Archive for Baltimore PR firm
Four Years of ‘Social Content Integration’ – aka Social Media
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This week marks the anniversary of our move in 2007 to add social media to Sawmill’s suite of services (media relations, media training and crisis communications were the original three). As an early adopter and one of the first PR firms to go in this direction we gained a lot of attention for the move, and the Baltimore Business Journal marked the occasion with a news story about Sawmill’s role in this emerging trend, headlined: “PR firm trying to get its clients face (book) time with new media”
Back then, we didn’t quite know what to call it and wound up with the moniker “Social Content Integration.” Now everybody calls it Social Media, but we like the original name and that’s what it still says on our agency materials. Since the beginning, we’ve never viewed social media as a separate strategy or tactic. Instead, we believe it should be integrated with traditional communications and that the emphasis should be on solid and authentic content and not on automated or gimmicky Facebook or Twitter promotions that someone sitting in a back office passes off as “engaging in a conversation.”
Craftsmen Developers LLC Selects Baltimore PR Firm for Awareness Campaign
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BALTIMORE, Md. (July 12, 2010) – Craftsmen Developers LLC, a residential and commercial land development firm, has selected Baltimore PR firm Sawmill Marketing Public Relations for a public relations campaign to increase awareness of the firm’s land development projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and its expertise and commitment to environmentally responsible green development.
The Baltimore-based PR and social media company is implementing a comprehensive public relations campaign that includes media and community relations programs and that will initially focus on Craftsmen Developers’ distinction of achieving the first National Association of Home Builders Research Center 4-Star Green Land Development Certification on the East Coast.
About Craftsmen Developers, LLC
Based in Glen Burnie, Md., Craftsmen Developers, LLC, founded in 2008 by CEO W. Dennis Gilligan, is one of the most experienced land developers in the Mid-Atlantic region, serving the real estate needs of residential home and commercial building industry clients with properties in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware. For more information, visit www.craftsmendevelopers.com
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com
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Integration is New All Over Again and It’s Never Been Better
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Some time ago, advertising agencies were the pioneers into the unknown world of integration. Specifically, integrating PR into, and often in support of, advertising campaigns. The rationale offered to clients was typically centered around “a single message delivered by ads and publicity” that any communications pro knew was suspect because a promotional message is rarely, if ever, also a newsworthy one.
However, that was then and this is now when integration has assumed a new and powerful role in maximizing the benefits and values of social media campaigns with traditional marketing communications ones. As many of us know, this new role for integration has expanded far beyond messaging to now include how, when and what social media and traditional communications tools are used and their exact purpose in the campaign.
We all have much to learn about how best to creatively and strategically utilize (or not) integration and to then share our knowledge with our clients so they can reap every possible benefit from it.
Recently we met with a prospective client whose business is not a tech oriented one. Imagine our surprise and delight when he indicated his interest in our help to integrate the social media tools he was already using by weaving the fingers of his hands together — the sign language of integration!
2010 Winter Games Recall Our PR Work at Salt Lake
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Ok, it’s corny but conducting media relations during any Olympic Games is unlike any other professional experience we’ve undertaken and being glued to the tube these past two weeks brings much of it back into sharp focus.
Sawmill handled media relations for a luxury inn and resort that was also home to many of the cross country and biathlon teams competing in the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The intensity began to build two months before the start of the games and continued to the end of the closing ceremony. The only time we left the property during the three weeks we were on site was to drive into a nearby town to do laundry.
We spent our days and nights servicing the needs and requests of the who’s who of international major media — from The Today Show that arrived on site @ 1 a.m. to be ready for Al Roker to do his weather segments from the property 6-1/2 hours later to The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Ski Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune and countless international media outlets doing live remotes throughout each night.
Our job, of course, was to get every media outlet possible to the property and to then assist them in every way once they arrived. A steady dose of adrenalin was a constant and important companion.
There was a consistent and, in many ways, unparalleled level of professionalism between us and every reporter, producer, 
camera crew, sound truck driver that we worked with.
During these past two weeks, as we’ve reminisced about the good old days of the 2002 Winter Games, we’ve wondered how the impact of social media — as well the dramatic change in the number, size and financial health of traditional media outlets in the past eight years — has affected, if at all, the professionalism among media outlets and the PR community at the 2010 Winter Games.
We welcome your comments and anecdotes.
A Snowed-In Buzz Wishes You a Merry One
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To all my friends and followers, I say Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! Time to break out my favorite wine (Sawmill Creek, Barrel Select Dry White) and kick back a bit. The shoveling can wait.
I’ll still be around the next few weeks – Susan and Jeff will, too – but not working as hard, so Tweet or drop us a line if you need anything. That includes you, Tiger.
And buh-bye to 2009. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out!
- The Buzzed One
Maryland PR Firm Partner Quoted on PR Strategy
Posted by: | CommentsBALTIMORE, Md. – The current issue of the Baltimore Business Journal quotes Sawmill Marketing Public Relations partner Jeffrey A. Davis on the current PR strategy of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. Davis, a former newspaper reporter, said the mayor has handled herself well as she faces an investigation by the prosecutor’s office.
“One rule in crisis public relations is to announce the bad news yourself as quickly as possible,” Davis is quoted as saying in the Maryland business newspaper.
If you don’t announce bad news yourself, the media will find someone who will say something, and that source will not likely know all the facts or properly communicate your point of view, the Baltimore PR firm partner says.
The mayor recently employed a unique strategy by showing up unannounced at a happy hour function attended by members of the Baltimore media. See the PR Buzzsaw account of this crisis communications strategy here.
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is a Baltimore PR firm established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland PR firm specializes in media relations, media training, crisis communications and social media.
“Jeff Davis has a PR alter ego – “contactjeff.”
That’s how an article in the current issue of the Baltimore Business Journal begins. 
The story takes a look at how Twitter is being used by PR professionals in Baltimore and Boston, under the headline “What are you doing? PR firms answer that question and more via social networking phenomenon Twitter” Check it out, here.
BBJ Associate Editor Rob Terry weaved some of my 140-character “tweets” into the article, including this one that conveys the essence of Sawmill’s take on social media:
“Cruising along with PR plan for client – not all traditional media, not all social media. A nice integrated mix to reach the target audience.”
While we believe we’re ahead of the curve when it comes to social media and its uses within a PR program, Sawmill has by no means lost touch with the power and techniques of traditional PR. We realize people continue to read newspapers, watch TV and listen to the radio, so we’re just as likely to recommend a “traditional” PR approach as we are a blog or Twitter campaign. Ideally, our recommendations are an integration of all of these options.
- Jeff Davis (aka @contactjeff on Twitter)
