Today, I gave blood for the very first time.  I am 40 years old (just turned this week).  It was no big deal TO do it.  But, it was a big deal THAT I did it.

My client, the Avon Volunteer Fire Department (AVFD), has held three blood drives since we began working together.  During the previous two – both on Good Friday, one in 2010 and one in 2011 – I kept saying, “I really should roll up my sleeve,” but couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I’m not afraid of needles or pain – I’ve been stuck like a pincushion more times than I can count, and I had epidurals while I labored in childbirth with both my kiddos.  My fear was that I would pass out in reaction to the blood loss.  I. Do. Not. Like. Fainting.

According to the American Red Cross, every minute of every day, someone needs blood.  That blood can only come from volunteer donors and it’s the mission of the American Red Cross to maintain a safe blood supply.  Blood donors are part of a very select group – currently only three out of every 100 people in America donate blood.

“For members of the AVFD, saving lives comes with the territory and opportunities to help people can arise at any moment.  Luckily, first responders aren’t the only people who can save lives – by donating a pint of blood to the American Red Cross, just about anyone can help.”  I wrote that more than 18 months ago as part of a calendar listing we used to promote and draw donors to the first blood drive.  Personally, I didn’t find meaning in it until this week.

We’ve been preparing for the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  I am fortunate to not know anyone who died that day.  Although, I always think about the wonderful couple my husband and I met while honeymooning in Australia in October 2000.  He was FDNY, she was a nurse, and they were Yankees fans.  We spent one morning after breakfast sitting in a bar in Port Douglas watching Game 2 of the World Series.  After returning to the United States, we didn’t stay in touch they way I’d hoped we would.  Their names aren’t on the list of people who died, but for some reason I still wonder.  Strange for me to do that, I guess.

So, from the time I decided to donate at my client’s 9/11 Weekend of Remembrance blood drive until the moment the needle went into my arm, little more than 36 hours had passed.  I posted my decision on Facebook and think that helped hold me accountable.  “Kudos to you for putting on your big-girl panties and going for it,” commented one of my friends.  “You’ll be just fine.”  How could I back out after that?!

After a hectic start to the morning (slowly waking up two hours before the blood drive began to shower, dress, and head over to the fire house only to learn a local television crew is already there and broadcasting live – extremely thankful for the news coverage but definitely wishing I’d had time to do my hair), I ate a bigger breakfast than I normally do, obeyed the wonderful AVFD volunteer who told me to drink some orange juice before signing in, and off I went.  I went through the eligibility consultation and was cleared to donate.  I will refrain from sharing the actual blood drawing details.  But, suffice it to say … It. Was. E. Z.

As I sat having a snack and a bottle of water afterwards, I wondered, “Why did I wait so long to do this?”  I became somewhat angry with myself and incredibly ashamed.  “Why don’t more people donate?”

I understand there are people who are ineligible.  And, there are many who feel physically or emotionally unable, though medically they qualify.  I am sure there are even some religions that prohibit blood donation.  But, to everyone else (and there are more than three people per every hundred who can handle this), I issue a challenge: Before 2011 is over, find a local blood drive, take an hour out of your day, and donate your own pint.

As long as a donor remains eligible, he or she can give blood every 56 days.  Will I donate that frequently?  I don’t know for sure – right now I am still caught between the high and exhaustion of today’s experience.  Honestly, I do feel a little bit like I had the life sucked out of me.  However, I will do it again.  I saved a life today.

The following is part of WardComm’s “The Lost Files” series of blog posts — recreations from drafts of posts lost when our host company’s server (and backup server) crashed on March 6, 2011.  A version of this post was originally published on or about 3.11.2011.

Blog.  Blog.  Blogeddy blog.  Blog.  Blog.  Bloggedy blog.  Just a rhythmic little chant that’s been playing over and over and over in my head all week.  It’s starting to grate on me.  Yep.  For a moment, blogging has become a nuisance.  I feel like that is wrong on so very many levels.  But, I am going to accept it because my world has been in such a state of flux lately, and I know this little phase won’t last.

