I find it challenging to share my personal process because I’ve developed it over more than four years. So take what you think will work and modify the rest to work for you. The point is to have a process, not replicate my process.

My process basically breaks down into three categories – making time to track, time to write and time to play.

Time to Track

You’re doing all this great monitoring with your feedreader, but you  have to give yourself time to track – time to read and browse your feeds, your Twitter stream, your Facebook news feed. Input is crucial for good output (see the next section).

Your process may mean scanning as you have time during the day or in the evenings or maybe between tasks. Or it may mean setting aside a specific block of time during the day. I do recommend finding time every day so you can create a habit of using social media to track news and trends. I tend to scan a little here and a little there, using Twitter as my most common “input.” Through Twitter lists and columns on Tweetdeck, I can filter out some of the noise.

Time to Write

Creating content means spending at least some time being thoughtful and some degree of focus. I find the best times to blog for me are either a) on Sundays or b) when the spirit moves me. Sundays have just turned into my “surf the Internet, mentally prepare for the week but don’t work too hard” days. Blog writing me fits into that bucket. I enjoy writing. I enjoy blogging.

But your time to write may be different. Figure it out for yourself – and it may take some stops and starts. You may have to try a few different things. That’s ok!

Even if you’re not blogging, you’re still updating, tweeting (or whatever) and that means you’re creating content. Give yourself time to do it well.

Time to Play

If you’re not doing some fun stuff with social media, it’ll quickly become a chore. Fashion, gossip, design, sports… whatever you enjoy for fun, find a way to incorporate that into your social media “process.”

What’s worked for you? Do you have a process? Share it with us here.

mindmap photo by sirwiseowl

Yay feedreaders!

Using a feedreader to track blogs I’m interested in along with keyword searches is my number one shortcut. It was thanks to Bloglines, my first feedreader that I really started to understand social media. I subscribed to PR, social media, marketing and advertising blogs left and right. By doing so, I learned best practices and social media etiquette through observation.

My use has changed a little bit, which I’ll explain. First, though, take a peek at this video from Common Craft, it’ll give you the basics (click on the image).

Common Craft recommends Google Reader, which is very popular. The aesthetics of Google Reader just don’t work for me – nothing personal, Google. I use Netvibes. I like the “dashboard” feel to it and I can separate different clients, interests, projects into their own tab.

You can see how this looks at the public Netvibes dashboard I set up. Feel free to use this as a start for your own. Once you create an account with Netvibes, any changes you make will be saved.

What’s in my feedreader:

• Six or so tabs related to PR, social media, marketing, nonprofit work, advertising, etc. Each has its own tab and each tab has 10 – 20 different blog feeds. I’ve found the best blogs (for me) that I want to subscribe to.
• A tab for each client for which I do listening and monitoring activities. For clients I subscribe to interesting blogs and also subscribe to search results. This is really how my use has changed. I use my feedreader more for managing and maintaining client social media than for my own purposes. (I’d say it’s a 60-40 split in terms of how much time I spend… 60% on client stuff and 40% on my own).

Subscribe to search results? Why yes! I do keyword searches with (at minimum): Google, SocialMention, IceRocket, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. When you do the search on any of those sites, you can subscribe to the results. Look for the RSS icon on the page or in your address bar on your browser.

It takes some time up front to set up a useful dashboard. Once it’s set up, not only do you know if you or your client is mentioned on a blog or a tweet, but you also have all kinds of “input” at your fingertips for creating great content. I rely on my feedreader for inspiration for tweets and for blog posts. By spending the time upfront to make a useful dashboard, the day-to-day or week-to-week maintenance is lessened.

You can do some pretty cool things with RSS (as a subscriber). Some tips:

• You can subscribe to specific categories on most blogs. Maybe you’re not interested in everything everyone says on a frequently-updated site, but are interested in a specific topic or category. You can pull just those posts.
• A site called PostRank will let you subscribe to just the most popular posts. I’ve done this with sites like Jezebel or Perez Hilton because there are just too many posts to keep up with everyday. Yes… I have subscribed to Perez Hilton. Don’t judge.
• Tools like Yahoo! Pipes let you dump a bunch of sites in one end, along with some keywords and out the other end? A custom RSS feed. I think this could be a sweet tool for media monitoring (put in New York Times, USA Today, etc. etc…. filter for your company name and voila!), but I haven’t tried it out yet. Yahoo! Pipes is a bit “techy,” so beware.
• Create an RSS feed where none exists. This is a little more complicated, but it’s possible! This post overviews a few of the tools that can help. The post is a tad dated, so I’m not sure all the tools listed still exist, but I’ve tried a few with varying degrees of success. This is also on the techy side.

