Canada that could probably – but no promises – retrieve my stuff.

The bad news: It would probably cost me $1k+ (factoring in customs, etc.).

The good news: This is less than what it would usually cost me, because of the connection we made through aforesaid Twitter.

(This is starting to sound like one of those bad news/good news jokes, isn’t it?).

Anyhoo, I told Arthur I’d think about it and get back to him today. Then I came home (I was teaching my summer class at Johns Hopkins when he called yesterday) and talked to my husband about it.

“What should I do?” I asked.

He sagely said, “If you can’t live without it, that’s a good price.”

Thanks, hun.

Having had a few days to calm down (and working on my beautiful shiny new MacBook Pro 15″, take that, Mr. PC), I realized that what I was freaking out most about was a particular document on the drive. Almost everything else could be retrieved since, at one point or another, I’d emailed it to someone… and all those emails are captured in my Gmail account.

And this morning, I found I had that document in my email.

Hallelujah!

(You gotta watch that video, btw, it’s hilarious.)

So I called Arthur this evening and told him I was going to pass. He was delighted for me, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

So, the good news: I’m (almost) back on track.

(I promise, there’s no bad news … at least, not now).

All this got me thinking, though.

I had such a bad experience with an organization that I have physically had dealings with, that I sent one of my most valuable possessions to someone I’ve never met, simply because he was referred to me by someone whom, again, I’ve never met, but whom I trust, because of her online reputation and dealings with me, limited as they have been.

In turn, I transferred that trust to Arthur, and his consistently reassuring and down-to-earth communication with me did nothing but bolster my trust in him.

And when I decided to go another way, he didn’t try to stop me; he was happy for me.

I’ve never met Arthur Zilberman. But I entrusted my digital life to him. And if ever I need someone to dig me out of a digital hole, Arthur will be the first person I call.

Can you say that for your company, brand, or PR agency?

In other words…

Got Trust?

Image: Tony Mann, Creative Commons

Calling On The Sisterhood Of Success

Having barely come off the Women Grow Business Boot Camp high (ok, I’m still on it), I’ve seen first-hand, over and over again how my community can help me.

So now, as a new member of the #Mac community, I’m turning to my stylish ladies (and gents) to help me select a great handbag that can also hold my beautiful, shiny, new MacBook Pro 15″.

If there’s anything that makes us women entrepreneurs feel strong and successful, it’s great shoes and a great bag.

Which of these would you – my sisterhood of success – pick for me? Here’s why I picked these five contenders, all available on eBags.com, thanks to a recommendation from Martha Muzychka.

Now, they all seem very sturdy, with lots of room for the other “stuff” we have to carry around, and they’re reasonably priced, so we’re really going on personality here:

1. The McKlein USA W Series Willow Springs Leather Ladies’ Briefcase:

I love the colors this is available in, though the Aqua is my favorite. I’m usually a “warm colors” person, but there’s something about this one that gets my hidden beach girl out.

2. The Siamod Monterosso Collection Serra Ladies Laptop Tote:

Again, I love the color and I think the horizontal buckle is very cool. And the color is HAWT.

3. The Ice Red Shine Glossy Laptop Tote:

If you’ve met me IRL, you’ll know I have a predilection for pink. How cute is this bag?! Somewhat sassy, wouldn’t you say?

4. The Clark & Mayfield Rosemont XL:

Admittedly, this isn’t as bright as the others. But it’s got a real touch of class, as far as I can tell through an LCD screen.

5. The Kailo Chic Women’s Pleated Laptop Tote:

Did Black & White ever look so good?

So: there you have it. The five laptop handbags I’ve narrowed down my search to after several hours online (!). Will you help me out by voting for your fave?

Thanks!

Image: (cc) Shashi Bellamkonda www.shashi.name | Social Media Swami | www.networksolutions.com

How Did I Land On Elm Street?

That nightmarish image you see? That’s how I felt last night… though I’m a little better today.

I was having a perfectly good day, chugging along with work, getting ready for the first-ever Women Grow Business Boot Camp, looking forward to today’s #140conf: DC, and maintaining a relatively sunny disposition despite the three-hour power outage we had.

Then, my hard drive crashed.

The laptop hung. I shut it down. When I tried to restart it, it started singing. I kid you not. “Doo-doo-doo-doo… ” I thought there was a bird in my office or inside my computer. Can you picture me whipping my head wildly from side-to-side to find the perpetrator?

Ugh!

And then up comes a black screen that tells me it’s not seeing any internal devices. Um, WHAT?!

I spent several hours going through the motions of trying to get it going, running diagnostics tests, etc. When I got on the phone with Dell (the manufacturer) and described the problem to them, they said it sounded like my hard drive was fried. There was no way they could fix it – since they couldn’t even get into my computer remotely.

At this point you’re probably wondering why I was freaking out so much. Computers crash all the time, we get them fixed, and we’re ok since our data’s backed up, right?

Um. I hadn’t backed up in a while. Never mind how long.

I know. That was a stupid situation to be in and it will NEVER happen again; but yesterday, I was in the position of having no access to my recent files and a ton of work to get through.

My next step: call the Geek Squad, to see if they could set me up with an emergency appointment to try and retrieve my data. I called, and spoke to I forget how many people, my desperation growing by the minute. I was ready to give them my first-born child (if I had one) if they could have fit me in last night. I spoke to a ton of “Agents,” gave them my zip code over and over again, stressed how critical a situation I was in, and…

Let me tell you something.

Contrary to the image it portrays, the Geek Squad does not swoop into its batmobile, leap tall buildings in a single bound and show up at your doorstep before you can say “vuvuzela.”

No, it makes a note of your problem and tells you someone will call you back within an hour (which they didn’t). Then, when you call them back, they tell you they’re trying to reach the “field manager” by sending them an email, but s/he hasn’t responded yet.

Seriously? And this is their “9-1-1″ service?

With my nerves jangling louder and louder every minute, I did what I always do – turned to Twitter. Within minutes, Janet Falk (whom I’ve never met IRL) had connected me with Arthur Zilberman of LaptopMD. At first I didn’t think he could help me, since he was in New York and I’m not, but I finally got on the phone with him.

Arthur was so reassuring – without making false promises – that as a result, my hard drive is now on its way to him, and tomorrow I’ll know whether or not he can retrieve my data (can everyone cross their fingers and toes, please?).

The good thing in all of this is that since almost all of my “stuff” is online, I can access most of my files. And Google is a lifesaver; I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if I didn’t have Gmail, Google Docs, Google Contacts, etc.

The other ray of sunshine peeking through is that my new MacBook (yes, I’m switching to the bright side) is apparently on its way to me as I type. So maybe, just maybe, it’ll get to me at a decent hour today and I can set it up & get back to work on a normal-size computer (though I’m very grateful this little netbook’s allowing me to continue with work).

My Twitter and Facebook peeps have been marvelous in keeping me going – in fact, I would never have found LaptopMD if it hadn’t been for Janet and Twitter. And Ragan Communications put a big smile on my face today when I saw they’d included yesterday’s post on how Edmund Cude uses mobile to rent apartments in today’s PR Daily. Thank you, Jackson Wightman, for making that happen.

So it’s not all bad, eh?

But I never want to visit Elm Street again.

Image: Kaptain Kobold, Creative Commons

The Slumbering UnGiant Awakes

Don’t choke on your coffee, but I’m back. Or Waxing UnLyrical is back. We’re back. Whichever way you’d like to look at it, we…

I think you got the message.

What have I been doing in these 2+ weeks? Or, more importantly, what’s been going on with WUL in these 2+ weeks?

She’s been sleeping.

Yes, my blog is a girl. Which shouldn’t surprise you at all, given the author’s gender.

Sleep is important. It’s rejuvenating. It helps solve problems. And sometimes it gives way to terrific dreams, which make you go, “Wow! Now that’s what I should do.” If you can remember the dream in the morning, that is.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been in a bit of an online bubble; self-imposed, I hasten to add. I traveled to Jacksonville and Montreal, I took some time off to see my sister after 9+ years (can you believe it?!), enjoyed my outdoor speakers, watered my plants, got ready for my semester at Johns Hopkins, did a s**t-load of work …

… I even slowed down on Twitter. Someone slap me!

So if a person must sleep, so, it seems to me, must a blog.

It might take us some time to get back to normal (whatever that is, and please know I’m not trying to use the royal “we”), but the point is, I’m back. WUL is back.

And hopefully we’ll be refreshed and, in turn, refreshing for you. (If not, we’ll have to nap again).

Thank you for hanging in there with me.

Image: Lina Smith, Creative Commons

To Mama, With Love

With all the noise leading up to Mother’s Day, it was interesting to learn (to me, at least) that it’s not really a Hallmark holiday. At least, that’s not how it started.

