There aren’t many companies that have earned the trust the Red Cross has. In my in-box today was the latest example of how they do it.

I had made a donation to the Canadian Red Cross in support of their earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, and today they sent an e-mail saying, “Thank you. Your generosity is making a difference in Haiti.”

But they didn’t leave it at that.

• They listed some of the ways donations have supported their efforts, in sending over 2,600 metric tonnes of relief items; distributing one million litres of water to 200,000 people each day; and providing medical care to more than 9,600 people so far.
• They linked to  “photos of your support in action” at the Canadian Red Cross Flickr page, where you can see people carrying boxes, distributing supplies, performing surgery, draping people in blankets, comforting children.
• They noted that in addition to helping now, the Red Cross is analyzing how to rebuild the nation and make it stronger, healthier and more resilient.
• A final note includes ways to encourage others to give by setting up a personalized fundraising page, and there are links to forward the note to a friend, visit the home page for Haiti relief or follow the Red Cross on Twitter and Facebook.

This information is also found on their web site, but they didn’t wait for me to go there and find it; they made sure I saw it.

Nicely done.

A Christmas visit with family reminded me that although the cool kids online are abuzz about Twitter, much of the regular (non PR or communications) world has little knowledge of or use for it. The nephews and nieces were all about video games or Facebook, while some of the aunts and uncles dabbled in Facebook but spent more time on e-mail.

Perhaps reflecting the lack of mainstream embrace of Twitter, and instead taking into account what people actually search for online, Merriam-Webster’s called “admonish” their word of the year. Webster’s New World noted the frequent use of “digital devices on the go” that resulted in “distracted driving” heading their list of notable words in 2009. (I also like “wallet biopsy,” which is an examination of a patient’s ability to pay before medical services are provided). Meanwhile, the Oxford University Press named “unfriend” its word of the year. (A close runner-up that I enjoy: “zombie bank,” a financial institution whose liabilities are greater than its assets, but which continues to operate because of government support.)

Still, those working in PR and communications spent time — a LOT of time — talking about Twitter and sending tweets. So much, that the Global Language Monitor made “Twitter” its word of the year.

There’s debate about whether Canadians are on Twitter or not. Anecdotal evidence says we are, and a poll of more than 10,000 Canadians agrees that 47 per cent use Twitter. The poll also reported that 70 per cent use social media and have a Facebook account, while 58 per cent blog.

Sean Moffitt (Buzz Canuck) reported on a Forrester survey that showed 80 per cent of online Canadians had participated in social networks, 57 per cent doing so at least once a month (the U.S. was 51 per cent and the UK, 38 per cent).  Canada is #1 when it comes to social networking, he says, and gives 10 mostly solid reasons why, such as our online connections and high education. (I *think* citing our long winters and searches for Pamela Anderson is a joke, right?)

So I don’t quite believe the online survey that claimed only 26 per cent of Canadians (actually, ahem, of “more than” 824 respondents) are aware of Twitter, and of those, only 6 per cent use it. Still, I agree with one line from that survey report: Twitter’s still at a very early stage and “it really hasn’t been embraced by the mainstream yet.”

If you use Twitter, you probably won’t be surprised that a Harvard Business School study reported in June that more than 90 per cent of Twitter content is generated by just 10 per cent of the people using it. That’s far higher than a typical online social network, the study noted, where the top 10 per cent of users account for 30 per cent of content.

So maybe those of us already on Twitter and not holding up our share of the content generation should resolve that in 2010, we will try to push that 10 per cent number higher. And those not yet using Twitter might as well jump in and at least see for yourself what all the fuss is about.

Happy New Year!

From November 5 to 11, Canadians celebrate Veterans’ Week, remembering and honouring the veterans who fought in past wars and the soldiers who are still fighting for freedom. November 11, the day that marked the end of World War I, is both Remembrance Day here and Veterans’ Day in the U.S.

The poppy has been the official symbol of remembrance since 1921. Why a poppy? Poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders during World War I, memorialized in a famous poem by Canadian military physician John McCrae. In Flanders Fields opens:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

Over on Twitter, a number of people have opted to show support for veterans and mark Remembrance Day by adding a poppy to their avatars or photos. When I did so, someone objected, protesting that I should support the Legion by buying a poppy to wear. “Just how many WWI & II veterans do you think are on Twitter?!?!” she asked.

