On a more personal note, my daugher has been invited by the Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference to attend the 56th Inauguration.  As a fundraiser to help pay for the week of classes and celebrations she has started a blog called TwentEYEighty where she will blog about everything from classroom politics (she is 13 years old) to the campaign of course.  She will blog before, during and after the event in January…it should be great to hear her perspective. 

The power of her blog comes not only in a 13 year old getting her 2 cents out there but also from subscribers supporting her thoughts and people donating through her “donate” button so she can help pay for the week.

Jerelyn’s blog is, as all blogs are, 20% skill, 80% hard work-always with an EYE on the future and hence her tag line and url: www.twentEYEighty.com

Enjoy!

You know I want to like PRSA! I want to support what they do and be proud of being a member but I just can’t do it!! From the local meetings of elders who are unfriendly at the door to the guy (no names) who plans most of the speakers, it is one of the most unfriendly and inflexible groups of people I have ever met…this is “Public Relations?” Crazy!

I have heard many say these kinds of things before. One great speaker who I came to see (kudos for getting a smart well versed PR/Social Media expert) said that he has spoken at thousands of venues around the U.S. (and the world) and that the PRSA members as a whole are lacking zeal, to say the least, in trying to understand how the internet can help them do their jobs better even though social media is a natural extention to what I call traditional PR.

So no news here that PRSA does not comprise creative out of the box thinkers, so why am I writing today? Because of their next speaker, Andrew (first names only), who will be showing up at our local meeting. This is a guy I know well. He claims to love social media and understand it and he was a sponsor of the Business Smart Tools conference where he worked on the website and he was a speaker. Besides the fact that I don’t think he is an ethical person, he has minimal working knowledge of social media but claims to be a “world renown expert” which PRSA is supporting. This is a guy who doesn’t know how to set up blogs for his clients, has no blog of his own, and has a profile on facebook but no friends, no picture and no content….he isn’t even on Linkedin which is barely a social media tool in my mind.

You know that a trend (social media) has made it when “experts” like Andrew are bubbling to the surface and speaking about their “knowledge.” Watch out for people like this but celebrate the fact that the PR industry and business as a whole has a new yet solid communication channel that works for our clients and ourselves!

Here is our latest video featuring Cindi Bigelow of Bigelow Tea on how to make a perfect cup of tea.  Enjoy!

As a citizen in the town of Fairfield, CT., and as a female, mother, wife and daughter, I have a favorite website called SuzySaid. SuzySaid is the essense of where the big web guys (google, yahoo….) and the internet as a whole would like to go. It is geared for women and focused on the town where we live. I believe that SuzySaid started in Fairfield, my town, and has now branched out to other towns nearby and gone as far as Texas.

Content is local. Content is constantly updated. Content updates are shared daily with opt in email blasts. Content is geared for the local woman. Content is created by local women. Advertisers love it!

And you don’t need to be local to use it…what if I want to travel to Austin, Texas? Wouldn’t it be smart to consult SuzySaid?

As a woman living in Fairfield, this is my favorite website. As a business person advising smaller local businesses (and soon larger businesses), I say this is the way to go.

Hats off to SuzySaid!

Five years ago, I knew that I wanted to run my own company and do PR, Marketing and Events….and so I did it. Four years ago, I had a feeling about blogs, knew nothing, went to a seminar, knew a tad more, and worked until I understood the blog world and how business could fit in. With the fun and the effectiveness of blogs, I knew we needed to expand into social networking (myspace, facebook and others) and online videos…and so we did it and have helped our clients increase sales and win awards.

This is a great story but the question to ask today is, with all that Creative Concepts offers, can we withstand a recession…more importantly can we help our clients through a period of flat or declining sales. The first answer is we are in great shape and the second answer is yes, we can help our clients not only muster through a possible recession but we can help them come out on top by using PR and social media as a way to reach new customers.

Taking the recession element away for the moment, there have been many studies that say advertising is not as effective as it once was. ZenithOptmedia says that ad spend growth is predicted to be up by 2.5% only for 2008 compared to 3.3% in 2007. Traditional PR still works but based on who you are trying to reach, you need to hit many channels before you get a customer’s attention. Channels would include print, radio and TV, events, and the word of mouth (WOM) sectors. WOM spending which includes social networks, blogs, videos and more is expected to increase 30.4% annually through 2011 to $3.70 billion as noted by Keller Fay Group which means that the corporate world has recognized that working the internet is an effective and successful way to reach your present and new customers.

Now putting the possibility of a recession back into the mix, the next question is where do you, a business, put your money so you get the biggest bang for the buck? Well I can give you the answer but you probably have already figured it out. Talking and sharing information within the online social networks or creating a new community for your customer is easier on the budget than paying for a TV spot or a glossy ad in a magazine!

Common sense will guide you (and so will Forrester Research as reported by Mark Walsh here) to wise spending for future PR and Marketing campaigns…a recession may just force the hand sooner rather than later.

