Web Savvy: Trend-spotting and the Network of Cool

Maybe you Tweet it, maybe you put it on Facebook. Maybe you stick it in your Tumblr and tag it. These are our outlets for further publicizing cool websites, trends and, really, your own Web savvy. Did you know Twitter would blow up before Ashton joined? Have you casually mentioned the growing market around online video advertising in a recent conversation with a friend? Are you 18-24 years old?

LaunchSquad is looking the tuned-in, tech-savvy who can spot and speak to emerging Web trends. As the early-adopting generation, we’re more than equipped to not just to participate in the latest web offerings and also predict what’s huge, what’s next and mostly – what’s really COOL. If this interests you more than you think it should, you’re not alone – join the Network of Cool and get your voice and savvy heard: http://networkofcool.com/join/

See this post for more details – it’s by a web-savvy guy, much like yourselves, who is working with LaunchSquad to form this group of advisers to lend your expertise on what’s cool – plus you can win things.

Why Startup PR Is Great for Recent Grads

The answer is simply – that they’re so much alike. Startups (the term chiefly pertains to the technology industry) and new companies, like recent PR grads and even nearly-finished students, are bright-eyed and optimistic – no matter the economic climate. Here are a few reasons why those of you who are looking for jobs, may want to rethink the big names (ie: Edleman, Hill & Knowlton, Fleishman Hillard) and put your name and interest out to the small or, er – no names.

• Agility: Like you, small companies don’t have a ton to lose. They don’t have families (long-standing business partners) yet, they’re not bound to a location or direction. They can bob and weave through sticky situations and can focus more on innovation than stabilizing a large company. While large companies tend to drag their feet with announcements, small companies have the advantage of churning out huge updates to their products and services on a regular basis.

• Experience over Security: This is my promise: The experience and knowledge you’ll garner in one month will be equal to that of 6 months at one of the big firms. While with big firms, you’re pretty sure of your job ( bonuses, raises), you will likely be doing grunt work for a while, no one-on-one work with clients and no significant media outreach for months. With a startup, you’ll likely be pitching the Washington Post right off the bat.

• Fresh meat: For one, it gives you the chance to take “no-name” companies and build their awareness from scratch, no bad blood, no skeletons. Just your strategy, guts and fresh approach. Same idea with the next…

• Story: Like your resume, they’re still developing their story – very much your job to help with that. But because they’re small, they’re able to adapt and mold their story – or even completely switch gears, without killing it. They don’t have a ton of history to hold them down or to overcome.

• Startup community: One of the coolest things about the startup culture is how tight-knit it is. Take events like Ignite, Startup Weekend, and SF Beta. They bring together and showcase some of the newest and breaking technologies as well as the companies that are about to explode (in a good way) within their veins of technology. Cool stuff, and while they don’t always center around technology, they provide a wonderful support system and network for new companies. Some cool emerging startup communities are:

1. New York City – Yes, kind of surprising since it’s the center of all industry, but their startup community is very tight-knit and supportive. Companies don’t drown in NYC, they thrive – Take Etsy, Foursquare, Meetup, and Boxee
2. Boulder, CO – They say it themselves: “Boulder is for startups.” They are famous for a wealth of beer-charged meetups and a ‘cool kids club’ type of environment where technology thrives. Some of the coolest companies come out of boulder.
3. Portland, OR – Wedged between Seattle (Microsoft fortress) and Silicon Valley, Portland seems to be a catch-all, a stewpan for new companies. Their famous phrase “Keep Portland Weird” should actually read “Keep Portland Innovative.
4. Atlanta, GA – There are some sweet things happening in the south. It’s a hotspot meetups, conferences, web development and design, social web innovation not just in Georgia, but spanning a huge community south of the Mason-Dixon line.
5. Austin, TX – Home to the insanely popular annual film/music/interactive festival, SXSW, this community is huge for technology innovation: Check out Austin Startup for upcoming events and companies to watch.

• Do or die: Either execute or be executed – startups are ALL IN from day one, because if they don’t strategize, execute and deliver, they’re down for the count. No pressure.

