Ring The Bell This Holiday Season

By Tami Casey
A volunteer ringing a bell for charity is as much a part of the American Christmas experience as cookies and lights. But this year, the fear is that people are tapped out, worn down and will be giving less.

Charities and the holiday season seem to go hand-in-hand. While nearly 20 Christmases have passed, I still recall my first Christmas as an adult volunteer at a charity in a small community. My first child was barely a month old and I had signed up to help out at the community holiday drive, which offered assistance to those who had fallen on hard times.

I vividly remember a forlorn young mother shyly approaching the table to receive groceries for a holiday dinner. She was nervous, as this was her first time receiving assistance and she wasn’t sure what to expect. As I handed her the bag of food she smiled graciously, but when I handed her the gifts for her children, the tears started to roll down her face. It had been a hard year for her, she said. She’d lost her job and was struggling to pay rent and keep the family fed and didn’t think there would be any gifts that year. To her, this was a miracle made possible by a charity (and the efforts of strangers) in her time of need.  

For me, the best part of that day was finding my own joy in hers. Although its been 20 years, the “gift” I received from that experience will last a lifetime, and since then I’ve found many opportunities to volunteer and help others.

2009 has been a hard year all around, but I hope we’ll all dig a little deeper into our pockets this holiday season and add another name to the gift list—maybe a teen in a shelter or a family in need. Also consider another gift – give a bit of yourself and consider signing up as a volunteer. To find volunteer opportunities near you, call or visit www.1-800-volunteer.org

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Another Sign of the Times—Get Ready to Pay Up for Online News

By Cathy Wright
In addition to paying rent or a mortgage, paying for groceries, health insurance, school and gas, we’re getting closer and closer to having to also shell out for access to online news. The reason: newspapers around the world are declining in revenues or worse, folding altogether. The Internet is partly at fault for the decline, but the slumping economy and sharp dip in advertising is sure to blame as well.
 
Media moguls such as News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch and others are getting noisy about this issue and ready to shut it down and start collecting for what they view as missed revenue. In August, Mr. Murdoch told the world he plans to eventually charge for online access to content for all News Corp. publications, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Times in London, and the Daily Telegraph. The charge would either be levied direct to readers via access subscriptions or to companies distributing News Corp. content on their Websites.
 
And to stir the pot even more, Mr. Murdoch also revealed News Corp was considering blocking Google from being able to search its newspaper websites. Executives from the likes of Twitter and Yahoo are now weighing in. After enjoying free access to news all these years, it’s going to be painful to suddenly pay up for something that we’ve come to expect for free. It’s like suddenly being charged a toll to walk down the street or charged to hang out with friends. Stay tuned!
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Top 5 Tips to a Successful Office Holiday Party

By Kelly Indrieri

The countdown to the holiday season has begun and that can mean only one thing, the office holiday party. Okay, maybe it means more than one thing, but for those of you who anticipate your company party as much as we do here at Kulesa Faul, I've compiled a list of the Top 5 Tips to a Successful Office Holiday Party. I’m hoping this can serve as a public service.

Number 5. Avoid red lipstick (I offer this one based on experience)

Number 4. Be careful of overzealous dancing (people will talk about it the next day, I promise)

Number 3. Don’t drink and drive (hail a cab, call a friend, just stay safe)

Number 2. Avoid using this event as an opportunity to tell a colleague how you really feel (a party should be about love people, remember that)

And the Number 1 Tip to a Successful Office Holiday Party: Remembering that what happens at the office party DOESN’T stay at the office party (so keep it clean folks)

So take the evening to celebrate your colleagues, clients and the year’s success. Just try not to be the butt of the joke the next day. Believe me, you’ll thank me for it.
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The WINDOWS 7 Pepsi Challenge

By Kristina Molfino
It recently occurred to me that the Mac vs. PC debate is similar to that of Coke vs. Pepsi. There are few products competing head to head that illicit such a stark division among consumers of the two. Coca-Cola drinkers turn their nose up at Pepsi, similar to how Mac users glare at PCs. Is there really a difference, or is this just branding at its finest?

