My Dow Network – My Corporate Social Utility

Before I left Dow, I promised I would be one of their first “Alums” to get active on Dow’s new social media site, My Dow Network. The site has been around for more than a year. It’s an interesting model – connecting employees, quitters and retirees in a private social community. 

I’ll blog more about it later. For now, check out Dow’s feature story on the network, I’m pictured. Also, Dennis McDonald wrote an interesting summary based upon a conversation with one of my former team members, Trish Bharwada.

Dow alumna Becky Marxer, who is now working at a public relations firm, says My Women’s Network helps her to stay connected with friends she left behind when she moved away from Midland to be closer to her fiancé. 

“This is an easy way to keep in touch,” says Marxer. “Although I’m 600 miles away, it feels like I’m back at Dow.  I have about 35 friends on my contact list.  I can look at their photos, keep in touch with job moves and stay current.”

 

By the way, as an accommodating PR professional, I did not object that they characterized my leaving the company to get married. That said, that explanation is a little simplified and… minorly feminized. Alas, gotta paint the one woman as having work/life balance issues! To be honest, I DID have a life issue – my future husband lived three states away! (Vent completed.)

Dow, I will always love ya – great company, even better people. Thank you for all the opportunities you affored me.

Flavour Shaker from The Naked Chef

Don’t know about you, but I really enjoy Jamie Oliver – his Food Network programs, his rustic cooking style… and his innovative products.

So, short story on this one is that I’m a newlywed. And like 99.9 percent of us blissful bees, I registered a numerous places for “must-have” homemaking wares. The registration process was trying for my then fiance and I. We got into more than a couple tiffs about scanning useless items to the registy. One of the Crate and Barrel squabbles I lost was for a mortar and pestle. 

How it works.

He said, “What are you ever going to use that thing for?! It will just take up space and collect dust.” To which, I replied, “To grid things like coriander.” (At the time, coriander seeds were the best I could do.)

I lost. We have no mortar, no pestle. For the record, we do have correander seeds that go unused becuase we cannot grid them.

Enter, my culinary crush, Jamie. Jamie’s invented a brilliant little product called the Flavour Shaker. This biomorphic contraption lets you beat your herbs and spices to smithereens – all the while providing a maraca-like percussion. I’ve had trouble finding the product in the US, but it looks to be available via UK import.

 

Think this would make a great Christmas gift. Friends, don’t be surprised if you are soon the proud owner of one! PS- do on to others…. would love one of these beauties for myself.

Check out Jamie’s newest show on the Food Network, Jamie at Home. It’s a fun little program. Like the format too. He focuses on extremely simple ingredients and does a whole show about the – like tomato’s, or zucchini or peppers.

Uh-Oh. “Ihate(yourcompany).com”

How to Handle ‘IHateYourCompany.com.’ Good read, I bet. If only I had a WSJ subscription. If you check it out, let me know what you think.

Tweeting for Business & Chief Tweets

Interesting read over at NYTimes, How Twitter Can Help at Work. Also, new twitter application for employee-to-employee tweeting, Yammer. Cool Video on their site.

UPDATE: Just found this cool CEOs on Twitter content over at BusinessWeek. Worth checking out and following some of these guys.

Communications for a Digital Globe – Live Webcast 9/12

LIVE FEED (1-2:30 p.m. CST, Friday, Sept. 12): mms:\\streaming.more.net\UMCJSchool 

Top Executives, Communication Experts Gather to Discuss Future of Interactive Communications

Columbia, Mo. (Sept. 8, 2008) — Top corporate leaders, journalists and strategic communicators will gather with citizens Sept. 12 for a spirited, free-flowing roundtable discussion about the future of communications during the centennial celebration of the Missouri School of Journalism and the dedication of the Reynolds Journalism Institute.

 

Gary D. Forsee	Russ Mitchell, BJ ‘82	Susan L. Bostrom
David W. Dorman	Mark Hoffman, MA ‘80	Carol J. Loomis, BJ ‘51
Amy McCombs, BJ ‘68, BA ‘69, MA ‘72	Dave Senay	Ralph de la Vega

“The President’s Roundtable: Communication for a Digital Globe” will look at the challenges – and identify winning strategies – when it comes to dealing with constant technological changes in communication. The discussion will feature viewpoints from people as diverse as a chief executive officer of a major company to an average citizen who is learning to live in a digital world. This free event will be from 1-2:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 12, in Jesse Auditorium. It is open to the public, and registration is not required.

