A recent AP story explored the panic that ensued when teens were forced to unplug at summer camp. Evidently many outdoor camps don’t allow cell phones, laptops or iPods, and there are no computer labs. Campers were so nervous about the experience that some even tried to smuggle in phones or bring in multiple devices in case one was confiscated. The parents were equally anxious with the change, as they had grown accustomed to constant contact with their kids.

The article goes on to quote several campers who explained that the break was a positive experience and that they had fun doing other things. But what happened when the campers returned to civilization? Did they give up texting or Facebook?

Nope – they just had more friends to stay connected with.

While the article raised some concerns about my children soon asking for their own cell phones, the real takeaway for me was how much the next generation incorporates technology into their lives. Businesses that aren’t taking this shift seriously and translating their brand online are going to find out that they don’t have a means to communicate with new customers. The “marketing toolbox” has expanded dramatically in a very short period of time … and knowing how to incorporate traditional tools with new ones is critical for sustainable business growth.

Photo: ninahale

The other day, one of my clients recommended the book called Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher.

The book’s main premise is simple: what you pay attention to becomes your life. Therefore, the more focused you are, the more successful you are in achieving your goals. With Blackberries tethered to our waists, technology has caused attention spans to be at odds with maintaining focus. It’s difficult to find time to sit down for one hour and read a book. Or even practice the piano, which incidentally is in a state of decline.

I’m all for easy-to-read, bulleted information. But when I want to explore a subject in-depth, I go to a book – not a blog. I have lots of interesting communications-related reading on tap this summer, including The Cluetrain Manifesto and Words that Work – book recommendations that I came across through one of my colleagues and through Twitter. So in between blogging, twittering and Facebook updates, don’t forget to dig into a good book this summer (even if it has no professional value). I asked some local communications professionals what was on their suggested PR-related summer reading list. Here are their suggestions:

Rick Oppenheim (@RickOpp) – PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge and Flawless Consulting by Peter Block
Cindi Brownfield (@CindiBfld) – Words that Work by Frank Luntz
Briana Schweitzer (@bschweitzer) – Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work – And Why Your Company Needs Them by Peter Shankman
Ann Marie Varga – Putting the Public Back in Public Relations How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge
Chris Gent (@ChrisGent) – PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Michalowicz
Alan Byrd (@albyrd) – Good to Great by Jim Collins
Jamie Floer (@jamiefloer) – Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Kari Conley (@KariConley) – Corporate Community Relations: The Principle of the Neighbor of Choice by Edmund Burke
Joe Kilsheimer (@kilz) – The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

What’s on your summer reading list?

If you’re paying attention to Twitter on Monday evenings, it’s hard to avoid tweets that include “#journchat.” What is this #journchat, you might ask? It’s a regularly scheduled conversation taking place on Twitter. Created by Sarah Evans, this “event” (which occurs every Monday night from 7-10 p.m. CST) connects PR people, journalists and bloggers. Notably, #journchat was the first of its kind — and has since spawned a whole genre of online conversations. (This is different than simply “tagging” a tweet with a number sign, which is done to help sort messages. Tweetchats are actually like very large chat rooms.)

Inevitably, every Monday, someone ends up asking “What’s #journchat?” — probably after seeing a rush of tweets with this tag in their stream. With hundreds of participants every week, the Journchat experience can be somewhat overwhelming. But, it shouldn’t be. In reality, it’s an opportunity to learn from some very smart people throughout the country and to expand your personal network.

To get started, you just need to understand the anatomy of a hashtag chat:

• Moderator — The person is like a host. Normally, it’s the chat’s creator … but not always. For #journchat, Sarah Evans is the moderator, operating the Journchat Twitter account. The weekly #socialmedia chat was founded by Jason Breed, but is moderated by a different social media thought-leader each week.
• Rules — Some tweetchats have general guidelines to make sure the conversation doesn’t turn too salesy or get off-topic. (See the graphic for Journchat rules.)
• Guest — To bring a different perspective to the chat, tweetchats sometimes include special guests who field questions from participants.
• Participants — Pretty self-explanatory, these are the people offering suggestions, asking and answering questions and engaging in conversation with the rest of the community.
• Spammers — These are the annoying people who ignore the tweetchat rules — instead opting to promote themselves or ask questions out of turn.
• Chat rooms — For the more popular chats, following the high-speed conversation is challenging. Luckily, there are tools to make the process better. The best one seems to be Tweetgrid — which lets user create different fields. I suggest creating three searches: your name, the moderator’s name and the hashtag.

Ready to test the tweetchat waters? Check out Arik Hanson’s starter list of moderated discussions, which includes #gno (girls night out), #smbiz (small business) and #ageop (age of opportunity). And, feel free to use the comments section to tell us about your favorite chats!

