PR Communications

SNCR Is The Most Tweeted Candy Bar For Halloween

There's an inside joke at the Society of New Communications Research, we use the acronym SNCR, pronounced Snicker.So with the SNCR symposium and gala up this next week in California, I was surprised to learn SNCR was the most tweeted phrase for Halloween, until I did a double take and realized the real Snickers Bars are hot this Halloween season on Twitter.

From E.Life, a social media monitoring and analysis vendor, the company tracked 11 top candy brands from October 20 to October 27 to find out the top candy.

Here's E.Life's release:

Snickers (SNCR) Gets Most Tweets for Halloween, Followed by Candy Corn, Hershey's, Reese's and Twix

What candy brands are being talked about on Twitter in the week leading up to Halloween?  E.Life, a social media monitoring and analysis vendor, tracked 11 top candy brands from October 20 to October 27 to find out. The results show that the most-mentioned candy was Snickers, with 5303 tweets over the one-week period. Candy corn came in second, with 4592 tweets. Hershey's was third, with 3591 mentions. 100 Grand received the fewest tweets, with just 46 people tweeting about the brand.

Other findings include:

*    Snickers was often mentioned in relation to a Halloween-themed commercial, which was tagged by hundreds of people as #creepy. Twix commercials were also discussed often, with comments from a number of women who said they promote cheating and lying.

You can find out more about the SNCR Symposium and Gala, where you can share some Snicker bars with all of the Fellows and attendees.

(I'm a Fellow of the society).

 

10 Tips On Analytics From Anna Barcelos

Anna Barcelos is Director of Client Solutions at ten24 Web Solutions, based in Boston, MA. A former colleague with the Boston Chapter of the American Marketing Association. Anna kindly agreed to answer some quesitons I had for her about her area of expertise: Analytics!

Anna manages ten24’s marketing and new business development along with helping potential clients and partners define their specific business needs.Anna has over 16 years of data-driven integrated marketing communications experience. She has spent her career in progressive financial, sales and marketing positions for both B2B start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. She co-moderates #IMCChat on Twitter and blogs about various B2B marketing topics.

 

1. Why is analytics so important for marketing today? First, I think it’s important to define analytics – “...the process of obtaining an optimal or realistic decision based on existing data." Analytics answers questions, whether they are marketing or business related. Analytics has always been important for marketing, and there are data-driven companies that attribute their success to it. The beauty of analytics today is that technologies have made it easier for marketers to understand. I also think marketers and data folks are realizing more and more that they must collaborate to understand customer's needs and deliver.

2 How can you use analytics to measure results on the web today? Most online marketing and interactions can be tracked and measured. The key is going beyond measurement by taking the data and making it actionable. Many companies still struggle with this today because you need to have the right people and technologies in place to do it. It takes a real commitment to become a data-driven company. FedEx and Cisco do this very well because the commitment to be data-driven comes from the top, and they have built internal systems for the sole purpose of serving their customers while making it efficient for their employees to do so.

3 What if you are running a non web campaign, how can you use analytics to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns? Being an integrated marketer, I have always tried to combine offline with online marketing to better understand customers. Examples of offline/online combinations can be using PURLs (personalized URLs) or QR codes to collect data from offline methods including direct mail and catalogs. I’ve also seen them on storefronts.  If you look at print media, the savvy companies are using QR codes to collect information on customers and prospects and enhancing the experience with social media, location-based applications and video.

4 For example, I work for a publishing and custom content marketing agency, we produce a lot of magazines, for those clients where we just produce print, how can we use the web to measure the effectiveness of our editorial content for clients? Or measure the effectiveness of ads for the publications where we sell advertising? Adding on-line elements to off-line campaigns such as the items I mentioned above would help you to analyze and measure the effectiveness of your content to provide what your customers are asking for. You're able to collect survey data, responses to certain call to actions, and other information that you can leverage to enhance your products.

