The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues. In this program, we have a three-way conversation with John Dolan, Christina McNeill, and Shannon Ritter, all employees of Penn State University who created an informal, unofficial podcast about the people behind-the-scenes at Penn State, called "The U Report." Their podcast won an Excellence in New Communications Award for Internal Communications in the Education and Academic category.

You can read more about the winning Penn State entry on the SNCR website. You can hear the U Report podcast series on its Posterous page.

Follow all three of the Penn State podcasters and the official Twitter feed for The U Report by following this Twitter List.

 

 

 

 

Producers of The U Report

John Dolan is the director of the Office of Digital Media and Pedagogy for Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts.  In this role, he oversees the strategy for incorporating more technology into teaching, learning and research in the College.  He is also responsible for the management of the robust social media initiative for the College's undergraduate studies division.  He has made a number of conference presentations on social media and is in the final stages of completing his dissertation on the impact of the use of social media in the workplace.

Christina McNeill is drawn to web communications because of the variety of skills (analytical, strategic thinking, creative, technical) she must use to implement solutions that help people. She currently works as a web developer for the Office of Student Aid where she enjoys the challenge of finding creative solutions  for student aid professionals communicating complicated information to their audience—parents and students. She oversaw the launch of the latest OSA website while implementing Plone CMS for staff.

Christina has also worked at Penn State Outreach, both as a speechwriter for the vice president and as a developer and manager of the organization's intranet. Christina is a proud veteran of both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps. She, her husband, son, and two dogs live in Bellefonte, Pa.

 

 

Shannon Ritter currently works as the Coordinator of Auditions, Interviews, and Admissions for the Penn State School of Theatre. In addition to working closely with faculty and undergraduate admissions, she also coordinates the use of social media within the School.

Before coming to the School of Theatre, Shannon worked as Social Networks Adviser for Penn State World Campus, and spent five years in Undergraduate Admissions at Penn State. Shannon is also co-founder of the Social Media Constituent group with EDUCAUSE and presents regularly at national conferences on the use of social media in higher education.

The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays over the next several months.

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR)podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues. In this program, we present a conversation with Jeff Rohrs, Vice President for Marketing Research & Education at ExactTarget. The company won an award in the Corporate category for its SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS research series.

A “recovering attorney” and Cleveland sports fan/victim, Jeff serves as Vice President for Marketing Research & Education at ExactTarget.  In this capacity, Jeff spearheads the SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS research series, ExactTarget's SUBSCRIBERS RULE! philosophy, the company’s annual Connections User Conference  programming.  Over the years, Jeff has presented at a wide variety of industry events including ad:tech, The CMO Club Summit, IAB MIXX, SXSW, Wired’s Social Media Summit, and WOM Supergenius.

Before joining ExactTarget, Jeff was President and Chief Interactive Strategist for Optiem, a digital marketing agency based in Cleveland, Ohio, where his clients included Sherwin-Williams, Calphalon, and Insurance.com.  Jeff received his J.D. and Masters in Mass Communication from Boston University, and he holds his B.S. in Mass Communications from Miami University where he serves on the Advisory Board for the school's Armstrong Center for Interactive Media Studies.

You can read more about the winning ExactTarget entry on the SNCR website.

The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays over the next several months.

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues with a conversation featuring Sharon McIntosh, senior director of Global Internal Communications for PepsiCo, which won an Internal Communications award in the Corporate category for its global social media training program to encourage its employees to promote the company and its products effectively and in alignment with company policies.

Sharon oversees the internal strategy and channels for the company’s nearly 300,000 associates.  She previously worked in internal communications, corporate communications, marketing and media relations at a range of companies, including Sears, Waste Management and the Illinois Hospital Association. Connect with Sharon on Twitter: @mcintoshs.

You can read more about the winning PepsiCo entry on the SNCR website.

The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays over the next several months.

 

 

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR)podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues with a conversation featuring Lauren Burke, Marketing and Communications Associate – National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®), which won an award in the Nonprofit category.

Lauren manages NEFE's consumer-focused site, Spendster.org, where people can post videos describing impulse buys, regretful purchases, or stuff they never use, and answer the question, "Why did I buy this?" In the process, the site helps people learn more about making better choices with their money the next time they made a purchase. The whole site serves as a light-hearted way of accomplishing NEFE’s ultimate goal of behavior change in consumers. You can read more about the winning NEFE entry on the SNCR website.

The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays over the next several months.

 

 

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR)podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues with a conversation featuring Beth Perell, Vice President of Communications and Information Management and Arlene McCrehan, Senior Director of Online Media from Goodwill Industries International, which won an award for Internal Communications and Communities.

Beth and Arlene collaborated on Goodwill's more user-friendly and better organized intranet (case study), recognized with the SNCR Excellence in New Communications Award for Internal Communications and Communities.

The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays over the next several months.

 

Beth Perell, Vice President, Communications and Information Management, Goodwill Industries International, Inc.