It’s been a while since my last blog post.  I was on vacation.  Not my typical working vacation where I repeatedly pawn the kiddos off on my husband for longer amounts of time that anticipated and beg for forgiveness later, but the kind of trip where you check voice mail and email only once per day (a necessary evil associated with owning one’s own biz and not retaining any employees) and try really hard not to reply unless absolutely necessary.  So, while not 100% “unplugged” (as a former personal wellness trainer client of mine so strongly and wisely advises), I was tuned out and, for the most part, turned off.

I was successfully distracted from work.  My week was spent with my younger sister and our younger brother.  Oh, and the seven children we have between the three of us – four boys and three girls all between the ages of 4 and 10.  In one house.  No spouses or significant others.  It took us 17 hours by car to get where we were going and, one week later, 18 hours to get back home – no overnight stops, just potty breaks.  And, I loved every minute of it!

If you’re still reading you are either wondering what stories (and, trust me, there are plenty!) I am going to tell about the trip or you are trying to figure out where I am going with this post.

Well, actually, it’s about branding.  Didn’t see that one coming?  Neither did I.  But, while I was away, I learned something about my own personal brand, my character.  And, I was kind of surprised, although perhaps I shouldn’t have been.  I am transparent.  I am brutally honest.  I am no nonsense.  I am strong.  I haven’t always been this way.  Apparently, purposely adopting these distinctions to frame my business persona has been highly instrumental in integrating them into a person I am not quite sure I knew I could be.

It made me think of a line from one of my favorite movies, Dead Again, starring Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson.  Playing the role of Doctor Cozy Carlisle, Robin Williams delivers the following line to Mike Church, Branagh’s character:

“Someone is either a smoker or a nonsmoker. There’s no in-between. The trick is to find out which one you are, and be that. If you’re a nonsmoker, you’ll know.”

(As used in this blog, that quote is just a general statement about taking control – not a personal reflection on smoking or smokers.)

Your actions, or lack thereof, brand you – they brand you as a person and they brand your business.  Only you can decide how you will act, how you will perform.

What’s your personal brand?  Does is cross over into your business?  Should it?

The following is part of WardComm’s “The Lost Files” series of blog posts — recreations from drafts of posts lost when our host company’s server (and backup server) crashed on March 6, 2011.  A version of this post was originally published on or about 3.3.2011.

There’s an old idiom.  “Any port in a storm.”  Heard it?  Know what it means?

In a nutshell, it means: In an emergency situation, any solution will do even if under normal circumstances it would be completely unacceptable.  If literally caught out at sea in the midst of a pending Nor’easter (or Hurricane or Bombogenesis – when it’s big, the kind of storm is irrelevant for the most part), any port you can locate and physically arrive at will undoubtedly suit your most basic needs, at least for the short term.

What’s difficult, even painful at times, is watching small businesses and non-profit organizations take the “any port in a storm” approach with their brands (every business or organization has a brand, whether or not they know it – but that’s a post for another day).  They fly by the seats of their public relations and marketing pants without any clear direction until one day they realize they need to make some noise within their target audiences.

Whether triggered by the need for crisis management or a new product launch, a kneejerk reaction will produce a storm surge each and every time.  A business or organization in a tremendous hurry to find its voice will grasp at straws (i.e., find the closest and most convenient port, regardless of amenities or cost) and hope for the best.

What they really need is:

A Port In Any Storm

What?  A port.  In any storm.  Think of it as a traveling storm cellar with all the accoutrements, yet permanently vacant and available wherever and whenever it’s needed.  Sound fantastic?  It is.  Sound impossible?  It isn’t.

However, it’s important to understand the “a port in any storm” approach to marketing and communications is not for the lazy.  It takes time and effort, money, and the right team of professionals.  To survive long term (and who doesn’t want that?), brands need to employ a proactive approach and engage in annual and ongoing strategic planning.

When it comes to public relations and marketing, there is no one size fits all answer.  Consider the options:

• Traditional & Online Media Relations
• Web Site Development & Enhancement
• Social Media
• Byline Articles
• Press Conferences & Events
• Organizational/Corporate Identity Campaigns
• Product Launch Campaigns

These are just a few of the tools in the public relations and marketing toolbox.  When analyzed and integrated into an executable strategic plan designed to generate ongoing awareness and visibility, they not only diminish the chances a storm will arise, but they also build the positive brand image necessary to weather those “this wasn’t on the radar screen” situations.

How will you construct your brand’s port in any storm?