5. Who are your influences in analytics? Who do you read to keep up with the industry? Wow, there are quite a few blogs I subscribe to and books that I read, but if I’m going to focus solely on data and analytics, here are some of my faves - some you may recognize, some not so much. Analytics is King, KDPaine’s PR Measurement Blog, The Information Advantage, Interactive Insights Group, Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik, Social Media Examiner, Top Rank Online Marketing Blog and Trends & Outliers - Tibco Spotfire Blog I really like the Social Media Today community and its related sites as well.  I highly recommend the last few books I've read to help marketers better understand the value of data/analytics from the basics to actionable insights:  Data-Driven Marketing by Mark Jeffery, The Buying Brain by Dr. A.K. Pradeep and a book turned desk reference for me, Measuring Public Relationships by Katie Paine

6 What are the mechanics of being a good analytics marketer, could you take me through a typical marketer’s day based on your past job experiences, what did you do, how did you make your time more efficient? What are some of the inside tips you can share with other marketers to getting the most out of analytics? Wow, lots of questions rolled into one. An analytics driven marketer focuses on the use of data to drive decisions and understand customer needs. My typical day includes working with clients on 1. What their goals are. 2. What existing data they have and its state. 3. Turning 1 & 2 into executables. Most of the time it translates into customer acquisition, retention, upsell and engagement programs. I have also put together data strategies for clients who want to take care of the marketing strategy part. That was the bulk of my work at Mercury. Now at ten24 Web Solutions, I'm leveraging that expertise to help partners and clients identify web strategies. It's a lot of fun!

7 Agile marketing is becoming a hot topic, how can analytics help with the organizational marketing process? Real-time analytics are invaluable for agile marketing. Having access to that data enables you to adjust and test various elements of marketing programs. You have to have a combination of internal collaboration, systems and expertise to support an agile marketing model. They have been doing it in software development environments for years. Long-term, mass marketing programs of the good ole days are no longer effective in today's fast-paced, social environment.

8. What tools do you like best and why? It's important to stress that it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish and then come the relevant tools. For data analysis, I really love Tableau (about $1,000 for a license). It's a BI & data visualization tool that is easy to use and provides great data insights fast and in an easy to understand format.  There are plenty of free tools out there that are very effective as well. I'm a fan of Google Apps (Alerts, Analytics, Fusion Tables). Free tracking tools like SocialMention keep track of particular keywords in the social media space. I keep the tools bookmarked because there are so many.

9  If you just had the basics and not a lot of cash as a marketer (small business) what can you still use as analytics tools? Google Analytics is an excellent start. A CRM system like salesforce.com is very cost-effective for a small business and a great way to begin gathering customer and prospect data.

10. What’s next for measurement of marketing? Wow, this is a tough one. There is information overload out there about marketing measurement. As I mentioned previously, continuing to try and have a system in place to interpret and use the expanding mounds of data will be an eternal challenge, in my opinion. I think the best way to gain more focus on marketing measurement is to get back to the basics like knowing what a customer and prospect are worth to your company and ways to keep those customers & prospects buying and coming back. This type of data is available in every organization but only about 20% use it! My long-time wish for an integrated marketing platform that tracks all marketing touchpoints (traditional, online, social, mobile), is user-friendly, and provides dashboard analytics still hasn't been realized, but I'm an eternal optimist and I know companies are working on this as I write this, right? ;-)

Thinking About Waterfall, Extreme Programming And The Agile Enterprise

The waterfall method of software development involves a step by step process of developing requirements, determining the business problem, making a plan. Coding the software, testing, launch and fixing any associated problems.

Extreme approaches to software development arose because software doesn't solve the new problems that have appeared since you first developed the spec. So instead by using continuous development and bug fixing the software you develop will be nearer to what is currently needed by a customer, and extreme programming will have a shorter path to getting there.

Agile focuses on organizing teams so that by working together you will increase the speed of development, and shorten the time it takes to develop workable software that can be tested by users.
 
One technique for planning time estimates that’s used in extreme and agile development is called poker planning. The use of playing cards, where members of the project team select cards that give time estimates on a project, and then all team members reveal their estimates at the same time. Those members of the team who either gave a low or high estimate of time for a project then have to justify their estimates to the group until there’s a consensus.