Final tip: Making checking your feedreader part of your daily routine. Set the feedreader as your homepage, add it as a shortcut on your browser, or leave yourself a reminder (physical or electronic) to take a peek.

Any other tips? I’d love to hear how you’re using feedreaders. Which reader are you using and why?

[this post is cross-posted at Verve: In Bloom]

• Small business: maybe a small staff and a small budget didn’t keep you from achieving meaningful results. What lessons did you learn?
• Non-profit: social media can be used effectively for volunteer recruitment and retention, building awareness, serving clients and raising money. Has your non-profit done any of these things?
• Pro-bono: maybe you didn’t have any budget for hard costs and volunteered your time and did great things to achieve your objectives.
• Student work: classwork and student teams are often tapped in service learning programs to plan and implement social media – do you have a great example?
• Experimental: many organizations have “try it out” pieces of social media efforts that have worked brilliantly.
• Any size! Any audience!

There’s no chance that we could find every amazing example. So we’re asking for your help!

Visit the Strategic Social Media Book website and tell us about your work.

Most entrepreneurs struggle. It’s hard work.

So what would I share with undergrads considering entrepreneurship about lessons I’ve learned?

Five Hardest Things:

• No set schedule. No, it’s not 9 – 5, it’s more like 24/7.
  50, 60, even 70 hour work weeks aren’t uncommon. You do what you have to do to get the work done. With your own biz, all-nighters are not relegated to the fond memories of college.
• The “buck” (but not the decisions) stops here.
  I’m responsible for the success or failure of a campaign or initiative, but don’t always get to make the decisions that go into it. That means that I get to be responsible for a problem, even if the client didn’t follow my advice to avoid it.
• The financial ebbs and flows.
  It’s not easy to do your own marketing and business development, especially in “flow” times when you’re busy. But if you don’t, the work (and the money) can dry up.
• Working in a vacuum.
  I have a super talented account assistant and an amazing business partner who I just happen to be related to, but most of the time, I work solo. Brainstorming for one is not nearly as fun (or effective).
• Working with a vacuum.
  Most of my business life has been spent in a home office and all the distractions therein.

Five Best Things:

• No set schedule.
  I may work a lot, but sometimes my day doesn’t start til 10 and if I need to deal with family stuff (pretty often with a kiddo) or take a retail therapy break, I can.
• Creative freedom.
  My work is my work. I get to be creative and think big. There’s no silo or vertical niche that I fill, I get to do it all.
• Clients who trust me.
  This comes with experience. A decade in PR and (finally!) looking like I’m older than 30 means I have a little cred before I bill for a single minute. The other part of the trust equation is that I do good work. Consistently.
• Creating new opportunities. Learning new things.
  If I’m learning something new, I’m a happy girl. Maybe it’s the luxury jewelry market, or sustainable food, or industrial manufacturing… regardless, information is fuel for my noggin.
• Helping businesses and nonprofits succeed
  I’m as committed to my clients’ success as if their business were my business. And they know it! That feels pretty good.

Five really crappy lessons I had to learn:

• Get  help with the parts you’re not good at. For me, that’s the “business” side (taxes, bookkeeping, etc.).
• Don’t overpromise. Be realistic about your time and what you can accomplish. I hate saying no, so this is a biggie for me.
• Manage clients’ expectations. It’s not likely that you’re going to get that “above the fold” New York Times article right away (or ever, for that matter). Help clients understand how the process of PR works. This is something I still struggle with.
• Trust your gut.

I love being an entrepreneur. I love what I do. I have the best clients who do the most interesting things. I’m quite honored to be on their respective teams and know they trust me to help them set and achieve their objectives. But owning your own biz is hard freaking work. And you have to be committed for the long term.

Check out these ten TED talks for startups, too. Great advice and great presentations.

Glenn Cole of 72 and Sunny gave the commencement address this year for the School of Journalism and Communication and this idea was his main point. Not being afraid of failure will allow you to stretch yourself far beyond you ever thought was possible.

