Jaime Woo

Save the Date: Media Skills Training For Creative Canadians Workshop (April 1, 2010)

 

Adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_carroll/ / CC BY 2.0

I'm happy to announce a new workshop with Ian Capstick of Mediastyle happening April 1, 2010 at 6 pm to 10 pm in the MaRS building. Toronto's creatives are breaking ground and kicking ass. With this workshop, they'll be able to confidently approach media to share your story and to deliver when they come calling. 

Specifically, media skills training includes: learning how to pitch your ideas to media; the necessary skills to communicate your message effectively in radio, TV, print, and online interviews; and, understanding how online media changes the equation. 

It's a thrill to collaborate with Ian on this workshop. He's a waterfall of knowledge. He has over a decade of professional political and communications experience and is a regular on CBC News Network's Power & Politics, so he knows the ins and outs.

Tickets are $150 per person, although we have an early bird special until March 17, 2010 at a discount for $129. Also, for students and the unwaged, we have a limited number of tickets at $75.

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What the hell is a personal brand?

 

Here I am wearing a t-shirt with the logo of my friend Phil Nelson's company. What does this mean for my personal brand? His? Anyone? Bueller?

Spend a day in Twitterland and you're bound to hear the phrase "personal brand." According to Wikipedia, the phrase has been around for over a dozen years, and signals a shift from basing success on self-improvement to self-packaging. This 1997 piece from Fast Company explored how personal branding would affect then-revolutionary things like email. Substitute "social media" for "email" and the argument is remarkably similar to what people are talking about now.

A cursory look at more recent pieces on personal branding (here, here, and here) attempt to help people communicate their knowledge and skills through social web. It's not a bad idea: as someone in communications, I understand how effective presenting a message well can be. What I don't get is the difference between the concept of "personal branding" and flat-out recommending people to express thoughts and objectives clearly, concisely, and precisely.

My best guess is that "personal branding" is a handy cognitive device people can use to funnel their efforts. It can work in that people will start pondering how a company like Nike or Starbucks can make a multi-national faceless corporation appear relatable and what tricks could be transferred to an individual. What "feel" do these companies give off so that we project our own emotions on them?

On the other hand, I question the use of the word "brand." The reason corporations require a brand is to give a cohesive and streamlined identity to the public that is easily consumable. They are adding a dimension to the inherent flatness of a corporation. Individuals, by nature, are complex and three-dimensional. Doesn't a personal brand feel reductive and a step backward? To me, a personal brand flattens out the aspects that make us relatable.

Twitter fulfills the CanCon for political satire

 

Today, Star reporter Antonia Zerbisias posted her hilarious interview with the gent behind @PMOHarper, the satirical Twitter account that pretends to be Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Twitter has become the place for political satire at a breakneck speed, thanks to @PMOHarper, @Laytonsmoustache and @PeterMansbridg among others. They share face time with Canada's king of the hill Rick Mercer, who at least from my point of view appears more vocal and passionate on the micro-blogging site than on TV.

What's great in this story is not that these satirists are on Twitter. Rather, they fill a need for accessible political satire that is missing in the Canadian landscape. Canada, as I've argued before, doesn't really have a Colbert nor Stewart, leaving most of the heavy lifting to Mercer and, sometimes, 22 Minutes. Let's leave why this is for another discussion: the key here is that the speed and openness of Twitter has allowed private citizens to pick up the slack, something that is much more difficult in any other medium.

The tweets also work with Twitter's sound bite limitation. This is exactly what we want: a pithy and sharp retort to the bloated politicians or media high up above us. In addition, thanks to the anonymity of the fake accounts (and Mercer being big enough to not really give a frak about stepping on toes), the satirical tweets can push through the often echo chamber quality of Twitter. 

This is a case where the use fits the medium perfectly, and Canadian politics is better for it.