White carnations

A certain Anna Jarvis, who hailed from Webster, W. Va., created the holiday as we know it in memory of her mother, though there are several historical precedents to honoring one’s mother.

She was initially laughed at, ridiculed and generally mocked, but she persevered and the day became a reality in 1914.

Old Anna was not happy with how her homage to her mother turned out. (She wanted people to give their mothers white carnations to wear.)

Image: Clyde Robinson, Creative Commons

She ended up a strong opponent of the holiday, and both she and her sister spent their family inheritance campaigning against what the holiday had become… dying in poverty.

Ulp.

One way you can do something different for your mom today

… is by supporting the To Mama, With Love campaign, by creating a “heartspace” for your mom.

This “collaborative online art project”, powered by Epic Change, honors moms across the globe and raises funds to invest in one remarkable Mama who dreams of building a home for children in her village.  Funds raised will be invested in support of Mama Lucy Kamptoni (@MamaLucy), a once-poultry farmer in Tanzania, who sold her chickens and used the income to build a primary school that now provides a high-quality education to over 400 children in Arusha.

Mama Lucy’s next goal, which To Mama With Love seeks to fund, is to build a boarding facility on campus so that every child who attends her school has a place to call home.

The folks at Epic Change told me this costs an estimated U.S. $50,000; as of yesterday, there were over 200 moms honored and over $11K raised.

What you can do

There are a ton of corporate supporters of the campaign, and I’m sure they, Mama Lucy and Epic Change would be delighted if you’d support them as well (and that will go a long way in helping them reach their goal).

But if you don’t want to do that, will you at least create a heartspace for your mom? What a great gift.

This is my heartspace for my mom. I created it not just because I think this is an incredibly cool thing to do/campaign, but because my mother has been/is an educator, and has, for years, been “mom” to more kids than I’ll ever be able to count – through her teaching career, volunteer work and through her simply oh-so-big-heart that knows no bounds. I think she and Mama Lucy would get on famously.

What I’m going to do next is share this on Facebook in the hope that my friends will donate in her honor and/or create their own heartspaces. I have an amazing circle of friends, who’ve often helped me out. But even if they can’t donate (I know times are tough), I hope they’ll honor their mothers in whatever way they can; every day, but especially today.

Thank you Mom, and thank you, Mama Lucy and Epic Change. I believe Anna Jarvis would have been proud.

Dilbert on Press Releases

At least I’ve never had to do this.

If Green Is The New Black

… where does that leave purple?

Image: airdiogo’s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

On The Hunt? Jobs That Might Leave You Gobsmacked

Note: if you don’t read all the way through this post before jumping to put in your application, you may indeed be in danger of being gobsmacked (image: Clint Bohn, Creative Commons).

Job hunters with a yen for clean speak might find this interesting:

Director of Communications, the Ronald Wilson Reagan Hand Sanitizer Project, Washington, DC

Foundation seeks Director of Communications to develop and implement strategic goal of having every hand sanitizer in the United States named after Our Greatest President while promoting healthy habits. Duties include strategic planning across all 50 states and US territories; lobbying on Capitol Hill; op-eds; news releases; event planning; social media; and coordination with industry manufacturers and distributors. With your support, every hand sanitizer in every office, restaurant, medical facility and sports complex will bear the name of The Great Communicator. Resume and Party Affiliation to: RWRSP, The Ronald Reagan Building, 1776 Ronald Reagan Avenue, Washington (Reagantown name change pending), DC 20086.

On the other hand, if you’re going through social media rehab, this might appeal to you:

Communications Specialist, Campaign Against Butt-Dialing, Foggy Bottom, DC

Trade association seeking to eradicate America’s fastest-growing social disease seeks energetic person to serve on the front lines as we launch our latest public awareness campaign, “The Butt Stops Here.” Help us as we appeal to our primary target audience (men) and our secondary target audience (men), as well as tertiary audiences (men) on the importance of proper cell phone storage, butt-dialing etiquette and What To Do When You Accidentally Use All Your Minutes on a Call to Egypt. Resume to buttout (a) cabd (d0t) org. No phone calls please.

And I know buzzword bingo buffs will make a beeline for this one:

Vice President of Jargon, Washington, D.C.

Defense contractor seeks Vice President of Jargon to craft mechanisms that ensure inter-operational optimization and meet mission-critical objectives. Ideal candidate will triage time-sensitive priorities, coordinate infrastructure, enhance operational efficiency and service delivery through service management best practices, drive business innovation, ensure single point-of-accountability across infrastructure and promote time-to-resolution commitments. Background in assured computing preferred. Resume to WTF Corp., Near the Pentagon, Arlington, Va. 22023.

(One, two, three…)

People. Do you remember what today is?

Gotcha!

These are just a few gems (image: Eelco, Creative Commons) from my friend Ned Lundquist’s free, weekly jobs e-newsletter, “Job of the Week” or JOTW (of which I’m sometimes guest editor), and the “infamous March 32nd edition,” as Ned calls it.

Because what could be better than relieving the stress of the job hunt than a good laugh?

So if you’re on the hunt, give yourself a break and have some fun today. And do yourself a huge favor by subscribing to Ned’s newsletter – you’ll find it’ll brighten up your inbox every Monday (and heaven knows Mondays desperately need a makeover).

Did I mention it’s free? And that’s no joke.

Bonus and totally-not-fake tip: if you’re job hunting in the DC area, I strongly recommend you come to the IABC/DC Metro chapter meeting next week. Ned will be joined by Kate Perrin of PRofessional Solutions, the area’s first PR temp agency, and the inimitable Heather Huhman of Come Recommended, to discuss job hunting in a down economy.

With three powerhouses like that present, not to mention the connections you might make, can you afford to miss it? The early bird registration deadline is Tuesday, April 9, and you’re welcome to sign up as my guest for $5 off. I hope to see you there!

Manifesting the Sabbath

Those of you to whom I talk on Twitter, Facebook, email, etc., know that I’ve been keeping crazy hours lately. There’s just a lot going on and sometimes I need to catch up on work (that isn’t affected by when I do it) after hours.

The things I could tell you about the “6 week body” and isn’t Kevin Trudeau tired of being on TV only at 2 a.m.?

Not my preferred mode of work, believe me – I enjoy sleeping far too much, plus I think it’s an extremely bad practice to get into, especially in terms of setting others’ expectations of you.

Crisis communication may demand it, but if you’re in crisis mode every day… well, something needs to change.

At any rate

I was working on my deck yesterday (one of the perks of being my own boss), trying to move my Hopkins course along (my second year of teaching there! w00t!). During one of my self-imposed breaks, I found out that today is apparently the “national day of unplugging” from the Get Rich Slowly blog (love it, you should read it, because who doesn’t want to?), thanks to something called the “Sabbath Manifesto.”

Here’s what GRS says:

Yesterday on Twitter (ironic I know), I stumbled upon the Sabbath Manifesto. From the website, the Sabbath Manifesto is “a creative project designed to slow down lives in an increasingly hectic world.” Perfect!

The Sabbath Manifesto encourages people to set aside one day a week to take a timeout from life. On this one day, you’re urged to:

1. Avoid technology.
2. Connect with loved ones.
3. Nurture your health.
4. Get outside. (Image: Michele Molinari, Creative Commons)
5. Avoid commerce.
6. Light candles.
7. Drink wine.
8. Eat bread.
9. Find silence.
10. Give back.

The Sabbath Manifest is co-ordinating a National Day of Unplugging. From sundown on March 19th to sundown on March 20th, we’re being called to turn off and unplug our gadgets to whatever degree we feel comfortable. This has the potential to benefit our selves, our relationships, our environment — and our pocketbooks.

Check out this video too.

Sometimes things just fall into place.

The day before yesterday, Sean Williams (whom I’m looking forward to meeting for the first time at IABC/Cleveland next week, are you coming? At least to the #shonalitweetup happy hour?) and I were bitching talking about being time management, etc., the way consultants do.

Yesterday my eyes felt like sandpaper, thanks to consecutive nights of 3-5 hours’ sleep.

Then I come across this post, as well as my friend (and client) Shashi Bellamkonda’s musings on whether the wi-fi on Amtrak’s Acela Express is going to be a good thing or bad thing (and let me tell you, when I used to do the weekly run up and down from NYC at my last job, the “quiet car” was a godsend).

So that’s it. I’m unplugging today (and you’re reading this post because I scheduled it, ha) barring any paperwork I have to take care of thanks to some really unethical person intercepting, stealing AND CASHING a client payment.

Other than that – no Tweeting, no Facebooking, no nothing. There might be wine, though I don’t know about the bread. Definitely candles.

There shall be space. And peace. And on Sunday, hopefully I will be refreshed enough to plow through another round of deadlines, and there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

You should do the same.

