Artist Austin Kleon's interpretation of the "Try Making Yourself More Interesting" panel, a standout from SXSW 2009. I'm looking forward to Austin's "Visual Notetaking 101" session this year.

One of the things that I value most is that my SXSW experience managed to hit some high, soaring, inspiration notes while also giving me practical insight and tips. After the conference I reported back to my team at McCombs on my 5 big takeaways. Normally I wouldn’t share year-old notes, but these still influence me and my work on a regular basis, so here goes:

1.) Web site: The Big Picture
Alan Taylor runs the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” photography blog, and he gave one of my favorite presentations of the conference. It was surprisingly moving–he had the whole room in tears as he explained a photo series of cancer patients–and totally unexpected. For me, this was a quintessential SXSW moment: a passionate person sharing something he cares about and using technology and communication to connect people and move the world forward. And as a magazine and blog editor, it encouraged me to remember the power of great photography and that even business stories can be visually compelling.
 
2.) Celebrate our Success!
This was a small point made in a panel about agency-client relationships, but it really stuck with me. Too often we are already on to the next thing, and hardly take time to pat ourselves on the back, beyond perhaps a passing “Nice work!” e-mail. We need ritual and ceremony to celebrate the completion of major projects. I’m still working on this one, but I did convince our magazine team to get out of the building for a 30-minute Starbucks break after we published our first issue of a new online version.

3.) People respond to being part of something bigger than themselves
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s keynote was a memorable highlight and Zappos seems to be a model of how to do company culture right. He talked about how for most people, happiness is tied directly to a higher purpose. For that reason, Zappos aims to move employees from job to career to calling.

I’ve tried to keep this in mind as a higher ed staffer. I mean I know we’re dealing with tight budgets, no pay raises, layoffs and unlimited bureaucracy, but it’s not like we’re stuck selling appliances! We are serving instutions that provide enormous opportunity for people and set them on a new life path. We need to tap into that inspriational side of our jobs more often.

4.) Social media allows for accidental learning.
I heard this nugget during a student panel about social media in the classroom, and it has sort of become my guiding principle in how I think about higher education social media. I know our followers and fans don’t read every word we say, but if I can trickle into someone’s news stream and get them to click on a link where they all of a sudden find themselves reading about how to be a better manager or learning about a student’s study abroad trip, then that’s a success.

5.) Be amazed.
I forget who showed this fabulous clip of comedian Louis C.K. complaining to Conan O’Brien that everything is amazing but nobody is happy. Frustrated your cell phone is slow? “Give it a second – it’s going to space!” The in-flight internet is spotty? You had to sit on the runway for 40 minutes? “Oh really, what happened next? Did you partake in the miracle of flight?”

Those words have popped up in my head often when I get pouty about truly insignificant things.

I have no idea what gems await me this year at SXSW Interactive. I’m hoping to engage my creative side and get tips on visual thinking, engage my geek side and check in with some science panels and engage my it’s-good-for-your-job-and-don’t-limit-yourself-it’s-more-interesting-than-you-would-expect side by visiting some business sessions. But whatever I learn, I promise to share here!

Any fellow SXSW attendees out there? Do any of last year’s lessons still resonate with you now? What are you looking forward to this year?

P.S. – A huge thanks to Austin American-Statesman tech reporter Omar Gallaga for including me on his list of 20 people to follow during SXSW Interactive. I’m quite shocked to be included with such a sparkling group, but I will do my best to deliver the goods!

I read Chris Jones’s Esquire magazine profile of Roger Ebert last week, and I still can’t shake it. It was moving, fascinating, funny and heartbreaking. One of those stories that’s impossible to get over.

Four years ago Ebert lost his lower jaw, along with his ability to speak, eat and drink, to cancer. Jones’s profile reveals Ebert’s ongoing recovery battles and thoughts on death and reminds us that Ebert is one hell of a writer.

A few highlights:

-Stunning photography. Ok, this is not the work of the author, but Ethan Hill’s close-up portrait of Ebert’s cancer-ravaged face sets the tone for the entire story and tells us immediately that this Roger Ebert is a vastly changed man—at least physically.

