Matt Nathanson Day!

There aren’t a lot of things that make my giddy.

I don’t mean make me smile, laugh or clap — lots of things do that (ice cream, my muppet-like dog, volleyball, etc.).

I mean giggling like a school girl and skipping around the house. But today, today is one of those days. I’m calling it Matt Nathanson day.

For the past 6 or 7 years, Matt’s albums have been on heavy rotation at my house. We’ve seen him in concert five or six times. We’re big, nerdy fans because his music his happy, his lyrics are often insightful and he puts on a great, often hilarious, show.

Months ago, we bought tickets to see Matt play tonight at the Ogden in Denver. It will surely be an awesome show. This is reason enough to be excited but probably not enough to make me giddy. So what’s my deal?

I one hour(!), Ben and I get to go to the Mix 100 studio and get to be part of a small group that’s getting a live acoustic show with Matt. For someone who never wins radio station contests, I’m beyond excited. This is worth a lifetime of radio-station luck!

Seeing Matt Nathanson twice in one day? Of course I’m giddy.

Pictures and more to come!

Why the Press Release is Alive and Well

I just read, RIP, the Press Release (1906 – 2010)—and Long Live the Tweet, in which Simon Dumenco discusses why he feels the press release has been replaced by tweets. The article is especially timely since I have two press releases to write today. Perhaps in the celebrity world press releases should be retired. After all, I don’t need to read 300 words on a celebrity’s recent escapades if it can be shared in 180 characters. But, I definitely don’t think the press release is dead for the rest of the world; here’s why:

Regulatory filings: Let’s get this one out of the way. It’s a gimme. As long as it is required for public companies to publish a press release about regulatory filings, press releases will continue to exist.

Reporters and the media: Yes, reporters and bloggers have turned to Twitter to find stories and sources, but they still want a single document with the facts.

Information seekers: Looking at site traffic, people still go to newsrooms looking for information about the company and to read press releases. If people are looking for it, then there must still be some value.

SEO and organic search: Posting a press release on a website adds content to the site, which is crawled by the search engines. This can help with search rankings. Additionally, distributing press releases on a wire, such as PRNewswire, can lend to externally sites linking back to your site, which helps a lot for SEO. If you’re looking for more information on SEO, check out Integrating Public Relations with SEO Strategies by Sarah Skerik of PRNewswire. The article has great tips for how to optimize your content, including press releases, to help with rankings.

While the press release isn’t going away, it is changing. It’s shorter (or should be). There is less space for and time spent on crafting perfect quotes for executives. Overall, I’d say that press releases are evolving with a continued focus on clear, concise writing with a focus on getting the facts out.

Has your company moved away from press releases? Do you still use them? How would you like to see them change?

It’s Coming!

I have three blog posts sitting in my draft folder! I promise to put them up before the end of the week.

Sooo much go stuff going on at work is making it a bit tough to get over here.

If it’s not an election year, so it’s OK to lie, steal and cheat

The story of Colorado gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis and allegations of plagiarism continues to unfold. If you aren’t familiar with the allegations, read today’s Denver Post article, Storm over possible plagiarism in McInnis writings escalates.

I definitely feel for McInnis’s communications team. How do you find the positive side of this?

The way I see it, there are a few scenarios that they can try, but at the end of the day, McInnis is going to look bad. You can’t really call it an accident; who wants to say, “I didn’t know copying and pasting someone else’s work was unethical.” Alternately, I don’t want to hear, “My research assistant plagiarized and I just got paid for his work.”

I also see a huge messaging failure here:
McInnis told 9News. “This is a nonissue if it’s not a political year. Voters don’t really care about this issue. They care about jobs, getting back to work.”

Does McInnis really believe that voters are looking for someone who takes no issue with lying to the general public while taking $300,000 from an organization that provides funding educational and health initiatives in Southern Colorado? When prepping for the 9News interview, was this really a key message that his team wanted out there? I surely hope not. I understand that they are trying to downplay this but I object to the insinuation that voters are comfortable with lying, stealing and unethical behaviors as long as they have a job.

I didn’t know that politicians thought so little of the general public.

Sorry for the long hiatus in blogging. I’ve started lots of posts but just haven’t had the time to come back to them. I’m pretty passionate about this one so I figured I’d get back on track and get this one out the door….

The Features @ the Gothic

I saw The Features at the Gothic last night. It was an interesting set because the opened for Manchester Orchestra. There were two bands that played before The Features, both of which we are little bit too hard for me. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t ‘melt your face off’ metal or anything; they just didn’t have a lot of melody happening.

The Features, on the other hand, were great. They played a bunch of songs off their new album, Some Kind of Salvation, and a few from older albums. Unfortunately, they didn’t play my personal favorite, Concrete, but they played other great songs like Lions and Whatever Gets You By.

It was the 10th concert I’ve been to in the last four months and would probably rank it around number four. They played hard and had a pretty good set considering they were openers. I’ll definitely see them again; hopefully, when they headline.

When Less is Better than More

Most the time, I’d take more of something over less. For example, more money, more vacation days, more ice cream, more time to (fill in the blank). This week I’ve learned there are times when less is definitely better than more. I would be happy to take a little less:

• Work thats all are due on the same day.
• “Could you do this now because needs to go out in an hour.”
• Living with my husband in my parents’ basement (don’t try this at home).
• Less construction people saying “Sure, we can do that, but not until next week.”
• Snow.
• Beer dripping on my head during a concert.
• Losses in my NCAA bracket (Really? Georgetown, Marquette and Notre Dame all going out in the first round!).
• Junk mail (I’m feeling guilty about how fast our recycling bin fills up with it).
• People on the bus.

Tomorrow, I’m going to find out if running half marathons also belong on the ‘less’ list. I’m hoping it ends up on the ‘more’ list, but we’ll see.

My New Year’s Resolution…Yes, I know it’s March.

Happy New Year! Ok, so maybe I should say Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Starting a blog and keeping the content current was one of my many New Year’s Resolutions. Now, it’s mid-March, and while I’ve checked many other items off my resolutions list, I’m just getting to the blog.

Let’s blame bloggers block. I really struggled with what the theme of this blog should be. I’m interested in lots of topics and have a sizeable list of hobbies — all of which would probably be good topics. The reason I have a lot of hobbies is because I get into something and then lose interest or get busy and then try something new, which is why I didn’t pick any of these topics.

I started looking at the blogs I read. I read PR and marketing blogs from Chris Brogan, Seth Godin and Jeff Jarvis. I get feeds delivered to my desktop from Danny de Zayas’s One Track Mind and Heather Browne’s I am Fuel and You are Friends because their taste in music is absolutely impeccable. And of course, I also have RSS feeds from Techcrunch and about four other mainstream tech sites. All in all, I subscribe to about 45 blogs because they all offer something different and an opportunity to learn something.

Which brought me to an idea that I think is worth blogging about. I read all of these blogs because I want to learn something new every day. Sometimes the things I learn a small and probably not interesting and some days they are really fascinating. So, I’m going to share the interesting tidbits and encourage others to share as well.

After all, there are a lot of things in the world that Bo doesn’t know.