IABC/Arkansas members and guests were treated to a very informative and enjoyable IABC/Arkansas Summer Camp 2010 on June 25. The popular summer R&R destination known as the Region’s Bank conference facility was near capacity as the crowd considered the rhetorical question, “Social Media or Social Mania?”

An A-list of presenters weighed in on social media topics, beginning with John Andrews and Brad Lawless from Collective Bias. John and Brad did their level best to dispel many of the myths regarding the efficacy of social media, such as the much-used, tried-and-untrue “Let’s set up a Facebook page and never use it!” concept. On the other hand, they demonstrated how social media is being utilized by household-name companies like Wal-Mart to engage shoppers in interactive ways that are beneficial to both the customer and the marketer.

Tibor Siklosi, director of marketing for Bergan Products, presented “When Your Product is Part of a Social Media Movement,” a fascinating story about how a seller of pet seatbelts found itself starting a social movement that raised awareness about the danger of traveling with unrestrained pets. Marketing efforts for their products soon led to the highly interactive “Paws to Click” awareness initiative and a partnership with the ASPCA. Combining significant creativity and a groundswell of support from pet lovers, Bergan Products established an industry standard for products sold by some of America’s best-known retailers.

After a tasty box lunch, campers were then treated to “Tune Your Radio,” presented by veteran radio producer Brent Walker of Soundscapes, Inc. Over his 40 years of producing radio advertising, the media landscape has undergone tremendous change, but radio advertising has largely remained the same. Brent acknowledged that most radio ads are terrible, but showed that by adding entertainment value to grab the listener, radio advertising can still bring good bang for marketing bucks. Bottom line: don’t ditch your iPhone, but don’t dismiss radio, either.

Kudos to Neal Moore, IABC Summer Camp counselor, and the rest of the IABC Arkansas board for a job well done!

NOMINATION DEADLINE: July 15, 2010

Established in 2007, the IABC/Arkansas John K. Woodruff Award honors lifetime achievement and/or body of work in the field of professional business communications in Arkansas.

The Woodruff Award is open to both members and non-members of IABC/Arkansas, with preferential consideration given to current and/or former members.

Nominations are accepted from the chapter membership, and the winner is selected by the IABC/Arkansas Past Presidents Council. The recipient will be honored at the annual IABC/Arkansas Bronze Quill Awards in fall 2010. Read the rest

NOMINATION DEADLINE: July 15, 2010

Each year, the Arkansas Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators presents the IABC/Arkansas Communicator of the Year (COTY) Award to an Arkansan who leads the way in fostering and participating in professional communication.

The COTY Award is presented to a non-IABC member. Nominations are accepted from the chapter membership, and the winner is selected by the IABC/Arkansas Past Presidents Council.

The recipient will be honored at the annual IABC/Arkansas Bronze Quill Awards in fall 2010. Please use this form to submit a name for consideration as IABC/Arkansas Communicator of the Year 2010. Read the rest

Two chronic overachievers, Executive Director of the Little Rock Film Festival Jack Lofton and Assistant Festival Coordinator/Programmer Levi Agee gave IABC-Arkansas a boots-on-the-ground lesson on how to grow a festival from good to great and, not satisfied with local excellence, onward and upward to national respect and regional prominence.

Backed by a solid team of volunteers, committed staff and a committed board of directors, Jack, Levi and the LRFF team aspire to no less than raising the bar for arts and culture in central Arkansas. To say that they are off to a convincing start would be an understatement.

Jack Lofton is a man who apparently finds more hours in a day than most people find in a week. He triple-times as grad student at the Clinton School for Public Service, as a student at William H. Bowen School of Law, and running a real estate business on the side. In his spare time he provides leadership to the festival that will bring more than 100 narrative and documentary films from around the world June 2–6.

Levi Agee, an editor at Little Rock advertising mainstays Stone Ward, has a passion for film that has led him to produce, direct, write, and ultimately get involved with the finer details of coordinating a complex, multi-faceted, five-day event. His plans for this year’s Little Rock Film Festival include a high level of social media interactivity that will allow festival-goers to know what’s playing and where, all of the time.

Attendees can also receive real-time updates on the logistics and scheduling of workshops, reviews, after-parties, and up-to-the minute details important to a fantastic film-fest experience.

The festival began four years ago as a modest but successful event with approximately 3,500 attendees. Last year, more than 20,000 movie buffs enjoyed the festival, held in downtown Little Rock and at the nearby Riverdale Cinema.

The 2010 Little Rock Film Festival will bring acclaimed films that have screened at some of the foremost film festivals in the world, plus international filmmakers and industry insiders, panel discussions on a wide range of film-related topics, workshops for students of the cinematic arts and (got to have glitz) the LRFF Gala.

IABC Arkansas thanks these presenters for a great presentation.