-An intimate and powerful sense of place. Jones places Ebert in his home, a critics’ screening room, his writing posture, a hospital bed, a neighborhood park, dinner out with his wife and an exhausting work party in downtown Chicago. Jones actually witnessed some of those scenes; the others he is just recreating. But each is filled with electric details and tells an important part of Ebert’s story. It’s also a testament to Jones’s talent as a reporter, not just a writer.

-Poetic but grounded language. Jones’s writing is exquisite and artful, but he chooses words that serve the story, not to show off.

-A worthy subject. No amount of reporting and wordsmithing can overcome a weak subject. This article is so powerful because Roger warrants our attention. He is an intriguing, talented, thoughtful figure who has experienced enormous tragedy. Jones had the insight to recognize a thoroughly compelling person and the talent to do his story justice.

For another master class on writing, read Ebert’s reaction to the story.

I’ve loved the Olympics for as long as I can remember. One of my all time favorite gifts was the U.S.A gymnastics leotard, ala Mary Lou Retton, that my mom gave me when I was a little girl. Complete with totally inauthentic ribbon wand. But you can bet I rocked that outfit.

When I was much older, but not much different, the 2004 Athens Olympics kept my mom and I company as we spent nearly 24 hours a day in the hospital with my dying grandma. It is no small wonder to be able to become enthralled and sustained by MSNBC’s coverage of men’s water polo at 2 a.m. in a hospital room.

And while I’m truly awestruck by an incredible athlete performing at the highest level–Michael Phelps, Kerri Strug, Apolo Ohno–my all-time favorite Olympics moment stars someone you’ve never heard of and who will never even come close to being on a Wheaties box.

Eric Moussambani, of Equitorial Guinea (what’s that?), was all set for his 100 m swim in the qualifying rounds of the 2000 Sydney Games, when the 2 other swimmers in his heat got disqualified by a false start. Small, alone and conspicuously lacking the fancy body suits favored by other competitors, Eric stepped up on the starting block to race against no one.

Neither the crowd nor the announcers really knew what to make of this awkward athlete. I remember the broadcasters pointed out that he didn’t have a proper pool to train in back home, so he swam in a river alongside alligators. What?? Anyway, at first the crowd sort of laughed and snickered, but as he pushed through, looking every moment like he was going to just stop and sink, they slowly realized the beauty and heart of the moment. When he finally (barely) finishes the race, every person is on their feet, cheering wildly at this monumental, moving display of mediocrity.*

I was right there with them, cheering him on at home, my eyes welling up with tears. For me, Eric embodies the gut-wrenching, do-or-die hard work and perserveance required, yes, at the Olympics, but in the hard-fought, messy scramble of life. And that’s why I love the Olympics.

*Wikipedia tells me Eric still managed to set a new personal best and national record with that performance. : )

Video of Eric’s swim. Pardon the foreign play-by-play – I couldn’t find an English version.

Map of the U.S.A., by Hugh MacLeod

I love this, not so much because it accurately represents the qualities of the United States, but because it just reminds me of home. And I love my home. And I suspect many Texans have sort of felt this way about their surroundings at one point or another. Maybe just a little bit.

Hugh MacLeod, aka “gapingvoid,” is a cartoonist and wine guy who lives in Alpine, TX. See more of his cartoons here.

If you’ve somehow not heard of the company and its one-for-one mission, here it is: for every pair of shoes TOMS sells, it gives away one pair to a needy child. (“TOMS” comes from “Shoes for Tomorrow.”)

The company’s founder, Blake Mycoskie, has become quite the celebrity in certain circles and has collaborated with everyone from Bill Clinton to Charlize Theron to Digg founder Kevin Rose. And the company recently earned the Secretary of State’s 2009 Award for Corporate Excellence, which Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton personally presented to Blake.

I got the inside scoop on TOMS when I profiled McCombs alum Melissa Chu for our Texas magazine article “Profit with a Purpose.”

Melissa is an intelligent, quirky soul who had tried nonprofit work but was frustrated at seeing good ideas fail to get off the ground because they weren’t backed up by solid business thinking. She thinks social enterprise ventures like TOMS are a better approach because balancing profit with doing good is a much more sustainable business model.

