Deadline Extended to Win a Trip to BlogHer 07!

Win a Trip to BlogHer 07, Courtesy Scrapblog

The deadline date for submissions has been extended. Please note below.

Win a trip to BlogHer Conference ‘07! Scrapbog will pay for your airfare, hotel and conference admission!

Sound too good to be true? Not if you are in touch with your inner scrapbooker. BlogHer has partnered with Scrapblog, the premiere multimedia scrapbook creation tool, to offer BlogHers a chance to win a trip to BlogHer Conference ‘07!

Visit blogher.scrapblog.com to participate!

Entering the sweepstakes is easy. Simply create a scrapblog, publish it, and tag it with “blogher07”. The more views your scrapblog gets, the more entries you have in the sweepstakes. Simple enough, right?

We’re giving BlogHer members first dibs on generating buzz by giving them a sneak peak of the tool before the sweepstakes officially opens with a full-blown promotional campaign on BlogHer.

Ready to jump in? Here’s how to get started…

1. Go to blogher.scrapblog.com and create a scrapblog. The step-by-step instructions make it easy or you can take a quick tour.
2. Publish your scrapblog and tag it with “BlogHer07”. You will be automatically entered into the sweepstakes.
3. Come back to this page and list the link to your scrapblog in the comments section below, start generating buzz around your scrapblog, and let your friends know that you’ve posted it.

Since you are the first to know about this sweepstakes, Scrapblog would also like your feedback on the experience of creating a scrapblog. Feel free to offer your feedback below in the comments as well. Scrapblog will start selecting outstanding entries and posting them to a contest page on Scrapblog.com and Flickr.

Keep checking back here, as we’ll be linking announcements regarding the official contest rules, outstanding scrapblogs, and the winners which will be announced on July 17! Entries will be taken until July 16. Good luck!

PR Online Convergence 07 Coming Up in Los Angeles, May 16-18, 2007

I’d really be remiss if I didn’t mention the following major PR conference, for those of my readers who are PR professionals and don’t already know about it—just got the word that there are still some tickets left, if you act fast:

RSS, Blogs, Podcast and Social Media Experts to Share Knowledge at PR Online Convergence Conference in Los Angeles on May 16-18, 2007

Knowledge and best practices on deploying RSS, blogs, podcasts and new media for public relations and corporate communications revealed

(Los Angeles/March 22, 2007, ed. May 10, 2007) Experts on the use of RSS, blogs, podcast and new media in public relations and corporate communications campaigns are converging at a premier conference in Los Angeles May 16-18, 2007. PR Online Convergence 07: Deploying Social Media for Business Advantage, a 3-day event set for the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles, will address critical issues facing PR and corporate communication professionals in the age of social media.

“The way people get media, information and entertainment has and continues to change. It’s become strategically unwise for PR and marketing to let online presence be handled exclusively by the web guys down the hall. For those executives who have accepted that denial is not a business strategy, we’re bringing this professional development opportunity to Los Angeles,” says Eric Schwartzman, PR Online Convergence Conference Chair and founder and chairman of iPressroom Corporation, which helps organizations extend the reach of their PR and marketing campaigns using the latest new media tools and services integrated into one powerful, online dashboard. “

“Corporate communications, public relations and marketing is being forced to make the seismic change from controlling messages to facilitating conversations,” says John Gerstner, President of the Communitelligence Learning Academy, which is producing the event. “We’re challenging the most knowledgeable and experienced PR and new media pioneers to connect the dots for business executives needing to adeptly deploy the new media tools and services for competitive advantage.”

Sessions:

• Integrating the Web into Conventional PR Campaigns
• Building Public Awareness through Social Networking
• Integrating Blogs and News Feeds into Corporate Communications
• How to Drive Traffic and Transactions Online
• Building a Business Case for New Media through Measurement of Results
• How Organizations are Integrating Their Web Presences into their Organizational Outreach Agenda
• Benefits of Podcasting: Beyond the Press Release with Sound and Picture
• Generating Word of Mouth through Peer Marketing Initiatives
• Practical Applications of Real Simple Syndication for Marketing and Public Relations

Keynotes:

• Adapting to a Fragmented Media Landscape: Integrating the Web into Conventional PR Campaigns, by Eric Schwartzman, Conference Chair
• Bloggers and PR People: Why Can’t We Just Get Along?, Stowe Boyd, CEO of Blue Whale Labs
• PR in the Age of Blogging — How to stop spinning and be authentic, Jason Calcanis, CEO and co-founder, Weblogs Inc.

