Jackie’s career spans more than a decade in communications, having served on all sides of the marketing, public relations and advertising desk. Prior to establishing Rainmaker Communications in the Phoenix market, Jackie held several senior level positions with local agencies and corporations including Best Western International Hotels, Barclay Communications, Crammer-Krasselt Public Relations and Off Madison Ave. Her agency experience has allowed her to work with such organizations as; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Westcor, Streets of New York Restaurants, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Take Charge America and Animal Planet TV. Prior to moving to Phoenix in 2005, Jackie held the position of Regional Manager of Public Relations and Marketing for Macy’s Department stores in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jackie began her career with General Motors as a Communications Analyst and thereafter joined Grant Thornton L.L.P., one of the largest accounting firms in the U.S., as a Marketing Coordinator. Additionally, Jackie is a member of the Phoenix chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the American Marketing Association where she serves as Vice President of Communications for the Phoenix chapter.

We look forward to Jackie’s contributions to the blog.

So while Charlotte adjusts to her new life as a mom, Valley PR Blog is very pleased to announce that Abbie Fink will be our special guest blogger for a while.

Abbie is vice president/general manager of HMA Public Relations, where she has been since 1993. Her varied marketing communications background includes skills in media relations, social media relations, special event management, community relations, issues management and marketing promotions for both the private and public sectors, including such industries as health care, financial services, professional services, government affairs and tribal affairs, as well as not-for-profit organizations.

She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America’s Counselor’s Academy and is vice chair of its spring conference. She has received awards from the PRSA, the Arizona Festivals and Events Association, International Association of Business Communicators and the City of Phoenix Mayor’s Commission on Disability Affairs for her work in media relations and special event management.

Abbie has both a master’s degree in mass communications and a bachelor of arts degree in journalism/public relations from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication at Arizona State University. She has been an adjunct faculty member at the Center for the Advancement of Small Business at Arizona State University.

We welcome Abbie to the blog, and of course we’ll keep you posted on Charlotte’s big day.

Michelle and Dana are two of the brighest minds in PR and are well known in the Valley PR community. Michelle is president of Olson Communications and here are some of her achievements:

• 22+ years of experience, ranging from mid-size public relations firms to large, integrated advertising agencies
• Chair, Counselors Academy, national PRSA section for consulting firm leaders
• Past President, Phoenix Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
• Accredited in Public Relations (APR) and member of the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE)
• 2003 PRSA Percy Award winner for contributions to the public relations industry
• Founded OCI in 2002
• Graduate of Moorhead State University with Bachelor of Science in Mass Comm

Dana is vice president of Olson Communications and has an equally impressive resume:

• Immediate Past President of the Phoenix Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
• Accredited in Public Relations (APR)
• 10+ years experience in public relations
• Member of NAREE (National Association of Real Estate Editors)
• Past senior account executive at Lavidge & Baumayr Public Relations, Scottsdale, Ariz.
• Past account manager at Ohio-based Akhia Public Relations
• Graduate of John Carroll University in Cleveland with a Bachelor of Arts in communications

Please welcome them to Valley PR Blog. As for me, I’ll be relaxing with a cold beer and a novel on the beach in Maui and will return to the real world on July 1. I know you’re jealous!

Valley PR Blog is pleased to introduce Scott Appel as a special guest blogger this week. Scott is vice president, Phoenix Office for Allison & Partners, one of the top PR agencies in the country with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego and South Carolina. At Allison & Partners Scott is responsible for managing the operations of and growing the Phoenix office. He also manages client services as well as develops and implements strategic initiatives and digital strategies for Phoenix accounts including Arizona Association of Community Managers, bulbstorm, Inilex and CarMD.

When he’s not working hard for his clients at Allison & Partners, Scott is the vice president of public relations on the Enterprise Network board of directors and is incoming president-elect for the American Marketing Association, Phoenix Chapter.

Scott can be reached at sappel@allisonpr.com.

Scottsdale Job Network Workshop:  Using Blogging & Social Networking

Valley PR Blog’s Angelo Fernando is leading a workshop April 27th on how to use blogging and social  networking to support your job search.  The two-hour session will cover why a blog is important, how it can help job seekers land a position, how to get started, and how to maintain a blog.  There will be a live demonstration during the workshop.

Angelo Fernando:  Social Media Today named Angelo Fernando as a “Top 10″ most read blogger in 2008.  Currently a marketing communications manager at ASU, Angelo writes a media and technology column for several magazines and focuses on the intersection of emerging media, technology and marketing.   Angelo comes from an advertising-meets-marketing world, starting off at JWT and Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, before moving into corporate marketing.  His blog is HoiPolloi, and he is a regular blogger for www.valleyprblog.com.  He also contributes to IABC’s global blog. 

