A Top 100 Small Business Influencer Champion? Wow, Thanks!

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cp_2013_smb_influencer_champion[4]Over the last 20 years, I’ve been blessed to not only run my own small business, but to work with hundreds of other small business owners, managers and startup founders. I’m fanatical about helping entrepreneurs to reach their career goals by starting, running and growing successful small businesses. Sometimes they grow into very large businesses – and that’s fun, too! But the crux of my career has been focused on helping to establish and promote companies in the early stages of their lifecycles, and I really enjoy those challenges.

That’s why I was so happy to be honored last week when I was named a Small Business Influencer Top 100 Champion and Expert in the 2013 Small Business Influencer Awards – produced by Small Business Trends, an award-winning online publication, serving over 6,000,000 small business owners, stakeholders and entrepreneurs annually, and SmallBizTechnology.com, a media company that produces online content and live events educating small and mid-sized companies on how to strategically use technology as a tool to grow their businesses. The awards honor those who are influential to small businesses in North America, through the products, services, knowledge, information or support they provide to the small business market.

I’m flattered to be in this list with some former clients (Brainshark, Constant Contact), companies I admire and use daily (Dropbox, American Express OPENForum, Evernote, Etsy, FedEx, Hootsuite, Hubspot, Plantronics, Vistaprint) and industry folks that I admire such as John Jantsch, Laurie McCabe, Dave Kerpen, Larry Kim and Aliza Sherman. Congratulations to all the other winners and honorable mentions, as well as the nominees. I fully support and cheerlead anyone who works in, and strives to help, small business. You can read about all the champions, here.

I simply wanted to say thank you to those who voted for me, the judges and most certainly my team at PerkettPR. They are not only a huge part of making our national clients successful through smart digital marketing and PR, but they are also an inspiration to me every day to keep my own small business innovative, fun and alive.

You can read additional details here, visit the award site or follow along on Twittter by searching #SMBInfluencer.

 

 

 

Summer Fun at IMS13 With PerkettPR – Get Your Schwag With Bite

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ActualSharksIf you’re attending IMS in San Francisco today, please be sure to find our own Jennifer Hellickson, who will be giving away these cool shark bottle openers to the first 100 folks to connect with her. We’re having some fun at the show by combining our love of summer, Shark Week and our intent on delivering killer marketing. Find Jennifer at the show (hint: follow her or us on Twitter to help you do so) and you will also get directions on how to enter a chance to win our $100 gift card drawing, which will be announced on Friday, August 2 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST on Google+, so join us there, too.

If you’re not at IMS this week, take heart! We also thought it would be fun to share some shark trivia, so follow along today and tomorrow on Twitter or Facebook and test your shark knowledge. We’ll be randomly choosing five online folks to receive a complimentary bottle opener as well. (Hint, you could increase your chances by tweeting with @PerkettPR and #killermarketing in your tweets!)

Enjoy learning at IMS, San Francisco, and contact us if you need help taking a bigger bite out of the industry with #killermarketing strategies.

Happy Employee Appreciation Day to PerkettPR – An Amazing Staff

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The first Friday in March marks Employee Appreciation Day and I wanted to be sure to send a small token of appreciation out to my amazing staff. In the PR agency business, it’s not unusual to see a revolving door of employees and I have to say that I am very lucky to never have had this problem. I have a talented staff that is smart, energetic, creative and amazingly loyal to PerkettPR. I’m not quite sure – you’d have to ask them – why I’m lucky enough to have such a good retention rate, but I do know that we just celebrated milestones of 4, 7, and even 10 years with several employees (out of 14 in business to-date).

I always wanted to build an agency that was less political than a typical PR environment, and so we’ve always been pretty choosy about who we hire. We want folks who have entrepreneurial attitudes, but who aren’t going to stick around for just a few years and then take off. We ask employees to leave their egos at the door and put clients and teammates first. We require collaborative work, especially as a virtual environment, and we can’t offer anyone a corner office to show off to their friends and family. And yet, we have a staff that sticks by one another, challenges each other to work better and smarter every day, and that clients continually come back to because not only do the PerkettPR-ers turn out amazing results, but they are fun to work with. I can attest to that. We have such a good camaraderie that it often surprises people. After one six-month long RFP process, in which we were unanimously chosen over 14 other agencies, I was told that one of the reasons we were hired was because “Your team had such an amazing spirit of collaboration that we’ve rarely seen with any agency – let alone a virtual team.” That’s right – you’d never know we’re not in the same “office” every day. We are true teammates and it shows in our results.

