BrandToBeDetermined

Personal Brand Driven Blog Change to eschipul.com

Well, the original blog name says it all. Brand-to-be-Determined. It just took me from September 2005 to December 2008 to actually "determine" the appropriate personal brand.

Given the predominance of social media and the fact I have branded myself as "eschipul" in all of those places, it just made sense to move the blog to be simply "eschipul". I know, not as creative as Cosmopolitician or TheBloggess or Blog Con Queso or HappyKatie. But this is just how I roll.

So please update your feed readers with the new location! I'll leave this blog up for a bit, but eventually it will go to dust....

How does a young person get a job in advertising or PR in a recession?

I was one of three panelists for a talk with AAF-HIMA Houston a few weeks ago. My PPT slides are posted. Each presenter only had 10 minutes, which is a rough format, but it did force me to distill the content down. Two slides with recommendations for individuals and agencies to get through the recession are:

1. What can I, the employee or job seeker, do?
   1. Build your personal brand
   2. Participate in social networks
   3. Stay close to billable work
   4. Be humble (arrogant people suck)
2. What can my agency do?
   1. Relationships - build and maintain (hint - see social networks above)
   2. Recurring revenue - focus on recurring
   3. Retrain, retool and recruit (biggest weakness of the old slow agencies)
   4. Get rid of dead weight NOW
   5. Charge for creative (most hopefully already do this)

After that talk I received numerous emails from young people in the audience looking for employment. This is ok initiative, although it is noted that they all said "what do I do?" instead of "here is my plan, do you think this will work?". The difference again being one of initiative, but I'll leave that for another blog post. So some advice with candor.

How does a young person get a job in advertising or PR in a recession?

1. Network - yes Dorothy when times are tough it really does matter who you know. But right now with social media and being active in arts and non-profits you have NO EXCUSE not to know the right people. So drop that excuse.
2. Avoid obvious errors. One email I received had a typo in the subject line. See this previous post on an email I received from a brilliant job seeker once.
3. Experience - get some. In a recession the negotiating power is to the employer and people ALWAYS learn through experience. So you almost always favor the experienced. How do you get experience?
   1. Internships - the most obvious
   2. Internships - design your own. Contact your church, present an outline of your "custom designed three week internship". Odds are they will say no, but at least try. Get off your duff and try it.
   3. Arts and Non Profits - they always need free labor. Again, make it easy for them to say yes by doing the legwork.
   4. Charities - donate your time over the holidays, anything, just somehow focus on skills where you want employment.
4. Seek referrals - many of our best employees come from referrals. So it doesn't hurt to meet people who work where you want to work. Plus you might find out they are jerks and you don't want to work there. Or it may reinforce a positive impression. But again, show some initiative.
5. Do your homework - the fastest way out of an interview if you get one is to not have done your homework on the company you are applying with.
6. Send your resume anyway - even with no job listings, you can submit. Ideally through a friend who works there and can vouch for you. There probably aren't any openings, but why not try?
7. Submit your resume to the right person - For example, at our firm I am usually NOT the right person. Find the RIGHT person and submit to them. If you know a principal at the agency do a "cc" if you want, but sending it to the right person is critical. Do your homework.
8. Resubmit your resume - companies have to have an applicant tracking system or they won't keep the resumes. (hint - few have ATS systems) HR lawyers tell companies not to retain unless they are retaining all resumes and are indeed looking at them. So most people will just delete the resumes after filling a position. Yes really. So don't think once you are in "the database" at an agency you will be considered in the future. It just isn't so.
9. Lose the attitude - it worked in HS, maybe in your Greek, but a bit of deference is always required when working with clients. You can be humble and be a bad-ass. In fact most REAL bad-ass creatives I know are actually quite humble in person. They are SO good, they let their work speak for them. Find these people and learn from them.
10. Don't be too polished - it makes you look untrustworthy. If your facebook profile (you do have one right?) looks like Mr. Clean worked it over, well its pretty obvious you're a poser, right? Just sayin'. I can watch paint dry if I am looking for excitement, so why work with you?
11. Do NOT say "I'm not good at math" - duh, advertising definitely requires basic math. I'm not talking about diffy-q, but come on. If you can't reconcile media buying you make yourself sound like a fool. This burns a lot of applicants IMHO.
12. Build your personal brand - facebook? yes. Twitter? yes. Blogging, Flickr, myspace, delicious, etc definnitely consider. For example at our company these are huge advantages, but maybe not at other companies. Again - do your research.
13. You've got 7 Seconds to make a first impression - read it.
14. Learn about blogging - Katie has a great "blogging for business" presentation on slideshare.
15. Realize details, large and small, are the same - if you can't remember to clean the coffee pot it is the same as saying "hey, I'll fly to Tokyo and then oversleep past the big meeting". Yes really, basic human psychology. So watch out for those simple questions because it is an experienced interviewer's way of asking if you are careless.
16. Know where you are going - If you don't know where you want to be in two years, and you are a millenial, you are saying you are floating with the wind. Why on earth would you hire someone drifting, train them, only to hvae them then leave to fish off the coast of Alaska? I mean that person makes an awesome and interesting friend, but perhaps a less than ideal person to invest 20k training in. Right? Candor is good. Find out where you are going.
17. Read books - life is too short to not learn from others who have gone before you. Be smart - read. Nuf said.
18. Don't look like a job hopper - I hear what Penelope says about job hopping. I also know squirrels can run on power lines. But like the Electric Company says YOU ARE NOT A SQUIRREL! On the flip side, she has some good news for young job searchers here.
19. Buy people lunch or a beer - one of the joys of being a manager, or a ceo, is that you always get the tab. Offer to buy someone lunch and you invoke the law of reciprocation. Yes, spend the money.  (pet peeve - people you KNOW have savings who say "I don't have any money" because we call this a "lie". Sheesh. Say "not in my budget" instead.)