Happy unplugging!

This Is What 40 Looks Like

There’s a terrific post over at Women Grow Business today on “the incredible disappearing woman” by Liz Scherer, one of WGB’s regular contributors. As editor of WGB, you could accuse me of being biased, and I suppose that would be understandable… though not, IMHO, accurate, but that’s neither here nor there.

When I read through Liz’ post, these words of Gloria Steinem when told she didn’t look 40, as relayed by Mollie Katzen, struck a particular chord with me:

“This is what 40 looks like.”

What an incredibly empowering phrase.

I celebrated my 40th birthday this year with as much pandemonium as I could muster. My community was incredibly generous, helping me raise money for a cause particularly dear to my heart. And then I had an absolutely amazing time in London, UK, as part of my belated “birthday blowout.”

Complete strangers have been exceedingly kind to me, such as the British Airways employee who, as part of the rigorous screening on our way back to the US after my delayed b’day celebration in London, cocked her head at me and said, “… are you trying to make ME feel old?” (when I told her the reason for our trip).

Still, as a woman who’s no longer on the “right side” of 30, I can’t help but wonder sometimes…

… am I over the oft-referenced hill?

Was my grand proclamation of my age this year a set up for encountering ageism in the workplace when I don’t hold all the cards I think I do now?

Truth be told, I don’t know. Perhaps these words will come back to bite me some day. But this I do know, 99% of the women I encounter really do grow better as they age.

Perhaps it’s a question of “growing into my skin,” as I told a former boss of mine 10 years ago, when she asked how I was adjusting to life in the US after moving from India.

But if I could turn back the clock, I would, right?

No. I wouldn’t. Whatever I’ve been through, whatever I’ve done, have made me who I am today, and have put me in exactly the right place at the exactly the right time.

You can call that new-agey, if you like, but that is really how I feel.

I’ll say it loud and I’ll say it proud. This is what 40 looks like.

In Perpetual Motion: Reflections On a 2.0 Vacation

That’s me coming out of a London phone booth on Heddon Street last week. If any David Bowie fans are reading this, they’re nodding their heads; and if the rest of you are scratching your noggins wondering what I’m going on about, here’s why Heddon Street is legendary to Ziggy Stardust fans, of whom my husband is king (and therefore, by association, am I queen).

In perpetual motion

You’re also probably wondering why I chose a photo that’s a bit fuzzy to illustrate this post. I did so because it captures me in motion, and that’s what our vacation (which was wonderful) felt like.

We were in perpetual motion, as we took in the Globe, Abbey Road, Lord’s, Abbaworld (awesome!), some great restaurants and the whole point of going to London in some very crappy weather – to see Elvis Presley in Concert as my “milestone birthday” celebration. (After all, when you’re in one of the world’s most vibrant cities for five days, you want to do as much as you can.)

It’s also how I think of life today. Ever since getting back to the U.S., I’ve slowly been getting back to my “real” life, which was blissfully suspended for a week. And real life in the 21st century moves very, very fast. The kind of thing we say we want to get away from… which is why we go on vacation, right?

Kinda sorta. While we were traveling, I did keep my Blackberry close at hand, but I didn’t send too many emails from it (at least, I’d like to think I didn’t, though my colleagues at IABC/DC Metro are probably snorting right now).

So while the vacation was meant to be a getaway, I didn’t really “get away” as much as I could have… but was that a bad thing?

The 2.0 vacation

Because of my BB, for example, we were able to minimize how much paper (directions, addresses, etc.) that we carried with us while we were traipsing across the city. A green vacation… after a fashion!

And I was able to stay in touch with my Twitter peeps thanks to Ubertwitter. One of them, Howard Riefs, introduced me to the fabulous Tom Aikens, who very kindly made a reservation for me at Tom’s Kitchen (which you really have to go to when you’re next in London). The best eggs benedict I’ve eaten in a while, not to mention the best loo sign ever. Check it out:

They also told me how much postage I’d need to mail in some bill payments that I’d forgotten to drop off in the mad rush before we left. Staying connected helped me find one of London’s three remaining post offices (or so someone said) and take that load off my mind.

Because we had mobile connectivity, we were able to find some really dinky record stores – the kind that only take cash – that my husband’s been dreaming of going to.

And I was able to meet up with friends like Richard Bagnall and Ved Sen, and meet IRL tweeps such as Kristin Wadge, Russell Pearson, Bryce Keane and Sheema Siddiqui (the latter of whom organized a #shonalitweetup – love it!)

Whether we like it or not, hyper-connectivity is part and parcel of our lives, especially for those of us who live in the social media plane. Yes, that’s sometimes tiring, even irritating… but it can also be incredibly helpful.

So while it’ll take me a little time to get back into full 2.0 work mode, I’m grateful to the 2.0 world for adding dimension to a vacation that was a once-in-a-lifetime event for us.

You might call it a 2.0 vacation.

That’s a Lotta Snow: #snowmageddon 2010

Didn’t think you’d manage to escape another #snowmageddon-dogs video, didja?

To set the stage, though (remember I used to be in the theater business), here’s what our deck (which is what the kitchen door opens out onto, and the way we get into our backyard, and where the dogs… you know…) looked like this morning around 7 am EST, followed by Lola Elizabeth (don’t you know bassets always, ALWAYS, must have middle names) looking out of the window longingly. And once you’ve had a gander at the photos (more here), do enjoy the video.

And as I write this – the deck is covered again. Sigh.

Happy #snowmageddon!

Snowmageddon’s Upon Us!

I took this video of my dogs the last time we had “snowmageddon” in the DC area, just before Christmas. That wasn’t even two months ago (dear Zeus, if you’re reading this, I’ve had enough, thank you).

I never got around to posting it the last time, though a few of my Twitter friends enjoyed it – and this time around it seems it’ll snow for quite a while before we can enjoy another canine romp through the white stuff.

Until then, for your viewing pleasure, here you go (and check out those abs on Lola the basset). Stay safe!

Getting on Board with Women Grow Business

Thanks to my (wonderful) friends, this particular cat got out of the bag before I could untie the strings, so I’m going to make this short and sweet (though I’ve been dying to tell you for a while): I’m really excited to be taking over the reins at Women Grow Business, an amazing community hosted by Network Solutions to help women do exactly that: grow their business.

With content from leading women entrepreneurs on a variety of subjects, Women Grow Business has really made a name for itself in an extremely short span of time, thanks to a great many people, but particularly, I think, because of Shashi Bellamkonda and Jill Foster; it’s the latter whose able hands I’ll be taking over WGB from.

Because of their efforts in building a vibrant, thriving community, WGB has received so many accolades, it’s a little mind-boggling: one of Forbes’ 20 best marketing and social media blogs by women, to name just one, not to mention Jill herself being listed by Forbes as one of 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter (and whatever your opinion about Twitter lists, you have to admit that’s a pretty cool one to be on).

Fyi, Shonali Burke Consulting still lives

Quick aside: in case you were wondering whether I’m giving up my consulting business – no, I’m not. Shonali Burke Consulting is alive and kicking and open for business. Hey, that’s what Women Grow Business is all about, right?

Back to WGB

So, anyway. I’m pinching myself because I can’t quite believe I get to do this – but I need your help.

Women Grow Business will not remain, or grow from, the amazing community/community blog it already is if women entrepreneurs and business owners don’t join in.

So please, visit me over at WGB, send me ideas for guest posts, let me know how you’d like to be involved. Follow us on Twitter and stay tuned for more developments online as well as offline, that we’d love you to be a part of.

Thank you for the incredible warmth and happiness you’ve shown to me today, and I’m looking forward to growing this wonderful community with you!

Smile

‘Cos that’s the kind of week it’s been.

Have a great weekend.

Image: 1Happysnapper(photography), Creative Commons

See, Hear, Give. Please.

Photo: Matthew Marek/American Red Cross

Photo: IFRC/Eric Quintero

Please give what you can, to the American Red Cross, Hope for Haiti (You can “Chipin” easily via the 12for12K widget below) or another reputable charitable organization. Thank you.

Of Sugar And Spice And Everything Nice

It’s my birthday, and I’m taking the day off, but I needed to say this to you, so here goes:

Remember the nursery rhyme? “Of sugar and spice, and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of.” Little boys seemed to get the shaft on that one (I mean, who wants to be made of snips and snails and puppy dogs’ tails?).

That popped into my head this morning as I was looking at the incredible kindness and warmth flowing towards me today, my 40th birthday. Actually, the flow started a few days ago, when people started donating to my birthday fundraiser for Kids with Cameras via Facebook’s Causes application.

