Supporting Women in Business – Congratulations to The Stevie Awards Winners

in , /by

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business were announced today and of course we send out personal congratulations to our client Constant Contact – winner of Best Entrepreneur – Non-Services Businesses – up to 2,500 Employees. Constant Contact, led by Gail Goodman, has a laser focus on delivering the best customer service and intuitive email marketing and interactive communications offerings for SMBs – and it’s great to see their hard work recognized. Congratulations!

Other interesting companies who won or were finalists in their categories include Care.com – a new place to find a baby or pet sitter; SheSpeaks – a national network of women who share their feedback and influence products, services and issues on the world around them; and The Baby Planners – a concierge and consulting service that caters to the needs of expectant parents.

It was great to see a variety of regions represented by the winning companies – from coast to coast, interesting emerging start ups and tenacious executives are profiled. For a full list of winners and finalists, visit The Stevie Awards.

A Busy Week – Heading to College, Making Moola and Hosting a TechCrunch Martini Lounge

in , /by

This week is shaping up to be very busy and exciting for the staff at PerkettPR. Not only are we finalizing our sponsorship presence for TechCrunch MeetUp Boston this Friday, but we are also launching two new clients at the event and promoting CollegeWeekLive – taking place this Tuesday and Wednesday, November 13 and 14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, we are looking forward to the launch of CollegeWeekLive – the biggest virtual college fair ever with over 10,000 students, parents and guidance counselors attending, including many from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

CollegeWeekLive enables students to “visit” multiple colleges in just two days – they can connect with current college students, guidance counselors, admissions experts and more in a live, interactive environment. The event is geared toward enhancing the process of choosing a college that’s best for the student – all from the their home computer. It will feature many great sessions to help today’s college-bound student make better choices. For more information, check out the agenda.

 

 

Over 75 colleges from over 35 states are signed up to-date, including Air Force Academy, Bentley, Central Connecticut State, Northeastern University, Tufts University, University of Buffalo, University of Texas and more.

Secondly, on Friday we will be at TechCrunch Boston MeetUp at Estate in Boston. We will be helping clients Moola and Mzinga launch – please stop by and see what they are all about. They will both be providing demos and some interactive fun as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are a reporter, blogger or analyst covering social networking, online gaming, advergaming, online collaboration or community, and would like a pre-launch briefing to learn more, please email me at chris[at]perkettpr.com.

 

If you are attending the party, please stop by the PerkettPR Martini Lounge and find out what all the buzz is about. More details coming later this week. See you there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow us – @PerkettPR – on Twitter – for live updates and interviews from the party!

PRWeek Echoes our Earlier Sentiments on Niche Social Networks

in , /by

PRWeek just posted a story about our client Sermo’s deal with Pfizer, and how it might impact the model for the social network business. Author Marc Longpre also has some interesting thoughts around the revenue models – echoing our blog post earlier this week about niche social networking sites and their strong potential for bringing new value to the online community phenomenon.

Tech-Savvy High School Students and Universities Connect at CollegeWeekLive

in , , /by

Today’s high school students have grown up online. The Facebook/MySpace/YouTube generation now has another new online destination: their future college. We’re not talking about attending college – no one wants to miss the real thing – but rather, maximizing their time and budgets to meet with a myriad of colleges across the country before choosing the right one.

With the average student-to-counselor ratio in US high schools at 315:1, students could use some additional guidance around which colleges to visit, what questions to ask and even what current students have to say about their experience. But touring campuses takes a good deal of time and money – both the student’s and their parents. Enter CollegeWeekLive, a one-of-a-kind virtual event produced next month by our client PlatformQ that provides an opportunity to visit more colleges in two days than many students would have the opportunity to before graduation.

CollegeWeekLive is free for students and will be an interactive two day conference held online. Students can visit interactive booths, talk to guidance counselors and even follow along as current students provide a peek into campus life. Sessions include topics such as “Key Factors in College Admissions Today” and “How to Win a Sports Scholarship,” as well as lively student panels from students around the nation. To-date, participating universities include notables such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as the University of Virginia, University of Mississippi – Ole Miss, University of California – Irvine, University of Connecticut, UMass Boston, Northeastern University, Tufts University, Air Force Academy and many others. Stay tuned as the list grows daily.

Take a virtual tour to learn more – CollegeWeekLive will be held November 13th and 14th from 3:00 p.m. EST to 11:00 p.m. EST.