Well, I don’t imagine many vets are on Twitter, but as I see it, the whole point of the virtual poppy is awareness. I do buy a poppy pin and wear it (on the left, close to my heart), and I bought one for each of my sons, too. The virtual poppy is a reminder to others to do the same. In fact, Veterans Affairs Canada encourages Canadians to include social media in the way we show that we remember and honour our Canadian veterans:

“Change your Facebook profile picture with a poppy, write on your wall about how you remember…write about remembrance on your blog…However you choose to remember, be sure you share with a friend, a family member or a colleague. Encourage them to take up the challenge too.”

My father, now 84, enlisted in the army, eager to serve. His older brother saw combat but Dad never did, having come down with pneumonia before being sent overseas. He was just 20 when the war ended and has always regretted that he never made it to a battlefield. I remind him that I might not be here if he had.

So I’m wearing a poppy on my jacket and on my photo to show that I’m grateful for the men and women who have fought and continue to fight for the freedom we enjoy. I’ll be even more grateful when the day comes that war is just a distant memory.

Last night, the Halton-Peel Communications Association (HPCA) hosted a hands-on social media event for members and guests, and what fun it was.

I joined organizer and HPCA member Donna Papacosta and fellow members Rob Clark and Joan Vinall-Cox in talking about and demonstrating how to use LinkedIn (here’s Donna’s summary), blogs, audio and video on the web (and Joan’s), and Twitter. Guests had a chance to sit in at each table for a set amount of time, ask questions, discuss the uses and value of the tool and see it in action before moving to the next table. It seemed to go well, and I’m just sorry that as a presenter, I didn’t have a chance to visit all the tables, too!

I joked to Donna about the presenters that “one of these things is not like the other things, one of these things just doesn’t belong here” as the Sesame Street gang used to sing. But even though I am later joining Twitter than she and the others, I felt qualified to walk others through. Here’s what I talked about:

Why you should be on Twitter:

• To be part of the conversation.
• To find resources and get answers quickly.
• To meet others, build relationships, build your brand, earn referrals.
• To be visible, share resources, build a reputation, drive traffic to your blog or web site.

Where to start:

• Sign up at www.Twitter.com > “join the conversation.” Choose a variation of your name or one that ties in with your brand/company.
• Put relevant facts about you in your profile, to help people decide if you might have common interests. Upload a photo that is close enough to see your face. Include a link to your web page, if you have one.
• Write a couple of tweets before you start following others. Twitter notifies you by e-mail when someone follows you, and people typically check out the follower’s profile before deciding whether to follow back or not. (You don’t have to, but it’s polite.) So seeing what you’re talking about may help them learn something about you. More on what to tweet about below.
• Use “@” before a person’s name and “http://” before a URL to make these clickable links.
• You can tweet from Twitter.com (go to “home”) but it’s easier if you use a Twitter management system like TweetDeck, Twhirl or TweetGrid. They organize the tweets so it’s easier to see if someone mentions you and makes it easy to retweet (RT), or forward another person’s tweet that you think is useful or interesting.
• To RT, either write “RT @username” in the comment line and copy and paste the tweet, or use the TweetDeck or other system shortcut.

What to tweet about:

• Twitter asks you, “What are you doing?” but don’t answer this. Even your best friend probably doesn’t want to hear that you’re eating a sandwich or you’re in line at Starbucks. Try to add value. Talk about what’s got your attention. Share links to interesting content you’ve found, share your knowledge or advice on your area of specialty, promote an event, reply to comments.
• Once in a while, post a link to your own content, like a blog post of interest to others. But spend more time promoting others or engaging with others than you do promoting yourself. You don’t want to be like a pushy salesperson at a party.
• You have 140 characters, and Twitter counts down how many you have left as you write. If you hope someone will retweet it, make sure you keep to about 100-120 characters, to leave room for others to comment as they RT. Thank people for RTing.

Building Twitter followers:

• Follow people you already know personally or through their blogs.
• See who they follow and look for people who fit your interests.
• When someone follows you, check out their profile. If interesting and there’s a connection, follow them back.
• Watch out for the profiles that show a provocative photo, one tweet that contains a link, thousands of people followed and only a handful of followers; it’s spam. There’s a button where you can and should block and report the person as spam.

Several people who came to the Twitter table asked about time, and it’s true you can spend all kinds of time scrolling through all the tweets and following links. I think those who have iPhones and other mobile devices are better able to dip into the Twitter stream at odd moments, but you can do the same from your desk as long as you are disciplined. Set a timer if you have to!

Some people remained unconvinced that Twitter is as great as it’s made out to be, and as I said to the group, you can have that opinion. But as a communications person, you need to make sure it’s an informed opinion. Make your decision that it’s not for you after having tried it and spent some time using it. And even then, it may not be for you personally, but your client or your employer might have or need to be aware of some valid, useful, innovative ways of using Twitter.

