Announcing the winners of the membership and Professional Development gift card drawings:

• Tessa Friedrichs
• Aliona Groh
• Tina Lange, APR

CONGRATULATIONS to the lucky winners, and thank you for supporting your Space Coast FPRA!

Will you win a $50 Gift Card to the Avenue Viera?

Two lucky winners will be randomly selected at the January 20th Professional Development Program.  One will be chosen from those who  joined FPRA or renewed their membership in 2009, and one will be chosen from the attendees at the January 20th program.  Don’t miss out on the exciting opportunities and up-to-the-minute resources offered by the longest established professional public relations group in the USA.  Learn more about FPRA membership, and log-in to your member account at www.fpra.org today!

Upcoming Professional

Development Programming:

• January 20th- Lynette Leathers presents ‘Customer Service: Why Loyalty Matters’  **Attend the program and you could win a $50 gift card to the Avenue Viera!

• February 17th- Details coming soon
• March 17th- Save the date
• April 21st- Check back for more information

** Did you know that the Space Coast Chapter Professional Development events count towards APR Maintenance and Continuing Education requirements.  All program attendees will receive a certificate for 1 CECU. **

FREE Professional Development opportunities from PRSA:

PRSA offers playback of FREE Professional Development webinars: http://www.prsa.org/Learning/FreeWebinars/ Choose one to view at your convenience and keep current with the latest trends.

It’s a Social Media Picnic!

FPRA Space Coast is now enjoying the fresh air of Facebook and is tweeting away on Twitter…

Look for the Space Coast FPRA page on Facebook and be a fan!

Keep up with the latest announcements, FPRA member happenings, and PR-related news.

Don’t stop there-  Space Coast FPRA is also on Twitter!

You can follow Brevard PR pros as they share up-to-the-second content in their field.

** Come to the Professional Development programs

and jointhe Space Coast FPRA Tweet Team! **

Julie’s HOT Social Media Tip:

Is your website social media optimized?

Have you started your blog? Are your keywords working? Have you bookmarked any of your pages or releases?

There are many free tools available to help you answer these, and many more, questions.

One of my favorites is the Website Grader by Hubspot http://www.websitegrader.com

This free resource provides information about On-page and Off-page SEO, Blogosphere, Social Mediasphere, Converting Visitors to Leads, Competitor Analysis, etc.

It also provides a grade for your site and offers you tips on how to improve your ranking and site structure.  I use this tool whenever I am completing a site analysis or developing a digital PR strategy for a client.  Hubspot (www.hubspot.com) regularly hosts webinars and online classes on many aspects of social media and web site optimization.

FPRA Space Coast member, Julie Arnold, is the Social Media Manager for Griffin Integrated Marketing and leads our chapter’s Tweet Team giving live updates from our professional development programs.  You can follow @SpaceCoastFPRA on Twitter.

Public Relations professionals in Florida should be familiar with our state’s ‘Sunshine Law‘ about the release of public records, “It is the policy of this state that all state, county, and municipal records shall be open for personal inspection by any person.”  Whether you work for a public agency or not, reading up on Statute 119 and thinking about how it applies to your daily work will bring your practice more creditability.

Who joins FPRA?

You have your reasons for joining up with PR pros on the Space Coast, and you should know that you are surrounded by good company.   Many of our county’s best PR folks have answered the call to continue their education with quality professional development, and to make connections and share best practices through outstanding networking opportunities.   Below is our current membership listing… Become acquainted with your fellow public relations practitioners at our monthly Professional Development Programs, or by joining our chapter’s Facebook and Twitter and social networks.

Do you know someone who should be on this list?  Send the names of your prospective members to our VP of Membership, Amber Philman, amarek@cfl.rr.com, and we will introduce them to the outstanding benefits of FPRA membership!

• Ann Colchin, The Measured Difference
• Andrea Farmer, APR, Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex
• Aliona Groh, Hoyman Dobson
• Amelia Woodbridge, Amelia Woodbridge Consulting
• Ailish Nic Phaidin, MPRII, Access Link International , Inc.
• Barry Eager, Phantom Productions of Florida
• Carey Beam, Craig Technologies
• Cyndi Hernandez, Brevard Family Partnership
• Denise Meneghelli
• Geo Ropert, APR, Ropert Communications Group
• Jillian McRae, Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex
• Jessica Rye, APR, ATK Space Systems- KSC Operations
• Jerry Stansfield, City of Cocoa Beach
• Julie Arnold, Griffin Interactive Marketing
• Joan VanScyoc, Brevard Workforce
• Kay Burk, Kay Elliott Burk Consulting Services
• Kimberly Eye
• Karen Rhine, Florida Institute of Technology
• Katherine Sonn, Century Oaks
• Linda Herridge, Abacus Technology Corp
• Lesley Llerandi, Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex
• Lisa Stigall, Harris Corporation
• Mathew Haggar, Parrish Medical Center
• Michele Murrell, Brevard Community College Foundation
• Michael Rein, United Launch Alliance
• Natalie Sellers, APR, Parrish Medical Center
• Robert Granath, United Space Alliance
• Rose Thron, Marketing World Specialties, Inc.
• Shanti Brasington, Computer Sciences Raytheon
• Selene Bruns, United Space Alliance
• Alecia McCoy, United Way of Brevard County, Inc.
• Suzanne Sparling, APR, United Way of Brevard County, Inc.
• Tessa Friedrichs
• Tracy Yates, United Space Alliance

Be Involved!

