I once did some contract work for a business owner in California. I was born there but have never done business there. I blogged about California businesses and it was eye-opening.

The laws sounded good on paper but they were often horrible for business (read: expensive). They legislated laws that were costly and amounted to public welfare. California still suffers from the weight of these decisions.

Though I tend to be more moderate to liberal I live in very conservative Utah – and have since 8th grade. Somewhere along the past few years I’ve really loved living in Utah.

Despite what people say (we’ve been called Utards, close-minded and all sorts of things) it’s one of the best run states in the nation. Utah was voted #2 (again) for the top 10 pro business states.

In fact, we were cheering when my husband’s company decided to choose Grand America hotel in Salt Lake to host their annual sales meeting for financial planners in 2012. We can’t wait to show off the hospitality and beauty of this state (which many of you saw during the Olympics). First rate athletes from all over the world live and ski here.

There are a few recent announcements that have been HUGE for Utah. Let me start with the two tech companies who’ve announced that they are expanding or opening operations here. Neither are lightweights. Both could expand in Silicon Valley but chose Utah. They are companies that I’ve been invested in (starting with Photoshop): Adobe (which bought Omniture last year) and Twitter.  Adobe plans to build $100M campus and hire 1,000 workers. And Twitter just posted their first job listing for its new Utah data center.

We already have eBay offices here. I can only hope that Google is next – and that a Utah city is in on their pilot program to offer free high speed internet.

Here are some reasons that Utah is attractive for business:
Relatively low taxes for businesses
Educated young high tech work force who is used to being underpaid
Entrepreneurial spirit
Many people are fluent inbanother language
The airport is close to downtown and will soon be connected via light rail

I worked in HR at Novell several years ago and saw first hand the number of quality applicants we got every day for high tech jobs. Many graduated from BYU or the U and wanted to stay in Utah. Novell has never returned to their former glory but it showed me that tech companies are in a very strong position to recruit here if they are based in Utah.

Now for some other Utah news that has had me cheering. Energy Solutions (formerly EnviroCare) was constantly lobbying to bring foreign waste to Utah, which proved very controversial. Instead they reversed their strategy for the good of their long-term future, Utah and the country. They have withdrawn their application to import nuclear waste.

Instead of taking the waste the company will consult and offer technology to help countries handle the waste on site. Governor Herbert seems to have taken the credit (I couldn’t get the straight story when I asked the company at a recent lunch they held – so I haven’t confirmed this). This is very good news  (I bet Terry Tempest Williams and Sam Rushforth were cheering too).

Last of all the LDS church which is based in Utah and a major land owner in the country is testing new building designs for churches that generate as much energy (or more) than they use. Using their purchasing power they have gotten the cost of installing solar energy and other green features to affordable levels. They are going to expose many church members around the world to recycling and solar power. This will have a big affect on their lives and sets a very strong example. I’m waiting for the day when we have solar operated temples (esp for the lights).

I don’t usually write about politics but I couldn’t resist. I was inspired by Holly Richardson’s blog over the weekend and wanted to emphasize what big wins these are for Utah.

Way to go Utah!

On KSL News last night I saw a story that is the classic David vs. Goliath story. Then I read about it on City Weekly (so should you). Pillsbury is suing a local Utah business for copyright infringement. The name of the company that sells cookie dough is My Dough Girl. Apparently that is too close to Pillsbury’s trademark Doughboy name.

So I guess that it also means that you can’t have a company called Dough Mama or Dough Daddy, Dough Brother or Dough Sister. The American Fork company Flour Girls and Dough Boys may be next. If your name is close to Doughboy, you could lose a lot of real dough. My Dough Girl plans to change their name in response — which could cost about $50k.

Sadly, My Dough Girl plans to meet the demands – because they cannot afford to fight it.

Thus, the My Dough Girl name will disappear because Cromar plans to acquiesce to the corporation’s demands. While she would like to fight General Mills, “I’m afraid I’ll be broke and homeless if I do that,” she says.

While Pillsbury have won by brute strength, a move like this is a bad PR move. It leaves people with a bad taste for a brand with a sweet image.  I know it has left a bad taste in mine. With social media, people have more power. They will boycott and hate the company for their bad faith efforts.

My friend Julienne sent this tweet.

Here’s another:

There’s already a Facebook Page against the move, which is also a target of General Mills lawyers. “Corporate counsel for General Mills has asked Cromar to not talk to the media about the squabble and to kill the Facebook page” — which was started by her supporters.

