Just sitting in the waiting room, working

Thanks to technology, many of us can work anytime, from virtually anywhere! Especially when social media is your job. (Photo by mikecough/Flickr)

My dad has had a rough time lately. After experiencing a rogue gallstone that caused a little havoc and a big scare, my 86-year-old dad was recovering nicely from his surgery. Until last week. He fell outside his surgeon’s office. He ripped up his hand pretty badly and that led to him not being able to drive again for a bit.

So I’ve been my parents chauffeur for their “social calendar” as my mom says. That basically consists of a wide range of doctors appointments, blood work, lab tests and runs to the market.

Thanks to the miracle of today’s technology (which I will never understand!) and a boss who is amazingly supportive and trusting, I’ve been able to keep up with my workload and not miss a beat. When you do social media for a living, a phone, tablet or laptop is all that is required, and it can literally be done from anywhere. Given the ridiculous amount of time spent in doctors’ waiting rooms, it’s like I’m sitting at a desk anyway!

And that brings me to my point. Many of us can do our jobs any time, from anywhere. And for people who are given the opportunity to telecommute, I am willing to bet that their employer is getting back a lot more than they expected. After spending many years in offices and those dreaded “cube farms” I am so ridiculously grateful for the opportunity to telecommute. I know I work hard, but I also appreciate the fact that my director trusts me. In my mind, it all comes down to trust.

I would never do anything to damage that trust because I recognize how much I value this aspect of my professional life. That’s why when I see big companies like Yahoo rethinking their telecommuting policy, I think what a shame it is to do that to people. With the craziness that is our lives, and the demands of jobs and the balancing act that so many of us juggle between work and home, frankly, when there’s trust, then employees who CAN work from home SHOULD be given that opportunity.

Of course I’m not an employer. And honestly, my company does NOT have an official telecommuting policy. Of course in healthcare, that’s rather difficult… or is it? We see more and more about online medical care. So I don’t think we should discount that either!

But if I WAS an employer, I would hope that I would and could trust my employees enough that I would give them the freedom to do their jobs in the best way, best place and time for them. After all, if you’ve got happy employees, won’t you have a better bottom line?

Oh, and to all those doctors who make you wait an hour and a half in the waiting room, our time is valuable too.

Why I don’t work on Sundays

This is a rant. I don’t do these often. For a long time, though, I’ve had some thoughts I couldn’t quite put into words. It’s more of a feeling that just couldn’t be quite defined. Until now.

But this week I came across a post that just got me thinking. And it made me mad too, and I realized that what I had been thinking about was this: people are expected to do way too much these days, and something’s gotta give.

Here’s the post: “Why productive people work on Sundays.” The title alone annoyed me. It implies that people who don’t work on Sundays are not productive. Wrong. Everyone has their own way of working and everyone has their own workload to manage. It doesn’t mean that you have to work on Sundays to be a productive, worthwhile member of society or a valued employee of a company. I consider myself to be a very productive person and pride myself on how much of a workload I manage on a regular basis. I do what it takes to get the job done, and I know I’m not alone in that. And I’m willing to bet that all those other productive people are not working every Sunday.

The other thing that bothered me about the post is the fact that this writer is suggesting that we take time out of what is conventionally known to all as the “day of rest.” For me and Mr. J, Sunday is our day to enjoy the morning and relax and then go out for a leisurely lunch and cocktail. It’s the one day we indulge ourselves in some R&R time. That’s our time together. I would imagine that for those with children, that day is ever more precious, and needed more too!

Now granted, there are some professions and jobs that just simply have to work on Sundays… nurses, doctors, waiters and waitresses, the retail industry, and the list goes on. But those people have other days off.

The other thing that post made me realize is that there are some factors at play that make up the reality of today. Thanks to the horrible economy, most companies have fewer people expected to do more with less money. So there’s a bigger workload for most people, who are already stretching themselves too thin. And how many hours of our lives are we expected to dedicate to a job rather than our lives? When did it become the norm to live to work rather than work to live?

