Speakers at the PR Advanced event included representatives from JetBlue, the Boston Red Sox, Dunkin’ Donuts, Wholefoods and myself, representing Carrot Creative and my personal brand, Just Creative Design.

Entitled “The Art of Online Self Promotion: Branding, Blogging & Social Media“, my talk gave insight on how to create a strong personal brand identity, how to set up a blog & run it as a self promotional tool and how to build relationships across social media platforms… and then some.

It all turned out a huge success, considering the fact that all of the Carrot Creative business cards & stickers had evaporated by the end of the talk. Student and teacher feedback was also another great indicator, as well as a few more offers to talk elsewhere, including an offer for regular weekly lectures.

A few attendees of the conference wrote about what they learned from me and the conference as a whole.  A select few are linked below:

• Branding Yourself ‘PR Advanced’ Wrap Up by Ginny Rose
• ‘PR Advanced’ Conference Wrap Up by Emily Forrest
• Branding Myself by Ellie Botelho
• Takeaways from PR Advanced 2010 by Emilie Toole

There are also a few pictures up of the PR Advanced event, with more to follow.

The #PRAdvanced hashtag turned into a trending topic on Twitter, which was made possible by the Q&A that was set up via Tweetdeck (such a great idea). There are a lot of great tips to pick up from that stream, so be sure to check it out.

Overall it was an extremely pleasurable experience, supported by awesome event coordination (great job Chelsea n co!), a plethora of talented speakers and most importantly, the extremely passionate students & teachers that gave up a Saturday up to attend. Carrot Creative and myself thank you all for the support.

Oh, and thanks once again for the shiny thank you certificate.

This article is copyright © 2012 

I received this email from Johnnie Walker (I’m a member of “The Striding Man Society” that offers some really great events for tastings of the brand-if you get the chance, go!) I get emails from them ever so often about new events or promotions and click on them at leisure to see if anything fun is coming up.  This email today was different. They were letting me know that Johnnie Walker has created a Facebook Fan Page and offered an easy click to become a fan right from the email.

Curious to check it out, I clicked on the “Become a Fan” button which sent me to their custom designed Johnnie Walker Facebook page at facebook.com/johnniewalker. Tons of content: videos, photos, promotions, deals. I liked it and I “Became a Fan.”

While some may say that the initial email defeats the purpose of engaging with brands in social media through viral tactics, I think Johnnie Walker and team did this well on a variety of levels. Here’s why:

• Design. They designed it with customized tabs and information. It has custom content, it’s visually appealing and it provides content their fans want. (A lot of information they already put in their emails)
• Access. Their fans were on email already so inviting them to join the Facebook Page was a logical step. If they had not sent out the monthly newsletters it would have been a bit weird, but these are people who opted in to getting the emails.
• Opportunity. You can’t advertise on Facebook if you’re an alcohol brand. Facebook Fan Pages provide a space to have a unique presence with the community that’s attractive to engage with.

What do you think about brands asking you to engage with them on Facebook via email? I asked some people on Twitter what they thought of this and posted the responses below. As you’ll see, mixed answers with some strongly disliking and others open to the idea with some limitations.  Leave YOUR thoughts in the comments section below.

This article is copyright © 2012