Ferrazi Mania

Keith Ferrazzi came on the program this weekend; he is author of the book on why networking is "all you need to succeed," titled Never Eat Alone or www.nevereatalone.com. Keith, a contact of mine whom I respect for his veracity, is a fast-paced talker slash brilliant networker who told our listeners some secrets on how to make friends and influence people in a message crazed world. He made one specific suggestion I'd never thought of before: Think of 25 people you are 'crazy' to get in touch with. Find something to say or send to them. And do it. And then do it again to the same folks. It's a nice way to keep connections going.

In the world of media, where I live and breathe, I always think it's good to send people something you think they will like or need, rather than self serve something from or about you. They won't read it, perhaps, but they'll say "Wow he thought of me."

In this the land of me...thinking of others is considered a miracle.

Keith also said don't "make it so obvious" you might eventually want something from them. That's the best advice on networking I've ever heard. It reminds me of the dude from iVillage who ran PR there and wrote me for advice on career change but started with his attachment and no words about him, me, or the weather. I never answered. What? Me, suspicious of greed?

Thanks Keith for the heads-up. And the great interview smack in the middle of our show.

Can We All Just Be Careful Now?

This is the first of the stories that will 'not' be on the show this weekend. More to be posted.

Lately I’ve been wondering about whether or not it’s the little things that count.

Sure I make errors on what I write but – I just shake my head when I read stupid mistakes: Why can't people be careful? you heard your parents mumble that at one time or another, but I'm talking about writing. Nearly everything I read has errors in it - and not JUST because Microsoft Grammar Check stopped working its magic.

I see a lot of carelessness emanating from hard-working folks who are of course thinking (I believe) that someone else is going to make the document perfect.

Who is this someone else?While everyone makes minor goofs, I see major ones all over the place, and they're uncanny. I'm here to ask every professional to take a third and fourth look before hitting the "send" key or printing on super-fancy copier paper.

I got reminded of this by some smart alec who anonymously wrote in about a cut-and-pasted PR release that had a misspelled word on it from one of my OWN people at RLM PR.

So what’s it all about?Some say it's the fault of e-mail. Sounds like a big excuse coming on. People pass their documents back and forth and add rather than correct.Since I am part of the last generation to use typewriters (man I miss my IBM Selectric on rainy days) and once rejoiced at the invention of BIC's Wite-Out (a.k.a. Liquid Paper), I place blame on those large monitors on our desks. There's no way you can catch a boo-boo onscreen, but most folks won't print out the written work.

Today things travel casually, desk to desk, until the work goes out without someone realizing, "Wait, wait. That's supposed to say AUNT." (That's a private joke for "Curb Your Enthusiasm" fans.)

Me. I am a kind of typo savant. I see them out of corners of my eyes.

As a matter of fact, where my mate and I live part-time outside LA, we laugh at crazy errors on "cable ready" Time Warner ads constantly. I see them in staff and management reports - I was born a proofreader - where folks create documents using wrong words, or worse, being grammatically incorrect.

If an author doesn't even bother to use Spell Check I know s/he is simply sloppy.

Recently I have come undone by some doozeys that found their way to me from unexpected sources.

Witness:

LA Times: A front-page Cars section advertisement that was nearly a quarter of a page; It actually said LOVE WHAT YOUR DRIVING.

The realtor Re/Max sent me a calendar: I got it in the mail - a mean feat because it was octagonal and printed with verve and style. Problem: The proud real estate professional calls herself YOU'RE DESERT REALTOR.

Time magazine: As Ms. Stewart headed to prison, it had a corner headline that read MARTHA'S JUST DESERTS.

Showtime: In announcing the first episode of a new season of "The L Word," the words blaring onscreen spoke of the upcoming PREMEIRE.

Needless to say, it's cruddy to present a sloppy example to the public. Not only does it debase your reputation, but it necessitates an embarrassing conversation with you...when you're caught.

I'm not going to get into the incorrect usage of "less" and "fewer" in multitudes of costly print ads, nor the occasion a few years ago when The New York Times ran a Sports Friday section on Saturday morning.

Books are worth discussing, since most are edited "from afar" (imagine a painter with a brush being at an easel please) where committees babble haughtily about plot or mis en scene or arc.

Nonfiction tomes are merely about the phrase everyone can use at cocktail parties (like, err, Blink). There is even a theory that most of those hot books are bought, not read.

A few years ago, a book by a current Wired "reporter" on how companies steal corporate secrets contained so many made-up words (Exon!) that I had to put it down.