In addition, there are four pre-conference half-day workshops scheduled for May 16 on effective business podcasting, strategizing social media, establishing a social media dashboard and keeping up-to-date about conversations online.

About the Communitelligence Learning Academy. Communitelligence is a knowledge-sharing portal aimed at improving organizational and interpersonal communication. The site is organized around expert-led learning communities with blogs focused on key corporate communication, PR and marketing disciplines. The Communitelligence Learning Academy produces How-to Teleseminars, CDs, workshops and conferences focused on business communication knowledge and skills. Online PR Convergence will give public relations and corporate communications professionals a better understanding of how to integrate RSS, blogs, podcasts and new media into conventional outreach campaigns.

Contact Info available at: http://www.communitelligence.com/convergence

Summary: Knowledge and best practices on deploying RSS, blogs, podcasts and new media for public relations and corporate communications will be revealed at PR Online Convergence 07: Deploying Social Media for Business Advantage. Produced by Communitelligence, the 3-day event set for the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles will address critical issues facing PR and corporate communication professionals in the age of social media. In addition to nine general sessions and three keynotes, there will be four half-day workshops on effective business podcasting, strategizing social media, establishing a social media dashboard and monitoring conversations online.

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I’ll be writing a lot more about how to integrate “new PR” methods and social media into your next PR and marketing campaign…stay tuned to this blog.

An Unexpected Source for an Ingenious Viral Video—will YOURS be Next?

OK, I want to hear from someone out there about the virtual International Podcasting Expo this past few days, as I wasn’t able to participate. Instead, I attended a conference presented by the Arts Council of Mendocino County, about Arts and Tourism Promotion and Marketing in the beautiful, rural Northern California County of Mendocino, a topic I may write about soon. Meanwhile, if anyone out there wants to submit a blog entry for this blog, about the Podcasting Expo or another relevant PR and marketing topic, please email me for guidelines, and I’ll be glad to give you full credit and promotion for your entry.

I also want to call your attention to the innovative marketing and PR video clips on the VodPod widget that I’ve posted on the right-hand sidebar of this blog (if you haven’t already watched them). There’s a new, terrific one I just posted that’s also mentioned on my Creative Sage™ What’s Innovation Got to Do with It? blog.

Created by Stanford graduate student Gus Bitdinger, based on a fabulous, original song he wrote about innovation in organizations, “Back to Orbit,” it’s well worth watching below or on YouTube .

I predict you’re going to see a real viral video effect with this one, and probably some great job offers for Gus in the future, if not a recording contract and a tour! This brings me to my second request—if you’ve got a short video clip, audio clip or podcast that fits with the overall themes of either the PR and Marketing Mentor blog, or What’s Innovation Got to Do with It?, please feel free to email the clip or a link to me, or send it to my VodPod account, and I’ll consider posting it. A word of warning, though…I’m a busy person, so I’ll only get back to people who really send me something that is relevant in subject matter, not infringing on someone’s copyright, and is suitable for viewing by all age groups. Please indicate how YOU would want to be credited, with correct title and copyright information, and if the clip or podcast was used by another media source before (name the original source). We may have to get permission to use it, so please include the correct contact information, if that is the case.

We love it when someone’s college video project becomes a personal or business viral PR and marketing tool, whether it was intentionally created for that purpose or not. A personal commentary on innovation becomes a great story angle that could also be formatted into a social media press release, as well as a video blog clip. You just have to keep your eyes, ears and mind open to find the great, viral story angles. In that spirit, our team at Cathryn Hrudicka & Associates is always aiming to innovate in print, broadcast, trade, social media, network and other PR and marketing channels. We bring your message to the world and the world to you!