Cigar Etiquette 101

Originally appeared in Montecristo Social Club on March 20, 2013

 

The superior, hand-made quality of premium cigars demands etiquette that is crucial among adult aficionados. Here are some etiquette tips that will help you enjoy the premium smoking experience to the fullest.

Deciding where to enjoy a premium smoke is an important factor to keep in mind. Personal smoking rooms or outdoor locations are ideal, but to enjoy your smoke with kindred spirits, head over to a local cigar lounge. But no matter where you enjoy your cigar, be considerate of your surroundings.

Secondly, a cigar should always be lit correctly. A great cigar should never be started with a fluid lighter. Instead, opt for a butane lighter especially made for cigars. These lighters will produce super-hot torch flames that easily light the cigar. When lighting, the flame shouldn’t be set directly to the foot. The tobacco must first be lightly toasted above the flame before rotating the foot to ensure an even burn.

Cigar lovers also know to never bite off the tip of a cigar. There are tools for this. Invest in a great cutter that will serve you well and last quite some time. Cutters come in various types: guillotine, scissor, punch and more. Your smoke will be that much more enjoyable.

There seems to be two schools of thought about the band. In Europe, these are generally removed right away so as not to identify what kind of cigar is being smoked. In the U.S., this step is not regarded as stringently.

To that end, a cigar should never be stubbed out like a common cigarette when finished. Rather, a cigar should be given a more graceful ending. Simply placing the cigar in an ashtray is fine. The cigar will extinguish itself after some time.

A good cigar can last 30 to 120 minutes. But a reputation for considerate manners and good etiquette can last a lifetime.

CSR Blogs: The Business of Doing Good

 

 

Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is a somewhat new concept. For years, businesses and corporations were seen as having only one responsibility: profit. And, let’s be honest, that won’t ever go away. After all,  companies need to stay in business.   But things are transitioning. Maybe the environment is changing outlooks. Or maybe, the advent of social media and increased transparency is altering things. Regardless of how this came about,  corporate social responsibility is now part of the conversation. CSR, or “shared values”, is pervading into most corporate cultures. It promotes better communities and happier employees. Plus, it can’t hurt brand perception.  Not surprisingly, there are many great things being written on this subject. So with that in mind, let’s roll up our sleeves, lend a hand to those in need and take a brief tour through some of the best Corporate Social Responsibility blogs I’ve seen.

Realized Worth is a blog written by two CSR consultants. They spend their time, when not blogging, extolling the virtues and value of company-led volunteer work. And when they are blogging, they’re pointing out great examples of companies (and their employees) doing good.  If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for stories surrounding volunteerism and other examples of businesses empowering their employees as agents of positive change. Check out the full review here.

Sustainability Conversations is written by a PR professional in China. The blog aims to affect social change through communication. It’s a smart tactic. If behaviors are to change, mindsets must first be altered. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for stories relating to the PR industry’s relationship to corporate social responsibility. These types of stories that originated in Asia might do particularly well. Check out the full review here.

The Green Economy Post is a comprehensive digest of green industry news. If there’s something to do with sustainability, the environment, alternative technology, or some place where they all meet, you can expect to read about it on here. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look  for stories surrounding clean technology and alternative energy. Stories that sit at the intersection of business and the environment might also work. Check out the full review here.

Business Ethics Blog is not the start of a joke about oxymorons. Business and ethics actually can go hand in hand.  And in a lot of ways, they’d be smart to do so. Brand awareness and transparency are at all time highs.  Oh, and the environment could probably benefit, too. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for stories illustrating examples of businesses doing good work in their communities. Examples of companies empowering their employees might also work. Check out the full review here.

Earth & Industry don’t necessarily sound like two words that go together. However, these forces must work together if either are to survive. This blog outlines examples of sustainable businesses. In many ways, this blog is a look at what the future of business will look like. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for stories surrounding green technology, the solar industry and the impact business and the environment have on one another. Check out the full review here.