 

Booth

Social Networking Grows Up; Pfizer Recognizes Real Impact & Potential

in , , /by

We are extremely excited about an announcement today from our client Sermo, a networking community site for medical doctors. Their relationship with Pfizer Inc. indicates the continued evolution of real business value coming out of the social networking and Web 2.0 phenomenon. Sermo and Pfizer have partnered to bring new value and better results to the interaction between medical doctors and drug companies. In doing so, we all stand to benefit. The potential positive outcomes are revolutionary and we applaud Pfizer for forging the path for other drug companies and the healthcare industry as a whole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all know that social networking is changing the way people communicate. This simple proposition is now on the radar of many businesses – how can we harness such information, how do we monetize it and how can it help us to become a better business? Many still don’t “get it” and too many still dismiss its potential to truly change business. (As even Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff indicated in his comment to our October 9 post). As today’s Sermo news indicates, the powerful impact of the transparent and efficient exchange of knowledge – doctors on Sermo openly discuss issues, trends, treatments and more – can be applied to real issues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing such information on Sermo, physicians have access to the most topical medical data available – enabling them to make better fact-based decisions, faster – in a way never before made possible. Ultimately, patients will benefit from the positive impact of such important collaboration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more on the partnership at The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Financial Times, Bloomberg.com and Sermo.

 

 

 

Constant Contact’s IPO

in , /by

Congratulations to our client Constant Contact on its initial public offering. As of Wednesday, shares began trading on the Nasdaq under the trading symbol “CTCT.”

 

 

 

 

 

Constant Contact has met success by keeping a laser focus on a few simple guiding principles: outstanding customer support and easy one-to-many communications. The company’s email marketing and online surveys are not only easy-to-use and customize, affordable and effective, but the customer service is outstanding. The company’s support personnel is readily available in various ways – via phone, email or chat and it also provides a comprehensive online Learning Center that covers tips and tricks and announces schedules for webinars, regional training events and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s future-thinking Web 2.0 community could learn a lot from Constant Contact – simplicity, easy access (try the product free for 60 days, no strings attached) and customer service still rule, even in an era of “do it yourself” technologies. Just ask the company’s more than 130,000 small business customers.

 

 

 

Congratulations!

 

constant contact

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Boom = Another Bust? What do you think?

1 Comment/in , , /by

 

Sunday’s Boston Globe had an interesting article on the tech industry and its future among the recession fears. One interesting note was how some of the “survivors” have been the what-some-might-consider “less sexy” cousins of all the Internet darlings, “Indeed, the infrastructure and enterprise products scorned by Internet highfliers early in the decade – from data storage equipment to accounting software – have become platforms of growth and stability in today’s technology economy.”

 

Several of our clients echo that sentiment as they continue to move forward with innovative, useful technologies that are key drivers to the growing tech sector. While not quite the “media darlings” as many yet-unproven Web 2.0 companies, they are solid, growing companies with innovative products and services, real customers – and revenue.

 

Judging from today’s news alone – coming from such clients as Lightstorm Networks, Sycamore Networks, Gotuit and more – solid, continued growth continues to sustain the economy – with companies solving real problems for real, paying customers. We are proud to work with this generation of tech leaders – although we do kind of miss all those fun dot com names such as pets.com, furniture.com, vote.com and more. Maybe there was something about such simple, obvious names that contributed to the downfall… simple names = too simple of an idea backed by too much money, perhaps?

 

Check out today’s news and let us know what you think. Is there a tech bust looming?

 

  • Gotuit – video navigation and search leader signs Fox Reality Channel, the only all-reality, all-the-time network; check out The Fox Reality Channel Really Awards 2007 now to watch last year’s awards ceremony and vote for the Most Memorable Reality TV Star for 2007
  • Lightstorm Networks – new Carrier Ethernet Silicon player emerges
  • Q1 Labs – network security management company sponsors a SANS Network Security Lunch & Learn
  • Sycamore Networks – (NASDAQ: SCMR) – a new Intelligent Multiservice Switch from one of the market’s longstanding leaders in intelligent networking solutions for fixed line and mobile network operators worldwide

Sosius Unveils Next Gen Collaboration for Work and Life

in , , /by

Client Sosius unveils their online collaboration product for work and life today at the Office 2.0 conference. The product is free and now open for a public beta. YOU can help decide the future for online collaboration by signing up. Rafe Needleman talks more about Sosius on Webware.

