Ella Bee Social Media & PR

I know, I know, I know…I’m a HUGE social media nerd (life is just like high school) but I recently discovered a cool news-sharing site (thanks to Laermer). The concept is simple. The sharing site Paper.Li basically turns your tweets and links into a daily newspaper. I think this is genius because we basically get most of our news stories from Twitter anyways (sorry Facebook-you’re too slow nowadays).

Anyhow, check it out, create your own newspaper and let me know what you think. I promise if you’re a media junkie like me, you’ll LOVE it! This site could probably also increase your online presence. I know my clients will be using.

Happy sharing.

Chris Tavarez was recently featured on Disney InfoNet’s in an exclusive interview.

Hey there fans,

You guys already know that Avalon High has wrapped up production and will be premiering on Disney Channel this November. The movie stars such great talent as Steve Valentine, Greg Sulkin and Chris Tavarez.

It was Chris Tavarez that we recently caught up with to ask him a few question about Avalon High and about him as an actor who already has a hefty resume of acting credits under his belt. He was gracious enough to answer our questions and we have that exclusive interview for you guys.

Read actor, Chris Tavarez’s exclusive interview with Disney InfoNet.

All throughout the month of July, we have helped our client and model Dawn Montgomery share her story about what its like having bi-polar disorder and being a fashion model to bring awareness to Bebe Moore Campbell’s Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Thank you to Essence Magazine for allowing Dawn to share her story.

Are you sad, having problems sleeping or eating, having thoughts about hurting yourself, or experiencing difficulty concentrating? Or maybe you have mood swings between euphoria and irritability?

These are just a few symptoms of bipolar disorder, which affects more African-Americans in this country than most would expect. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mental health issue that causes extreme highs and extreme lows in a person’s mood and behavior.

Ask Dawn Montgomery, the model who was involved in T.I’s Akoo’s NJ billboard and controversial advertising campaign some months ago. The working model and full-time mother was diagnosed with what some people refer to as “the crazy disease” when she was 16, and has been managing the disorder for the last ten years of her life.

Montgomery explains how the disorder has affected her, why it isn’t a weakness in character, family or faith, or something you can resolve on your own. She urges our community to get help and not to let the issue go unresolved.

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At only 17 years old, Chris Tavarez has already accomplished more in his life than most adults. He has appeared in print ads, commercials, tv shows and films. Now he has landed his first big role in the new Disney Chanel Original Movie Avalon High (a film based on the teen novel by bestselling author Meg Cabot). If that isn’t successful enough, Chris is the captain of his football team at Westlake High School in Atlanta, Georgia. And he is highly sought-after by university football scouts.


Read his full interview on Kidz World.com

I help entertainers and small businesses with social media and blogger outreach. The publicity they gather from a blog post is definitely greater than being featured in a newspaper or magazine because GUESS WHAT?-NO ONE IS REALLY READING PRINT MEDIA ANYMORE and by the time it is printed, your story is old, outdated and has probably being told somewhere else online. (See Stephen Colbert’s interview with the New York Times aka the gray old lady).

That doesn’t stop the skeptics though.

There are still some people and businesses who don’t see the benefit of social media which is basically the process of engaging and communicating directly with your target audience. Social media-like a relationship- takes time to develop and communication is crucial. Earlier this year, I shared a blog post of a slide show attempting to define and elaborate on the power of social media.

Here is an updated version with even more amazing statistics to dig deeper in explaining “What the F**k is Social Media NOW?”

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What to Do When a PR Disaster Strikes Your Startup
Written by Audrey Watters

Last Thursday was a good PR day for the social buying site Blippy. They were featured in two New York Times articles. But Friday wasn’t so great, as the major technology blogs reported that credit card information from its users were found on Google. An hour later, Blippy responded with a post on its blog, explaining that the leak was months old and affected only four beta users, not current Blippy users. Later, they amended the blog post to include an apology. News of more credit card leaks continued on Saturday. Of course, Blippy is by no means the only startups to suffer from potential public relations disasters, and it remains to be seen what, if any, impact this has on the site.

