Communicating in the City

Approving of the approval process

I recently got into a debate with a fellow editor about whether or not to send completed drafts to the subjects of an article. His belief is that it is not necessary to forward people the pieces before publishing. Doing so would open up a floodgate of changes and as a result, many additional drafts.

I, on the other hand, think it's a wise move to let your interviewees weigh in on articles before they go live. It allows for the opportunity to fact-check your piece and promotes a greater trust and rapport with your subjects. If they took the time to provide you with dozens of quotes, shouldn't they have the right to look them over to make sure everything sounds eloquent and accurate? Just think of the headaches and edits you'll be saving later on, once the piece is published.

In many cases, I've had subjects remember important pieces of information when given the chance to look over an article. Added anecdotes and other pertinent revisions pave the way for enhancing the piece and engaging your readers. 

Speaking of engaging reads, be sure to check out November's edition of simply-communicate - chock full of case studies, toolkits and event reviews!

Doing an about-face

I've been a Facebook member for quite some time now and lately, I can't help but feel like I'm back in high school. I'm suddenly having flashbacks of the annoying quirks people had 18 years ago, only now they're a little bit older and are performing in front of an audience of hundreds of "friends".

In fact, high school and Facebook are quite similar - in school, we all want to attract as many friends as possible; on Facebook (and on Twitter and LinkedIn for that matter), it's exactly the same concept. Status is everything - if we have 500 Facebook friends we're cool; if people "like" our updates or if they comment on them, we're even cooler.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all about nostalgia and getting back in touch and surely, I like looking at photo albums as much as the next person...it's just that there's a cop-out form of communication that goes along with Facebook.

I know of one person who has stopped calling a few of his friends, telling them if they want to know what he's up to, they should just read his Facebook page. Huh?

And thanks to the popular social networking site, people no longer have to call to wish you a happy birthday - you can simply post a message to someone's wall and you're good to go. On the flip side of that, there's no excuse if you forget a friend's or family member's birthday - the reminder appears on your home page within a day or two of the special day.

That said, time to wish an old friend of mine a happy birthday!

We're Live!

It's an exciting day for us simply-communicators - our redesign is now complete and we are absolutely live!

Check us out and let me know what you think! :

http://www.simply-communicate.com/

Looking on the lite side

Have you tried the new Facebook Lite yet? I have, and here's what I'm saying about it:

http://simply-blogging.typepad.com/weblog/

Virtual working just got a little less lonely

Working from home, there are some days where I can't help but feel a little bit isolated. Emails and conference calls can only go so far. 

This week, my friend Paula - who also works from home - came up with an ideal solution: why not work together from her home office? So off I went - laptop in hand - to her upstairs apartment (it definitely helps that she lives in my building).

I have to say, it's worked out really well. There's something about having people nearby that helps get you motivated and increases your concentration. Seeing another person type away on documents has inspired me to get cracking on my own articles; the desire for productivity has become contagious. As a result, I've written 2 articles this week with a 3rd one on the way!

So my advice to virtual workers who might be feeling a bit lonely and out of the loop on things - try to find someone in the same boat as yourself and join forces to create your own home office environment. You might not necessarily have a water cooler to gossip near, but what you will gain is someone to bounce ideas off of, or to proofread documents. And at 1pm, you'll most certainly have a lunch companion!

Food for thought - on video!

One of the things I love about New York is that at any moment, you can have your 15 minutes of fame. That's exactly what happened to me yesterday as I sat on a bench on Irving Place while waiting to meet a Production friend of mine for lunch.

As I was enjoying the lovely September sunshine, two young women approached me to see if I was interested in being interviewed for a video that would appear on the FoodNetwork website. 

Of course, I just had to chuckle at the irony. Usually I'm the one going up to people and soliciting them for a video interview! Now the tables were turned and instead, I was on the receiving end signing releases and posing for the camera. (It's a good thing I was wearing my favorite dress!).

To add to my amusement, I noticed the girls were using a Flip Video camera - the very one I recently reviewed on simply-communicate that's taking the world of employee communications by storm. Apparently, it's not only being used inside of companies but externally as well - even on the website of a major cable TV channel. That just goes to show when it comes to video on the Web - especially man-on-the-street footage - quick, easy, down-and-dirty is definitely the way to go.

And what about my interview? Being the video professional that I am, I gave the girls snappy sound bites about what shows I watch and why...and I'm guessing my comments should probably make the cut. Of course it helped that I actually do watch the FoodNetwork!

Simply a good read

Simply July is particularly dear to my heart - it's an edition devoted entirely to video:

http://www.simply-communicate.com/index.html

Happy reading!

Talking comms on a rainy NY day

How do you know that Twitter has really taken off? When you try to log on and you get a message that says "Twitter is over capacity. Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again."

If that weren't enough, even my brother uttered the "T" word at dinner last night. This coming from someone who only uses his laptop twice a week.

Where were you bandwagon Tweeters when my simply colleagues and I discovered the social networking tool two years ago?

On the subject of simply-communicate, our June edition is hot off the press (or shall I say keyboard). Yours truly wrote an inspiring case study on Aon UK - they're a shining example of how measurement can lead to great communications inside a company. 

Check out my article and a bevy of other good pieces on simply-communicate.com. Happy reading!

Tweet, Tweet

Can't get enough of my rants and raves? See what I'm up to at http://twitter.com/KelKass.

Check it out

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Check out my posts on simplyblogging, brought to you by us at simply-communicate, as well as the gang from simply-experience and simplygoodadvice.