IABC Be Heard Weblog

Dogs barking right under your window as well as from miles away.

Jet engines even though they’ve long passed. I didn’t realize how many planes fly over our house.

Neighbors’ generators.

Neighbors baby talking to their pets.

Neighbors across the street laughing because they have power and we don’t. I’m sure that’s not why they’re laughing, but seems that way.

Chainsaws, blowers, weed eaters, mowers and other such macho equipment.

Sirens.

Birds singing as if nothing just happened.

A neighbor sneezing, like clockwork, same time every morning. This leads to a coughing attack no doubt from the cigarette being enjoyed on the back patio.

Leaves rustling.

Garbage trucks rolling down the street.

Squirrels returning to their trees, taunting the dogs and assessing damage to their buried treasures in our yard.

Blasting stereo of a car driving by.

Thump of the newspaper hitting the sidewalk. Monday’s paper. It’s Thursday. Guess they thought I wanted to relive what already happened. At least there’s another crossword puzzle for me to work on to occupy my time. By day’s end on Thursday I heard a few more thumps as the newspaper carrier delivered the complete set of missing papers from Saturday through Wednesday and finally, Thursday.

This post about IABC Houston’s involvement with the City of Houston to promote social media communications among neighborhoods has been interrupted by Hurricane Ike. Everything has been interrupted by Ike. It’s Wednesday or as the media say Day 4 of recovery and I’m still without power. I am writing this from my boss Tracy’s house who lives less than a mile from me. She has power. I’m thinking it’s because she lives next to a district court judge.

I was devastated to hear about Brennan’s being destroyed by fire and the folks injured in the blaze. We have canceled our September 25 luncheon that would have been held at Brennan’s and are encouraging those who had planned to attend (or even those who couldn’t make it) to donate that amount to the medical fund that has been established for the father and daughter who were caught in the fire. Watch the Web site and Insider newsletter for more information on how to do that. We are searching for a new venue to our luncheons and hope to have news of that soon.

We will also reschedule other events we had planned this week–new member’s breakfast and networking happy hour–to sometime in October.

It will be good to get back into a regular routine. I know that will take longer for some of us than others. And I wish everyone the best. Until the next post, take care.

Ed Schipul concluded his social media workshop on August 28 with a list of five things we should all do to plug into the social media world. They are:

1. Read blogs (find some on your topics of interest at www.technorati.com).

2. Set up an RSS Feed Reader (www.google.com/reader) to keep up with your favorite Web sites.

3. Join Facebook (www.facebook.com).

4. Join Flickr (www.flickr.com).

5. Track the buzz about you (www.google.com/alerts).

All good advice. My first to-do was to start a blog, which I have done here and have gotten into the habit of making time each week to write it. I have not, however, been reading blogs, other than my son’s for obvious reasons. I need to carve some extra time here each week to do this.

Once I found out what an RSS feeder is, it does seem like a good service to have. It lets Google scan your favorite Web sites for new information then alerts you to such. Again, more time to set aside to look at the reader.

I have joined Facebook, although that’s all I have done. We have an IABC/Houston group. I’ve gotten a flurry of emails from people wanting to be my friend. Good for the ego, I guess. I’m not quite sure what to do with Facebook now that I have joined. I will need some extra time each week to figure that out and use to my advantage.

I have not joined Flickr. Thought it was just for photographers, but again seems like a neat site and a good way to share photos. More time needed there to learn the benefits of this site.

Tracking the buzz with Google alerts sounds cool and I hope to do this soon. Just another matter of finding that extra time.

I think what I’ll do is make a point each week to do one of these items–actually mark it on my calendar to get in the habit of checking and using Facebook and Flickr and finding out what’s happening on other sites and blogs. If I keep doing this, then it will become habit and social media will just be a way of life.