Tweetup… A Pocketful of Rainbows
I told you a couple of days ago about #shonalitweetup that’s being organized around PRSA2009. Now I’m really excited that we’ve added another layer to what I know is going to be a great evening and will, I hope, help an extremely worthy fund raising effort meet its goal.
We’ve partnered with 12for12K to help one of its charities, Musicians on Call. If you’re active in the social media world, you’re already familiar with 12for12K and Danny Brown, the brains and passion behind it. If you’re not, you can learn more here and here.
So, in a nutshell, if we all give a little, we’ll be able to help some extremely worthy causes. $12K per charity sounds like an awful lot, but not if we all chip in $10, $20, whatever we can (and companies, you should be giving more!). Little drops of water, little grains of sand, etc.
All the charities that have been selected for 12for12K are worthy causes. Even if we haven’t lived in a war zone, been excruciatingly hungry, or have been blessed with keeping our vision, we can identify with those who have/do, have been/are, and haven’t/can’t. If you haven’t been touched by these issues directly, you have been, in some way, shape or form, indirectly.
When it comes to music, though, there is not a single person who has not been touched by it directly. Remember how excited I was to visit Graceland, or listening to/watching Adam Lambert? In other words, the soundtrack of our lives.
So please help Danny and his team support Musicians on Call. Here are some ways in which you can do this:
1. If you’re coming to #shonalitweetup, consider chipping in. Yes, the tweetup is still sponsored, thanks to PRNewswire, Mike Smith Public Affairs and dna13 (that means hosted beverages and pie aka pizza for a limited time, so that we don’t drink Bar Basic out of house and home). And you don’t have to chip in – but it would be so nice if you would.
2. Whether you’re coming to the tweetup or not, share this post and/or the link to its 12for12K page with your networks; Facebook, Twitter, even email… you know the drill. Oh, and how about embedding the donation widget on your blog?
3. If you really think this is a good idea, put the squeeze on people you can ask directly to chip in.
You, my community, have been very good to me – from egging me on when I started this blog a whopping 11 months ago, to helping me find Darby the GSD a home. I hope I’ve been good for you in some way too. Now let’s all be good for 12for12K and Musicians On Call.
One other thing – and this is very important – just because the tweetup is tomorrow night, we’re not going to stop trying to help there. 12for12K runs through the end of the year… so we have a few weeks to help them reach their goal. Let’s do it!
Can we help some very worthwhile causes find their pockets full of rainbows?
As always, thank you from the bottom of my heart. (Psst, I downloaded MoC’s logo from their site, in case you want to do that as well).
Tweetupin’ a Storm in San Diego
Disclosure: no one’s asked me to write this post, and I’m sure not getting paid for it, but I do thank sponsors of a certain event coming up. Now that you know all that… read on.
I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone lately, it’s tweetup this, tweetup that… oh wait, it’s that whole thing about moving your online relationships offline. My bad.
So in a few days, when I head to San Diego for PRSA 2009, I have not one, not two, but four tweetups to try to attend… and three of them are on the same day. Wow. We PR people sure like to party.
The one I’m doing a shameless plug for, though, is #shonalitweetup. Yup, you read that right. Before you start throwing rotten eggs at me, I didn’t come up with the name (I’m not that egotistical… I don’t think…). Here’s how it happened:
When I knew I was going to be in San Diego for PRSA09, I wanted to make sure I’d be able to meet up with some of my friends. A certain Jen Wilbur (who appropriately uses @rockstarjen as her Twitter handle) took on the unappetizing task of organizing it and next thing I know – she christened it with my name.
Whoa! And – wow!
So the long and the short of it is that from being a small get-together for a few people, we now have a possible 33 folks converging on Bar Basic from 5 – 7 pm on Saturday, November 11, to guzzle, greet and grin together.
I’m really looking forward to catching up with @Natalie_Joy, @DowntownRob, @richandcreamy, @JenMitch, @vargasl and so many more, and meeting @EricLeist, @nicklucido, @tressalynne and many others for the first time.
I’m also psyched that PRNewsire, Mike Smith Public Affairs and dna13 have seen fit to sponsor this tweetup. I know I speak on behalf of the entire PR community (or at least the tweetup attendees) when I say, “Your generosity shall not go unnoticed… or unburped.”
If you’re attending the tweetup, get there early if you want to enjoy the hosted drinks and pizza before they run out. I’m told there’s seating for 12 (hey, we didn’t think this would get so big!), and after that it’s Squishing and/or SRO. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Ditto if you’re a late RSVPer.
And please say “thank you” to our sponsors by leaving a comment below and/or giving them a shout out on Twitter (don’t forget to include the hashtag #shonalitweetup). Where would we be without them?
See you in San Diego! And I found this great photo of fireworks in Serithian’s Flickrstream.
Want to Freelance? TwitterSource
I had a lot of fun co-hosting the first #soloPR chat on Twitter today. It was a shame that my co-host, Heather Huhman, was locked out of Twitter for the duration, but pros like Kellye Crane, Jen Wilbur, and many more shared great tips on a career as a freelance PR professional, especially for new/recent grads. That’s right, I put “career” and “freelance” in the same sentence; because it can be a great one.
You can see the entire transcript of today’s chat at the #soloPR What the Hashtag?! page, but here are some gems from today’s chat:
It was great to meet new folks and reconnect with friends like Jennifer Mitchell, a feisty San Diego-based pro. Jen and I agreed to use the term “an agency of one” (which I first heard from her and promptly appropriated – with her permission – for my website earlier this year) on separate coasts. And Shane Kinkennon put me squarely in my place with a beautiful definition of “higher marketing”:
Many thanks to everyone who signed on today. I hope you’ll join the erstwhile Kellye Crane as she moves the #soloPR chat forward every Wednesday, from 1 – 2 pm ET. If today was anything to go by, we just tapped into an amazing resource.
You.
Do you have more tips you’d like to share on a career in freelance PR? Do leave a note in the comments, I’d love to know.
