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Originally published at laminate flooring and canada. Please leave any comments there.

• A good place to start is our idea center or gallery of rooms. Get information about style and color or browse through hundreds of room scenes to get an idea of which products you would like to use. Or maybe take a stroll through our showroom and explore our many products and brands. We carry Carpeting, Ceramic/Porcelain, Installation Materials, Laminate Floors, Vinyl/Resilient, Wood Flooring, and more
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• This year, Armstrong marks its 142nd anniversary. The Armstrong experience stretches over more than half the life of the Republic; few American business enterprises have endured as long, or with such continuing success.
• When it all began in a tiny two-man cork-cutting shop in 1860 in Pittsburgh, our national frontier barely reached beyond the western mountain ranges. Thomas Armstrong’s first deliveries of hand-carved corks were by wheelbarrow.
• Today, five generations later, Armstrong is a worldwide family of 16,000 employees who manufacture and market hundreds
• He succeeded because he relied upon a family credo of hard work and faith. He attracted and held dedicated employees who shared the same values. He took pride in the production and sale of quality products that bore his family name. And he was determined that his company always act with fairness and in the “balanced best interests (of) customers, stockholders, employees, suppliers, community neighbors, government and the general public.”
• But at the turn of the century–the company already was 40 years old–cork was being popped out of its old markets, and Armstrong added to the formula for success the capacity to adapt to changing conditions while at the same time sticking to the business it knew best.

The company found new uses for cork, first with insulating corkboard and brick. Then, in 1906, it foresaw that the avenue to the future was laid with linoleum. A new factory rose from a cornfield on the edge of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and in 1909, a year after Thomas Armstrong died, Armstrong linoleum was first offered to the trade. >>ENTER<<

Originally published at Zappo.net78. Please leave any comments there.

"I'm following up on a comment in my last post that pointed me to Greg Verdino's earlier post about engagement. I thought it was very insightful and just wanted to add one thought.

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(Slides created by Greg Verdino)

From some of the comments on Greg's post by Paull and Nathan, I started questioning if they could be considered engaged or not. And how would you quantify the engagement of a frequent reader/infrequent commenter with someone who read less frequently but comments every time.

I like that the framework works for large groups, that's obviously important for being able to track results. But when looking at individuals through this same lens, it requires not less of an emphasis on comments but more of an emphasis on a holistic view. A high level of participation, even without conversation, points to obvious interest in the material and passion. A high level of conversation, even with medium participation may indicate that your site is a resource they return to when needed.

It's been very interesting exploring the dynamics of metrics as they begin to apply to individuals. What other thoughts about individual metrics do you have? "

del.icio.us tag: individual+metrics"  

Originally published at Zappo.net78. Please leave any comments there.

"I don't often talk about products on my blog but I've been impressed with how Jive software does both their software and their engagement in the communities that are important to them.

Now that they are releasing their Clearspace 2.5 product, I'm willing to give a heads up that it's available.

Also, having seen some of their demos (though without actually using it) I get the sense that they have really thought about what social networking features really make sense in an enterprise-class collaboration application.

So, if you're interested in Jive, check out Clearspace 2.5."

Originally published at Zappo.net78. Please leave any comments there.

Well, I've been roped into the PR blacklist discussion. I know it's my own fault for getting involved in an interesting discussion with Mack Collier about his take on the issue.

As I've thought about this, my feeling is the actual issue of blacklists is a small piece of a larger picture.

And before I get into what I think that bigger picture is, let me lay down some definitions for this argument. I'm going to be talking about actual 'bad PR' in which the PR person is doing targeted outreach in hopes of getting coverage. Spam is when the recipient is part of a numbers game with a goal of getting content to as many people as possible regardless of who they are or what they cover. When PR crosses the line into actual Spam territory, they are past help and should be treated accordingly. No amount of education, training or public humiliation will stop spammers because they've found a profitable way to abuse the system.

Challenges for Bloggers

Yesterday, Mack called me out on my statement that "email creates a low barrier to entry and so bad pitches will always happen." Blaming the technology, he said, is just a way to pass the buck. I agree with him, and I don't. In terms of actual pitching, I do agree that the responsibility should be on the PR practitioner to follow the guidelines set up by the media or blogger. Especially the issue of selecting the right email address to use when sending a pitch. Unfortunately, Bad PR happens when people either don't have the skills or interested in building a credible reputation, or are simply lazy.
(Photo by alcomm)

Because of those real-world factors, I disagree is that bloggers should expect their guidelines to be followed. My experience in online gaming (please bear with me, it is relevant), both as a player and admin, has taught me a very important truth. Creating a rule against any action allowed by the technology is futile. You end up spending too many resources on enforcement, which is never comprehensive. Bloggers who insist that they be pitched perfectly according to the rules they've defined will have to spend time on enforcement. In terms of email, the system is designed so that you can send a message to anyone, provided you have their address. The recipient has no power to prevent email being sent to them. The work-around that was suggested is to filter out emails based on domain, that's the prerogative of the blogger if that is how they want to enforce their rule. However, posting the list of their blocked individuals or domains doesn't help them enforce the rule any better but becomes counter-productive to their cause by escalating the conflict.