Unfortunately, I have yet to come up with a “blind taste test” for the operating system, but I highly doubt that the release of Windows 7 will cause Mac users to return to a PC. You know the expression: once you go Mac you never go back.

I think that Mac vs. PC and Coke vs. Pepsi are ways of life and, aside from all of the hype, they are rarely affected by product upgrades. After the buzz has silenced, it will be interesting to see if consumer preferences really have changed. But for now, I will sit back in front of my Mac and enjoy my Diet Coke!
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A Wild Week on the Web & the SideKick Debacle Hits Home

By Tami Casey
I heard a scream from my daughter’s room, “it’s gone, it’s all gone.“ As I poked my head in the door I saw her standing holding her most prized possession—a slightly battered, well used Sidekick phone.

My husband (the techie) tried restarting the phone and resetting the battery, but nothing worked. As tears welled in her eyes, my husband called T-Mobile and learned the servers had a technical glitch that caused “widespread data loss.” A few days later we learned that a large number of the 1 million+ Sidekick users were also affected.

My daughter fell into in a state of shock. How could it all be gone? She had lost 500+ contacts, 200 pictures, 300 mp3s and 20 songs she spent countless hours writing. She’s been a “Sidekick Girl” essentially her whole life, and all 13 years of accumulated information on the phone was gone in an instant. Fortunately the word on the street is she may get her data back.

Being a communicator in the tech industry I found the whole episode interesting. Why did it take Microsoft four days to provide any kind of a response? While on Thursday they said they would be able to recover the data, they were way too quiet for the first few days. Any good communicator understands that lack of comment causes a void which leads to speculation, which is exactly what happened as the blogosphere went wild developing theories of what could have gone wrong along with fantastic stories of internal sabotage.

Will Microsoft recover from this misstep or will the incident provide fodder for those that love to hate Microsoft? I have my own theory—I think Microsoft paid Balloon Boy to pull Thursday’s stunt to draw the blogosphere’s attention in another direction. What’s your theory?
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How do you define ‘Cloud Computing?’—Seeking video submissions

By Julie Tangen
There is so much hype and confusion around "the cloud." People are talking about it everywhere, but what exactly does cloud computing mean? Our client, Appirio, is seeking the best viral video that explains cloud computing to the masses. The winning videos will be screened on the floor of Dreamforce—the premiere cloud computing event which draws about 12,000 people—and promoted on Appirio's Dreamforce Central site. Oh, and the company is also giving away $5,000 to the winning submissions.

To enter, first create your original "cloud computing" video (no more than 2 minutes in length). Somewhere in the video, you must include "submitted for the Appirio Cloud Computing Video Contest." Second, upload your video to the YouTube group called "Appirio Cloud Computing Video Contest." You need to be a member of YouTube and to sign up for the group to submit it. If you're not already a YouTube member, don't worry, it only takes a second to sign up.

Entries are due November 3rd and finalists will be announced starting November 9. The final prize winners will be announced on Appirio's Dreamforce Central site (dreamforce.appirio.com) on November 18.

For more information please click here.
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Happy National ! ; : ( ) ? . “ - … Day

By Danielle Salvato
Yes, you read it right. Last Thursday, September 24, marked the “6th annual National Punctuation Day.” Each year this day celebrates “the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.” The goal is to get people to pay attention to not only their p’s and q’s, but also their commas, semicolons and ellipses, parenthesis, apostrophes, exclamation points, dashes and hyphens.

Former newspaperman and copy editor, Jeff Rubin, founded the annual day and successfully bid for September 24 to be listed as a holiday in Chase’s Calendar of Events in 2004. Since then, the Web site has received worldwide coverage. Although the day came and went without a lot of notice this year, even among those working in the journalistic field. It is no wonder given the casual approach to punctuation these days. With Twitter, text messaging, Facebook and other forms of social media, people have taken liberties in forming their own casual dialogue and language, aka slang.

We can all do our part to keep the English language grammatically correct by taking the following vows:

“I will use the apostrophe to show possession, not to pluralize a word.”

“I will promise not to use the apostrophe to show possession in the word its.”