I’m thrilled to report that thanks to your generosity my goal of raising $800 was long surpassed and, as of this writing, we’re up to $966 that will go a long way in changing the lives of marginalized kids around the world. If you’d like to keep donating, though, don’t stop! Or do consider helping by “joining” the cause, spreading the word, etc. – you know the deal.

I may be beginning my own new decade today, but I’d like to think I’ve still got some sugar and spice left in me. And a large part of that is because of the people around me and I get to know each day. Social media, in particular, has opened up my world in a way I could have never conceived. So has IABC and the wonderful people I keep meeting through professional events.

And when those professional connections grow into relationships, boy, I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot. At last night’s IABC/Washington chapter meeting, for example, as I got up to make the announcements (because I’m chapter president and all), the entire room sang happy birthday to me.

WOW.

(By the way, my friend Shashi Bellamkonda took the photograph of me with Jakub Konysz, our chapter’s co-VP, Professional Development, who told me, quite sincerely, that I “look great for 40.” How cute was that?)

I am very lucky to have all of you as my sugar and spice. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I hope, in some small way, I am – or can be – that for you too.

And now – here’s to the Fab Forties. Bring ‘em on, I’m ready to rumble!

Photo: courtesy (cc) Shashi Bellamkonda www.shashi.name Social Media Swami Network Solutions

Year Two, Here We Come

As I mentioned yesterday, this blog turned a year old on January 10. Another milestone for me in a year of milestones (another one’s coming up on January 15, in case you missed my post from yesterday).

It’s been quite a ride, which is why I decided to use this wonderful photograph from West Zest’s Flickrstream (CC-licensed, of course) as a visual accompaniment to this post.

Because I felt quite childlike when I started my journey through the blogosphere; wonder that you cared what I thought, glee when it made you chuckle, and overwhelmed when you showed you cared, like when you helped find Darby a home.

I plan to share some of my lessons learned in this first year of blogging in a follow-up post, but this particular one is meant to thank a few people who really helped me out, started me off and kept me going. This is not an “Oscar” list by any stretch of the imagination; I’ve received so much support from around the world it would be impossible for me not to leave someone off a larger “thank you” list – so please know I really, really appreciate all of you.

In particular, though, I need to thank:

Kami Huyse, who gave me my first guest post slot even before I started this blog. She took a chance on me and, as a result, put me on the path to Wax UnLyrical.

Robin Lane, who patiently sat through countless IMs about “what the heck do I call it?” I wanted it to have a really great name, and she told me to go with my gut.

Lisa Hoffmann, who gave freely of her advice and encouragement. She’s one of the nicest, most welcoming people it’s been my good fortune to meet.

Joe Perez, who has taught, and continues to teach, me so much. Joe helps me out with all sorts of blog-related stuff, from SEO, to plugins, to Idon’tknowwhatchacallemsbuttheyrock, at all hours of the day and night. Joe, some day when I’m rich, I’ll buy you an island.

Jeff Crites, who connected me to Joe. Jeff – you probably don’t even remember, but it was an IM on Facebook that set this whole thing off. So really, this whole thing is your fault.

Shashi Bellamkonda, who shares his love of technology and tools freely, and who has given me countless tips on how and where to start making this blog more visible.

If you’ve visited, commented, shared my posts, tweeted or retweeted them out, subscribed (gasp!), you’ve kept me going. And that has led to some wonderful connections, professional opportunities and even a legitimate advertising inquiry (just one, just yesterday, but it’s a start, right?). Someone pinch me.

Thank you all. Year Two and beyond – here we come!

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

Yesterday this blog turned a year old. I’ve actually been doing this – sometimes not at all consistently, but I’ve hung in there – for a year.

Wow!

I do want to share some thoughts on what I’ve been through as a new blogger, as well as call out some people without whom it wouldn’t have been possible, but right now, I’m going to share another milestone.

In four days, I’ll turn 40.

Yup, I thought I’d get a bigger reaction out of you with that one. Time flies when you’re having fun.

I don’t know if I’m killing my future career prospects by revealing my age, but let’s face it, if you know me and/or have been following me, you should’ve figured it out by now.

Plus, this is supposed to be social media and the 21st century, right? “We’re here and we’re ol-der, get used to it” and all that.

I’ll confess, I still get a kick out of it when I’m carded. Who doesn’t like being thought younger than they are, other than, possibly, five-year-olds? But I watched with admiration as Danny Brown pulled together the 12for12K initiative when he turned 40 and figured I could try to do something along those lines.

This year, I’m trying to raise money for Kids with Cameras, a non-profit organization that teaches the art of photography to marginalized children in communities around the world. And right now, they’re undergoing a capital campaign to build a safe haven for young girls from Kolkata’s (my home town) red light district.

I tried to bring attention to them on my birthday last year, having been inspired by the likes of Beth Kanter, and my friends and community – you – were very kind in keeping me going.

If you didn’t read (or don’t remember) what I wrote about them last year, and why I relate to the Kids with Cameras, here it is. And I still believe that we communicators have an enviable opportunity to touch others, by virtue of what we do. Communication is our lens.

This year, I’d really appreciate your support – and celebration of all I’ve put up with to get to 40! – by you visiting my Facebook Cause and, if it moves you, donating whatever you can to help me raise $800 for them. It’s not 12for12K-level, but it’s a beginning. And my friends Alissa Friedman and Geoff Livingston have kicked it off – thank you both!

Will you help me change the lives of children you’ve never met? It really would be the best birthday gift ever.

Thank you!

Image: Kids with Cameras

Why Elvis Is Always On My Mind

Gulp. I jumped the gun. In my excitement over the King’s upcoming remembrance, I published this on January 7 when he was, in fact, born on January 8, 1935. So I’m editing the beginning of this post to reflect that accuracy, and apologize for my inaccuracy, or eagerness, whichever one makes you more likely to forgive me. The rest remains the same. Rock on, Elvis.

Tomorrow would have been Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday. And this is my tribute, admittedly a very tiny one, to someone who literally touched my life across space and time. Is that a strange thing to say for a gal from India who landed in DC via San Francisco?

Back in The Day

I grew up in a home attuned to music. My maternal grandmother was an operatic soprano, and my mother has a gorgeous alto. She is also the one who turned me onto Elvis.

Apparently my mother (who was quite a hottie in her day) could have put any of her American counterparts to shame as an Elvis fan. She was a member of his fan club in India (I don’t know how they did it back in the day, but somehow they managed to establish a fan club for him), and I think she still has a couple of her old Elvis “annual” magazines. I remember leafing through those as a kid and being transported to the world of “Blue Hawaii” and “Roustabout” through the black-and-white photographs I’d see.

When we got a VCR, musicals were some of our favorites to watch – and Elvis rated high on our list. I know, most of them are very cheesy, but who could resist those eyes, that hair, those songs? Indian television was pretty boring when I was a kid, so trips to the video rental place were eagerly awaited.

And beware the store owner if the tape was defective in any way; an Elvis fan thwarted is an Elvis fan to be wary of.

Fast forward several (never mind how many) years, and here I am, in the land that gave the world the King of Rock’n'Roll. Not only do I live here, I even got to drive through and visit Elvis’ “homeland” last year. It was our 10th wedding anniversary “country music/Elvis homage road trip” through Tennessee (my husband’s a fan too, but I like to think he became a bigger fan since we got married – don’t let him tell you otherwise).

Visiting Graceland (carefully planned so that the tour actually happened on our anniversary) was surreal – in a really good way. We’d been to the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame the previous year, so seen a lot of the Elvis-a-bilia there, but it’s a completely different experience to walk his line. And I got goosebumps at Sun Studios, though that didn’t prevent me from hamming it up (I used to be an actress, after all).

And if you’re into music but haven’t read Peter Guralnick’s masterful books on the life and death of the King, you should; they’re not just beautifully written, they’re a fascinating look at not just Elvis, but of the world he lived in and the music that inspired him; music that is intrinsically American.

What Kind of Fan?

We’re not the crazy, “I think Elvis is still alive” kind of fans. I’ll admit that I currently have an Elvis screen saver, and revel in my Christmas gift of an Elvis bathrobe. And an Elvis house key. But that’s not crazy, just cute, right? I mean, I don’t expect to wake up at 5 am and find him sitting in my kitchen, wanting me to whip up a peanut butter and banana sandwich for him.

That would be spooky.

The Big Question: Why?

I could say: why not? I love the music – it makes me happy. His voice and mastery of his craft – impeccable. Every time I watch a concert, I’m agape at how he could – even when he was on the way down – mesmerize audiences with his sheer force of personality.

More than that, though, he touched lives in a way he certainly didn’t know he’d do. He touched the lives of people he never knew – like my mother – in countries he probably never even dreamed of visiting. He touched – and continues to touch – generations.

Even for a performer, whose job it is to communicate using their medium, he was a master communicator; one shake of the head, one look of the eye, one curl of the lip and you knew what was going on inside his head.

