Giving up Facebook for Lent? Three Reasons to Rethink Ditching Social Media
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Photo credit: Beyond the Flavor
Excellent photographers Sarah Cramer Shields and Andrea Hubbell started a foodie/photo venture more than a year ago. They’re so talented and share my passion for great, local food. Recently, they launched a Kickstarter campaign to take their venture, Beyond the Flavor to the next level.
Beyond the Flavor began as a passion project to inspire readers with the stories of Charlottesville’s farmers, chefs, winemakers, and artisans, told through beautiful photographs and an evocative narrative, most often centered around their preparation and sharing of a meaningful meal. By documenting those who make up this town that’s so dedicated to the locavore movement, we aim to be the visual voice for everyone who believes that ideal nourishment comes from the earth, people, and passion within our own communities.
Though the support from the Charlottesville community has been incredible, we are asking for donations to help develop a new website that goes far beyond its current blog format, giving readers instant access to our most recent features, and a chance to revisit and learn from past contributors through our Checking In and Kitchen Skills departments.
A searchable recipe index will help readers track down a specific dish and our Flavor of the Month, Make This, and Drink This departments will give those without a plan plenty of edible and imbibable inspiration. Interactive additions will allow readers to submit and rate recipes too. An online dining guide will prove handy to anyone looking to dine out at one of our area’s 200+ unique restaurants.
This is the first Kickstarter project I’ve personally backed. I’m in full support of these women, this project, and the concept of crowdsourcing to help ventures reach their goals. Backing the project was SO EASY and took no time at all. I logged in through Facebook and donated through Amazon payments. Easy-peasy.
You can contribute, too, and become a backer of the Beyond the Flavor movement. The campaign ends Friday, Feb. 15, 2013 and they have just $3,000 to go. Won’t you help?
Here’s the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1120445816/beyond-the-flavor
As I’ve said before, I love crisis communications. There’s something about the challenge of taking a bad situation and getting the best out of it, that I enjoy. The opportunity to tell the story of a company’s good works in a community that has been hurt by it (think BP), to humanize a brand, or to help rebuild a reputation that has all but been ruined is a challenge I like.
But of course, sometimes that means engaging a client that people don’t like. Or that has done something to harm the environment, or people’s lives or livelihoods. It means defending, in some cases, the indefensible. In public relations, the BIG money often comes from the indefensible industries; tobacco, legalized gambling, chemical production, firearms manufacturing, and the like, all fairly unpopular sectors with a great many haters.
So how does a PR firm decide it’s worth taking on a client that, on the surface, seems to have NOTHING positive to say?
Here are five questions to carefully consider before engaging with a crisis client:
- Does the client share the same values as you and your firm?
- Has the client demonstrated the ability to take and follow other professional counsel (e.g. legal counsel)?
- If the client has committed past sins, is that now over, and are you confident the client will not repeat the same mistakes?
- Has the client expressed true remorse and demonstrated a commitment to change, in both words and actions?
- Is there a benefit to your firm, either financially, from gained experience or as a future case study, to enable other crisis work?
If you and your firm aren’t satisfied with the answers to these questions, it’s probably wise to walk away, and allow other counsel to take on the work.
What other considerations are there when considering crisis work?
My plans last night got totally goofed up. Long story, short, amid much texting and plans being arranged and re-arranged, I misunderstood the final verdict and the result was that two-thirds of our party ended up at one restaurant, and one-third at another. Sigh.
I was sad to miss out on dinner with my friends, but we made the best of it, of course (and the butternut squash crepes I had were delicious.)
I want to learn a lesson from this — I think if I’d called instead of texting at some point, I could have clarified the information and avoided the goof. I think I was so convinced that I knew what was planned, that my misplaced confidence got in the way. Whoops.
So my communication lesson from this is to confirm — even when you think you know, it only takes a few seconds to verify. Repeating back what you think you know to be true solves a lot of communications problems — and is a good habit to develop. I’m going to work on it, and hopefully that will lead to a dinner out with my good friends, all at the same restaurant — in the near future!
I’ve been traveling on business since late 2005. I used to travel at least once a month. It was, and continues to be, astounding to me how many airports, hotels and resorts haven’t stepped up their WiFi game. I’ve paid (or the business has) for more WiFi access than is reasonable, while winging through terminals or stuck in hotels and conference centers. It’s frustrating, especially when there’s a limit on access, (so what if I want to work all night?) or the service is slow or faulty.
I’m wondering tonight, as I’m on the first business trip of 2013, if we’ve turned a corner. Crazy, right, that it’s taken more than seven years!? As I checked in to this lovely Holiday Inn, I was given an access code (totally OK) and told that they’d really invested in improving the quality of their wireless access. And — da, da, dada! It’s free. I can confirm all of that. The wireless access is excellent, and took no time to connect. It’s a relief, for the hardworking business traveler, to have the tools of our trade right at our fingertips.
Now, if only it were warm out, and the pool were open.