“I will not abuse the use of the exclamation point.”

“I will promise to always put periods inside of quotation marks.”

“I will promise to spell out numbers one through nine, and use figures for 10 and above.”

For questions, please refer to the Grammarians’ bible, “The AP Stylebook,” or test your punctuation skills by taking a quiz. If you are serious about changing your habits and keeping yourself grammatically correct, you can receive newsletters from the Grammar Girl, a friendly way to improve writing skills, every day with her “Quick and Dirty Tips.”

We will revisit this again next year and all take the vows together. Period.
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If it Bleeds it Leads…

By Tanaya Cook
Are we living in a world today where controversy and negativity are the main topics that get the spotlight? President Barack Obama sure thinks so. In a recent interview with political correspondent George Stephanopoulos, President Obama openly shared his disappointment about media coverage of late. “The easiest way to get 15 minutes on the news or your 15 minutes of fame is to be rude. ... That's something that I think needs to change."

But popular tabloid bloggers such as Perez Hilton have made a full time job out of posting negative pictures and rude comments about celebrities, and every day people flock to read his latest rants. Have we really become a society where important global issues are ignored? Has newsworthiness been replaced by surface level gossip? I guess the age adorned saying still holds truth: “If it Bleeds, it Leads.” I’m off to go check out Perez Hilton☺
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Stand up for (insert cause here)

By Robin Bulanti
I’ve always been drawn to volunteer work. I dreamed of joining the Peace Corps but the closest I came was a year spent volunteering as an ESL teacher in China. Today I’m proud to be part of our agency’s efforts to give back, from volunteer hours to a number of charities we support. Volunteering expands the heart, mind and community. And heck, a little outside perspective is always a good thing.

Recently my colleague Tami and I volunteered as media clinicians at the Spin Academy, an annual retreat run by San Francisco’s Spin Project with activists selected for 60 coveted spots. Our assignment was to help train these non-profits in more effective media and communications.

I met some impressive individuals struggling with some pretty familiar challenges: competing for shrinking media attention, doing more with less resources—needing more hands or more hours in the day, sound familiar?—and somehow adding social media to the mix.

I feel strongly that non-profits must engage social networks now, and was surprised how many hadn’t yet jumped in for the cause. In my mind it’s a group that can actually “profit,” not just in mindshare but the real financial sense of the word, from social channels and online community building. Social media can be a way to mobilize people quickly, and a dirt-cheap soapbox.

We’re currently doing our own pro bono work for The Gorilla Foundation, and Koko the Gorilla, famous for her own communication skills. It’s been interesting to watch how this work breathes new life into our team, while all of our clients benefit from the perspective we gain championing a cause.
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Beat L.A.

By Scott Lechner
Here at Kulesa Faul it’s all about teamwork. From building PR plans to changing out the water bottle at the water cooler, I’m part of a company where (like in baseball) everyone comes together to get the job done.

We work together and we also play together. Several weeks back my colleagues and I went to a Giants game—and not just any old game—but a Giants-Dodgers game that had playoff implications. Our home team won on a walk-off homer in the 11th inning, no less. Aside from the win, the best part was bonding with my teammates outside the office, cheering in unison (and paying no mind to the complaining Dodger fans behind us who said we were blocking their view). The cherry on top though was seeing the Kulesa Faul name in High Definition on the Giants scoreboard. I think we all came back to work the next day feeling like a stronger group.

Our company has a pretty unique culture and our clients view us as a "well oiled machine." I believe our team-building trips have helped to strengthen our relationships and have led to a more productive team-oriented group. After all, it's one thing to collaborate on PR projects, and another to trade mustard stains with a colleague at the ol' ballpark. While both are important, the mustard definitely brings more laughs, and probably a few more memories. Go Giants!
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Am I Guilty of Being an Annoying Facebooker?

By Kelly Indrieri
I came across a CNN.com article by Brandon Griggs this week and couldn't resist opening the link and readying myself to judge all of the "annoying Facebookers" out there. Thank God I am not one of them. After all, I never self-promote. Okay, maybe just once or twice, but who hasn’t? While I try not to reveal the mundane details of my life, surely people would be fascinated to know that my brother is coming to visit this weekend, or that I cant sleep. And I never lurk on the pages of people I don’t regularly communicate with. I’m not a peeping Tom, after all! I am bigger than that (unless of course its my ex-boyfriend, but everyone does that, don’t they?).