Well I rambled a bit. Many of those are clearly not recession or advertising agency specific. But that is what came to mind this afternoon on November 28th 2008. Good luck with your job search!

American Auto Industry MUST Restructure

A local auto dealer has an opinion piece in the Chronicle titled "Extend bridge loan to GM or the country will suffer" in support of an auto bailout. General Motors is using Paulson scare tactics with their "GM Facts and Fiction - GM Tells It Like It Is" site. From a PR perspective they lose ALL authenticity when they state things like:

And, due to supplier bankruptcies, domestic automobile production would most likely fall to zero, even by international producers.

Really? Toyotoa and Honda who make cars profitably in the US will shut down as well? You lose ALL credibility taking such extreme positions. The Chron also has a great counterpoint on letting the automakers fail.

One article I read recently stated "US Auto Makers don't have a problem, US Owned Auto Makers have a problem." This is true.

The elephants in the room? Leadership and Labor. Labor says they have ruled out helping with the current crisis. If they won't even help themselves, why should we?

Here is the thing. High wages, 100% paid health benefits and a pension are things that the rest of America does NOT get. To ask American's to pay for your health care and pension is effectively using our tax dollars for your socialized benefits. Great for them, but not for my kids. The stats are painful:

...the average Big Three auto worker is paid more than $72 per hour in wages and benefits ($150,000 per year, compared to $48 per hour, or $100,000, for a Toyota worker), and where union-negotiated work rules such as "job banks," a cute little euphemism for paying large numbers of employees not to work, are commonplace.

The counter point from a left leaning blog states on unions and auto manufacturer woes:

Unions do not deserve the blame placed on them by the right wing. In fact, unions have repeatedly made concessions to auto executives over recent years. Contrary to Kyl’s claim, new auto employees earn $25.65 an hour.

Did you see it? The part where they say "new auto employees". Employees who have been there a long time, the majority of them, still receive the $72 an hour in wages and benefits. UAW remains in denial - your success is tied directly to the success of the company.

How do we SOLVE the problem of the US Auto Manufacturers. A common sense blueprint:

1. Bankruptcy Reorganization - this is a necessary legal first step.
2. Eliminate the current executive team for the companies with pragmatists.
   1. Clawback provisions for all bonuses given in any year they did not make a profit. The goal of business is to make a profit. If you don't do that you failed. So be accountable.
   2. Renegotiate all management contracts for those you want to keep.
   3. Eliminate golden parachutes - no pay for failure.
3. Replace the UAW leadership which has is not doing the membership any favors.
4. Restructure employee contracts to:
   1. Pay for work only. No more job banks period. You work, you get paid. That's it.
   2. Pensions - reduce valuation on current obligations. New employees on self funded pensions or 401ks with minimum matching. We all know the auto worker pensions is going to roll over to the taxpayers anyway so do it now with as much transparency as possible, but also a lower payout.
   3. Eliminate job security - you have a right to work. And you have a right to lose your job if the company fails (see 2.1 above). This will make employees hold management accountable to innovate. And coincidentally its the deal almost every other worker in America has. We work, we get paid, nothing is guaranteed. Sorry. Life's not fair.
   4. Reduce average pay for ALL employees from $72 to $40 per hour. This brings compensation into line with American workers working for Toyota or Honda in the US.
   5. Employees pay 50% of all healthcare. If an employee does not participate in the expense they have no incentive to minimize costs.
   6. Stop lobbying AGAINST energy independence and higher fuel efficiency vehicles. This position is literally Anti-American. Our bailout dollars to lobbyists arguing against the long term health of our country is completely unacceptable.

