For a few months now, we have been talking to bloggers, publishers and public relations agents alike about what really goes on in the world of blogging. Recently, I had a chance to ask Stephanie Smirnov, president of DeVries Public Relations, some questions on the topic. As the leader of DeVries’ Strategy and Innovation Group, as well as the force behind overall strategic counsel and creative process, Stephanie has particular expertise in the areas of beauty, wellness and woman-to-woman communications. Stephanie is on the Board of Governors of Cosmetic Executive Women, the beauty industry’s leading trade organization.

Stephanie is also the voice behind PR Mama, a blog dedicated to her personal (and sometimes) professional musings. These often include her experiences as a mom of a 6 year-old, as a wife of Russian ballroom dancer, and as a nostalgic child of the ’70s. Her latest post describes her experience as a moderator of “Bloggers, Brands and the New Publishing Paradigm” at Mom 2.0 Summit.

Q: Can you describe the most important aspect of public relations?

Stephanie: An ability to communicate in a way that clarifies, persuades and inspires (clients and influencers alike.)

Q: What is the most difficult part of your job?

Stephanie: Prioritizing and focusing. I have responsibilities to my agency colleagues and clients, am an avid blogger and a wife and mom. Striking the right balance so none of those things gets neglected is a constant challenge.

Q: How do you choose the bloggers to whom you pitch your clients’ products? In other words, what qualities do you look for in a blog/blogger?

Stephanie: It depends on the initiative. We like to say at DVPR that it’s about quality as well as quantity. We’re looking for bloggers with traffic and influence, of course; equally as important is how they engage with brands, how open to and creative they are about forging marketing partnerships and going beyond product reviews or sidebar advertising.

Q: What are the benefits of working with bloggers as opposed to other media outlets? Do you expect different things from bloggers than from magazine editors?

Read the entire interview on Product Pasha

In its ninth season, the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation once again made a huge impact at New York Fashion Week. With high-profile events and shows, EDFF continues to build its reputation in identifying the rising stars of fashion. This year also marks a huge milestone for the foundation - to-date EDFF has donated over $1 Million dollars in support of emerging designers!
On Friday, February 12th Robert Verdi and Ecco Domani Wines of Italy kicked off Fashion Week with the annual EDFF Winners’ Breakfast at the stylish loft space, Luxe Laboratory.  The breakfast honored the 2010 award recipients including: Altuzarra, The Blonds, Prabal Gurung, Salvor Projects, Siki Im, Prova, and Organic. The Ecco Domani team arranged for special guest, 2004 EDFF alum and fashion icon, Derek Lam to speak to this year’s winners about the importance of receiving the EDFF award and the impact it had on his career. The breakfast was attended by fashion industry insiders and editors from top publications including Vogue, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, New York Magazine,  Women’s Wear Daily and AOL Stylist.

Each of the 2010 award recipients hosted runway shows and presentations throughout Fashion Week.  Show attendees, including  industry insiders and celebrities such as Rachel Zoe Saldana, Adam Lambert and Anna Wintour, sipped on Ecco Domani wines as they watched the collections go down the runway.

The 2010 EDFF program culminated with the first-ever joint runway show featuring looks from all 7 award recipients at Bryant Park. The star-studded front row boasted several stylish celebrities including: Gossip Girl’s Kelly Rutherford, Private Practice’s Kate Walsh, 90210’s AnnaLynne McCord, socialite Tinsley Mortimer, and supermodel Molly Sims!  And, be sure to stay tuned as footage from this year’s program will also be featured in a special half-hour documentary highlighting the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation and the 2010 winners to air on the Lifetime Network this March.

Over on PR Mama, DevriesPR President Stephanie Smirnov fills us in on all of the details behind the recent Mom 2.0 Keynote Panel, in which she was the moderator.

I had a ball at the Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston last week. The highlight? Moderating  a VIP panel – or perhaps I should say VIB (Very Important Blogger) – and living to tell the tale.  Did I mention Heather (aka Dooce) Armstrong was one of those panelists? More on that in a minute.

Here’s how it went down.

“We have to hand it to the people at Tide, when it comes to daytime parties, this event was done to perfection.  A perfect number of people, great music and lots of games to keep partygoers entertained.

If that wasn’t enough activity for one weekend, the Tide team also supported the launch of Tide’s new advertising campaign, “Style is an option.  Clean is not.” with a consumer experience called the “Tide Mile of Clean Style” on Ocean Drive.  The pop-up experience featured an “everyday runway” where consumers were encouraged to show off their personal style on the catwalk, a t-shirt design station, a technology demo of Tide’s iPhone app, Stain Brain (get it here), and a visit from the Tide Loads of Hope truck.  Celebrity stylist, Jorge Ramon, was also on-site to share his fashion tips and trend reports with visitors to the Tide Mile of Clean Style.  The experience not only brought to life Tide’s celebration of personal style, but also helped raise funds for Haiti through sales of the Loads of Hope vintage tee.