One of the perks of being a TOMS employee (in addition to 6 free pairs of shoes each year!) is participating in a shoe drop – the trips where volunteers travel to rural villages to distribute the shoes to children—many of whom have never owned a pair of shoes.

Melissa traveled to Argentina in December for a shoe drop and was nice enough to share some of her photos with us. Looking at the children’s grins—and their living conditions—gives a whole new context to the excitement of getting a new pair of shoes.

(To see captions, click the Full Screen button in the bottom right and then click Show Info.)

And yet, as a communicator now working in higher education—at the very university I graduated from—I struggle to infuse the stories I write with the lighter side of life. I find it especially difficult working at a business school, where the culture is more buttoned-down. But the culture isn’t boring and stuffy either, so what’s the problem?

One very astute alumnus commented on our magazine reader survey that we are “too afraid of [our] readers.” BINGO! I’m afraid of having a sense of humor in our stories, because I don’t want to offend people or make the school look silly. I included a Dilbert cartoon in our Spring/Summer 2009 cover story, and part of me sort of expected to get hate mail for it.

I don’t think that fear should drive my writing, but it’s not altogether unwarranted. Watch 2 minutes of the fun, non-traditional, somewhat silly student-produced Yale admissions video below and then read some of the 148 comments people left on a New York Times article about the video (Yale disabled comments on the video on its YouTube page.)

“I actually felt myself getting dumber watching that”

“For heaven’s sake, it’s YALE, not Taco Bell. With their miniscule acceptance rate, it seems hardly necessary to stoop to this. This is appalling. Selling one of the premier universities with trite songs and salad bars. So much for the dignity of the institution.”

“Embarrasing. [sic]”

“Really, Yale? Are you seriously trying to appeal to the “High School Music” demographic?”

“I absolutely would never have set foot on the campus if I had ever seen this. It’s disgusting, and they should seriously consider whether they want to risk losing alumni contributions (such as mine) by leaving it up. It is in remarkably poor taste for an institution as selective as Yale to have such breathless rhapsodies, tongue-in-cheek, or no (and I dare say any irony is worn pretty thin by minute 15) marketed to the 90% of applicants who will receive the `thin envelope’ in April. It’s not really cute, funny or ironic if you don’t get in.”

Ouch! No wonder we’re afraid of showing a sense of humor in our communications.

The good news? A large number of the commenters seem to support the video and admire Yale’s attempt at humor and innovation. It’s also surpassed 250,000 YouTube views in less than 2 weeks, so it’s certainly getting attention.

I’m going to keep trying to find my funny bone in higher education storytelling, but I think I better build up my backbone too.

How do you know when you're home sweet home?

You know that horribly awkward feeling you have when you attend someone’s wedding or birthday party but you don’t know anyone other than the host? A quick hello to the one person you’re comfortable with and then two hours of guessing what other people are talking about while they ignore you. (Ok so maybe if you’re an extrovert those  hours are spent starting a conga line and making 150 new friends, but for us introverts it’s a special kind of hell.)

I was a little worried that’s what moving to Tucson would feel like. And while I felt like a stranger here for a couple of weeks, I settled in much more quickly than I expected. Having never lived outside of Austin until five months ago, I started wondering what it is that makes a place feel like home. It’s not just “meeting people” or finally remembering that 1st Ave. is east of Stone Ave. (or is it west?). No, it’s a handful of milestones that together add up to Home Sweet Home.

5 Signs You’re at Home in a New City:

1. You run into people. There’s just something comforting about seeing someone you know in the Target checkout aisle.

2. You ask someone for a favor. I think I finally felt at ease here when we felt comfortable asking someone to take care of our dogs when we went out of town. (Thanks, Andrew and Sarah!)

3. You make impromptu plans with people. This is a big one for me. There are friends you make plans with and there are friends you can call up last minute just to hang out and eat Sonoran hot dogs. Both are great, the latter feel like home.

4. Your lame vs. cool radar gets back up to full strength. When I read the New York Times travel recommendations for spending 36 hours in Tucson, I knew enough about the city to roll my eyes at their suggestion to waste precious hours at the bland upscale shopping center La Encantada.

