I’m still here!

If you read my last post, you know I was on the fence about continuing with the blog. After a bit more soul searching, I’ve decided that I will continue writing: but with a few changes.

So far, this blog hasn’t been particularly focused – and that’s not a bad thing. But I do think a blog should be focused. And it should be focused to reflect the passion of the person writing the blog. Some people love food, some have a passion for technology and others for music. My passion (as many of you know) is politics.

With that in mind, this blog will take a political focus on the federal (Canadian) level and the provincial (Ontario) level. Due to the nature of my work, I won’t be commenting on municipal politics with an opinion. If I do write about municipal issues, it will solely be in the interests of informing.

I know that moving to a political format may cause many of you to lose interest, because politics isn’t your passion. That’s okay, I understand. I’m grateful that you stuck with me to read my many ramblings and posts. I hope you found them entertaining.

As for the way forward, the name of the blog won’t change: just its focus. There may be slight tweaks to the design format, but we will see.

All of my old posts will remain; I think maintaining the history is important. Especially since one of my articles is a source on Wikipedia!

I’m looking forward to the journey ahead with the blog. I hope you’ll read, share your opinion and perhaps consider writing a guest post if you’re politically inclined.

PR Tuesday: Why “favourite” a Tweet?

First: let me thank you for your patience. I know I had promised to post on a weekly basis, but life intervened. It’s been a busy time at work, but I’m here now and that’s what matters.

Second: as many of you know, I work in the wonderful world of PR! I decided that, you know, I have some thoughts on general trends in PR and I should share them! So I’ve decided to dedicated Tuesday posts to the very topic. I hope you at least find them somewhat insightful.

With that in mind, I had two posts in mind. I decided to go with this one and save the other idea for next week.

The majority of my readers are on Twitter; I can say that because I know that most of my traffic is derived from clicks through my personal account. One of the features of Twitter (as you know) is the ability to “favourite” a Tweet (and yes, there is a “u” in favourite – this is a Canadian blog). I think most of you would agree that there are two reasons to favourite a tweet: to show the author that you have seen and enjoyed what they said and/or to save the tweet for later.

I think marking a tweet as a favourite for the first reason is pointless. The action is a very passive form of engagement – it’s Twitter at its laziest. If you think something that somebody has said on Twitter is funny, interesting or controversial, there’s a far better solution: say so! Social media is exactly that: social. It’s an opportunity to engage, to connect with people across the globe who share similar (or not) views. I can’t count the times I’ve engaged in political debate with people across Canada who, I’ve never met and likely never will.

What do you mean?

Here’s a great example of a discussion I had with somebody today:

https://twitter.com/JTerr88/status/324260088439250944

Marking a tweet as a favourite is just as lame as clicking “like” on Facebook. What’s the purpose? A virtual thumbs up or gold star says, well, nothing. It’s something that was reinforced with me in discussion with a friend recently: a like is objectifying, in a sense. As I said: social media is social. Why be quiet and hide in the corner? Talk to people who say things you like!

Where being able to mark a tweet as a favourite comes in handy is very simple, at least for me: it’s when somebody shares something I want to view later (a link I want to visit from my own computer, after work, for example) or is something I want to follow up on (ie: someone replying to me, but not being able to reply immediately for one reason or another). In that case, a favourite serves as a bookmark.

So, what do you think? Do you agree that marking something as a “favourite” or “like” is passive? Or is it a form of meaningful engagement?

A Two-Part Post: Why I’m Bad at Blogging & The Tournament of (Bad) Infomercials

 

I need to do more of this (virtually).

“Well, that’s the strangest title I’ve ever seen.”

-The little voice in your head, after reading this post’s title.

This blog breaks, well, probably every rule I was taught in my P.R. program about blogging. A good blogger is:

• Focused: they have a topic where they are a subject matter “expert” and that’s what they stick to;
• Regular: updates come regularly and stick to a (relatively) well-known schedule

I’m neither of those things. This blog has had political posts, posts about Honey Boo Boo, really really bad music and even a post about handling breakups. As for regular? I tend to write whenever I feel like it. Which some weeks is more often than others.

