A big “thanks” to Work It, Richmond, a website and newsletter produced by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.  This week they included me in a feature called “People You Need to Meet”. The feature is an interview about me and EndGame PR. You can check it at this link: People You Need to Meet: Steve Mullen.

Lara started working with EndGame PR last week, and will be helping with several clients.  We’re thrilled to have her!

It’s always a little tough to point out exactly when EPR began.  I normally point to when the domain name endgamepr.com was originally purchased, which was January 27, 2006.

So, I thought I’d reflect a little on my top 5 favorite milestones over the past half-decade.  Here they are, in no particular order:

1. EndGame PR’s First Website Launches — I don’t recall the exact launch date of the site, but I know it was in February of 2006, and I can show you what it looked like.  Here’s a screenshot taken from the Internet Wayback Machine.  Note that the spacing issues on the left sitebar are due to the Wayback Machine’s cache.  This blog launched in May of the same year.  More new site designs went live in 2007 and 2008.  That last version stuck around until the site was redesigned to look like it does now.
2. First official client: Richmond Rollin’ Robins — The Rollin’ Robins launched in January of 2006 as the area’s first professional roller hockey team.  They’re still around, but are now just the Robins.  More information can be found here.  Our project for them was to get local media coverage for their first game.
3. Longest client relationship: FightSMA — EndGame PR began working with this international nonprofit in January of 2007.  The original project was to optimize their website for the search engines.  Since then, EndGame PR has assisted with media relations, social media, and even a tiny bit of event planning and advertising.  EndGame PR is currently building a brand new website for FightSMA, which should launch in the next month or so.  Interestingly, MY relationship with FightSMA goes back more than a decade, as FightSMA used to work with The Martin Agency, where I was employed in the late 90s and early 2000s.
4. Startup BizCast Launches – From its launch on May 31, 2007 until July 2, 2009, I hosted the podcast Startup BizCast, conducting interviews and providing advice for small business owners.  I loved the show, but the production schedule got to be too much, and it podfaded.  EndGame PR provided podcast production assistance and hosting for a variety of clients during that time and since then.  You can still listen to Startup BizCast at the podcast website, or on iTunes.
5. EndGame PR Branches Out — Not exactly a “milestone”, but if you look at the EPR launch release, you’ll see that we originally were a media relations firm that did a little bit of audio production for PR purposes.  Since then, our core competencies have branched out to social media, web design, podcasting, and beyond.

I expect EndGame PR will be around in five more years, but I can’t tell you what the firm will be like.  Judging by the changes that have happened thus far, I can tell you it will be interesting to see!

The Bedtime Stories Project has a goal of reviving a tradition that’s thousands of years old – the telling of stories at bedtime.  Unfortunately this tradition is increasingly being replaced by video games and television, but telling a story at bedtime is not only a great moment to share between a parent and child, it’s also a wonderful and natural way of helping the child relax and prepare for sleep.  These days, it seems no one, even children, gets enough sleep.  Studies have shown that children who don’t sleep enough have trouble learning in school and can even develop health problems.

There are a number of moving parts to the project:

• The team commissioned a national survey to determine America’s Favorite Bedtime Story.  Check on SleepBetter.org to see if your favorite bedtime story made the list.
• A writing expert is providing tips on how to write a great bedtime story.  Check out Hillary Homzie’s Five Tips to Creating an Original Bedtime Story.
• We’ve created our own bedtime story called Sleepy Tales, where famous fairy tale characters discuss their sleeping problems.  Read this fun book by using the link on the front page of SleepBetter.org.
• Emmy Award-winning Actress Betty White, who is just uber-hot right now, is partnering with us, and will appear at an upcoming event.  At the event, she’ll read America’s Favorite Bedtime Story to children, and will also read some submissions from members of the SleepBetter Community.
• As you may have guessed from the above point, we’re asking site visitors to submit their own original bedtime stories!  One of the interesting points from SleepBetter’s national survey was that we found out families are most enthusiastic about the stories they make up for their own enjoyment.  We’re gathering these stories and posting them on The Bedtime Stories Project web site (built, by the way, by EndGame PR).  As I mentioned above, Betty White will read some of them at the upcoming event, and we’ll also pick one to be illustrated by the internationally-known artist behind the Sleepy Tales Book, Bill Nelson.  You can submit your story at the submission page on The Bedtime Stories web site, or just use the handy-dandy submission form below!