Is it just the music? That’s a large part of it, obviously. And performers have a “shortcut” to their audiences. But I think there’s something extraordinarily powerful about Elvis’ rags-to-riches story, his well-documented adoration of his mother and, at the end of it, the sheer simplicity and humanity of him.

As a communicator, Elvis has absolutely nothing to do with how I earn a living. But my unabashed, possibly uncool, adoration has led to some incredible connections with others in my field, which have benefited me personally and professionally.

Just as an example, a relationship with a client – whom I’ve known for years, and which has always been good – went to a whole other level when I found out he actually saw Elvis perform live. Now we connect not just as client and consultant, but as people with a common interest too.

So when I say he’s “always on my mind,” it’s not just me being dippy about a music icon; he really does continue to touch my life and enrich it.

We’re All People

Because at the end of the day, we’re all people. And when an Elvis comes along, we’re reminded of just how great, yet how fallible, people can be – we can be. But somehow, he kept going. And that keeps us going.

Happy birthday, King.

Counting Down the Decade

Posted via web from shonali’s posterous

Holiday Cards, PR and ROI

Heads up: I ramble quite a bit through this post, so if you’re hell-bent on reading it, you might want to settle in with a cup of hot cocoa. On the plus side, there are some pretty pictures involved. Having said that, read on!

It’s two days until Christmas Day (which we do celebrate). Though I still have a lot of festive “stuff” to do, I’m not feeling as manic as I was yesterday.

That’s because I finally got our Christmas holiday cards out yesterday. And they all arrived the same day; because I used Plaxo (of which I’m a premium member, and I have to thank John McCrea for responding almost immediately via Twitter to an issue I had yesterday, which was resolved in record time) to send out customized cards to our family and friends.

Remember When…

I can remember the time when December 22nd would have been unthinkable as an acceptable time frame for a holiday “mailing.” In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that we’d do the holiday card thing the traditional way: via snail mail.

It was certainly fun to design our cards and get them printed (we’d use Ofoto, which is now Kodak Gallery) to order our cards. Then write in each of them (which I think is a must-do if you’re going the traditional route, otherwise it’s like sending a bcc email to people) while trying to avoid carpal tunnel, embark on the inevitable trudge to the post office, buy a gazillion stamps, and get ‘em in the mail. And hope they’d actually arrive in time.

Since we don’t have kids but are “pet parents,”our cards would feature our pets; more specifically, one of our pets – the basset hound, Hank. It’s not that we don’t love our other dogs, but bassets just seem to be made to be cover dogs. Hank died very tragically last year, so 2007 was the last time we actually had a “real” holiday card:

We did adopt another basset, Lola, and I guess were ready to bring back the basset holiday card this year. However, also this year, life “stuff” happened, and it also seemed a good idea to curtail at least some non-essential spending (yes, it’s that whole economy thing).

So all our cards this year are e-cards (we’d started bringing an e-version of our cards into the mix a few years ago, but went 100% electronic this year).

To Mail or Not To Mail?

I was curious as to how my friends and Tweeps were approaching the holidays, so I sent out a Twtpoll asking whether they were doing holiday greetings the traditional way or not:Quite honestly, I expected most of them to say they were going online. But out of the 38 responses to the poll (not to mention a couple of responses on Facebook), the majority WERE going with traditional cards. Here are some of the responses and reasons:

Relationships Rule

You can read all the responses if you click through to the poll. I found it rather heartwarming that in this age of technology, when we have a tendency to bemoan anything that’s not at the speed of mouse, a great many people choose to stick with tradition.

Admittedly, this was not a scientific poll, but I did think it revealed a lot about the importance people attach to relationships and their thoughtfulness about what the recipients would prefer… as well as the fact that many of them made a conscious decision to incur the expense involved in sending traditional cards, which is no small potatoes if you have a large family and extensive business or social networks (I don’t know if that’s going to save the US Postal Service, but that’s another post… or several).

Taking this a step further, this is really good public relations on a micro level, if you think about it. Knowing your audience, how it likes to be communicated with, and then sending the communications that will appeal to them.

What About ROI?

I thought the comment about “ROI” was interesting. How do you measure the ROI of holiday greetings? By how many responses you get to your cards, or cards you receive in return? By how many of the recipients become clients, or brand evangelists? By how much pleasure you derive from them?

From my point of view, I don’t have a quantifiable objective to my holiday greetings – I know, that sounds like heresy coming from an avowed measurement fanatic! I want my friends and colleagues to know I hold the relationships I have with them in high esteem.

So my goal, when I send out greetings, is to do just that – maintain my relationship with treasured friends or business contacts, and move those relationships that are at the acquaintance level up a step or two. It’s one stage in the constant (hopefully mostly upward) spiral of relationships.

And that, in my opinion, is what public relations needs to do, and be. Because business is all – ALL – about relationships.

Which brings me to you.

Even though I might not actually “know” some of you reading this post right now, we do have the beginnings of a relationship by virtue of the fact that you’re reading this. So I hope you’ll enjoy our 2009 holiday greeting, featuring Lola, the Burke Basset during “Snowmageddon” 2009.

Thank you for stopping by, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you better in 2010. Happy holidays!

And before I forget: what do you think about holiday cards, relationships and ROI? I really do want to know what you think about that, so please do share your thoughts in the comments section.

The beautiful image of a vintage Christmas card at the beginning of my post is from karen horton’s Flickrstream.

PR: Make 2010 Your WIIFM Year

Last week I (and several others) attended IABC/Washington‘s holiday party. I think a decent time was had by all (I had fun, but then, I’m the chapter president so I’d hardly rat my own chapter out).

We had wonderful holiday music provided by the Marsh Brothers (one of whom, Greg Marsh, is a chapter member; I learned this thanks to Judy Gombita, who is, I’m convinced, omniscient). We raised money for Bread for the City via a raffle ($450) and donations and we networked our hearts out. I can’t thank our raffle donors enough.

Measurement legend Angela Sinickas made a surprise appearance, which thrilled me, measurement fanatic that I am. She generously made an on-the-spot raffle donation as well, as did Paul Duning of the Capitol Communicator. The food wasn’t great, but the bonhomie was.

What really warmed the cockles of my heart, though, was when we did a slightly different iteration of what we call the “go around.” (We say this is an IABC/Washington tradition, but I have no way of knowing if any other chapters or groups do it.)

At any rate, the “go around” is where we invite anyone new to the chapter or IABC, looking for a job or with a job to offer to stand up and share that information. It’s a way for us to welcome newcomers as well as for job-seekers and providers alike to be able to identify each other, not to mention put them on the radars of those who might be able to help them.

Last week, we added something to the GA. We asked people to share good news – account wins, new jobs, etc. – as well.

You know what? Many people did; quite frankly, way more than I expected in this economy. And almost all of them had something good to say about IABC in the bargain. One even credited his new job – a 17-month process! – with a specific IABC-sponsored workshop and offered to share his learnings with anyone who wanted. Which, obviously, is a great thing for potential new members and sponsors stopping by to hear.

WIIFM

One of the questions I hear over and over again, when it comes to association membership, is “What’s in it for me?” Even if it’s not explicitly stated, you know that’s where the questioner’s going.

If you’d been at our holiday party, I believe you’d have gotten the answer very clearly. What’s in it for you is camaraderie. What’s in it for you is experience. What’s in it for you is giving and receiving through the generosity of spirit.

What’s in it for you are the completely unanticipated consequences of throwing in your lot with a bunch of your fellow communicators who, once they see you’re along for the ride, will start bringing value to your life in ways you probably never imagined.

And while no one can promise you a job, or a raise, or a promotion as the result of joining such a group, chances are you’ll get more out of it than you ever dreamed of. But you’ve got to show up and get involved.

My Wish for You: a 2010 Resolution

If there’s one thing you do for yourself as a PR or communication professional, as 2009 gives way to 2010, please consider this: commit to a professional development group and pitch in. That last part is important; you’ve got to get involved.

It doesn’t have to be IABC; choose your local PRSA chapter or any other group where you feel a gathering of kindred spirits. I know it’s not inexpensive and believe me, I’ve felt the pinch.

But it really is the best investment you can make in yourself and your growth as a professional. You’ll make incredibly strong bonds with people you might otherwise never have met along the way… and you know what else? Your career will follow.

That’s what’s in it for you.

All photographs © 2009 Marvin T. Jones

Thank You, Muppets… And You

I had grand plans of writing a Thanksgiving-related post. But then stuff happened, and the post won’t.

So when I saw this floating around on Twitter yesterday (h/t Jennifer McLellan), I knew it was the perfect way for me to say “thank you” to everyone who’s a part of my life; online and offline.. you know who you are. I hope this lifts your hearts as much as it did mine.

