You just keep thinkin’ Butch!

Guys, if we were all this talented and this good looking, the world would be a very dull place, indeed.  At least that’s what I tell my wife.

Her response: You just keep thinkin’, Butch, that’s what you’re good at.”

I’m not one to worship celebrities, but I can’t let the death of this great actor and great humanitarian go without a tip of the hat. Will miss you, Paul Newman — but we’ll always have Butch! (Image from Wide Water Gallery)

Symmetrical PR meets the ‘Cluetrain Manifesto’

Every serious student of social media must read the Cluetrain Manifesto. If you haven’t, it’s available free online. Many consider Cluetrain the seminal work about social media as they relate to business.

For a good many 30something PR and marketing bloggers, Cluetrain was the great “aha!” It described a new open system of communication that shifts the locus of commerce from persuasion and selling to relationships and conversations.

True believers in social media have worshiped at the Cluetrain altar for almost a decade now. Most books on SM marketing and PR that followed  took their direction from Cluetrain authors Weinberger, Searles, Locke and Levine. The book has stood the test of time, whether or not you agree with its premise.

Have social media altered the communication landscape? Of course. But while Cluetrain broke new ground in describing business-consumer relationships in a digital world, it wasn’t all that “new” — at least not for the more serious students of public relations. (I won’t speak for the marketing types, as PR and marketing are distinct disciplines.)

If you’ve kicked around the PR world as long as I have — as practitioner and educator — the central concepts of the Cluetrian Manifesto don’t surprise you. Fact is, PR began focusing on a “two-way symmetrical model” (2WS) more than 50 years ago — long before scholars Jim Grunig and Todd Hunt defined 2WS in 1983, and way, way before the Cluetrain arrived.

Time for a new look

Spent much of yesterday editing and sorting photos from our trip to Maine. Found one that might be just the ticket to re-energize my blogging efforts. So it’s become my new banner. It’s a bit more chilly and serious than the original — befitting our times, don’t you think?

The original banner shot came from Rainy Lake, Minn., in 2006. The new one (also shot by my lovely bride) was taken atop a gusty Cadillac Mountain, some 1,500 feet above Bar Harbor, Maine. Thanks to my son Todd for handling the type work.

Maybe the new header will spark some readership. Lord knows I haven’t posted any meaningful content for a while. Now, back to that post I promised.

I’m back…but not all the way

Returned this week from a two-week respite (It was more like a workout!) in Maine, but I won’t ever be all the way back. Hiking, biking and kayaking along with a heavy dose of lobster and blueberries can make a guy lust for retirement. The Maine trip was part of a month on the road and followed a whirlwind tour through the Midwest to chat with some leaders in the social media world.  We captured their thoughts on video.  Now we gotta edit.  Arrrgh.

Paddling in the fog in Muscongus Bay, Maine. Tell me you'd rather be blogging!

I doubt you’re interested in my tales of hiking and biking in Acadia National Park.  Could tell you about paddling and camping in Muscongus Bay with guide extraordinaire, Alvah Maloney (Maine Kayak), but you’d only get jealous.  If the leisure side of my trip interests to you, check my Flickr page (Part I and Part II). And if you want to paddle Maine, call Alvah.

The business side of this trip (way back in August) involved on-camera interviews with a handful of PR/social media luminaries.  I, along with longtime friend and colleague Andy Curran, began our fear-and-loathing trip in Cincinnati with Kevin Dugan (Strategic PR and Bad Pitch Blog), then moved on to Louisville to meet Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer).  Our trip north to Chicago brought meetings with PR’s first blogger, Edelman VP Phil Gomes (Phil’s Blogservations) and Brian Connolly, technical director for Furthermore and co-creator of the once infamous Strumpette blog. Our tour also included visits with Matt Shiv, music director at WOXY.com (“The future of rock-n-roll”) and Professor Steve Jacobs at Rochester Institute of Technology.  Oh yeah, there was a stop in Buffalo for Duff’s chicken wings — best in the world.

Real bloggers post clips the day they record them, but I don’t care for the slap-it-up, YouTube style. Besides, I really suck at video editing. So you’ll have to wait for the polished version, once Andy and I get it together. (If nothing else, two weeks in Maine taught me how to live without the immediacy of online. And I think my wife appreciated it, too.)

Wrigley has "Style."

The trip included a face-to-face experience with one of Chicago’s great social networks: the bleachers at Wrigley on Friday afternoon.  A baseball game with the “bleacher bums” seems more like a frat party than a sporting event, and it’s one social network you can’t experience online. I mean, how can you drink a virtual Old Style or throw an opponent’s virtual homer back into the field? Not sure who won the game or even who the Cubs played. Does it matter?

I promise my next post to this site will be the one I’ve been promoting for over a month: Symmetrical PR Meets the Cluetrain Manifesto.  Back to business, eh? Damn!