I hope this brings a lot of new business and support to My Dough Girl. It certainly makes General Mills look like a bully. I wish I were an artist and could draw the image of the Doughboy bully to illustrate how I feel about it. One thing I love about social media is that it’s pretty hard to squelch disagreement and it gives people a public voice that they didn’t have before. You can’t really control it and that can be good in cases like this. Social media is a huge asset to freedom of speech.

All of this reminds me of another sweet lawsuit involving cupcakes.

This is my favorite press release story. Jodi Bean is married to the president of OrangeSoda Jay Bean and that’s how I know her. She and I wrote books about the same time and I like getting updates from Jay about how it’s going.

One day I met their daughter Victoria. I didn’t know Victoria’s story, or the story of how the family adopted her, but that is the story of Jodi’s book Love Lessons.

In April, Jodi asked me to write a press release. It had recently broke in the news that a single mom Torry Hansen from Tennessee sent her adopted Russian son back to Russia by himself with a 1-way ticket. There was public outcry and it was on all the talk shows. I listened to a few that week on the way to work.

Jodi had been on Good Morning America recently too and wanted to highlight that. It shows that she is good on camera. Her main goal though was to sell copies of her book. While she had some other press it didn’t talk explicitly about her book. She emailed me her story and the links. I used it to write the press release. She hadn’t sent a press release before and pretty much trusted me to make the decisions.

The press release was targeted to Utah on Business Wire (this links to the actual press release) since I thought it was a story that the media would be interested in. I also needed it to go live immediately because the story would only be in the news a few days. It didn’t get a large response but it did get a strong one.

We didn’t target keywords because there wasn’t a lot of demand for phrases relating to the story. The important thing was to link to the book, her other appearances and to her foundation. These built trust and gave her credibility. There was no follow-up promotion of the news that I know of.

Results from press release:

• Book sales – unknown but still trying to get figures or ballpark from Jodi.
• Front page story on the main Utah newspaper the Salt Lake Tribune (links to the story) which mentioned her book twice. I found out about it when I read the newspaper that morning. It was about 2 weeks after we sent the press release.
• The Dr. Phil show (links to video preview of the show) called and they came to the Bean house to film the story.  She will appear on the Dr. Phil show today to tell her story on June 2, 2010. [update: I got a correction from Jody that she emailed the show directly with the story idea.]

Want to learn about how press releases can help you get your story told? I talk about the power of press releases in my book I Need a Killer Press Release, Now What??

Note: It’s important to note that this started with a story on KSL (a local news station) before there was a big national story. That’s how Good Morning America found the story when the national angle hit. This helped build credibility and likely helped her get on the Dr. Phil Show. The lesson here is to start by getting a story in a local media outlet and you can build on that for future coverage.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Business Wire Press Release Case Study (newspapergrl.com)
• Will your Press Release Lead to Press Coverage? (onlineprbook.com)
• Why Old School PR Is Great For SEO (onlineprbook.com)

I’ve had some strong results with Business Wire recently that highlight how capitalizing on trends is so effective. In both examples (next one coming soon) it was taking something that was already being talked about and piggybacked on it by sending out a press release while the issue is still hot.

Here is one of the press release case studies from OrangeSoda

Here’s the background story. A competitor in the local search space ReachLocal had just gone public. This is big news in the industry. OrangeSoda wrote a series of blog posts about ReachLocal’s IPO. It’s also a hot topic because Google had also shown interest in the industry. As the post states Google  reportedly offered “over $500 million for Yelp” and “a decent volume of smaller acquisitions and investments by consolidators like Deluxe, AOL, IAC, and YPG/Canpages.”

Right during all of this OrangeSoda sent out a press release on Business Wire about a new product release. It mentioned another fact that was big news – that OrangeSoda is now partnering to bring SEO services to local newspaper advertisers. That alone was a big story and got coverage in some blogs like Search Engine Strategies.

Now for the results (incredible)

Used with permission, here are the results:

• Over 200 sites and publications picked up the release so far
• Over 20,911 headline views and 1,533 full views.
• There have also been 84 links.

• 125 Tweets mentioning OrangeSoda and the press release (from both the Business Wire web site and bit.ly). This is how I found out about the story even though I work there.
• 40%  increased traffic to orangesoda.com (as of Thursday after the release).
• 166%  increased traffic to our blog (as of Thursday).

They continue to see increased traffic because of the press release.

Lessons Learned:

For maximum exposure time your news around what’s happening in your industry right now.

