Back in the Blog Saddle Again

While attending PRSA Houston's social media luncheon earlier this week, I felt a lot of pressure (followed by determination) to "unlock" my blog. While excuses are excuses, I managed to lock myself out of my Blogger account for quite some time (which prompted me to review my username selection process and also reminded me that I should have updated my email address with Blogger before closing my SBC email account).

Fortunately, my email account at Schipul - The Web Marketing Company is still active - and was a backup address on my account. I thank the team at Schipul for forwarding me the email with the coveted link to now associate my blog with my gmail account (which I had to create before I could use Blogger) and reset my password. Whew.

Apparently, my login information has become even more important than my social security number.

Short story long - I am back to blogging.

In taking all these steps to access my blog, I was reminded of how dependent I have become on technology (and in turn, how impatient I can be at times, too!)

If I lose my blackberry signal for one minute while in the elevator, I fear I have missed the most important email yet. If the Web page I am visiting takes too long to load, I close out of the browser. If the password retrieve message tells me that my username is not found and my password is incorrect, I almost break my keyboard.

I bring up technology because I am on assignment in the internal communications department at Shell Oil through Brookwoods Group. While I have only been in this position for two months, I have learned how critical technology is to public relations, specifically employee communications. From writing and posting articles to the Intranet, to preparing and sending a weekly e-newsletter to employees, I am immersed in technology.

When I wasn't able to log into our external newsletter tool last week to deliver the newsletter, I had to rush home to send from there to meet the deadline.

I am having a great time at Shell and am learning so much in the process. The communications that I prepare are sent to almost 26,000 employees in the United States - not a small number by any stretch of the imagination. I've learned it's so critical to check and double-check every link and every sentence before pressing the magical send button, because once a message is sent, you've reached the end of the road.

I encourage everyone who is new to PR or studying PR to take advantage of any and all opportunities to learn all you can about social media, the Internet and all things technology.