The end of 2008 is a bit of a blur for me… A few days after my last post in November, I found myself out of work. Economic conditions were such that my job was no longer available.  At least November 2008 will remain notorious for some time as a big job loss month for everyone – not just for me. Somehow I take comfort in that.

While easy to loose myself in Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc, I didn’t feel comfortable blogging for a while.

I have really no hard feelings about being laid off – it happens. But I feel like over the past few months that I have been just trying to regain my footing and my voice.  I still am not sure what that is for me, but suddenly I feel ok about sharing where I am in the process. I am making a promise to myself to start writing again and hope to keep it up on a much more regular basis. I hate breaking promises to myself.

Consumer uncertainty has never seemed like so scary a concept. I am amazed by the veracity and speed of the shaky ground we stand on currently. And the crazy thing is that it’s not necessarily because of a lack of resources, just the consumer lack of confidence. Hoping tomorrow’s election brings back some level of confidence to start to rebuild the foundation for sound structures moving forwards.

So with the roller coaster we have called October 2008, it is easy to get lost in all that is seemingly wrong with the US right now. However, even though I worry about the election, if it turns out as the polls are predicting it gives me hope. With Barak Obama we will be headed in a good direction for the first time in years. But Ialso find comfort in the reality that sometimes the individual that is genuine and true to himself can move ahead without “playing the game” of politics, work or personal relationships. The more I see of him the more comfortable I am about where we (as individuals and as a country) can go. However, until the final results come in on November 4th, I think I will still be crossing fingers, wishing on stars and any other superstitious actions to help influence the election in the direction I want it to go.

Got a bit sucked into the world of twitter and facebook a little too much over the last several months….and have been really bad about updating the blog. And there’s so much to read about now— the economy, the inexplicable draw of Sarah Palin, and personal stuff– my sister’s wedding next week, the weight loss process I have been working on for months (down 30 lbs)— but I was not commenting regularly on any of those things. This is my notice that I am back and trying to keep up with new posts. As I have done this publicly, this may help keep me on track.  ; )

At the end of June, Peter Shankman of helpareporter.com  asked for ideas to promote his unique media resource–and the first thing that came to mind was leveraging the very resource he started his project on– Facebook.  Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a service that enables reporters and PR contacts/experts to easily connect for free. Peter (brilliantly) started this on his own as a Facebook group and it had grown to 13,000 people by the time he asked for ideas for publicity.

My idea was simply to use the crowd (at large) to spread the word– and that doing it on a specific day would be best. I honestly couldn’t believe that they had chosen my idea to implement– but definitely got a kick out of the whole process.

The HARO day went into effect yesterday (July 17) – and thousands of people blogged, had Facebook, twitter, utterz, LinkedIn status updates about the service. And it worked! Almost 1,000 people joined in 24 hours (membership now at 15,000+ sources/media).

I can not express how cool I think that is– with no major prep time Peter was able to mobilize thousands of people to promote a very worthwhile service. It’s taking user generated content to PR to create a different type of word of mouth. 

I had a discussion with David Berkowitz of MediaPost a few weeks ago about how it seems like the social media discussion (especially in PR) often still centers on the basics of ‘how to’ implement social media strategies. The discussion that should be happening is how to effectively utilize what we have and continue to challange our view of the social media world.

I think it will be interesting to see how the Web 2.0 matures. Inherently how people communicate is changing– for many it seems that the social media/networking world replacing the idea of a neighborhood community– and I think it makes sense that we will succeed in this community by only by virtually recreating the things/experiences that have worked in the “real world.”

Definition: A train wreck most often occurs as a result of an accident, such as when a train wheel jumps off a track in a derailment, or miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track. The term is sometimes used metaphorically to describe a disaster that is foreseeable but unavoidable.

Also see Amy Whinehouse.

Good lord. It just gets weirder and weirder. Very talented woman, but she seriously needs some help. Now.

I wonder if any presidential candidate can ever really live up to the scrutiny of the political process. Obama’s campaign is again getting put on the spot for another person he is associated with doing something wrong in the past….I think that to some degree who you associate with matters,but ultimately it is the conduct of the individual that is the only thing that matters.  I was definitely all pro-Hillary, but I think ultimately Obama is impressive and will make a great president. Its simple a mission to find people that you feel have integrity, intelligence and are willing to listen to other people- someone with no skeletons in their closet, friends closets, co-workers closets is impossible to find. Obama definitely fits my requirements – way more than any current or future republican has done during this process.

The latest outbreak of salmonella via tomato this time has a certain irony to it, not of course to those ill with salmonella cause that’s just awful, but in general there is a level of intellectual irony. (Uh, oh! GEEK ALERT!)

It’s ironic because of a random factoid that influenced eating habits relating to the tomato— the British believed that for many years the tomato was poisonous (largely) because of work based on the work of one grower in the early 1600’s. For well over a hundred years the tomato was considered unfit for eating in England, America and many other British colonies.

By the way, this guy with the tomatoes is pretty scary looking. Good advertising to keep people away from the tomatoes, I guess.

Human behavior is complex and changing any aspect of the routines of daily life can be jarring. But we have seen behavior transform many times before.

I wonder if social networking could be equated to the introduction of other major devices into the lives of consumers– the personal computer, the Internet, the television, the telephone? Each changed how we communicated, how we experienced the world, interacted with others in our community and transformed the work world.

What do you think? Will we fundamentally change how we interact in the long term because of these new services? Facebook me and let me know. Or follow me on twitter (lauraackerman).

Unbelievable story, parents that “forgot their toddler” at the airport and only found out that he was missing after their plane landed. I guess I could understand how something like that could happen with different people thinking that others in their group didn’t have the kid. But how does any mother stay on a flight for several hours and not go back to check on their kid? Scary.