Write your press release in conversational or easy-to-understand terms. I didn’t write it but that’s the way I like press releases to read – like a story – not full of PR jargon.

You can get incredible results in terms of traffic, social mentions and links to your web site with a well-timed press release.

Online PR Book and Next Case Study

I spend an entire chapter talking about the importance of capitalizing on trends in my book, I Need a Killer Press Release, Now What??? and show you what tools I use to find trends in my Online PR Book. I also go over promoting your news online through social networks.

OrangeSoda really demonstrated how this works. In my next post I’ll talk about one of my clients who got some great print media and TV exposure for her book with a single press release. She had never sent a press release before but when the topic of adoption hit the news, she knew she needed to.

I got to hear social media star Chris Brogan and Julien Smith speak. They co-wrote the book, Trust Agents. Brogan’s Blog is #1  on the Ad Age Power 150 list of the top Marketing Blogs in the world. Both are very down to earth (Brogan has farmers in his family and he’s a geek).

Mitch Joel spoke but I missed a lot of it (I was doing what a lot of women do each day — getting my son off to school and then madly driving 30 mins. to get there). I just have to say that I can’t relate to his dismay at being only #22 on the Ad Age list of top marketing blogs. If only. I wrote for Marketing Pilgrim and Andy is on the list too. That’s as close as I’ve ever been.

I think one of the pre-requisites to being famous online is a short first and last name. These guys have the most easy to say and remember names. Who is going to remember any of mine (women change names and it messes up our search results) – much less spell them (Janet Thaeler or Janet Meiners and even Newspapergrl is spelled wrong.)

Brogan and Smith co-wrote the book Trust Agents. Chris Brogan is as down to earth as they get. He was at the registration table handing out name badges. I did a double take. Wait, are you Chris Brogan? They have you staffing the registration table?? It was true.

“Your brand isn’t what you say it is…it’s what Google says it is.” – Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine.

Or, you could say your brand is what Facebook says it is…or what other people say about you on Twitter and on other social networks.

Social Media= a Revolution in Communication
At first our messaging was one or 2 way messages only. Now with social media it’s a group expression. We’re in the middle of a renaissance & can’t know what it is until it’s over & we look back. Some people take that to mean we have no control. But we do still control pricing, products, message, etc.

On Women in Tech
Chris Brogan on the small controversy covered on this blog about how the speakers at the event for women in tech were all men:  “You can be a dude and be in women’s tech council.” Well said. In fact, there were a lot of dudes in the room (also women).

Let me just state again that I had no misgivings about any of the men who spoke – I do want to know who Chris considers the top women in social media though. I’d like the group to invite them. Can you name even a few? Women are underrepresented. You know that list of the top marketing blogs of the world? There are almost no women on the list. Why not?

He humored us though by giving these stats – (which is just one way he showed that he came prepared and researched his audience):

• 40% of companies are women-owned

• Women making over $100k a year has tripled since 1997. At the same time men’s salary growth has been flat.

Chris Brogan’s Email Open Rates
Here’s the eye-popping stat from Chris (the benefit of taking his advice to promote others 12x more than you promote yourself).

78% open rate on his emails!

His advice? “Don’t beat your list or market people into buying from you. Don’t talk about your stupid product. Just talk to them. Don’t ask for much very often.”

Tell Stories!
Stories sell things in a way that your stats never can. People want you to put things in their language – not just stats or numbers – but the human element. Apple telling people that an iPod can fit 1000 songs is better marketing than telling people how many gigs it holds. It’s something we can relate to and easily share with someone else.

Promote Others First
Networking means doing a lot of good before you get good back. You’re filling an emotional bank account. Attention is a currency just like time and money are. Brogan says he promotes other people 12x more than he promotes his own stuff. Do this and people will be more willing to tweet your stuff when you ask.

You can’t Buy Trust with Money
Losing ads in print media to other media. Trust is also easier for people to get than brands -  it’s a currency itself. For example, 60% of things consumed by kids 12-18 is made by other kids 12-18. He dissed on how the iPad makes you pay to see ads (they charge for magazines). This only made sense when you bought magazines at the newsstands. Also, he said “my iPad doesn’t know I’m there.” Even toilets recognize there’s a human there (auto flush).

“We’re asking for money at the wrong part of the equation.” And that doesn’t build trust – it doesn’t build trust to try to make people buy from you. Blogging allows you to tell stories and connect with people – build trust – before the sale. He spoke a bit about how he uses affiliate marketing which is a way to extend that trust. He can then introduce people to products he likes that his community might want to know about. That’s when money enters the equation because businesses pay you for the referrals you send to them.