• Innovation/Creativity: When working with startups you see the coolest and newest technology in its earliest stages. But whether companies are unfunded or are there is an element of desperation (see “do or die”) and it’s this desperation that triggers innovation and thinking outside the box with their technology – just like you will need to think outside of the box to give your company a voice and make some noise in very noisy industries – tech or not.

• Triumphs are longstanding/failures short-lived: [for the most part] The nicest thing is that with such a high metabolism, a startup can quickly recover from a flawed beta test or an awful review in Macworld. What’s more, when you land a great story in the New York Times, the interest in new technology is so great, that the story has potential for massive syndication, follow-up/response stories and tons of tiny blog posts. You, too, are young enough that you can recover from mistakes and make improvements.

• Opportunities for disruption: Startups have the unique opportunity – responsibility, really – of disrupting their channels of technology, taking done ideas and reworking and revamping them to turn the industry on its head and take it in new directions. You, too, have the chance to take a very done practice, like PR, and create new ideas for awareness and storytelling.

I’m just sayin’ – lots of opportunity here to give yourself a leg up without depending on larger companies who are already drowning in resumes. For starters, search and GO TO  your local tech events: Ignite shows – see who’s sponsoring them, find out who’s presenting. Eventbrite, while focusing on all types of events, is a startup itself and thus is used by lots of startups – look at different events in your area to find out who is participating. Easy enough, right?

The point is that it’s a tough market for a new job-hunter. And here’s one place where your communication training and skills are so needed. And if you think you can’t get into tech, believe me, it’s more relevant to you than you might think – and pretty addicting stuff.

On Living Within Your Means as a Young Professional

Lately, I’ve been meditating on this topic and how it translates into the careerist corners of my life. In this economy, I must allow my generation to take a chunk of the blame for the credit crisis – we are, after all, not used to immediate repercussions (in any situation) and while we consider our spending habits (and lack of saving habits) normal, previous generations are appalled that we don’t save. That we earn to spend — in general. I know this is largely true for me, I’m not a huge saver.

But times like these call for penny-pinching gumption and at some point, your financial choices become a direct translation to how you are as a young professional. This isn’t a stretch — a lack of accountability to the people who loan you money (creditors, banks, er… parents) means a lack of accountability to teams, employers and clients. No bueno. I hate to immediately Debbie Downer this post, but here’s a list of some correlations that, I think, prove my point:

• Taking risks: When you take financial risks, it’s a self-centered choice. You’re only thinking about you and how it affects you (unless you have dependents or, in my case, roommates who rely on your portion of the rent). In the professional flip-side, being a risk-taker doesn’t mean thinking outside the box. It means you’re dangerous. If you’re a risk-taker with your money and assets (and the security and freedom they provide) it means that you aren’t really looking at both possibilities for repercussions (good vs. bad) or at least not properly weighing them. While employers and clients appreciate creativity, they don’t appreciate it when you don’t think about how it affects them.
• Overspending: Overspending doesn’t mean over-confidence. Worse. It means recklessness.
• Borrowing too much: Like shrugging out of a mistake one time too many, you’re asking people to forgive you and give you a second chance with the same confidence they had in you before, but in the end, they’ll be unwilling to dig you out.
• Not paying off debts: This one isn’t about consequences. You’re not being punished, when you have to pay a credit card bill. The professional equivalent is doing grunt work. Not investing to earn the confidence that creditors (employers) put into you (employment) means bad credit and that future creditors won’t be too keen on giving you loans for important things like houses, cars or perhaps your own business some day.
• Compulsive buying: This action usually leads to buyers remorse, and in the workplace, the equivalent leads to the same sort of gut-wrenching, “how soon can I undo this” feeling and also means that you don’t think things through, which makes you a liability.
• Not saving: The fact of the matter is that we’re a live-in-and-for-the-now generation. Not likely to change and it doesn’t need to. But because of that, we need to embrace the responsibilities that come with it. We need to realize that there are worthier investments to go after than whatever this paycheck can fit in — like a well-earned vacation or a house — instead of buying that new pair of boots.