Oh, I forgot: I’m @Sue_Horner.

Here are more Twitter resources:

Newbie’s guide to Twitter: http://news.cnet.com/newbies-guide-to-twitter/

Mashable’s Twitter guide book: http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

Blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, audio and video on Web sites – what are they all about and why should you care? For starters, these tools can help you get noticed, get remembered and get business. Last spring, the Halton-Peel Communications Association (HPCA) sponsored a successful meeting about social media, with Dave Fleet as our guest speaker. Dave’s presentation sparked interest among many members who wanted to learn more about social media in a hands-on environment.

Now it’s time for the follow-up hands-on meeting! At 7 p.m. next Wednesday, October 28, 2009, at the Monte Carlo Inn in Oakville, you can experience blogging, Twitter and LinkedIn, plus the use of audio and video on Web sites, in a relaxed, supportive environment. Your facilitators are:

·       Rob Clark – blogging
·       Sue Horner – Twitter
·       Donna Papacosta – LinkedIn
·       Joan Vinall-Cox – audio and video
Each will demonstrate the particular tool at a table. You will have a chance to visit each table, depending on your interest, ask question and walk through what you need to know. Please bring your own laptop computer, if you have one.

Because of the hands-on nature of this meeting, space is limited. Register today by emailing Donna Papacosta at Donna AT Trafcom DOT com. HPCA members can attend for free; guests pay $20.

Sandwiches and beverages will be served. See you there?

Usually, I’m very disciplined about writing. After walking my dog in the morning, I’m at my desk at 9 a.m. I turn the sound off so I’m not distracted by the whirr of arriving tweets, or the siren song of e-mail in my in-box. I don’t even listen to music so I can concentrate.

So what the heck happened to me a couple of weeks ago? I hit a spell where I just could not focus. I was distracted by e-mail and spent too much time reading blogs and following alluring URLs posted on Twitter. True, it was high season for vacations and I had a hard time reaching people I had to interview. But really; I had to do the equivalent of grabbing myself by the scruff of the neck to get my own attention.

If you get caught by the same lack of focus, here are some ideas to help:

1. Write out a list of everything you must accomplish. Rewrite it each night to be ready for the next day.
2. Don’t even open Twitter until you’ve crossed something off your “to do” list.
3. Turn off the sound so you don’t hear incoming messages.
4. If you leave your mail program open, block the view of your in-box so you can’t see incoming messages either.
5. Only allow yourself certain times to check e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. and STICK TO THEM.
6. Get a timer and be disciplined about how much time you spend checking all those online funhouses.
7. In extreme cases, take your laptop somewhere where you don’t have access to the Internet.
8. Give yourself a reward for the tiniest of achievements, such as staying focused for a set amount of time, and for bigger successes like finishing an article or submitting a project.
9. Know that this, too, shall pass.

Having just completed two last-minute projects (quick turnaround of about a day from interview to finished article, something I like to call “pulling a rabbit out of a hat”), I think I’m recovered. At least for now. But if you noticed that I haven’t said much on Twitter lately, this is part of the reason why.

Oh, and I should add, we need to cut ourselves some slack. As long as you are meeting your commitments, it’s OK to work at a slower pace once in a while!

While countries around the world worry about swine flu (sorry, H1N1), I’m here to tell you there is another insidious virus sweeping at least the blogging world. Yes, some online Dr. Evil is secretly going around stealing our mojo.

You know you’ve noticed it. Some bloggers you follow simply don’t post as often. Others have replaced blog content with their running Twitter commentary, or they select links found on, again, Twitter for a “best of” round-up. (Not a bad idea, and one I may shamelessly steal borrow.) A Google search on “lost my blogging mojo” pulled up 714,000 results.

Yes, I’ve lost my own blogging mojo. It appears to have started slipping away during a frantically busy week leading up to a week off in San Francisco. Once back in town, the pace continued, and between my freelance writing business and networking/volunteer activities and personal life, I would find myself shutting down the computer at 11:30 p.m. and thinking, “I’ll blog tomorrow.” Or before writing a post, I would just “dip into Twitter,” which quickly ate up my allotted non-work time. Meanwhile, Dr. Evil cranked the Mojo Vac on high and “tomorrow” kept getting farther away.

When I launched this blog in January 2007, I worried about getting into a regular rhythm of posting, having found it difficult to keep up a hand-written journal. But for the most part, I managed to maintain a regular two- or three-times-a-week schedule. So I know if I can only get my mojo back, I’ll be good to go.

If you’ve got any advice for getting blogging mojo back, I’d love to hear it. And if you’ve seen my mojo, let me know. If I see your mojo, I’ll be glad to do the same.