Luckily, Twitter did not kill #followfriday with their @ reply adjustment. (Not sure what I’m referring to? Check out this post.) And, that means we can continue the Costa DeVault #followfriday experiment. (Last week, we started asking a question of the week and highlighting the best answers on our blog.)

This week’s question: If you could change one thing about social media, what would it be? We got lots of feedback throughout the week. Here are the best answers — and our #followfriday recommendations:

• Chuck Hemann (@chuckhemann): to me, it’s the total lack of original thought sometimes. So much good thinking we often become reliant and don’t challenge
• Josh Sternberg (@josh_sternberg): we need stronger filters. too much crap out there to sift through. it will happen, but needs to be sooner.
• JC Maldonado (@Jmal18): socmedia would b 4 ppl who want 2 share ideas, participate in conv n exp. interests n not celebs sellin KFC,or want 1 mil followers
• Matt Batt (@storyassistant): The one thing I’d change about SM would be to have EVERYONE complete a Social Media Boot Camp or 101 course before participating:) (From Heather: Matt sent a second tweet that I thought was also worth including.) If people realized some of the basic strategies around “participation”, “conversations” & “helping” the whole SM world would benefit

What do you think? What would you change about social media? And, what do you think we should ask next week? We want to ask questions that spark your interest.

Sugarland, a popular country music duo, recently released a new song called “Already Gone.” I had listened to the song a few times, but never stopped to really listen to the lyrics — until yesterday. The song includes one line that I couldn’t get out of my head:

Life is like a runaway train you can’t wait to get on.

The song looks at various stages of life from the same perspective: Life happens and you can’t let it pass you by.

The same concept can be applied to integrating social media into your brand’s overall communication strategy. Every day, more and more companies are finding success testing the social media waters. This new approach to communication — talking with people … not at them — is changing how business gets done. While social media is certainly not a runaway train, it is certainly high-speed rail – moving swiftly to exciting destinations. Are you on board or is it passing you by?

Photo credit: Suephi

As we explained yesterday, Costa DeVault is taking a slightly different approach to #followfridays. At the beginning of each week, we’ll ask a question and the best answers will be posted here as our #followfriday recommendations. Consider this an experiment to find new people to learn from and network with.

This week’s question: What surprises you most about social media?

The best answers — and our #followfriday suggestions — are:

For valuing people’s willingness to share information:

• Deanna Ferrari (@dferrari): I would say the amount of diverse information I wouldn’t normally get from reading the news.
• Justin Goldsborough (@jgoldsborough): Continue to be pleasantly surprised by how willing people in socnets r 2 help each other. Call it the “help gene.”

For understanding how social media changes communication:

• Amanda Beals (@amandagbeals): Social media reconstituted communication — akin to Blade Runner. Thoughts r always prefaced w how can I connect ideas & ppl
• Narciso Tovar (@narciso17): RE: Surprise in Soc Med: Once U “get it” you start 2 see the MANY ways it can improve your overall comm efforts

Realizing that people embrace social media differently:

• Todd (@tjpip): What surprises me most is the way ppl fall in love w/ one SM app while excluding or minimizing others. (I’m guilty – Twitter over FB)
• Mary Deming Barber (@mdbarber): I still get surprised when comm folks don’t understand the social part of SM. I can forgive others but not prof comm.
• Eleanor Biddulph (@elbiddulph): Social media surprise? How “newbies” have embraced it and “seasoned pros” have resisted it! (Disclosure: This is my mom — a VP of customer service who tweets and blogs and totally gets how social media can help large organizations … and not just in a traditional PR sense.)

So, what do you think? We want to hear what surprises you most about social media and what you think about our #followfriday experiment. As always, thanks for reading.

I love #followfriday for many reasons — but mainly because I discover so many thoughtful, smart people to add to my network. (For those of you who don’t tweet, #followfriday is a Twitter trend where users recommend other people worth following.) The blessing and curse of Twitter — the 140 character limitation — makes it hard to explain the logic behind each suggestion. So, some people, including my new friend and super smart PR pro Lauren Fernandez, have turned to their blogs to offer more in-depth explanations. Last week, I had the privilege of being included among Lauren’s #followfriday picks. Lauren and I don’t know each other in real life, but thanks to Twitter, we’ve discovered that we share a lot of the same interests (e.g., sports, music, even dental hygiene!!) — and I know that I can trust her picks. But, there are lots of people I don’t know as well who offer #followfriday suggestions, but I’m left wondering why they chose these people. Sometimes I follow, sometimes I don’t. If I had a compelling reason to add them to my network, I probably would.

So, inspired by Lauren, Costa DeVault is going take a different approach to #followfriday — at least for a little while. We’re going to ask a question at the beginning of each week — and the people who offer the best answer will be included in our #followfriday. We’ll post the best answers on our blog Friday and explain why we suggest you follow them. The idea is that we can learn something from each other and find some new people to connect with.

This week’s question: What surprises you most about social media? Tune in tomorrow for the answers.

Photo Credit: Banalities

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