Do I want the United States to retain its strong manufacturing base? Absolutely!

I am not against financial assistance of auto manufacturers, but first they must make the hard decisions that every other business makes. The days of CEOs coming in, giving the union everything they want, dancing off with their golden parachutes leaving the next one to "solve the problem" are over. Step up, be accountable, get it done.

Do I understand that unemployed workers are bad? That real families are hurt, that the struggle to find a new job is very difficult and that bankruptcy would irrevocably change the entire landscape of Detroit? Yes. Just as 9-11 changed the world, so too does this change everything. I wish it wasn't the case. But it is. May you live in interesting times.

Solution 1: New Management. New Lower Cost Contracts. No Guarantees. Build Good Cars.

Do that.

The photo? Bob Lutz speaking to the PRSA International Conference. To one question he stated "Bankruptcy is not an option for GM" - sorry Bob, but it is. The GM leadership team has led the company down the path of the unthinkable. And this is what it looks like.

Performance Art for HOT Funded Art Accountability

Wayne Dolcefino recently completed an expose called The Color of Money about Houston Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) dollars funding Art to increase art tourism in Houston. From his story on the ABC 13 web site:

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- We've put aside millions of your dollars to get art for the city. So why is some of the money collecting dust for nearly a decade? Where's the art?

We've gotten an earful from artists about my supposed lack of culture because they are under the mistaken impression we spend tax money just to create art. In fact, we spend hotel tax money on art to bring in tourists to fill up hotel rooms.

That's why our focus is the color of money; your money.

This has been posted on the Houston Arts Alliance blog (a client) and commented on by several influential artists in the Houston Community. As well as on the ABC 13 site. How can you resist talking about a story that includes the phrase "Lesbian puppet theater"?

As best I can ascertain the themes of Wayne's report are:

1. Some Art is inaccessible - art at a wastewater treatment plant is not attracting tourists and now it is behind locked doors in a post 9-11 world. Jonathon Glus in the interview agrees with Wayne that this art should be moved to be accessible saying: ""I think civic art monies need to be focused on very public spaces," This can and should be fixed.
2. Everyday citizens may question if something is art, consider it bad art, or overpriced art at times. Fair enough. Yet we are limited in what we can do here. Specifically government must decide to fund art or not fund art, but it can't cross the first amendment.
   1. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires the government to spend taxpayer dollars to fund artistic expression. If the government chooses to fund the arts, however, it must do so in a manner consistent with the First Amendment
3. It's YOUR Money. Or maybe it's not your money. The report opens with "your dollars" and day two has "You spend millions of dollars on art to bring in tourists." but later Wayne is careful to say "The millions we collect in hotel taxes are required to go to tourism, stadiums, conventions and art. " My take? During Hurricane Ike many of us stayed in hotels. So if it is HOT money at least a portion of it can be referred to as "my taxes".  I think this is semantics and not the point as far as I am concerned.
4. Not much HOT Money has been spent on the most obvious tourist location - the Houston Museum District. And some signs have grafiti on them. And the "banners that are tattered." Hard to argue with this one. This can and should be fixed.
5. Some people in the museum district make too much money. "$145,000 a year salary" and "compensation last year was $475,000 a year, but with bonuses it came to $888,173". Those are big numbers. But this is purely subjective and right now I am too busy being upset at AIG giving Christmas bonuses to worry about the cost of a world class curator. It's like sports - if you can earn it then good for you. That's just the American way. Dan Rather versus a local station. Sorry kiddo, life's not fair.
6. Only one piece has been delivered.  True, but to be balanced perhaps look at the works refurbished as well? But on that note, deadlines do matter so this can improve with better oversight.

What did Wayne miss? Well, he was either kind (uncharacteristic, no?) or did not  know about ignoble past of the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County. The mismanagement at CACHH, as I understand it, even caused a backlash within the arts community. Did ABC13 report on this at the time?

One other aspect of the "story" that I have trouble with is going from "we shouldn't spend tax dollars on art" to "why aren't you spending tax dollars on art fast enough?" but I'll chalk that up to journalistic license.

What can Wayne do better next time?