Agile Enterprise

If planning a project is doomed to failure not because of the success of the implementation of project, but the realization that requirements shift over short periods of time, perhaps it’s time to time about not just building an iterative process for development but the whole enterprise.

Corporate Blogs In The Fortune 500

This is a list of corporate blogs run by Fortune 500 companies. According to research, 88 (17.6%) of the Fortune 500 are blogging as of 01/04/2012.

The table below lists any Fortune 500 companies with blogs, links to one or two blogs owned by the company, and a link to reviews of those blogs. I'm also keeping a list of updates to the table post.

I also list the blogging software used by the blog and where the blog is located: subfolder, subdomain or separate domain.

A corporate blog is defined as: Active public blogs by company employees about the company and/or its products.

Blogging F500 Company	Example Blog	Blogging System & Blog Location choice	Reviews
Advanced Micro Devices	AMD Blogs	Subdomain of the main domain | WordPress 3.0	John Cass on March 11, 2008
Agilent Technologies	Signal Integrity	Subdomain of the main domain| WordPress 3.2.1
Alcoa	Alcoa Recycling, CE Blog	Subdomain, but not the main domain (typepad domain) | TypePad +
Amazon.com	Amazon Web Services Blog	Subdomain, but not the main domain, folder | TypePad
American Express	Open Forum	Separate domain |
Aon Corporation	DiversityExchange, Aon Consulting RPO Blog	Subdomain, but not the main domain (TypePad domain) | TypePad
AT&T	AT&T Public Policy Blog	Separate domain | WordPress 3.0.3
Avnet	The Soft Pitch	Subdomain | WordPress 2.9.1
AutoNation	The AutoNation Blog	Subdomain of the main domain | WordPress	John Cass on March 3, 2011
Baker Hughes	Rig Count	Separate domain | WordPress 2.9.1
Bank of America	Future Banking Blog	Discontinued
Best Buy	Best Buy Community (blogs right nav)	Various | Lithium
Boeing	Randy's Journal	Folder on separate domain name
Caterpillar	Caterpillar SOS Services Oil Analysis	Subdomain on blog vendor's domain | Lithium
CBS	CBS.com Blog	Folder of the main domain |
Chevron	Chevron Blog at World Petroleum Congress	Blog is located in a folder
Cisco Systems	Cisco High Tech Policy Blog	Subfolder of a subdomain | WordPress
Clorox Company	Dr. Laundry	Separate domain	Easton Ellsworth on Nov 6, 2006
Computer Sciences	Outsourcing Blog	Subfolder
Countrywide	discontinued
CSC	Team CSC	Subfolder
Coca Cola	Coca-Cola Conversations	Separate domain | TypePad	Li Evans on Nov 10, 2006, Mack Collier on Aug 7, 2008
Comcast	Comcast Voices Blog	Subdomain
Davita	Davita Blogs	Separate domain | WordPess 3.0.1 & 2.8.6
Dell	Direct2Dell	Folder on subdomain on Dell.com | Telligent Evolution Platform Developer Build	Easton Ellsworth on Jul 13, 2006, Drew Meyers on Oct 23, 2006, and Mack Collier on June 13, 2007
Delta Airlines	Under The Wing	Subdomain of the main domain name | WordPress 2.9.1	Rich Young on April 25, 2008 James Lutes on May 11, 2008
Disney	Disney Parks Blog	Subfolder of a subdomain | WordPress 2.8.4
Emerson Electric	Emerson Process Experts Modeling and Control	Another domain name | Movable Type Commercial 4.25
Eastman Kodak Company	A Thousand Words PluggedIn	Subdomain of main domain |	Li Evans on Nov 17, 2006, Laura Spencer on January 30th, 2008, and Mack Collier on May 30th, 2007
EMC Corp	EMC Employee Blogs	Various platforms and domain choices, from TypePad blogs to communityServer 2007 SP2 from Telligent Systems
eBay	eBay Developers Program Blog	Subdomain on TypePad	Alison Nicole Grise on April 28, 2008
ExxonMobil	ExxonMobil Perspectives Blog	Separate domain |
FedEx	FedEx Citizenship Blog	Subdomain
Foot Locker	Foot Locker Unlocked	Subfolder on a subdomain | WordPress 3.0.5
Ford Motor Company	Ford Story	No corp blog, but have advocates write content.
General Electric Company	GE Reports, GE Global Research blog	Blog is located in a folder | WordPress 2.9	Easton Ellsworth on Sept 20, 2006
General Mills	A Taste of General Mills Blog	subdomain of main domain | WordPress 3.1.1
General Motors Corporation	FastLane Blog	Blog has its own domain | WordPress 2.8.6	Easton Ellsworth on Sept 11, 2006, Easton Ellsworth on Sept 12, 2006, Liz Fuller on January 16th, 2008
Goodyear	Goodyear Blimp Blog	Subdomain of another domain name | TypePad
Google	Google Blog	Subdomain | Google's Blogger	Bryan Saxton on May 14, 2008.
H&R Block	H&R Block Blog
Hewlett-Packard Company	HP Blogs	Folder on a sub-domain of the main domain | CommunityServer 2008.5 SP1 from Telligent Systems
