Category Archives: My Passions

Online Publishing is Easy with paper.li

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Online publishing is a hot topic in social media circles and it’s something I discussed Tuesday morning during my monthly social media segment on Farm Week Now, a production of the Illinois Farm Bureau Radio Network. You’re actually a content creator, and don’t need to spend the time publishing original material. You become a valued source of information around the web, finding the content for which other’s lack the time to search.

Paper.li makes content curation easy, and visually attractive while making you look like an expert on the topic of your choosing. Why should you do it? Because  you don’t have to CREATE the content. You just CURATE it. It’ll help you grow your online community while positioning you as an authority on the topic(s) that your niche audiences find interesting. Since Paper.li is a social tool, others can easily supply you with content or share your content with their communities, making your paper.li viral.

Want to see what Paper.li is all about? See the Chicago PR Daily, created by my friend and fellow ex-City Hall reporter Sarah Skerik, who is now an executive with PR Newswire in Chicago. Sarah curates content on Twitter, uses it in her paper, and cites the friends and followers who originally tweeted about the content (in fact, I’ve been cited in her Chicago PR Daily on more times than I can count).
paperli-tcWant to follow the latest news about food to your table? Check out the Food & Agriculture Spotlight or The Daily Agvocate.

Want news about Chicago’s hottest restaurants and bars? See the Chicago Restaurants & Bars Daily. Maybe you’re tracking Restaurants of the World? There’s a paper.li Daily for that too!

Want to learn more about paper.li?

Paper.li has an easy step-by-step process for creating your own online newspaper

Or check out How to become a Twitter publisher with paper.li 

If my post encourages you to create your own Daily newspaper, please let me know and send me the link to it.  Do Good!

 

 

 

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Blocking someone on Facebook?

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Whoa!

© Photo by Michelle Damico, taken at White Pines Dude Ranch, Oregon, IL

What happens when you block Facebook ”friends” from seeing your posts and activity? Most of us hesitate before taking such drastic action against  friends, friends of friends, former colleagues or in my case, news listeners to WXRT and WBEZ, my former radio stations. Sometimes you just get fed up with their political rants, their whines about kids, in-laws or jobs.  It’s understandable and natural to simply say to yourself “Stop” or  ”Enough Already!”

I’m sure it’s crossed your mind what would happen if you blocked that annoying person on Facebook. Here’s a great slide show with descriptive explanations that I found today on my favorite tech news portal — Mashable.com.

Have you ever blocked someone from your Facebook profile? I have and it felt very cathartic and gave me a sense of freedom. I no longer had the ball and chain combination of bad vibes and bad karma that comes from avoidable life-intrusions! If you have the time, tell me the outcome of your Facebook-blocking experiences, by leaving a comment.

By the way, if you’re seeing this via email, I am testing-out a new email system to support my posts at Michelle Damico Communications. Have any ideas for future posts? Seeking an answer to a business communications problem? Email at michelle at michelledamico dot com.

And if you don’t want to receive these emails any longer, that’s OK too. Hit the unsubscribe button.

Do Good!

 

 

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Paying it forward matters in Media Relationships, too!

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I blog so others can learn about my successes and failures working with journalists. If you’re in public relations and marketing I hope you take my lessons and run with them, because that’s the intent.

I offer yet another media relations nugget — perfectly timed for this month of Being Thankful:

Never underestimate the value of paying it forward,

especially when working with media.

Create opportunities to help a reporter, and you will reap rewards. Want proof? It happened about a month ago.  I was pitching Andy Giersher, the veteran Chicago producer for the number one rated radio business show — Noon Business Hour on Newsradio 780. I called him about two hours before the start of his show, offering a client expert on mobile shopping and mobile rewards programs, in advance of the holiday shopping season.

“No thanks,” he said, “right now, I’m trying to round out today’s show.”

“What are you working on?” I asked. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Yeah, I’m looking for someone to comment on Newsweek.”

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My Raised-Bed Garden, Week 5

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My raised-bed garden is bursting. The first set of photos below contains my peppers, lettuce, herbs, broccoli, morning glories and an errant hen & chick. Early planting on right.


The second set of photos is my raised-bed with zucchinis, tomatoes, eggplant, peas, beans, rainbow chard, carrots and beets. Again, early planting on right.Enhanced by Zemanta

How My Raised-Bed Garden Grows

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Eggplant seedling 6-11-12

Snap Peas 6-12-12

Red leaf lettuce sprouts 6-12-12

Raised-Bed Garden Chronicles

Start of Week 3

Gardening is one of my passions and this summer is the first time I’m making a full-fledged effort to grow a variety of vegetables, in addition to my herbs and perennials. I’m using my blog to chronicle How My Raised-Bed Garden Grows. This is also the first time I’ve built 4 square-foot, raised-bed gardens. It’s also a first for planting seeds outdoors. Everything was pretty easy to do, just involved my labor — which is fine, because the weather’s been wonderful and gardening counts as exercise.

What you’re viewing is two full weeks of garden growth. I’ll shoot more photos every day to chronicle progress. I’ll also be adding more pictures to my Pinterest Gardening Board, so please visit there as well. And of course, I welcome your advice and photos of your garden. Click on Let’s Talk and we’ll connect green thumbs.

Mainly herbs: lavender, basil, fennel, cilantro, purple basil, sage, a few hot peppers, some green beans and snap peas

tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant, carrots, beets, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, rainbow chard, basil, peas

In my countless visits to farmers markets in Woodstock, Chicago, Evanston, Crystal Lake, Arlington Heights,  and–the grandaddy of them all–Madison, Wisconsin, I learned how much plants love overnight heat. We’ve had some 70 degree evenings in the Chicago area this week, and the plants exploded! It’s so cool to watch their growth. I feel like I’m growing a family all over again!