Now, let’s add to these expectations the fact that if you’re not part of the social media world you’re probably not going to be a top candidate for any jobs in the field of marketing or public relations (or any number of fields for that matter), right? In this industry, if you’re not part of social media, you may as well call it quits and retire. So let’s add on the hours that you can spend (lose?) just keeping up with Facebook status updates, tweets, retweets, hashtags and lists in Twitter, Instagram pics, Pinterest pins, and so on. And don’t forget the time post to your own blog, and catch up on the reading of all your fave blogs and commenting on those posts. Hmmm.

Do you see where I’m going here… suddenly a 40-hour a week job becomes 60 just to get your work done and keep up with everything in the social sphere. I know there are many people who are just totally driven and are not happy unless they’re working all the time. But for the most part, those people are often self-employed. There are others of us who work for companies who are trying to do manage workloads that should be handled by more than one person, and who are also trying to keep up with being a part of the social world. They also try to maintain some sort of family life.

As my dad used to say, “You’re burning the candle at both ends.” I can’t think of a time in history when this is more true.  And this is the reality of today. I don’t think everyone can keep up this pace for too long. Eventually, it’s going to meet in the middle and there will be no wick left, and the candle is not a candle anymore. It’s given all it had to give. There’s nothing left to burn.

So how long do you think you can keep going at the pace you’re going? When is your candle going to meet in the middle? Do you feel it necessary to work on Sundays? Do you think it’s necessary to be productive? So many questions. I’d love to hear from you.

5 reasons to appreciate interns

Every semester we have interns from local colleges who apply to work with us for the semester for NO pay. They do it for the experience and to build some portfolio pieces for when they start applying for jobs.

I’m always amazed that these young adults give up their free time to do this. I can’t help but think that there’s a lifetime of work ahead of them and they should be enjoying their summer off at the beach, or studying or working at a job that pays!

When I was in college, I didn’t do an internship. I worked. A lot. I did jobs that had nothing to do with my college major – restaurants, a video store (back when those existed), a doctor’s office, a welfare office… about as far as you could get for an English Lit major!  But I think the world has changed a lot since those days. Today without some kind of experience, new college grads would be hard pressed to land a job against their competition. They need that leg up!

I’m really lucky to work with a great team of women who really enjoy the opportunity to be a mentor. We see it as a great way to share our experience and to help someone who’s just starting out. Personally, I also see it as an opportunity to meet the next generation, the up-and-comers as I like to think of them, and boy have we had some amazing interns. I wish we could have hired many of them on the spot.

I think our team enjoys the experience of having an intern here because we get a chance to meet someone who has excitement and a fresh take on things… someone who hasn’t yet become jaded and looks at everything with new eyes. It’s refreshing and I love seeing what we do through their eyes.

So while we hope we are inspiring them as they start out in their career, I think they also inspire us. Here’s how:

1. They challenge us. There’s nothing that makes you stop and think about why you do something more than someone asking, “why do you do that.” Suddenly, “because we always have” just doesn’t fit the bill anymore and you begin to question how effective your methods are. Maybe it’s time to rethink things!

2. They bring a new level of creativity to projects. They’re young, and fresh, and creative and not tired and have so much energy! If you’re giving them a good internship, then it will be a mix of projects – some of which they’ve learned about or done already and others that you’ll introduce them to. There’s nothing like seeing someone tackle something new with some gusto to remind you that you might want to bring some more creativity into your own projects!

3. They have experiences that we don’t. In social media, that’s critical. These students have basically grown up with a phone in their hands. Multi-tasking is second nature to them. Pay attention. You can learn a lot from them.

4. They introduce you to new things. They bring new ways of doing things to the table. Nothing makes me stop and think more than when one of our interns says, “We were working on a similar project in class and my professor suggested…” It’s like getting a free education! Well, sort of.

5. They remind you of what it is you love about your job. If you enjoy your job, and you start to explain it to an intern, hopefully your passion will shine through. Let’s face it…it’s really easy to forget that passion on a daily basis. But having someone new around to hear what you do and why you do it will hopefully reignite that little spark and remind you of just how much you love what you do. It will renew your energy!

Our summer interns finished last week. I already miss them and all they brought to the table. Of course it goes without saying that I will also miss all the work they do to help out in social media on a daily basis! So this is a thank you to all our interns over the years. Please know that you’ll be missed, and I hope each of you has learned a little something to take with you as you embark on your careers.

