The Big Picture

The making of a perfect speech

David Murray shares what all communicators can learn from what he sees as the greatest speech in American history.

Are you making the most of your inner Dr. King?

To mark this day and week honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., Better Workplace Now created a one-of-a-kind assessment. It's about Dr. King, but even more, it's about you.

The assessment helps you find your strengths and biggest improvement opportunities, all in the context of Dr. King's good works and great achievements.

Google Checkout Available For Political Contributions

Political candidates can now use Google Checkout to collect contributions online. The new feature allows candidates (registered with the Federal Election Commission) to embed Checkout buttons on their Web sites, blogs and social networking profiles to begin taking donations. The feature also lets candidates capture contributor occupation and employer information, and includes a policy message within the process.

Google charges 2% of donations plus a 20 cent transaction fee. Google Checkout joins other services such as PayPal and ActBlue allowing political donations online.

Google Checkout also lets non-profits collect donations online.

Politweets as usual

Politweets scours Twitter for information on presidential nominees...so you don't have to. 

Top Ten Best (and Worst) Communicators of 2007

Bert Decker, chief executive officer of Decker Communications, offers up his List of Top Communicators - the best (and worst) from business, politics, entertainment and sports. Take a look to see how communications skills helped make or break these notable individuals.

[ via How to Change the World ]

(Speaking of communications, if you're wondering why I'm all of a sudden posting so much to this blog, it's because it was my new year's resolution to no longer use the excuse of "not enough time" to neglect my work blog!)

Monetizing PDF content

In November, Adobe and Yahoo partnered to create Ads for Adobe PDF. It's a free service that lets you earn money by placing ads in your PDF files. (The ads are text and are served from Yahoo! advertisers based on content.)

You simply upload your PDF and earn money based on inserted ads. (You do have the ability to block competitors.)

With more and more associations searching for ways to monetize Web content, this may be something useful for your association to explore.

You can apply to join the program here.

[ via Kevin Kelly ]

Tips for Conference Un-Bloggers (and Bloggers too)

In the latest edition of his Cool Tools newsletter, Kevin Kelly points to a free e-book by Bruno Giussani and Ethan Zuckerman, Tips for Conference Bloggers. Many of the tips in the book I have explored before through my own conference blogging, for the American Society of Association Executives and MHA's own annual conference.

Last year, I confessed that oftentimes the only continuing education I get is my deskside un-conference. But when I do get to go to a conference, I always make sure to be a blogger (whether I'm "official" or not). And the reason is because I retain so much more information if I go to each session with the forethought that I will be blogging it later (even if I don't).

So I'm saying that even if you are an un-blogger, treat yourself like a conference blogger: research the speakers, research the topics and pretend you will blog all the sessions you attend.

You'll listen more carefully, think more deeply - and learn much more.

How Associations Can Use Twitter

I started using Twitter on a whim. (I actually created an MHA Twitter account long before I created a personal one - I just never posted anything to it.)

It seems I do better using new technology personally first. Then I slowly begin to realize the business applications. But I've immersed myself in Twitter for a few months now, and I'm ready to report back on how you can add it to your association's Web mix.

• Advocacy - Lobbyists can post updates during a legislative session via cell phone - as they happen. "Call 800.000.000 now and tell legislator to vote no on S. 2345!" "Health Committee Conference at 2:30 p.m. in Room 101."
• Link blog - If you've ever wanted a place to store interesting links for your members - without much in-depth discussion (as you're limited to 140 characters) - Twitter would be a good application. And Typepad has a Twitter widget that will let you seamlessly add it to your Web site.
• Blog Referrer - Some use Twitter to draw attention to postings on their blog. (Do this judiciously, however. I don't recommend providing a link to every entry - just one you would like to draw special attention to.)
• Conferences - Set up a Twitter account just for your conference and post updates about activities, speakers, events, etc. (Or set up one for your association and use it for this purpose during the conference. But I have discovered that people are much less scared of technology if they are going to use it on a finite basis...like three days during the conference.)
• Cell phone updates - A post I wrote a while back on the Acronym blog led to some asking me how they could communicate with members on their mobile phones. At the time, it was a pretty expensive undertaking (not amenable to zero-budget association marketing departments). With Twitter, interested members can set their account to receive cell phone updates from your postings. And the beauty of it is that is opt in - members who don't want updates on their cell phone can just view them on the Web.
• Networking - I have met many people on Twitter that I never would have met otherwise. I have learned from people who do what I do every day (generally not for associations) but do it much better than me. I have seen support spring up over night for everything from victims of wildfires in California to those who discovered they had cancer. (See www.frozenpeafund.com for that support in action.) In addition to personal networking, you can help other association members find each other by asking if they have blogs, Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, etc.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep track of association folks on Twitter. (I found Ben, but if you are on Twitter and would like to be added to my informal TwitteRoll, let me know.)

It's magic

Photo via TheMagicianSite.com

I'm giving a speech next week at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Public Health Association on improving collaborations and partnerships between hospitals and health departments.

I've been working on the material for a while, and I have been struggling with it. Mostly because both hospitals and health departments know we should be collaborating more, yet we still don't all the time. So the hard part for me has been figuring out what I can tell a group of public health professionals about collaboration that will make all of them feel it worth their while to sit and listen for an hour and a half. (The only thing worse than struggling to sit through a boring session is being the speaker at such a session - this fear probably makes me way overprepare for any presentations!) ;)

I've settled on "All You Need to Know About Collaboration You Learned in Kindergarten" and I've had a bit of fun with it now that I've found my lead. One of the biggest barriers to collaboration is a fear of (or fight over) who will "own" any intellectual property, so when Boing Boing pointed me to an article on how magicians handle intellectual property (without law), I felt I had an official excuse to go read the article (as I could theoretically perhaps tie it back to my presentation).

Since so much of what draws us to collaboration today in the association world has a "magic" quality about it  - we're generally generating good will or votes or something less tangible than widgets - it should be an interesting tie-in. I mean if I can ever read it. Because I'm not part of the Social Science Research Network and don't know how to download it in any of the offered formats, I may just have to use it as an aside and not an in-depth example.

Since you've read this far anyways, what do you see as barriers to collaboration in your association - internally and externally? What would you want to learn from an hour-and-a-half session on collaboration? And do you feel there is something intrinsically wrong with sitting in front of a group of people for an hour-and-a-half to talk about collaboration with having them to collaborate about something in the session? (Because that's where I am, personally.)

Bears Stearns' Required Reading List for Interns

Paul Kedrosky shared Bears Stearns' Required Reading list for their interns:

Barbarians at the Gate, by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

Beyond Greed and Fear: Understanding Behavioral Finance and the Psychology of Investing, by Hersh Shefrin

Confessions of a Street Addict, by Jim Cramer

Den of Thieves, by James B. Stuart

Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation, by Edward Chancellor

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Liar’s Poker, by Michael Lewis

Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle, by John Rolfe and Peter Troob

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefèvre

The Mind of Wall Street, by Leon Levy

The Predator’s Ball, by Connie Bruck

Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape from the Stock Market Grinder, by Andy Kessler

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, by Roger Lowenstein

So it begs the question... If you were responsible for a Required Reading list for any interns at your association, what would it look like? I'm working on mine. I'll post it soon. Send me a link to yours if you do the same.