Home Depot	The Apron	Folder of subdomain on the main domain
Honeywell International	Honeywell HR Blog discontinued		Cornelius Puschmann on Oct 19th, 2006
Ingram Micro	Seismic,	Discountined, however, company does have Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
Ingersoll Rand	Industrial Technologies Product & Innovation Blog	Subdomain of main domain | WordPress	Katherine Shin on Feb. 8, 2010
Intel Corporation	Blogs at Intel	Subdomain | Movable Type 4.21	Robyn Tippins on Oct 19th, 2006
International Business Machines	IBM Blogs, Guide to IBM Blogs	Blog is located in a folder	Easton Ellsworth on Sept 25, 2006
John Deere	John Deere Blog	Separate domain | .NET build
Johnson Controls	Your Energy Forum	Separate domain | WordPress	Easton Ellsworth on Oct 27, 2006
Johnson & Johnson	JNJBTW	Blog has its own domain | WordPress 2.9.2	Stacey Rogers on May 11, 2008 Rich Young on May 12, 2008
JPMorganChase	JPMorgan Actuarial Connection	Discontinued
Manpower	Manpower Blogs	Another domain name | WordPress 2.9.2
Marriott International, Inc	Marriott on the move	Subdomain of the main domain	Li Evans on Jan 17, 2007
McDonald's Corporation	Open For Discussion	Another domain name | Awareness	Laura Spencer on April 15, 2008
McGraw-Hill Companies	Social Media Directory	Lots of social media, and preparing a list of blogs.
Micron Technology	Innovations Blog
Microsoft Corporation	Microsoft Blogs	Folder on a subdomain | Telligent Platform CommunityServer	Jean Kim on April 28, 2008
Molson	Molson in the Community	Folder, of a subdomain of main domain | WordPress 3.0.1
Monsanto	Monsanto According to Monsanto	Separate domain | WordPress 3.0	Jeff McIntire-Strasburg on March 30, 2009
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney	Women Financial Advisors Forum	Subdomain of main domain | Blogtronix
Motorola	Wireless Insights Blog Community	Folder on subdomain of the main domain
Newell Rubbermaid	Graco blog Adventures in Organization	Subdomain of the main domain | Typepad	Susan Iskiwitch on April 11, 2008, John Cass on Dec 4, 2008
Nike	Official Nike Running Blog	Sub Folder of a subdomain	Sarah E. Essary on April 29, 2008
Oracle Corporation	Oracle Blogs	Subdomain | Movable Type 1.52	Li Evans on Dec 10, 2006 John Cass on May 26, 2008
Owens Corning	The Pink Panther Energy Blog
Pfizer	Pfizer Science Now Blog	Folder on a subdomain | WordPress 2.9.1
Primerica Financial Services	The Primerica Blog
Proctor & Gamble	Notes from the Front line	Subdomain of typepad | A SixApart TypePad blog
Progressive	Blog	Subfolder of the main domain
Pitney Bowes	Open Mike blogger retired from Pitney		Vincent McBurney on Oct 30, 2006
Safeway	The Safeway Blog	Folder on a subdomain | Lithium	Aaron Uhrmacher on Feb 2, 2009
Southwest Airlines	Nuts about Southwest		Mack Collier on Oct. 04, 2007, Paul Chaney (TBA)
Sprint	Things That Make You Go Wireless, blog discontinued	Folder of a subdomain
Starbucks	My Ideas In Action		John Bell on April 15, 2008
Starwood Hotels & Resorts	The Lobby	Separate domain | Movable Type Pro 4.21	Laura Spencer on February 21, 2008, Mack Collier on September 11, 2008
Symantec
Texas Instruments	TI Blogs	Folder of subdomain of the main domain | Telligent Community platform	Last post February 2008
Time Warner	AOL's Search Blog
TJX Companies, Inc.	HomeGoods Blog
Toys 'R' Us	Daily Deals	Subdomain of the main domain | TypePad
Tribune Company	The Swamp
Tyson	Hunger Relief	Subdomain | .NET CMS from Rockfish Interactive
Viacom International	MTV Video blog
Walt Disney Company	Walt Disney Park Blog	Folder of a subdomain | WordPress 2.8.4
Wal-Mart Stores	Wal-Mart Giving Blog	Subdomain of a separate domain |	Easton Ellsworth on Sept 8, 2006 Krishna De on 10 December 2007 Liz Fuller on March 11, 2008 Mack Collier on May 1, 2008
Waste Management	Think Green	Separate domain
Wells Fargo & Company	Guided by History	Folder on a subdomain | Movable Type Enterprise 4.25	John Bell on April 15th, 2008
Whole Foods Market	Whole Story	Subdomain | WordPress 2.9.2	Katrina Heilman on May 12th 2008 Olga Walsh on May 20th, 2008
UPS	Upside Blog	Subdomain | WordPress | WebTrends User
USAA	Inside the Mission Blog	Folder on the main domain| Corp CMS?	John Cass on September 8th, 2011
Xerox Corporation	Xerox Blogs	Subdomain | WordPress 2.8.4
Verizon Communications	Verizon Social Media	Subdomain of the main domain	Robert Longert on July 16th 2008
Virgin Media	Movie Editor Blog
Yahoo!	Yahoo! Search Blog		Stephanie L on April 29th, 2008
Yum Brands	KFC Nation Weblog