Thank you for sharing my life. You keep me going.

These Shoes Were Made For Walking

We had a great time last night at #shonalitweetup and yes, I will be posting photos from that event, but I’ve got just a few minutes before Arianna Huffington‘s keynote begins at PRSA2009.

Very quickly, though, here are some of the cutest shoes I’ve seen at the conference so far.

Why shoes?

There’s a lot of walking and standing at an event like this. Whether you’re an attendee, sponsor or presenter, your tootsies need to feel good, otherwise your networking’s going to be painful and potentially disastrous (as for presentations? Don’t even go there). And you know what a good conversation starter they are.

Plus, what kind of PR people would we be if we couldn’t find hot yet comfy shoes?

Here are some of the good ones so far:

Michelle Apodaca’s olive-colored Tsubos, one of Decker’s six brands. She said, “Tsubo means pressure point in Japanese… hence super comfortable!”

These are what Johna Burke of BurrellesLuce is wearing today. I don’t know what brand they are, but they’re hot.

Can’t leave the gentlemen out. Mike Pranikoff of PRNewswire never disappoints when it comes to cool duds.

And finally, moi. Franco Sarto. I love ‘em.

If I find more great shoes to showcase, I’ll add them to my Flickrstream. So if you’re at the conference and have a pair to show off, tweet me.

Oh, and props to Trevor Loe for admitting he owns more pairs of shoes than his wife. There’s a guy after my own heart.

Update, 8 pm PDT.

Sandra Fathi, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

I saw these on Amy ___ (?) as I was coming out of Arianna Huffington‘s keynote. Even though they’re wedges, the heels look pretty high, so I think they qualify for this particular exercise, don’t you?

Tweetup… A Pocketful of Rainbows

I told you a couple of days ago about #shonalitweetup that’s being organized around PRSA2009. Now I’m really excited that we’ve added another layer to what I know is going to be a great evening and will, I hope, help an extremely worthy fund raising effort meet its goal.

We’ve partnered with 12for12K to help one of its charities, Musicians on Call. If you’re active in the social media world, you’re already familiar with 12for12K and Danny Brown, the brains and passion behind it. If you’re not, you can learn more here and here.

So, in a nutshell, if we all give a little, we’ll be able to help some extremely worthy causes. $12K per charity sounds like an awful lot, but not if we all chip in $10, $20, whatever we can (and companies, you should be giving more!). Little drops of water, little grains of sand, etc.

All the charities that have been selected for 12for12K are worthy causes. Even if we haven’t lived in a war zone, been excruciatingly hungry, or have been blessed with keeping our vision, we can identify with those who have/do, have been/are, and haven’t/can’t. If you haven’t been touched by these issues directly, you have been, in some way, shape or form, indirectly.

When it comes to music, though, there is not a single person who has not been touched by it directly. Remember how excited I was to visit Graceland, or listening to/watching Adam Lambert? In other words, the soundtrack of our lives.

So please help Danny and his team support Musicians on Call. Here are some ways in which you can do this:

1. If you’re coming to #shonalitweetup, consider chipping in. Yes, the tweetup is still sponsored, thanks to PRNewswire, Mike Smith Public Affairs and dna13 (that means hosted beverages and pie aka pizza for a limited time, so that we don’t drink Bar Basic out of house and home). And you don’t have to chip in – but it would be so nice if you would.

2. Whether you’re coming to the tweetup or not, share this post and/or the link to its 12for12K page with your networks; Facebook, Twitter, even email… you know the drill. Oh, and how about embedding the donation widget on your blog?

3. If you really think this is a good idea, put the squeeze on people you can ask directly to chip in.

You, my community, have been very good to me – from egging me on when I started this blog a whopping 11 months ago, to helping me find Darby the GSD a home. I hope I’ve been good for you in some way too. Now let’s all be good for 12for12K and Musicians On Call.

One other thing – and this is very important – just because the tweetup is tomorrow night, we’re not going to stop trying to help there. 12for12K runs through the end of the year… so we have a few weeks to help them reach their goal. Let’s do it!

Can we help some very worthwhile causes find their pockets full of rainbows?

As always, thank you from the bottom of my heart. (Psst, I downloaded MoC’s logo from their site, in case you want to do that as well).

I’m Baaack

Thanks to H1N1 whirling through my house and a whole bunch of other things, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. It’s even been a while since I tweeted like I normally do. Not because I couldn’t figure out what to say, but because I was too tired to say anything.

Somewhat like Jon Newman, I was wondering how I’d segue into my “return.”

Then I realized – I don’t have to.

So: I’m back. If you missed me, I’m touched, and just so you know, I missed you too. If you didn’t, I can’t blame you.

But if you stuck around, thank you. Everyone who reached out to me, particularly on Facebook and Twitter, to find out what was going on, thank you. I promise I’ll try to make it worth your while.

And this infectious [sic], smile-inducing photo is from Amber Larson1.

This Is What I Feel Like…

… between work, illness and events (which I’m still excited about, so if you’re going to be at IABC/Washington’s Silver Inkwell Awards gala tonight, or BlogPotomac tomorrow, make sure you say ‘hello’).

And until things settle down, I won’t be *here* for a while. So if you miss me (hah!) just press play, and you’ll be in my world.

Some Days You’ve Got to Hit the Panic Button

… Like today. So if you too are drowning in work (and other stuff), have a laugh on me. And Michelle Hinson, thank you for sending this button my way.

Help Manila After Ondoy

This morning I was relieved to get an email from one of my IABC contacts in the Philippines, Rosan Cruz; I was worried about her when I heard about the devastating floods Manila has been reeling from in the wake of Typhoon Ondoy.

We don’t have to speak the language to hear the heartbreak in these people’s voices. And we certainly don’t have to be in Manila or geographically nearby to lift a helping hand.

Via Twitter, Rosan shared a link that tells you how you can help. I’m sure there are many others out there, though this seems quite a comprehensive list of what’s going on. If you’re trying to keep tabs on things via Twitter, the #ondoy search seems to be updating pretty frequently.

Please do what you can, even if it means “only” sharing news and information. As communicators, that’s the least we can do.

Mirror, Mirror, On My Mind

Friday’s probably a good day to Wax Lyrical for a change. So,with some trepidation, I share with you the first poem I ever wrote; or, at least, the first poem I ever thought was halfway decent.

The Background

I wrote this in 1992, when India was just starting to experience a loosening up of the airwaves, with access to things like American soap operas and MTV (though MTV India wasn’t launched until a few years later). Doordarshan – Indian public television – was suddenly no longer the only entertainment option (and I use the word “entertainment” loosely).

Artistes like Anuradha Paudwal, a popular Indian singer, were in danger of being toppled from their pedestals as more Americanized performers started to appear. Words like “yuppies” were making their way into our vocabulary, foreign brands were moving from the “black” to the “white” market, and the cocktail party circuit was bulging with “culture vultures,” as they were often referred to. India – at least, my India – was encountering a kind of cultural colonialism from “the West” that it was unsure of how to respond to. (Whether or how it responded is a whole other discussion.)

I was in drama school, and this poured out of me after a particularly cathartic exercise. I was naive enough to believe that a “four-figure job” was something to aspire to. Re-reading it, I point a pretty good finger… but it was always pointing back at me as well.

Oh, one more thing: we don’t use American-style punctuation in India… at least, we didn’t then. This is just as I wrote it, many years ago.

The Poem

Life is treating you right; the future seems great
A four-figure job; not much longer to wait
Till you get that promotion you’re so sure you deserve;
After all, you’ve got grit; you’ve got style; you’ve got nerve.

The refrigerator’s stocked, the cable’s connected;
With ‘Santa Barbara’ on the air, Doordarshan’s rejected;
With CD’s available, two-in-ones are passé;
Move over, Ms. Paudwal, it’s MTV’s day.

From Gucci to Nike, you’re in step with the times,
And you talk over cocktails on escalating crimes
In the city; and you deplore the fate of the planet,
And wonder why on earth someone just doesn’t ban it -

All this ‘unenvironmental activity’ and ‘pollution’
And ‘smog’ and ‘deforestation’ – what’s the solution
To the ‘widening ozone hole’ and the ‘greenhouse effect’?
To the ‘oil spills’ and ‘global warming’ experts detect?

In your world of plastics you sit, quite satisfied
That you’re doing your best; that you really have tried
To make people aware of the knowledge you glean
From ‘TIME’, ‘Newsweek’ and the idiot-machine.

But where were you when the earth was thrashed,
And the mountains were whipped, and the trees were lashed,
And the streams and the rivers and the valleys were bound
And were doomed to death ? Not a whisper, not a sound.

