You know how you plan and plan and plan for something so things fall into place one big event at a time and then it never goes that way?

Kind of like when you get married and suddenly you’re also moving to a new city, buying a new house, and starting a new job. Lots of changes at once that, if handled separately, aren’t so overwhelming.

Well, it turns out nothing ever goes according to plan.

We were supposed to launch Spin Sucks Pro last year (still in private beta), then Marketing in the Round was to come out, then my speaking was to pick up so our business development increased substantially, and then we’d create a partnership to give us international capabilities.

Well, it turns out all of that is destined to happen at once instead over a two year period, as planned.

The partnership to give us international capabilities? It’s happening now!

We have created a partnership with Thornley Fallis in order to expand our reach to Canada and the U.K., as well as give us the resources to do video and design and development.

Most of you know I’ve been working on Inside PR with Martin Waxman and Joe Thornley for a couple of years now. Martin officially joined Thornley Fallis in October and then Joe and I began talking about what it would look like if we also worked together. Bringing the team together in more ways than one.

For the past five years, I’ve been growing Arment Dietrich in a direction that stays ahead of trends for clients, helps them understand how to incorporate technology in order to stay competitive, and allows us to compete with the global firms. Because of my vision of how the web can help companies grow, being able to design and develop web properties is as important as the content creation, but we’ve always outsourced that piece of it.

And, in order to compete with the global firms (I mean really compete), we have to have ”feet on the ground.” While we have a strong North American presence with clients in 14 states and Canada, going across the pond has been difficult for us, no matter how many friends we have around the globe. Some agencies work within an existing network in order to provide international capabilities, but I’ve never been one to do things the way everyone else does them.

Now we have the resources to create complete marketing communication programs internally, as well as do business internationally.

As well, the book, my speaking schedule, and work with clients has me out of the office a lot. For the past five months, my team has been exceptionally patient in working independently, but in order to be a good leader, I have to find them daily coaching and mentorship. Thornley Fallis provides a team from which they can learn from and brainstorm with, but also teach and work on their own leadership skills.

While I’m willing to take risk, I’m doing so in a calculated way with this partnership. We already know Joe, Martin, and I work really well together. But I want to be sure our cultures mesh, that we have the same vision for working with clients, and that our teams like one another. If all goes well, we’ll create a formal merger at the beginning of 2013.

Our clients will still work with us. Their clients will still work with them. Where we’ll integrate is on business we pitch and win together unless, of course, current clients need help in the areas where one of our teams is stronger.

I’m pretty excited about the possibilities so it’ll be fun to work hard with both of our teams and see what happens!

But it’s her birthday today so I figured you wouldn’t mind.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LISA!!

Lisa Gerber is our chief content officer. She runs all of the guest posts here at Spin Sucks, which is no small job. She also began doing client work in January and now leads three of our biggest accounts.

About 18 months ago, I was shopping at Nordstrom (and then Sephora) and I called Lisa. I was venting that I needed some help with content on both Spin Sucks and this new project I wanted to launch (which you now know as Spin Sucks Pro). I told her I needed someone who I really trusted. As I stood on the corner of Michigan and Grand, in the dark, she said, “I’ll do it.”

Um, what? The job was in Chicago and she lives in Idaho.

I’ll do it.

So she packed up and moved to Chicago for nine months. Every month she flew back to Idaho for a week. And I watched her put on her happy face the week she came back from home.

It began to kill me inside a little bit every month. After all, she was my friend first and colleague second.

And then our circumstances changed. I went in to the office one day, after a week of traveling, and found Patti Knight (my work husband) was the only one sitting in our 2,500 square foot space. I decided right then and there some things were going to change.

We went completely virtual and Lisa got to move back home to her husband and dogs. And skiing and ice skating and mountain biking and hiking (lucky girl!).

Now she’s flipped her time. She spends a week a month in Chicago and the rest of the time at home. But, other than missing the occasional glass of wine together, it’s as if she’s still sitting in the office next to mine.

If you don’t already know Lisa, she blogs here every other Wednesday, and you can find her on Twitter, Google+, and she manages (with Molli Megasko) our company Facebook page.

Stop by and tell her happy birthday. It is today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LISA!!

P.S. Every time I see this photo of Lisa, it makes me laugh. Props to Sean McGinnis for taking it. And that’s our good friend Joe Hackman in the background. Hi Joe!

This week, we had a plethora of questions, but only one of them was coherent (Jennifer MacDonald).

So I thought it would be fun to address Jen’s question later (in a serious video) and address all of the goofy ones at once today.

Yes, we talk Super Bowl commercials, angels, LaToya Jackson, my new favorite shirt from Frank and Eileen, and even Ken Mueller gets a mention even though he forgot his question (try again next week, Ken!).

Alright. Let’s start with the questions.

Ifdy Perez (who has one of the best senses of humor I know) asks, “How about what we talked about earlier this week: When new tools are released, when should we try them out/adopt? When is it FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) or smart?”

Nancy Davis asks, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”

Kris Schindler asks, “What’s your favorite Superbowl commercial, and why?”