The following is part of WardComm’s “The Lost Files” series of blog posts — recreations from drafts of posts lost when our host company’s server (and backup server) crashed on March 6, 2011.  A version of this post was originally published on or about 2.18.2011.

It’s been 12 days since we began our long-overdue venture into the blogosphere, launching “The (PR)o-Fessional” in conjunction with the redesign of the WardComm Public Relations website.

We’ve amassed a slew of blog followers (alright, not really, there are 20 – but you’ve got to start somewhere, right?).  Family, friends, and clients have visited the site.  Our first five posts squealed in delight with every click, “Someone’s here.  They’re reading.  Sweeeeeet!”  And, our latest post practically fainted when Christened with the first comment.  Somebody get the smelling salts!

But, now, the bloggymoon is over.  Bloggymoon?  The word’s been used before but not universally defined.  In this case, it’s the period following the launch of a new blog, the time during which the blogger’s family, friends, and clients accept invitations to visit the blog.  Some of them read it.  Some look for a second or two and click the back arrow to return to Facebook.  A few share the link with friends.  All the while, the blogger watches the number of site visits climbing higher and higher until, one day, no one visits.  And, the day after that, no one.

For the first time, we thoroughly understand (because we feel it) the emotion behind client demands to see results (of course they want results, that’s what we do) but to also know when those results will come.

So what do we do next?

• Be patient.  Easier said than done, but we’ll try.
• Keep blogging.  No problem.  We’ve got a list of topics a mile long – fodder for the long haul.
• Share, share, share, and share some more.
• Fly the coop.  Leave the comfort zone of the Facebook friends list and identify qualified points of contact within the target audience – constantly expand the circle of influence.
• Paid SEO.  Sure thing.  When the project budget increases.

If we build it, they will come.  We’ve only just begun to dig the foundation.

The following is part of WardComm’s “The Lost Files” series of blog posts — recreations from drafts of posts lost when our host company’s server (and backup server) crashed on March 6, 2011.  A version of this post was originally published on or about 2.16.2011.

Raise your hand if you have never posted a status update, tweet, or blog containing a typo.  Anyone?  My hand’s not up either and I can’t stand that fact.  Hi.  My name is Laura and I am a perfectionist.

I catch every (I think) typo I make.  It’s something on which I pride myself.  Lately, however, I haven’t been catching them until it’s too late – anywhere from a nanosecond after a Facebook status update to a year or more after publishing an article.

I addition to being a perfectionist (and, apparently, a procrastinator – see previous post), I am a terrible typist – I have been since my early typing days when I “cheated” my way through keyboarding class in high school.  Basically, I use six of my 10 fingers, mostly the pointers.  I’m good.  I’m fast.  But I make a lot of mistakes that I have to go back and fix.  It’s always been that way, and for a long time I had an incredible knack for proofreading – typos used to jump, leap, hurl themselves off the page at me.  But, those days are gone.  (Notice I wrote page, not screen.  You would think, after all these years of using computers, my eyes would retrain but they simply have not.  Ever since I stopped printing documents to paper so I could proof and edit, it’s all gone downhill).

I present the following thought for consideration:

Social media contributors are destined for imperfection.  It’s a conspiracy theory.  I’m not kidding.  Here are just a few of the culprits in cahoots to dominate the world with imperfect writing:

• Spell check;
• Auto-correct features (in Word and on our [Sometimes Not So] Smart phones);
• Environmentalism (gone are the days of printing and proofing and reading a piece backward and forward twice before putting down the pencil); and
• Time (we’re considered slackers if we don’t move at the speed of light).

To a perfectionist writer, these are the arch nemeses.  No longer am I the finely-tuned proofreading machine of my college newspaper editing days.  Yet, my drive for perfection persists and longs for victory.

Case in point:  If I post a status update or tweet with a typo in it and no one has commented or retweeted, I delete and repost.  Every.  Single.  Time.  And, of course, blogs can be edited – the trick is catching and correcting the error before too many people read or *GASP!* notice it.  No matter how insignificant, a discovered typo sends me into a tailspin every time.  Just this week, I caught myself using it’s when I should have used its.  Twice!  I never used to be that person.