Had a great time speaking at HVDMA (Hudson Valley Direct Marketing Association) yesterday. They had a President’s panel where Joe Feigenbaum from TDO, Fern Galperin, independent web consultant, and Matt Staudt from interactive marketing group and myself sat on a podium and answered questions about the web…everything from social media (big topic) to print, email marketing, direct marketing and more.

Interesting format. We met prior to the meeting and chatted and then were thrown lots of questions which for sure kept us on our toes…I was in very good company because Joe, Fern and Matt were confident and knowledgeable about their experiences on the web and how they have been innovators for their clients!

To sum up, we all agreed that the web/internet marketing is one of many powerful channels to use when reaching out to your customers.

Get a good rundown here from Tim Parry of multichannel merchant.

I didn’t know Paul Beyer, really. We lived in the same community, our kids ran into each other often, never met his wife, yet Paul Beyer is all I have been thinking about this week. From the limited knowledge I have, Paul Beyer worked in the software industry in CA. and then moved to CT. where he worked for a company in the NY metro area (I only know this because of Linkedin) Not sure why he made the move…could have been his wife’s family was here….it’s a nice place to live…a new job brought him. Whatever the reasons were, they all ended abruptly last week when Paul Beyer died suddenly leaving his son, his step daughter, his wife and extended family and his job behind him.

Oh yes, his job. He worked for Comosoft who I have never heard of but seem to be a solid company who’s technology aids and supports the catalog and fashion industries. I noticed that at one point this company had Paul mentioned in their management team page on their website but as abruptly as Paul died, they stripped all of his information away. No mention of him, no memorial of any kind. While Paul did not die from natural causes and some would say with a little controversy, Comosoft could have handled the passing of a good man with much more grace and empathy!

Whenever a company is faced with any kind of crisis whether it be large or small, the best way always to move forward is with complete honesty and openess. Did Comosoft need to go into detail about their relationship with Paul and how he died? Absolutely not (we could leave that to the Fairfield Minuteman who used no discretion or empathy for a grieving family!). A simple statement from Comosoft’s CEO would have worked…words that revealed that Paul worked for Comosoft…thoughts that showed they were sorry for the loss.

A human voice behind a company that shows compassion for another human being should be simple and should be necessary for any business to succeed!

We are excited to have won the MarCom Platinum Award for our Bigelow Tea video with Joe Torre and Phil Simms.  Here is the press release (I know people hate a release on a blog but it really does tell the whole story!)

Public Relations Firm Celebrates Prestigious Web-Based Multi-Media Platinum Award for a Video Spotlighting Bigelow Tea

FAIRFIELD, Conn., November 2007 – In the wake of a hugely ambitious and thriving business year and the continuing advancement of its virtual operation, Creative Concepts (www.Creative-Conceptsllc.com), a Public Relations, Marketing and Social Media Consultancy, is delighted to announce that they have been chosen as a recipient of the MarCom 2007 International Platinum Award for Web based Multi-Media. Creative Concepts also received honorable mention for their design and support of the Bigelow Tea blog.

“We are both honored and excited about the Platinum award and honorable mention as is our client, Bigelow Tea” says Valorie Luther, CEO and Founder of Creative Concepts, of the news.  “We had a lot of fun producing the video, so an award is icing on the cake!”

The award-winning video showcased Bigelow Tea, one of the nation’s leading producers of specialty teas, and their enthusiastic spokesmen Joe Torre and Phil Simms.  Throughout the video, posted on the Bigelow TEA-V Channel, the prominent sports figures discussed their devotion to antioxidant-rich Bigelow green tea with Cindi Bigelow, President of Bigelow Tea.  Casual and entertaining amongst the Manhattan backdrop, Torre and Simms acknowledged the exceptional relationships that Bigelow Tea has cultivated with its admirers and the many health benefits that emerge from each cup of Bigelow green tea. 

Synonymous with creative excellence, the MarCom Awards are presented in 200 categories in seven forms of media to outstanding agencies around the world.  This year alone, over 5,000 entries were administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.
About Creative Concepts
Creative Concepts, the brainchild of Valorie Luther, CEO and Founder, specializes in unique and forward-thinking communications strategies that employ the latest public relations, marketing and social media practices, including the use of blogs, online video, social networks and other internet marketing solutions, along with using time tested practices that deliver every client’s unique message.  Creative Concepts is also the presenter of the Business Smart Tools Conference, www.BusinessSmartTools.com, which educates the business community about emerging technology and how to fold it into a marketing and communications plan.
For more information about Creative Concepts, please visit www.creative-conceptsllc.com or call 203-259-4202.

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PRESS CONTACT INFO:

Michelle Walker
Creative Concepts
203.259.4202
mwalker@creative-conceptsllc.com

This is a humorous yet realistic look at the road that Facebook is following…too funny and yet very real!!

Faceplant: Turning Users Into Enemies
by George Simpson, Friday, Nov 9, 2007 6:00 AM ET

FACEPLANT, THE “SUPERHOT” SOCIAL NETWORK with 253 monthly users, this week launched its highly anticipated advertising program at a kabob street vendor cart on Manhattan’s creepy Lower East Side.