1. Be balanced. Interview a few people who LIKE art in the city of Houston! This is just basic journalism to look at the other side. I know, I know, Fox News, but still I can dream, right? Plus he might have found an art lover who was similarly outraged at timing/location/etc which might have led to constructive dialog.
2. Give people a chance to respond before airing a sensational piece timed to show the week the National Arts Marketing Conference and the Latin Grammy's are in Houston. This was just a PT Barnumesque stunt that hurt the city in front of two very influential groups. Very clever I'll give you. But if it's all about ratings maybe I need to listen to my own advice "life's not fair".
3. Release the FULL interview of Glus from the story as background material. At least the transcript. Soundbites with dramatic music are just silly and taken out of context destructive.

I was wondering what exactly are the duties of a journalist? Is it art, or reporting. And if art, shouldn't it be labelled as such?

From the National Union of Journalists Code of Professional Conduct it says things like "strive to eliminate distortion, news suppression and censorship" and "ensure that the information he or she disseminates is fair and accurate". So I'd have to say that reporting is more Art than Journalism in this case. And he is quite entertaining when your community is not the target of the attack. Like watching ultimate fighting I guess.

Dan Keeney (a client) had a constructive comment on the HAA Blog:

Love him or hate him, I think Wayne Dolcefino has plopped a big stinkin….OPPORTUNITY in the lap of the Houston arts community. He repeatedly has acknowledged that there is a direct connection between the arts and the city’s economy, which is typically the hardest concept for critics to grasp.

He is making that difficult argument on your behalf — but he is also demanding accountability.

Hard to argue with Dan's point on accountability. HAA and the arts community should work to improve transparency and accountability. And the citizens and hopefully the media should help the entire city move in that direction. Just hopefully without ripping ourselves apart or timing it to make us look like backwater fools the week of the Arts Conference Wayne. Oh please, that wasjust disingenuous.

The bottom line for me?  I am going to view the whole thing as some amazing performance art with a few grains of truth. And for that I tip my hat to Mr. Dolcefino on a ratings grabbing performance. Now this way to The Egress please.

Disclaimers: HAA, Discovery Green, Dan Keeney and numerous others (over 300) actually are clients. Those that aren't clients, many are friends. I am sure I missed an asterisk somewhere, but this is a blog and I am not pretending to be impartial.

Economic Impact of Arts in Houston

The Houston Arts Alliance is one of our clients, and I have been doing some research on the economic impact of the arts in Houston. It's very impressive actually.

Some data from the Houston Arts Alliance Blog from Mayor Bill White's recent talk on the arts.

1. Arts are a 626.3 Million Dollar Industry in Houston
2. The Arts in Houston support 30,000 full time jobs
3. The economic impact for the city is 69.5 million in local and state government revenues
4. Total Attendance of the 10 Largest Arts Organizations in 2007 = 7,383,740
5. Total Hotel Occupancy Tax funds directed to the Arts in2007 = 12.1M

(source)

I mention this because I have been seeing the 13 Undercover teasers on TV for a show called "The Color of Money". I haven't seen the segment yet. Investigative Reporter Wayne Dolcefino runs "The Color of Money" about Houston Arts tonight at 10:00 PM.

As a tax payer it is important to me that my taxes go to logical and necessary expenses. But I also like knowing that there is a baseball team in Houston (stadium paid for with taxes), and while I can't always afford the beer at a Texan's game (ditto), I can always afford a glass of wine in the basement of the new building at the Houston Museum of Fine Art. Art is necessary. To what extent, that can and should be legitimately debated as with anything regarding public funding.

And again, the Houston Arts Alliance is a client so I am clearly biased. And I love the arts, so add a second bias to the first.

Trying to reserve judgment until I see the piece. But knowing Dolcefino....

Here is the Mayor's Funding for the Arts set:

Mayor Bill White Presentation to the Houston Arts Alliance RENGEN

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: rengen houston)

go vote

road to tampa
Originally uploaded by eschipul

go vote. no really, go vote. take the time, take the pto, do what it takes, go vote.

how should you vote? think. do that. then vote.

PRSA International NP Social Media Presentatoin Slides Posted

My slides for my talk on Monday in Detroit with the PRSA International Conference 2008 are posted and embedded below. Very excited about co-presenting with Brian Reich of EchoDitto for the first time. As a long time follower of Brian on twitter, I am quite sure this will be an interesting session and we'd love to have YOU there! The topic is Social Media Strategies for Non Profits.

I should also say I am humbled and excited at the same time about presenting on the day that Bob Lutz from GM who blogs at the Fastlane Blog is opening! Wow! While I am not bullish on GM (sorry Bob) , I do love the candor he brings to the conversation.