More information:
http://www.littlerockfilmfestival.org/

Julie Irby, Director of Marketing and Outreach for AETN, was the guest speaker at the April 30 IABC/Arkansas meeting at the Little Rock Club. Naturally, Julie has a strong passion for the main source of programming for the station, PBS. Most of the station’s viewers count on seeing great syndicated shows like Nova or Independent Lens, and many a child has grown up with Sesame Street and other award-winning kids’ shows.

Her message Friday made a compelling case for the station’s involvement with the local community through high-quality broadcasts produced in Arkansas. AETN’s established programs, like Exploring Arkansas and Arkansas Week, provide viewers with information relevant to Arkansans, and the station continues to expand the scope of local programming by broadcasting shows featuring cultural treasures in the state. On a side note, attendees were surprised to learn that the number one non-PBS program on the public television station in Memphis is Exploring Arkansas!

Julie’s communication strategies at AETN are forward-thinking and innovative. AETN has jumped head-first into social media marketing and continues to look for ways to make its website user-friendly, interactive and up-to-date.

Arkansas viewers can continue to expect the best in TV on AETN, and IABC/Arkansas thanks Julie for her efforts on the job and for addressing our chapter.

To refresh your memory or see what you missed, take a look at the PDF version of Julie’s presentation.

Additional information can be found at www.aetn.org. Details about AETN’s social media connections are available here: http://www.aetn.org/engage/social

Paul Strack of CustomXM (formerly Custom Printing) had been scheduled to present at January’s IABC/Arkansas meeting. Then the snow came. As we all know – if snow falls in Arkansas, everything comes to a halt, even IABC meetings! Thankfully, he was free to present at our March meeting, and there was sunshine instead of snow.

Strack, who has had success in marketing his business through Twitter, outlined his approach in a presentation entitled “Tweet Me Right.” A few points from his presentation:

Social media marketing uses the classic marketing strategies of “engage, interact and react” but social media channels like Twitter allow more immediate and direct interaction.

Twitter is a “connection catalyst,” the “cocktail party” of social media, but in the end it is still about making and maintaining relationships with clients and prospects.

If you’re using Twitter to represent your business, entity or organization, follow this mix of Twitter activity:

• One @reply a day
• One RT (retweet) a day
• One original thought per day (the tough part!)
• Play along and play nice

Thanks, Paul! (He even gave away door prizes…what a guy!)

What’d you miss? Several in attendance used the official #IABCAR hashtag and Tweeted from the meeting. Take a look at their Twitter stream. Strack used a new on-line presentation portal at www.Prezi.com–you can see the presentation that wowed the crowd here, on the Web.

Twenty members and eight guests attended the meeting. Welcome to new member Dan Noble, Public Relations Director from Lions World Services for the Blind in Little Rock. (Last month we welcomed new member Anna Hubbard, Publications Director for the Ark. Bar Association in Little Rock.)

Save the date! Neal Moore announced that Friday, June 25, is the date for the chapter’s “Summer Camp” professional skills seminar. The half-day event includes lunch and will be held in the Regions Bank building in downtown Little Rock. Registration information coming soon.

Meet new people! Catch up with old friends! Have fun! Help out IABC/Arkansas!

Forget Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn is so last week. Join THE social network of the year: The Special Events Committee!

The following Special Events Committee positions are now available:

Silent auction (team of at least two) – Easier than you might think! With a team of two, we’ll quickly gather an array of special event tickets, artwork, and other rare and valuable finds for our silent auction.

Site manager (team of at least two) – A team of two is great for this position, but one coordinator would work too. Manage event location, food/beverage, seating and décor for our annual Bronze Quill awards program.

Reciprocal judging (team of at least two) – Good with email? This position could be for you! Reciprocal judging coordinators take turns receiving, distributing and collecting results for other chapters’ entries we may judge.

Graphics designer – Our graphics designer is the genius behind our Call for Entries, “Save the Date” communications for Web and e-mail, event invitation, program and duplicate entry order form.

Don’t be the last kid on your block to take advantage of this amazing opportunity. Contact Angele Forrest today and let her know you want to be on the committee!

Thanks to the presenters, students, and members for making the 2010 IABC University a success!

If you missed it or want to see it again, we have Casey Neese’s social media presentation:

• Social Media for the PR Professional – PDF

We also want to thank Amy Barnes for her program during our lunch meeting.

Quick update to our board for this year, as we had a resignation before we even got underway. Let’s welcome Tim Jones, director of PR and Marketing at Pulaski Tech, as our new Vice President of Administration.
Ashli Ahrens still leads this year’s group of officers as president. The remainder of the board follows:

• Ashli Ahrens, President
• Julie Johnson Thompson, Immediate Past President
• Harper Grubbs, President-Elect
• Kelley Bass, VP of Finance
• Mike Collins, VP of Membership
• Angele Forrest, VP of Special Projects
• Tiffany Hoffman, VP of Outreach/Student Programs
• Tim Jones, VP of Administration
• Neal Moore, VP of Professional Development
• Dauphne Trenholm, VP of Communication