Alan Weinkrantz PR Web Log

A Conversation With PR Pro - Kami Watson Huyse

Even though Kami Huyse has moved away from San Antonio to Houston, I still think of her as being very much a part of our local PR and Social Media community. 

When we'd meet at the Olmos Pharmacy for breakfast, Kami would inspire me as I was trying to figure out this whole Social Media thing while staying true to the disciplines of traditional PR.

Last week, I met with Kami in Houston and did this interview in which she talks about her background in PR, the transition to blogging and how she sees Social Media moving from a set of tools to a set of strategies.

You'd be well-served to turn everything off and listen to what Kami has to say about how she approaches strategy, aligns internal resources in a company, and a term she calls "Social Media Fatigue."

Celebrity Spotting in San Antonio! Hanging out with Kami, Geoff, Bruce and Rob

OK, maybe the headline is a bit dramatic, but here in the quiet little town of San Antonio (we're only the 9th largest city by population in the U.S.) it's not often that the A-list of Social Media experts come to town.

Yesterday, my pal, Kami Watson Huyse organized a pow-wow get together in San Antonio where i had a chance to meet Facebook pal, Geoff Livingston. 

It's amazing when you are "friends" with someone virtually and you meet them in real live person.  Geoff is also the author of Now is Gone - A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs.

Others at the pow-wow included Bruce Hughes and Robert La Gesse and some other members of his team from Rackspace.

General Consensus: America's economic crisis could be a great window of opportunity for those of us in the Social Media / PR space.

Instead of cutting back on marketing budgets, I see budgets being re-aligned with innovation, customer engagement, conversation, measurement and accountability.  While the economy may slow down a bit, marketers still need to.....market.

Re-think, re-align and re-focus your messages and your budgets for 2009.  This could be a good time to disrupt your competition, gain market share, and expand- rather than contract your business.

What are you doing to re-align your marketing and PR initiatives for 2009? 

Kami "Chats" About BlogCatalog

Over the last two years, Kami Watson Huyse and I, used to occasionally meet at the Olmos Soda Fountain for breakfast to talk about life, kids, family --- oh and of course, Blogging & Social Media.  I say "used to," because she recently moved to Houston, so no more pancakes with Kami (unless she's in town for a visit).

Kami is and was a mentor, adviser, and most of all a friend. 

Via her blog, Communication Overtones, she's just done a great post on client, BlogCatalog, where she articulates the values and differentiators of BlogCatalog: who is writing about something- and not how influential they are. 

That is not to say that BlogCatalog bloggers are not influential. 

Rather, BlogCatalog is a social community for bloggers and not a ranking service or popularity contest. 

Whether you are looking to search blogs, connect with bloggers, learn more about blogging, or promote your own blog, BlogCatalog seeks to mainstream the blogosphere, aggregating the conversation at large.

And don't forget: All bloggers listed in BlogCatalog are opt-in and must pass a five-step qualifying process and be reviewed by a BlogCatalog analyst.

Kami, thank you!

Kami Talks About Social Media Trends For 2008

Over at Communications Overtones, Kami Huyse, has a great post on Social Media Trends for 2008.

Kami address the realities of trends and predictions from 2007, what she missed, and her own views of what's to come in 2008.

The one prediction of Kami's I personally liked the best is what she called Social Network Fatigue.  Right on Kami!

As someone who is pretty active in the social media space, and likes to try the new next big thing, I have to admit that I just don't have the time to post and converse on every platform known to social media man-kind, let alone keep up with everyone's blog, posting on my FaceBook page, or cruise over to a link I see on Twitter.

Worth Reading.

Five Ways Social Networking is Changing PR

Blogger buddy, Kami Watson Huyse, has a very good post on what she called Five Ways Social Networking is Changing PR.

If you are trying to figure it out, or just get your arms around how Social Media is really changing our business, Kami points to 5 trends including:

1. Flattening Hierarchy
2. Time Shifting
3. Virtual Connections
4. Digital Tools
5. Convergence

Worth Reading!

Recommended Reading: David Meerman Scott's "The New Rules of Marketing and PR"

Blogger buddy, Kami Watson Huyse, recommended David Meerman Scott's new book, "The New Rules of Marketing and PR." 

I just got it from Amazon, and it's on my airplane reading list.

Am posting from the SA airport en route to meetings in Dallas and will update will future posts once I get into and then complete the book.

My first impression is that it's practical and to the point- with a focus on looking at how companies, large and small, should think about being their own publishers of meaningful and engaging content for the media and of course, the company's publics.

Reforestation in Second Life: An Oxymoron

News from bloggy buddy, Kami Huyse's blog post of today....

Rob Key, CEO of Conversion  will present on “karmiccommunication', environmentalism in Second Life and Converseon's approach to engaging with virtual world communities.

Conversion has partnered with non-profit Plan It 2020,a foundation dedicated to properly planting, maintaining and protecting as many indigenous trees as possible worldwide.

Details

Date: Thursday May 17, 2007
Place: Second Chance Trees Island 
Time: 6:30 a.m. Pacific (SL Time) | 7:30 Mountain a.m. | 8:30 Central a.m. | 9:30 a.m.
For more information on the project, you can read the media release , visit the Second Chance Trees  website and look at some pictures on their Flickr site .

Kami Categorizes Social Networking

Blogger buddy, Kami Watson Huyse has a well written post that best categorizes what she calls the "Seven Boxes of Social Media".

Kami outlines and gives examples of

• Publishing platforms
• Social networking sites
• Democratized content networks
• Virtual networking platforms
• Information aggregators
• Edited social news platforms
• Content distribution sites

Great post, Kami.  Worth Reading!

Blogger Buddy, Kami Watson Inteviews Me At the Olmos Soda Fountain in San Antonio

Blogger buddy and Social Media guru, Kami Watson Huyse interviews me at the Olmos Soda Fountain on my take on blogging.

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