And Danny Brown asks, “LaToya Jackson – man or woman?”

Yes, I answer them all and I’m quite pleased with my answer to Nancy’s question. As you well know, angels are pure intelligences, but are not material. So they have location in space, but they don’t take up much of it. You’ll see, based on that information, what I came up with for an answer.

Also check out my cute new shirt. I’m in love with it and their founder. I met her last month at a speaking engagement and I have a total girl crush. She rocks.

The video with all of my answers follows (if you can’t see it in your Reader, click here and it’ll magically appear).

Now it’s your turn. You get to answer all these goofy questions. And even tell me what shirt is your favorite.

I know you missed me, even though Molli Megasko got TONS of kudos on her video last week. Don’t worry. She’ll be back. She was forewarned this morning.

This week’s question comes from Rajka Milanovic Galbraith. She asks:

Gini, is this where you want us to post questions (it is)? I hope so or I will be one big DORK (you’re still a dork)! Here is my question: What do you think of the Talent.me app on Facebook for networking? I just got an invite and have not responded.

My answer is in the video below (or click here and it’ll magically appear) and, as much as I hate to admit it, I quote Sean McGinnis. I also butchered her name. I now know it’s pronounced Ryka, not Rajka. Sorry, darlin! We’ve never actually spoken on the phone so I wasn’t sure. But I’m burning it in my brain now: Ryka, Ryka, Ryka.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Have a better answer?

Oh! And don’t forget to head over to Facebook and leave a question on the wall there. Even better, leave a question and determine WHO you want to answer it. That way, you’ll get to see more Arment Dietrich faces.

Today’s guest post is by Molli Megasko

It’s Facebook question of the week time.

I hope I don’t disappoint anyone, but I’m replacing Gini Dietrich this week.  She asked me to help her out as she actually is taking some vacation days, believe it or not.

Her question to me was…

“Molli, you’ve worked at Arment Dietrich for nearly six years. During those six years, what are the top three accomplishments you’ve seen the firm achieve?”

Now, I could have taken a funny angle on this (getting a security camera after we were robbed in 2006, allowing Jack Bauer in the office on days of interviews so we can laugh and watch people squirm, or maybe I’d just name the year 2008 because that is the time when Peapod delivered all our favorite cereals), but given the holidays I decided to take it seriously.

We’ve been through a lot, as I’m sure most start-ups have.  I think between all our moves, I’ve sat at six desks, gone through one too many computers, and have made some long-term friends.  Six years does not seem like a long time, but in terms of small businesses it’s like dog years.

The video below shows what I think our best accomplishments have been since I started here.  I tried to make them as least cheesy as possible, but you might want to break out the wine.

Also, please note that I am more of a behind-the-scenes-kind-of-girl, so no making fun of my nervousness in the video, deal?  (And sorry Gini, Lucy was sleeping and as you know she’s like a child.  And you never wake a sleeping baby.  I let her sleep so there is no appearance of my beautiful, destructive beagle in the video.)

Have a great New Year’s and we’ll see you next week when we go back to the normal Facebook question of the week with Gini.

And don’t forget…if you have a question for us, head over to our Facebook wall and leave it on the wall there.

This week, I have a little contest for you. During the video, I show you the view from my hotel room.

The first person to correctly guess where I am will receive a free copy of No Bullshit Social Media by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers.

And, as an extra bonus, if you not only name the city, but the exact hotel where I’m staying, you’ll win an Arment Dietrich Rabbit wine opener.

No cheating. And my team is not allowed to participate. Or tell anyone where I am.

I repeat. NO. CHEATING.

On to the question at hand.

I got some silly questions this week.

Brankica Underwood asked:

What is your favorite Facebook app? And you can’t say Angry Birds.

First of all, I didn’t know I could play Angry Birds on Facebook. This could be trouble. Secondly, what do you mean I can’t say Angry Birds? I LOVE Angry Birds. Whenever they update new levels, I stop what I’m doing to play. I have a problem.

Steve Bitter asked:

When are you going to bring your bike to Arizona and ride with me?

I need to do that, Steve. My friend Abbie Fink would be really happy if I did. But wouldn’t you rather take your bike to Utah and meet me there?

Roger Smith asked:

After getting their attention with the oh so important profile photo how do we shift the emphasis to other less obvious strengths i.e. personalety, integrety or spelling? thanks!

Roger, that hurts my eyes. They may actually begin bleeding.

Steve McKee asked:

Why don’t more people like me? (I guess that goes beyond Facebook). Sigh.

That made me sad for Steve. There are lots of us who like you, Steve! We really do.

But, as much as I really don’t want to do this because I’ll never hear the end of it, Ryan Cox is the big winner of the video answer today.

He ought to be…he submitted five questions. He had a good chance that one of them would be good.

Drumroll, please. His question is:

If you can hang your hat on only ONE trend for 2012 that you aren’t currently using, but predicts you will be — that trend is what??

The answer is in the video below (or you can view by clicking here).

Now it’s your turn. What trend do you see coming that you’re not currently using, but will be soon?

