Yesterday's News
I'm sorry... I just have to take a break from revisiting Race Through the Forest to ask a simple question:
Governor Mark who?
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (winner of the 2009 "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" award) has to be thanking his lucky stars. The prima dona of yesterday's top news stories didn't even make the top 30 minutes of the Today Show. If he even gets mentioned today, it will be a miracle. He won't need to resign. Our attention deficit disorder society has already forgotten him.
On the other hand, you have to feel a little sorry for Farrah Fawcett. Her final shot at publicity, the one event that usually assures a celebrity of decent coverage, gets eclipsed because the King of Pop dies the same day. The poor gal can't catch a publicity break. (Caveat: I say this all tongue in cheek. As a cancer survivor and with all my family has gone through, my heart actually goes out to her family.)
When I was doing my webinar on Wednesday, somebody asked what to do when another person in the office keeps stealing credit. I answered that each person is in charge of his or her own publicity, and they need to make people aware of accomplishments.
Publicity and buzz are very fickle mistresses. Sometimes we want our accomplishments forgotten quickly. Other times, we may hope to endure. What you need to learn about this is twofold:
-
You're in charge of your own publicity. As a professional in a sea of cubicles, you cannot rely on a media blitz to make your accomplishments known.
-
You can only milk it so long. Once the buzz is done, it's done. You can't draw it out any further than other people are willing to hear about it.
Most of the time we like to have our accomplishments heralded... unless you happen to be the governor of South Carolina. Then we rely on the short attention span of others to help us survive.