Now if you’re reading this, what is your favorite part of working with an intern?

I published this last night, and then today, saw this article on the possible demise of unpaid internships. What a shame. http://www.boston.com/business/personal-finance/2013/06/25/companies-that-ran-into-legal-woes-over-unpaid-interns/YQbPrmmqn7Ackyf8Mf98hJ/story.html 

Darn you RSS feed!

I love reading. Whether it’s books, web sites, blogs, magazines, I love to read. And working in PR and social media, reading is necessary to keep up with news of the day, what is trending or the hot topics du jour.

Over the last few years, I’ve built quite a list of blogs I like to read. It’s so easy when you come across something you like and you just hit that little RSS button and add it to your reader. My list is a mix of social and tech sites and personal blogs from really great, really smart people who wax eloquently and often about a variety of topics, including social media.

I love the mix of topics, from Bonnie Sashin talking about her beloved grandson Jack or what it’s like to row on the Charles River in the morning on Bonnie’s On It, to Jayme Soulati’s brilliant thoughts on marketing in today’s world on Soulati-tude (even the name is fab!), to the straight talking, no holds barred honesty of Gini Dietrich on the amazing Spin Sucks blog, absolutely one of my long-standing faves. Then of course there’s the brilliant Shelly Kramer who has given me more tips and tricks that use on a daily basis, along with wonderful commentary on so many topics on her V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing blog.  I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t include Margie Clayman and her wide mix of topics (which is what I absolutely adore about this blog, not to mention her lovely writing style) on Margie’s Moments of Tiyoweh. And then there’s the amazing Geoff Livingston who recently started writing longer, more thoughtful, beautifully written posts that are thoroughly enjoyable and an escape from the norm, which I just love.

Of course these are just a handful of my favorite bloggers, and I could go on and on (and on!) with many more from my reader, which is Feedly since Google announced it wouldn’t offer Reader anymore. Sigh. Don’t get me started on that. But I digress. My point is, I could spend my entire day and most nights trying to keep up with my reader, reading the thoughts that come from these brilliant minds that are then crafted so beautifully into a wonderful little package we know as a blog.

The problem is how do you keep up? My days are filled from morning to night just managing my job responsibilities, and rarely getting to that list of “I should do that when I get a chance” tasks (I bet you’re nodding your head right now in complete understanding!). I hadn’t been on my reader in a while and today I had 724 new posts to peruse. Yes, 724. So I can either scroll through and delete most and maybe have some time to read the ones that really jump out at me, or I can mark them all as read and start over tomorrow.

But being my father’s daughter and never wanting to throw anything away, I find it impossible to do the latter, so I will start the slow process of going through my list and saving many for later reading, some of which I’ll get to and some I won’t, and I’ll be obsessed with the fact that I missed a vital piece of hot info, or an opinion by one of my fave bloggers that was just not to be missed. You know the feeling, right?

So for now, I’m going to end this post and head over to my reader. But I’m wondering what your favorite blogs are, and how you manage to keep up with your reading. I’m sure I’m not alone in this dilemma!

Another day, another tragedy?

Photo from Wikipedia.

Is it just me, or does it seem like lately we’ve been hit with one tragedy after another? Today, we awoke to the total devastation in the town of Moore, Oklahoma, after a nearly 2-mile wide tornado swept through, leaving it in total ruin.

Because I had to be at an early morning panel discussion on the use of social media, my normal routine was way off. I did not see the morning news, or tune into Twitter or Facebook first thing this morning. When I finally did get to social, I find myself asking if people are becoming immune to these tragedies.

From my streams and newsfeeds, it seems that so many people were basically sticking to their own agendas. I even looked through the tweet stream of hospitals across the country and was shocked and slightly appalled to see that many were just carrying on with business as usual.

Is it just me? Am I being overly sensitive? Am I wrong to think that we need to be a little more respectful in the social sphere and acknowledge what is going on? Is it inappropriate to step away from our self-serving agendas for even a day? I know I’ve posted about this before, right after the Boston bombings. But for some reason, it seems like less attention is being given to the countless number of victims of Mother Nature’s latest wrath in Oklahoma than tragedies in the past, and I’m not sure why.

