prandsocial. Katie Moffat - PR & Online Communications

Illness (tonsillitis) laid me low for a couple of days last week, so I'm still playing catch up.  I thought a good old list would do the job of helping me feel as though I am in control, so here goes – my resolutions for this week:

1. To be uber efficient and get through all my scheduled work before flying off to SXSWi next week.
2. To take a proper look at CoTweet which looks really interesting, allowing you to run multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously, (although I may have made a bit of a balls up by getting a beta invite and changing my twitter name afterwards – more on that later).
3. To not sink my time into arguments about Twitter lists – totally inconsequential in the scheme of things.
4. To try and look after myself, eat well, etc, last few months have taken their toll.
5. To write some rather more interesting blog posts – I'll be blogging for the fine folk at e-consultancy while I'm away and I expect they'll require a bit more than a lame list….

1. I've worked for myself for over seven years now and although generally I love it, sometimes it's very hard not to get distracted and waste time.  Particularly with time sinks like Twitter and FeedDemon.  Which is why this post on mashable; 7 Productivity Tips is particularly welcome.
2. A succint and useful post 8 Essential Free Social Media Monitoring Tools is a must read.
3. My second job in PR was at a fast paced agency in Manchester (what a baptism of fire that was) and from time to time you'd have the problem of a client falling out with the account handling team.  This post from Todd Defren makes a whole lot of sense and clients would do well to listen.
4. Finally, as the 12th of February and Twestival gets ever closer, a timely reminder from Scott Harrison, founder of Charity:Water, why it's fantastic that so many people are getting  involved.    

Scott Harrison, Founder of charity: water – Thanks the Twestival from Phil Thomas Di Giulio on Vimeo.

Very excited about Twestival and in awe of @amanda and the twestival team for co-ordinating it all. At the time of writing there are over 80 cities registered to hold Twestivals.  I'm helping organise the Manchester Twestival @MancTwester (do you see what we did there?) and although it's scary given the frightening deadline, it also feels like a genuinely inspiring thing to be involved with and for an amazing cause.  Everyone has been so keen to help, it's fantastic.  Will be blogging our progress. You can follow us on Twitter @MancTwester. 

Following on from things I'm loving this week, I am not feeling in quite so benevolent a mood today.  So here, in no particular order are things that are bugging me this week.

1. The instant negativity and cynicism that seemed to immediately grab hold of people following Barack Obama's fantastic win.  Faster than you could say, "the first ray of hope in years" there were mutterings that he won't be able to live up to the hype. GIVE THE MAN A CHANCE.
2. Email on my iPhone not working. Gah.
3. Clients who say they want to 'do' social media and online PR and make contact with networks online but, in the same breath, refuse to do anything that might mean others can 'question' their brand.

There, you see, after getting that off my chest, I'm feeling better already .

*photo courtesy of Scott Beale / Laughing Squid laughingsquid.com

1. The fantastic videos from Network Solutions video conference.  What I like about these are the soundbite format and the fact that they offer great, practical advice about how SMEs and smaller businesses can engage with customers online.
2. The online PR wallchart post from E-consultancy.  Neatly brings into focus the crossover between online PR and SEO.
3. My new iPhone – I know, I'm late to it but I do love it.
4. The ridiculous Ross/Brand debacle and what it tells us about a) our society and b) our news agenda.
5. The Cove 2, a thing of beauty and (in this weather) the best item I've ever bought.

Some excellent stuff to start off the week,

1. Shannon Paul's 'How would you teach social media?' I particularly like her comments about social media echo chamber.
2. "I can let you in but can you sort of crouch down"  an example of the fact that ridiculous notions to do with formal dress equating to a person's 'standing' are (unfortunately) alive and well.  Sally's writing had me laughing out loud here.
3. Even Britney's twittering now, except I have a teeny suspicion that it's not like actually her…
4. A couple of weeks ago I asked (via Twitter) fellow long commuters Wadds and Becky what kit they see as essential for journeying between office and home.  Interesting replies here and here.
5. And back on one of my favourite topics, I like this post from Rohit Bhargava called 'The softer side of social media measurement'.

Sheesh, yesterday really was one of those days when you want to go and lock yourself in a dark, padded cell.  Meetings dragging on when I was supposed to be somewhere else, CEO client (who never normally knows I exist) couldn't get hold of me when he urgently needed to and then to cap it all, the developers for a web project I'm working on dropped the news that both the server and the back up server had died and possibly taken a whole lot of work with it.  Oh and then my 7 year old threw up on me (think Steve Martin in Parenthood).  Still today is a whole new day, server is fixed, 7 year old is fixed and I've a three for three meme from Becky McMichael. So here goes:

Top Three non-work websites

1. metcheck  (I blame my dad, I'm a weather obsessive)
2. etsy
3. mumsnet

Top Three Karaoke Songs

1. Say Hello Wave Goodbye – Soft Cell

2. House of the Rising Sun – Animals

3. Ain't Nobody – Chaka Khan

Top Three Weekend Cocktails

1. Gin and Tonic (does that count as a cocktail?)

2. Cosmopolitan

3. Mojito

And the three people I choose to pass it on to are

1. Paul Fabretti

2. Robin Wilson

3. BritneyofArabia

1. Most people think life as a freelancer is one long jolly – "what you work for yourself? do you get take lots of time off then?"

2. You might have been working 20 hour days for one client trying to finish a project but you have to hide this fact from other clients.  It's a bit like having a dirty secret – clients know that you work for other people but they don't want to be reminded of the fact.

3. There is no place to hide.  The buck stops with you so you have to do a good job or it shows.

4. It's very dull handling all the accounts.

5. It gives you an insight into the human condition.  OK this is a bit over the top, but the point is that being in and out of various different work places means you understand all the different 'types' of working environment from the trendy agency where everyone is out to be seen to be doing 'cool stuff' to the blame culture of some of the bigger companies, where everyone is scared of making a decision for fear of it coming back to haunt them. 

Overall – I'm glad it just me, myself and I.

image courtesy of Saital – Creative Commons license

Love this (with a hat tip to Jonathan Hopkins). 

It really is hard to keep track of online developments these days.  So much being developed, some of which will, no doubt, fall by the wayside and some of which will be the next Google/Twitter/Facebook.  So how about Blip, Shozu and Pingme?
Blip is a bit like Twitter but with music, Becky McMichael's description is good and I'm sure I can't do better so with a nod to Becky, Blip is, "A music sharing site where you post short messages (like tweets…but
called blips) with a track attached. The timeline builds up a story
accompanied by music documenting your friends’ day. You play the
timeline and have music on all day selected by your friends."
I like it, it's fun, finding it hard to see brand applications for it but hey, don't they say that about everything at first.
ShoZu is a neat little app that allows you to automatically upload photos from your phone to your social networks, Flickr, Facebook etc, you can also download your friends feeds.
And, shock horror, Pingme is nothing to do with social media but if you spend your life trying to keep track of Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, Pownce (are you losing the will to live yet?) then Pingme will help you ensure you don't miss the rest of your life while you're doing it.  It's a bit like tasks in MS office but more mobile and the great thing is that you can choose how to be reminded – via email, phone or a tweet.