Provident Partners news

On this Election Day, MinnPost’s Christina Capecchi has a review of Meghan McCain’s “McCain Blogette,” the blog Meghan has been writing since 2007 to give readers a bit of an inside look at her father’s presidential campaign.

It’s difficult to judge the impact of one particular Web site in the mix of all other campaign-related communication, but with some help from Provident Partners’ Mike Keliher, Capecchi dissects the things Meghan’s site does well and not so well.

It’s difficult to pin down the Blogette’s political impact. Mike Keliher, 26, a social media consultant from St. Paul, assumes it’s minimal.

“There is probably a small set of people who find this incredibly impressive and very interesting and they really enjoy it, but they were going to vote for McCain anyway. And there’s probably a very small set of people who had their vote turned by something they saw on this blog,” Keliher said. “But in large part, it’s probably not going to have a very big impact. It strikes me as a website that was created in the era when it was simply cool to have a blog, and we are well past that phase.”

Read the full article here.

The Society for New Communications Research as announced the line-up for its third annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala, taking place on Friday, Nov. 14th, at the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge, Mass.

Provident Partners’ own Albert Maruggi is also a SNCR senior fellow, and he’s delivering one of the presentations at the symposium. He’ll be joined by SNCR fellows Emily Metzgar and Michael Adolph to discuss “Analyzing Social Media in the 2008 Presidential Election.”

For more info, please visit SNCR.org. We hope to see you in Cambridge!

Upsize Magazine is hosting two events — same subject, but two different dates to choose from — with Albert Maruggi, who will discuss how social media is bringing a different perspective to the worlds of marketing, PR and business communication. The event description says:

To see the dramatic changes in marketing, you need a different view. … Integrating blogs, video, audio and social media is getting hard-core results for midsized and small companies that break the status quo and leapfrog the competition.

Highlighted themes from the session agenda:

• Social networks in your sales process — a cold-call killer
• Media coverage without PR pitches
• Effectively exposing your expertise on the Web
• Multimedia tells a powerful story
• Game-changing marketing and PR tactics

To register, go here or call us at 651-695-0174.

With a simple Twitter message during the Republican National Convention, Provident Partners’ Albert Maruggi caught the eye of some media-business news writers.

First, writing for MinnPost.com, David Brauer explains how Twitter is “the place to be” for folks trying to follow stories about protesters and police raids. In the article, Brauer quotes Maruggi’s Twitter message when he says that Twitter is like “the police scanner of the 21st Century newsroom.” Brauer’s piece received national attention from the popular journalism news machine Romenesko, from the Poynter Institute.

A few days later, another Poynter outlet, the E-Media Tidibts blog, carried a piece titled “Twitter: Surprise Star of RNC Coverage.” In that piece, writer Maryn McKenna quotes a bit more of the same message from Maruggi. She writes:

But Twitter was the secret weapon. Tweets (Twitter posts) by a huge array of users — 17,855 posts from 1389 accounts over the convention’s four days, according to a C-SPAN page tracking the Twitter hashtag #RNC08 — wove a multi-stranded conversation about where protests were coalescing, how police were responding, and where the story was moving next. Twitter user, social media expert, and former journalist Albert Maruggi observed: “[Twitter is] the police scanner of 21st century newsroom. This from a guy that used to rewrite AP copy for 11pm newscast.”

For more great ideas from Albert Maruggi, follow him on Twitter or send him an e-mail. He has an iPhone, so he’ll see it right away.

Provident Partners’ Albert Maruggi, who, once upon a time, served as the press secretary for the Republican National Committee, has written an article for Media Bullseye about how the McCain and Obama campaigns are using social media in the run-up to the November election. Media Bullseye provides media, public relations, and marketing professionals with news and commentary about the modern communications landscape.

A taste of the article:

Republicans have always prided themselves on organization, game plan and execution, similar to a well-run football team. There are set plays, and everyone knows where they are supposed to be - improvisation accepted only if the play breaks down. The Democratic Party brand includes activism and individualism, more like a basketball team. In general there is a plan, but for the most part, basketball is a reaction to the flow of the individual with the ball.

Today, in many respects, the pace and format of how Republicans and Democrats use social media tools is a reflection of their organizational cultures. You can see this in the general presentation of the candidates’ and political parties’ home pages.