WORKSHOP INFO:

Monday, April 27, 2009

6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Location:

Jobing.com offices/4747 N. 22nd Street, Phoenix, AZ  85016

Fee:  $15

Info: click here

Register:  click here

Important caveat: As with all our resources, they are there as a service and for information and in the spirit of open access. Please use them respectfully.

If you feel there are people we’re missing from either list, email us.

In 2008, Valley PR Blog entered its third year and surpassed 300 subscribers and 1,000 daily page views. Here’s what got people goin’ on the blog this year:

2008’s Most Viewed Posts

1. The power of brides online
2. Meet Mike from Media Watch
3. Everyone started at the bottom
4. New Grad PR Secrets Series – Part 3: Networking
5. Pitch Me: John Adam

2008’s Most Clicked Posts

1. Valley PR Blog’s Weekend Reading 01-11-08
2. Would your clients care if you disappeared
3. Valley PR Blog’s Weekend Reading 01-17-08
4. New Paradise Valley magazine
5. The power of brides online

2008’s Most Commented Posts

These two posts brought out the Phoenix rock radio audience:
Chuck Powell’s classy goodbye from Edge 103.9 (57 comments)
Morning Ritual out, Adam Carolla back in Phoenix (49)

From regularly scheduled programming:
1. Should Miley Cyrus fire her PR team? (18)
2. Palin PR nightmares (18)
3. Going into PR? Give it serious thought puh-leeze (17)
4. I see typos (16)
5. I blame Samantha (15)

Thank you for reading Valley PR Blog and for your continued support! Have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009!

If you read the blog on a regular basis, you’d get the impression there were only about half a dozen PR firms, corporate teams, and individual practitioners in Phoenix. We all know there’s at least ten times that — including yours. We’re happy to cover everyone.

If you got a new job / hired a new employee, earned a new client, launched a blog, had a baby, had an interesting campaign, got arrested, had your baby during your arrest and blogged about it as part of an interesting campaign on behalf of your new client in your new job — we want to hear from you. Email us at info@valleyprblog.com.

If you do send us news, please be thoughtful and relevant to the topics you see here (hint: see header and right column).

In the meantime, thank you for supporting Valley PR Blog.

After being around for close to two years and growing into one of the top 500 blogs in the world for public relations, marketing, and social media, the editors of Valley PR Blog were getting the feeling they’d grown out of their original website and needed to present themselves with more clarity, professionalism, and authority.

At that point, several people from Forty we’re excited to find out Valley PR Blog was looking for some web marketing help. We both thought it was a match made in heaven and got to work.

The Issues:

After a few discussions we all came to the conclusion the design of the website was weak in a few key areas:

• Not a strong sense of community
• No compelling connection to the industry
• No distinctive style and personality

Forty’s Approach:

We wanted to create an environment online that gave a stronger sense of who’s posting the articles and showcasing comments in a way that let people know there is an active and strong following. Then, we wanted to give a strong focal point on a featured article to get people into the flow of the website.

As a visual exercise to make sure everything is shown a compelling and engaging way, we sketched out several ideas and came to a great solution:

After the structure and hierarchy of the site was worked out, we began developing the visual styles of the website with a few key intentions:

• Bring a strong print metaphor to the website
• Create the atmosphere of a news source rather than a personal journal
• Be simple and bold to denote quality and authority

Current Situation:

It’s been a little over a month since the new website has been launched and getting into any specific traffic stats like uniques visitors, page views, length of stay, and bounce rates is going to be a bit misleading. It’s hard to prove that any spikes or drops are direct results from the redesign until we get 60-90 days out. We’ll make sure you know any interesting finds with the results as we find them.

Until then, here’s what a few people have said:

“This looks F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C”
- Richard

“Wow, I LOVE this!”
- Francine

In Conclusion:

In two more years, the Valley PR Blog will be ranked in the upper eschalons of the public relations, marketing, and social media blog world — and then may need another redesign to represent it appropriately… at least we think so!

Thanks for reading Valley PR Blog. We hope we’re making Phoenix proud.

Barry is Managing Partner of Kluger Media Group and a veteran communications executive who has served the industry for more than 30 years. He served as Senior VP, Communications, MTV Networks for more than a decade; Senior VP, Prodigy Internet and headed up communications for USA Networks. Since forming KMG in 1998, he has represented clients in the media, entertainment, internet, retail, technological, building, legal, medical and political arenas, including NBC Internet, Jupiter Communications, Condenet, StarMedia, ShopNBC, Fingerhut, Federated Direct and several HD television networks. He currently serves as Chairman of the Governor’s Film & Television Commission and is a frequent contributor to the Arizona Republic, Jewish News and the Business Journal. He claims he is never without an opinion. His own blog, which he doesn’t update as often as he’d like, proudly proclaims “Pissing off People since 1953.”

Welcome, Barry!