COME CELEBRATE
THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
OF
CEDAR RAPIDS PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATES!
Mark your calendar
now to
join us on the 2nd Thursday of each month through May!
In this issue:
- Register today for the March meeting
featuring a panel and audience discussion entitled, “Skill Diversification for Survival.”
- Review of our February Meeting with Heather Smith Friedman of deNovo Alternative Marketing
- Have we asked you about Door Prizes, lately?
 
“Skill Diversification for Survival” - a panel and audience discussion featuring:
Michelle McIllece, Career Services Coordinator, Coe College;
Sondy Daggett, owner, Integrated Communication Strategies;
moderated by Eric Wylie, owner, Wylie Creative Communications & CRPRA Steering Committee member.
 A shrinking economy, scarce job opportunities and other burdens of the last few years have forced people to point their careers in new directions. How do we successfully manage our careers? How do we sustain momentum in our current roles? How do we find new paths that will bring fulfillment to ourselves and service our employers and communities? Join us as our panel and audience discuss this timely and thought-provoking topic.
Michelle McIllece started her career without the slightest idea on how to start her career. A combination of luck, desperation, and a long-time interest in the world of work led her to the field of human resources and recruiting, where she discovered how few people really know how to manage their careers well. She eventually ended up at Coe College, where she teaches college students how to develop their own life and career-related self-management strategies. She also teaches marketing and organizational development courses part-time at Kirkwood Community College. Michelle has a B.S. in Psychology and an M.B.A, both from the University of Iowa. She lives in Cedar Rapids with a crazy dog, 2 narcissistic cats, a feisty 2-year-old son, and a very understanding husband.
Sondy Daggett is a marketing communications professional with 25+ years experience in strategic communications planning and implementation, public affairs, business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing, training and strategic planning.
Sondy works with companies including
DiamondV Mills, St. Luke’s Hospital, CR/LC Solid Waste Agency, National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library, Mercy Medical Center and many others to improve their efforts in areas such as media relations, public affairs, editorial writing and placement and event planning and promotions.
Please join us!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
The Clarion Hotel and Convention Center (map)
Cost: $15.00
Reservations are
required and
are due by
5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 4.
Submit
your reservation for the March meeting
CRPRA meets the 2nd Thursday of each month, September through May.
Mark your calendars for this season!
by Sher Jasperse
February 2011 -
“Generational Marketing”
Our February speaker, Heather Smith Friedman of de Novo Alternative Marketing, helped us think through the challenges of marketing products and services to people in diverse age groups. An expert in web-based and experiential marketing, Friedman shared demographic trends and statistics regarding the use of Facebook, Twitter, and other new tools, noting, for example, that the fastest-growing group of Facebook users consists of women over age 55. Her advice:
Research and engage your audience. There are plenty of innovative marketing and social networking tools, but they may not resonate with your target market. Traditional media such as radio and television have been doing generational research and marketing for decades, so don’t neglect them as sources of data.
Your brand promise should be consistent across generations, but you’ll need to tailor the tools you use to reach each age group. For example, an anti-smoking campaign launched by the Linn County Public Health Department relied heavily on Facebook, but the Facebook page aimed at teenagers (“Don’t Start with Me”) used a completely different approach from the one aimed at parents (“Big Tobacco Targets Our Kids”).
Make use of the raft of statistics available regarding demographic trends among users of various social media tools — but remember that usage patterns are constantly shifting. In three or four months, your data may be obsolete, so refresh it often.
THANK YOU to Pratt Audio-Visual & Video Corporation
for the generous donation of video projector rentals for our meetings!
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“A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”
– William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style, 1918
We Want to
Hear From You!
Are you...
...changing jobs?
...adding a new certification
to your resume?
...the recipient of an award?
Please email Associate
News to Eric Wylie at:
eric@wyliecc.com
We'll include your
news
in future newsletters!
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 Donate a door prize - Get free face time!
Having door prizes makes our meetings even more enjoyable and your business or organization receives great exposure when you stand up to briefly explain your prize donation.
Door prizes can be any items such
as coffee mugs, notebooks, candles and food items, or anything related to your business or organization that you would like to share.
We’ll
draw names from those attending, hand out the door prizes and spotlight the
businesses and individuals who donated. It’s a win-win situation for
everyone!
To donate an item, please contact any CRPRA steering
committee member when you arrive at a meeting.
Thank you for helping to make each CRPRA meeting a fun event!
If you have a suggestion for a guest speaker or topic you would like
to see offered at a future meeting, or have any questions about
CRPRA, please contact
any of the Steering Committee members listed below.
Warren Byerly - Visual Images Productions, 360-7567
Connie Fullmer Dunkin - Dunkin One, 396-0185
Sher Jasperse - Writer/Editor, 364-2535
Carol Myers - J&A Printing Inc., 393-1781 ext. 249
Sara Reasner - Pratt Audio-Visual & Video Corp.,
363-8144
Wilma Shadle - Retired Communications Professional,
363-6254
Eric Wylie - Wylie Creative Communications,
832-2916
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