Favorite Joke:

Chris Brogan is funny – I laughed a lot of the time. Here’s my favorite joke: He tells us to stand up and cajoles people into actually doing it.  So we stand up and stretch. He says

I fake my standing o’s.

I think I’ll steal that when I speak at Cisco’s social media conference next month (don’t tell them).

Should I be on every social network?

No. You don’t need to build a lot of blogs or be everywhere – instead invest in one network and build it. You don’t have to be on all of the networks. Your network is an actual asset. Blogs can be assets as can ebooks, books, etc. – they make you money when you’re not there.

What about my privacy??

Our privacy is already rendered useless anyway. If you don’t like it, “You can opt out of facebook just like you can opt out of being a part of the cash society.”

But how do you find time to keep up on all of this?

Chris Brogan is #1 on Google for the phrase: “no i don’t sleep.” Julian says: we make time to blog – we make it a priority. I write a blog post every morning. I don’t watch tv.

Thank you Chris, Juilen and Mitch for coming! Thank you to the Women in Tech Council for bringing them to speak. Very enlightening!

Want to hear what others thought?

Check out the tweets at #BroganUt – except it hardly shows any of them – is there a way to get a full archive or is it just gone forever?

SEO.com’s Scott Cowley (an SEO perspective)
Burn the Ships, Touch the Burner and Behave Like a Baby (great headline!)
Get In & Go blog (with video and pictures)

If you blogged about it too – please comment and leave a link to your post.

I have to comment on this bad PR move. Last night KSL – a TV station in Utah covered a lawsuit that was filed over – you got it – cupcake flavors. Mini’s Cupcakes in Salt Lake City is suing another cupcake store in Park City called LuAnn’s Cupcakes. Why? they say that the store copied their most famous cupcake.

Sounds like a cat fight.

Mini’s owner Leslie Fiet says, “She has several cupcakes that are completely different from my cupcakes, but this just happens to be our most popular and most distinctive cupcake that people associate with Mini’s.” Fiet’s cupcake is called “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and LuAnne’s is called “Tiffany’s Jewels.” I’m getting hungry writing this but I haven’t tried either.

In a lawsuit, Mini’s claims that LuAnn’s has “adopted a strategy and philosophy to intentionally and unlawfully trade off the goodwill that Mini’s has built by infringing Mini’s trade dress rights in the Breakfast at Tiffany’s cupcake.”

I commented on Mini’s Facebook Page that I thought the lawsuit was petty and a bad idea. Instead they could’ve said, we’re the original, here’s how the competition stacks up. Accuse them of stealing the idea if you want but let the people judge if they did a good job or not. Have people vote on who’s is the best and invite cupcake experts to vote. Hold an event, send out a press release. Talk about it on Facebook, invite their fans, invite the media. They could even let their fans make their version of the Tiffany cupcake and taste test each others. All of this gets people involved and exposes people to your name and cupcakes. You’d save the thousands you’re spending on attorneys and instead plow it into making a killer event and getting some great publicity from it.

Instead you’ve left a bad taste in our mouth. Enough that I’m writing about it.

I watched Rachel Ray judge the best Chicago hot dog on one of her episodes. They had a line of contestants who own restaurants that sell hot dogs. You should’ve seen the disappointment on some of faces on the guys who didn’t win. They were mad. I figure that hey, you got your hot dogs on national TV, who cares if you didn’t win, play it up. It’s publicity for you either way. The ones who didn’t get in are those who weren’t even in the contest.

It’s better to be sweet – especially if sweet is whatch ya selling. My impression of this brand now and the people who watched this on the news is that they are anything but sweet.

Here’s the video from KSL:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• 2010 Saratoga Seen Cupcake Challenge (timesunion.com)
• Cupcake passion more than a trend (cnn.com)

I attended the PRSA/IABC half day conference in Salt Lake City. It’s a first for me because I’m not a PR pro. But I find a natural home in PR because I believe the industry needs online marketing. It’s no longer something that specialists do – it’s part of the domain of PR. The lines are blurring so each is a blend of the other.

As David Henderson pointed out in his presentation with a dramatic image of ships falling off the ocean, the industry is at the edge and are hurling towards a huge drop. There is urgency to learning how to work faster and to use tools to help publish and share information in real time. The world is moving quickly on.