Thanks to Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson for their help in finding more Fortune 500 companies with corporate blogs from their studies on Fortune 500 companies with blogs

9 Tips On How To Optimize Videos

Kathy Klotz-Guest will be presenting her research on best practices for online business video at the SNCR Awards & Anniversary Gala Celebration, check out Kathy's blog post featuring 9 tips on how to optimize videos.

1. Find a compelling human story that connects.
2. Simplicity and brevity matter.
3. Humor works.
4. Honor your brand personality and values.
5. Let go of control. Empower the best storytellers.
6. Take risks.
7. Forge your own template – then reinvent it.
8. Be “flexible” on ROI; focus on learning.
9. Consider Call to action and Community.

Symposium - Stanford University, Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center, Lane/Lyons/Lodato Rooms, 326 Galvez St., Stanford, CA 94305-6105

SNCR Awards & Anniversary Gala Celebration, November 5th, 6:00-10:00pm
Stanford Park Hotel, 100 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Managing Constant Change With Agile Marketing

Neil Perkin writes an interesting blog post about Agile Marketing and building the agile enterprise. I wanted to focus on one aspect of his post.

The IBM Global CEO Study indicated that CEO's felt bombarded by change, and are struggling to keep up, and that the pace of change has increased since 2006.

To me those numbers are not surprising. Think about all that's happened in just the last 5 years. The rise of social media in the main stream. 5 years ago society was just recognizing the power of blogs, and that was coming off the dot.com bust, 9/11 and the rise of Google and search engine marketing as a major force in media and advertising.

