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.

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.

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.

Loving Google Chrome – Search Replaces Address Bar

Just saw an interesting post over at Web Strategy by Jeremiah. Helped crystallize my thinking around why I love Google Chrome so much – aside from the cool design and snappy features… 

The search box circumvents the address bar
After playing with Google’s Chrome browser for the last few days, . Google “Address” bar, which is just called a “Box” is really a search field that anything entered into it will deliver a webpage (it first looks at your historical activities) or renders Google search results, or of some other search engine of your choosing (Including Twitter search). As a result, it’s become apparently that I no longer need to enter in URLs to my browser for 99% of all tasks.

[Chrome is a nod to the future, the address bar is really a search bar. URLs will be an anachronism]

 

…is what I mentioned in Twitter with a flurry of agreements back from the community. Lori MacVittie expands further on the idea and agrees that like engine parts in our car, or IP addresses, they mainly go invisible as we drive to our real world or online destinations.

The Shirt Dress?

I’ll stick my neck out and admit it, I’m a Gap fan. Sure, over the past 15 years, there have been more than a few trends that they’ve gotten wrong. Yes, their overall collection and target audience profile has shifted, but I tend to like them.
So here’s the latest and greatest from Gap: the Shirt Dress. Ingenious and obvious, they have taken the menswear dress shirt and converted it into a button-down dress for women. It’s sexy and sophisticated. But is it the beginning of a huge trend or even super-fad? Or, is it one of those conceptually interesting ideas that Gap misses the mark on?

The Aperture Moment manifesto is in development – but to give a sneak preview: it’s all about timing, opportunity and positioning. It’s about aligning your goals, core competencies and value proposition with the environment – a holistic and strategic perspective.
I’ll be watching Gap to see if this shirt dress flies off the rack. I’ll definitely be trying one on this weekend, however, I tend to shy away from the button-down dress.
Kudos to Gap for taking a chance.