Faceplant will now give advertisers the ability to create their own profile pages featuring staged corporate photos, third-party applications, discussion boards, and even annoying Flash animation–and will let users identify themselves as enemies of a product. Each user’s news feed will contain items like “Bobby Smith now hates his Toyota Prius.” The new system includes a feature dubbed Bacon that lets marketers ask disgruntled Faceplant members visiting their Web sites whether they want to tell other friends on Faceplant about a purchase where they got hosed.

So, for example, friends of “Tim” might receive an update in their news feed that Tim was one of the suckers who paid six bills for an iPhone, including Tim’s photo as well as a small Apple ad with an image of an iPhone and a link to the Apple site (where they can pay less than Tim, but three or four times more than for other similar phones–or simply wait it out for a Google-powered device). The ads expand what has been one of the most powerful features of Faceplant, the news feed, where members see a list of what their friends are doing–hurling photos from their parties, new friends with ample cleavage, favorite bands who sing unprintable lyrics, and so on.

“It is no secret that most Americans hate corporations and can’t wait to trash them to their friends when they are responsible for eco-disasters, third-world slave labor or collusion with Chinese manufacturers who ignore minimum product safety guidelines or simply excess oil profits,” says Faceplant founder and CEO Mac Suckerburger. “Who hasn’t had a bad experience with a lemon product or a moronic subcontinent help-desk guy who speaks English as a third or fourth language? Today we are giving every pissed-off consumer a chance for his complaints to go viral, and prevent millions of others from making the same purchase mistake. Nothing influences a person more than the recommendation of a trusted friend.”

“This is simply brilliant,” said one agency media director who attended the invitation-only handing-down of the tablets. “Probably the single thing most youngsters hate more than corporations is their advertising, especially when it intrudes in a space they thought special and removed from commercialism. In one swell foope [sic], Faceplant gives members not only another reason to hate brands, but the means to trash them in real time to millions of others on the site.”

Marketers can also target ads on Faceplant based on more than a dozen demographic and behavioral criteria such as country, age, favorite media, education, gender, political views, movies, and relationship status.

“Jesus, I thought DoubleClick-Google was shooting fish in a barrel, but this will be about as much fun as we can have and still keep our clothes on,” says one privacy advocate who asked only to be identified as “Bin.”

The targeting parameters, once learned by even the dullest Faceplant user, will undoubtedly encourage people to pony up their profiles with highly imaginative information in order to throw off the algorithms that govern the targeting.

“Dude, Faceplant was, like, our space,” says a freshman at Harvard. “Why should we be pawns to the obsessive consumption that is, like, overtaking every aspect of our lives? Today’s consumption is undermining the environmental resource base. It is exacerbating inequalities. And the dynamics of the consumption-poverty-inequality-environment nexus are accelerating. If the trends continue without change–not redistributing from high-income to low-income consumers, not shifting from polluting to cleaner goods and production technologies, not promoting goods that empower poor producers, not shifting priority from consumption for conspicuous display to meeting basic needs–today’s problems of consumption and human development will worsen. We’re going to fire up the bong and bring the system DOWN, man. It will be power to the people, like my old man marched.”

Click here for more on this article.

Social Networks for Business

Online Networking and Recruitment Aids Companies

FAIRFIELD, Conn., October 23, 2007 – “Networking means many things to many people in today’s day and age,” says Valorie Luther, Founder and CEO of Creative Concepts (www.Creative-Conceptsllc.com), a PR, Marketing and Social Media consultancy.  Prior to web 2.0, business networking took place at local organizations, luncheons and cocktail parties where, with drink in hand, you passed out business cards, smiled, and rattled off your 10 second “ad” about what you do and where you do it.  This of course still takes place from professional business groups all the way down to the local chamber of commerce but new to the networking foray are the online social networks that allow you to branch out and communicate with individuals who have the same agenda.  From Linkedin to Facebook, the cocktail–in-hand networkers have transformed themselves into savvy online communicators who reach out to either develop their client base or broaden their corporate team.

Life for Ms. Luther and the Creative Concepts team has quickened considerably through their online efforts.   They have broadened their employee reach through a blog, Linkedin and their Facebook profiles.  “Our team of experts which range from developers to blog writers is second to none thanks to being interactive online,” says Ms. Luther.  “Today the best talent doesn’t just live in one city or one region, and you shouldn’t have to be limited by location when it comes to finding the right employee.  The goal is to find the very best worker for that project or job which is possible through social networks.”

With clients who range the gamut from consumer goods to tech startups with a priority for expanding their client base and bottom-line through online strategies, Creative Concepts has been living in the social networking/web 2.0 world by creating corporate blogs, interacting with various groups within social networks and by producing and distributing videos and more for their customers.   “The transition was very natural: from increasing exposure online for our clients to finding the best employees for ourselves, social networking is no longer for kids! Business has much to gain by jumping on board” exclaims Ms. Luther.