Media Emerging

My colleague Lisa Hoffmann likes to refer to Charlotte as a FisherPrice city — a town built with pre-fabricated blocks, devoid of identity. And, boy, is she right.

Sure, we’ve got a few enclaves of cultural flavor. Distinctly southern restaurants like Mac’s BBQ and Price’s Chicken Coop come to mind, and neighborhoods like NoDa and Dilworth have their charms. But by and large, Charlotte is a pleasant, sanitized, vanilla town. Our tailgate parties are wine and cheese affairs, for crying out loud! Wine and cheese with football? Seriously?

Now, with the downfall and buyout of Wachovia, Charlotte’s identity as the nation’s second largest banking center is in jeopardy, too. Charlotte is still reeling from a gas crisis and the growing financial crisis. The last thing we need is an identity crisis.

John Mangione, owner of the PRstore franchise on Long Island, uses a powerful presentation to alert his clients to their identity crises. He’ll spread their ragtag assortment of inconsistently branded marketing pieces on a table and ask them, “Which company are you today?”

The beauty of John’s demonstration is that many of the businesses that come to him suffer from brand schizophrenia. They’ve pieced together their marketing collateral over the years using half a dozen providers. But Charlotte’s problem isn’t schizophrenia — it’s amnesia.

Ours is a city of immigrants, not from Latin America, Europe or Asia, but from New England, the Great Lakes region, and the mid-Atlantic. Native Charlotteans are actually on the Endangered Species list. It’s no wonder that few people know of our city’s roots, or that the Charlotte brand is a flavorless potage designed to appeal to everyone.

It is often through great hardship that the character of a community emerges. In 1940, a few hundred fighter pilots from the RAF fended off the German Luftwaffe’s assault on Great Britain. After 9/11, we saw the resilience and resolve of New Yorkers. New Orleans is, to this day, piecing back together a city whose spirit survived Hurricane Katrina even when its homes couldn’t.

Charlotte, too, will show its character as we lean headlong into the winds of economic hardship. Though our struggle may not compare to those of London, New York or New Orleans, the depth of our character will be tested just as deeply. Let us hope ours shines just as brightly.

I use TwitterFeed to automate the publishing of my PRstore blog posts to Twitter. Unfortunately, many of my favorite bloggers haven’t set up their Twitter accounts with Tweets for new blog posts. If you’re tired of flipping back and forth between Twitter and your RSS feedreader of choice, here’s a way to get those RSS feeds sent to you in Twitter:

Step 1 – Create a Twitter Account for RSS Subscriptions

You’ll need to create a Twitter account that has just one follower: you. Create a new account at Twitter.com. In the settings panel, change the privacy setting to “Protect Updates.”

Step 2 – Follow Your New RSS Account

Log out of the Twitter account you just created and log back in using your main account. Do a search for the new account and request permission to follow. Then, log out again. You’ll need to log in to the other account to approve the request.

Step 3 – Approve the Request to Follow

Log in to your RSS feed Twitter account and approve the request to follow. We’re halfway to the finish!

Step 4 – Set Up TwitterFeeds for Your Favorite Blogs

Visit TwitterFeed and create an account if you don’t already have one. You’ll need an OpenID (there’s a link if you don’t have one). Once you’ve logged in, click the link to create a new feed. In a separate browser, navigate to your favorite blogs and news website and grab the URL for their RSS feeds. Plug the URL in over at TwitterFeed and configure the TwitterFeed to your liking. Repeat as necessary.

You’re done! Now, in addition to updates from other Twitterers you follow, you’ll get a Tweet anytime one of your favorite bloggers publishes a new post. The Tweet stream will be completely personalized and visible only to you.

Editor’s Note: If someone REALLY likes your taste in blogs, you could always encourage them to follow the RSS Twitter account you just created. You’ll have to log in to approve their request. Unless you’re being stalked, though, I don’t know why anybody would want to read all of the same blogs you read.