ARTICULATED

Check out this story by freelance writer Michael Estrin.

He lifts up three brands that “get” Twitter. I’m particularly intrigued by his description of the way Texas Instruments is using it. The company opened the door for customers with product questions to communicate directly with the Texas Instruments engineers that designed the product, via Twitter. It’s sort of call-center style dialogue, but directly from the horse’s mouth, and for all to see. What’s more, the engineering team ends up with insights they never would have gathered otherwise.

Estrin asserts the common denominator is “helpfulness” – licensing individuals internally to use Web 2.0 applications (like Twitter) to be helpful to the broader customer community … or by proxy, the marketplace. That very well put premise can apply in about any and every organization conceivable today.

I grew up in an East Coast public-relations-agency world that sort of required showing face at cocktail parties, receptions and all varieties of after-hours work events. It is an unspoken yet often very central requirement of those jobs. To be respected at a PR agency, particularly in DC, you really need to be a breadwinner whose bread is won by backslapping.

I was decent enough at drumming up new clients, but I was never comfortable doing it that way. I hate name-dropping events and self-important small talk – I just don’t do that. Thus, even though I was able to recruit new clients, I felt like the results were never taken particularly seriously because my method was never taken particularly seriously.

I’m a consummate connector. I make relationships with all kinds of people – sometimes auto mechanics, sometimes Senior VPs. I listen, and I offer to help when it’s appropriate. It worked then, and it really works for KC now.

I’m involved in a new campaign by the United Methodist Church that calls on people to think of church as a verb rather than a noun.  In advertisements and in all sorts of social media outlets, it’ll pose rhetorical questions like, “What if church came with sunscreen and bug spray?”  It’s clever marketing and strategic positioning and reflective of the latest research on what is important to young “spiritual seekers.”

But the reason I love it because it’s a great example of a big, old, shrinking institution looking to its mission as it tries to find its way in an entirely changed world.  Sounds obvious enough, right?  But I could tick off 20 huge organizations, household name-sized, that neither you nor I could name the base reason why they exist.

The origins of the United Methodist Church were Christians going to poor people and working to better their condition as a means of spreading the gospel.  The Methodist forebears were outbound and active … sort of “verb-like.”  Increasingly, the church seems to believe (realize?) that it needs to get back to that.  Good stuff!   People can only benefit.

I also love it because it reveals an inviting and relevant facet of organized Christianity, rather than the default facet that so many of my peers (OK, and I…) perceive as closed and, frankly, angry.

The thing is going to be funded at up to $20 million over the next four years, so it’s not a small deal.

Today, Kinkennon Communications (KC) launched an all-new website and with it unveiled a whole new look.  This “quirky little communications consultancy” is coming into its own.

This new website eschews PR- and marketing-firm platitudes.  Instead it seeks to simply depict the “essence” of KC.  Hopefully, it proves the professionalism and expertise with which we provide great counsel to clients.

Importantly, it’s also about revealing my strongly held and somewhat particular philosophy when it comes to providing professional services.  KC works with the kinds of people we want to work with, on the kinds of projects we enjoy, for the kinds of organizations and missions we get excited about.  And that’s all.

If that means that sometimes we say no to projects, even though they’d be worth tons of money, so be it.   We’ve turned away more new clients than we’ve accepted, and that will continue. That is indeed quirky – certainly in comparison to the PR-firm culture I spent so many years in.

I’m out of all of that culture.  And I’m in to all of this one.  It’s way better for my clients.  It’s way better for me.  And it’s been an order of magnitude better for my career.   How incredibly lucky for me.

Thanks for checking out the new site.

This week KC began work for Skytel, a new company comprised of the merged entities of Skytel and Velocita Wireless.  I have a soft spot for the technology and telecom sectors, and I often reflect romantically on my life in the start-up madness before the telecom and dot-com bust.

I’m particularly doing that now, because this new Skytel entity is bringing together my old friends from my first and wildest start-up experience.  These are the smartest people I’ve ever worked with.

Of course, Skytel is not a start-up.  It’s a well-established brand.  But this new iteration of Skytel is perfectly situated to be the market leader in “machine to machine” (M2M) wireless communications.  Juniper Research calls M2M the hottest growth area in all of wireless.  I love talking like that, which makes KC a great match for this new project.  This will be much fun.

Last week I received a gift from my friend Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher of the United Methodist Church.  A tile, custom made by a Nashville potter, with a message of hope on it.

Every once in awhile in my professional life, I meet someone who affects me deeply, shaking up my preconceived notions in some profound way.  Bishop Christopher is one of those.

She was elected by her peers on the UMC Council of Bishops to deliver the “Episcopal Address,” the keynote speech of the UMC’s once-every-four-year meeting of its governing congress, which took place in April ‘08.  By happenstance, I got to help, as part of a much larger project.

As with all mainline Protestant denominations, the UMC faces struggles – an aging and declining membership, and strife over divisive social issues.   Bishop Christopher and her fellow bishops, along with many other leaders in the global denomination, sought to address that adversity with candor and courage.  She wanted to announce and prove to the church that despite adversity, there is great hope for it.

It’s been a long time since I’ve developed a friendship with a person of great faith. And I’ve never been friends with one who is among the top leaders of one of the largest denominations in the world.  But it has happened here.  I am wiser as a result, and I am fortunate enough to have a far wiser new friend.