Lack of time is the top reason you won't find me on the social networking scene as much as you should. It's tough. We all have other priorities, namely our actual jobs. And, being slightly older than the Millennial generation, it doesn't come naturally to me. I was a bit overwhelmed to learn from this article that being a good content provider takes 5-10 hours per week.

I was very happy to run across Ping.fm this week. I read about it on a blog or tweet somewhere and actually wrote in my good ol' fashioned Franklin Covey paper planner "Check out Ping.fm."  

Sign up was quick and easy. I added the Google gadget to my iGoogle home page and voilà! I typed an update and it instantly appeared on my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.

I'm supposed to be managing social media for our local IABC chapter as well. A Ping account will be really helpful there.

Last week a producer from Good Morning America contacted me. He found my information online along with my clients’ qualifications and thought we might be able to help him with his story. I know that reporters are increasingly turning to new media and online networks to help them with their stories. But my new contact got me thinking… how prevalent is this switch? Are more journalists using their own research to find sources for stories, instead of the traditional pitches sent by public relations professionals?

In fact, this was a topic discussed at this week’s PRSA 2008 International Conference. Mike Yanke from Online Marketing Blog posted on a panel discussion about what works and doesn’t work in today’s PR landscape. I found the fact that nearly 91 percent of journalists use the search function to find sources (i.e. my contact at GMA) and many are involved in Twitter, which I found most interesting. Check out Mike’s post for more information.

Until a couple weeks ago, everyone knew me as Samantha Valenti. Now, I’ve returned to the office as Samantha Carter. Yes, I tied the knot Oct. 5 to my boyfriend of six years, Eric Carter. (Sidenote: After two years at Morningstar Communications it’s still confusing to have both your boss and husband named Eric.)

I’ve jumped all in with my name. From business cards to an email address, I’m ready to be Samantha Carter in the corporate world. But what’s next? I know what to do so the government recognizes me and my new name, but I can’t seem to find any tips or best practices in the corporate world. Maybe there are no recommendations, but having to explain the name change at any and all future business functions does not sound appealing.

I’m looking for any and all tips on how to make the name change jump in the business world. Thanks in advance for your ideas.

I did a google search on surviving the downturn that returned 269,000 results. Many of the results were specific for a particular region or industry, but the best results I found were in an article by Richard Tyler in my.Telegraph.co.uk. Tyler included some of the tips that were posted to Chad Moutray's question on Linkedin. (Chad Moutray is the Chief Economist & Director of Economic Research at U.S. Small Business Adminstration, Office of Advocacy.)

Here are some of the best tips:

• There is a lot of opportunity when all of your competitors are running scared.
  
• Prepare now for the upturn; it will happen eventually.
  
• Communicate with your customers and employees - people fear the worst in a vacuum of communication.
• Give your employees a safe venue for venting their concerns and fears.
• Stay focused on providing exceptional customer service.
• Figure out a way to take advantage of the unprecedented amount of money the government is flowing into our economy.

The troubled economy is hitting everyone. Changing your spending habits is a great place to start. Keeping your job can be another struggle.

I wanted to share this article  "Recession Proof Your Job with Web Based Tools."  Steve Rubel explores some interesting tips and new ideas that could help employees be more productive and efficient. I hope you find it helpful.

This week I had the privilege of attending the Kansas City Chamber’s 2009 Economic Forecast Breakfast. The morning’s discussions consisted of an impressive line-up of speakers including:
•    Tom Hoenig from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
•    Frank Lenk with Mid-America Regional Council
•    Chris Lester from The Kansas City Star
•    Fred Logan, from KCTV 5 and The Kansas City Business Journal
•    Clyde McQueen with Full Employment Council
•    Kelly Scanlon from KC Small Business

While the discussion was filled with financial and economic jargon not always fully understood by the average Kansas Citian – i.e. me – I came away with three distinct impressions.

This too shall pass. The forecast predicts it will get worse before it gets better, specifically in the area of unemployment. KC is expected to lose thousands more jobs before the end of 2009. But the economic downturn will pass in time.

Small business will lead us out of the recession. Scanlon stated that many KC small businesses are optimistic and looking to grow. In an interview with KMBC she gave small businesses several useful tips for weathering the economic downturn, including continuing to market yourself and diversifying your customer base.

Kansas City’s future is bright. Kansas City has a lot of good things going for it. Our small businesses are strong, we are leading the way in bioscience and projections show that our housing market will go up. There is a lot to be proud of in KC.

For more information on the 2009 forecast read Ashlee Kieler and Jerry LaMartina’s article from The Kansas City Business Journal.

Today is Blog Action Day, an initiative designed to get thousands of bloggers to unite around one topic – poverty. As many of us track the markets ups, and mostly downs, of the last few weeks, the anxiety of watching the fruits of your life’s work diminish is overwhelming. But few of us actually realize what it is like to live in poverty.  

