Next Thursday, November 4th, I’ll be attending the second meeting of the Connecticut Blogger’s Group at Thali’s in New Haven. This start-up group is the brain child of Ed Bartlett who has made it his mission connecting people and businesses in Connecticut. What an honor it is for me to be included in the inaugural group where these good people seek to create a change in their community and in the lives of their readers. Some of the best and brightest, their names include:

This summer, my son Kyler and I created an oasis (what we call the awaysis) in our backyard. It was a spot lovingly chosen under an apple tree and looks back into the woods behind our house. We have a huge variety of birds that visit (hummingbirds, and the Red-Tailed hawk being my favorites). There are flowers, butterflies and dragonflies. Kyler and I hung wind chimes, geraniums, and purchased the best glass top writing table we could find. We set up two chairs for the table and two lounge chairs for relaxed reading. This place is our escape. This place is where we go to do our writing and thinking . . . and a bit of wine drinking.

It seems lately, if you are in public relations, your job might be equated with something along the lines of being a unscrupulous used-car salesman. BP, the government, and even my beloved Apple, have contributed to the notion that PR is the cover-up agency for bad behavior or a poor product line. As Communications and Public Relations Director of AIGA Connecticut, I thought I’d write a few paragraphs on what I believe public relations is and why it’s important for your organization or business.

“There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.” – Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American Educator.

I was shattered. The editor had sliced and diced my copy into something unrecognizable. The article was to be an important piece for me. Of course, I know editors have a job to do, but the heartbreak came because I had not been consulted nor was the copy returned to me for correction prior to my seeing it in its published form. The real horror was that the editor had carved out chunks of text so that even the quotes from my interviewees were incomplete and connections between sentences were oddly missing. There were entire paragraphs that didn’t make sense. Yet, there it was in all its misery, published, engraved in stone . . . with my name attached to it.

I receive many notices from art organizations and galleries which masquerade as press releases. Today I received a press release from an fairly well established gallery. The email was without a subject line. There was no content in the body of the email, it wasn’t addressed Dear Lisa or Dear Press Editor, and there was simply an attachment without explanation. This happens a lot. I hit delete.

Sometimes I get two, three or even four emails from the same organization in the course of a week . . . sometimes even within 24 hours. I generally stop reading at this point because they are approaching spam. One of the first things I learned in PR was . . . Don’t piss off the press!  No one benefits from this. As such, I thought it might be time to take a look at the proper way to write and distribute a press release.

I recently rediscovered my local library. I can’t imagine why it escaped me the last 5 years, but it’s a wonderful environment in which to work.  My library was recently remodeled and now comes equip with sloping ceilings, exposed beams and floor to ceiling windows.  I have a favorite spot.  It’s tucked in back with a comfortable chair next to a window that receives sunshine all afternoon. It’s quiet, of course.  While working at the library, I find I can complete entire thoughts, work through solutions, plan, organize and get work done in a peaceful setting.  I’m incredibly productive there and I come home feeling happy and refreshed.  The library makes me feel like I’m hiding out.

AIGA Connecticut is doing it again and is presenting what promises to be another extraordinary workshop.  On March 10, 2010, award winning photographer and writer, Sean Kernan, will talk about real creativity.  This is not the creativity we learned in school or at work, but the stuff we knew from the start. The workshop will explore how our basic creative impulses affect our lives and our work and how new thinking can open our eyes to the wonderment of what might be an enhanced creative lifestyle.

According to AIGA CT, this workshop will not help you get work, fall in love or make you healthy, but it might just get you back in touch with those creative ideas that you perhaps might have had as a free thinking child.

Sean Kernan

Sean Kernan  lives and works on the Connecticut coast. His photographs have been shown in museums around the world, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Museum of Photography in Greece, and the Whitney Museum in the United States.  Mr. Kernan has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Communication Arts, Graphis, and the Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of Among Trees (Published by Artisan Books, May 2003) and The Secret Books, with Jorge Luis Borges.

This event is $40 for AIGA members and $50 for non-members. If you sign up to become an AIGA member at this event, the event is FREE!
To purchase tickets, visit AIGA CT Online

And writers, photographers, musicians, designers and you, too.  Maybe I’m preaching to the choir here, but this morning I attended a social media and power networking breakfast and was surprised at the number of people who weren’t taking advantage of social media to promote their businesses.  Social media (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) is one of the greatest tools available today in which to market your work and your talent. Hell, it’s a great tool just to meet some excellent people.  Never before have we been able to promote our work to people around the corner, the nation and around the world with the click of a mouse.  Social media makes it possible. Millions of people have a Facebook page and/or a Twitter account… There’s a lot of networking you could be doing right now.

You are not just an artist.  You are an entrepreneur and you’re in the business of selling and promoting your work. The world is changing.  Business models are changing.  Social media is a tool for positive change.  It’s important, now more then ever, to reach out to like-minded people and be a part of the change. I know you are probably thinking, “Holy cow, I don’t have time for that nonsense. And who cares what I had for breakfast?”  Using social media is not about what you had for breakfast.  I guarantee you that marketing using these online avenues only takes about 10 minutes a day and it will make a huge difference in your business plan.  Simply log on and tell your fans, in 140 characters, daily news from your studio or gallery.  Talk about your process or your challenges.  Create a page or group just for your business.  You can create lists to organize your followers according to your interests.  To save you time, there are applications such as Tweetdeck which will allow you to type one entry and display it over several social media networks automatically.  Update Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin all at once.  You’re done.

I’m a believer in social media.  In just the last year, social media has revolutionized my social life and my business life in the most remarkable ways.  I’m now attending art events that I wouldn’t have even know about in 2008.  I’ve met artists, photographers, gallerists, and world class journalists.  I was invited to sit on the board of AIGA CT because of my connections on Facebook.  I’ve gotten writing assignments, retained clients and even went camping because of social media.  I’ve learned a lot.  All these connections created new connections and best of all…new opportunities.

I’d love to share some tips and resources for social media here with you.  Are you using Facebook?  Twitter or Linkedin?  Or does the whole notion of social media just freak you out?

You can find me here:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lisa.mikulski or creativeartsguide
Twitter: @lisamikulski or @creativeartsg
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lisamikulski