Making matters worse are the slews of sloppy bloggers out here competing for readers’ attention.  Believe it or not, their presence makes blogging more difficult for the perfectionist.  People become so accustomed to reading words used incorrectly that when they read something well-written their comprehension of the subject matter is compromised by small and frequent hiccups between the eyes and the brain.  Good writing should be easy to read – our eyes should glide from word to word without any mental missteps.  Bad writing should be a turn-off.

For example, today I read a blog post written by a literary agent.  The second sentence was a fragment.  I stopped.  I am definitely guilty of using fragments for effect in my blog writing, but in this particular post it tripped me up.  “Keep reading,” I told myself.  When I tackled the sentence a second time, I stumbled on the oh-so-very-common misuse of the word “their.”  “Their” is possessive of “they,” not of a single person.  I closed my browser window – not reading that one.

(And, I can’t stand when people don’t know the difference between their, there, and they’re and to, too, and two.)

So, is there a place for the perfectionist in the social media world?  Our standards are a bit high.  But, are they unreasonable or inappropriate?  I don’t know the answer to this one.

What I do know is how I am going to do to avoid making silly mistakes in my own writing.

• Always draft blog posts in Word;
• Use spell check with a considerable degree of skepticism;
• Read the draft aloud, to someone if possible (like a conversation via phone vs. email, sometimes you need to hear the words to know something’s not right);
• Revise and reread; and
• Publish.

During the proofreading process, it’s also important to develop a third eye, one that looks out for words that are spelled correctly but not the right words.  For example, I constantly type “me” instead of “my” – and, the y” and the “e” are nowhere near each other on the keyboard (horrible typist, remember), “out” instead of “our” (at least “r” and “t” are neighbors), and “the” instead of “to” (huh?).

As I was drafting this blog post, Judy Dunn of CatsEyeWriter published “Why Most People Quit Blogging: The Princess Syndrome.” (http://catseyewriter.com/2011/02/04/why-most-people-quit-blogging-the-princess-syndrome/).  I couldn’t believe the timing – thanks, Richard Marti, for posting a link on Facebook.  Ms. Dunn’s writing is wonderful and her points are spot on.  I especially love the tip about letting a blog post sit for 24 hours before clicking “Publish.”  I may try that one, too.  If I can stop procrastinating.

The following is part of WardComm’s “The Lost Files” series of blog posts — recreations from drafts of posts lost when our host company’s server (and backup server) crashed on March 6, 2011.  A version of this post was originally published on or about 2.12.2011.

Note: I wrote and published the following article to Helium.com in June 2008 – I haven’t written on Helium since September 2008.

I work from my home office. Procrastination is my all-time worst enemy. I loathe it. Yet, women like me will agree – if you’re trying to establish and grow a new company from the comforts of home and the kids are out of the house a few days a week, there’s often nothing you can do to prevent procrastination from luring you from your work. Some days there’s just no excaping its evil clutches.

All my life I’ve been a procrastinator – book reports and science fair projects in grammar school, exams in high school, my senior thesis in college, etc. On occasion, I’ve even been known to pull all-nighters to complete client projects because I put them off for too long. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I’ve gotten away with it.

It’s odd. I pay all my bills on time, deliver the kids to school and retrieve them at the same time every day, and try never to be late to appointments. It’s really only the cerebral stuff I tend to place on the back-burner until the last possible moment. My brain just operates better under pressure (sharper still when I am multitasking within severe time constraints). So, when a deadline isn’t naturally tight, you can count on me to tighten it through my own actions. In fact, I consider it a finely honed skill, a professional strength if you will (although you won’t find it listed in my resume or on my web site).

Sometimes, though, a procrastinator’s moment of weakness can spiral so far out of control that an entire afternoon of workable hours becomes a massive blur of regret and repeated vows to never, never again set aside the task at hand for a seemingly inconsequential household chore. Even I, a very well-practiced procrastinator, was recently reminded of the pitfalls of procrastination.

One of the perks of working at home is when the clean dishes in the dishwasher holler to be returned to their cupboards, you can typically spare a few minutes to properly tuck them away. So, before immersing myself in what I knew was going to be an intense and extensive research project for a new client, I decided to quickly tackle the chore. I figured it would be much easier to focus on my work without those screaming dishes competing for my attention anyway.