Okay, maybe I am an annoying Facebooker…but only to a small degree. I am not a chronic inviter, I don't collect friends and I have never been accused of being a crank. At the end of the day, we have all been guilty of one Facebook offense or another, but one person’s annoying status update is another person’s insight into a friend. One person’s lurking is another person’s chance to say, “I’m over you” or “See what you’re missing.” Might not all be great things, but the one thing we ARE all guilty of is the addictive power of Facebook. In fact, I bet its open on your computer right now...if so, feel free to shoot me a friend request at facebook.com/kellyindrieri. I’m thinking about starting a new collection.
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Questioning the Future of Journalism

By Julie Tangen
I did a double take when I saw the San Francisco Chronicle (or what’s left of it) on the newsstand today. Sadly, San Francisco's last paid-circulation daily paper has dwindled down to just a few pages of content. It’s not just our city, though. Across the U.S. we’ve seen circulation numbers plunging, ad revenue dropping, staffs being slashed, papers folding and many others declaring bankruptcy. Why? I believe it’s partly due to the fact that we—as consumers of news—have just become too darn impatient. Today, Facebook, Twitter and blogs give us our news as it happens (for free) and the bottom line is that we no longer need to buy a newspaper to find out what’s happening in our world.

While it’s much easier to follow a favorite blogger or Twitterer, I can’t help but wonder if and how this hurts traditional reporting. A journalist (ideally) has a professional responsibility to verify information, check sources, print facts, portray the story from different viewpoints, and have a pretense of being objective. To this end, what a journalist writes has gone through some sort of peer or editorial review process. If publications continue to cut staff and resources, this level of responsibility will surely change. But will this change be for better or for worse? Do you think this new age of ‘digital journalism’ will provide new and better ways of telling a story or are we trading quality of reporting for instant access?

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Viral Video Strikes a Chord

By Danielle Salvato
Although many may want it, you can’t force something to become popular. When an issue or campaign goes viral, it is organic, naturally making its way around the world, gaining popularity through word of mouth, the click of a button, blogs, Tweets and re-Tweets and Facebook.

A perfect example of how one viral video made its way to millions of people started with a man and his guitar.

To sum it up quickly, Sons of Maxwell, a Canadian country band, flew on United Airlines in the spring of 2008, traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour. Dave Carroll, the lead singer of the band, witnessed his guitar being thrown around and mishandled by United baggage handlers in the Chicago O’Hare airport. The guitar was severely damaged in the hands of United. After several attempts, Carroll received no compensation from the airline, not one dime. In response, Carroll created a YouTube video on July 6, 2009, titled “United Breaks Guitars.” Carroll has his own blog that details the whole story.

“United Breaks Guitars” has struck a chord with people. Within 10 days of the video’s release, it had received 3,234,157 views. The news has also appeared on national news broadcasts, morning shows and newspapers, including NBC’s Today Show, CNN, NPR and the San Francisco Chronicle. It has also hit Mashable, in addition to top IT trade publications, such as Computerworld, making its way around to various audiences and industries. And not to mention the world of Twitter is eating this up.

The video has also gained the attention of United and representatives have reached out to Carroll, although the results of those conversations have not been released publicly. The key takeaway is that through one United traveler’s creativity, wit and compelling social media content, the world backed him up virally and United has finally listened and will likely continue to feel the effects from this social media backlash for some time.
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The Blogger’s Watchmen

By Dave Struzzi
If you’ve got a blog, the FTC may soon be your biggest fan. That’s because if passed, recently proposed guidelines by the Federal Trade Commission would give the agency unprecedented power to patrol what you write in it.

Of course, these new powers aren’t meant to patrol your daily blog about your newest kitten. Rather, they’re intended to curtail the abuse of “payola” bloggers—those that accept cash and gifts in exchange for writing positively about a company, without disclosing it.

