The Buzz Bin

There was an excellent posting in Bulldog Reporter telling us it’s time to seize the day – carpe diem. Although it’s an exciting and momentous time to be in the communications business, as I’ve mentioned many times, I’m new to all this.

So when Bull Dog Publisher Jim Sinkinson asked, ‘How has our experience prepared us for this moment in time, at this juncture in our professional lives?’ I started thinking. I have more than 10 years of experience in the communications industry and have been published in national publications, worked alongside some of the best writers and editors, pitched some great stories, met some fantastic people, but that experience does not necessarily help me navigate my way around the blogosphere.

The article talks about being anchored in the past and how Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, were all started by young people not anchored in the past. Those people, Jim says, embraced the future.

Message mapping, powerful PR writing, crisis management, telling stories, writing stories, interviewing subjects, building trust and creating meaningful relationships will always be core skills of the communications professional, they are not the past, but the context in which we use those skills is being dramatically turned upside down.

The new tools – blogging, search engine optimization, social media, online video, wikis, virtual worlds – I’m still learning. In light of that, I am off to the Digital Media Conference today to immerse myself knowledge of these tools and how they can bring my past and future together. Wish me luck.