Why would they climb Africa’s tallest mountain? To raise awareness about the need for clean drinking water, as well as funds for the Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program and other clean water efforts.

Since 2004, PUR Water Filtration and the CSDW Program have worked together to ensure that people around the world have clean water to drink – in the U.S. with PUR Water Filtration Systems and in developing countries with PUR water cleaning technology. As a result, PUR was invited to team up with SUMMIT for the Kilimanjaro climb. 

So why care about water?  4,000 children die every day from disease and illness related to unsafe drinking water. But thankfully with passionate support from organizations and individuals around the world, much is being done to help. The world has shown an outpouring of support for PUR and SUMMIT’s clean water efforts. PUR’s Facebook Page has jumped to almost 51,000 fans and celebrities such as Larry King, Justin Timberlake, Ashton Kutcher, Russell Simmons, Samantha Ronson and more have tweeted messages to the climbers who include:

• Kenna – Grammy-nominated musician and creator of SUMMIT ON THE SUMMIT: Kilimanjaro
• Jessica Biel – Actor (upcoming films Valentine’s Day and The A-Team)
• Emile Hirsch – Actor (Into the Wild, Milk)
• Dr. Greg Allgood – Director of the CSDW Program
• Isabel Lucas – Actor (Transformers 2)
• Alexandra Cousteau – National Geographic Emerging Explorer
• Kick Kennedy – Environmental activist and granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy

Although the climb itself might be over, the fight for clean water has just begun! Queen Latifah announced the PUR/CSDW partnership with SOTSK at the People’s Choice Awards, and is spreading the word even further with appearances on the Today Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

You too can help support the cause and learn more by becoming a Fan of PUR on Facebook . For every one new fan, PUR will donate 10 liters of water to CSDW. And you’ll get first-hand scoop with pics, video and more!

In case you missed all of the action over on our Twitter Stream, DeVries Public Relations teamed up with Jeff Pulver’s 140 Conference, the premiere Twitter conference focused on the “State of Now”.

At the #140conf events, we look at twitter as a platform and as a language we speak. Over time it will neither be the only platform nor the only language. #140conf is not an event about microblogging or the place where people share twitter “tips and techniques” but rather where we explore the effects of the real-time Internet on Business.

Our President, PRMama, a.k.a. Stephanie Smirnov wrote a great summary about the event and I have included an excerpt below and you can read the whole post here.

Our agency sponsored the “140 Characters” Conference in Los Angeles last week, supporting a two-day exploration of what conference organizer Jeff Pulver calls “The State of Now” and the effect of the real-time internet on culture. We created a DeVries PR Buzz Lounge in the lobby of the Kodak Theater, a place for everyone at the conference to recharge and connect. We kept them stoked with free caffeine, cupcakes and ethernet connections. We also thought it would be an interesting challenge to see if we could capture video sound bites from conference speakers and in something close to real time, send those sound bite packages out across the interwebz to give people at home a taste of what was happening at the conference. You can view and share these segments at our DeVries YouTube channel; meanwhile, this is a bit of what went on behind the scenes as we worked to bring our Buzz Lounge concept to life.

You can watch all of the videos on the DeVries PR YouTube Channel

Nowhere has the change been more visible than in the habits of journalists, news organizations and PR practitioners. The shrinking newsroom and the social web has changed the job of a journalist forever. They can no longer just report on a story, but now they must incorporate the voice of the reader, in almost everything they do. Theses voice comes in the form of: short response videos, reader comments, blog responses, mash-ups, digital photos, ireports, tweets, and more…. The inclusiveness of opinions is critical to the success of the modern news organization and this shift has already occurred.

At the same time, the authoritative voice of the media is spreading out and in many cases is being usurped by individuals that have no formal background in journalism, but are passionate drivers of news and trusted much more than many journalists. Their ability to contribute to the conversation through the connective and immediate power of blogs and citizen journalism sites, has flattened the playing field and given us exponential places to learn about the topics we care about.

PR practitioners have moved quickly to adapt to these changes. They have moved from pitching and broadcasting to educating and informing, from controlling the message, to openness and inclusiveness, from influencing a few in high places, to engaging with many across a multitude of digital locations. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Whrrl, Flickr, Message Boards, Chat Rooms, the list of locations of influence goes on and on and on… The media landscape changes, but the core tenets of the profession are still intact, making our clients shine, as best as possible, and building trust with influencers, by providing VALUE to them.

Jon Cronin
Director of Digital Media

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October 4th - I am over the moon that I get to attend the World Business Forum as a featured blogger alongside an extremely serious group of digital big kids. Full Post

September 23rd - Time for another PR Mama guest post, and what the hey, let’s hear it for the boy…again. I had such a good time hosting PR Cog last time, I decided to invite another one of my favorite social media dads over to discuss balancing family and work life in this crazy business of ours. - Full Post