So here are the slides - feel free to follow along during the talk:

International PRSA Conference - Strategic Social Media for NPO

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Here are a few helpful links that will make sense if you attend:

1. Corporate Story Telling
2. Cell phone anthropology - this is brilliant in its simplicity and forces major changes to the art of story telling
3. Media Converter - conversion of file types is a BIG deal and the new simplicity of Media Converter is a game changer in my opinion.
4. Apple Brand Love versus Dell Brand Love (if you can call the latter that).

I'd also like to thank @happykatie for all of the help researching and preparing for these presentations. As well as the rest of our team. When I go speak, it is very much a team effort and I really hope folks realize it ain't just me!

On a side note, I have noticed that as I have gotten more active on flickr, facebook (gah I hate their ugly URLs) and twitter, indeed my blogging has diminished. I still want to blog, I still like the "home base" aspect of having a blog. But the immediacy of twitter is so much more compelling and somehow the time to blog is reduced. So if you are wondering where I have been these days, follow me at the above links and we can stay tight, cool? Thanks!

And maybe, just maybe, this guys is write that blogs are dead. Nah.

Economic Bailout and Impending DOOM!

Chase Tower North View
Originally uploaded by eschipul

Saw this post on twitter of Peter Finch from the Movie Network - "I don't have to tell you things are bad; everybody knows things are bad..." and that is pretty much how I feel.

The stocks are crushed and the only solution (we are told) is to give 700 Billion to wall street bankers. We have a bailout tracker and npr states.

The Bush economic team has been saying for weeks that the financial world as we know it would end if a rescue plan was not put in place in short order.

And after record losses by points on the stock exchange yesterday, today we hear they may have a new plan and stocks are rebounding this morning. Banks are being rescued and purchased.

And while all of this is going on, well, we are getting angry. Really angry. But it is a very hard anger to direct. And for the euphemistically named "main street" where we all live, we don't quite see the problem yet.

No really, so all of the investment bankers are going broke. OK, so if we went out of business I'd be broke. Nobody bails me out, and I don't even have a home in the Hamptons like they do! What is with the double standard?

Tightening of the credit markets you say? That we won't be able to get a home loan or a car loan or a business loan on inventory! Well gee, those are all ASSET BACKED LOANS. What makes you think banks will stop doing that? And if so, give me a bill in congress that insures direct to consumer and direct to business loans.

2008 Sarasota International Design Summit

Sarasota Design Conference
Originally uploaded by eschipul

I am really looking forward to my presentation in Sarasota Florida at the 2008 Sarasota International Design Summit on Oct 27-29, 2008. And they completely take care of their speakers (click the image for more on that).

But without further delay, here is the description of my planned talk:

Design patterns of Social Media through the power of Story: The hero's journey will be Twittered

From the "12 people you meet on Twitter" to the traditional Archetypes found in storytelling, there are expected characters we meet on the road who perform integral parts in our society and community’s stories. These characters play roles from hero to mentor to whiner to seductress to the perpetually peppy-guy.

We all know them (the guy who Tweets what he had for breakfast or the entrepreneur who Tweets his investment meetings) and love to love/hate them. But what roles do these characters really play in our online communication lives? Where do you fit in, in the grand Twitter and Social Media story? How do you best position your plotline and character development for maximum effectiveness?

Let’s take a look at how designs from the past can help us understand this new Twitter medium. Humans and their stories change very little over the course of time, and when used strategically Social Media tools like Twitter can give you the powerful platform to broadcast and share as never before.

The Republican 700 Billion Tax Increase of 2008

last glimmer in miami
Originally uploaded by eschipul

We are witnessing the biggest tax increase in American history.

The President is advocating a 700 Billion tax increase to be under the control of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Rushing in fact. Urgent.

Let me repeat that - the biggest tax increase in history is being pushed forward by George Bush in the form of a 700 Billion bailout of wall street.

The blame for this 700 Billion tax increase is left clearly at the feet of Phil Gram, an Aggie, like me. Which is embarrassing. But facts are facts, and as we say in Aggieland "an Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do."  That said, Phil did not act alone. But his lone actions could have prevented this.

So while I don't understand all of the subtleties of the current situation, what I *do* know is that NO politician wants to be known for a tax increase. So they borrow and leave it for another politician to take the blame.

My point is that while the iron is hot, while desperate measures are needed, the CURRENT POLITICIANS are completely 100% accountable for this tax increase. Sure they don't believe in balancing the budget anymore, but make no mistake, we need to give a pass to any future politician who raises taxes to cover this commitment from the current lot.

