When I wrote yesterday’s post, asking, “Are you happy?” I didn’t expect to get the answers that I did.

Image: Jordan Pérez Ordenez via Flickr, CC 2.0

I’m touched that the post struck a chord with so many people.

I was happy yesterday.

It was my brother’s birthday, and he celebrated it with us for the first time in our adult lives.

So I cooked a big Indian meal – and I mean BIG.

It was a lot of work.

But I was happy, as you can see from this photograph that Jill Foster took, even though I gave myself a burn “the size of Michigan,” as Jill put it.

I’ve been thinking more and more – spurred on, not the least, by the amazing comments on my post – about happiness.

So here are seven read- and watch-worthy posts on happiness for you to peruse at your leisure.

Be happy.

1. Ten tips for being happier, from the Happiness Project.

Why: who couldn’t do with 10 tips for being happier?

2. Twenty simple ways to get happy, from Reader’s Digest.

Why: ten tips are great, but who am I to argue with 20?

3. How to be happy: accept the negative, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Why: IMHO, if we can switch our focus from what we “should” have, instead of accepting what we don’t, we’ll all be happier.

4. How to be happy in business, from What Consumes Me.

Why: Sometimes we need a diagram to help us think straight.

5. Gross National Happiness, from PBS.

Why: how many countries measure their success in terms of happiness? Well, Bhutan, for one.

6. Four unintentionally depressing self-help books on happiness, from Cracked.com.

Why: there’s always two sides to a story.

7. Happy dog, big tongue, from mcira on YouTube.

If this doesn’t make you happy…

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A few days ago, I was on the phone with with someone very dear to me; someone I respect as a professional, and am proud to call friend.

She recently launched her own business, which she was very excited about.

This was her dream. She quit her job to pursue the dream. She is ostensibly living the dream.

But talking to me the other day about her business, she said, “I’m not happy.”

That stopped me in my tracks.

This is someone who is full of life, always has a good thing to say about other people (even when I don’t), and is as close to a human dose of Vitamin B as you can get.

But she’s not happy.

What is happiness, exactly?

Image: Robert Nunnally via Flickr, CC 2.0

I know there are dictionary definitions for it

But I don’t know if that makes happiness any easier to identify, let alone attain.

We get so busy doing this, doing that, going here, going there, excited about a new development, crushed by another that did not pan out.

How often do we stop to think about whether we are happy or not?

Or stop, and just be?

We all deserve to be happy.

And especially if we have chosen to leave the beaten path and strike out on our own… it better make us happy.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

Why go through the hassles of setting up a business, drumming up clients, dealing with the various taxes, blah blah blah, if it doesn’t make us happy?

While I still don’t have a perfect definition of happiness – and probably never will – I think I am happy when I don’t want to be anywhere else, don’t want to be doing anything else, don’t want to want.

When I am content in the moment and wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

My dog Suzy gets this.

Here in the U.S., we have far too few holidays and we put in a ridiculous number of hours at work.

Which is probably one of the reasons the few holidays we do have get jam-packed with “stuff.”

By the time they’re over, we’re exhausted, vowing to turn it down the next time… and then we do it all over again.

We owe it to ourselves to figure out if we’re happy.

And if we’re not, how to change that.

I don’t mean the “I’m so irritated by ___ ” that we all go through, probably more often than we care to admit.

But consistently, over several months, if we are restless, searching, discontent… we are not happy, and we need to change that.

So as you head into your Labor Day weekend, please ask yourself: are you happy?

My wish for you is that you are.

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Amplify’d from www.nevillehobson.com

Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper

About a month ago, I discovered Paper.li, a service that aggregates content linked to by people in a Twitter community into an online newspaper. It’s one of the most useful ways I’ve found for surfacing news and information I might otherwise have missed entirely. Read more at www.nevillehobson.com

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Huddle, huddle, roil and muddle

I remember the first Twitter chat I attended. It was #journchat, one of the first, if not the first, Twitter chats created.

Image: Maria Johnson via Flickr, CC 2.0

It drove me nuts.

The stream moved so quickly, it was really hard to keep up with what was going on. And if there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s being able to keep up with several things at once or, as the jargonites would put it, “multi-task.”

And if I’m being honest, some of the tweets people shared seemed so puerile, I said to myself, “Do they really work in public relations?”

Hey I can pull a Simon Cowell with the best of ‘em, though I try – for the most part – not to. And I suspect you can too.

As I started participating in more chats such as #pr20chat, #soloPR and then starting my own (#measurePR), I’ve come to learn a few things about how to make the most of a Twitter chat.

And that puerile is as puerile does.

So, especially if you are new to Twitter chats, I hope this will be helpful.