I’m willing to admit that a lot of this thinking is from personal experience with overspending, not saving, and risk-taking — in the worst possible ways. I had a magical childhood (as the daughter of a high school math teacher and stay-at-home mom) and played outside all the time, read a lot and used my imagination because we weren’t bought a lot of toys, movies or any video games. But being imaginative and having read a lot of books wasn’t cool in middle school — Gap, and Abercrombie & Fitch were. Later those turned into Paige Jeans, Frye boots and that lovely study-abroad stint in London (that never actually happened because I couldn’t stomach taking out an extra $10K in loans for a mere 3 months there). I look back on my life and all those times when I suddenly had money, I spent it frivolously and quickly and I still often have the urge to. Treats were special when I was young because they were unexpected. I miss that.

In any case, while I’ve made mistakes, I will say that I do not have a lot of credit card debt — the significant debt I do have is school loans, and by every definition, good debt. I attribute this nice situation to loving parents who taught me to enjoy life — not buy it.

The other reason I bring this up is that it is becoming important to employers — I recently saw an employment listing for uber hip Portland events group, Henry V, who, in their ad, asked for applicants who could not only stand a demanding worklife, but also had respectable and mature financial standing. Gulp. Way to whittle that list down, Henry V.

For those out there looking for a job, don’t let your lack of financial accountability and maturity be the one thing that holds you back from a job you’re perfect for.

There Is No Question Mark In a Declarative Sentence.

Maybe you’ve seen this, but I was blown away. In an effort to fit in, in an effort to disarm my peers, I have stripped the intelligence from my vernacular and stitched such awful phrases as “mmkay” and “for sure” into the fabric of my conversations. This video made me sad for myself and my courageous English teachers who made an attempt to ameliorate the sorry situation.

This video made me feel like I murder the poets every day. But the author, Taylor Mali, makes a good point. While I don’t think the world is in some communications (Babel-esque) crisis, I do think we should be more aware of how we slaughter the spoken word. Language is a valuable asset, not to be wasted or tossed aside. And I say that with immense conviction.

Working Girl’s Year One

It came rather quickly, I’ll admit. In fact, it wasn’t until this last weekend that I realized that I moved to San Francisco 1 year ago on July 4th and started my job 1 year ago today, July 7th. To think of where I was then, quaking in my new heels, ready to burst with questions and anticipation, head equally full of knowledge meant to prepare me for adulthood, never expecting the road that I’ve traveled to get to NOW.

I adjusted at first — and this could have been shock, at the time — rather easily. Emotionally tackling the sometimes-turbulent road from easing in, yet hitting the ground running, then phasing to swallowing pride and comfort for the challenge of taking criticism, learning to work hard, sleep less and take it all in stride. The last few months have seen the much more enjoyable transition of becoming a team player, (more detail-aware — I’m making progress, people) being confident that a job well done means client satisfaction and not personal gain, and realizing that loving my job makes me luckier than most.

That said, I have sorely neglected this blog, which turned out to be a vehicle for employment for me, and I’d like to take this post on this momentous day to make some resolutions for the new year as a “LaunchSquadder” and an employed person.

For this blog I resolve to:

1. Post 1-2 times a week
2. Write well
3. Discuss current media issues
4. Discuss more challenges for the (intended) benefit of those who come after me
5. Write response posts
6. Link more relevantly
7. Present clear and active thinking about my work, my life, and my goals
8. I will listen more and better

As an employed person I resolve to:

1. Do more phone pitching
2. Read more literature on the train
3. Post on the Exclamation blog more
4. Make fewer typos
5. Continue to be an early-adopter of new technology as it remains a fantastic way to stay engaged in the space
6. Take on more writing-intensive projects
7. Understand the give-and-take with journalists and pursue more mutually-beneficial relationships
8. Recognize my responsibility to myself to commit to more responsibility, initiative and leadership on my teams.
9. Every day, be thankful for my current employment and the daily opportunities presented to learn and be taught.
10. Every day, do better work than I did the day before.