So in this case, the Republicans are championing the biggest tax increase in history. And the Democrats are walking behind them saying "yes sir." Both parties clearly walking away from their base with a "hey, we gotta do it" mentality with no long term solutions.

Indeed, here we are. Here's to new taxes, tonight is kind of special.

Jonathan Haidt 5 Moral Foundations Theory and Politics

I am not sure who linked Jonathan Haidt's "The real difference between liberals and conservatives" TED talk to me on twitter. But wow, the talk is awesome. After watching the talk several times I felt the need to take notes so here is a summary, probably more for me than anyone else.

Haidt's "Moral Foundations Theory" holds that there are five fundamental moral values that extend across cultures and even to some primates. From the TED talk they are: (and AGAIN - these are just my notes - watch the video for more)

Haidt's Five Moral Values

1. Harm/Care - agreed on by both liberal and conservative
2. Fairness/reciprocity - agreed on by both liberal and conservative
3. Ingroup loyalty
   
   1. liberals are more independent
   2. only among humans do you find large groups
4. Authority/respect
   1. liberals reject authority, conservatives embrace it
5. Purity/sanctity
   
   1. political right moralizes sex
   2. left moralizes food as examples

Hurricane Ike hits Houston Hard

Hurricane Ike in Long Exposure
Originally uploaded by eschipul

Hurricane Ike hit Houston this last Friday night. And he was deadly.  And very damaging to say the least.

First and foremost my thoughts and prayers are with those in Galveston and south of the city who lost the most. Lives were lost, homes destroyed down to the foundation, businesses closed for good and the corresponding jobs were lost. Families and friends are hurting.

I am typing this on a Tuesday September 16th and power at my house is still out. The office is back online and, if only for Air Conditioning and to charge our cell phones, quite a few folks are already back at work.

The city has a week long 9:00 PM curfew so we are working short days, 9:30 to maybe 4:30 to allow time to get home without most traffic lights. We are talking a lot.

Hotels are full of evacuees and downtown is closed and in bad shape. The Chase tower in particular was transformed into broken glass on the streets.

If you want to help, this one client reached out to us to help spread the word.

If you would like to help out a strong organization in the Houston community, Catholic Charities (a non profit organization client that serves over 100,000 Houstonians) is in need of donations as they are trucking out water, food and supplies to hard-hit Hurricane Ike areas in Texas.

The psychological impact of witnessing 100+ mile an hour winds, having our houses shake, hearing the explosions of transformers at 3:30 in the morning, these things are challenging. People experience grief, but learn to cope and move on.

"There is a common misperception that people are going to fall apart and they are going to have lifelong psychological consequences," said Herrmann. "But the reality is that most people who experience traumatic events are psychologically resilient.

There are so many blog posts and photos that should have been taken. Having no power or Internet at the house somewhat limits my self expression.

What I do know is that Houston and the surrounding areas is one amazing community. That our people are strong down to earth people who look out for each other. What I do know is that Houston, Galveston, Bolivar and our entire community will rebuild. We will get back on our feet. We will be back.

Yammer Default Configuration not Ideal for Crisis Communication

Day 2 of our experiment with Yammer for internal crisis communication with Hurricane Ike coming down on us. This is the default configuration even after you set up your SMS.

The default config will NOT work - SMS is off and after hours pings are off.

You have to change it to this (below) or it won't work. For example, Ike is supposed to hit Houston around 1:00 AM tonight. Realistically with our employees out of the office, it is likely too late for me to get everyone to change this setting. Is there even a way to change it via SMS if they only have mobile?

There needs to be a magic button where the network owner for a yammer domain can edit settings for the team as a whole in response to a crisis? I realize it is a brand new product, just thinking out loud.

Schipulites test Yammer for Crisis Communication during Hurricane Ike

Prepare for Hurricane Ike
Originally uploaded by eschipul

It's about 5:33 AM on Sept 12, 2008 as I type this. As a company we have been through numerous hurricane preparation drills. Katrina was a scare, Rita was an evacuation challenge, but this time with Hurricane Ike we are finally going to get hit here in Houston. Not a good thing.

The office is of course closed today. We've tweeted about it. Client newsletters sent. Email exchanges with our crisis communication firm Firestorm and our PR firm. Discussions with vendors and critical web sites in case of handling emergencies in Houston. Our employees are all safe and accounted for.

One thing we are doing different this time is we are testing Yammer for crisis communication with the team. It is like twitter, but restricted to just company email addresses. So we can have a more private conversation about how we can stick together during the crisis using text messages, following, and longer than 140 character conversations. And that last part is important, in a crisis I just need to paste in the URL like http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5995981.html. I do NOT have time to go make a tinyURL during a crisis. Right? Who does?