No tags for this post.]]> http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/05/04/endgame-pr-helping-to-launch-the-bedtime-stories-project/feed/ 0 http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/03/04/new-site-design-for-endgamepr-com/ http://www.endgamepr.com/blog/2010/03/04/new-site-design-for-endgamepr-com/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:00:48 +0000 Steve Mullen http://www.endgamepr.com/?p=1373 If you’ve been here before, you surely notice that I moved a few things around. Actually, I completely tore the place down and started over!

EndGamePR.com has a new design!

The last version of the site was more than a year-and-a-half old, and I was tiring of its limitations. Mind you, I’m still rather fond of it. I’ve never seen a layout quite like it. However, I never liked the look of the blog page, and a few other things with it were rather ponderous.

Here’s a quick nickel tour of the new design:

• My favorite thing about it was a late addition.  Just yesterday, I decided to add the social media tabs you see on the right side of every page except for the front page.  If you slide your mouse over them, they pop out.  Pretty cool, huh?  I’d like to thank the Human 3rror Blog for the code used to make them.  I made a number of modifications to the original design, including the addition of the white shadowed tabs.
• Interior pages of the site actually have several layouts.  There are two versions of the right sidebar layout (with different text in the sidebar), and one of the left sidebar layout.  I made a page layout with only one sidebar, but so far I haven’t found a reason to use it.
• The new blog layout is MUCH neater and easier to read than the previous iteration of the Social Media PR Blog.  Despite the fact that I styled it myself, I never liked the way it turned out.

Last, but not least, one thing that remains the same: This site is built using my favorite software … WordPress.

Have a look around, starting with the home page.  Let me know in comments what you like and what you don’t like.  If you find a bug, I’ll be happy to squash it :)

When you sign up for a podcast produced through OPN, you’ll be put in contact with me, and we’ll work out a time for you or your designated spokesperson to be interviewed over the phone.  Podcasts from OPN will be approximately five minutes long, and will be fully produced, including a short introduction and intro and outro music.  When completed, the podcasts can be posted as part of an OPN podcast, and will also be included in the Online PR News iTunes “store”.  Clients will also receive a copy of the file that they can post on their own web site.

To listen to a sample OPN podcast, click play on the flash player below.  For more information on this offering, visit the Online PR News podcast page.

Back in November, I picked up a great new client that has been keeping me quite busy. MEMI Tech is a company based in Louisville, Kentucky. They make the 911 Medical ID Card, a credit card sized USB device that allows you to easily store all of your personal health information, making it available for first responders in the event of an emergency. Since November, I’ve written and pitched to the media a couple of news releases about 911 Medical ID, evaluated the 911 Medical ID web site and made a number of SEO suggestions for the new and improved site they’re planning to launch (and may have launched by the time you read this), built a blog add-on for the web site and wrote all of the posts on it, launched and started managing the @911medicalid Twitter account and a Facebook Fan Page, and produced the first in a series of podcasts. As you can see … this is keeping me busy.

If you’re interested, you can listen to the 911 Podcast (featuring myself and MEMI Tech CEO Mark Weiss) on the 911 Medical ID Blog, or in the player below:

I’m not done with my story yet.  On December 1, I started work for yet another new and interesting client.  Carpenter Company, an organization that makes premium bedding products, has a sleep advice web site called SleepBetter.org.  Since December, I’ve overhauled that site for usability and (more importantly at this juncture) search engine optimization.  I rebuilt about 3/4 of the site and I’m not yet done, but we’ve seen some incredible improvement in their rankings.  I’ve also been writing articles on that site and have released one sleep tips news release for SEO purposes.  I also started managing the @sleep_better Twitter account and launched a Facebook Fan Page.  During that time, planning for 2010 was underway.  For the next year, I’ll be continuing to conduct an SEO campaign and will provide web site management services as well.  If you have trouble sleeping, be sure to visit the site.  There is a LOT of great information there.