The technology isn't to blame for bad PR but if bloggers intend to rely on an inherently insecure technology they must recognize the vulnerabilities.

Challenges for PR Industry

Now, I'm not trying to let the PR industry off the hook. Like I said, if PR professionals are looking to pitch media of any sort, they should take responsibility for their own actions. But, let's explore the motivations for those actions. One of the words buzzing around this conversation is 'relationships.' A great word, and indeed a great concept. PR should build relationships with media. Period. Period? I suppose if you subscribe to the Rolodex theory of PR, then these relationships are a PR persons most important personal assets. They will form the basis of their career, in the long-run.

Pragmatically, all PR people have another set of relationships that are also important and can exert just as much pressure. These, of course, are client relationships. Whether it's an agency with outside clients or an internal PR department with management as their internal client, time and energy goes into building solid relations with the people paying the bills.

Leaving PR people doing a delicate balancing act somewhere in-between media and clients. Why? Because the two groups typically have differing goals. Media on the one side wants to be left alone until something relevant and newsworthy can be sent to them. Clients on the other side want their story to be disseminated as often and as widely as possible. Deciding which group to please or when to push back on opt-in communications, is determined by the metrics PR uses to measure success.

Challenges for PR Junior Staffers and Pros

Another phrase that I've seen floating around this topic is 'junior staffer'. If we aren't blaming the technology, let's blame the new guy. Ouch, that came off harshly. In fact, many (smarter than me) PR people haven't been blaming the junior PR recruits but saying that firms don't train them appropriately. This is a valid point. Having studied PR in college, I can attest that media relations/pitching is not on the syllabus. Training new entrants to the PR industry is important, especially in the hyper-sensitive world of today.

And yet training is only half the answer. The other half is more complex. Let's dive in.

Relationships -- This word keeps popping up. In the context of a 'junior staffer' relationships are likely to be more theory than practice. First, they probably don't have a professional network built, or a media network, so the skills and understanding of its value is not necessarily in place. Second, the media outlets junior people typically get assigned don't always require long-term relationships to be built. They may only pitch these places for a single campaign and then move on.

Newsworthy -- Nothing is more important to media than getting stories that are newsworthy. And one important aspect of being newsworthy is also being timely. When you have news worth pitching, you've got to get it into the media's hands. This is great if it applies to staple publications or sites that you've spent time building relationships with. But what about the news that applies to an area you haven't had the need (or time) to build pre-existing relationships with? Suddenly the shelf-life of your news is conflicting with the time required to form a relationship. Doing the research to appropriately pitch the story is still the right step but even when done correctly it's still a cold-call pitch.

Metrics -- Geoff Livingston, at the beginning of the Twitter conversation, said that most people outside PR don't realize how difficult earned media can be. Even when you've done the research and have a newsworthy pitch, getting placement -- especially in print with limited space -- can be long and frustrating. Yet the metrics for a successful PR campaign are how many clips were generated.

The sad truth is that too often clients don't see the value in 'Opt-in' communications. You've probably run into the arguments of "It doesn't cost us anything to send more" and "We don't want to miss any opportunity, regardless of how infinitesimally small." When being measured in terms of how much placement you're able to get, not pitching a media outlet is often an unacceptable practice. At best that means a note recognizing that the journalist/blogger doesn't typically cover this space but they might be interested in this product anyway; at worst a blanket mailing to all media with no personalization or research into areas of coverage.

All the training and discussion of best practices will be secondary if PR people feel their success is only tied to their ability to secure coverage. If building relationships goes unnoticed to managers and clients unless they can be leveraged into coverage, then they are not truly being valued at an institutional level.

Good Compromises Leave Everyone Unhappy

In keeping with the challenge that Mack gave me, I'm not just going to layout the problems. Here are some compromises bloggers and PR professionals can make to move forward and hopefully relieve some of this tension.

Bloggers -- Force opt-in communications. It may require that you sacrifice having your personal email address online if you really don't want to receive pitches to it. Even on a personal site, if it's posted online, it's public. Once you've taken email out of the equation what can you to do still rely on PR to help scale your resources for discovery, that you will need as you grow?

1. Social Networks -- Some bloggers/reporters have already indicated they prefer to be pitched on social networks, with facebook being the one I hear most often. Since you control who is in your network, you can decide which PR firms or individuals you want to be pitched by.
2. Twitter -- Microblogging tends to encourage conversations more than pitches. My personal connections with a number of PR people on Twitter has never been overwhelmed by pitches (but I'm not really their target either). By choosing who you follow, you are mostly in control of the content you get. In fact, if you are not following someone they can't send you a DM, through if they @ message you, it will show up in your timeline.
3. Blog Comments -- Requiring PR people to come to your blog and leave a comment tying their product to something you've already written with information for you to contact them. The public nature of the comments means that most Bad PR (not actual spam) will shy away from this kind of scrutiny.
4. RSS Feeds -- Marshall Kirkpatrick of RWW has already said he prefers to be pitched this way. I think that this is a under-appreciated channel for pitching. Bloggers should be able to request 'pitch feeds' that they can monitor for news that is interesting to them.