The hurricane hasn't hit yet, but I can share some lessons learned on pre-hurricane preparedness and communication.

1. We already knew this, but it is all about if the FAMILY has an emergency plan. Just make sure people HAVE a plan!
2. People are available or not depending on where they live. Know this ahead of time. Some people have to evacuate based on their location, which is fine, just insulate the company from them as part of the response team because they will not be available.
3. Spouses and significant-others are a major factor. And they will talk about the leadership of the company publicly if they feel you aren't being responsive. Don't take it personal. Even if they don't have their facts right.
4. Parents are a major factor. Especially for Generation Y (Millenials) they get panicked calls from their parents. Like 50 of them. (seriously) So even if they are prepared are level headed, the pressure is pretty strong for them to react without necessarily following the Mayor's advice.
5. The local news will always be reckless and sensationalistic.
6. Emergency binders only work if you have them updated.
7. IT plays a big part, suddenly everyone says things like "oh ya, my blackberry hasn't been syncing lately" and this is a REAL problem when everyone goes into the field.
8. Specs will be crowded. Expect this. Ahhh, humans.
9. Long lost relatives and friends will call to say "what are you doing? I saw it on the news!" while you are either evacuating or preparing to shelter in place. Luckily yammer provides a semi-private forum to vent about this.

The biggest new technology we are using for Ike Hurricane Preparation versus Rita/Katrina prep are:

1. Twitter. Many of us are on twitter and the community is definitely larger than the company alone.
2. Yammer - we have hopes this will be a valuable employee only crisis communication tool.
3. MXLogic - disaster recovery for email in case our building loses power (client email is not on site).

Technology that we already depend on that we expect will continue to be critical include email and text messaging.

Hopefully Ike will chill out and people will stop with the Tina Turner jokes. But if not, we are prepared and I'll let y'all know how the new technology works as part of a comprehensive crisis response and communication plan. Wish us luck!

Links for the Media on New Tech Happenings

I was asked to speak at the Joint Ascertainment Session by Natalie J this morning. These are a few links that may be helpful for the attendees to know. In no particular order:

1. Help a Reporter Out - a free competitor to ProfNet.
2. Flip Video cameras - you can buy them on Amazon.
3. Qik - a way to stream video straight to the web from your CELL PHONE! John Culberson is great with Qik!
4. Twitter - y'all have heard of it, but worth joining if you are media. I am at http://twitter.com/eschipul/
5. Texas Franchise Tax (aka Rick Perry's Business Income Tax). This is a very real issue facing the community with a 100% to 300% tax increase on businesses at a time when we SHOULD be creating jobs. It may be politically prudent to hide taxes at a business level, but realize this effectively becomes a consumption tax which we know disproportionately affects the poor more than others.
6. Fifth Ward CRC
7. IABC Houston - forming a task force on social media with the Mayor's office for digital inclusion.
8. Slideshare.net - like youtube for PowerPoint
9. Poll Everywhere - free simple polls that people can use text from their cell phones to vote with.
10. Criminal Searches - a free criminal search site, but there are legitimate privacy concerns here. Does having one traffic ticket from some states justify making someone's birth date a matter of public record?

Leadership and the Rationalization of Immoral Behavior

As a leader, you have to talk about morality and ethics at work. Why? Because it is the only way to prevent the rationalization of immoral behavior. In other words, if you don't want people to lie, cheat or steal at work, you have to talk about the fact that lying, cheating and stealing is morally wrong and most likely illegal.

So what is exactly is the "rationalization of immoral behavior"? Lets start with an example from MIT:

Ariely and his students went around and left six-packs of Coke in randomly selected dorm refrigerators all over campus. When he checked back in a few days, all of the Cokes were gone.
 
But when he later placed plates of six loose dollar bills in those same refrigerators, not a single bill was missing when he checked back. Even though the value was comparable--and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent--people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?

The people who "took" the cokes, you might say "stole" the cokes, rationalized it as moral. They had to do this because part of human psychology is that we need to think of ourselves as rational and moral beings. We have to think of ourselves as moral, but how if we run around stealing cokes or deceiving investors or turning over business leads to a competitor?