In the last five years we've seen the rise of social networks, first MySpace, then Facebook, and now Twitter, with Linkedin still growing. On the horizon we see Location Social Networks such as Foursquare,  reality, tablets beyond the iPad, and the promise of semantic technologies.

Change is constant, and even more fluid are communities, there's no guarantee Facebook will continue to capture the size of the market in years to come, and other technologies will appear that we don't even know about today, that will have a big impact. Look at what the iPad is doing to the publishing and network markets.

Those changes mean disruption for marketers, IT departments and developers. The existing systems don't describe what exists today, or will exist tomorrow in terms of marketing innovation. And to transform an organization to meet those changes requires not just a change in design and systems, but a change in thinking in how change is managed.

Spreading agile thinking across the enterprise gives companies the process to manage change, think agile development, think agile marketing, think agile social media.

Stanford Park Hotel Tweet Up

Are you heading to the 5th annual SNCR Research Symposium & Anniversary Awards Gala Celebration on November 4th and 5th at Stanford University? If so I'm organizing a non-official SNCR tweet up, or if you are based in the Bay area and not attending the SNCR event, we are glad to have you join the Tweet Up as well.

We will be meeting up at the Lounge at the Stanford Park Hotel on El Camino Real in Menlo Park, at 6:00pm for drinks and snacks, and either have dinner there or go onto a restaurant.You can sign up for the Stanford Park Tweet up on eventbrite.

Can A Face Help You Sell More? Research From SNCR Symposium

You've seen the cliché, scantily models draped over cars, you like the model, and by extension the car. Yes, there’s an advertising myth that sex sells... but is it true?  Well, Joseph Carrabis, Senior Research Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research, and Founder of NextStage Evolution, wanted to ask just such a question, "Can A Face Help You Sell More?" He researched the stacks of marketing literature and did not find a comprehensive study on the concept. So he decided to develop a research project that tested the hypothesis that appearance influences people.

He worked with Greg PC, another Fellow of the society of New Communications research to take his over 1400 facial shots of different people and use them in his research. And other collaborators included John Scullin and Bruce Klink.

He then had to develop a reliable experiment to ensure there was enough sampling and no bias was involved. He designed a series of websites, and using panels from market research companies as well as well-documented viral email practices, he asked people to review the sites, and asked them initial questions about objects, before moving onto to the images of people. He worked hard to develop some ambiguous questions that were neutral, one because he wanted to pass the muster of the Head of Research for SNCR Dr. Nora Gamin Barnes, and two because Joseph understands the value of good sampled research.

He asked a variety of questions intended to elicit what face had the most  impact, to determine which face people liked the most. He also asked the sort of questions only a social scientist would ask of any decent person, who do you think is a drug addict, and who is the felon? The goal was to determine which face (by culture) evoked the most positive conscious and non-conscious visual- and psycho-cognitive activity as well as which face most quickly placed brand into long-term memory (by culture).

Artists for generations have been aware there are concepts of the perfect face, there are measurements for the ideal face. But what Joseph wanted to know was does appearance in advertising influence purchasing behavior.

Joseph Carrabis will be presenting his findings at the SNCR Research symposium in Palo Alto on November 4-5th, find out if different faces sell more, and the story of how he put this fascinating study together.

Update 10/28/10: Joseph will not be able to make the SNCR event, but he will be publishing his results!

PR Summit L.A. Seeks To Explore New Ideas In PR

Shaun Saunders from Graffiti PR recently contacted me to ask speaking at the PR summit in Los Angeles, California on Thursday, October 21, 2010. I'm not able to attend, but I asked Shaun some questions about the event, and what lessons he has learned from running the PR summit.

John: What is PR Summit?

Shaun: The PR Summit Boot Camp is a one day conference focused on providing up-to-date tools for professionals working in media. Conference attendees will have the opportunity to listen, connect and follow the insights and conversation of media experts in a wide variety of vertical markets and industries.

The PR Summit Boot Camp Conference addresses the changing media & public relations landscape. Industry professionals in a variety of vertical markets and industries will provide attendees with latest case-studies, insights, fresh ideas, tools, and best success practices that can be applied can be applied to a person's skills set.