Sue Bostrom, chief marketing officer, Cisco David Dorman, chairman of the board, Motorola Inc. Mark Hoffman, MA ‘80, president, CNBC Carol J. Loomis, BJ ‘51, senior editor at large, Fortune Magazine Amy McCombs, BJ ‘68, BA ‘69, MA ‘72, former president and CEO of Chronicle Broadcasting Dave Senay, president and CEO, Fleishman-Hillard International Communications Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility

Twitter Handbook is Here!

Exciting evening development. The Twitter Handbook was just been released. Check it out, it’s free. I’m scanning through it now. What do you think, 181 pages on a 140-character medium? Looking forward to the upcoming dialogue on the handbook!

Wonder how long it will take for me and my fellow PR brethren to monetize the insights. So many vultures out there trying to sell “the twitter solution.” I can tell you one thing, being an early adopter or first in your industry to get on Twitter puts you in a good competitive position. BUT… I have a hunch that many of us, passionate strat. commers, will toss our savvy to wind and go hog wild – spamming and promoting with dollar signs in our head versus relationship development in our hearts.

Hope us PR flacks get it right this time! Personally, I’m doing my best to be smart about it. In a new world like Twitter, one must rely on his/her instincts. In my case, those instincts are deeply rooted in strat comm theory.

… Alas, when I start talking “theory,” I know it’s time to log off.

Seven Years of iPod Bliss

I’ve had two models of the iPod over the years… The not-so-trusty 3G behemoth and the 2G Nano (apple green) – still use the 2G almost every day. Love the Nike Plus running kit (on my second kit).  Very cool timeline on Gizmodo.

 

What do you think of the new Nanos?  When are they going to offer custom colors and designs. Thought Apple would get on top of that trend a while ago. I mean Nike has been offering NikeID (design your own shoe) for how many years?

Google Chrome Rejection – Crash and Burn?

Update to Loving Google Chrome from last week.  Chrome has crashed on me a few times today. It freezes up on Facebook and seems to be slowing my other applications. I still love you, Google Chrome, but you really need to patch things up. Some flowers would be nice.

If the Twilight Series Offered an IPO, I would Buy, Buy, BUY.

Predictions can be a dicey game, but I’m going to go ahead and call it. The Twilight Series is about to hit the 24-35 female demographic like gangbusters. As you can tell from my volume of posts on the Stephenie Meyer book series as of late, it’s captured a little bit of my imagination.

But let’s not talk about me. Let’s talk about the fact that four out of four of my friends who I’ve lent the books to are hooked too. This is a diverse crowd of folks. All professional women (who would have thought?)… If the Twilight Series was issuing an IPO, I would buy, buy, buy!

Any other twenty-something Twilighters out there? Don’t know about you, but I’ve already sent out an Evite for an opening-night girls night out at the movies!!

Bringing My Colleague Into the 21st Century

UPDATE-2X: Had an awesome session this morning. Though we got to mashups, we didn’t even make it over to Facebook. We’re going to schedule a “part 2″ meeting for next week. Was an incredibly fun session, but I think I my colleague’s head might be swimming a bit at the moment! The Common Craft videos were a huge hit. Sent her a follow-up note with links to some reccomended tutorials.

UPDATE: Meeting rescheduled due to pressing client projects! We’re meeting this Friday morning (9/12). Do you have any advice or links to cool social media tools and/or tutorials??

Today is an exciting day at the St. Louis office of Fleishman-Hillard. Today, I am embarking on an hour of virtual enlightenment with a colleague. Actually, our Outlook meeting maker is titled something like “Bringing you into the 21st century.” 

This is a real treat for me. This afternoon, I get to spend a full hour of my day bringing the world of social media and new technology to a coworker. Here at FH, we do all sorts of “digital bootcamps” to help meet specific client needs – we’re a very “switched on” firm. But I’ve never had the opportunity to sit one-on-one with somebody and help open their eyes. 

Don’t get my wrong, I’m no Morpheus here. Just a passionate communicator looking to spread the good word of social media. Part of our journey will bring us to this blog and we’ll watch this embedded video on Twitter.

Oooh – I’m excited! Wikis, and Facebook and LinkedIn – oh my! IM and Rick Roll and chrome life – oh yes!!