The nice thing here is that I generally believe that this framework will not only make me a better employee and PR professional, but also a better and more committed person to not only my work, but my future and the opportunities it probably bring. Hopefully.

Anyone else closing in on a year and having some thoughts about it? Let me know what you guys are thinking… Maybe I’m the only one who’s seeing this as some existential milestone, but I have a feeling I’m not alone.

Also — a quick “Congrats!” to my coworker, Sara Schulte who also started last year on 7/7 at LaunchSquad.

How Samberg and Social Media Saved SNL (repost)

In the seasons following the exits of Ferrell and Fey, Saturday Night Live seemed to struggle not only amping up talent and (let’s face it) laughter, but also viewership. Hold up, I know SNL has had some prior low-points and that in its nearly 4 decades of seasons, it’s had some not-so-stellar stints (that are before my time – Yes, I know who Steve Martin and Dan Akroyd are), but, I would argue that when Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon cleared out, things looked pretty grim.

Enter salvation in the form of:

ANDY SAMBERG

It was a sinking ship until a fresh-faced comedian and writer, Andy Samberg, joined the cast in 2005, bringing with him his two Lonely Island partners Akiva Shaffer and Jorma Taccone as writers and an updated comedic direction. “Lazy Sunday”, one of the first of SNL’s “Digital Shorts”,  was one of the most widely-viewed and talked-about SNL creations since Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush impressions.

This video garnered much attention from the media, which was only heightened with further Digital Shorts like Iran So Far, featuring Adam Levine of Maroon5, and Emmy-winning “Dick In A Box”, with Justin Timberlake (coincidentally, LaunchSquad client, Barely Political created a parody video called “Box in a Box”)– all of which were written by the Lonely Island team for SNL.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Digial shorts: Samberg,  who stars in the online-only videos, and the Lonely Island team, spearheaded these seemingly amateurish videos, that created such a sensation that when “Lazy Sunday” was posted to YouTube (illegally) it was viewed five million times before NBC pulled it for copyright infringement.

YouTube leads to Hulu: Fans can now find clips on YouTube, but that was not always the case. The short “Lazy Sunday,” which aired on SNL on December 17, 2005, with its massive viewership caused quite a stir in pop culture, but also helped legitimized YouTube as a viable medium for brands like NBC to invest in. In late 2006, NBC began uploading SNL digital shorts on YouTube themselves. The short “Dick in a Box” which aired on televelision in December 2006, was viewed more than 28 million times on YouTube.

NBC advanced its online video campaign, realizing that many of us go online to watch TV and and expanded into Hulu, a joint venture of NBC and News Corp. The video network provides high definition (if often incomplete) versions of the episodes and allows users to comment.

This brings up a larger point of the growing trend of online television: according to a recent NYT article by Brad Stone and Brian Stelter, “Some Online Shows Could Go Subscription-Only”, the online video network yields a huge viewership, boasting 5 million unique viewers in February. Sounds like NBC really took a cue from YouTube and took it to the next level, but it’s interesting that this service that’s saving not only SNL, but the network, could switch to a subscription model when part of the reason it’s so popular is because it’s free.

Video embedding capabilities: In October of 2008 Mashable reported that SNL producer, Lorne Michaels, was planning an on-demand Website featuring popular clips as well as providing the embed code so that bloggers and news sites and… well anyone can embed the videos anywhere.

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It’s the virality of these videos that inspired to NBC to wise up and embrace outlets like YouTube and Hulu, a decision that allowed them to reach not only a far more massive audience but also a young audience. This audience not only lives online, like the videos now do, but relates more to Samberg’s “in your face” and often brazen comedic style and also appreciates his savvy talent pairings with high-profile pop stars Justin Timberlake and and T-Pain. These attributes ensure that Samberg and his Lonely Island cronies are very well-suited for the task of recruiting the next generation of Saturday Night Live fans, restoring SNL to what it was meant to be – relevant and funny – and by God, he delivers.

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This was original posted on LaunchSquad’s Exclamation blog.

