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Welcome to SimpliSafe – PerkettPR’s Newest Client

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SimplisafeI’d like to extend a big welcome to SimpliSafe and send a big huge “thanks” for choosing PerkettPR. Simplisafe provides a sleek and unique consumer “gadget” that also happens to have a very solid value proposition: home security. SimpliSafe provides young urban professionals and college students with a wireless home security system, ideal for any city dweller or those who frequently change residences and are looking for reliable apartment security options.

A cost-effective alternative to more traditional alarm systems, SimpliSafe allows you to pay as you go – no long term contracts – and you own the system. Therefore, you can take the system with you when you move. Best of all, it doesn’t even require a landline or internet connection to reach their 24/7 emergency dispatch center. For more information, visit their website or connect with SimpliSafe on Twitter.

Simplisafe

When asked why they chose PerkettPR, CEO and co-founder Chad Laurans said, “PerkettPR brings a great combination of traditional media experience and social media savvy that will help us spread the word about SimpliSafe. Word of mouth is already a big factor for us and with PerkettPR’s help, we aim to drive awareness to new levels.”

We’re extremely excited to help SimpliSafe extend their brand awareness and community – stay tuned!

Mzinga and the Power of Community

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Grant Robertson from DownloadSquad.com interviews Aaron Strout (VP of New Media) from Mzinga at SXSW 2008. Aaron talks about how Mzinga helps customers leverage the power of community with their enterprise-class, white-label social media platform.


SXSW 2008: Mzinga from Download Squad on Vimeo.

[via downloadsquad.com]

Sermo Named Media Brand of the Year

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Congratulations to our client, Sermo, who was named Media Brand of the Year by Medical Marketing & Media. We are particularly excited about this accomplishment because Sermo took a chance in 2006 with PerkettPR – one of the only firms they interviewed that did not have a dedicated healthcare division – and it continues to be a fruitful relationship for both companies. We worked closely with their marketing team all year to spread the word about this one-of-a-kind community for physicians – and helped it to grow to 40,000 doctors and counting.

Sermo continues to revolutionize healthcare. The discussions held, and decisions made, within the community positively impact not only physicians, but the patients they care for and the pharmaceutical companies that want to forge a safer and more productive future through a more efficient exchange of knowledge and resources. Sermo is a Web-based community where physicians share observations from daily practice, discuss emerging trends and provide new insights into medications, devices and treatments.

“And since physicians have never before been able to talk with a unified
voice in such impressive numbers, sharing observations and insight
about treatments, drugs, devices and biologics, we expect Sermo to
continue to rock the pharma marketing world for some time to come.”

We couldn’t agree more! We are extremely proud of this award, thankful for such an interesting and savvy client, and excited to share even more interesting developments about Sermo in the year to come. Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Palestrant, Founder & CEO; Gina Ashe, CMO; Greg Shenk, Director of Communications and the entire team at Sermo! What a year!

Who Caught Your Eye in 2007? Tell the Crunchies Committee

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Anyone that hasn’t had a chance to nominate for the Crunchies Awards should take a look and place votes for your favorite sites, people and emerging tech companies of 2007.

Nominations are only open through tomorrow, December 12, so log on and list your favorites now. The Crunchies Committee will then choose five finalists from the submissions and voting will start on December 13 and last for approximately one month.

If you are looking for some inspiration on who to vote for, check out some of PerkettPR’s clients nominated for selection this year:

Conduit ; “best international start-up” – community toolbars

Moola.com ; “best time sink site,” “best consumer start up” and “best international start up” – the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Rewards Game (MMRG)

Ezmo ; “best consumer start up” and “best international start-up” – social music sharing

Sosius ; “best business model” – free online collaborative workspaces

Here’s some additional background on the awards from the Crunchies blog:

“Together GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb, VentureBeat and TechCrunch are pleased to announce that nominations for the inaugural 2007 Crunchies Awards are now open.

We created twenty award categories to recognize the year’s most innovative technical, creative and business accomplishments of key companies, products and people. We hope you’ll agree that the award categories are good reasons for celebration and fit for a proper ceremony.

We invite you to submit your favorite companies and products for consideration. Read the official rules. Nominations will be open through midnight pst Wednesday, December 12. Finalist voting will open Thursday, December 13 and run for approximately one month before the awards ceremony on Friday, January 18 in San Francisco.”

Supporting Women in Business – Congratulations to The Stevie Awards Winners

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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

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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

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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

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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.

 

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Social Networking Grows Up; Pfizer Recognizes Real Impact & Potential

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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

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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!

 

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