Everyone has his or her commuter war stories. But have you ever wondered how you stack up with other riders? Take the Chicago Commuter Quiz to find out.

You’ve been delayed due to a rain or snowstorm +1 (if you forgot your umbrella, +1 point extra)

Someone has sneezed on you + 1

The strap on your purse or man-purse has broken while riding public transit + 2

You have been stuck on an “L” car in the summer with the heat cranked all the way up + 1

You’ve walked under the “L” on a sunny day and had mystery liquid drip on you + 2

You’ve fallen asleep and awakened at the end of the line somewhere, such as 95th Street or Crystal Lake +3

You have a regular “L” or Metra conductor who likes to ham it up on the intercom mic +2

Someone has spilled food on you + 1

You have actually witnessed someone trying to con transit riders with a game of three card monte +3

You’ve caught the last train out of Union Station or Ogilvie after a holiday such as July 4 or St. Patrick’s Day +5

An intoxicated fellow transit-rider has told you about what he thinks is wrong with this country +1

You have been stuck on the “hinge” section of an articulated bus, which turned your commute into a tilt-a-whirl ride + 2

You have taken the Red Line north from the loop to Addison on a Cubs game day +2

Results:

0-10 points: Rookie Rider

10-15 points: Capable Commuter

15-20 points:  Savvy Traveler

20+ points: Transit Titan

-Tim Frisbie

A wicker basket that once cradled fruit in transit is now shelter in my living room for the precious get well cards I received as I recovered from recent hip surgery.

On days filled with pain-pill-induced fog, sleep and boredom, successfully mining the mailbox for get well wishes really did encourage me to get well as soon as possible. The hand-written notes made me smile, laugh out loud and reminisce with good memories.

Isn’t that the height of strategic communications? My friends and colleagues knew their communications goal (remind me they cared); identified their target audience (me); and wrote effective key messages that fostered relationships.

Come to think of it, a get well card can be a tactical element of a public relations campaign. For a favorite target audience (read “friend”), check out one of my favorite sites for online greeting cards: www.jacquielawson.com, which features a chocolate Labrador retriever named Chudleigh.

-Kathy Schaeffer

As part of my job as a public relations practitioner and digital strategist (and as a voracious connoisseur of culture), I read a lot of news. A lot. And since I get most of that news online, I need a system that reliably delivers news about the subjects, industries and trends that matter most to me. For the past seven years, I’ve relied on Google Reader – an application that aggregates web feeds – to sort more than 290 blogs, magazine and newspaper RSS feeds.  These 290 feeds can produce thousands of pieces of news every day, so Google Reader has been indispensable for staying up to date and ahead of the trends.

But, to the chagrin of many in the media and communications worlds – who were the platform’s biggest fans – Google has announced that it will shut down Reader effective July 1.

The good news for us info junkies is that several services have stepped forward to claim Reader’s once vaunted crown. Among them, Feedly seems to be the heir apparent to Reader. The New York Times’ David Pogue even suggested that Feedly is better than Reader in several ways and spelled those out in a column in Sunday’s paper. And this Tech Hive blogger – and avowed Reader loyalist – writes reassuringly of his experience with Feedly.

I have not fully made the transition to Feedly (old habits are hard to break), but I’m heartened that Feedly has made it easy to make the transition. In fact, I don’t need to rebuild my portfolio at all: I can simply import my Google Reader preferences directly into Feedly and scroll through those 290 feeds – and maybe even add a couple more – without skipping a beat.  My advice: build your own digital library in Reader now (its interface is extremely intuitive) and connect it to Feedly later. You’ve got six weeks to experience the joy of Reader, so do it while you can.

Come July 1, we’ll be living in a Reader-less world, but with all things digital, something better will likely spring up in its place. For a more comprehensive list of post-Reader options, check out this LifeHacker post.

- Stephanie Hlywak

The world of social media can be intimidating to outsiders, and new tools seem to come online every day. How do you decide which platforms to add to your arsenal of digital strategies? And which technologies, cool as they may be, do you skip? I’m a big believer in using each platform to its best advantage, and each network—be it Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest—has its strengths and weaknesses.  I’m also a bit of a skeptic about anything touted as “the next big thing.” Some tools make it, and others don’t (anyone remember Friendster?).

Vine, the Twitter-owned micro-vlogging site that allows users to upload and share six-second videos with their social networks, is wildly popular among animators and advertisers. But I was apprehensive about its use. That is, until last month.

One of the most iconic images to emerge from the bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15 wasn’t a still picture at all; it was a six second Vine video of the first explosion. Within hours, the video had been tweeted tens of thousands of times. It seems only appropriate that, for a tragedy—and a manhunt—that played out largely online, this eerily hypnotic looping video would be among the most unforgettable images of the day.

From a public relations perspective, I envision Vine being a powerful tool in crisis communications (imagine a message from a transit agency executive commenting immediately in the aftermath of a train derailment or a CEO acknowledging a mistake that led to a consumer backlash). Vine will likely also be useful in ceremonial situations (a visit from the governor to your university can be captured on film, of course, but the power of moving images and sound make it far more compelling). The goal here, as with any social media tool, is to make something that people want to share.

New technologies will emerge and new uses for them will be found. But no matter what tools you decide to use, make sure they are the right fit for your message. As the Boston video shows, the right content at the right moment can be extremely powerful.

