Where Do You Stand?

What do you do when youth and inexperience trump media training? You activate your crisis plan.

This is exactly what Ryan Seacrest did last night on “American Idol” when a teen contestant who was voted off visibly broke down on stage. “I can’t sing,” Alaina Whitaker said, in reference to the tradition that eliminated contestants sing a song immediately following their elimination and before leaving the show. Oh no! In the mind of a viewer, the question comes to mind, “What are they going to do now? They aren’t scheduled to go to commercial for two minutes.”

With complete ease, and most likely with a plan for this type of situation already in place, Seacrest was able to offer his own commentary to the eliminated teen and solicit feedback from the judges before offering Whitaker one more opportunity to sing (she took it) and preventing a potentially embarrassing situation from unfolding on national television.

The “American Idol” media trainers appear to be doing a good job – training dozens of young, fresh individuals to maintain their cool in front of millions and millions of viewers. When one of the individuals is unable to reference his or her training, it’s nice to see that a secondary plan is put in motion.

 X Lounge spams UVa and serves up an excuse for me to remind all clients, prospects and readers of this space that yes, Virginia (and all the other states, too) it’s still illegal to send unsolicited e-mails, no matter your mission.

It’s amazing to me that this happened in the first place (apparently X Lounge needs a better communications/marketing resource with sound counsel), but that the idea of spamming is still considered by clients and companies as a good idea. Not only is it illegal, but it’s not even effective.

We’ve had several clients over the years ask us about the harvesting of e-mails and mass e-mail publishing. In the words of Dana Carvey as George H. W. Bush, “Na ga da.” Translation: Standing’s not gonna do it.

The March issue of Wired just arrived in our mailbox. Interestingly, the magazine offers a report on the institution of municipal Wi-Fi across the country. The story provides a map (unlike my earlier post on the topic) that demonstrates the magnitude of the “free” municipal Wi-Fi movement and the status of network construction efforts in various locations.  

You can check the Wired story in print (at local bookstores or subscribe online), and while you have the issue in hand, you might also consider reading “How to Fly Through Airport Security” and “And Laptops for All.”  

Last night, I was a host at a local restaurant for a “dining out” event to support the Charlottesville Community Scholarship Program. We called the event “Food for Thought” and invited five restaurants to participate by donating a percentage of the evening’s take to the Program if we promoted the event enough to fill the house on a Tuesday night in February. We also had board members and local “celebrity” guest hosts at each restaurant, informing the patrons about the Program and how the cost of their meal would help a Charlottesville student with a college scholarship.

Full disclosure: this idea was directly borrowed from the tremendously popular Dining Out for Life event put on by the St. Louis Effort for AIDS. Dining Out for Life is one of the most successful St. Louis fundraisers and it occurred to me that Charlottesville, with its vibrant dining culture and passion for education, was a perfect city in which to replicate the Dining Out event. Thus, Food for Thought was born.

Not all the precincts restaurants have reported as I write this, but at my restaurant, the event was a big success. (Special thanks to Tim Hulbert, Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce president who was the celebrity host at The Shebeen).

As board members, we relied on volunteers to get the word out; mostly, people involved with the Program invited friends to the restaurants. Beyond that, we distributed a news release and gained news stories on two local television stations and on news radio during prime drive time. More than half of the restaurant patrons reported that they’d heard about the event from one of these sources.The social media success of the story happened when a few local blogs picked up the event, (OK, to be fair, that last one’s mine) further spread by our fabulous Charlottesville blog aggregator. There were bloggers and blog readers at Food for Thought!

Thanks to the Charlottesville Community Scholarship board for making this special event happen, and to everyone in the community who came out to support this cause, who helped spread the word and who contributed to the Program, providing scholarships for eligible students in the city of Charlottesville.

Standing has employees covering every generation from Baby Boomer to Millennial (Generation Y). A while back, we had a speaker explain characteristics of each generation (and no, Generation X does not consider shoulder pads to be one of their unique qualities, big hair, yes, shoulder pads, no).

Check out this article from the Dallas Morning News about some interesting characteristics of my generation. According to those interviewed in the article, we’re a confident, high achieving bunch; but at the same time, we take everything as criticism.

Have any of you experienced a difference in your work culture with two or more generations in the same office, and how are you handling it?

I’m not writing about a communications issue today. No, I’m writing instead about how much I enjoy working for Standing Partnership. Please know that when I talk about Standing being a great place to work, I truly mean it. I’m enthused (overly enthused, perhaps) about Standing right now because I’m less than two weeks away from embarking on a month-long paternity leave. Yes, that’s right: My company offers male employees four weeks of paid time off after the birth of a child. That’s a nearly unheard of offering for a company of our size.

This is an extra special time in my life (as friends, family, co-workers and readers of my blog have heard countless times), and I just can’t thank my company enough for the opportunity to share in our son’s first days at home. My co-workers are all supportive, and they are really stepping up to help out in my absence. They, too, deserve a lot of praise for helping to make this happen. Anyway, I just can’t wait.

I’d love to hear what you think about paternity leave. Does your company offer it? Does your company have any other benefits that would be considered fairly unique?

We’re getting so comfortable with social media terms around here; I stumbled across this “definition list” that breaks down what we’re all so excited about. It’s crafted for educators, but hey, we play that role as communications counselors, too.  Will we see my favorite term, Google Jockeying, emerge in business meetings?

You may have heard that starting this spring, Starbucks will offer free limited Wi-Fi, effectively joining the ranks of connected coffee shops, campgrounds, and libraries across the country.

In 2007 alone, more than 4000 new, free Wi-Fi locations were added to the Wi-Fi FreeSpot Directory. Some of those locations even included McDonald’s restaurants, which began providing the value-add service in 2003.

Naturally, many airports and hotels are part of the Wi-Fi fabric as well. Travel Post offers a definitive guide on airport connectivity, while Wi-Fi Free Spot Directory will tell you which hotels provide free Internet access.

Following in the footsteps of St. Cloud, Florida, some U.S. municipalities are even pursuing city-wide Wi-Fi plans, ensuring you can get an Internet connection wherever you’re standing.

As an ice breaker in our quarterly retreat last Friday, we helped determine reputation management strategies for personalities in need of some serious help.  For the team who chose Roger Clemens and anybody else who watched Congressional testimony by Clemens, I thought you would enjoy reading this from comedian Andy Borowitz:

Roger Clemens Named New White House Spokesperson

Fair question. But that does not mean that Wikipedia is fair game for PR pros.

Wikipedia explains further on this page, which provides answers to several commonly asked questions.