Even my hometown paper, the Providence Journal, apparently didn’t think Oklahoma was Page One news. Seriously? This has been called one of the worst tornadoes of all time. Families lost children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles… not to mention those who were wounded, and all of their possessions gone. Of course possessions can be replaced, but people can’t.

I am saluting the amazing folks at @NormalRegional who in the midst of their own tragedy are tweeting and posting important updates to their Facebook page to help people find their loved ones, to direct moms-to-be as to where they can deliver their child, and other important information, from a hospital that was leveled, by the way.

And yet the rest of us go on tweeting about Lasik surgery (really?) and “want to make your hot body hotter?” (I kid you not.)

Maybe it is just me, but I choose to be respectful of what people are going through and put aside the company’s social media marketing efforts FOR ONE DAY in favor of supporting our fellow man. If that seems silly to you, then maybe I’m in the wrong business. (And I must add in here that I’m so grateful to have a director who is of a like mind and believes that we need to show a little respect during times of tragedy. Phew.)

But in this writer’s opinion, showing sympathy for your fellow man and trying to understand their plight during a difficult time will speak more loudly for your brand than any other tweet or Facebook post you might want to put out there. Do you agree or am I alone in this thinking?

Feeling inept and guilty. How to find that happy medium.

This weekend I had a lot of plans. In addition to my normal weekend social media postings for work. I was hoping to get to a nursery to select two flowering bushes. I was also hoping to get caught up on my RSS feed which has been sorely overlooked lately. Identifying a few blog ideas and  getting some thoughts down would have been nice too. Finally, I wanted to figure out how to get iTunes home sharing to work so I could get the awesome workout playlist my hubby, Mr. J., made for me onto my iPhone.

And guess what I did. NONE of them! I got my social postings done and did get to the gym on both days, but I got NOTHING done that was on my to-do list. And as a result, I’m starting the week feeling inept and guilty. Inept because I’m feeling very behind on everything, and unable to catch up and make headway and guilty for not having focused my attention on the things I needed to.

Instead I relaxed, read some of the new book I started, and even dozed off for a few brief, wonderful minutes on Saturday afternoon! On Sunday morning, I visited a friend with my dogs for a doggie playdate. Then later I enjoyed a quiet afternoon lunch and cocktail while watching the Red Sox game with Mr. J at one of our fave local places.

Weekends are meant to be enjoyed, right? But when we do, how many of us are left feeling this way because of all the demands we feel from our professional lives, and the need to keep up in social networks. Is it worth relaxing if we start our Monday feeling guilty, inept, and completely unorganized?

And I wonder, what is the solution… to stay up to date and on top of things and never take time to enjoy life and relax? There has to be a happy medium, right?

How do YOU find the happy medium in your life? Do you set time aside, do you follow rigid schedules, do you never relax? Share your secrets to managing it all! There’s plenty of people who could use some tips.

What a difference 10 years makes – the evolution of hospital crisis communications

Like the rest of the world, I was in utter amazement as the story of the Boston Bombings played out, and it’s something I can’t stopping thinking about. I can’t imagine what the victims and their families have been living through since it happened, and all the recovery time still ahead of them.

In the aftermath, I can sit back and think more clearly from a professional point of view. The first thing that comes to mind is what those media folks were experiencing at the Boston hospitals. I totally understand. They were inundated with media trucks, media calls, reporters wanting answers to a myriad of questions, assignment desks calling for constant updates on patients, requests for interviews, and the list goes on and on. Then of course there’s the need to keep the public informed, and that’s when each hospital’s social media efforts came into play.

I think they did an absolutely phenomenal job in as difficult a situation as any we experience in this line of work. I recently came across a great article that speaks to the communications efforts by these three hospitals, and it warrants sharing, as do the kudos that these hospitals deserve.

It was this same article that brought me back 10 years to the horrible nightclub fire in West Warwick, R.I., at The Station. I was 10 years younger, and I have to admit, a lot greener about crisis communications.. I had only been working for the hospital for a year and a half when the fire happened. And while I am very lucky to be among the few in Rhode Island who was not personally impacted by it or knew someone who was, it is an experience I will never forget.