- Stephanie Hlywak

Jennifer’s latest blog post contains some tips that will help you decide when to design – or hire a designer. [Read more] 

“Had it ever dawned on you that you could make this payment online?”

That’s what a bank supervisor asked me when I made a payment recently at a downtown branch.

I don’t think it dawned on him that he could have said the same thing in a much more tactful way.

His statement made me think about the various quotes I’ve heard, read and seen that didn’t come out the right way. We’ve all done it in our personal lives but it can be disastrous when it’s printed or broadcast to tens of thousands of people.

When we provide media training at KSA, we emphasize the importance of understanding and practicing your talking points so they don’t abandon you at the worst possible time.

By the way I answered yes, and said I’d rather visit the bank in person. Maybe not that location again, though.

–Bob Musinski

Your expertise in your field has attracted the interest of a reporter, and he or she wants to talk. Feel free give yourself a pat on the back, high-five your co-worker or treat yourself to a high-calorie snack from the office vending machine.

But before you pick up that phone, make sure you are ready for the interview. At KSA, one of our specialties is media training. Here are three tips we like to share about talking with reporters:

1. Be prepared. Don’t just wing it. Even if you are an expert in your field, you should take a few minutes to think about what the top messages you want to communicate in the interview. Pick three, write them down on a piece of paper and keep it in front of you during your call.

2. Relax. Just be yourself and let your passion shine through. Feel free to ask for clarification if you don’t understand something. If you don’t know the answer to a question, let the reporter know you will find out and be back in touch.

3. Don’t get too relaxed. Be friendly but keep it professional. Remember the reporter has a job to do, so get to the point and save the stories about your cats or your paleo diet for another time. And, even if you preface a comment by saying “this is off the record,” remember nothing is off the record.

Now go get ‘em!

-Tim Frisbie

A recent gathering of about 15 independent PR firm owners from around the nation became a case study in direct communications. No passive-aggressive communicators or shrinking violets welcome there.

Consider these interactions:

• Person A evaded a question…Person C jumped in with, “So, the answer to the question is?” And, busted, Person A abandoned the evasion and fessed up.
• In a wide-ranging discussion of PR best practices, these phrases bounced off the walls. “Absolutely not.” “Yes, let’s start now.” “That’s B.S.” “Your problem is…” “I suppose you are right.” “No, you’re wrong.”
• Over cocktails, a public relations firm principal from a southern state confessed that she is sometimes too direct for the genteel expectations of her region. Another admitted that her colleagues have called her communications style “blunt.”

So, what?

All agreed that in the high-stakes games of reputation management, crisis communications or awareness-building, a no-nonsense communications style most effectively supports client objectives without wasting valuable time.

You got a problem with that?

-     Kathy Schaeffer

Confession: I am not a morning person, and don’t see myself turning into one any time soon. I envy my fellow PR professionals who come in early, refreshed and energized and get a jump start to their day. Though I would love to leave every day at 5 p.m. on the dot, I’ve found that sometimes the after-work time is my most productive time.

Staying late isn’t a problem, if it’s the time that you do your best work.

Here are some reasons for putting in time past 5 p.m.

It’s a good time to organize:

I like to take some time at the end of the day to organize my emails and desk, and prioritize what I need to get done the next day. This makes me more productive in the morning and ready to hit the ground running with tasks such as media outreach.

You don’t feel crunched:

When the phone is ringing and emails are flooding in during the day, you can feel as if everything has to be done by 5 p.m. sharp. But, if this deadline is more fluid, and the pressure is off, you might find you can actually focus better on the task at hand.

 It might be when you do your best thinking:

For me, this is around 4 p.m. – and the ultimate reason why I choose to stay later.

If you’re not sure when you work best, follow this link to help you figure out what time of day you are most alert, energized and productive.

http://yourbrainatwork.org/what-time-of-day-do-you-learn-best/

–Jennifer Koppelman

For better or worse, I’ve been an early bird for as long as I can remember. While it can be annoying on a Saturday, when the latest I can sleep in is 8 a.m., I’ve found that I truly enjoy getting to the office early.

Here is my case for why you should start your work day early:

1.  Start your day relaxed.  We’ve all had the feeling of running late, rushing around, and not feeling prepared to start a productive work day. In Chicago, commutes can get backed up quickly. Waking up early to get to the office early can eliminate most of this rushing around.

2.  Uninterrupted time.  Communications is all about building relationships and interacting with other people.  But sometimes you need peace and quiet: when you get in early, there are fewer phone calls and emails. It’s a great time to organize your day, catch up on the news, or respond to emails.

3.  Flexibility with your day’s work plan. Unplanned projects and tasks come up often in public relations and sometimes you need to dive into crisis communications mode. Starting your day early can give you more time during the afternoon to juggle additional tasks.

4.  Open evenings.  Of course we all have to stay late sometimes, but it is much easier to get out the door at a reasonable hour when you’ve started early or on time. It frees up your evenings for leisure activities, or more realistically, household chores and grocery shopping.

The final perk of getting into the office early?  Making the first pot of coffee as strong as you’d like.

Forbes lists 10 additional benefits on why starting your day early is the way to go: http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eelj45iddk/benefits-of-early-risers/

- Megan Dolan