As print media finds itself battling decreasing circulation numbers and online outlets being outpaced by the 24/7 nature of blogs, these blogs have become the go-to destination for millions of people searching for honest advice on their favorite products. But should these blogs be forced to disclose all the freebies they receive? And if so, will people still accept a blog’s advice knowing this?

I believe the changing landscape of online journalism has led to a more mature blog, one that wields more power than ever before. And those that lack full disclosure could potentially alienate their legions of followers. A blog that admits to receiving a product freebie wouldn’t see an effect on readership, but I believe it would receive an increase in reader loyalty. It would also eliminate the many “This blog is in the pocket of Company X” comments that are so rampant.

Blogs have transformed greatly over the past few years. They’ve gone from being younger distant relative to print journalism, to its likely successor. In this way, I believe it must inherit the quality of full disclosure and upfront honesty that enabled print journalism to stay so dominant in the first place.
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Old Brands, New Tricks: Using Social Networking to Reach ‘Always On’ Generation

By Julie Tangen
Coleman, a well-known retailer of outdoor equipment, was pretty smart to come up with its ‘Original Social Networking’ campaign. This is a great example of a traditional brand leveraging new trends to make itself relevant in a digital age. You’ve probably seen the commercials— folks gathered around a campfire while the narrative talks of the good old days, reminding us that Coleman has been bringing people together long before Facebook and Twitter were invented.

What’s most interesting to me is that Coleman is promoting itself through Facebook and partnering with Apple to integrate the tradition of outdoor activity with today’s technology. By bringing the two together, customers can enjoy the best of both worlds.

At first the idea of this 109 year-old company joining the Web 2.0 movement is a bit like stumbling across your Grandfather on Facebook. But if you check out their profile you’ll see they have some really fun apps available for free download. (My favorite is the one that turns an iPhone into a hand-held light.) Its interesting to see Coleman making the correlation between old and new ways of socializing and actually taking steps to reach a new generation of consumers. I love that after a century of doing business, Coleman still remains true to its mission of creating stronger bonds with family and friends—no matter whether these bonds are created around the campfire or over an Internet connection.
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6 Tips for Reinvigorating Your Corporate Blog

By Tami Casey
Compelling content is one of the best ways to reach customers and potential customers, and one of the best channels for posting content is the company blog. While the blog is a common on most corporate sites, the quality and freshness of these blogs varies greatly.
  
Nothing turns off a visitor to your site more than an inactive blog. But in today's "do more with less" world, who has the time to keep the blog fresh?  Banish stagnant blogs by resourcing them properly and refreshing content weekly. Here are six tips to help keep the blog fresh and active:

1. Editorial Calendar—Establish an editorial direct/owner and make sure to create a three month calendar of potential topics and owners. Populate the calendar with important dates such as product introductions and industry events.
2. Length—keep blogs to 250–300 words. For lengthy pieces, consider making it a two part story.
3. Repurpose content—Trouble coming up with unique content ideas? Summarize white papers or press releases and mixing in personal opinion to create fresh blog posts. Attending a tradeshow? Repurpose your show description with some unique facts about your tradeshow staff or facts about the tradeshow location.
4. Comment on industry happenings—Is a competitor being acquired? Does an industry leader make a blunder? Is there a particularly interesting industry story to tell? Consider recapping the news with your personal take on the item.  
5. Guest bloggers—Do you have a customer that has provided a glowing review of a new feature or a thank you for exceptional service? Consider asking them to pen a guest post on your site.
6. Promote your blog—Use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to point people to your blog.

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Standing up Against Censorship

By Kelly Indrieri
With the recent news that the Chinese government will soon be requiring all personal PCs shipped into the country be bundled with "Green Dam" software (software intended to block access to what the government deems illicit content on the Web), one is left to wonder in the face of this kind of censorship, how much private PC vendors, like HP and Dell, can do to stand up against government censorship for the greater good and the protection of freedom of speech or in this case search.