Of course those times were very different. Back then we relied on phones, faxes and emails to share information. What a difference social media would have made that night, and for the many weeks afterward, when we had patients at our major trauma center in Rhode Island. We received 63 patients that night. And many of them were critically injured and required care for long periods of time.

We were flooded with national and international media outlets, all following one of the worst fires in history, and one of the biggest stories to ever come out of Rhode Island. There were so many things about that night that could have been done differently if social media existed.

Families would have known immediately if their loved ones were safe or among the missing. As a hospital, we could have posted information immediately as it happened, with updated numbers of patients and conditions. We could have posted information for families on where to go when arriving at the hospital and resources for them to help in the aftermath, and even connect families who were experiencing the same things. The media could have turned to our social feeds for regular updates. The speed and immediacy of our communications response would have been drastically increased with today’s technology.

None of us ever want to experience a crisis, especially of the magnitude of the Boston bombings and The Station fire. But personally, I’m glad we have social media now to help us better communicate when we do experience them. I don’t think we can appreciate enough the increased power, reach and flexibility it provides us with, especially in a crisis situation.

Does/has your hospital use social media during a crisis, or do you plan to in the future? How?

This post was written for and originally appeared on www.hospitalimpact.org.

What’s really important in life

Thanks to Sterben Edelweiss for this great pic. http://sterbenedelweiss.deviantart.com/art/Hugs-319958604

It’s really easy to get stuck in our daily routines. For many of us, that routine is filled from morning to night with texts, phone calls, emails, and social network posts from laptops and desktops and smartphones and tablets. Usually, it all seems like what we’re doing is the most important thing in the world.

And then, you get a phone call that stops you in your tracks and makes you realize that the things that seemed so important really aren’t in the whole grand scheme of things.

Yesterday morning I got a blast from the past. It was from a dear friend from college, Deanna, who tweeted a picture of me with her mom. In fact, she was my maid of honor in my first wedding. We were very close for years, but then life happens and people change and move on. She moved to California and I stayed here and then, well, life just continued.

We sporadically kept in touch through the years (more years than I’d like to count!), first by letters and then through email, back in the days before social networks. Yes, I am that old. Of course more recently, we’ve shared more through the magic and ease of Facebook and Twitter. She’s been back from California for about 10 years, and although we had tried to make plans to get together, it just didn’t happen for one reason or another.

When I saw that picture yesterday, I was flooded with many happy memories, some that I had totally forgotten about. I spent a lot of time with Deanna and her family, and those were some of the happiest times of my life. But sometimes the past becomes the past and we don’t think about it. Maybe because we get wrapped up in everything that life brings as we get older.

Deanna’s mom, Mary Ann, was an absolutely wonderful and wise woman. She was quick with a smile and a laugh and truly enjoyed her children and their friends. She always had wonderful, calm advice to give if you needed it or asked for it. She also lost her husband way too early to an incurable brain tumor, and she did it with poise and grace that still amazes me to this day.

Having been in touch with Deanna, I knew Mary Ann had been very ill, and I knew it was just a matter of time. And so a few hours after I got the picture, I sent a message to Deanna through Facebook for an update. And less than a half hour later, my phone rang. It was Deanna, choking back tears, telling me her mom had passed about 20 minutes before, surrounded by her family. She was no longer suffering and was finally at peace and reunited with her husband and love of her life, Neil.

We did not talk long, just long enough for her to know I cared and I sent my heartfelt condolences and tried to comfort her during such a difficult time. And even though we have not seen each other for years, she said there would be a small memorial service for “Meeps” and she’d love it if I could come. And our conversation ended with an “I love you” on both ends.

And it’s when you get a phone call like that, when you hear another person’s pain, and when you feel the kind of empathy I did, that everything just falls into place. You see things with greater clarity. You understand that the important things in life are not the deadlines or the content or the branding or how many hours we spend working.

What really matters are our connections to each other, our shared experiences and emotions and our constantly changing relationships. It’s about being a good friend, a supportive daughter, a loving and caring spouse or partner. And it’s about being there for others when they need you, especially during the difficult times.

And so now I will reunite with a friend, and it’s such a shame that it took something so sad to bring us together again, in person. Because really, there is nothing like a warm embrace to show someone you love and care for them – and that’s not something any social network can ever provide.

