Pucker up folks! May 5th is ‘National Make-Out Day’

Get ready for a community lip lock, kids. May 5 is “National Make-Out Day,” so we’ll be swapping spit across the land, no doubt adding a new dimension to Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

Haven’t heard about National Make-Out Day? Then you need to associate with a better class of “friends” on Facebook. Two of my FB pals joined the group a few weeks back, and I expected more to follow after this post. But alas, someone wised up and took this fun little group offline. The killjoys! (“Make Out Day” lives.  See “update at the end of this post.)

No, my friends who joined the group aren’t the pair disguised in this “official event photo” from the site. I suspect these two were operating on a dare from six horny college boys after a Beer Pong marathon. What were they thinking when they struck this pose? That’s a question I ask nearly every time I open Facebook.

Social media can bite you — Just ask Steve Rubel

Steve Rubel, top PR blogger and Edelman SVP, proved last week he’s human. I prove the same thing 3-4 times a day, but I don’t have a Top-200 Technorati ranking to worry about.

When I screw up, no one cares. When Steve screws up, the whole PR blogosphere has a front-row seat. Steve, it may seem like I’m piling on here, but I’m just doing the professor thing and showing my readers (many of ‘em students) how social media can bite you in the ass — even when you’re on top of your game.

Steve’s trouble grew from a message posted to Twitter, the social network that “takes instant messaging to an extreme.” In a hasty post, Steve said: “PC Mag is another. I have a free sub but it goes in the trash,”

Jim Louderback, PC’s editor in chief, took offense and fired back with this guest editorial on the Strumpette blog. Here’s an excerpt to give you the flavor:

Reflecting on Imus — Do I have to?

As the students of VaTech head back to class, I thought I’d get back to blogging on other topics. Never thought I say this, but the events of the past week had me missing the trivial headlines, even the ones about Imus.

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I have ZERO interest in talking about Don Imus and those three little words. No matter what I say, it’ll piss people off.

But the Imus case hits awfully close to my classroom, as it involves issues of ethics & social responsibility, with a dose of free speech. So since I couldn’t ignore it, I decided to delay my comments until no one cared anymore. Maybe I’ll give my students extra credit for reading the post and the rest of you will choose to ignore it.

How did a story about an over-the-hill shock jock hijack the MSM for a week or more? You tell me. While Imus’ comments about the Rutgers’ basketball team have no place in civil discussion, they don’t belong on the front page, either. But, you see, the 24/7 media beast has an insatiable appetite for the “easy” story, and this one was way too easy.

Here are the issues I’m talking about in class when the subject arises:

Searching for lessons in Virginia Tech tragedy

Three times this week I labored to write a reflective post about the events at VT. But the words wouldn’t come. In one post I tried to examine VT’s crisis response. In another I attempted to review the long-term impact on VT and on other universities. I’ve decided not to publish any of it.

Forgive me, but I just can’t locate the teachable moment in this event. At least not yet.

I did take a lesson from my Facebook pals Stefanie and Kait, and I replaced my FB photo with the graphic you see here. Several times on this blog I’ve been critical of how students use and abuse Facebook. But last week, the social networking site became an important link for those at VT and elsewhere.

So maybe that’s the lesson you can take from this post — a lesson on how social media continue to bring us together. And if you’re a Kent State person with a Facebook page, copy this graphic and post it to your profile page.

Live bloggers offer inside views of VA Tech tragedy

It’s a somber day in Blacksburg, Virginia, and on college campuses across America. So don’t expect the usual levity at ToughSledding.

I taught two classes at Kent State today — one before learning of the shootings at Va. Tech, the other afterward. In that second class, PR Case Studies, we speculated on the impact this horrible tragedy might have. And we tried to imagine the grief of those left to mourn the dead.

Class ended early, and my students walked out of Taylor Hall onto the May 4th Memorial site. Here at Kent State, we know a little about campus tragedies. We lost 4. Tech lost 33.

Reading the tea leaves of the MSM

Students groan when I hound them to follow the business headlines. It’s boring to most — but I felt the same way at age 21. I mean, how does a story about oil futures compete with the Anna Nicole saga or with American Idol?

Simple: Anna Nicole’s baby and Sanjaya’s fate don’t affect my life or my paycheck one bit. On the other hand, the price of oil, and most everything else on the business page, will. Business news also affects the organizations we represent. So, boring or not, we gotta pay attention.

Here are some of the business stories I dragged into class this past week and why I bothered to talk about them.

Business travel with the family. This AP story extols the benefits of having family members join you on business trips. Turns out more and more folks are doing it, and more and more companies are supporting it. It makes sense, when you consider what it costs to replace and train productive staff. Why not do what you can to keep your present employees happy?

PR blogs are growing, and Kent State’s Heather Bing is on the list!

Kudos to PRKent senior Heather Bing, whose Experience PR site made Constantin Basturea’s list of new PR blogs. It ain’t the A List yet, kiddo, but you’re on your way!

Heather’s blog grew from an assignment in our PR Online Tactics class, taught by Professor Michele Ewing. Heather says her blog focuses on applying “bookish knowledge to the real world,” which is exactly what we do in the Kent State PR program. Her blog is the only one of 12 in the class to gather enough Google Juice to make Constantin’s list. I could send him links to the other 11, but I’d rather see them earn it.

Meatballs and blogging: Sometimes it just doesn’t matter!

I’m not sure anyone but Bill Murray’s mom would call it a classic, but the 1979 film, “Meatballs,” does offer one of the great cinematic mantras: It just doesn’t matter! It just doesn’t matter!

Most things in life don’t matter — at least not in the long haul. Much of what we stress about is trivial. That includes this blog, which has caused me a fair amount of tension over its 105-post life.

No more. Thanks to the “Meatballs Mantra,” I’m turning over a new leaf.

No longer will I fish for links. It used to piss me off when a blogger would deny me a link I knew I’d earned. Pretty pathetic of me, huh? And it about drove me nuts when, two weeks ago (right after this post), 5 blogs mysteriously disconnected from this site.

I’m the media, dammit!!!…plus assorted thoughts from a PR lunatic

Item #1: It’s official. I’m a citizen journalist. And that makes me the “media,” at least for today.

I know it’s true, because I got a pitch from a company wanting me to pimp for its new business-networking website. That’s right, the folks from Lyro want me to review and cover the “launch” of their new venture. I’m not gonna bother, since it looks way too much like LinkedIn, only more boring.

I include the link just in case you want to check it out. Besides, it allows me to celebrate my newfound media stardom. Just call me “Gatekeeper,” baby. Do you feel the power?