It’s not comfortable. In fact sometimes it downright sucks. Because you will fail and sometimes you’ll fail spectacularly. But overcoming that failure is really the only way to know, and appreciate, success.

Learn to learn from failure because everything will not go smoothly.

• Chill out! You can’t learn without making mistakes. And making mistakes doesn’t mean you’re not smart, talented, creative, etc. In fact, quite the opposite.
• Build a good relationship with your manager, your client, etc. Being allowed to fail, and learning from it, takes a team and takes support.
• Be honest about your failure. Conduct a post-mortem of the project or situation and figure out what went right and what went wrong.

Being an entrepreneur has been meant that I’ve learned many, many lessons through trial by fire. What tips would you give? What lessons have you learned? Leave your comments.

So if you’ve missed a big opportunity, what do you do?

Clients/managers will often ask you to pitch a follow-up. Not super effective. In a recent Bad Pitch Blog post, Kevin explains why pitching the journalist to extend the article in and of itself is not terribly useful – chances are they aren’t going to write about the same topic. But you can use it as an opportunity to contact the journalist.

Clay, a commentor on the BPB post offers some additional suggestions that I’d like to expand on.

It’s still possible to participate in the discussion and use social media channels to your advantage.

• If the story is available online, chances are you can comment on it. Be respectful, keep out the sales pitch and add value to the conversation. Go back to your key talking points. In most cases, the comment should come from company executives. After all, the PRo wouldn’t have been the source for the story in the first place. Let the CEO or Executive Director make the comment under his or her name. Transparency, people.
• Use your own social media channels to discuss. Blog about it. And not, “we totally should’ve been part of this piece! wah!” Add value, bring a new perspective to the story. Tweet, Facebook or post on forums (wherever your community is talking) and link back to your blog. If the your traffic points to the story through your blog, you can share your perspective with
• Tap into your champions and fans. By sharing your organization’s perspective, you can ensure your champions have the “ammunition” that they need to help tell your story, too. Do not, however, encourage them to swarm the site with positive comments about your company, however. It’ll look staged and potentially backfire. (And it should go without saying that employees, public relations team members, random family should not comment as genuine “fans” on a post.)

Outside of the social media activities, it’s always a best practice to make sure that your media list and contacts are up-to-date and targeted appropriately. The media landscape changes quickly. And while you can’t be in-the-know on every trend piece or industry round-up, a well-targeted media list and time spent building relationships with those on it will help you earn great coverage on an ongoing basis.

What advice would you add? What do you do when you miss “the” story?

Rather than bounding into each week’s classes, what I feel is closer to “clawing.” I don’t love my students any less (well, most of them…), but the weight of the entire year can feel pretty heavy by week 10 of Spring Term.

In academia, the breaks are clear. In June, I am gazing lovingly into the beautiful stream of four months of summer break. Glorious, glorious summer break. But whether you’re in academia or the “real world,” I’ve learned it’s important to take time to renew and recharge. It’s important to take time to breathe, reflect and look forward.

Some tips of my own and a few mixed in with some from the experts at stuff like this:

• Take some time to brain dump. For me this means writing. Just writing and writing and writing. Get it all out of your noggin and onto paper. I write notes about what I want to change in my routine, what I learned about the classes that I taught, etc.
• Exercise. Run, do Pilates or try Yoga. I’m a Pilates fan. It’s amazing for helping to clear my mind and put my spine back on straight.
• Envision the next year. For me, the year is September – June… maybe you’re on a calendar year. Regardless, take some time to plan your year, envision what you want to accomplish. I found this great post about giving yourself an annual review. I think I might try this sometime this summer. I’m also creating a “vision board” (with a little nudge from my biz coach). Have no fear, you’ll hear all about that process, too.
• Find your own way. You’ll find plenty of ways to organize mental clutter. This post has tons of tips for getting your noggin organized.

How do you best use a transition to prepare for the next “thing” in your life?

photo by LunaDiRimmel

One thing I have loved this term (and I need to explore more with my classes) is the beautiful cross section of interests. Whether it’s sports and PR, fashion and PR, public health, or art and PR – these students are focused and clear on what they love and how PR will help get them there.

***

Lance Heisler: And Post!…Slow Down, Champ
Lance’s post about finding your voice & getting comfortable with blogging is has some great insights and some tips for doing it right.