Where were you when the rain turned acid and sour?
And a tree lost its leaves and a plant its flower?
And the sun took on new and terrifying hues?
Where were you when the earth began to pay its dues?

Where were you when the condor became its own prey?
Where were you when the dolphin’s smile began to fade away?
Where were you when the blue whale let out it’s silent cry?
Where were you when the earth began to die?

Photo: musicwala

Thank you for stopping by.

Drum Roll: Darby Has a New Home

When I started blogging about Darby the German Shepherd a little under a month ago, I had no idea if my question, “Can Social Media Find Darby a Home?” would be answered, let alone in the affirmative.

(If you’re catching up on the Darby story, you can find the earlier posts at the bottom of this one. In a nutshell, though, Darby’s a beautiful GSD who used to belong to my husband’s late uncle, who lived in Portland, Ore., and died suddenly on vacation in late April. My mission in life since that time has been to find Darby a home.)

I am SO happy and relieved that finally, the answer, is a resounding “yes.” Last night, Darby went home with Ron and Shawnee Ostrom, a lovely couple who live just outside Portland with their two sons, Garrett and Blake. The Ostroms were one of many animal lovers who saw the story Portland’s KOIN-TV did on Darby last week. After several rounds of meeting her, talking with the folks at Townhouse Pet Care Center and myself, it was clear that not only did they love Darby – but that Darby loved them.

KOIN-TV did a follow-up story on the Darby “chronicles,” as I like to call them, last night. You can see just how happy Darby is.

You know how it is when you’ve been working on something really hard, and then it all falls into place and you can’t quite believe that it’s over? I feel a little like that right now. I just wish Tom (our late uncle) could have seen all this. I think he’d have been tickled pink. (Of course, if he were here, none of this would have happened, so it’s a moot point. But you know what I mean.)

This is not quite Oscar-worthy, but I do need call out a few folk for their tremendous support and help during the last several weeks:

First, the folks at Townhouse Pet Care Center – where Darby has been living – particularly Stacey Scott and Kim Allgeier – have been absolutely incredible. They closed Darby’s account a couple of weeks ago so that we wouldn’t have to worry about an unending bill, and have cared for her as if she were their own. I can’t even begin to express how grateful my entire family is to them. If their love and concern for Darby is anything to go by, Townhouse is a great place to board your animals, so take note, Portland.

Susan Ragan, a world-class and ex-AP photographer I’m fortunate to call my friend, was one of Darby’s first visitors when we heard about Tom’s passing. She took the photographs of Darby that have helped so many of you get to know her, including the one in this post, and has been ready to step in as a foster-mom if a permanent home didn’t work out. If you need an ace photographer, you need to talk to Susan.

Megan Drake: thank you for writing about Darby and bringing her plight to the attention of KOIN. Janet Tobiassen, DVM: thank you for writing an extremely timely story on planning for your pets and continuing to drive attention to Darby. Jen Zingsheim and Chip Griffin: thank you for letting me talk about Darby on Media Bullseye Radio.

Rachel Farris and Kevin O’Brien of PetRelocation.com: thank you for stepping up early in the game with your incredibly generous offer of transporting Darby to a new home outside of Portland, if that’s where we found one. We never had to take you up on it, but it was a lifeline for me at a time I felt I didn’t have too many. Er, any.

KOIN-TV, especially Tim Gordon: thank you for showing Portland what a lovely dog Darby is and caring enough about her to come back a second time.

There are so many people I’ve been put in touch with over the past few weeks, from the Oregon German Shepherd Rescue, to the Oregon Humane Society, to caring individuals all over the country – I couldn’t even begin to list them all. Thank you, everyone, who took the time to help me make a connection – you know who you are.

And finally, my Tweeps. You’ve been an amazing source of support and a wonderful community. Twitter was where this whole thing started; I’ll never forget that. Thank you, each and every one of you.

The story has a happy ending. Darby’s found a new home. And social media did it for her.

P.S.: I have no idea if Darby will keep tweeting. You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?

Tom Farrell (second from left) with his siblings a few years ago. R.I.P.

Earlier posts:

• Can Social Media Find Darby a Home?
• Will Social Media Save Darby? The Saga Continues
• The Darby Chronicles: Part III
• Social Media Might Just Find Darby a Home

Social Media Might Just Find Darby a Home

The Darby saga has been going on for weeks now (if you’re a first-time reader, check out my earlier posts at the bottom of this one to get up to speed, but long story short, she’s an “orphaned” GSD in Portland, Ore., for whom I’m trying to find a home).

When I started blogging, tweeting, etc., about Darby, I asked the question, “Can Social Media Find Darby a Home?” Truth was, I didn’t know. I just knew I had to get the word out about her any way I could.

Well, after several potential homes fell through – and I was starting to feel thoroughly discouraged – something wonderful happened yesterday. Portland’s KOIN-TV picked up Darby’s story via Megan Drake’s story on Examiner.com, and did a lovely segment on Darby at 5:30 p.m. (PT) yesterday. Here it is:

Check that Darby out. Isn’t she gorgeous? Truly an “e-star.”

As of this writing, I’ve heard from at least two people who are interested in adopting Darby, and very much hope one of them will work out.

Nothing’s a done deal just yet, though, so if you’re one of the many people who’ve been trying to spread Darby’s story, please share this video and/or post with those you think might be interested and/or able to continue the information chain.

As to thanks – there are so many of you to thank, I don’t know where to begin. For now, thank you EVERYONE who’s been trying to help, especially my Tweeps (or “support crew,” as one of them put it), and especially KOIN-TV; Megan Drake; Susan Ragan, whose stunning photos of Darby, including the one in this post, have put a face to this story; and the incredibly generous and kindhearted folks at Townhouse Pet Care Center, who are now caring for Darby free of charge until we re-home her.

The world is a better place with you in it.

Earlier posts:

• Can Social Media Find Darby a Home?
• Will Social Media Save Darby? The Saga Continues
• The Darby Chronicles: Part III

The Darby Chronicles: Part III

It’s a holiday weekend, the weather’s beautiful (at least here in DC)… all should be well with the world, right?

Unfortunately, for a lovely 7-year-ish female German Shepherd in Portland, Ore., who recently lost her “dad,” it’s not quite perfect yet.

If you’re getting up to speed on the Darby situation, I’ve included links to my earlier posts on Darby at the bottom of this one, so do read those first.

It’s not all gloom and doom. My Tweeps have continued to spread the word and are still sending me resources they can think of. The folks at Townhouse Pet Care Center are doing a phenomenal job caring for Darby – they are going above and beyond. The Oregon German Shepherd Rescue is doing its utmost to help place her as well, as are the folks at pdxdog.com and some of my IRL friends. PetRelocation.com has offered to cover Darby’s door-to-door transportation to her new home, if it’s outside Portland; and there are a couple of Tweeps who might have a home for Darby as an “option of last resort.”

I am so grateful to all of you. Thank you.

While I’m particularly thankful to have an option of last resort for Darby, wouldn’t it be great if we could find her an “option of first resort?”

That would be a home in the Portland area, where Darby can rule the roost as the only pet. She certainly looks like a queen, doesn’t she?

So while I hate to keep asking you to do something, if you have any contacts in Portland who might be looking to bring a people- and kid-friendly, adult, female dog into their home, I would so appreciate you putting them in touch with me.

From Darby and I, thank you again, and have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

This photo of Darby, like those in the related posts, was taken by the inimitable Susan Ragan, whom I can’t thank enough for her generosity of spirit and time.

Related posts:

Can Social Media Find Darby a Home?

Will Social Media Save Darby? The Saga Continues

Adam Lambert and the Purple Cow

I was not a happy camper last night after “American Idol” aired.

It’s not that I dislike Kris Allen; he seems like a very sweet guy. But Adam Lambert has been the reason I re-engaged with the show after several years, so when Kris was given the crown, my shoes somehow ended up near the TV.

Following that, I spent about 20 minutes convincing one of our dogs that “it’s ok, Mommy’s not mad.”

I know, I know. And yes, I’m better now.

I know I’m not the only one to feel like this – but clearly many other people feel the opposite, which is why Kris won.

Two blog posts I recently read put my feelings in perspective for me.

The first is a killer post from Lauren Vargas about failing at the right time. If you haven’t yet, go there NOW. It’s a must-read.

Second, today Seth Godin posted a note on his blog inviting stories of remarkable businesses, services or organizations, that will be featured in the new edition of Purple Cow.

Adam Lambert is remarkable. He’s a purple cow. And he failed at the right time.

We should all be so lucky. Let’s make it so.

~Photo: Daveybot

Will Social Media Save Darby? The Saga Continues

Since I first blogged about Darby the (female) German Shepherd, there’s been a lot of interest in her and her situation. There are so many people who have helped spread the word, and continue to do so, that I couldn’t begin to list them all here. But you know who you are, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

As an aside, almost all of you have connected with me through Twitter – what an incredibly effective communication platform (and guess what, Darby decided to get on Twitter too).

