lmgprlounge

Loughlin/Michaels Group wishes everyone a safe and happy fourth of July holiday weekened.  Enjoy the time with your family and friends.

Regardless of the type of music you might like, the King of Pop Michael Jackson made global impact on the music industry. I remember going to the record store when I was a kid and buying a Jackson 5 45 record. Michael was only a few years older than me. He had the moves, the cool suede fringe vest and yes charisma and a voice. Although I listened to mostly alternative non-commercial music during the 80’s a Michael Jackson video or song would get me tapping a beat. There’s no denying he had a gift. A gift that people around the world listened to. Upon his sudden death today, Twitter went wild with rumors then facts of his demise. Despite the news of the weird that surrounded Michael’s private life, the King of Pop had the stage again but this time on Twitter. According to Twitter hundreds upon thousands of tweets were being posted by news sites, fans and celebrities. Michael received more than his 15 minutes of fame today…..and I’m sure if this Whale of a Tale is not over yet.  For a full summary of Michaels hits and misses go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson

Remember the lazy days of summer?  Keds tennis shoes, cut off denim jeans into capris, picnics, ice cream socials and clam bakes?  WOW. Have times changed.

Today the lazy days of summer means interviewing interns, reading books like the Purple Cow, planning client appreciation events…and reality TV.  Yikes I’m not watching reality TV am I?

We have clients going to India, Europe and South of the Border for the summer. With that said I’m curious to find if the Tweets, blogs and emails slow down. I doubt it but worth the watch.

Meanwhile, at the LMGPR camp we are interviewing like crazy for a few great hires and bringing on a few new clients. Everyone is gearing up for the Fall…but it’s only July.  Spark up the  firecrackers but the lazy days of summer don’t exist. We are busy and proud of it. We will hang our flag, swirl a sparkler and even entertain Canadian and English expatriots on 4th of July…but lazy?  Not us!

Hey Tech PR gurus… Need a job? The Loughlin/Michaels Group (LMGPR), an award winning strategic public relations and communications firm specializing in emerging technologies, is having a casting call for Client Executives and Senior Client Executives with technology PR experience that are willing to operate at start-up speed.

Job Description:

Client Executives/Senior Client Executives have a hands-on role at LMGPR and will be a key part of the daily PR buzz we create for our clients. You will manage 3-4 key clients developing strategy, plans, traditional and social media campaigns. You will write for the company blog and participate in agency events such as our industry mix & mingles, Barks and Bites and other fun events. We work hard and play hard. This is a full-time position (no contractors). We offer a competitive salary and benefits.  

Skills:

A minimum of 3-5 years of tech PR experience with at least 2 years in an agency environment is required. Must be able to complete all stages of a media campaign including strategy and planning, press release and pitch writing, media outreach, speaking and award opportunities and proactively researching industry trends. Experience managing and mentoring junior employees is preferred. Degree in public relations, communications, journalism or related field is required. Sense of humor and upbeat personality is a major plus. 

Company Description:

The Loughlin/Michaels Group (LMGPR) is an award winning public relations agency servicing technology innovators globally. The agency focuses on enterprise technology within the security, storage, networking, service provider, hosted services and Web 2.0 markets. LMGPR is located in the heart of the Silicon Valley and just steps away from Caltrain. Please visit our website at http://www.lmgpr.com, our blog at http://lmgprlounge.com/ and follow us on Twitter @lmgpr for more information about our dynamic team of public relations professionals.

How to apply:

Are you ready to join our winning team? We did mention at the top of the page that this was a casting call and we meant it. To apply, we would like to you to email your resume, cover letter and best pitch to info@lmgpr.com, however, there is one final step we would like you to take. Please make a video and tell us why we should hire you. Please upload your video to YouTube stating your name and why you would be a perfect fit for the LMGPR team. Please title your video “LMGPR Casting Call [Your First and Last Name]”. You must upload your video before sending us your resume, cover letter and best pitch. Include the video URL in your email so we can find the video that belongs to your resume. If you would like your video to be featured on our YouTube Channel, please state in the body of your email that you give us permission to post your video to our channel. To view the LMGPR YouTube Channel, please go to http://www.youtube.com/LMGPRvideos.

We know this is not the traditional way to post a job listing, but we are not a traditional agency. Our innovation is what creates our outstanding results for our clients. We look forward to viewing your video.

Concentric yesterday announced its Concentric Managed Backup. The new hosted service provides small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with an advanced, affordable, and scalable data backup and recovery solution. Concentric Managed Backup addresses the challenges of explosive data growth while helping to solve critical business problems including regulatory compliance, disaster recovery, and data protection for local and remote offices.

Concentric Managed Backup, powered by EVault backup and recovery technology from i365, A Seagate Company, is an online, disk-to-disk solution providing 24×7 data protection and recovery without the need for additional investment in network or backup infrastructure. Concentric Managed Backup eliminates the inadequacies, inconvenience and expense associated with tape backup by providing faster backup and recoveries, and addressing offsite data protection for regulatory compliance and disaster recovery.