You can read the full article here. Also, if you want to chat about how your organization can use social media to mobilize a community and reach new people — or if you just want to talk politics — give us a call. 651-695-0174.

Provident Partners’ president Albert Maruggi will take part in another upcoming event put on by the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce. Health and Human Services Day, taking place Aug. 14 at United Hospital in St. Paul, gives members of the chamber’s Leadership Saint Paul program an opportunity to learn how:

• major local hospitals do — and don’t — work together
• health and human services organizations operate and are funded
• social media tools affect health care providers and consumers

That last item — social media’s impact on health care — will be a presentation from Albert. His discussion will cover how and where consumers are getting their information, how are health care organizations responding to or “fighting back” against outspoken consumers, as well as the issue of whether physicians are now expected to do public relations.

Leadership Saint Paul is a community leadership program that challenges, engages and prepares emerging and existing leaders to strengthen the Saint Paul/East Metro area. One aspect of the program includes day-long sessions focusing on significant challenges facing the region, such as community effectiveness, education, health care, regional economic development and criminal justice. Each program day strives to enlighten, inspire and transform participants by exposing them to a vast array of perspectives, resources and mentors.

If you have any questions about the program, please contact Beth Albrecht at 651-265-2767 or elizabeth@saintpaulchamber.com.

This past spring, Provident Partners’ PR manager Mike Keliher reported on a couple of key sessions from the Society for New Communications Research’s New Communication Forum: a panel presentation called “Exploring the ROI of online press releases” and a debate/discussion with Todd Defren and Maggie Fox called “Perspectives on the social media press release.”

The report was initially published by Media Bullseye in April, and today the Summer 2008 print edition of Media Bullseye magazine arrived in the mail. Mike’s article is on page 12. It’s a good read for anyone looking to start exploring the concept of distributing news and information online or for folks interested in significant trends in the space.

You can read the full article here.

Our very own founder and president Albert Maruggi, who back in the day served as press secretary for the RNC and presidential cabinet members, will lead a discussion on how social media communication is affecting politics and political campaigns.

Albert is one of many presenters taking part in My ooVoo Day Political Edition, which the organizers describe as “an eight day online video conferencing event joining leading political bloggers covering the entire spectrum of belief and persuasion with their communities, fans and friends.”

These days, Albert spends most of his time working on public relations and social media consulting for businesses, but he can’t help himself from jumping back into the political realm from time to time. For a few of his thoughts on issues related to politics and communication, see these posts from his Marketing Edge Blog and Podcast.

In a Sunday article on how businesses can tap into social media, the York Daily Record talks to Albert Maruggi, president of Provident Partners and senior fellow at the Society for New Communications Research.

From the article’s intro:

If a few years ago someone had asked me what a “tweet” was, I would have told them it was the sound a bird makes.

Only more recently would I have said a tweet is a posting on Twitter.

Twitter?

What the heck is that?

Unless you are really tapped into the newest methods of social media and technology, Twitter is most likely something new to you.

So consider this your Twitter tutorial.

The article goes on to offer just that — a good tutorial for Twitter beginners. Maruggi’s contibutions include some insights on which types of businesses “absolutley” should look into Twitter and how they can get started.

Read the full article here.

Mike Keliher, Provident Partners PR practice manager, will be part of a panel of local geeks (in the best way; no offense, co-panelists!) who will discuss how to handle information overload. The event, hosted by the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association, will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, at International Market Square in Minneapolis.

From MIMA’s event description:

Juicy blogs. Sweet tweets. Fresh, hot analytics. Today’s Internet is a virtual all-you-can-google buffet. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Well, no more. Come learn how to manage all your information sources, and sift the gold from hundreds of options out there.

We’re bringing together a group of fine folks to dish about how they filter through the onslaught of RSS, email newsletters, Google Alerts and other research to find truly useful information, fast.

The panel also includes, Garrick Van Buren, president or Working Pathways and developer of Cullect; Greg Swan, social media strategist at Weber Shandwick and music blogger at Perfect Porridge; Alisa Coddington, knowledge specialist at Carmichael Lynch; and Tim Brunelle, founder and creative director at Hello Viking.

Come join us on July 16!