Dino Baskovic Can’t Lose

Photo by Tim Samoff

My mind is swirling with ideas lately, moreso than normal.  I go to bed dreaming up all manner of hair-brained schema, theorems and mousetraps.  And, when my conscious least suspects, the ultimate escape-from-reality plan.  Should any of you find yourselves wanting to part with a prototype RAH-66 Comanche and a gorilla that can mix drinks, then Skype me.  No questions asked.

I am toying with writing my first book, submitting to The Rapidian -- a new hyperlocal in Grand Rapids, Michigan -- and testing a new online strategy for myself.  Yes, that whole personal branding thing that I'm trying to give its fair shake.  In short, sharpening the proverbial blade that will reach far beyond blogging.  Killing two birds with one stone, I want to get those lost manuscripts locked up in my noggin and put them onto paper.  Make that a Kindle.

Getting published has been a big deal for me ever since I was faculty at Lawrence Tech near Detroit.  Not like it was "publish or perish" for us lowly adjuncts but I nonetheless felt a wee bit of pressure.  I taught web design for eight years and felt it necessary on occasion to edit a textbook, do some interviews, score a byline or two.  Looks good on a CV and gets me on stage once in a blue moon. 

I figured a better fit would be to write for web design-related sites such as SitePoint and WebMonkey that I naturally plugged in my syllabus.  Proving grounds for technical articles, POV pieces on best practices and code examples.  I'll be damned if I ever got around to any of that.

So when this hit my inbox earlier today, I was thrilled that SitePoint remembered I still had an account:

So maybe SitePoint's no longer the best fit for me.  Nor is WebMonkey, though I still need that gorilla.  I bet I can find something to write about.  It might be business, but it may be bacon.  Or bologna.  Even baloney. 

Either way, drop me a line if you have some insights and Skype hasn't yet deactivated your unused credits.  I can't promise every piece I write will be riveting, but it's better than letting my works get rusty.

Not that there ever was pressure to "publish or perish" as an adjunct, but when I did teach at Lawrence Tech just outside of Detroit, the faculty always wondered why my name didn't show up more in print.

I lectured on web design (and eventually, social media) for eight years, presented at conferences, panels, keynotes, committees, blah, blah, blah... but never saw too much press outside of my old blog.  This never bothered me, though maybe it should have.  Maybe I'd've won more business back in my consulting days.  Still, my best client hired me away from both gigs and now I do PR and social media for Amway.

So, it was nice to see my name finally in ink when the October issue of Direct Selling News hit mailboxes.  I tag-teamed with another Amway "tech guru" (inside joke) for part of a piece entitled "Building Relationships through Social Media" by DSN writer Barbara Pearce.  My quotes are bolded, not that my colleague's remarks aren't equally as important. I'm just feeling bold.

Every company Direct Selling News interviewed said that they’re integrating social media marketing into their marketing plans. For example, Amway recognizes that its independent business owners and customers spend a lot of time on social networking sites, so they got involved there, too. And they’ve noticed that the social media phenomenon is global and across age groups. But, just as they would in other media, they build their participation around business objectives.

“A lot of what we do is based on connection modeling,” says Michael Edwards, Amway’s Director of Digital and Consumer Experience Marketing. “We try to understand where the targeted group is connecting. The social media space is one piece of that. Social influence marketing is having a significant effect. From there, we determine how that plays in the overall mix of our marketing campaign. It fluctuates based on our campaign. Social networks on Facebook may play a role in one campaign, or we may find that blogs play a larger role in another.”

Edwards’ colleague Dino Baskovic, Manager of Corporate Communications, agrees, adding, “There’ll be customers who prefer to stay connected online. They may enjoy face time but prefer computer time. That’s fine. We’ll respect that, and we’ll explore and leverage it.”

Like other companies, Amway recognizes that its distributors are every bit as involved with social media as the corporation is, and they’re grappling with the right way to address social media in corporate policies. They want to be sure they’re doing it right.

“Suffice it to say, we want our distributors to succeed, so we want to empower them and give them the right tools for the job,” Baskovic says. “That includes the right rules of engagement when it comes to social media.”

Edwards adds, “Social media can be a game changer for a lot of companies. If they strategically do it right, it will change their placement in the direct selling industry. But if people jump in before they’re ready, it will have a negative effect. For those who do it right, it will have a positive effect.”

Maybe now I'll have earned the respect of the other adjuncts, even if I no longer teach alongside them.  I could finagle at the secret handshake, and I think I still have my secret faculty decoder ring...

Anyway, these are Mike's and my thoughts.  Ring any bells on your end?

I'd solicit Megan Taylor for her resume, if that wasn't such an embarrasing thing to ask for these days.  That's what LinkedIn is for.

Ms. Taylor (I don't know her personally, so I'll default to formal) is the the type of candidate that would play well with the other kiddies in my own corporate sandbox.  That being, a PR department that mixes business with social media.  It's hard to find folks that know web, journalism and communications, those that are solid writers, designers and developers and can actually think, well you know, strategically.

Her resume lists the following skillsets:

AP Style and news editing, HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, Flash and ActionScript, beginning PHP, JavaScript, AJAX, content management and online community management, audio/video editing, Adobe applications, Windows, Mac OS, Microsoft Office, Final Cut Pro, fluent in Spanish

I used to laugh heartily at resumes that laundry-listed talents like this, moreso when I would read job postings for triple-majors that "must know three dozen programming languages, usability, information architecture, art and architecture, landscape architecture, gardening, needle-point and can bowl a perfect 300 game."  Then again, a four-year college degree these days is the new high school diploma...

More on Ms. Taylor and why she caught my eye.  She's interned for Quinn and The Miami Herald, as well as blogs for Poynter and PBS.  Not too shabby.  Her latest blog post entitled "In Search of the Perfect Skillset for a Programmer/Journalist" really hits home.  I, too, am one of those oddball, cross-bred communicators that can both code and copywrite while standing on my head.  What a rush.  It's what got me started in PR, doing freelance web and at one time, teaching both.  I owe my (near) success to my chosen career path, and when I'm not knee-deep in budget or crying over my lost Facebook account, I have a moment to myself to blog.

"In Search of" highlights practitioners of what Ms. Taylor refers to as "computer-assisted reporting" or CAR.  In short, CAR is a relatively new concept, seemingly driven by investigative online reporting and the proliferation of citizen journalists who can tweet train wrecks faster than your average multinational media conglomerate.  The post further explains that CAR types (I'll call 'em that) should have a fair amount of front-end design, LAMP stacking and geomapping under their belt, and throw on some Flash and Final Cut Pro to boot.  Oh, and lest we forget: content management, publishing, editing, writing and the basic tenets of credible and ethical journalism.  (I'll assume she implied that last part.)

The upside to CAR, from my point of view, is that you would most likely be the smartest and most capable member of the newsroom/startup/coffee shop.  You know that much.  The downside?  You probably won't get paid that much.  It discourages me to think that an entry-level CAR type, even with glowing references and a stellar portfolio, may only fetch $40K-60K/year.  Maybe less.  Just five year ago, that number would be double.  And we didn't have fancy web frameworks or a plethora of Web 2.0 widgets at our disposal (read: to learn and try not to break).

I'd be curious to learn more about CAR and whether PR types (like me) should be mindful.  Even more intriguing, what your run-of-the-mill CAR type makes in a year, or per blog post, etc.

And Ms. Taylor, if you're reading: love the resume.  How do you feel about Grand Rapids?