Finding a Job isn't Hard; It Just Takes Work

At the end of last year, I lost my job. It was a pretty big shock, but one that I was prepared for, sort of. You see, I'm a worker. I get things done. I keep things simple, organized and focused. It is the only way I know how to do things. So when I found myself with about two months to land a gig, I put the following in action.

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Five Years, 32k Tweets Later

I was killing time in a car dealership today and cruising through my Twitter stream when I came across this tweet from Todd Defren:

Apparently it's my FIVE YEAR Twitterversary. Wow. This thing's been on for 5 years? Can you envision it being around another 5?

Consequently, after the tweet, he wrote this about his twitterversary:

I read it and thought hey, I've been on Twitter nearly as long and I should probably reflect where I was five years ago today as opposed to today. Here are those random thoughts:

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Conceptualizing Integrated Communications

If you have been reading my last few posts, you'll be familiar with the words in the title of this post -- integrated communications. It sounds like its been around a while, but it really hasn't. Simply put, it's a mash-up of PR, marketing, digital communications and product dev/sales and what a person's role would look like if he or she were in the middle of it all. That's where I want to be -- integrated.

This is what it may look like. Excuse the finger painting approach to this as I did it with an iPad app called "Draw."

The Integrated Communicator

I've been writing a lot lately about the business I'm in -- the communications business. It's PR, marketing, social, advertising, creative, web, mobile, etc. It's everything in one. And over the course of the past month, I have been talking to various agencies and brands about what this means and how a guy with my background and experience fits into this new role -- VP of Integrated Communications (or director, manager, etc.).

Basically, I'd had my big paws in the cookie jar of each segment of this business. This is due largely in part to the fact that I feel that one component can't sail smoothly without the others. Together, they're an old clock, specifically, all the gears that run inside as well as the perception of time on the outside -- the numbers, arms, etc.

With that in mind, I started working on a MindNode that outlined what this clock might look like. As I said, it's a work in progress, but would love to get the feedback of my peers as well as those in the business.

My point: take a look at your job title. That role might not exist in the next five years. It might not even exist in a year. Who knows.

One thing I do know is that this collision of PR, marketing, social, mobile, advertising, etc. is at some point going to meld into one role for brands and will have a major impact on agencies of all shapes and sizes.

Here's the image:

You can download a PDF here.

Note: please excuse the "messiness" of the graphic. I did this fairly quickly as it's a work in progress.

Public Social Marketing Relations: Say It Twice

December 2011 was an interesting month for me. I was closing out a pretty good year when I was slapped pretty hard by reality. I won't get into the gory details, but after 18 years of being in the communications business, I was back on the job market right before the holidays.

Needless to say, it was a tough pill to swallow.

However, everything happens for a reason, as the saying goes. And after the past two weeks, I truly believe that the saying is dead on.

Flash forward to today, and I find myself sitting on some very interesting opportunities -- all leading in different directions, yet with a very similar focus.

You see, I've built my career in order for me to be a generalist/specialist. This means, I'm good at a lot of things as it relates to Public Relations, Marketing, Digital Communications, Mobile Marketing and of course, Social Media.

I've worked for big, mid-sized and small agencies. I've worked on the client side. I've developed programs for big, mid-sized and small companies across a variety of industries.

This broad experience means that one day, I can be pitching trend stories to connections I have at the Wall Street Journal and later that hour, managing a client's social listening program in order to provide them with market intelligence via online chatter.

What this boils down to is that I'm good with people. I'm good at managing relationships. I'm good at connecting people with people, people with brands and brands with brands (in the case of B2B communications).

This leads me to my point:

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The Only 2012 Prediction List You'll Ever Need to Read

This is the time of year that predictions flood the web. I usually do a list of my own and was going to bail on it this year because I just didn't have the energy. However, over the past 24-hours, I've had a handful of people ask me where my list was.

So, in typical Big Guy fashion, here's the only 2012 prediction list you'll ever need to read:

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Elements of a Good Story

As I eluded to in an earlier post today, the PR, advertising and marketing business has converged. Each segment is doing social media. Each segment is trying to do parts of other segments, i.e. PR agencies doing traditional marketing work, while advertisers are conducting PR exercises like messaging training.

It's a confusing, yet exciting time to be in this business considering where the job market is in relation to the industry.

Two elements I've enjoyed of my career has been the writing and communication aspects, i.e. telling stories. And, if you think about this industry in terms of the responsibilities, a lot of what we do is rooted in story-telling.

We create campaigns that tell the story of a brand. We create messaging that clearly communicates the value proposition of a company or non-profit. We develop personas that help bring brands to life online.

These are all elements of story telling, but there are more. Here are more:

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