John: Who is your audience?

Shaun: The audience makeup of the PR Summit Boot Camp is a mix of small business owners, media consultants, public affairs and PR professionals, students, and of course press/bloggers.

John: What were some of the highlights from the last summit? Speakers, events, incidents?

Shaun: Highlights from the San Francisco boot camp included key conversation on how to Cultivate Evangelist and the idea of using Key Words.  Both panel discussions sparked vigorous debate on the value of creating new ways to communicate.

It was an exciting day, because Matt Hicks, PR Manager for Facebook gave a keynote about social media.  Specifically, that social media is no longer optional for PR practitioners, it’s a requirement in their daily repertoire. Just as pitches, press releases and press conferences have been the bread-and-butter of traditional PR, tweets, blog posts and Facebook Pages are the must-haves today.

John: What will people take away from the event?

Shaun: It is my goal, hope and desire that people will walk away from this conference with new ideas and approaches to media relations.  Additionally, I hope that great conversation is created and relationships forged.

John: How are you using PR, marketing and social media to promote the event? 

Shaun: We are utilizing all social media and online mediums to promote this conference, such as blog postings, story pitches to select and targeted media outlets, and creative messaging on Facebook and Twitter.

John: What steps have been most effective in promoting PR Summit?

Shaun: We have experienced a surge of interest from tech media and pr blogs respectively.

John: Why did you found the event?

Shaun: I am very interested in the sharing of thoughtful and useful information to my profession. That said, this conference was created as a think tank where people who are working in media can learn, share ideas and discuss best practices on the issues facing media relations today.

John: What have you gained most from organizing the summit?

Shaun: I gained a better understanding on how to build buzz and conversation, and new approaches to using social media.

John: What tips and lessons learned would you give to other event organizers?

Shaun: I also learned that it is not easy producing a conference with a small team of 1 and some volunteers.  Get help! Get partners. Breath!  I think it’s important to use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid).

John: If someone wants to speak or attend the event what do they have to do?

Shaun: Email us at info@prsummit.org (PR Summit).

John: Thanks Shaun, hope you have a successful conference!

Sex, Power, Social Media & Video Tape - The Conference You Cannot Miss

If you want advanced techniques in social media, the latest research on nonprofits and the best conversations in social media you'll attend the Society for New Communications Research's 5th Annual Research Symposium and Anniversary Awards Gala Celebration on 4th and 5th November in Silicon Valley, California. 

Symposium - Stanford University, Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center, Lane/Lyons/Lodato Rooms, 326 Galvez St., Stanford, CA 94305-6105

SNCR Awards & Anniversary Gala Celebration, November 5th, 6:00-10:00pm
Stanford Park Hotel, 100 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Check out the research being presented at the Symposium, and yes the topics do include Sex, Power, Social Media and Video Tape.

TITLE
The Double Bottom Line (2BL): How to Do Big Business by Doing Good

AUTHOR(S)
Beth Kanter, chief executive officer, Zoetica Media
Kami Huyse, APR, president and chief operating officer, Zoetica Media

TITLE
Getting a good handle on new communications

AUTHOR(S)
Michael F Kelly, CEO Techtel Corporation (Research), SNCR Sr Fellow

TITLE
Koinophilia or “What’s in a face? About a 300% boost in campaign profits, that’s what!”

AUTHOR(S)
Joseph Carrabis, CRO&Founder, The NextStage Companies

TITLE
What’s the Story with Video?

AUTHOR(S)
Kathy Klotz-Guest MA, MBA, MLA

TITLE
New Communications Behind the Firewall
What’s the impact of employee use of social media behind the firewall? How companies are using social media behind the firewall to further business objectives, agility, and productivity, and how employees are responding

AUTHOR(S)
Francesca Karpel, Senior Manager, Internal Communications, NetApp, 2010 SNCR Fellow
Michael F Kelly, CEO, Techtel (Research), Senior SNCR Fellow

Register for the Society for New Communications Research's 5th Annual Research Symposium and Anniversary Awards Gala Celebration.