This too has been studied (Bandura, 1990) and rationalization of immoral behavior requires a moral disengagement. That moral disengagement can be done by:

1. Reconstructing Conduct. The brain says, "hey, I am shooting this car in a drive by but I am on a mission from God!" Basically pointing to a higher cause to justify a smaller immoral action.
2. Obscuring personal agency. "I was just doing my job" or "that is the way Detroit politics always works and I am just a cog in the machine."
3. Disregarding negative consequences. This one is hard for me to understand, but as I read about it, it sounds like just not thinking about the consequences. "It's those OTHER drug dealers who go to jail, not me."
4. Blaming and dehumanizing victims. Ahhh, this is the workplace one that we see. Find something, anything, a coworker or boss says and "they deserve it" or "for all I do for this place, they don't pay me enough, I have EARNED this Camcorder I am stealing."

I know from training to work at Circuit City stores years ago the power of the "blaming and dehumanizing victims" element to rationalize theft. Our store had the lowest shrink (retail word for theft) in the district at one time. And a large part of that was because of how well the management team treated the workers. It is harder to dehumanize a good boss than a bad one. Harder, but not impossible.

Sometimes companies make it easy. A cut in benefits will predictably increase theft. And yet really, yes really and truly, the thief doesn't think they are a thief! They have simply realized internally that to steal they have to find SOME method of justifying it. So they dehumanize their coworkers and say "I am deserved this" and they are bad people so it is OK for me to reduce their profit sharing checks." All the while the thief probably would not take $10 off their desk if left alone.

Hurricane Gustav Comes to the Gulf, Invited or Not

1978 shipwreck
Originally uploaded by eschipul

As I type this, Hurricane Gustav is approaching the coast of Louisiana, New Orleans has been evacuated, and Texas to Alabama are on watch. It has not made land fall yet, but social media mavens are supporting solutions ahead of time. Social context charges forward, Obama made history and McCain inexplicably chose Palin as a running mate. And Palin rumors are spreading.

But what started this blog? It was being incensed by the crappy response to Hurricane Katrina. And a simple blog post saying, in 2005, that we don't have an "RSS for emergencies that is widely accepted." From my Emergency RSS post:

To that end I want to state that we need a simplified RSS type system to track data in an emergency.  No one site can handle all emergency response.  Even if it could it would create a single point of failure. We need something as simple as RSS, call it emergency RSS or ERSS, to handle the needs that arise in an emergency.

It's pretty clear I was a newbie blogger. No outbound links, but the thoughts still hold, and the need still has not been met. The post on Emergency RSS continues:

With Katrina, which hit in 2005, what I observed were numerous sites heroically put up, only to go down once they were picked up by the blogosphere and the media.  Go here for help … everyone does globally including the curious from other countries …. Server dies.  Nobody gets help.  Next site is suggested.  Repeat the process.
.....
I am not inventing anything here.  I am just screaming that we should have this in place for times of crisis already.

Since 2005 many many things in my life have gotten progressively better. But my original call to action for blogging is still unmet. And CAPS (Common Alerting Protocol) is just too complex. If only Dave Winer lived in New Orleans, THEN we would have a simple solution. Perhaps I am unfit for the task on this one given it is now three years later.

In closing, thoughts, prayers and good wishes for the folks in the path of Gustav. Stay safe!

Note: That photo? It is a shipwreck blown ashore by a hurricane in 1978 in Dominica. The ship is still there. Not only have the lessons not been learned, but the ship remains on shore. Sad really.

Houston SXSW Panels - Can You Spare a Vote (and a comment?)

Voting ends tomorrow (Friday) the 29th of August 2008 for SXSW 2009. If you have a minute and like the topics, a vote would be truly appreciated!

Me!
Personal Branding for Profit and Social Media for NonProfit Rockstars

HappyKatie also has two panels submitted:
Strategic PR for Social Media Geeks and Heart Your Peeps - Build Your Business From Within

@deneyterrio has two panels submitted:
Is Your Company Blog Cheating On You and one with Reggie called My Life With NF in Web 2.0 

The Houston crew has a bunch of sxsw panels submitted and they are all listed here. But there is a catch. Less than 24 hours of voting left! And commenting - comments are GREATLY appreciated! Houston Panels for SXSW Submission are listed here.

IABC Presentation - In the Palm of Your Hand

The slide deck from today's presentation on the Mobile Web at IABC Houston are below. And for the attendees, here are the results from our poll "Houston Should Be Known As?"

In the palm of your hand:  How Communicators are making a splash on the Mobile Web

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: schipul iabc)

IABC Social Media 101+ - Embracing the Rock Star Communicator Toolset

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: media social)

Tip of the hat to @happykatie for all of the assistance!

I.O.USA, the Movie

Worth the 7 minutes. Hat tip to @deneyterrio for sending it out.