No barriers to participation

The beauty of Twitter is its democratic nature. Press conferences are held for the media. Professional development conferences are held for professionals in their fields.

But a Twitter chat? It’s there. It’s open. Anyone can participate if they jump on to the hashtag, regardless of whether they specialize in that particular field or not.

As a result, you have the potential for all sorts of comments – from seasoned professionals in the field, to curious onlookers or folks who dabble in the biz.

So no, all tweets will not be equal.

But I think that’s a great thing, since it gives us an opportunity to hear from many different voices… some of whom might become clients, if you’re nice to them.

What you can do: be willing to share (or re-share) information that might help explain the topic at hand to them, and point them to additional resources if they are interested in learning more.

I do this by keeping links to the introductory #measurePR post, as well as to the MeasurePR category on my blog handy. Then, when someone asks, “What is #measurePR?” I can give them a much better answer than I would be able to in 140 characters and the moment.

Resource bingo

Alex Talbott put it best:

Echoing Alex’s thought, Jodi Gersh said on Facebook:

And John Friedman:

This is one of the best things about Twitter chats.

When you go back and look at the transcripts, you’ll find people share a wealth of resources… blog posts, websites, and most of all, their own thoughts, often artfully captured in a perfect sound bite.

Most of the Twitter chats I’m aware of take place for an hour or so. But the great thing about them is that that hour is jam-packed with so much additional information, you could pretty much download all the additional resources shared during the chat and make it your own little handbook.

What you should expect: that the chat moderator(s) will provide a recap of the chat. All that I know do.

If they don’t, go to the WTHashtag page for the chat, like this #measurePR WTHashtag page, and pull a transcript for the chat. Save it as a .PDF file, and you’re good to go.

Bonus tip: sometimes WTHashtag acts funky and doesn’t catch all the tweets, especially if you let a couple of days go by before pulling the transcript. So try to do it as soon as the chat ends.

The other thing you can do is to go to Twitter Search, plug in the hashtag, and save all the tweets that were generated during the time of the chat.

This is a PITA, and I’m not talking bread, but it gives you a record of what was said.

Props to Kellye Crane for reminding me of this during the most recent #measurePR with Don Bartholomew.

But wait! There’s more!

The other thing that’s smart to do is, when the transcript is generated, look for any URLs that have been shared during the chat. If they’re resources you will find useful, bookmark them (I use Delicious or Evernote) for future reference.

Rules of engagement

This is an easy one.

What you should expect: anything and everything.

Like I said before, it’s Twitter. Anyone can jump in, jump out, and pretty soon you have the hopscotch and Hokey Pokey rolled into one.

Image: Philippa Willitts via Flickr, CC 2.0

All together now: you put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right…

This is actually a lot of fun, if you’re prepared to deal with it.

What you can do: make sure that you’re including the relevant hashtag with your tweets. A good way to do this is to participate in the chat using Tweetgrid or Tweetchat, which automatically include the hashtag with your tweets.

This way, you’ll see interesting tweets from Twitter users you might not be following, but who are also using the hashtag to participate in the chat.

By doing so, you can engage with them, continue your conversation outside of the chat, and the next thing you know, you’re on a plane to Alaska.

Bonus tip: most chat moderators will number the questions, e.g. Q1, Q2, and so on.

When responding to specific questions, start off by saying, “Re Q1,” or “A1,” etc.

You will help the moderator out immensely by doing both these.

First, because unless you include the hashtag with your tweets, they won’t be indexed in the transcript/search.

Second, numbering your answers helps others understand what specifically you’re responding to, as well as the moderator, which will help her (ok, “or him”) point you to previous answers that may help you get up to speed (if you’re asking a follow up question), as well as additional resources that help you out.

This is some of what I’ve learned by participating in, and moderating, Twitter chats. I’m sure there’s much, much more, because I’m not Simon Cowell, and I don’t know everything.

What have you learned about making your Twitter chat participation more effective and useful? Do share!

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What exactly is ROI?

What is social media ROI?

Image: Mark Smiciklas via Flickr, CC 2.0

Is ROI or “impact” more important? Or are they equally important?

Should companies starting out in social media be concerned about ROI?

These were the questions we discussed on yesterday’s #measurePR chat with Don Bartholomew, aka @donbart.

It was terrific.

As Sean Williams said,

Don is a refreshing blend of theory and practicality when it comes to demystifying what seems to remain one of the most puzzling questions in the social media and measurement worlds.

At least, Sean said something to that effect, but I can’t find his exact tweet, so let’s assume I’m not misquoting him… too much.

Here are some of the tweets from yesterday’s session:

That’s meant to be “think,” by the way.

The key point that Don, Sean, and a few others were trying to drive home is that ROI is ROI is ROI.

