Patrick Barbanes

Some 2010 Highlights

I’m going to do a couple of posts about some of the highlights for me of 2010.

Here are a few of the first things that came to mind:

Great example of Personal Branding success – Jenny McCoy
Want an example of how blogging and personal branding can lead to new and greater things, like…a job? Jenny McCoy, pretty fresh out of college, set herself some career goals. She re-branded herself and her work in a very creative way, and in just a few short weeks landed a coveted spot with a major entertainment company! Check out my interview with Jenny about her blogging and personal branding experience.


Most Provocative Blog Post – Mike LaMonica
If anyone needs a lesson in how blogging can improve your visibility, look no further than Mike LaMonica. His “little blog about nothing” (I think he called it once) is always about something that resonates on a personal level – whether it’s parents behavior at their kid’s sports event or the Gulf Oil Spill. His 468-word post about where he was on 9/11 when the planes struck the World Trade Center, was not provocative as in controversial, but provocative as in engendering reaction. This post got Mike’s humble blog featured on the WordPress.com home page of “Newly Pressed” and compelled (provoked) more than 500 people to comment, many with tragic and heartbreaking stories of their own experience or remembrance of that day.
Where Were You On 9/11?

Black Comedy
2010 was not only the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, but also the year of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. The ineptness of British Petroleum’s response and public relations spawned the parody account @BPGlobalPR, with tweets such as “The ocean looks just a bit slimmer today. Dressing it in black really did the trick! #bpcares.” Significantly, the account charted a new course for using Twitter to make a statement. I wrote about “The One Thing BP Is Doing Right In Social Media”

Social Media Club South Florida
An awesome group of volunteers, leading the social media charge in South Florida. They swing from cozy, home-grown meetings to panels of corporate strategists from organizations such as the Miami Dolphins and SeaWorld, and held everywhere from local pubs to swank digs like the BankAtlantic Center and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
http://smcsf.org

An Awesome Online and Offline Integrated Strategy
Who would think that a a pest control company could master social media? With the “MouseCar Parade,” Truly Nolen Pest Control showed one way to do it, by integrating a visually-compelling offline event with Twitter. One of the unexpected results was how much of a company morale-booster the event was! I interviewed their VP of Marketing and their PR agency on a webinar to learn more.


On a personal level, I got to meet and shake hands with one of my all-time heroes, Congressman John Lewis.

What were some of your highlights of 2010?

No comments yet.

Leave a comment