As I pushed back the chair from the dining room table, I took a deep, cleansing breath and I prepared to finish digesting the scope of my new client’s project while I mindlessly relocated plates, bowls, glasses, and mugs from the dishwasher to the cupboard. It’s the mindless aspect of the chore that turned out to be my nemesis that day. My minor mental health break nearly turned into a mental breakdown!

After emptying the dishwasher and reloading it with some dirty dishes, I went to put one last coffee mug in the cupboard. That last cup – and I swear I’m not making this up – was still full of my unfinished coffee from that morning and since we store our mugs UPSIDE DOWN on the shelf – well, there’s no way I can describe the visual scene with words but I’ll bet you can guess what I was saying. Actually, I didn’t say much, just kind of stood here staring at the flood of coffee gushing from the top shelf down onto the other two, down the back wall, all over the clean dishes, spice rack, utensil crock, stove, dishwasher door, dogs, etc. If you’re envisioning a beautiful coffee waterfall, we’re on the same page.

Do you remember the ridiculous, wonderful, insane screaming-and-then-silent laugh Tom Hanks delivered in “The Money Pit” as he stood on the second floor having just watched the stairs crumble into dust? That “ha ha ha” he choked out as he lost his mind? That was me as I watched the coffee gush and then drip all over my kitchen. My dogs officially think I’m nuts and I spent the next few hours cleaning coffee out from behind every appliance and out of every single crevice. Then, I stayed up half the night completing the research project. Ah, the art and beauty of procrastinating.

I know I’m a procrastinator when, well, when I set out to begin almost any new project. It took me a full two months to write and post my first Helium article. But, when procrastination strikes these days, I think twice as I pause to reminisce about my kitchen’s coffee bath every time I’m tempted to eliminate a household chore from my to-do list in the middle of the work day.

The following is part of WardComm’s “The Lost Files” series of blog posts — recreations from drafts of posts lost when our host company’s server (and backup server) crashed on March 6, 2011.  A version of this post was originally published on or about 2.10.2011.

Now that’s a title and a half, isn’t it?  If you have a moment, please bear with me while I tell the 100% true story of the brazen squirrel we met last Friday.

It was 5:15 p.m. when the kids and I pulled into the driveway.  I was proceeding more slowly than usual because all the snow has made our driveway so narrow that if you take it too quickly, you fishtail on the ice and play bumper cars with the snow banks.  Fun the first time.  Annoying on subsequent occasions.

Suddenly, something outside the driver’s window caught my eye.  It was a flash of red halfway up the trunk of a huge tree in our front yard.  Huh?  Wait, there’s a squirrel attached to it!  I stopped the car.

“Oh my gosh, a squirrel is making off with Frosty’s scarf,” I blurted out.  Both kids immediately burst into tears.  It wasn’t just sadness.  It was devastation.  Frosty is the incredible snowman we created after the last big snow storm.

Did I comfort the kids?  No.  I know, bad, rotten Mommy.  But something drove me to capture the moment.  I grabbed my iPhone and took a picture.

The kids cried louder.  Visual moment captured, my maternal instincts returned.  My sanity, however, was nowhere to be found. I threw the car in park, jumped out, and started yelling at the squirrel, “Drop it.  That’s Frosty’s not yours.  DROP.  IT!”

The squirrel ran up the tree.  The kids, their faces soaked with tears, became absolutely hysterical.  I got back into the car, and drove into the garage.

My son wept, “Mom, what about the rest of Frosty’s stuff?”

“We have to go get it,” demanded my daughter.

“Mommy will take care of it,” I assured them.  “Let’s just get into the house first.”

As the kids took off their snow boots, I changed into mine, opened the front door and began the trek out to the snow man.  Our yard isn’t that big.  On the contrary, it’s quite tiny.  But in snow up over my knees with a thick layer of ice on top of it, trek is the right word to describe my journey from the front door to where the snowman stood, slumped over and encased in ice.

With every step, more pain – the pain of the ice layer digging into my legs as I tried to climb through the snow.  I grunted and winced.  OK, enough drama.  I made it to Frosty, stripped him of his personal effects, returned to the house, and have bruises up and down the fronts of both legs.

Then, I took some photos.  “Who’s ever going to believe this,” I thought.  Plus, I understand the pics were quite a hit as my son’s Show & Tell this morning.