With PC sales to China projected to exceed 40 million units in 2009, is it too risky a business choice for PC vendors to fight back and potentially lose millions, or even billions, in revenue as a result? It's easy to argue that it is not the job of individual companies to take a moral stance by refusing to go along with this requirement. Yes, it will hurt business, but if they all stand together, could they affect change? One could argue that it is unlikely to change the position of the Chinese government, but a united front, at least, might force their hand and enable a softening of this regulation. Apparently, discussions are in play and I look forward to keeping an eye on the developments and seeing, if come July 1, some policy changes have been made.
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Call to Arms for Securing the U.S. Digital Infrastructure—It’s About Time

By Cathy Wright
Did you hear the big news on Friday? The government officially acknowledged that the nation’s digital infrastructure is under ‘near constant’ attack. President Obama went on record to say the threat from hackers to critical data systems is among “the most serious economic and national security challenge facing the U.S. today.” A heavy statement, given all the other bad news making headlines every day.

How did we get to this vulnerable point? In my opinion it all comes down to investments…or lack there of. Just as the government needs cash to fix decrepit roadways and bridges and hospitals, it also must invest in the securing of the U.S. data infrastructure as well. Until now, less importance has been placed on the latter and I applaud Obama for now taking cyber crime seriously and for his administration’s decision to address this very real problem. It’s about time.

Given my profession I’m a close watcher of technology innovation and can say that today there are countless technologies out there for stopping hackers and cyber threats. However the fact that Obama is raising awareness around cyber security gives everyone—from universities and hospitals, to the enterprise, to the steps of the White House— pause to re-examine and question their current methods. It’s definitely ‘game on’ for all the security vendors out there and will be interesting to watch.
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'Jumping the Shark'—Are ‘Happy Days’ Over for Twitter?

By Julie Tangen
A colleague and I were discussing all the celebrities now on Twitter and she said 'Oh yeah, Twitter jumped the shark.' What does this mean? I'm interested! She reminded me about the episode on Happy Days where Fonzie jumps over a confined shark while water skiing, and how that event signified the end of the series.

The phrase has been used more recently outside the realm of popular culture, representing anything that has reached its peak and has declined in quality. With Twitter ‘Kingpins' like Oprah, Ellen, and Kim Kardashian signing up for an account, along with that silly Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN stunt that I blogged about last month, one could argue that Twitter has reached its peak, or "jumped the shark." Do these celebrities even matter?

As editor Harry McCracken puts it in a Technologizer article earlier this week, 'I have nothing against following the rich and famous via Twitter, but it’s not the thing I’d be proudest of if I’d invented Twitter." Well said.

Twitter has proved to be useful in my line of business, but for how long?

Let me know what you think. And, of course, follow me
on Twitter :-) @julietangen

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SEO Experts Be Damned!

By Tami Casey
I recently attended the Inbound Marketing Summit (#ISM09) in San Francisco where I met many new friends and learned about the latest news and trends from industry experts. The schedule was jam packed and most days left my head spinning. But some of the more “sticky” presentations for me were on content and search. In fact, my key take away from the conference is that marketing in 2009 is about being found online via search, media sites, blogs and social networks.

Do we need the latest hot shot SEO Expert? While SEO expertise is great—the search algorithms and details change at whim. A big part of the strategy for showing up on page one of a search must include provisions to drive organic traffic. Say what? Yep, don’t place all your bets on gaming Google and the SEO gods. Provide a good Web site that helps users find what they are looking for, know who your audience is, where they congregate online, establish a presence on that site, and then create content that your users want. And don’t forget to make that content free and easy to access. Then add a little secret sauce to the recipe. Let your businesses humanity shine through in all that you do online and don’t forget to surprise and delight the prospects that find you. If you manage to do these key things—you will be found online and customers will be sure to come back again and again.
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Windows 7 adoption in the enterprise: Never underestimate the power of public opinion

By Scott Lechner
A recent ‘Windows 7 adoption in the enterprise’ survey commissioned by KACE showed that 75 percent of the 1,200 IT professionals polled would not make the move to upgrade to Windows 7 over the next year. Why is this? Turns out that an overwhelming number of respondents cited Windows Vista’s bad reputation as the number one reason they will not make the upgrade. Many of the 15 percent that do plan on upgrading to Windows 7 will choose the more complicated jump from XP to the new OS—completely bypassing the Vista version. An incremental upgrade from XP, to Vista to Windows 7 seems much easier, so it is interesting to see that IT pros are choosing a more complex deployment strategy rather than deal with Vista.