Journalists and those in the media are now expected not only to create but to publish and promote content. Just like online marketers. We’re being judged by the same sort of criteria – time on site, links, search engine rankings. When I go to my industry conferences we’ve beat that drum almost too much but in PR it’s still relevant.

So I’m very curious to listen to the comments and get a gauge of where people are in all of this. How engaged they are with social media, if they are partnering with online marketing agencies or bringing new talent into their agency.

As an example, Blendtec’s Kels Goodman was there talking about their wildly successful viral marketing campaign. At least 8 people had never seen (and maybe never heard of) a “Will it Blend?” video. This is surprising because this is one of the most important and successful online marketing campaigns in history. It’s a text book example and regularly cited in books and articles. It was made when YouTube was new (2006). And it’s in our own back yard – a privately owned Utah company. I lived a mile or so from them and had a good friend who worked there. This story is a triumph and it did have a financial impact eventually – but not in predictable ways.

The problem is despite our client’s wishes we can’t make something go viral. Most ideas won’t be. We lose a bit of control (being authentic demands it) and most of all we take risks. We connect dots and hope for success. This is not business as usual and we’re all on the roller coaster ride together. We can choose – either have fun or scream our heads off.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Top 3 Ideas from PRSA/IABC Utah Conference (newspapergrl.com)
• Write a Press Release for Online Buzz with Janet Thaeler and PRWeb (prweb.com)
• The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Second ed. David Meerman Scott. (regnordman.com)

Image via Wikipedia

So you know the book that made me cry. Now for the speakers that made me tear up (I don’t cry that often). There are 2 that are business speakers (not counting religious speakers).

1. Guy Kawasaki – with his story about flying first class (I can’t recall the details but he got and earned a standing ovation)

2. Ben Zander – while singing happy birthday to a stranger with such feeling that she was crying, and then again when we hear someone put his soul into playing the cello. He taught us how to really give.

I found out that Ben Zander is friends with Seth Godin, who I heard speak today (thanks to Kelly for bringing him to Utah: http://startupprincess.com/sethgodin). Now Seth isn’t the kind of speaker to make you cry because you’re moved. He’s more the type of speaker to make you LAUGH. But not the kind of all out that’s so funny kind of laugh. The sort of laugh that you get what he’s saying and it’s funny but at the same time the truth of it worries you a little. As in OH NO.

When he talks it’s like he’s playing with ideas and he bends your mind. But overall he’s a master storyteller except his stories are a portend – he’s reading us the future and we’re not quite ready to hear it. But since we’re laughing and we like the stories, we go along with it.

All along we’ve been groomed to try to fit in. But rather than trying to be perfect or following instructions we should try to stand out. To be artists – not the kind of artists that paint paintings but the kind who take on things that require us to do difficult work – the kind of work that can stand out.

When Ben Zander teaches he starts by giving his entire class an A which they then work to earn. Seth Godin on the other hand tells us to start out giving ourselves a D. That’s because the only way to go from there is UP, if we stand against our fear.

I’ve heard Seth Godin speak before and this isn’t the same speech from last time. Totally different material. Original thought.

Seth’s premise is that what got us here won’t get us far. That is, conforming. If you’re good at doing what you’re told and playing the rules your income potential will be essentially stagnant. Because if what you do can be replaced by something cheaper it will be replaced.

• You don’t need a publisher to write a book
• You don’t need the FCC to host a radio show
• You don’t need a degree in broadcasting to air the news

What you need is about $800 for a laptop and you can do just about anything. So what does it make us? Afraid. So here’s some parting advice: whatever your fear tells you to do – either ignore it – or do the opposite. It’s your signal to press on.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Linchpin by Seth Godin – Video Book Review (chrisbrogan.com)
• Seth Godin said I had to ship. So I am. (levite.wordpress.com)
• Daily Quote by Seth Godin (toddrjordan.com)
• A worthwhile free ebook from Seth Godin (walterpike.com)
• Seth Godin: Mark Cuban Is Completely Wrong About Aggregators (allbusiness.com)

I’m a little late on the draw on this one but as you may know by now Utah blogger Dooce has signed a contract with HGTV (here’s the press release on PRNewswire). What does that mean exactly? I’m not sure. It looks like she’ll blog on their site. Anyway, a prophetess is never appreciated in her own country. Even though as the article points out — she’s #26 on Forbes 30 most-influential women in the media list (not online – just “media” – Oprah is #1).