One way to maximize your FPRA membership is to join one of our committees.  Right now, we are looking for folks to help out with organizing our Corporate Spelling Bee and Roast & Toast events. If you have just an hour or two to give, our chapter’s events can be the best ever with your involvement.  Contact Past President, Amelia Woodbridge, amelia@ameliawoodbridge.com to find out how you can help!

Also on deck is the annual Image Awards.  Now is the time to create your entry to highlight your successful PR campaigns.  No program is too big or too small for entry, and you will have help along the way!  Look out for more information to be sent within the next few weeks on how you can get started.  In the meantime, log-in to the FPRA website to see the past Golden Image Award Winners and read the case studies for the winning entries.

–  Yet ANOTHER BENEFIT of FPRA Membership –

Our chapter board would like to announce another feature of Space Coast FPRA’s powerful PR network- Our mailing list!   Available to members only, FPRA Space Coast will post community opportunities to our chapter website and will send an e-mail blast to our membership to promote your event.

From the Bookshelf…

Of Carey Beam:

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell  (2000, 288 pages)

If this isn’t on your bookshelf, it should be.  This is a study in classic diffusion theory using modern day anecdotes.  Especially applicable to today’s social media networks, The Tipping Point emphasizes affecting change though word-of-mouth information exchange.

Malcolm Gladwell compiled the material for the book from his time spent as a staff writer with The New Yorker.  Gladwell says, “As human beings, we always expect everyday change to happen slowly and steadily, and for there to be some relationship between cause and effect. And when there isn’t — when crime drops dramatically in New York for no apparent reason, or when a movie made on a shoestring budget ends up making hundreds of millions of dollars — we’re surprised. I’m saying, don’t be surprised. This is the way social epidemics work.”

According to www.gladwell.com, “It’s a book about change. In particular, it’s a book that presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does.”  Understanding diffusion and the tipping point is absolutely critical to successful public relations programming.  Check out more reviews and prices on new and used copies of The Tipping Point at Amazon.

Michael Andrew

Invite a friend and SWING into the New Year with the Vivace Society!

SATURDAY • JANUARY 16

PRE-CONCERT BRUNCH &

SWING DANCE SAMPLING

King Center Studio Theatre

11:30 AM-1:30 PM

Join a lively group of young-minded professionals

for brunch with mimosas and a swing dance demo and instruction, starting at 11:30.

-Vivace Members FREE

-Non-Members – $15

Vivace Society

Immediately following, you’ll attend the matinee SINGIN’ & SWINGIN’

pops concert with Michael Andrew of Orlando’s Swingerhead

and the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, beginning at 2:00.

-Vivace Members Free with BSO Ticket Voucher

-Special Rate $15 w/o Voucher

** Refer a friend to join the Vivace Society and you each are entered

into a drawing for a  TWO NIGHT STAY at either

the Doubletree Melbourne Beach or the Hilton Melbourne Beach! **

Contact us today at 321-242-2024

http://www.vivacesociety.com

Visit Brevard Vivace on FACEBOOK

Attendees at the September 16th professional development luncheon were introduced to the world of online dialoguing, courtesy of Julie Arnold, Social Media Manager with Griffin Marketing.

Julie explained that social media is not for amateurs… The well-known we have all heard about (YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr) and the lesser-known but no less powerful (StumbleUpon, Digg, Radian6) tools of the trade are NOT just a fad, but valuable content platforms that YOU should be using in your public relations plans.

If you didn’t catch Julie’s presentation on September 16th, you can join us for Social Media 102 on October 21st where she delivers a more in-depth presentation on strategy and tips to harness the power of social media for your PR campaigns!

Where: Holiday Inn Viera
When: Wednesday Oct 21, 2009
Time: 11:30 registration: 12 Noon Program
Meal selections: Tuscan Chicken with Orzo & Broiled Tomato or Mushroom Ravioli
Cost 20.00 members or 25.00 non members
RVSP: By noon Oct 19, 2009 with your meal choice.  E-mail tlange@spaceflorida.gov

Look forward to more great Professional Development Programming on these upcoming dates:

• November 18th
• January 20th
• February 17th
• March 17th
• April 21st