I appreciate my staff more than I can ever express – you can’t always get along with everyone but I have to say I’ve been very lucky to have had truly great relationships with 99% of the folks who have worked here. Even in tough times when we’ve had to let people go, they’ve remained friends and professional colleagues and that means the world to me – it shows me that we really do work with those of great character and exceptional spirit.

Hiring folks with such commendable attributes translates to a team that has worked together for years, can ramp up quickly for clients and that many clients have had the luck to work with over their careers, even while moving from company to company over a span of a decade+. It feels great to be able to say, “Yes he/she is still here and we can get them on your account” when a former client comes back to hire us again.

So thank you, PPR team, for being not only amazing PR professionals, but just damn great people to know. I am blessed. And truly grateful.

PerkettPR Q&A with Vic Miller, Digital Marketing Producer at PerkettPR

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PerkettPR is happy to share a Q&A with our newest employee– Ohio-based, Digital Marketing Producer, Vic Miller (@vicmilleriii). He just wrapped up an awesome, super creative video for our client MyVici, check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNEPS0ccq2A

1. Explain your role here at PerkettPR?

I am the Digital Production Director for PerkettPR where I am responsible for driving the strategy, direction and execution of digital marketing content and programs for our clients and our organization.

2. What is your biggest accomplishment and how did you get there?

I’ve been awarded medals for my service in the military and I’ve received numerous awards for my work throughout my career, but my biggest achievement will always be taking the challenge that lays in front of me. Like the age-old sentiment goes, “…it’s the journey, not the destination,” it’s having an experience that brings me the biggest sense of accomplishment.

3. What motivates you each day?

I am motivated by the opportunity to create. When I see the potential to create something I get super excited, maybe even overzealous some times.

4. Please list your top tech gadgets – which ones do you have or want to have and why?

My iPhone and MacBook are definite must-have tools. But my geek credentials would be revoked if I didn’t mention my love for Arduino. While it may not be in my productivity toolbox, it’s the coolest DIY gadget ever.

5. Do you have any secret hobbies or ambitions?

I have many interests but mostly I enjoy making things; I draw, paint, sculpt, build, solder, weld, animate, film, record, edit, program, grow, cook, brew, eat, drink, and muse. Oh, and I’ve been making my own sausage for over 20 years.

6. If you travel anywhere, what places would you visit first?

In general, I seek out the flavor of the city; the food , music, and art/culture.  New Orleans is my kind of town; some of the best food, music, atmosphere and people you could ever ask for. There’s a rhythm about New Orleans that I’ve never experienced anywhere else.

7. What TV or movie character do you relate to most and why?

I am a sucker for good antihero characters like Tyler Durden (Fight Club), Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver), or Walter White (AMC’s Breaking Bad).  It’s not that I relate to any specific character traits as much as I find the moral complexity of antiheroes very interesting.

8. What is the favorite part of your job?

I love editing video. I’ve always been drawn to motion and enjoy people watching; I get to tell a story, animate things and play with sounds, but it’s more than that. Sometimes editing is like putting together a puzzle and suddenly everything comes together and creates something magical in a way that only video can do.

9. What defines success for you?

Catching an idea and executing it… good or bad, that’s success for me.  So-called failure is just an opportunity to pursue another idea.

 

 

Ladies’ Home Journal Features PerkettPR’s Own Heather Fraelick

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If you’re a regular reader, you know that PerkettPR provides its employees with 40 paid community service hours per year, to spend on a cause of their choice.  We are proud of our employees’ efforts to help others and we want to support their desire to do so. Hiring people who care about others and have passions outside of work is a fundamental part of our culture.

Along those lines, you might have read this post from our own Account Supervisor, Heather Fraelick, about how she spends her hours – spreading the word about sun safety and skin cancer. Today, Ladies’ Home Journal featured Heather’s story in The Skin Cancer Guide – a three-part series – providing a “dermatologist-approved detection guide that just might save your life.”

Heather’s bravery and willingness to share her story to help others are just a few of the may reasons we’re proud to have her on our team.