It is not “value,” and it is not “impact.”

Update at 11:42 am: Don just corrected me, saying, “… one could argue ROI is a form of Impact, but Impact is not ROI.”

He’s right, and that’s what I meant, and should have said.

Back to your regular programming.

When we start trying to redefine “ROI,” we are opening a can of worms. Because the C-suite understands ROI as something very specific.

If we’re then going to try to change that definition, it can’t end well.

Focusing on Impact, on the other hand, makes a lot of sense, because here you’re starting out with measurable objectives (tired of that phrase yet?!).

Once you do that, you’re going to track your program(s) to see if they result in those measurable objectives… which should be created with some kind of impact on the business/organization in mind.

Do have a read through the transcript of the #measurePR chat with Don; there are some real nuggets in there.

The conversation was so interesting, that Don agreed to come back for Round 2 of the SM ROI discussion.

So save the date: Sept. 14, 12-1 pm ET.

If it makes life easier for you, you can RSVP for #measurePR with Don, Round 2, on Facebook.

It would be great to get some questions from you, so that we don’t have to repeat everything we discussed yesterday.

Will you send them along, either by leaving a comment below, or by shooting me an email or DM?

Don and I hope to see you there!

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Exactly a week ago, something really really really good happened to/for me.

Even though I couldn’t officially spill the beans, I had to tell my friends (of course).

They were equally happy for me and, I suspect, a little frustrated that it would take me a week to come clean. This was my Facebook post that day:

A week hence

Now, that day has come, and I can officially tell you…

Today marks my debut as a BNET blogger.

Woo hoo!

In case – just in case – you’re not familiar with it, BNET is “the hub of the CBS Interactive Business Network, which

” … provides working professionals with the advice and insights they need to get ahead in today’s workplace. It isn’t a site for those who merely punch the clock: It’s for business leaders—of today and the future–who believe in the meaning of work and who know that nurturing excellence in their staff and their organization is the true measure of success.”

A lot of media properties make similar claims, but having been a regular BNET reader for a while, my personal opinion (and you can decide whether it’s humble or not) is that BNET provides real value for those in, and who care about, business.

So I’m absolutely THRILLED to bits about this!

Image: Ross Hall via Flickr, CC 2.0

My first post ran today: Are you listening to – or shouting at – your customers online?

Those of you who interact with me on various social networks know that this is a pet peeve of mine; when organizations don’t understand what a “two-way street means,” and instead opt for what I call the Billy Mays approach.

Do have a read, and if you like it, please share it, Facebook “like” it, Stumble it…

In other words, do pass it around to those you think would enjoy it, much as we share crudités at parties. They’re just enough to whet our appetite for more without making us feel engorged and sated.

Dude. Let’s make this the broccoli of crudités!

Because if you do, then I have a real chance at staying on as a blogger for BNET for a run of more than a few weeks.

And who wouldn’t want that?!

So. Please read, share, and let me know what you think – good or bad. If you have ideas for more posts (I’ll be posting once a week for the next few weeks, primarily on PR and social media), please let me know.

My crudités and I will thank you!

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Something spammy this way comes

As someone who occasionally has to ride the DC area public transit system, I signed up for email alerts from WMATA, the transit authority than runs the oft-plagued system.

Since yesterday, I’ve received 22 email “alerts” from them.

Not one of them has anything to do with delays or the lack thereof on any of the Metro lines.

Instead, they invite me to:

… take advantage of “killer prices” on certain prescription drugs,

… help (someone) steer clear of possible suicide, and – this is the best -

… enlarge an anatomical appendage I do not possess.

They’re pretty funny, actually.

I’ve been deleting them without clicking through to the oh-so-tempting URLs they contain, but am waiting to see if something even more creative comes around.

I’m assuming that there is a ghost in WMATA’s machine

or that Dr. Evil has hijacked WMATA’s email alert system, which is actually quite helpful … when it works.

I tried tweeting @wmata, but with no joy.

Guess I shouldn’t be surprised since they use Twitter to primarily broadcast information on line disruptions.

Because, of course, that’s how we should ALL be using social media… as a form of one-way communication!

(You know I’m joking, right?)

I’ve tried to let WMATA know by filling out their “contact us” form, but don’t expect a reply to that any time soon.

I did, however, ask @unsuckdcmetro if he (she?) had heard anything about this.

Turns out, I’m not the only one whom Metro delays and fare hikes apparently have sagging.

Now WMATA just has to find out about it. And fix it.

Oh!

Another one just came through.

It says:

“Stop sending harassing messages. No more emails from you.”

Guess I’ve been put in my place.