Blippy’s response, including the need to re-edit its official announcement, demonstrates the importance in responding quickly and correctly to a crisis.
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This week, I am hosting a job power netWORKing event for my sorority and I will be speaking and sharing tips on how job seekers can use social media to find a job. I dug up this article I wrote for Examiner as a young professional expert to discuss how young business professionals can use social media to advance their new jobs and careers.

By Lila Brown, Examiner.com

There’s no avoiding it, Web 2.0/social media is here to stay. It’s not just about fun and games; instead, young professionals should utilize their online networking capabilities to profile their skills and talents through new platforms. Now is the time for young professionals to build meaningful contacts and leverage relationships for career success. It’s all about building a personal brand.

Those on the job search are using social media to find jobs, connect with industry leaders, and obtain job references. Job seekers can expand their online network by finding professional blogs and niche communities. Most career advisers agree that blogs are the perfect way to build a brand online.

RSS feeds allow subscribers to receive content updates in My Yahoo!, Google Reader, Newsgator, Bloglines, and other news readers. Improve job performance and knowledge by staying abreast of breaking news that is industry related. Demonstrate being on top of industry trends and changes. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn provide great tools for young professionals to establish better relationships with colleagues, clients, or other companies.

For the full article.

I just realized that I have not been supplying your dosage of social media insight. It’s been a crazy month so far. I’ve been dealing with quick and timely breaking news for my clients. One involves handling communication on behalf of the iFreaknik organizer concerning public safety. If you remember last month, I helped a client deal with a national controversy concerning a billboard ad.

On both ends, I had to realize the power of social media networking on how they can help deal with controversy or mis-communication. I found a great article that can help share some tips, advice and insight on why controversy is the BEST reason to engage in social media from Dawn Crawford of BC/DC.

Some reasons to get engage in social media as a controversial issue are:
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Horray! A simple and cute video that explains social media in plain English. A key term that was used stresses the importance of communication “over time.” If you are looking for overnight success-keep it moving. Communication should be constant and consistent…okay enough chit-chat, watch the video:

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER- New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Three weeks after Curtis Kimball opened his crème brûlée cart in San Francisco, he noticed a stranger among the friends in line for his desserts. How had the man discovered the cart? He had read about it on Twitter.

For Mr. Kimball, who conceded that he “hadn’t really understood the purpose of Twitter,” the beauty of digital word-of-mouth marketing was immediately clear. He signed up for an account and has more than 5,400 followers who wait for him to post the current location of his itinerant cart and list the flavors of the day, like lavender and orange creamsicle.

“I would love to say that I just had a really good idea and strategy, but Twitter has been pretty essential to my success,” he said. He has quit his day job as a carpenter to keep up with the demand.

Much has been made of how big companies like Dell, Starbucks and Comcast use Twitter to promote their products and answer customers’ questions. But today, small businesses outnumber the big ones on the free microblogging service, and in many ways, Twitter is an even more useful tool for them.
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While everyone is talking about their new year’s resolution, I’m continuously working on ways to help companies and businesses understand the social media revolution.

Social Media Revolution: Is social media a fad or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? This video details out social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore. This video is produced by the author of Socialnomics.

From Mediabistro:

Ever since Facebook upgraded its fan pages so that brands, celebrities and organizations became equivalent to human beings in the social network — i.e. content from fan pages is displayed in one’s feed, just like with friends — we’ve received a barrage of requests to fan just about anything you can imagine, including about 20 PR agencies.

One social media analytics company, Sysomos, took a look at nearly 600,000 Facebook fan pages and found only 297 — or 0.05% — have more than one million fans. Other interesting findings:

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By Kathy Cabrera

Planning your B2B social media program is only the first step in a long process. Once you have clearly defined your social media objectives, there are a few other steps that can put you on the right footing for success. Here is a simple social media checklist for B2B marketers you can use to get things started in the right direction:

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Whether it is for a grassroots campaign or a presidential campaign, social media networking can help you get the point across while gathering support. With online sharing, it makes it even easier to reach larger demographics and markets. Online petitions are easy and convenient.

In the first hour of this petition, there were 60 signatures with very little promotion. That means one signature per minute. WOW, that’s fast.

Even contemporary fine art galleries can use social media for various marketing and public relations purposes. Whether it is sharing images on Flickr or videos on YouTube, there are a variety ways you can use social media.