5. You know the newscasters’ names and can sing at least one local jingle. I’ve always been fascinated by local news and think it’s a weirdly entertaining way to learn more about a place. My favorite Tucson anchor names? Vinnie Vinzetta and Lou Raguse! And no I didn’t make those up. And of course being a jingle writer’s daughter and a world class jingle-singer-alonger, inadvertently memorizing a local company’s jingle (Tucson Federal Credit Union, anyone?) means I can kick back, relax and feel sure that I’m among friends.

Image by cloudsoup

Business school? Isn’t that where they study boring things like derivatives and fair-value accounting? What does a global health emergency have to do with business school?

Well, one of the discoveries I’ve been pleased to make since joining the McCombs team is that the business world (and business school) is teeming with juicy stories and fascinating people. And that business research and thinking touch all corners of society. This story is a prime example of that.

Paul Damien is a McCombs professor and statistician, and it’s his research I wrote about for this story. He’s working with faculty in Natural Sciences to study what factors affect the spread of H1N1 and to create mathematical models that predict infection rates. That information can then be used by health organizations in their outreach and education efforts and by schools and other organizations to determine when, if ever, it’s necessary to close down. And hopefully those efforts will prevent more people from getting sick or dying.

Damien is a great interview because he knows how to talk about his research in an accessible way, and he speaks eloquently about the importance of business knowledge and applications:

“Indeed any body of human knowledge has a business impact if you think about it. We use the word ‘business’ somewhat myopically at times. But business really means the buying and selling of goods and services. And what more valuable thing than the human body? And any research having to do with that is going to benefit business and the consumer.”

He further explains business school is about more than just training managers:

“When you think of business schools as a rule, the first thing that pops into most people’s minds is management. And then you think of accounting and finance, and then maybe economics, but then in stops, which is surprising because a major component is in analytics and quantitative analysis. A lot of my colleagues are involved in projects that aren’t necessarily business related. But they have business implications long term.

“So when you’asking what are the business implications for the H1N1, then clearly one answer is the pharmaceutical companies – how much of the vaccines should they produce. One interesting thing that came up from a business point of view was until about a month ago it was believed you needed two doses of the vaccine spread over a three week span for it to be effective. What is the business implication of that? It means you have to produce different batches of these things. The cost models, the revenue streams. But now they’ve actually realized that one dose is sufficient. So immediately that gets translated to the pharmaceuticals because that means their production processes can be better monetized because they don’t have to worry about coming up with two levels of doses. So right away the pharmaceutical companies become much more efficient models of operation, which in turn translates to better revenue for companies, and overall the consumer benefits in the long run when companies operate more efficiently, and that’s a proven fact.”

And as for the Swine Flu vs. H1N1 debate, while swine flu has a certain playfulness (One of the concepts our cover illustrator sent us was a strangely adorable pig lurking behind a chalkboard), we decided to follow the CDC’s guidelines and use H1N1 (except on the cover teaser – we couldn’t resist the “Solving Swine Flu” alliteration)

Plus, the pigs are probably ready to have their reputation back.

For too many companies, the customer service experience doesn't match the PR agenda.

I’m a PR professional and a customer service snob, so when I had an amazing, above-and-beyond, month-long experience with online photography shop AdormaPix, I had to blog about it.

First, what happened:

Dec. 6
Placed my order at www.adorama.com

Dec. 11
Received email saying my order would be delayed due to higher than expected holiday volume.
  
- At 10:04 a.m. I replied to the email, expressing my disappointment and explaining I needed my prints for Christmas gifts. I asked if there was any way I could receive them by Dec. 15, when I was originally supposed to have them (I was leaving town a few days after that so would have been in a pickle if I didn’t have those prints.)
  
-At 12:30 p.m. I received an email:

Hi Tracy,
Again, apologies for the delay in getting your order to you. I have upgraded your order to UPS 2nd day air, so it should go out either Monday or Tuesday and get to you by the end of next week.

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
Elizabeth

   -I tweeted how pleased I was with their customer service, and they thanked me on Twitter!

Dec. something
Received my (very high quality) prints  in time. Gave them as Christmas gifts. Everyone loved them. Christmas saved.

Jan. 15
Received a mass email from Adorama’s director apologizing for the mixup and informing me that my account has been credited with one free 11×14 print, to be redeemed at any time within the month. Christmas miracle!