That’s all for now. In the meantime, if there’s a blog I should be reviewing, drop me a line or a note in the comments, and I’ll take a look. Until next time…

@BigBirdRomney: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

 

If you watched the Presidential debate last night, you probably heard Mitt Romney threaten to cut funding for PBS. In his America, there will be no guarantees for Sesame Street, despite the Governor admitting, “I love Big Bird.” And, if like me, you were on Twitter while watching the debate, you were quickly alerted to the existence of the twitter account for @bigbirdromney some time shortly after Romney’s statement. To the surprise of, I don’t know, maybe your mom, some intrepid tweeter crafted this satirical digital voice of an anxious Big Bird, worried his job would be shipped overseas.

Seasoned interneters probably knew this was coming. Like @invisibleobama (69,000 followers) and @bronxzoocobra (200,000 followers {!}) before it, @bigbirdromney capitalized on a passing moment, hoping to seize on our common sense of “oh that’s funny! I can’t believe someone did that. Too funny!” Within an hour of the debate’s conclusion, the account had over 7,300 followers. Or, put another way, ten times as many as I have! The handle boasts a fancy background image with Big Bird’s visage on Shepard Fairey’s iconic HOPE backdrop. There are soon-to-be-trending hashtags. There is even a gmail address.

But for what? What will this twitter account mean tomorrow? Next week? Next year? Because, really this was a throwaway line. The issue is not Big Bird’s well being. The issue was a Presidential candidate threatening to cut funding to PBS, which, by the way, consists of around .012% of our federal budget. Cutting PBS to shave the national debt would be like clipping your fingernails in order to lose weight. Or as Neil deGrasse Tyson put it, “like deleting text files to make room on your 500gig hard drive.” It’s a dog whistle message; red meat to those in the far right who think our budget deficits are caused by Planned Parenthood and reruns of Downton Abbey. In other words, it’s a bullshit thing to say.

But, instead of calling Romney out on this fact, others decided to validate this all too derivative form of twitter art instead. “Hey, look,” said everyone you know on Twitter and Facebook. “There’s a new Twitter account for Big Bird! It’s about what Mitt Romney just said!”

Twitter’s virtue lies in its ability to spread information, to fact check. It gives everyone the ability to connect and discuss. It can be used to call out lies and misdirection. But, it can also be used to drain any and all humor out of a single statement made. And, hey look, I got nothing against funny. But, like, can we be adults for 90 minutes please? Grownups are talking and we’re making fart noises in the back.

Basically, we have a choice in this country. We can use communications to enlighten, learn and share. Or we can drill down on a momentarily funny thing until the next shiny thing comes along to distract us.

Corporate Blogging Best Practices

 

Recently, we hosted a webinar with Jeff Corvin of KCSA on best practices for corporate blogging. Everyone wants to know how their company, how their brand can blog well. And while I may have the word “blogger” in my title, Jeff’s a CEO who blogs. In other words, we were lucky to have him on hand to provide a great example of how to blog well.

Jeff’s not only a great blogger, but he also gets it. By that, I mean he sees the benefit of a good corporate blog.  I thought I knew all the benefits of a solid blogging strategy, but even I learned a thing or two during our hour together.

“Our blog is a way to reinforce our brand,” said Corvin.  “The blog creates a real window into our corporate culture.”

It’s also worth noting that every employee of KCSA is encouraged to contribute to the company blog.  And, like most of KCSA’s blog strategy, this is smart for a few reasons. For one, have you ever tried to blog every day? It’s hard coming up with content. Best to have a stable of authors to help shoulder the load.

Secondly, blogging boosts morale. Writing a blog post can be a nice distraction to a static work routine. The blog then becomes everyone’s property. What’s more, when asking an employee to write a blog post, you’re essentially gaining the exposure of their individual social circles. Put another way, if someone writes a blog post, they’re probably going to want to promote it. They’re probably going to want to share it with the people they know. And that means more eyeballs on your company blog.

To that end, Corvin also encourages utilizing the occasional guest blogger. Not only do you get their outside perspective, but you also get the benefit of being exposed to their audiences.

Finally, consistent blogging helps SEO. And that makes sense. SEO is an algorithm controlled by logic. The more you publish, the more you link, the more you get shared, the higher up you’ll appear in search.

“Blogs must have a clear message, provide actionable advice, and reinforce position,” said Corvin. “Plus personality.”