LaunchSquad FTW

On March 4th, the partners of LaunchSquad invaded New York City to attend the PRWeek Awards ceremony on March 5th. Feeling like the underdog, they came with a resilient and celebratory spirit to be just considered.

The next day, LaunchSquad was in full campaign mode, even knowing that the decision had already been made, “Tweeting” their support for LaunchSquad and filling the #PRWeekAwards Twitter thread with LaunchSquad spirit, prompting clients, media friends and friends of the firm to also show their support on Twitter. Working from the New York office at the time, I watched throughout the day with my NY colleagues as Tweets came in with similar messages:

• sinkov: @Launchsquad If Evernote had a say, we’d vote for you.
• Rhetbee: Rooting for @LaunchSquad for Best Boutique Agency of the year at the#PRWeekAwards tonight!
• JDTwitt: RT @LaunchSqdEmilie @brettweiner, @throck, @jmandell and@jesseodell good vibes for #prweekawards! @LaunchSquad up for best boutique agency.

It was just cool. And what ensued? LaunchSquad was named PRWeek’s Boutique Agency of the Year!

We’re all tremendously excited by the honor and it was amazing to be there when it was announced. The awards ceremony was held at Tavern on the Green. It was really cool to see the partners of the firm see the fruits of their labor and their dreams for LaunchSquad come to fruition and recognition, especially. We all knew LS was great. The award was just a testament to how great work can come full circle. Very cool.

From left: Jason "Throck" Throckmorton, Jesse Odell, Jason Mandell and Brett Weiner

To hear it from their point-of-view, please see the What’s New post at: LaunchSquad.com: http://www.launchsquad.com/blogs/whatsnew/?p=237

{my hyperlink’s not working!}

Also, PRWeek showed a photo of the winners in Times Square the next day:

Pretty rad all around.

See the PRWeek story here: http://www.prweekus.com/BoutiquePRAgencyoftheYear2009/article/123801/

Boulder, I’m Lookin’ and I’m Likin’

Anyone I’ve talked to lately knows I’ve been rather obsessed with the Boulder (Colorado) tech scene, even revamping my REI-chic/enviro-hipster garb for the occasion. I voraciously started subscribing to the blogs and Twitter feeds of various tech enthusiasts like Andrew Hyde, a driving force behind rad initiatives like Startup Weekend and Techstars.org, Robert Reich who founded OneRiot, Micah Baldwin who runs business development for Lijit Networks and has a sweet blog and of course there’s Brad Feld, who planted the seeds that started it all. I even watched their live broadcast of Ignite Boulder 3 this last week. Yeah, I really did.

What is it about the Boulder scene that makes me yearn so to be a part of it? My curiosity-turned-fascination-turned-safe-distance (I swear)-obsession was probably fueled by the fact that I can’t be part of it. My location prevents it and they just don’t seem interested in pursuing me as a remote member of their clan, though, granted, no overt outreach was established from my end. Following them on Twitter started out cool because I got a window into their mountainous world, but turned into a curse when they never seemed to want to reach (or follow) back. OK, no big deal. The initial pain of rejection led me to conduct an investigation on the essence of Boulder’s “cool”. Furthermore, I wanted to bring to light why we should all pay attention to Boulder now because – and even Sarah Lacy was astonished by this – Boulder won’t tell us why it’s so rad.

Let’s take a quick look at Boulder itself – not the tech scene – just Boulder.

- College town – Colorado University’s there.
- We know that there are a lot of bikes in Boulder
- There’s natural beauty like you wouldn’t believe
- Apparently the US Curling Olympic trials are there this year, being held this week, I’ve been told

Now let’s think Tech:

- Startup Town
- The afore-mentioned forward thinkers
- The sweet green tech innovations happening there
- In Boulder, you can be a geek AND athletic
- Most of their tech events are beer-centric vs. cocktails– SO cool
- They are geographically flanked by the Rockies on one side and the Mississippi on the other, trapped from the two traditional coastal sources of technological progress and yet they continue to generate technology and media innovation at an astounding and intriguing rate.