So take the time to be with the people you care about. Pick up a phone and make plans to see them. Hug them, kiss them, share your feelings with them. That’s what life is really all about.

The return of baseball season

Baseball season started on April Fools Day this year, and for this diehard Red Sox fan, it was a day that didn’t disappoint. My beloved Red Sox beat our rival Yankees in the season opener. While it’s been a week of ups and downs on the field, the real season doesn’t start for me until the Sox take to that magical field at home, in historic Fenway Park.

So I’ll be taking the afternoon “off” on Monday to root, root, root for the home team and maybe even indugle in a hot dog. With temperatures in the 60s in New England, it will be perfect weather to cheer on the Sox and look forward to the next 150+ games.

And during the home opener, I cannot tear myself away to monitor the social media I manage on a regular basis. As we know, social media never sleeps. So tomorrow will be a strange day, where I’ll take the afternoon off to enjoy watching all the opening day festivities at Fenway and then reconnect with the virtual community tomorrow evening.

Perhaps that’s the real beauty of social media — it doesn’t matter what time you sign on, because someone is always there. So how does baseball relate to social media?  (Yes, this is a stretch, but I have to celebrate the return of my boys of summer.)

Keep your eye on the ball. One of the first things a coach will teach you is never take your eye off the ball. In social media, that’s your strategy. Don’t forget what you’re trying to do in the social world. It should be your coach for every swing you’re taking.

You CAN hit it out of the park. You usually won’t get a home run with your first post on a social network, but that shouldn’t stop you from swinging. Don’t miss batting practice — take time to meet people and listen in social media. They’re telling you a lot.

You could be on the all-star team. There will always be people out there who are considered the go-to people, the experts, the all-stars of social media. But that team changes daily. Who says it can’t be YOU on this year’s all-star team?

So here’s to a great baseball season, and here’s to a winning social media season for you!

Blah, blah, blah. It’s all just noise.

My husband does not “exercise” in the traditional concept of working out. His is a more laid back approach, like with most things in his life. He takes the dogs walking at the park on a daily basis, sometimes twice a day, and he also works on his feet.

While I’ve always been semi-active and watch what I eat, I have recently adopted a new “healthier” lifestyle. For the past two months, I’ve hit the gym regularly five times a week and started eating healthy, unprocessed foods. I need to do this exercise, not only for physical health/weight management, but mental health as well (and I realize I left myself wide open on that one!). I love my workouts, and so I often come home excited and wanting to share what I did while at the gym.

Last weekend, when I babbled on and on to my husband about trying out the rowing machine and climbing 30 floors, he gave me a funny look. After a few minutes of this blah, blah, blah, which is what I’m sure he heard, he explained that while he supported me and my efforts at this healthier lifestyle, he really had no desire to hear all the details of my workouts because the gym is not something that appeals to him. Hmmm {steam pours from ears}. OK. After days of stewing about this, I think I get it, once I was able to relate it to something that makes more sense to me than the male mind.

I of course went back to social media (because doesn’t everything somehow relate to social media?). Specifically, I started to think about what we’re sharing through all these channels, every day. And I don’t mean just personally, I mean for brands too.

We all know that we get really tired of hearing about what people ate or when they need a bathroom break. Do people really want to hear all those details? No! With more and more people in the social media world, sometimes it really can be too much information coming at us all day long. And as a result, I wonder if it’s all just turning into noise?

The fact is, social media can be just that. The “gurus” and the “experts” preach that brands must use social media as a marketing tool today. But if everyone’s doing it, then it’s even more important to figure out how to distinguish yourself so you’re heard above all that noise. You need to find what resonates with your customers, and with the public.

So where does that bring me? Sometimes it says more to listen than to talk.

What if a brand’s social manager decided not to tweet for a few days. Instead, that time could be spent reading and listening to what your friends and your customers are saying. What are the hot topics? What are they talking about? Sometimes I think we get too caught up in the whole push to create our own content that we’re failing at delivering something that will be heard above all the noise.

So that’s going to be my goal for the rest of the week. To listen.

How do YOU differentiate yourself from everyone else?