Jenna Starkey: Overcoming Nerves and Procrastination
Jenna, like many over-achieving PR students, has a lot on her plate and at the beginning of a particularly challenging week, she spent a little time reflecting and (lucky for us!) sharing tips she’s learned.

Joani Jones: Is There Ever a Time for Sports and Politics to Mix?
Joani does a nice job of combing two things she passionate about – sports and PR. This post was an interesting take on how teams were reacting (or not) to the controversial immigration law in Arizona.

Kathleen Sumagit-Rivera: Emerging Social Media Apps
Kathleen has a lot of great social media basic (and even not-so-basic) tips on her blog. I liked this post. I enjoy using foursquare, but haven’t started using Gowalla yet. This was a handy breakdown of the two services and how they compare.

Lauren Switzer: Trending Topics, An Analysis
I’m a huge geek and I love when students can dig in a little on geekish topics. I learned something new here and think “twitter bomb” is a going to catch on as a phrase.  And this post on portfolios is one of my faves of all time.

Ana Stgar: How To Practice Sustainable PR
Ana’s taken a sports bent with her content, which is terrific. But she also has a depth of opinion and interest in sustainability. I suppose the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive… Anyway, this is a great post on sustainable PR.

Kate Malinoski: In Defense of Multiple Identities
Kate talks about how we all have multiple “versions” of ourselves based on our audience and for her (and many), Facebook is mostly social. She makes a good argument, although I’d say the more comfortable you become with yourself, what you have to offer, and your place in the world, the urge to keep distinct personas abates.

Amy Shelton: Social Media Strategists Gamble with ChatRoulette
Amy’s interest in public health campaigns is clear throughout her blog and this post does a great job of combining her two interests (PR & public health) to show how one organization used ChatRoulette as the channel for an HIV campaign.

Samantha Luthra: When the Internt Becomes the Playground – Teens and Social Media Bullying
Sam’s passions are fashion and PR. This post veers slightly from that, but has a great anecdote and tips for being smart about cyberbullying. Sam, your sister is lucky to have a big sis watching out for her.

Nicole Perkins: Creating Community and Managing the Unmanageable: Fostering an Online Community.
Nicole’s focus on the arts makes for very interesting content on her blog (Nicole, I think you got over that “boring” thing you were worried about). Nicole is also gearing up for a year-long process managing an online community next year, so these two posts for her are timely and valuable ways to think about her role. For the rest of us, we just get to tag along and enjoy her writing.

photo via Flickr by edensgate

7 Questions Bloggers Should Ask Themselves Before Pushing Publish (Social Media Today): A nice checklist and good reminders to be thorough,even if you’re trying to be quick.

The BPGlobalPR Twitter account has been getting a lot of attention for its skewering of the oil giant and its PR team. Is ignoring the right thing to do?

In 10 Rules for Consistent Execution, Amber Naslund offers her guidelines for how she does it all. Some great tips for managing your time.

A millennial’s view on the GenY question that’s come up a few times in the last few weeks. Lauren Fernandez shares her thoughts in Age Isn’t an Indicator of Executing Awesome.

Graduate’s Guide to Prepping for a PR Career has five tips for ensuring that you’re ready for the real world. Great advice.

10,000 Words offers three underrated but essential skills for journalists.

That said, apparently there are other people who still have working brains and have created some food for your thoughts, too.

I’m more and more fascinated with the Facebook privacy brou-haha and several great posts last week illuminated the discussion for me (for purposes of your linky love post, dear J452 students, you can take all these together or look at them individually). darah boyd had a terrific post about radical transparency and informed choice. Jeff Jarvis also talked about *the* public vs *a* public when it comes to the way people participate in Facebook and other outlets.

Campbell Brown (who I love) is leaving CNN. That’s not terribly newsworthy, but the statement she issued was really terrific. What’s your reaction to her statement? What can we learn as communicators?

Do you have a “20% project”? What fuels your creativity, keeps you motivated, sparks your passion? BBD talks about what their team members do… what do you do?

Some nitty gritty, down and dirty advice from the Bad Pitch Blog about alternates to a press release. Great ideas!

A little bigger picture, but important nonetheless… Augie Ray at Forrester gives us a list of seven things your company must do because of social media.

From Mashable, a list of the most social companies. In a shiny whiz bang cool infographic!