And I think that last point is pretty important. Jeff Corvin and KCSA provide a great example of effective blogging. But, even on a more macro level personality, or tone, or voice, or whatever you want to call it is crucial to successful blogging. All too often, people lose their voice when they blog. It’s as though the written word is seen as this precious thing that must be treated delicately. And, hey, look, the written word is a really great thing! But bloggers shouldn’t be afraid to write how they speak. If you don’t speak in long-winded sentences that run on and on, then why would you write like that?

Furthermore, blogs should have an angle. When I think of the word “angle,” I think of a point of view or a perspective, sure. But I also think of the word’s literal meaning in geometry. I think of two lines meeting at one point. Great blogs have a perspective, but they’re also often an intersection of subjects.

Take for example Tight Laces in 50 Places. This is a blog about a guy who wants to run a half marathon in every state. It’s a running blog, but it’s also about travel. More often than not, people don’t actually want to read about food, fashion, home design, or whatever. They want to read about how all of those things play into people’s lives. They want to hear from human beings.

It’s no surprise Corvin stressed the importance of having a personality when blogging.

To hear the webinar in full, click here.

Author Tom Hynes is PR Newswire’s manager of blogger relations. And as you may have guessed, he has a twitter account.

Religious Blogs: Coexisting Peacefully!

This week my focus is on religion blogs.  The best thing I’ve ever heard about religion is the story of the elephant and the blind men. It goes something like this: A group of blind men approach an elephant. One finds a leg and thinks he’s found a tree. One finds the trunk and thinks he’s found a snake. One finds a tusk and thinks he’s found stone. The idea is none of them are wrong, but none of them are completely correct either. Whether we like it or not, our faculties are limited.  We are actually quite blind to the workings of the universe and creation. Therefore, when contemplating the divine, it’s probably best to take a look at the whole picture, the whole elephant if you will.  So with that in mind, let’s remain respectful of different perspectives, realize we may not know it all, and enjoy this brief tour through some of the best religion blogs I’ve seen lately.

Hindu-Blog balances the needs and concerns of modern Hinduism with the rich cultural history of the ancient faith. In fact, that’s sort of their mission statement. This blog may deal a lot with the past, but it’s also has its eyes trained squarely on the future. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for anything to do with the Hindu religion, including events related to it. Check out the full review here.

Velveteen Rabbi is a blog written by a rabbi. But, it is so much more than a Jewish blog. However, as in real life, Judaism touches on many parts of the practitioners life. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d obviously look for anything to do with Judaism. Foreign policy stuff could work here. Items related to family and motherhood would also work. And if all else faiils, try poetry! Check out the full review here.

Dharma Folkis a blog where Buddhism meets Internet culture.  In one post, the blog deals with misrepresentations of Buddhism. On the next, they may discuss the politics of Aung San Suu Kyi. Now, to be honest, I don’t know how exactly one would go about pitching a Buddhist blog. I suppose keep it simple. Perhaps, a story about a new book or the benefits of meditation might work. In any event, I’d probably keep the email brief. Check out the full review here.

Creative Muslims has taken it upon themselves to portray Muslim Americans in a positive light. Their profiles extend across the worlds of tech, social media, design, philanthropy, sports or art.  Basically, if a Muslim is doing good work, you’re going to read about it here. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for anything to do with Islam in America.  Check out the full review here.

Compassion is a blog dedicated to bringing awareness to children in need. As you might recall from your New Testament studies, charity and service to others is sort of the whole point behind Christianity. This blog takes up that cause, directing readers to ways they can help those who need it. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for stories surrounding child poverty, charity, and, yeah, compassion. Check out the full review here.

That’s all for now. In the meantime, if there’s a blog I should be reviewing, drop me a line or a note in the comments, and I’ll take a look. Until next time…

Author Tom Hynes is PR Newswire’s manager of blogger relations. And as you may have guessed, he has a twitter account.

A Brief Blog Profile: FiveThirtyEight

FiveThirtyEight is the political analysis blog created by Nate Silver. Gaining its name from the number of electoral votes in a federal election, the blog offers news, insight and opinion. But more than anything, FiveThirtyEight is about the numbers. Specifically, it’s about statistics. Launched in the spring of 2008 during the primaries and run-up to the general election, FiveThirtyEight quickly established itself as a leading and respected voice in the political blogosphere.