All right, I definitely make mis-steaks but I don't trust my under-caffeine-ated self and hand my work to several others who are more awake than me and who will be glad to attack my words with a critical eye.

I'm not trying to be all Ben Bradlee about this . I just like to read, look up, and watch TV without observing typos that stop me cold.

To some, it sounds like bellyaching, but being careful and deliberate is essential in this day and age.

I paraphrase Tony Soprano's shrink Dr. Melfi in a third season episode: Indeed, Americans get caught up in the little things. The big ones are all taken care of, and so we're very lucky!We have ability to focus.

That’s my civics lesson for today. Forgive me for ranting. Anyone care to disagree?

Unspun Does TV (and gets CJR cred)

Last year NY-1, which features my monthly roundup of all the strange things going on in the media (and some glorious, okay), received a nice thumbs-up from Columbia Journalism Review.

The piece was about hypey marketers shouting how they had successfully procured the -- ahem -- elusive 18 year old male demographic. That's spin to get coverage and hardly true (either that those folks are elusive or the jokers "got them").

It was cool to see a mainstream press outlet say it: "It's the type of news that enlightens, and the type that CJR Daily would like to see more often, especially on TV.

http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/pr_in_the_arts.php

Unspun strikes again!

Laermerization

Unspun brings you the world of media via your radio.

But a little bit about the host from "US 1" magazine.

It's a long piece but the reporter took some time to 'splain me'.

http://www.rlmpr.com/?pg=rlm-news&id=69

Let me know what you think of the postings that are about to come.

And the show.

Full Frontal PR, book, is available at fine and other bookstores.

Comments, criticisms, and suggestions welcomed and warranted.

 

We Are Spinning Like Mad

UNSPUN: The Guide to How Everyone Spins You into Utter Confusion

I am starting a radio show for everyone to learn from. UNSPUN is our name.

It’s the guide to how everyone spins you into utter confusion. It’s a show that works to explain how news of the day lobbed there; just who gets something from an appearance in the press; and why so much is put over on us, recipients of the media!

We live in the world of hype where No Spin has more spin than a basketball held on one finger by Meadowlark Lemon. UNSPUN is a primer to stop the ball long enough to read the label, and see where it got created.

The program’s intention is will cut through various noise-cancelling machines and connect the dots that lie just beneath the surface. It's time.

I will finally expose the hype, whether it's from the publicity hounds or the political bulldogs, through a series of vignettes detailing how it's done! I will introduce you to, and expose, the little man standing behind the curtain shouting: "Hey! Ignore the little man behind the curtain!"

I am the unspinner a lifelong media junkie who devours the Dallas Morning News and Prison Life, among thousands of other outlets; I can't stop myself.

I've spent a lifetime diving deep into stories, whether politics, entertainment, so-called hard news and delightful ditties known as human-interest features. I can't stop shaking my head.

The show has a simple mission too: Take an informed, comical and insightful look at how people get away with saying what's obviously not true, bending facts in such a way to mean something that's less than factual.

We will uncover the world celebrities who are privately hell-bent on exposing so much about themselves only to publicly feign distaste toward the game. Is it money? Or is it glory? And uh, just why some people show up constantly while gently fading into Trivial Pursuit.

--Why do politicians tell us they're about to "go to work" on something blatantly unfixable?

--What's the non-news of the week and---hello? How did it creep into our consciousness!

--Why do anniversaries get celebrated publicly for nearly anything…and how did it become so
easy to become the first at something in modern America?

UNSPUN will feature interview with those folks spinning us mad and enlightening short attention span (read very, very quick) interviews with news fakers who believe in their hearts and wallets they have something to say. And of course some interviews with folks we just want to hear from, who get what's inside the news!

I want to introduce you to people who know what the news is all about...and can decipher the image behind the message (apologies to McLuhan).

Never before has anyone deconstructed the innards of stories and demonstrated the how and the why a story got to be news in the first place.

This is what I call a Fourth Sense: the ability to look into a topic and see what's being fabricated so subtly, sometimes even blatantly! You see, in the end, all media is entertaining anecdotes for interested parties to absorb.

In the coming week the site, www.FourthSense.com, will bring you stories and more - and lead you back here to visit.

See, in one hopefully fascinating two-hour weekly journey we will un-spool the gobbledygook of press speak and spin before your eyes what so-called they are really saying.

For first time, nothing will be left UNSPUN!

Join me on air or live on the Web: March 26th at 10 PM on 96.9 FM Talk, http://www.wtkk.com/.