PR Industry -- Show the value of opt-in communications. One thing I will credit the PR Blacklists for is providing a tangible way to show the damage that can be done by indiscriminate pitching. If you've been looking for a way to convince your clients/management that you should not send a pitch to every media publication or blogger available, use these lists to your advantage. If you really wanted to go for the gold, build your own internal list of double opt-in media beyond what the PR databases indicate. (And, set-up a 'pitch feed' for your clients that you can provide bloggers and media so they'll always be the first to know when you have new information available.)

And, once you've set up your opt-in process, institutionalize the value of relationships. One of the points that jumped out starkly was Gina getting pitched by multiple people within a single agency with no communication between them. I'm not familiar with any PR software like SalesForce or Eloqua that facilitates relationship management but maybe it should exist. Beyond the logistical value, recording interactions with media allows the agency to continue relationships after individual people leave. Knowing the history of what's been sent to them, and what they've covered, saves each person from re-inventing the wheel with each media contact.

Junior Staffers -- Get a mentor. This can be your direct manager who can advise you in the work you do day-to-day and give advice on how to improve. Or it can be someone you are not directly accountable to, which can make asking awkward questions a little easier. Or it might even be someone outside your company with whom you can have regular contact. Once you've found someone, be sure to ask the long-term questions about building valuable relationships, not frustrating media with your pitches, and how balance client and media relationships. Then, be sure to keep your mentor informed of your progress. They'll want to know the results of their efforts in providing you with guidance. This won't solve all your problems but at least gives you a real person to try and sort them out with.

Overall, I recognize that the conflict between public relations and media doesn't help either side. The true professionals on both sides do want to see positive change in the way things are done. I hope that I've been a constructive voice in this larger discussion as well.

Del.icio.us tag: PR+Blacklist

Update: Todd Defren from SHIFT Communications has a great post with 7 promises PR professionals interested in improving their own blogger relations can make.

Originally published at Zappo.net78. Please leave any comments there.

Before I begin the story of my farewell, let me just say that Dmitri Gunn did an excellent job putting together the Gary Vee Wine Library TV event and after party. (I showed up for the after party.) It's not a task I would have wanted to take on but all I heard were positive reviews of it.

At the last minute, my mother-in-law came into town, which meant my wife had help with the kids and packing. Since we leave for Austin in less than 2 weeks, this is important. Some early conversation with Aaron Strout on Twitter had secured me a ticket and I was excited to go.

The drive in was easier than I'd expected but I had to loop several times looking for parking. There just wasn't any to be had, except for this vacant lot behind the bank (I know, red flags right). Well, after a few passes I read the sign and it seemed like I might be alright.

Inside the party, I was able to do some introductions. Great to meet Adam Cohen and Jonathan Yarmis in person (and reconnect Shelly with her business card). And I said some farewells to the people who I've gotten to know in Boston, in large part thanks to the social media groups and tools around the city. So I was enjoying the evening and having a good time.

Then, when I went to pick up my car. It wasn't there. I had to call the number on the sign, the Boston police, my wife to get the license plate number, the Boston police, and finally the towing company that had my ride. Fortunately when I went back to the party, a few people were still going strong and Adam Zand was willing to give me a ride. Huge thanks goes out to him. I owe you, talk to me about a couch if you come to SXSW.

But, before we got going we decided to get some directions from the hotel front desk. Sitting in the lobby happened to be Gary (yep, that Gary) and so we listened to him and talked with him for a while. The man has an insane amount of energy. We were joined by Laura "Pistachio" "Monetization" Fitton and had some interesting discussions about the next 10 years when we're all creating content and working for ourselves. (I'm paraphrasing.)

Finally, Adam and I head off... to the completely wrong location. The very helpful woman at the front desk didn't know how to use MapQuest and sent us into Roxbury. Fortunately, Adam pulled over (at 1am) to ask three guys walking along the street. An old man, with so much tape on his glasses I'm not sure how he saw out of them, was able to give us directions when I called the towing company again and got the name of the place. He must have been a local.

So, back on the road, we find the tow shop. I pay my $120 to the guy (cash, of course) and I'm ready to get back on my way. I really don't blame the tow guy, he even showed me how to get back to I-90 since I had no clue where we even were. On the way home, I made sure to stick to the speed limit. All I would have needed to cap this night off was a speeding ticket.

And so, in my final week of living in Boston, after not having been towed for 5 years, this is how the city decides to say farewell. Nice.

But, it doesn't have to be this way. You can stand up and say "Hell no, we're not going to let you do that." Just donate a dollar through ChipIn and you can set the city of Boston straight.

Originally published at Zappo.net78. Please leave any comments there.

So, I feel like my blog is really growing up. Yesterday I had my first comment spam.

And, I would have just killed it, except that the Web addresses aren't linked. Also, they let me know "Please do not consider this a spam."

I'd give some pointers but I really don't want them to get better. I'll just hope it was an April Fool's joke.