Sosius is great not only because it’s free and delivers 1.0GB of storage space but because it lets you keep your information, social networking and collaboration all in one place – collaboration for “Life 2.0” as Founder Andrew Cameron-Webb calls it. He has a good point – our lives don’t begin and end at the office (although sometimes it feels that way!) so why should our collaboration technology? Sosius lets you create Career and Life “Workspaces” so you can easily invite appropriate contacts to the best workspace and manage all the intersections of your life from one application. From scheduling family activities to managing that big work project, Sosius brings powerful, easy online collaboration and sharing to the everyday user.

What else makes Sosius unique? Experienced veterans. Cameron-Webb is the creator of Collaborative Workspaces, a successful enterprise-grade web collaboration service and Chairman Steve Crummey is the founder of Intranets.com, acquired by WebEx (now Cisco).

Sign up here and let us know what you think!

Business Social Networking Simply Makes Sense

in , /by

Our client Sermo was featured in a Wall Street Journal article this week on the business of social networking. Social networking is an interesting phenomenon that surprisingly has taken a while to catch on in business and with professionals across multiple industries. Business was born on networking – that’s an age-old lesson that anyone knows. It’s the formerly “impersonal” way of communicating via the Internet that caused the delay of networking online for business purposes. However, with everything from meeting your future spouse to running your business taking place on the Internet, networking online for business and professional growth – or even as a business model – is a no-brainer.

 

 

 

Sermo_logo

 


Think about your neighborhood and how you find who to use for items such as a pediatrician, a hairdresser, a great accountant, a good dog walker. You ask your friends or neighbors. You get their opinions, ask about their experience with different vendors and listen to recommendations. Social networking allows this exchange to go beyond your physical location and even your initial network for even greater insight. It also allows us to pool our collecitve intelligence and experiences for greater insights, such as the 25,000 doctors sharing information on Sermo. Social networking for business just makes sense.

 

 

 

 

The advent of social networking for business professionals, such as LinkedIn, is not that far from a very general, basic idea. Years ago, before “Web 2.0” or “social networking” or even “MySpace” were media darlings, the Internet was used for listings provided by local area businesses. Patrons of such businesses would leave comments or recommendations based on their experiences on the site’s forums or message boards. It was a bit clumsy and not very interactive but it worked. Social networking for business simply elevates and expands upon this very basic idea. Not only can you promote your thoughts, opinions and recommendations (including your own company’s products or services) but you can easily view and connect with 2nd and 3rd tier contacts – friends of friends, if you will – for business exchanges such as recruiting, choosing a service vendor, trying a product, etc. Social networking enables you to quickly and easily expand your network, which can be utilized in many ways – not the least of which is marketing and PR purposes. PR is influence by word of mouth, essentially, so social networking is a must for any promotional campaign today.

 

 

 

 

Social networking in general started as a form of self expression. Teenagers and college students flocked to it as a way to connect with others like them outside of the usually small social circle in the “real” world. Today, it is helping to shape businesses of all types and is still based on that basic premise of expression. If I have a bad – or good – experience at a retail store, online shopping or at a restaurant, my complaints go well beyond my intimate social circle and have much greater power than a letter to the Better Business Bureau. A few posts on a Facebook wall, a blog comment or a Q/A on LinkedIn ensures the word spreads like wildfire to people who matter. And, as the WSJ article today states, social networking is “moving more into the mainstream” – ensuring anyone’s “self expression” today has a very meaningful – and profound – impact. Now, it’s a matter of how to ensure that expression is a positive reflection of your company or products and services.

 

 

PerkettPR TechCrunch Party Report; July 27, 2007 at August Capital

1 Comment/in , , , /by

Tcaugustlogo_3

It was a wild and wonderful time at the TechCrunch Party 9 on Friday. Thanks to the gorgeous hot weather in the early hours of the party, the PerkettPR–sponsored margarita booth had a continual flow of Silicon Valley’s “hottest” lining up to get some relief with our frosty beverages. Here’s a recap of our collective experience at the event:

Partypeople_6TechCrunch parties certainly haven’t lost any steam since last year. We pinched hit in the registration area for a good portion of the event, so we were able to really get an understanding for just how many people marched through the door (we’re guessing it was over 800). We caught up with one of the most famous invited guests, Sarah Meyers, before the party, (who was kicked out at last year’s event for sneaking in un–invited and filming the event). She filled us in on how although she had been kicked out last year, she was personally invited to the party by Mike Arrington this year to capture a new and improved video blog from the event. Check out her very entertaining blog post with the famous video from last year, and her much improved (though definitely not as funny), video interviews from this year’s event.