A ‘black cloud,’ such as the one looming over Vista, has the potential of overshadowing future product rollouts and launches, no matter how great the product promises to be. Never underestimate the power of public opinion!

A developer friend of mine said he has been running the Windows 7 beta for a couple months now and loves it. What do you think? Any one else have Windows 7 experience they would like to share?
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Enough with the Swine Flu Already...I'm going to Cabo!

By Kelly Indrieri
In the midst of a swine flu media frenzy, I booked a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Why, might you ask? Because sometimes I just don't buy what the media is selling. Don’t get me wrong, I'm a PR person and can appreciate the value of the media because I work with reporters regularly. But do a Google news search for “swine flu” and there are over half a million articles and it’s only been a week since the story broke. It’s depressing and overdone. Even the happy stories get to me after a while—Susan Boyle anyone?

But I digress. I appreciate the warning, but I also like other news along with my episode of ‘Fear Factor.’ Yes there is an outbreak. Yes we need to know. But can someone give me a side dish of ‘citizen makes good’ or ‘business owner wins big’ along with my main course of Swine? National media, hear my plea—I can’t be the only one, can I? (And did I mention that we have a few clients you could cover?) Seriously though, I’m putting away the paper, turning off the news this week and I’m going to Cabo in two months—flu or no flu! Care to join me?
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RSA 2009

By Tanaya Cook
Last week IT security professionals made their way to San Francisco for the annual RSA Conference at Moscone Center. While attendance was clearly down (and we all know why...); there was no shortage of news on the show floor. Kulesa Faul clients were represented across the spectrum—from the launch of Mykonos, to Cymphonix revealing their latest secure Web gateway solution (Network Revealer), to CoreTrace debating the future of application whitelisting, and Cenzic continuing their fight for stronger Web application security.

All in all, RSA gave us a chance to catch up on the latest trends in security and meet face to face with people we work with every day, clients, press, and analysts. We even got to take in performances from notable figures in the world of music, including critically acclaimed Rock Jazz Pianist, Eric Lewis, at the Drake!

While the SWAG was not as impressive as in past years, we did manage to restock our supply of pens :). See you at RSA 2010!
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Dude, where’s my Twitter?

By Julie Tangen
Celebrity Ashton Kutcher leveraged Twitter for a publicity stunt this week, challenging CNN to a ‘popularity contest’ to see who can reach the 1 million followers mark first. If he wins, Kutcher says he will "ding-dong ditch" CNN founder Ted Turner's house. While its a pretty funny thought, I can't help but think gimmicks like this might ruin the Twitter experience in the long run. The technology presents us with a way to instantly communicate and listen to experts, influencers, and people who are making real contributions to society—in addition to fun stuff, or whatever is top of mind with friends. Twitter is part of something that has the potential to change the way we all keep in touch; let's hope it doesn't get so polluted with noise that its potential power gets diminished. And, fingers crossed that once Kutcher reaches his one million mark, he’ll have something important to say to everyone. “Dude.”
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Making Good with Gorilla PR

By Joanna Kulesa
We’ve taken our new president’s “call to arms” on volunteerism to heart, and signed on to represent perhaps the coolest animal on the planet—Koko. Koko is the world famous gorilla versed in American Sign Language with over 1,000 words in her vocabulary. Our agency is thrilled at the prospect of working with The Gorilla Foundation and Koko to spread the word about how critically endangered gorillas are—thousands are being destroyed in the wild each year by humans. By using our PR and social media skills, and Koko’s amazing ability to connect with humans, we hope to make a dramatic impact on raising awareness about the dangers gorillas face, what we can learn from them both scientifically and socially, and on helping the Foundation realize its dream of building a sanctuary and interspecies communication center on Maui for these amazing creatures. Learn more at koko.org and follow our progress here!
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