The kids are over it – we’ve had long discussions about what a stroke of luck it was to catch the squirrel in the act.  Had we not witnessed the squirrel absconding with the scarf, we may never have known what became of Frosty’s red fleece neck piece.  I will replace the scarf someday.  And, we will remember and retell this story for the rest of our lives.  Grandchildren and great grandchildren will know this story.  The kids like that idea.

Does anyone remember the title of this blog?  Oh, yes, “Go Ahead, Harness Your Inner Squirrel.”

That squirrel meant business.  He or she (and that is debatable based upon the research I have done) exhibited characteristics I would like to strengthen in myself and utilize more widely as the year progresses.  Think about it …

When you see what you want, go get it.

Take risks if you have to. Don’t, and you’ll always wonder what could have happened.

If you believe you are doing the right thing, dig in and stay the course, even if someone tries to divert or stop you.

Take it all the way.  Go to the top.

And, finally, remember to always look out for #1.

Oh, and by the way, there’s a news headline here, too: “Squirrel Caught Red-Handed with Red Scarf on Go Red for Women Day.”  Some kind of coincidence, I am sure.

This is the first in a series of posts called “Sunday Night Sillies.”  Just for fun … a random thought or observation as the weekend comes to a close … if/when the brain has a moment to trend toward silliness.  Enjoy!

I watched a bunch of commercials today.  I didn’t really watch a lot of television – it was on while I was working, doing chores, etc., but I wasn’t paying much attention.  My husband was flipping the channels from one sports event to another – basketball, hockey, preseason baseball, basketball, and so it went.

At one point, I looked up and caught a fabulous spot for Farmers, with J.K. Simmons as the pitchman.  (Probably in the minority these days, I still love commercials.  We have a TiVo and I skip through the ads whenever I’m watching a recorded program or movie.  But, on “live” television, I’ll watch the commercials and then pause the television as a program returns.  That is, if I need to get up for anything).  This Farmers spot isn’t new, but I had never seen it before.  I loved it.  And, I LOVE J.K. Simmons – from his Law & Order days, from his Oz days (yep, I am a big Oz fan.  Huge!).

So, wait.  J.K. Simmons is pitching Farmers and Dean Winters (another of my favorites from Law & Order and Oz) is pitching Allstate (my other favorite series of commercials)?!  Vern Schillinger is “Professor Burke” and Ryan O’Reily is “Mayhem.”  It kind of works.  The transformation is not entirely impossible, I guess.  But drawing all the connections definitely made me laugh.

And, I got a little bit silly as I wondered:  “Who’s next?”  B.D. Wong?  Kathryn Erbe?  Kirk Acevedo?  Christopher Meloni?  Did you ever realize how many Law & Order cast members were also on Oz??  I am sure I am missing more than one.

Or, should the question be: “Which insurance company is next in line to tap one of these law enforcement personnel/criminal characters to pitch their products?”  I don’t know, it just struck me as funny.

The following is part of WardComm’s “The Lost Files” series of blog posts — recreations from drafts of posts lost when our host company’s server (and backup server) crashed on March 6, 2011.  A version of this post was originally published on or about 2.8.2011.

I read an interesting article yesterday – “Are We Defined By Our Digital Friends?” by Michael A. Olguin.  It made me think (duh, if it didn’t, I would have mentioned it).

Mr. Olguin believes the number of Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections is not an indicator of our value as people, biz owners, etc.  I agree.  At the same time, I think I’d like a larger audience across all platforms.

As someone who has done a decent amount of social media work on behalf of clients, I have performed poorly on my own behalf.  Typical story – I am my own worst client.  Who isn’t?  Well, all that is about to change.  At least, that’s my plan.

I am stepping up my online game.  All of it.  My new biz website currently under construction yet live for all to witness the incredible transformation I have envisioned.  The blog you’re reading right now – if you haven’t already, please subscribe via Networked Blogs (box at the bottom of the page on the right hand side).  Breathing new life into my biz Facebook page.  Elevating my Tweet game.  And, as a final step, renewing my commitment to LinkedIn.  (Almost sounds faith-based, doesn’t it?  Well, that’s a possible topic for another day. Pausing briefly to scribble a few thoughts in the handy dandy ideas notebook.)