But Silicon Valley’s got plenty of mojo, right? Developers and entrepreneurs flock to the Bay Area because they have the next big thing that’s going to take “it” to the next level, going to change the world! So what differentiates Boulder? Here it is: COMMUNITY. There is an electric current that runs through Boulder that is powered by the intense support system that can only exist in a tight-knit community. That’s what TechStars.org IS. It’s for the mentoring and guiding (and funding) of sweet startups. I don’t know how you couldn’t succeed with that kind of backing.

Community must play a huge role in the success and acceleration of the startups and even the stewing of brilliant ideas among the mountains of Colorado. Looking through their blogs, seeing their Twitter activity, even being friends with just one of them on Facebook (and happening to peruse their profile with envy on a weekly basis), you understand the respect and friendship that is the lifeblood of the innovation, creativity and savvy that flows in that town. It’s really palpable if you watch some of the videos of their tech events– I mean, they have inside jokes! Yes, I may have spent an afternoon watching videos of Boulder tech meetups. Not a big deal.

Commradery, though, brings up another factor (and huge asset0 lending to their tight-knit environment: They’re still a small city. The Bay Area could never attain that level of intimacy. People come to The Bay Area to build great businesses that they can ultimately sell to go live in Boulder or, if it comes to it, run from Boulder (or somewhere of the like, you get it). People in Boulder love Boulder and never want to leave Boulder.

As a native Oregonian, my obsession with Boulder’s tech scene might be misplaced (sorry, Portland), but I can’t help feeling a little jealous of this embracing socio-professional (petty sure it’s a real term) environment. It’s not even the technology that really gets to me. It’s the people who make up this community – bloggers, entrepreneurs, copywriters, software engineers, consultants, and developers – that love what they do and want to see each other succeed.

Tell me where that community/clique/coven (?) is in the Bay Area and I’m there. Until then, I’m waiting on the edge of my seat for the next installment of “Where the Fun’s At“.

UPDATE (1/24/09): Joining Fox News in an effort to be “fair and balanced,” I wanted to highlight a response post by Brian Burns, a Boulder resident and copy writer: “Boulder Is Nice. Not Paradise”. A great read, and brings some local insight to the subject.

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This was originally posted here, at on LaunchSquad’s Exclamation blog.

Target Practice

This is for you on-the-brink PRos who started following me lately on Twitter (I see you, UO seniors!)… and started following some of coworkers too. Weird.

When you have actual clients with actual stories, actual messaging, actual news, actual crises, actual partnerships, actual funding announcements, actual business-development, and actual launches, you need to know who is going to want to know about it. This requires a bit of digging on your part and I only bring it up because, yes, it’ll be YOU (the young PRo) who is expected to do it. Here are some tricks to finding “targets” so you don’t flounder and waste 3 weeks on a media list that you could have polished up in one if you’d had the right arsenal.

FIRST (and very importantly) Engagement:

• Be reading a lot of stories/blogs. All the time.
• Follow any reporter’s Twitter feed that you come across.
• Know what’s going on in the news. All the time.

Finding targets (media contacts that you’ll eventually pitch):

1. GOOGLE (duh – I know.): But how do you search? First off, competitors – see who’s writing about your vein in whatever industry you’re into. Second, product/company functions – what does your company do, who do they serve, who are their partners? See who’s writing about that as well. Google alerts: With great keywords you can find some fantastic news/blog targets.
2. COMPETITORS: I know I mentioned it above, but this time, go straight to the source. Sometimes the best way to know who is going to write about you, is by checking your competitor’s press page. See who wrote that USA Today piece they’re boasting.
3. SPECIFIC PUBLICATIONS: Do a search within the publication, much like your Google search – keywords on your topic and industry– to see who there is writing or reporting (or assigning) on your topic or if they do the kinds of stories you’re hoping to get (ie: funding stories, long-lead features…).
4. TWITTER: Great place to find reporters or people talking to or about reporters (ie: “@so-n-so wrote a great piece on…”). Also, reporters will often talk about stories they’re working on and sometimes, if you’re lucky, they’ll have an open call for interesting leads. Twitter’s also great place to interact with reporters. They like knowing who you are, what you do, what you’re into.
5. STUMBLE-UPON: Within this Firefox add-on, you can stumble through certain channels. I work in tech so I’ll do a stumble-through of tech sites and often find cool bloggers or podcasters.
6. COMMENTS ON POSTS: Bloggers and reporters often chime in on each other’s posts as part of that community – in tech, you see this a lot on ReadWriteWeb and Lifehacker. It’s pretty cool to see their engagement, but it also gives you a chance to see what bloggers are into and what they might think of products similar to yours.