Image: DC Metro People via Flickr, CC 2.0

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Tura-lura-Luray

By the time you read this, I will be on my way to Virginia’s Luray Caverns. Maybe I’ll even come back with photos like this one.

Let me rephrase that. I hope I will be on my way to Luray Caverns.

This assumes that while I was sipping my morning tea on my deck, Back Yard Squirrel hasn’t chucked an acorn or several my way to brain me into buying a new bird feeder he can get into.

He broke the last one. Cheeky little booger, isn’t he?

Anyway.

Assuming BYS did not brain me, and assuming I am on my way, I thought I’d leave you with seven great travel-oriented blog posts to whet your wanderlust.

See, I love traveling. Road trips are the best.

I haven’t done a proper road trip since last year’s homage to country music/Elvis, so the prospect of the relatively short – yet not too short – drive to LC has me drooling like a mariachi in a music store.

Fasten your seat belts. Off we go.

1. Passports with Purpose 2010 – Travel Bloggers Raising Money Together, from Chris Gray Faust‘s Chris Around the World.

Why: Peregrination + philanthropy using social media = paradise.

2. British holidays are not that bad, from Darren Cronian‘s Travel Rants.

Why: If I could, I’d make every holiday a British holiday. But I thought this was a great reminder of how fun times can be had without going halfway around the world (like Luray Caverns, heh).

3. Dealing with ants in your house in Thailand, from I Travel About.

Why: Forget about Thailand, I periodically get ants here.

4. Pet travel lessons learned from one couple’s DIY pet move, from PetRelocation.com.

Why: PetRelocation is a great resource for folks who like (or need) to travel with their pets. Plus, they were stellar at trying to help me find an orphaned German Shepherd a home last year.

5. Pitfalls on travel writing from the road, from the Travel Tart.

Why: It’s funny. And it’s a good reminder of what not to take for granted.

6. Cow in a car, from April Wendy Hollands’ Le Franco Phoney.

Why: The photo says it all.

7. The Shrink-Wrapped Traveler, by Eric Weiner from World Hum.

Why: The Geography of Bliss is a great book. And this is a great read on why we travel… and why, at the end of the day, we all need some place that feels like home.

So. Where are you going next?

Image: Flickr user John Menard, CC 2.0

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Thanks to my friend Kami Huyse for pointing me to this in the spirit of keeping the laughter going.

After I watched it, I LOL‘d, LMAO‘d and ROFL‘d following the LMAOing.

The beauty of acronyms, eh?

If you’ve ever suffered through conference calls (and who among us hasn’t?), I think you’ll enjoy this.

Happy Saturday!

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What’s a Twitter chat on measurement without a Metrics Man?

Fortunately, Don Bartholomew of Fleishman-Hillard - whom you may know as @donbart on Twitter – will rectify that this coming Tuesday, when he joins us to chat about social media “ROI.”

Ah, ROI.

If there’s a term that strikes more dread into the hearts of PR pros than the words “Child Catcher” did to those of Caractacus Potts and Truly Scrumptious… well, I haven’t come across it yet.

Whaaa? “Who’s the Child Catcher?”

Consider yourself enlightened.

Homework

While you certainly don’t have to, I think it would be helpful to you (if you’re planning on attending the chat) to read up on some of Don’s writings, particularly his post on social media ROI angst.

Here he says, among other things:

Point Number One:  As a practical matter, the majority of social business efforts will not result in true ROI (in the short term).

In fact, I would guess far less than half will.  Maybe less than 10%.  But that doesn’t mean the social business effort was not successful, or did not create significant value for the brand or organization.

It simply means the primary objectives of most social business efforts are centered on concepts like community-building, engagement, listening, and participating in conversations.  It is difficult and expensive to attribute financial value to these areas.

To use the old saying – the ROI on these sorts of ROI efforts is not good.  Traditional public relations, branding and reputation programs suffer from some of the same challenges.

So when a study like the one published by e-Marketer* suggests ‘only’ 16% of social business programs are measuring ROI, while many are surprised it isn’t higher, it actually sounds a little too high to me. I wonder how respondents were thinking about and defining ROI.

Now, there’s a lot more there, so instead of getting discouraged by the bold type, go read the whole thing.

Also check out Olivier Blanchard’s excellent post and presentation on social media ROI for associations & non-profits.

Ready? Warmed up?

Excellent.

See you on Tuesday, then. You can RSVP for #measurePR with Don Bartholomew on Facebook (might be handy as a reminder) … or just show up! 12-1 pm ET; use #measurePR to join/participate in the conversation.

And if you have questions you’d like Don to field, do shoot them to me via email or Twitter (DM) ahead of time, or just leave a comment below.

Image: Kemp Edmonds via Flickr, CC 2.0

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