This week we’re talking online monitoring, measuring results, some elbow grease, and marketing expertise.

Rusty Speidel, a friend I met on Twitter who later became a close offline friend (mostly because we both road bike), has been giving me a hard time about measuring results.

He thinks marketing expertise and elbow grease aren’t enough for most, because most people aren’t analytics nerds like I am.

So he challenged me to the following question:

What are the top five ENTERPRISE class measuring platforms for social engagement–the ones big enough for Ford, Microsoft, ESPN, Time, CNN, etc.? In the case, does size matter?

I began asking my friends at the large companies who/what they use and one name kept coming up. The problem with this one company? Not one of my friends are happy with them.

It turns out there aren’t five companies that do this (or do it seemingly well) so everyone is stuck using the one company that is average.

In the video (click here if you can’t see it in your Reader), I talk about who that is and what I recommend instead.

Following are the five tools I recommended in the video:

1. Google analytics (the new release is fantastic);
2. Clicky (or some sort of tool that measures specifically who is on your site);
3. Your content management system (which could be as simple as WordPress or something crazy such as Spark, which is what we use for Spin Sucks Pro);
4. Your customer relationship management system (Salesforce, Nutshell, Constant Contact); and
5. Some sort of online listening and monitoring (Google alerts, Spiral16, Sysomos, Radian6).

It will take you about 90 days to get your dashboard right. You’ll play with the right things to measure during that time and tweak the paths for monitoring. You’ll become an integrated part of every discipline. And then you’ll have it ready. And it will be beautiful. And you will thank me for saving you half a million dollars on something that doesn’t work.

#theend

I don’t want to get up!

In some places in the country, wind like this is called a tornado or a hurricane. In Chicago? It’s just par for the course. It is, after all, the Windy City.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t have Facebook question of the week (clap, clap, clap)!

This week’s question comes from Tinu Abayomi-Paul. She asks:

In light of recent examples of bad pitches and the potential havoc created by how a publisher/author/blogger might respond, what is the most effective way to respond to a bad PR pitch?

I answer her question in the video below (or click here and it will magically appear), but I’m curious if you agree or not.

And don’t forget! If you have a question for us, head over to our Facebook wall and ask it there. I’ll answer it in a coming week.

I guess I’ll get out of bed now…Pete the Tapeworm is really hungry.

Sorry, John Trader…I can’t seem to get the whistle down.

This week’s question comes from Christina Pappas, the author of The Content Cocktail, about producing videos and how I do them.

She asks:

So here is my question for you (and if its been answered, then please point me to the link) and it’s regarding video. So you are creating these videos for Facebook Question of the Week and believe you use a Flip camera but how? Do you have a stand for it? How do you edit it, post it, embed it in your post? Am thinking about doing some videos for my own blog and just not sure where to start. I am by no means a video editor and would love some advice and head’s up on what exactly is involved before I take this on. Thanks!

There is one thing I forgot to answer in the video and that’s the question about how to embed them in your blog post.

So, Christina, it’s super easy (though it’s giving me fits today).

1. Go to the video and click on “share.”
2. Click embed and copy the very long embed code. You may have to click the box below it that says, “Use old embed code,” if all you’re getting is a shortened YouTube link. The code should be lots of HTML jibberish, not a shortened link. I haven’t been able to get the new embed code to work so I stopped trying and just use the old one.
3. Go into your blog post and click the HTML tab, right underneath the title box and right above (on the far right-hand side) the formatting box. It says “visual” and “HTML.” Click HTML.
4. Paste the code where you want it.
5. Change the height and width. I use 425 x 425. You’ll need to change it in two spots – the only places where the code has numbers. You can create a custom size on the YouTube page, but I prefer to do it in the HTML.
6. Switch back over to visual and voila!

The rest of it I answer in the video below (or you can watch by clicking here). You also get to see Jack Bauer’s “bed” that he uses during the day.

How do you produce videos? Do you have editing tips for Christina?

And don’t forget…if you want fame and fortune, go to our Facebook wall and leave a question there to be answered in a coming week.

P.S. I lied! I got the new embed code to work today. Perhaps it’s because we finally updated WordPress. So, if you have the latest version of WordPress, you can use the new embed code and skip the second part of the second step.

A few housekeeping things first.

If you’re going to PRSA this weekend/next week, leave me a comment so I can say hi!

And, Inside PR (Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and I) are hosting a TweetUp on Monday night. If you RSVP online, the first drink is on us!

We’re also going to be doing lots of interviews for the podcast. Achieve your 15 minutes of fame AND a free drink. On us. Well, the free drink is on us for sure.

And now…the question.

Barry Silver asks:

I’ve been tracking the Triberr hashtag and find a number of people that repeatedly express their dissatisfaction there. So, in more general terms, what’s with the idea of running down various social media sites in arenas for the devotees of said site? Do people go on #prchat and bash PR or on #blogchat and bash bloggers? Any insights?

My answer to Barry’s question is in the video below (if you can’t view it in your Reader, click here and it’ll magically appear).

What do you think?