Social...Is the New "Black" this Season

It's officially everywhere, more mainstream than we've ever seen before. Sitting at the cafe in Barnes & Noble you look around and everyone is on their Facebook, they are twittering, blogging, posting comments to forums and groups they belong to. It's ridiculous! Doesn't anyone work anymore?? Actually in my line of work, being social and twittering and blogging...is work. It's how I stay in front of consumers and businesses each day and share my knowledge and kindly except others knowledge...I love it. How many other jobs allow you to legitimately Facebook during work hours? On CSPAN this weekend, the CEO of Twitter discussed with a panel of journalists just how far Twitter will go this year...and yes, it's spreading...to other countries, languages with new features and new ways of accessing and twittering from mobile devices. I have to say I'm so glad for this, I'm such a Twitter addict for more reasons than one. :) So, being social is like wearing the bright spring color fad...or the new flamboyant jewel fad. Be social, don't be afraid to share your knowledge with others and follow the trend...Wear your new "black".

JB University...Talk about Virtual Education

The new program from Jennifer Barbee, Inc., JB University, is a program that is being backed by some of the largest destinations in the country. I am so proud to be affiliated in any way with this program. Talk about a virtual blast of education...we so need this in our industry right now. We all get massive amounts of articles and stories in our email everyday and yes, they are informative but who has the time? Really? I'm so slammed with tasks and staying ahead that I just want to be guided sometimes. Just tell me what I'm missing...that is why this program is so needed. JB University takes education in the travel & tourism industry to the next level, allowing any level of marketer or agency to be involved in the process of teaching and being educated. The program allows you to share your challenges, your questions and concerns and addresses needs individually and as a group. Like being part of a virtual classroom. We've all sat through boring webinars that are more like sales pitches than education and if you are like me, angry when I hang up because it just wasted an hour of my day. The first webinar is on March 2nd and I can't wait to be part of it and see just how pleased and enthused people are when they see the difference this program will make in tourism marketing. Sign up! It's well worth it. www.jenniferbarbee.com/jbu

A Good Read...

I'm reading this new book, Guerrila Publicity (2nd Edition) and I can't stop. I'm almost done and I have learned more tips and insight in this book then I took away from any of the many other PR books I've read over the last year. I think we have all seen the benefits the internet gave to the PR professionals over the last decade but the rise of social networks has been the best gift we could have asked for. The groups you can join and the information you can spread across these networks is massive. Just this morning I joined a group on Facebook that caters to the PR business. Minutes later, I received a message asking me where I would be the first week of March...someone needed an active blogger and PR professional to attend an event and share with the world how great it was...too bad this event was across the country because I would have definitely done it. At this point, I'm having to dedicate one whole day out of the week (not to mention countless time on weekends) to be "social". And we thought Fridays were supposed to be date night...these days my Friday dates are all online. :)