…So you’ve found your targets, what now?

Vetting Targets – Make sure they’re relevant to go after so you don’t look stupid for pitching them something that’s not in their beat.

• Google them: Again, duh – but Google can sometimes be the quickest way to find out if they’re still at that publication
• LinkedIn: Check out their profile, yes, they may be a staff-writer, but how long have they been in that position and on that beat? L.I. can often give you some insight into what and how they’re used to writing.
• Check past work: Find other articles, blog posts, blurbs so that you can get a sense of their writing style, perhaps their interviewing style.
• Check their Twitter feeds: Weirdly, some reporters don’t like PR people. See how they interact with them on Twitter, see if they talk about them – Yes, reporters and PR people alike can get very public (and very nasty sometimes) about their relationships on Twitter. Very important to see how they’d take being pitched.

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What I’d love here is some feedback– maybe from my coworkers or team members? Also, any tips out there that I might have missed. Good luck.

Details, Details (Continued)… Resources to Help You Get There

In the last post, I stressed how important it is to adopt (or in my case, feign) a detail-oriented work style as a young PR professional. One of those things I wish someone had spelled out for me: “You. Will. Not. Survive. If. You. Can’t. Remember Master. The. Details!”

But in keeping my promise to return with some organizational tools, I realized that I don’t use a ton of tools in getting everything done and handled in an organized way. I generally just beat my head into a wall when I mess up, and then write everything I need to do everywhere until it gets done – and then I cross it off triumphantly. But if you are more organized than I am about being organized, here are some tools that can help.

• Remember the Milk: My colleague, Lindsey, said it best when she declared in an organization training we had at LaunchSquad, “‘Remember the Milk’ has changed my life!” It keeps your list of to-dos handy so that you can keep track of deadlines for all of your tasks. It’ll tell you when something’s overdue, and let’s you know when you’ve got time with other tasks. It can also be a desktop application or it can live in your email so that you have your list right there to reference as you finish up your work.
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets: Perfect for collaborative projects, tracking revisions, formatting bulleted content within emails, keeping track of large amounts of data, tracking coverage activity that you’ll need to have handy on the fly. And they’re completely searchable if you’re looking for a rarely-used document or spreadsheet.
• Google Alerts: Part of being on top of the details, is knowing what’s going on in your client’s industry. For the most part, they’re very good for staying on top of industry news, cleint/competitor coverage. I use them mostly, though, as reminders to pitch (and great sources for finding targets). Using smart keywords, you can find some great authors and publications that are perfect for your clients.
• Desktop “stickies”: I use these to keep account logins handy (ie: Marketwire login info, internet access account logins), client contacts and dial-ins for status calls, directions for releasing announcements onto the wire, client codes for billing – and of course songs/artists that I heard on Pandora that I want to remember to download. All in one place.
• Jott: Great for notes/tasks on the go. Simply speak either into their iPhone application or you call a number and then it transcribes what you say into tasks. Set it up to email or text people for you – it connects to Google Calendar and Remember the Milk, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon.com etc. It also has an adobe air desktop app.
• Evernote: I use Evernote’s clipping function for visually referencing competitors’ web-pages, important graphics, client coverage hits so that I can easily decide which clips are most visually stimulating. The tagging feature makes search functionality is very effective.

Just some pointers for the (recovering) detail-ignorant like myself.

*Photo courtesy of Details Magazine.