It might come as surprise that Nate Silver made his name originally crunching baseball statistics. While working as a baseball statistician, Silver created a system for forecasting the performance and career development of Major League Baseball players, known as PECOTA. These days, Silver and FiveThirtyEight project winning candidates. Since the 2008 election, Silver and FiveThirtyEight project public opinion on various issues such as gay marriage, healthcare reform and marijuana legalization.

The site employs some pretty serious science in its calculations. The goal is to “balance out the polls with comparative demographic data” and “weighting each poll based on the pollster’s historical track record, sample size, and recentness of the poll.” Silver used computer models to simulate the election 10,000 times per day in order to provide a continually up-to-date assessment of probability for electoral outcomes. And by all accounts it worked. In 2008, Silver accurately predicted the winner in 49 out of 50 states. As of August of 2010, FiveThirtyEight is owned by the New York Times. Odds are they are happy with the investment.

Tumblr for brands: Simple ways to use this powerful platform

Originally appeared in PR Daily, June 14, 2012

 

It’s hard to tell if Tumblr is a social network or a blogging platform, because the thing is, it’s both.

As a blogging platform, it offers an easy way to quickly share text or multimedia content. But Tumblr also has a social component. There’s a newsfeed, which, similar to Twitter or Facebook, updates as the people you follow publish posts. And like Facebook and Twitter, the quality of the content depends on whom you follow.

Tumblr is like a long-form Twitter. It’s also similar to Facebook, if instead of following your friends from middle school, you followed news organizations and content creators.

Launched a little over five years ago, Tumblr now boasts nearly 60 million blogs with nearly 25 billion posts. And it’s growing. The site receives 25,000 new users and 40 million new posts each day. The service is most popular with the teen and college-aged user segments with half of Tumblr’s visitor base being under the age of 25.

In other words, if your brand isn’t already on Tumblr, you probably should reconsider that position.

At PR Newswire, we use Tumblr in a few ways, among them:

• To recap the various conferences our team attends throughout the year;
• To share relevant social media and publishing news found on other Tumblr blogs (we do this by reblogging);
• To post news releases about topics such as the Muppets, cupcakes, or the energy drink Four Loko.

We joined Tumblr for the same reason all brands do—that’s where people are. The number of users on Tumblr is impressive. But its growth rate is truly exceptional.

Other media such as The Atlantic, The Economist and The Los Angeles Times have helped reestablish their brands by embracing this new digital space and consistently publishing relevant and interesting content. The Economist, for example, teases pictures and graphs to upcoming print issues.

Fashion bloggers have thrived in this space as well. Retailers like Urban Outfitters use it to promote new styles, while smaller blogs like Put This On taps Tumblr to promote suggested outfits and eBay sales. It’s no surprise that the more successful (or “viral”) Tumblr posts are those with photos.

To that end, the food industry also has seen some success with Tumblr. For example, Boqueria Restaurant of New York not only shows the final product, but also behind-the-scenes glimpses into its kitchens. Lost Weekend coffee shop on New York’s Lower East Side publishes artful portraits of its drip coffees, along with pictures of the fashionable clothes for sale at the shop and other images, videos, and mp3s it thinks their audience (and customers) will find interesting.

What’s particularly appealing about Tumblr from user’s perspective is that you can see all of this—and lots more—in one streaming newsfeed.

A signature aspect of Tumblr is its absence of advertising. Depending on your point of view, this is either a good or bad thing. For years, Tumblr resisted the idea of selling space to advertisers. Recently, however, it began to change its tune. Maybe it saw an opportunity. Perhaps it wanted to appease investors. One thing it’s not planning to do is to go the route of traditional advertising.

“The overall thesis of what we’re trying to do is empower and highlight interesting creative advertising,” said Derek Gottfrid, Tumblr’s vice president of product.

What this means is that an opportunity now exists for brands to tell their stories to Tumblr’s vast, growing audiences. This probably doesn’t mean pop-up or tacky banner ads. But it does mean that a window is opening to a vast audience of potential customers.