A few more details on Darby have emerged in the last few days, as well as answers to questions I’ve been getting. So here’s the Darby FAQ (remember, I’m not a dog trainer or behaviorist and am simply telling you what I’ve been told – any of this could change based on the environment Darby is in):

What’s the deal with the aggression?

A better way to describe this, according to the trainer at Townhouse Pet Care Center, where Darby is currently being cared for, is that she has a strong “prey drive.” This isn’t PR-speak; if you’re familiar with Shepherds (I grew up around them) and similar breeds, you know it comes with the territory.

The people who have had the most contact with Darby – the folks at Townhouse, my friend Susan Ragan and a good friend of our late uncle, all believe Darby can be re-socialized with the right attention and training. In other words, it’s highly unlikely that she’s un-rehabilitable.

What are Darby’s vital statistics and history?

Darby was adopted by our late uncle three or four years ago from a shelter. So she has the same history as just about any other shelter animal – not much. She’s a smaller GSD (between 60 & 70 lbs), spayed and from all indications in good health – she shows no signs of dysplasia, etc. But I don’t have access to any records on her, other than what Townhouse might have. Like any shelter animal, what you see is what you get.

Is Darby good with kids? What’s her temperament?

Yes, by all accounts she’s extremely loving and people- and kid-friendly. Like most GSDs, she’s extremely intelligent as well. She’s well-behaved, housebroken, and does not bark excessively.

Does Darby need to be an “only pet”?

I certainly think that would be an ideal situation, since she’d be in a non-threatening environment. However, if she does go to a home with other pets, she will likely settle down with the right amount of attention and training. I can’t promise you anything, though.

Have I tried to contact breed-specific rescues and other groups?

Yes. So far I haven’t had any luck in reaching them, other than the Oregon German Shepherd Rescue, who have acknowledged my emails and phone calls, but who have not made direct contact with me yet. (And yes, I’m still trying). The Oregon Humane Society has been extremely helpful in directing me towards certain rescue groups as well.

What if someone outside of Portland, Ore., wants to adopt Darby?

If this is the right fit, you bet I’ll talk to them. The folks at PetRelocation.com saw my earlier post and have made the incredibly generous offer of transporting Darby to her new home, wherever that might be, free of charge. So now we just need to find a home for her.

What’s going to happen to Darby in the next few days?

The perfect solution, of course, would be to find a “forever home” for Darby and move her there. Failing that, we need to get her into a foster home – of which there are potentially two right now – and continue the search for permanent placement.

Practically speaking, this would be a foster home in the Portland area. The folks who have stepped up so far, including her caretakers at Townhouse, have been incredibly generous with their time and support, but I would like to stop being a drain on their resources as soon as possible.

A couple of folks I’ve connected with through Twitter – both outside of Portland – are considering giving Darby a home as an option of last resort. But – and I can’t stress this strongly enough – they both have constraints and nothing is a done deal. So it’s critical that we keep looking for a home for Darby.

If someone’s interested in Darby, how can they contact me?

Email me at info@shonaliburke.com; if you’re on Twitter, tweet me. If someone you know or have passed the information along to wants to talk to me, please ask them to let me know how they got the information.

Will social media save Darby? I don’t know … yet. I certainly hope so; it has certainly been extremely effective in getting people around the country – and the world – talking about her.

I might add that Darby’s got more gumption than most people I know (including myself); she’s been hitting up Ellen, Oprah and Rick Sanchez as well (no response so far).

I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful we are for your support and concern for Darby. I hope you’ll continue to help put the word out there, however you can – by tweeting and re-tweeting this post, spreading the news among your online and offline networks, posting to your Facebook pages, etc. – so that we can put social media to use for Darby’s good.

Thank you.

Darby’s photo courtesy Susan Ragan

Can Social Media Find Darby a Home?

I love social media and networking. No surprises there. What is especially fascinating to me is their potential to bring together people who are virtually unknown [sic] to each other, and set the stage for something unique, something unintended and, quite possibly, something very, very good.

There are several examples of virtual “strangers” banding together to make a difference; certainly for non-profit organizations and causes, but also in response to personal appeals. Remember Beth Kanter’s birthday fund raising drive which raised thousands of dollars for kids in Cambodia? And how about the British teenager who was literally “saved by Facebook“?

I thought long and hard about doing this, and finally decided that if Chris Brogan can ask you to shave your head for charity (which I applaud, by the way) I can ask you to try to save a life.

Darby’s Story

My husband’s uncle died suddenly while vacationing in Panama a couple of weeks ago. To say it’s been a huge shock would be putting it mildly.

We are still not out of the rain forest, so to speak; unless you’ve been through it, you have no idea how much there is to deal with – or how complicated and arduous the process is – when a family member dies abroad.

Be that as it may, our uncle left no progeny behind… but he did leave a dog.

“Darby O’Callahan” is a spayed female German Shepherd, about 7 years old. I’ve never met her, but from what I hear, she is extremely affectionate towards people, healthy and quite a beauty. She’s also one of the few dogs I know who has her own Facebook page.

Should be a cinch to get her adopted, right?

Nope. It seems that Darby has lately been showing aggression towards other animals, which means she needs to go to a home where she’ll be an “only dog.”

Now, it’s quite possible this is a result of Darby’s recent stress, and her strong prey instinct (which is what the manager/trainer at Townhouse Pet Care Center, where she’s currently being boarded told me she probably has) could be trained out of her over time.

After all, if your “dad” had suddenly disappeared, and you’d been in a kennel for 3 weeks+, you’d be pretty ornery too… if you were still sane.

(Disclaimer: Much as I love them, I’m not an animal trainer or behaviorist, so I’m providing the information given to me by people who are more qualified than me in this area.)

I’ve been trying to contact a few different rescues in the Portland, Ore., area (which is where Darby is), but so far we haven’t had any luck placing her; I had a potential home for her which fell through when we heard about the aggression issue, which I was heartsick over. Several of my friends and family have received an email plea for me. Some of my Tweeps have been trying to spread the word.

Well, now I’m throwing it open to YOU. Can you help get the word out about Darby? Forward this post, tweet it, share it however you can.

The folks most likely to adopt her will, of course, be in the Portland area; can you activate your network(s) to see if we can reach people there? Perhaps even the media?

Approximately five to seven million companion animals enter shelters every year, and 60% of these dogs and 70% of these cats are euthanized simply because of a lack of resources.

Those are horrifying statistics in a country where almost two-thirds of households have pets.

I don’t want Darby to become another statistic.

Can you – the embodiment of social media – help find Darby a home? Anyone who’s interested, or wants to know more, can reach me at info (a) shonaliburke.com.

We would be so grateful. And I truly believe our uncle’s soul would be at rest.

Many thanks to the inimitable Susan Ragan for her great photographs of Darby, and to the folks at Townhouse for taking such good care of Darby while we try to place her.

Mother of the Year

I can’t think of a better way to say “Happy Mother’s Day” to my mom. (She’s the pretty one on the right).

And what a great marketing piece from MomsRising.org to boot.

Props to MarketingProfs, which is where I found it, via @sonnygill.

Happy Mother’s Day!

8 Letters, 60 Years, And A New Frontier

This is a story of how numbers and people intersect.

Yesterday was my mother’s 60th birthday. Since she lives 13 and a half hours ahead of me, I was up early to wish her. I typically log on to Twitter first thing in the morning, to catch up and generally confab with my “tweeps.” While I was doing this, I noticed a tweet discussing the fun one could have with a made-up hashtag like #SHTYMFM (Say Hi To Your Mother For Me).

I thought it would be fun to tweak that and ask people to wish my mother; she’s been grappling with the emotional roller coaster of officially retiring on her birthday from a long teaching career, while still a vibrant resource for her students. All they had to do was reply to me and include the hashtag #SHBTYMFM. (You don’t need me to spell that out, do you?)

I’ve experienced, over and over again, how generous “Twitterville” can be, but even I didn’t expect for 24 people, none of whom have ever met my mother, to wish her. That number includes a few who sent good wishes her way before I introduced the game, used #SHTYMFM as a hashtag, and one who sent her a virtual birthday cake.

My mother was touched and overwhelmed. She has also created a Twitter account. I don’t expect her to become a social media maven overnight, but I am excited that she is taking the plunge into what is, for her, a brand new frontier. On the other hand, she’s quite a remarkable woman, so I wouldn’t put anything past her. And to everyone who responded, again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Eight letters flew my mother’s way from three different continents, spurring her to not consider 60 years as the end of her relevance, but as an opportunity to explore the limitless potential that awaits.

That’s the power of connection.