The annual TechCrunch Silicon Valley gathering is a great opportunity for our clients to get some exposure with all the right VCs and influencers in the valley, and also a great place for the PPR team to meet and talk with the many reporters and bloggers we usually only communicate with over email or on rushed phone conversations. WiredlanehartwellEric Auchard of Reuters was nice enough to take the time to speak to several PPR team members. He gave us the lowdown on what he thinks is hot right now in the tech world, but we won’t tell you, because you will all inundate him with even more pitches J. It was great to chat with Nick Gonzalez, Duncan Riley and Andrew Philips of TechCrunch. We had never met Duncan in person before, so he gave us a little history of himself and told us a little more about what it’s like to write for one of the world’s hottest tech blogs. (Don’t worry Duncan, we won’t share your secrets.) Dan Farber of ZDNet was on hand with his camera, taking some great shots of the party, and Dean Takahashi seemed to be bombarded with pitches from start-ups looking for local ink. The Scobleizer, Robert Scoble, was there with his son and posting TwitterGrams live from the party.

Several current and former clients of ours enjoyed mingling among the massive turnout out of SV types, and we were happy to spend some quality time catching up with colleagues past and present. It was great to see Pradeep Javangula, CTO of Tumri, taking in the chaos of the party and talking up Tumri’s most recent news coverage from BusinessWeek while Reena Jadhav of Conduit, was working the crowd with her tireless enthusiasm, educating the masses on the power of Conduit’s community toolbars. We also spent some time catching up with Jim Mansfield, Bipin Parmar and Ram Ramkumar from our favorite ringtone creation destination, Phonezoo. Phonezoo has been making waves recently with 1.2 million users and they continue to prove that creating and sharing personalized ringtones is always going to be hot! We also met up with former colleague, Ben Heskett, and caught up on his latest endeavor at Kiptronic. Benheskettcmajor
Parker Trewin of Genius was there too. In between pitches, Parker had a great time sneaking up on partygoers and labeling them with Genius stickers. We’re happy to see their efforts at the event led to a nice mention in Dean Takahashi’s blog post.

We met several entrepreneurs and executives including folks from the usual suspects, like Google and Ask.com as well as many startups looking for PR advice. We’re hoping to get a chance to work with them when they’re ready and so we won’t name them all here for obvious reasons. However, folks like Matt Maroon of BlueFrog Gaming was one of the more colorful characters to approach us – a former poker champion turned Internet entrepreneur. How cool is that? Fantasy Sports 2.0 was one of many companies in attendance looking to capitalize on the popularity of social networking – this time for fantasy sports fans. And at the end of the evening we had fun with Alex Tew, creator of the Million Dollar Homepage. He was a good sport about our ribbing on his “members only” jacket and while young, was quite humble and a great sport.

We absolutely have to shout out to the TC interns Mark and Andrew. They were great guys and clearly have good heads on their shoulders – check out their posts on the site covering everything from the iPhone to social networking. In addition, the gracious Mark Hendrickson took us to the local grocery store to get emergency water for the margarita machines when we arrived. And he helped us haul 30 or so gallons of it up to our booth. Thank you so much!

Chrismikeheather_3 Last, but not least, Mike Arrington. He was in great form, chatting with anyone and everyone that wanted his ear, posing for photographs and, in general, taking his growing Internet celebrity status in stride. He’s got to be a little overwhelmed (and perhaps slightly annoyed) with the sheer volume of attention he received, but he didn’t let it show. Maybe it’s due in part to the fact that he now has TechCrunch CEO, Heather Harde, working the business side of things. Heather not only helped set everything in motion before the party, but took the helm and addressed the masses at the end of the event. We look forward to hearing more from her in the future.

See Mike’s TechCrunch event recap post for more details and be sure to check out his pictures on Flickr. There are also several other good event summaries on WIRED’s Epicenter blog, and Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang.

Thanks to Mike, Heather and Jeanne Logozzo for your help so we could participate in this year’s event, and thanks to everyone that stopped by the PerkettPR margarita booth We hope to meet many more of you again soon and work together to build even greater “buzz” for your tech endeavors.

— Posted by Heather