Beth joined Goodwill portal team in 2005 to make information accessible to local Goodwills and help develop a culture of knowledge sharing. In 2007, she became the Director of Learning Solutions which also oversaw the in-person training events and technology-based learning initiatives.  In 2009, she became the VP of Communications and Information Management overseeing web development, media relations, social media and communications strategies. Beth has over 15 years of communications and knowledge management experience and has held positions at Mercer Human Resource Consulting and A.T. Kearney. Beth holds a B.A. from Miami University and a Master’s degree from Dominican University.

Arlene McCrehan, Senior Director of Online Media, Goodwill Industries International, Inc.

Arlene leads a team responsible for Goodwill’s social media initiatives and its public web sites, including the award-winning My Story blog. She is the co-inventor of the Donation Impact Calculator, located at donate.goodwill.org. Collectively, her team’s online reach extends to more than seven million visitors annually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues with a conversation featuring Jennifer Sniderman, Group Manager – Employee Communications, and Sara Folkerts, Internal Social Media Manager for Sprint Nextel Corp. Jennifer and Sara are the architects of Sprint Nextel's Social Media Ninjas Program (case study at the link), recognized with the SNCR Excellence in New Communications Award for Online Reputation Management.

Jennifer Sniderman (right) and Sara Folkerts of Sprint Nextel designed the Social Media Ninjas Program.

Jennifer Sniderman, Group Manager – Employee Communications - Sprint Nextel Corp.

Jennifer leads news, editorial and social media for enterprise-wide employee communications at Sprint. She specializes in interactive multimedia engagement programs which have garnered numerous awards. Jennifer is the co-creator of Sprint’s Social Media Ninja program leveraging employee advocacy to bolster the customer experience and improve Sprint’s corporate reputation. She provides counsel to Sprint’s Human Resources team to deliver leader-focused communications programs.  Prior to joining Sprint, she was Assistant Vice President, Corporate Communications at Zurich Scudder Investments in Chicago, IL. Outside of work, she serves on the board of Chameleon Arts & Youth Development, a non-profit organization providing arts education for homeless and under-served children.

Sara Folkerts, Internal Social Media Manager – Sprint Nextel Corp.

Sara is passionate about sharing, communicating, transparency and being open-minded. This has led her to her current job as a community manager and social media evangelist at Sprint. In addition to her role as community manager, Sara co-leads the Ninjas program at Sprint. The Sprint Social Media Ninjas program is a group of empowered employees who want to connect with customers and spread the “gospel” of Sprint in social media. Sara has presented on internal social media strategies at several conferences and at other companies. Where can you find her? On Twitter, of course! @saramiller

The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays over the next several months.

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues with a conversation featuring Moksh Juneja, CEO of Avignyata, an Indian social media consultancy that helped a Bollywood film production company create a highy successful Facebook fan page for a murder mystery that engaged more than a million fans.

Avignyata was recognized by SNCR for its effective use of External Communications and Communities. Here is a description of the Avignyata entry.

Moksh describes himself and his brother, Daksh, as ‘accidental entrepreneurs’. He and his brother quit their respective jobs on the same day without much serious thought… But just believed that they would come up with something big! Totally active on the social media platform, formation of Avignyata Inc. was one step forward taking his passion to the next level.

Moksh has been instrumental in creating a platform for social media marketing campaigns for Sony Pictures, Colors (Viacom18) and more sustained campaigns for Shoppers Stop, Inorbit Mall amongst others.

Before starting Avignyata Inc. he was working with Genesis Burson-Marsteller, and handling clients Accenture, Level Up Games, rediff.com and Sony Entertainment Television.

The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays over the next several months.

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards continues with a conversation featuring Satya Krishnaswamy, CEO of Next Principles. Next Principles was recognized by SNCR for its Social CRM application. Here is a description of the Next Principles winning entry.

Satya founded Next Principles in 2010. He has more than 17 years of enterprise software experience in a wide variety of roles including pre-sales, business development, software development and project management. Satya spent more than 14 years at SAP, both in Asia Pacific and the U.S. His involvement with CRM dates to the late 90s when he led SAP’s first CRM team in Asia Pacific. Satya also held leadership roles within teams in the Offices of the CEO and the CTO in SAP Labs, Palo Alto.

The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series appears weekly on Thursdays over the next several months.

 

 

 

 

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) has launched a new podcast series profiling the winners of its 2011 Excellence in New Communications Awards. The podcasts are being produced by Steve Lubetkin of Lubetkin Global Communications LLC, a Senior Fellow of SNCR and a member of the SNCR Advisory Board.

The podcast series will be published weekly on Thursdays for the next several months.

The first program in the series profiles the winning entry from the World Wildlife Fund, which created Moabi, an interactive clearinghouse for information on rain forest deforestation activities.

Describing the project in the podcast interview is Leo Bottrill, Project Lead for Moabi and Senior Program Officer in the WWF-US Policy Unit. Originally hailing from the UK, Leo has led efforts to map, model, and communicate the impacts of large infrastructure in the Greater Mekong, Congo Basin,  East Africa, and Peru. Previously, he spent several years in Indonesia and Vietnam developing conservation programs and environmental education projects, and tackling the illegal primate trade. Leo holds an MA in Geography from the University of St. Andrews and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London.

 

 

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the SNCR podcast.

Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.