On top of that, I am of course continuing to service the long time clients I love so much, Sheltering Arms, Fight SMA, and Richmond Association of Realtors.

This is all to say I’ve been quite busy, and part of what’s keeping me busy is blogging and tweeting for other people.  I hereby resolve, however, that I’m not going to get so busy that I can’t blog for myself.  If I fail … be sure to poke at me with a sharp stick via my Twitter account, at @stevemullen!

If you’ve stuck with this rather self-serving post this long, here’s a treat: One of my plans in the next week or two is to update my popular Review of Online News Release Distribution Services.  This will be the third edition and will include a lot of changes that have come to the distribution services.  Look for it!

If you want to do it the easy way, Neville Hobson created a list on TweepML.  You can follow each of the 100 on Valeria’s list by clicking one button!  Follow this link: http://tweepml.org/PR-100/

Several attendees requested a copy of my slide presentation, so I’ve posted it here.  Thanks for inviting me!

For now, only one release is listed in Google News.  I posted it this afternoon, and it showed up very quickly.  I was told by Google that it would take some time to crawl and index all of my content, so I’m assuming that the other releases listed on that page will eventually be listed.  My guess is that every new release posted from now on will be indexed quickly, like the one today.

The class will cover how REALTORS® can use Facebook and Twitter to find new clients, specifically those first time home buyers.  Social networking is showing immense growth among users who are more than 30 years old, but a large percentage of the users are still 20-somethings, an age group that is most likely to fall into that “first time home buyer” category.

Click here to download a PDF flyer about the class!

I’m very excited about this seminar, as REALTORS® are a natural fit for social networking. They’re salespeople, which means the successful ones have a lot of personality and know how to talk with people, which, after all, is what social networking is all about!

The seminar is on Wednesday, June 24 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at RAR’s Three Chopt Road location, and is open to everyone.  The cost is $25, or $10 for RAR members.  If you’re able to attend, please stop me afterward to say “hi!”

Registration and directions can be found on the TRES website (which I built) by clicking here!

Blatantly promotional note: If you’re interested in setting up a seminar for your employees or organization, please contact me! I’ve presented to numerous associations and other audiences on how businesses (non-profit and for profit) can utilize media relations, social media, and social networking.  I’d love to talk with you about what I can teach your group!

The seminar once again covered all things new media and social media, and how businesses can use these new tools to promote themselves. There were sessions that introduced the concept of social media, how to optimize your site for the search engines, and how to get noticed in the social media universe.  I reprised my earlier presentation on how social media has changed PR, and how it can be used as a PR tool.  That’s me in the picture, in the middle of talking about how social media has changed the way PR professionals build relationships with reporters.

Thanks to Dave Saunders (@madmain) and Madison+Main for inviting me.  The next iteration of the seminars will be held in Virginia Beach, so if you live in the Tidewater area, be sure to attend!

I’ve been talking about my speaking engagements quite a bit lately on this blog, to the point where I wonder if I should find somewhere else on the EndGame PR site to post the information!  The reason is that I’ve had an unprecedented number of opportunities to present at events lately.  It’s very exciting for me to be able to share information about social media and PR with business leaders and entrepreneurs.  Another of these opportunities is coming up later this month — the latest New Media Seminars!  I’ve been invited back by the event’s organizers, Madison+Main Advertising and New Media.

The New Media Seminars are a series of half-day workshops that cover everything related to social media, social networking, and even search engine optimization (SEO).  I will present on how social media and social networking have changed the face of PR forever.

The workshop is on May 26 from 10am until 2pm at the Holiday Inn Select – Koger Center.  For more information, visit the New Media Seminars website.

If you’re able to attend, stop by to say hello!