In the movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You” (seen on the plane on the way home from San Francisco), Drew Barrymore’s character laments the sorry state of communication with the opposite sex:

“I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It’s exhausting.”

She didn’t mention it, but you can get rejected by Twitter, too. Or at least, this is what I imagine are the Twitter signs he’s just not that into you (inspired by a friend who shall be nameless):

1. He doesn’t retweet your clever tweets.
2. He tweets when he’s out with you, but doesn’t mention you.
3. He doesn’t send you sexy DMs any more.
4. He unfollows you, and then…
5. He blocks you.

What other signs are there?

Have you noticed lately that the bloggers you follow are posting a little less frequently?

For me, there’s a direct correlation between deadlines looming and a slowdown in both reading and posting to blogs. I’m disciplined about working when I have to be, and time online is the first to go when I have a lot on my plate. So at times like the busy weeks leading up to a week away on my mini-vacation in San Francisco and then attending the IABC conference, I did not have much to say online.

But something else is getting in the way these days:  Twitter.

Kelly Thul at CommunNtelligence recently voiced that same thought, in a post called “Cheating on my blogging with Twitter”:

“I have resolved to get back to posting to a couple of blogs that I have neglected lately. Trying to understand how I got there. Was I lazy? Sure, always a bit, but that is not it. Did I run out of things to say? Unlikely. I blame Twitter.”

Me, too. First, you spend time scrolling through tweets from everyone you follow to see what they’re up to, and maybe answer or retweet a couple. Then, you have to look at all the interesting URLs they’ve suggested. Next, you might share a few URLs of your own, or come up with something about what you’re doing. And maybe you have some new people following you, so you look at their profiles to see if you want to follow back (or maybe block them, if they appear spammy or in other ways suspicious).  And then, oops, look at the time, better get to work! And so you leave blogging to another day.

Don’t get me wrong, Twitter has its appeal. As Kelly notes, it’s easy and quick, and it’s short. And I think those very attributes encourage a quick comment, which helps to build a connection. People seem to be a little less likely to comment on a blog post, especially if the comment is a one-liner (within Twitter’s 140-characters).

But it’s still an enormous expense of time. So here’s my new plan. If it’s been a few days between posts, I’ll blog first, and not even launch Twitter or (the much nicer tool) TweetDeck until that’s done. Or tweet one day and post to my blog the next. And if I’m super busy, I might not get to either.

How are you achieving blog/Twitter balance?

Back from the 2009 IABC conference in San Francisco (it’s a week ago already!) and I’ve finally found a few minutes to blog about it. (If you’re visiting from Les Potter’s blog, welcome! Be warned you’ve arrived at the PotterHorn mutual admiration society.)

I’ve blogged before about the value of attending IABC conferences, and I’ve been to many over the years. The professional development is great, the people are warm and welcoming, the social events are terrific (including the traditional hospitality of the Canadian party, sponsored for the second year in a row by CNW Group) and you can usually fit in some sightseeing in fun cities. Everyone has a large badge, so when you encounter in the halls and elevators, it’s your invitation to start a conversation. And that’s the thing with communicators; we barely need an invitation to get started talking.

That was definitely the case this year, but there was also something different happening: More than ever the conference built and cemented relationships that got their start online.

Say what you like about the time it takes to properly use Twitter, Facebook, blogging and other online adventures, it turns out the time can actually be well spent.

This is probably the first time I knew ahead of time that several people were attending, and made plans (that actually came through) to meet. The “warm” connections made by learning snippets of information on Facebook and Twitter and sharing comments on blogs and e-mails all led to a welcome feeling of familiarity with people I had only met online. So when we did meet in person, it was like meeting up with old friends. As Les described it, it was “a continuum of friendship not affected by time or space.”

So I had a delightful chat over coffee with Les. I got a warm hug from Linda Johannesson, with whom I’ve corresponded for years. I reconnected with a friend from Calgary I met at the dinearound in New York last year. I enjoyed getting to know fellow Toronto chapter members over dinner and on the walk from the opening reception to the Canada party. I briefly met some of the “rock stars” of communications, like Les, Steve Crescenzo, Shel Holtz and Lee Hopkins. I roomed with another rock star, podcasting queen Donna Papacosta (although we’ve known each other for at least 10 years).

Oh, and since I’ve been back, the people I met at this year’s dinearound have been in touch and we’re now connected on LinkedIn. Since the IABC conference is in Toronto next year, I’ve asked them to let me know if they’re going to attend and we’ll keep the connection going.

So the social piece of this year’s conference was a big highlight. More later on what I learned in the sessions.