I am NOT doing it for the numbers.  Well, alright, I am.  Kind of.  I’d be foolish to say I don’t want hundreds, even thousands or people, “plugged into” my business.  What I want are mutually beneficial relationships – the kind where we share valuable information with each other, introduce each other to new connections with whom we can share valuable information, and so on.  Quality vs. quantity.  We’ve all heard it before.  It’s a smart way to approach so many things in life.  This is just another application.

So, the big questions are: How do you find the “right” people to “Like” your Facebook page?  How do you attract the most appropriate “Followers” on Twitter?  And, of course, how do you get your blog read?

I’m not asking because I don’t know the answers.  I’m posing the query because I am hoping to find some folks who will share their real life experiences and provide us with some valuable case studies from which we can all learn.  Some do’s and don’ts, best practices from a variety of categories, etc.

I am looking forward to your comments.

Late Sunday night/early Monday morning, I am not sure which, the server that hosted my brand new self-designed WardComm Public Relations website died.  It didn’t just go down.  It failed.  IN. AN. EPIC. WAY.  No, I am not going to tell you who I employ for hosting – unless, of course, you want to use them, too.  It’s a great company – one that’s been in business over 10 years and caters to businesses like mine and WordPress users.  I like them.  A lot.  They get a second chance with me.

The backup server also quit – apparently, had been on its way out for a while, but no one knew because it was being all discreet about its issues and whatnot.  Pffft.  So utterly and completely not in line with my whole transparency platform, but whatever.  Buh-bye stupid backup server.  See you never.  You completely screwed me and made me cry, but I am moving on.

So, here’s how the week went:

Monday – Not receiving email.  No website.  Contact host company.  There’s a problem.  They are working on it.  All email will come through once things get fixed.  Spin my wheels for a bit trying to figure out what’s going on.

Tuesday - By the end of the day, email is coming through in dribs and drabs and every once in a while portions of the website are there.  I begin to feel like a part of me is missing.

Wednesday – Email working perfectly.  Site still not 100% there.  Message from host says caching needs to update – try resetting modem and wireless router, rebooting computer, clearing cookies.  Did all that.  Nothing.

Thursday – Worried about site.  Contact host.  Answer (highlights):  “The site you see now is the version that was in our automated backup. If you have a more current backup we can restore that for you.”

“The server that hosted your sites lost both its primary hard drive and its backup drive.”

“The backup drive on the server had been failing for some time, but cpanel’s software did not recognize that it was failing. Backups continued to run successfully for some sites, but not others. For some sites that means that we do not have a recent backup at all. The site that has been restored for you is the last copy that cpanel’s backup software completed successfully.”

If your site is now out of date we can restore a backup from any copy that you may have made. To do that just send us the backup in a zipped file and we’ll restore it as soon as possible. If you do not have a backup copy then there is nothing you can do except to recreate your lost content.”

I am so not cool with that, but here we are.  My business has had its first, and hopefully last, fire – and, thankfully, not one to which my volunteer fire department client could respond.  But, it feels like a real fire.  I am truly devastated.  And, unbeknownst to me, I did not have insurance.  (Thank goodness, it was not a client site, and I now know how to make a backup of the site on my own hard drive, which is continuously backed up by Carbonite.)

I got a reset button.  A do over.  But, I don’t know why.  I thought the new site was pretty kick-ass.  I was really proud of the work I had done.  I had blogged regularly for the better part of a month.  Every single link was working like a charm, and people were visiting.  I had ramped up my Twitter game and was beginning to amass a following – these people were checking out my site.  Now, I fear visitors, begging them, “Please don’t judge too harshly – we’re taking a brief break from greatness and will be back after these messages.”

Everything happens for a reason.  Sometimes, the reason is not revealed to us until a much later date.  OK.  I’ll wait.  I’m waiting for the reasons on a few others and have been for many years, so what’s one more?  My husband and children are fine.  Our aging pooches are fine, and giving me a little bit of extra “hey, we’re here for you” love.  We have a roof over our heads and our parents are still alive.  While I feel like a part of me died, we’re talking about a website.  My business will survive.  I’ve got lemons and I am going to make the most fantastic lemonade ever (and, in time for my guest blog on Living My MoMent)!

So, if you remember anything you REALLY liked about the new, now extinct, WardComm PR website, please share it in the comments section.  If there was something you disliked and wanted to see done differently, tell me that, too – please.  We’re going to do it even better on the rebuild – after all, that’s what second chances are for, right?