For the past couple weeks, Chris has been working on an emotional video featuring Jonathan Shipp, a 12 year old boy who is a two-time Leukemia survivor.  The Waddell & Reed Kansas City Marathon will donate portions of the money raised by participants to Rotary Youth Camps and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and this is one of the many children helped by these organizations.

Everyone at JPRA would like to thank the Shipp family for allowing us to film their family’s story for the Waddell & Reed Kansas City Marathon.  It was an honor to meet such amazing people who are so committed to each other in good times and sometimes not so good.  Jonathan is an incredible kid with an inspirational story that we can all learn something from.  Cancer isn’t something that we want to talk about, but when it hits home, we seem to want to express ourselves and share stories with those who could help future children survive from Leukemia.  We want this video to be used for educational purposes and to inspire those who will need it someday.  Thanks Jonathan!  We wish you and your family the very best.

If you would like to learn more about this disease, please visit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/hm_lls.

Valerie

The lunch is scheduled for noon (people begin arriving around 11:30 am) on Thursday, October 16th.  I am extremely excited to attend and share my insights about the vast social media opportunities for marketers.

The event brings together global leaders from business, government, academia, science, religion, and non-governmental organizations, including numerous heads of state, former heads of state, CEOs of multinational corporations and prominent philanthropists.  The attendees include former Vice President Al Gore, Senator John McCain, Senator Barack Obama, Muhammad Ali (Athletes for Hope), Ashley Judd and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Riverkeeper Alliance; NRDC) to name a few.

Since 2005, more than 80 current and former heads of state; hundreds of leading CEOs, philanthropists, and NGO leaders; and 10 of the last 16 Nobel Peace Prize laureates have attended CGI. This year, President Clinton will again be joined by leading voices from every sector to take action in CGIs four focus areas: education, energy & climate change, global health, and poverty alleviation.

Although social media is still a relatively new topic to some professionals in PR, marketing and advertising, significant progress has been made as to the utilization and advantages of social media.  A year ago when I presented on the topic, only a few hands would raise in response to: How many of you are utilizing LinkedIn or Facebook? I realize there is still a long path to travel in educating people about the alternative nature of social media and how it can benefit a wide range of marketing initiatives.  I am eager to find out who will be utilizing these tactics in the future, how many of them will have given up and how many people will want more advice on these areas. 

I love challenging myself and others to learn something new each day about social media as well as educating and sharing my insights on the continual evolution of the social media movement and would be happy to present at any upcoming events. 

Download a copy of the presentation: http://jenningspr.net/kcdma.html.

The presentation includes a New York City real estate development case study, research, what�??s hot in social media, vocabulary and analytical data.

JPRA has secured online placements in leading publications including MarketWatch and AdRants by developing newsworthy, search engine optimized content with our media savvy expertise.  A few tips and tactics to consider when pitching to bloggers include:

1. First and foremost research, research and research.  Bloggers will automatically detect if someone has never read their blog.  Bloggers tend to be extremely specialized and you must be able to speak intelligently on their topic of interest this may include reading past posts or articles on the topic.
2. Establish a dialogue with bloggers by posting comments that participate in the their postings including posing questions, highlighting interesting aspects of the post or creating link exchanges to relevant content.  Simply noting that a posting was good does not engage the blogger in an ongoing conversation.
3. Manage blogger relations by continually reading new postings and following up with bloggers.

Other recent research confirmed the growing reach of the blogosphere. Brodeur Partners, a leading public relations and communications firm, noted in a January survey that 57 percent of 178 journalists contacted said they read blogs at least two to three times per week, while 18 percent said they spend at least one hour per day reading them. The PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey revealed that nearly 40 percent of the participating journalists employ blogs to find topics for stories, 30 percent use them to find experts, and nearly 58 percent use them to measure sentiment.

The results speak for themselves: More than $1 million in sales leads for the Metropolitan in just a few months.

Download the case study.

Read “Social Media & Viral PR Generate $1 Million in Sales Leads for New Condo Project.”