I’m fortunate to have participated in the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Centurions Leadership program. The organization fosters community leaders and raises awareness about local issues while encouraging civic responsibility. Issues studied range from transportation and healthcare to international trade and the arts. When we studied poverty and homelessness, we participated in a Poverty Simulation. Wow! What an eye-opening experience.

What I like about Blog Action Day is that many of the posts focus on how you can take action and make a difference. Use today as an inspiration to help combat poverty in our nation, whether it’s volunteering at a homeless shelter, giving to your favorite poverty-fighting cause, or providing canned goods to your local food pantry. Sometimes, giving a helping hand puts things back in perspective and makes us thankful for what we do have.

In the Kansas City, here are just a couple of opportunities to fight poverty this week:

• Donate to Harvesters, which is in need of canned fruit, rice, sugar and jelly.
• Drop some canned or dry goods by the Hyvee at 6801 West 91st Street this Friday (10/16) between 5 am and 6 pm  and help The Salvation Army food drive

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend PRISMs, the annual awards show for Kansas City’s PRSA chapter.  Another agency took home Best in Show for a new product launch they executed for a large greeting card company.

Listening to the description of the campaign, I was pretty impressed by the figures they were able to throw out.  The campaign garnered billions of impressions and was obviously viewed as a success.

It also represents what I consider an outdated way to measure success in that it focuses on outputs rather than outcomes.

Here is a quick refresher for those who may have forgotten the difference.  Outputs are essentially WHAT you did, while outcomes are WHAT HAPPENED because of what you did.

My argument against outputs comes not from how they are measured, but from WHY we want to measure them in the first place.  And that has to do with the goals we set for ourselves.  It has to do with whether you are working towards COMMUNICATION goals or BUSINESS goals.

PR firms are engaged or retained to help a business achieve a business goal.  Therefore, especially in the current climate where every dollar spent is being examined for its ROI, demonstrating progress towards that business goal is of paramount importance.  If you are stuck on meeting communication goals (we sent out 5 releases that garnered 25 stories and 5 million impressions), you are leaving a lot on the table in terms of value to your client.

And if your client doesn’t see the value of your work, don’t expect to see that client around for very long.

Looking for ways to help transition from outputs to outcomes?  Check out Check out Shel Holtz’s thoughts on influence or these thoughts from Shonali Burke, ABC, on measurement.

Today is the 942^nd anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, and I find myself compelled to share with you the rich twist of fate that is William the Conqueror’s win that day and the way it changed the English tongue forever.

I first met Guillaume duc de Normandie (I’m a French major. Just go with it.) in high school French class where our teacher, Madame, spoke passionately about 1066 and the lasting effects of the Norman Conquest on our language. In a nutshell…

Guillaume led a group of soldiers across the English Channel to Hastings, where they met the forces of the English King Harold II. (Thanks to Mr. McIntyre at You Don’t Say for the fact check and reminding me of the day.)

With Harold killed in battle (an arrow to the eyeball, according to la tapisserie de Bayeux), Guillaume (now Guillaume le Conquérant) became king of both England and France. His native tongue began to creep in on the Anglo-Saxon spoken in England at the time. Words morphed and changed, some were forgotten completely. Others remain, remnants of a time when two classes spoke two languages. French became the language of the court and of the merchants, while the peasants continued to speak Anglo-Saxon.

It’s why we have a word for the meat on our table (beef, pork) that’s different from the word for the animal in the barnyard (cow, pig).

"Beef," from Old French boef and similar to modern French boeuf, would’ve been a word familiar to the educated, more powerful court. Whereas “cow” comes from a completely different place altogether, but probably is similar to the word for the animal in Anglo-Saxon. The peasants would’ve been familiar with the cow, but not necessarily with the beef that was on the nobles’ tables.

It’s the same with pork (from Old French and Middle English porc, which matches the modern French word) and pig (from Old English picga, never intersecting with French).

That’s just one tiny example. There are many, many other words that we still have from the French invasion. It shows how language changes. From invading hordes, from the outsiders who become insiders, from the neighbors, the aristocracy and the working-class folk.

And for those of us who work with the English language on a daily basis, I think today is a fitting holiday to pause and think about the words we use and where they come from...

even if you can’t make it to Bayeux to revel in the full glory of the story, stitched painstakingly centuries ago, or eat at Le Guillaume, named for the Norman king.

Handbag Planet knows how. And they hit the bulls-eye. Now, if you're not as big of a purse/handbag fan as I am, you may not feel the full excitement.