Notice that the comments on the Forbes article are a lot of congrats to Dooce – because again, her audience is the type to read and comment on articles online. If that’s the sort of feedback you want, it’s smart to add someone like Dooce to your lineup.

It kills me that we have some of the world’s most successful social media phenoms in Utah (like Heather Armstrong and Blendtec) and yet they are often not known. But I find that the offline and online world rarely collide – except that they are now more. Why? Because TV is tapping into some of that online fame to draw a new crowd or at least take advantage of the cross over (something the Super Bowl advertisers could stand to do more of).

At least the Salt Lake Tribune had the story on the front page (hey Tribune, what’s with not putting your blogs in the navigation on your site?). What’s more they quoted me in the story. About her rabid fans (appropriate isn’t it, see her posing with her dog, both looking very approachable and not rabid at all). My friend Bill saw that I was quoted and choked on his burrito. To which I say: I’m not called Newspapergrl for nothing.

Leslie Mitchell wrote the story and I know her from Twitter. She’s got a great deal blog called “One Cheap Chick” that you should follow if you want to be up on the latest bargain.

Congrats to Heather Armstrong!

Whenever I go on a trip I subscribe to Problogger on my Kindle and then write blog posts and “to do” lists based on what I learn. This time it’s about one of my favorite topics, which is blogger PR.

Cirque Du Soleil – the offbeat circus/acrobatic show was smart. They teamed up with bloggers who were in town (Vegas) for Blog World this year. They invited 250 bloggers to see a show and then blog about it.

They point out that bloggers tend to give a lot of detail about the experience of watching one of their shows. The emotions and feelings, not just the facts. And a lot of bloggers, if they are really happy are also on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites. So you can get coverage on many different networks.

Benefits of Blogger PR

• Exposure to new audiences on each blog + any social sites the bloggers post to.
• Some bloggers post video and pictures from the show or event. This means more exposure.
• Search engine optimization benefits – blog posts tend to do well in search engine and come up when someone searches for your business or product name.
• Reviews – get honest feedback from bloggers about your product or service – bloggers tend to be great at this and are usually savvy and have strong opinions.

Payment and the FTC Guidelines
Most of the time it’s a trade – the bloggers don’t get paid but they don’t have to buy tickets. As of this year, bloggers must disclose that they were compensated (or got free products), per FTC rules. They have to Bloggers will find the positive to say about the experience, but the better it is the more raves there are. If by chance it’s a bad experience, bloggers usually won’t write anything at all. There’s not really a point in writing a bad review unless you need to warn your audience.

Why Hire a Blogger or Consultant for PR
You either have someone on staff who has strong relationships with bloggers or hire someone who does. This is important – if you email people who don’t know you and you don’t know the culture – most likely your request will be ignored. Unless you’re a big name or the offer is incredible. Bloggers should be treated like partners and not as employees.

I’ve been told, we can email the bloggers ourselves, why do we need to pay you to do it for us? Because the bloggers know my name and don’t know yours. I’ve been there for the behind-the-scenes talking between bloggers who get random emails from people they don’t know who act like they know them. Unlikely you’ll get a good response. And even if people come, part of the event is making sure the bloggers get the right information in a timely way and in formats they want them in.

In 2009 I participated or organized blogger PR. This was new to me until this year and I hope to do more in 2010. Here’s the list of events.

• Communal – a new restaurant opened in Provo Utah and invited about 20 bloggers to come for lunch and try it out. It was amazing and I’d go back even more if it were closer. Best new restaurant of 2009. I helped organize this.
• Grand America Hotel Spa escape. I joined 5 other bloggers for a night and a day at this beautiful and opulent hotel in Salt Lake City Utah. I was the organizer.
• Goldsmith Jewelers – Another Utah company who invited 30 or so bloggers to try a new line of bracelets. They did an excellent job and got a lot of buzz. Jyl organized this.
• Social Media Retreat – April invited several local bloggers to try out her favorite products and enjoy some time outdoors. This was a great event because it included a lot of Utah bloggers of all types, which isn’t always possible.
• The Melting Pot in Salt Lake City invited bloggers for some fondue. Jyl organized this.

Another highlight of the year was seeing Julie & Julia with a group of bloggers (we paid). I think that bookstores who bring in authors and movie theaters should do more blogger PR. I thought of doing a project for an orthodontist but I chickened out because I’m afraid of having to wear braces. This month I’m going to a cooking class with April to learn about making chocolate.

I’m using blogger my online PR book and DVD. I’ve gotten some great reviews and hope for more exposure to new audiences this year.