But perhaps the best example of New Media is our firm�??s on-going social media campaign for City Center Square, a Kansas City luxury high-rise office building, to develop an online portfolio, shape the conversation and manage its online reputation�?� all of which helps to drive traffic to the new website: http://www.citycentersquare.com/. The project offered our firm creative freedom to utilize New Media. Recently, Michelle Jennings, research and development director, discovered Mosh, a video site owned by Nokia and completely free like most content sharing sites out there. Most importantly to our firm, the video views are impressive. Recently, a carbon footprint story our firm created for a client generated more than 800 views in one month.

That�??s just one of the sites our agency utilizes to create buzz and increase search engine rankings.

So what does this all mean? Short and simple: start taking advantage of online video.

Here�??s how: define your social media strategy by asking yourself what do you want to accomplish, what do you want to share, what will add value, what is so special about your team, your business, your practices that the online community will relate to? Your team is always the best answer. Showcase the members of your team, their talents, their uniqueness and their gifts. That�??s why we are here, so why not show them off.

At the Bulldog Reporter�??s Media Relations Summit in San Francisco, the largest New Media and PR technology conference in the world, fear was on the rise and sadness in the back of the room. Yes, it�??s about change and change has some of our peers by the throat. It�??s inevitable that the PR industry is going through a lot of changes, and you can either come along, or go kicking and screaming.

So what can you do? Start small, start educating yourself about the terminology and let it grow naturally. Of course, you won�??t be able to get up to speed overnight, but you can walk away from denial, allow yourself to learn and actually make progress. Without egos in the way, we can move forward with lightening speed. It�??s important that PR professionals unite, rely on one another for resources and work together to bring us all into the next chapter of our beautiful profession.

I had an opportunity to interact with them this month. We talked about everything from what it�??s like to interview for a job in 2008 to how to approach a blogger. While they were a little shy at first, the questions started flowing and the intensity of an exchange developed. You would have never known that we weren�??t sitting side by side. They even had a chance to chat with one of our newest additions, Abby Koehler, from the University of Kansas, School of Journalism and Mass Communications. 

Overall, it was an incredible experience and iChat is, in my opinion, one of the best technological developments of our time. This is what social media is all about: sharing and exchanging ideas without any barriers of time, space or speed. Assuming, of course, we all know how to operate the technology!�

JPRA is currently managing a social media campaign for BusinessDistrict.com, an online business community that connects entrepreneurs seeking to buy, sell or finance a business.  By utilizing social media tools including search engine optimized press releases, BusinessDistrict is making an appeal to connect entrepreneurs across generations from Baby Boomer to X and Y�??ers.

Demographic research reveals that social networking sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook are closing generational gaps by creating online commonalities. Through the use of social media, along with traditional public relations, JPRA and BusinessDistrict are connecting generations who share the entrepreneurial spirit.

Cary Daniel, chairman and CEO of BusinessDistrict, launched the site a year ago anticipating the exchange of approximately 8.4 million companies over the next decade. As private businesses, owned by Baby Boomers who are approaching retirement increase, BusinessDistrict�??s goal is to connect those Baby Boomers with their most likely buyers, Generation X & Y’ers who are accustomed to social networking sites.

Currently, more than 51 percent of MySpace visitors are over the age of 35 and LinkedIn’s average user is approximately 40 years old. This illustrates that social networking is not just for teens and twenty-something’s anymore; BusinessDistrict.com is connecting these consumers who have commonalities–regardless of generation. The site is not targeting users interested in sharing photos and music, however, if they are interested in buying, selling or financing a business, they can connect with each other on our site for free.

Social networking demographics:

http://www.infocomgroup.net/falkow/?p=54.

MySpace demographics:

http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1019.

LinkedIn demographics:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070129_642507.htm.

While social networking sites for younger audiences are receiving the initial attention of advertisers and investors, some corporations are unsure as to whether the payoff will be there. In the meantime, online business communities like Daniel’s site are building momentum, particularly due to the average age and disposable income of their users.

Daniel isn’t the only one reaching-out to these groups. Recently, Eons (www.eons.com), a social network targeted at the 50+ crowd, announced it raised $22 million in financing to advance growth. LinkedIn, a site for business professionals, raised $12.8 million in financing and Reuters is launching a version of MySpace for the Financial Services Industry, a subscriber-only social network for “fund managers, traders and analysts” (The Guardian, “Reuters Planning Financial Social Network,” March 2007).

Daniel has been recognized by publications such as Entrepreneur Magazine as well as by the magazines Inc. and Ingram�??s.