To launch their new site, they are giving away one purse per hour for 24 hours. To obtain entries into the contest you first must register your email address. Fine by me because I love handbags. Then, to obtain additional entries in the contest, you can blog (doing now), tweet (already did), Facebook (will do) or MySpace (don't have a page) about it. You also can upload your contacts from your email account, if you wish. That was a bit much for me, even though they will not store those contacts.

Check out the purse I registered to win!

Posted by Erin Gregory

I feel very passionately about pens.  Just as my colleague Lauren Erickson spends her time thinking about pencils, I, too, spend a good deal of time thinking about which pen to buy or grab off my desk – I’m just not a pencil person.  I give Lauren kudos for inspiring me to write on this topic.

As someone in the communications industry I spend a great deal of my time writing.  I write down how much time I spent on a project.  I make edits on others’ papers.  I jot who knows how many notes on the ever-popular Post-It (another blog all on its own).  So the pen I spend my time with has to be just right.

To add to the already difficult decision about which pen to use, I am a lefty.  Yes, a southpaw.  We face another big issue with pens – SMEARING.  It is a common occurrence for me to have pen marks all over my hand and arm at the end of the day. Also, I need to have multiple colors of the same pen – it’s a quirk – and I need it to write smoothly and not leak.  This doesn’t sound like too much to ask, but I haven’t found it out there.

If anyone knows about the perfect pen, send it my way.  I’m desperate.

Enough already.  Stop the debates and the mud-slinging.  We're in the last month of the race, and I know the best person to lead America while leading the world to a much better place...Thomas Friedman.

He is gifted.  He takes the most complex issues (global economics, politics, sociology, psychology, global warming, ecology...) and breaks them down into very understandable issues.  He explains both the problems and solutions we really need.

His latest book, Hot Flat and Crowded...Why We Need a Green Revolution, and How it Can Renew America, was the most inspirational and forward-thinking book I've read since Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital came out in 1996.   (Negroponte projected a vision of the digitally connected world that we now enjoy; I believe Friedman is projecting a world that we'll see in 10+ years when Americans finally come to their senses regarding global warming and new energy solutions.)

I'm not about to summarize 412 pages into a 60-second blog post.

Friedman says THE key to our future well-being is to solve the energy crisis.  And in today's world, and for the next 30 years or so, we must figure that one out, or say goodbye to the world as we know it.  We can't drill or mine our way out of this problem; we must create new energy sources that do not pollute the earth.

America now imports nearly 70% of our energy needs.  And, as a by-product (besides the environmental damage) we've created "petrodictators" in the process.  With renewable, clean energy, we not only fix the planet, we fix America.  He explains how complex systems need to be created to solve the energy crisis through renewed focus on ET (energy technology) to complement IT (information technology).

So read his book.  Please.  And spread the word.

You'll be embarrassed at how the USA has caused so much of our own economic problems and global warming...and you'll be encouraged to learn how the USA can help solve those problems, fix our economy, and export energy to the rest of the world...all while helping America redefine our role as a global superpower with a positive image, truly helping other countries, as we repair the world.

So, do you think Warren Buffet would serve as Friedman's running mate, and is it too late for him to win via a write-in campaign?

Part of my job is to keep track of what is happening in the economy so that I can make good business decisions. And this has been quite a tumultuous week. Following the Dow is like riding a roller coaster - only not as much fun. Here are some articles I found that may not help me sleep at night, but do help me understand what is going on better.

Rescue the Rescue is an Op-ed in the New York Times by one of my all-time favorite authors, Thomas L. Friedman. In this article Friedman explained how Main Street's financial future is directly tied to Wall Street's future.

Diamond and Kashyap on the Recent Financial Upheavals by Steven D. Levitt in the New York Times is an excellent explanation about why the Treasury bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but chose not to bail out Lehman Brothers.

The Credit Crunch Comes to Main Street by Barbara Kiviat in Time Magazine explains how the tight credit market can impact small businesses, and the economy in general.

Another article is from Steve Lohr with the New York Times entitled Like J.P. Morgan Warren E. Buffet Braves a Crisis. The article talks about how quickly and decisively Buffet acted to invest $8 billion in Goldman Sachs and General Electric. I have complete confidence that both of these investments will pay huge dividends in the long-run and in the mean-time, Buffet is actually helping to avert a crisis.

There are opportunities for success in today's economy - the companies who do their homework, make frugal decisions and invest in the future are the ones who will come out of our current economic roller coaster on top.

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf."

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Morningstar Communications turns 11 years old today! To celebrate, I'm sharing 11 of the most important lessons we've learned:

2.  100% commitment.  Cortés burned the ships when he got to the new world. You can't be "a little pregnant." Good is the enemy of great. Be all in, all the time, or don't play the game.

3.  Trust is a two-way street. Trust is both earned and given based on how you interact with your fellow humans. Integrity, honesty and accountability are key. Trust is the foundation of all relationships. Without trust, nothing else matters.