For me, though, if a blog is a personal blog, it should be just that; in my personal life, I don’t focus on just a few things that I like; I have a wide-variety of things. And as for regularity, pfft… life is busy! If this were a corporate blog, that would be a whole different story. I know my audience: some read because I make them laugh (I hope), others because they have nothing else to do and perhaps others simply because the link pops up on their Twitter / Facebook page and they are inclined to click. Regardless of why you read, I’m glad you do. In just over a year, this little slice of the internet has been viewed over 8,000 times. While that’s nothing for some people, that’s 8,000 people who have read my thoughts, rants and ravings. That’s pretty cool.

Now! You survived the tournament of bad music, and after talking with a friend who wanted more, I decided on the next tournament… The Tournament of (Bad) Infomercials! You’ve seen them. You love them: they overact, oversell and then you order the product and it under delivers.

For the next week, submissions are open for your bad infomercials… Share them on the Facebook page, tweet @JTerr88 or comment below. Once we have a good set, we’ll do a tournament just like the last one.

Here are three examples of contenders:

I’m not sure what’s the worst part of this ad – the fact that the guy thinks you have to hold on to your phone to use a BlueTooth or the old lady who, as she raves about the product being hands-free, lifts her hand to hold the phone to her ear.

This… Well, I can’t lie: my family has one of these. We’ve never used it. Honest. But nothing like the drunk guy getting his “five second” smoothie that takes just a bit longer.

Forget the tournament, this wins. (Not actually, but wow…) It’s bad. Whether it’s the “call me again, call me again” plea from the weirdo with his friend, the overacting by Boy George or the girl on the couch with the crazy big eyebrows, this commercial is just bad. And it’s for an even more terrible product. Really: was the phone ringing such a nuisance before? And do people not know how to use any song possible as a ringtone now? C’mon…

So – there are three possibilities. We need more to make this a worthwhile tournament, so let’s see what you’ve got!

It’s Our First Anniversary!

I can hardly believe it, but today is the one year anniversary of the first post on the blog. If you’ll pardon my language, let me say that it has been one hell of a year. Since this blog was posted, there have been weddings, engagements, good times and heartbreak.

There have been “cheeky” posts, serious posts, and posts that might have rankled some people. I’ve shared bad music videos and discovered independent artists who have provided amusement.

Now that I’ve linked to almost every single post I’ve written in the past year, I do genuinely want to thank every single person who reads. Most of you are close friends or family, but there are readers across the globe. Without a joke, I’ve had readers in Russia, India and (believe it or not) Myanmar. To be fair, Honey Boo Boo has driven a lot of that traffic over, but I’ll take it.

So, after one year, again all I can say is this: thank you. I hope you’ll read for another year and we shall see where we go. Onward!

Blogging, or why I ramble…

Whenever I write a blog post, I always wonder if people are going to read it. I frantically check the stats every half an hour after I’ve uploaded a post, to see how many views it has received and from where. I’m a bit of a dork.

But then I read another blog about it being a good form of therapy and I agreed. It compelled me to write a post about the reasons why I blog and what I hope  some of my readers take away.

1. It doesn’t have to be serious: Unlike my job, where the writing that I do is more serious and corporate, I can keep my blog posts light. Sure, some times they can be a bit heavy in terms of content, but I try to approach my blog with a humourous approach.
2. It lets me get (most of) my frustration out: If something or someone has frustrated me (IE: the TTC, Rob Ford, public displays of affection, etc…), I can write a post about it and move on with my day. However, I am very cautious now and will never write about certain things that frustrate me (work, for example). Partly because I try to leave my job at home and partly because, while I have absolutely nothing bad to say about my job, it will cause frustration and I’ll just have to handle it.
3. It’s a distraction: When I sit down in front of the computer to blog, it’s all I focus on. I close Twitter, close Facebook and throw my phone on my bed so I can’t see any incoming messages. When I sit down to write, I focus like a laser beam (and it also keeps me from biting my nails).
4. People like it (I hope): Every so often, someone will tell me that they really liked a post or that they agreed with what I had to say. That feedback is awesome because it lets me know that I’m not just doing it for myself and that it provides some kind of happiness for someone else.

If I didn’t have this blog, I think I would ramble a lot more about random topics. Given my political background and past, I have a lot of opinions; however, I’m trying to keep those out of this blog so that everybody can enjoy it (except when it comes to Rob Ford). To those that do read it: thank you. It means a lot to know you’re reading and enjoy what you see.