Now let’s look at what made this a successful experience:

1.) They owned up to the mistake and communicated with customers. Rather than keeping people in the dark or just waiting for customers to call and ask about late orders, they sent notification that they were experiencing delays and explained why.

2.) They read email. Sounds simple, but how many companies actually sift through the responses they get to their info@ or customerservice@ email addresses used to send mass emails?

3.) They replied promptly. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get a response to my e-mail, much less a response in just 2.5 hours on what I’m sure was an insanely busy day.

4.) They solved my problem. They took responsibility and did whatever it took to complete my order in the way I originally placed it. I’m sure it cost them money to upgrade my shipping, but that step earned my loyalty and took me from a disgruntled first-time shopper to a repeat customer who shared the story with my networks.

5.) They listened and engaged. They have a Twitter account and clearly are monitoring for mentions of their company and interacting with customers. This is key for catching customer complaints but also learning about what you’ve done right and what your audience cares about.

6.) They owned up to the mistake, again, and explained further. The “We apologize” email was sincere and explained what happened without making excuses.

7.) They went above and beyond. I was already satisfied with how they handled everything, but offering a free print (and not a measly 4×6 – big honkin’ 11×14!) confirmed they are sorry for what happened and they value customers. Complete opposite of the company who says “We’re sorry you’re upset” but then does nothing to solve the problem or make it up to you.

Looking at that list, it all seems so simple, and yet so often I see both customer service and public relations ignore or violate these basic principles.

What’s the best customer service experience you’ve had recently? Did it change your opinion of the company?

Image by Here’s Kate

Twitter’s new lists feature offers users a much-needed way to organize who you follow and group them into custom categories. And since you can see what lists others have placed you in, it’s also a fascinating and useful way to see how other tweeters think about you or your brand.

I discovered this rather rudely when I checked to see what lists our business school account (@UTexasMcCombs) were included on. Most people listed us under categories you’d expect—MBA, business school, colleges, Austin, UT.

But one list name stood out above the rest, a glittering display of social-media brute-force honesty:

“Ignore but not unfollow”

That shattering sound you here? Yeah, that’s my ego.

After I went through the five stages of grief (and of course tweeted about it), I decided to be a grownup and use this as a learning opportunity. So here, in no particular order, 5 lessons from being snubbed by Twitter lists:

-Numbers aren’t everything. Since launching our Twitter account in August 2008, we’ve gained 2,418 followers, more than some entire universities. We’re over 1,000 fans on Facebook. SO WHAT. Just because you have a large audience, it doesn’t mean they’re actually listening.

-Different strokes for different folks. Plan and strategize all you want, but people will relate to you on social media on their own terms, not yours. I’m not sure why this person is bothering to follow us if they’re intentionally ignoring us, but she’s got her own personal motivations, and that’s her call.

-You can’t please everybody. Numbers aren’t everything, but I don’t think we’d be steadily gaining followers if we weren’t doing something right. We get thoughtful interaction on both Twitter and Facebook, awareness seems to be on the rise, and feedback is generally very positive. We are genuinely trying to communicate and engage from the standpoint of being helpful, informative and relational. Is everyone going to love what we do? No. But hopefully we’re not too far off the mark with most of our audience.

-There’s always room for improvement. This falls under the What-have-you-done-for-me-lately? category. While we’re not going to completely overhaul our social media approach based on one weirdly negative Twitter list, it’s a good reminder not to rest on our laurels. How can we up our effort, create more compelling content and practice innovation?

-Don’t take it personally. I’ve put a lot of hard work into the McCombs Twitter account. I love working on it. It’s my baby. So when I saw this list title, it sort of felt like overhearing the cute boy at prom talking about what a dorky dress I’m wearing.

But if you’re going to engage in or even just monitor social media, you’ve got to develop a thicker skin. People will post negative comments, complain about your organization and sometimes just be downright rude. It’s easy to get emotional or defensive, but that’s only going to make it worse. (This post on Chris Brogan’s blog contains good advice about responding to negative comments.)

Examine the situation, respond (or ignore) as needed, don’t be jerky, learn your lesson and move on.

Have you had to deal with social media rejection? How much weeping was involved? Did it actually end up helping you?

Image source: sundesigns