To learn about Concentric Managed Backup, please click here.

Absolute Quality, an e4e company, today released the results of research that indicated game developers and publishers have an opportunity to more closely align game features with the preferences of target customers.  Additionally the study highlighted the difference between experiences of men and women while playing the same game, which has implications on the marketing of any new game title.

The bio-sensory study commissioned by e4e was performed in conjunction with EmSense on one of the industry’s top First Person Shooter (FPS) game titles.  The study was conducted at the Game Developers Conference in March 2009 in San Francisco with a sampling of target consumers for the popular shooter game. 

 To read more of the press release click here. For a copy of the white paper and report click here.

The New York Times recently announced the appointment of its very first Social Media Editor. Jennifer Preston, a journalist, author and professor at Columbia University, accepted the position after being in charge of the regional weekly sections for the past two years.

This change comes in response to the recent rise in popularity of social networking and social media sources. As newspapers transition from one-way to two-way media, they are in need of editors to manage these venues.

From a public relations perspective, two-way communication with target publics is a critical component of every objective. Social media outlets allow organizations to build relationships with their publics and respond to their needs. Blogs, Facebook fan pages and Twitter are now recognized as productive outlets for enhancing communication between businesses and their publics and as a way of distributing news. Considering the current economic crisis, it is critical for organizations to fully understand and respond to their stakeholders. Social media outlets are just the ticket.

This progressive move by the New York Times is one giant leap forward for the world of social media and for organizations looking to engage in two-way communication. 

She has done it again folks! Donna Michaels, founder and president of the Loughlin/Michaels Group, has been named a finalist in The Stevie Awards 2009 American Business Awards for Communications, Investor Relations, or PR Executive of the Year. Adding to her list of accolades, Donna was recognized earlier this year as one of the Most Influential Women of 2009 by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Donna has more than 20 years of experience as a publicist and is known for her high impact PR, dedication to her clients and constant enthusiasm for technology. 

The Stevie Awards were created to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and business people worldwide. The Stevie Awards’ mission is to raise the profile of exemplary organizations and individuals among the press, the business community, and the general public.  In short order the Stevie has become one of the world’s most coveted awards.

Donna Michaels has fearlessly lead our team of PR professionals to success the best way any boss could, she leads by example, and her top industry awards demonstrate that. Congratulations Donna!

For years the advertising and marketing world has aimed to pinpoint the “secret sauce” the “ying and yang” and the “a ha” in products and services. Web marketing expert Seth Godin’s best-selling book Purple Cow is one of the best marketing books I’ve read in a long time. Purple Cow is about transforming your business by being remarkable. It’s short and to the point and directs businesses of all sizes how to find their inner cow. The book simply provides the fool proof way of determining if you are a “Purple Cow” in the crowd of a herd of brown cows…or have potential. Companies that simply redesign a mouse trap are not Purple Cows…they are brown cows aiming to be Purple. Kermit said it wasn’t easy being green and being purple isn’t either. Purple cow producing herds are companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google and Sony. We’ve had the honor to work with smaller herds of purple cows innovators. To find out you have what it takes to stand out in the herd…read Purple Cow.

My longtime media friend and product reviewer David Strom recently wrote a post on his blog  titled, “When to defriend and defollow.”  It struck me at this point that my own Facebook network had grown to upwards of 400 people and my LinkedIn network was nearly 350 people.  Certainly no Ashton Kutcher Twitter following, but still, I was surprised how quickly things had grown over the years.

I tend to keep the two networks very separate – there’s probably less than 10 percent crossover between who I connect with on Facebook and who I link up with on LinkedIn. I view the small percentage where there is crossover as my per-fessional network – that gray area between the very personal and the strictly professional relationships that we manage in our lives. Each person has their own philosophy/opinion of how they want to manage these relationships.  Regardless of how they are managed, there are times when the personal crosses over to the professional, and vice-a-versa. The key is understanding the extent to which you allow relationships to cross over. 

I think it’s best to divide the two into strict buckets first, and from there build out the “per-fessional” network over time.  I also know that I tend to add more people to my LinkedIn network, and be overly selective in the world of Facebook.  There are just too many wildcards on Facebook when it comes to features like tagging, commenting and so on.  As for twitter, that’s an entirely different world altogether.  You may never want to be buddies with someone, and yet have an amazing professional affiliation with someone.  At the same time, there are people in your personal life that you simply would not or could not extend to your professional circles.  Social media is both an enabler and an inhibitor of per-fessional networking.

As an interesting side note, I recently announced on my Facebook status that I was “pruning” my friends list.  I was shocked how many people came out of the woodwork asking whether or not they would make the list (thanks David for posting my comment to your blog). 

In the end, I only de-friended two people.  Not sure what that says, but I really thought the list would be longer. 

How do you manage your online identity?  We’d love to hear about it.