The Social Chix talk with Hater Magazine

So our lovely friend Ms. Burrell at Hater Magazine, stopped in to talk with The Social Chix about who we are and what we do. Check out the first installment of a 3-part series Q&A with Hater Magazine with Kelly King right here!

Or paste this link into your browser: http://www.haterhouston.com/2009/12/social-chix-collective-part-1/

Toodles!

THINKIN’ OF A MASTER PLAN: Business/Career Planning for 2010

The sleigh bells have already started ringing and we can just taste the eggnog already. 2009 has come to a close and we are already looking 2010 dead in the eye! So what kind of career and business moves are you planning to make in the New Year?

We all made those rhyming statements last year about what we were leaving behind in ’09, but where was the plan? Did you find that you added business ambitions to your

resolution list last year that you’ll probably be adding to the list for 2010? Make the difference this year—develop a realistic plan that will help you actually complete the task at hand. Don’t know where to start? The Social Chix are here to save the day!

1. START BROAD

Goal setting is the key to planning because identifying your what you WANT

will determine what you NEED. Ponder on your goals for the next 5 years and where you’d like to see yourself and your business. What kind of money can you make? How much do you see yourself expanding? What kind of accomplishments would you like to make? What awards in your field would you like to win? These are the kinds of questions you want to ask yourself when positioning yourself in the coming years. Think of the kind of clientele you’d like to service and what you’d like to be able to say about your career or your company.

List your goals out “brainstorm” style and decide which of these goals or what steps towards these goals can be made in the coming year.

2. BREAK IT DOWN

First, break the year into quarters. This will allow you to section off your planning and your measure of progress through the year. Next, dissect your goals and decide what steps must be taken to make each goal a reality. Try to think of the resources you may need at each step whether it’s information from business assistance agency, money, certification of some sort or someone in business you know who can help you in some way.

Develop a list of tasks for each step that leads you to each of your goals for the year. Include the steps needed to obtain the resources you’ve listed as well. Now, you can place your steps and tasks into each quarter and then identify what months each task should fall under. Once you’ve gotten this far you should begin to assign weeks and then days to your tasks. Understand that some of your plans may change and move around, but it’s so much easier to move your tasks by the day later on than to have no clue where you’re starting (which can be discouraging as hell!)

3. TRIM THE FAT

As you plan your progress for 2010, you will notice that some of your goals will take longer than just one year to complete. That’s okay! It’s also okay if you realize that some of the goals you thought you wanted to complete are no longer in sync with your overall plan—This is good! Yearly planning helps us to weed out the unnecessary “business baggage” we hold on to all year when we don’t plan. You know, the stuff you keep holding onto in the back of your mind thinking you should’ve done all the way to December.

4. GET TO WORK YOU LACKEY!

Now that you’ve planned your journey to the success of 2010, you can rest knowing you’ll be a few steps closer to your next big business move. Did we say “rest”? Sorry, if you’ve tasked out this year in as much detail as you should have, you probably won’t be doing a whole lot of resting, but you can at least feel good about the all New Year business celebrating you’ll be doing for 2011!

D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) Musicians: Twitter Edition

Twitter is hot, no question. In the midst of the random “I’m going to bed” and “I just ate a bowl of cornflakes” tweets, lies a powerful tool for independent musicians. Let’s be honest, there’s something magical about being able to follow your favorite musician’s every move. Some may call it an obsession with over-sharing, we like to think of it more as creating the ultimate “up-close and personal experience.”

Anybody can create a Twitter page. The art is actually knowing how to use it to your advantage. So, musicians, listen up. Here are a few tidbits to help you transform your random tweets to an effective marketing/publicity tool.

We Want You
The main reason why people want to follow you is to see what YOU have to say. They want to know what you’re doing, who you’re doing it with, what you’re recording, where you’re going, etc. There’s nothing better than being able to experience a day in the life of a musician first hand. Don’t let someone else create your content.

One Equals No Fun
The real power of Twitter is keeping it consistently updated. Nobody wants to go to your page to see that you haven’t tweeted since last month. One tweet a day is meaningless. It’s the accumulation of numerous tweets helps keep followers interested and engaged.

There’s Nothing Wrong with Being a Follower
Contrary to the popular saying “be a leader not a follower”, on Twitter it’s actually okay to be a follower. In fact, its encouraged. Follow people who follow you. Follow people who aren’t following you. If your music sounds like “Rihanna” follow people who are following her. A great way to get new followers is to follow people first. Don’t forget to follow “influential” people as well like music bloggers and writers.

Sharing Means Caring
Share your music. Share pictures. Share links. Share other people’s tweets (re-tweet). Share giveaways. Just share!

To show you what we’re talking about, here are a few musicians who are doing it right:

@petewentz (Pete Wentz), @waledc (Wale), @kidsistermelisa (Kid Sister), @questlove (questlove) and @lilyroseallen (Lily Allen)

Social Chix’s 3 E’s of Twittering: Express, Excite and Engage!

Glitz, Glamour…Grammar??

Landing a star client, eating lunch at the trendiest restaurant and attending a red-carpet event. Sounds like a typical “day in PR”, right? NOT!

Despite popular belief, Public Relations isn’t as glitzy as Samantha Jones on Sex and the City makes it look. Ahh, Samantha Jones had it good didn’t she? Strutting through the streets of NY in her $500 Manolo Blahniks, throwing a-list parties, showing up to star-studded events, all while raking in the cash effortlessly. Unfortunately, as those of us in “real life” PR knows, that isn’t the reality of the business.

It would have been great for HBO to show Samantha sitting behind her desk some days racking her brain to come up with a catchy headline for her press release or spending countless hours updating her media lists to make sure they’re up to date or trying to figure out if a film title is parenthesized or italicized. (PR people, you know what I mean!)

As glamorized as PR has become in the media, there’s a lot of hard work, innovation, long hours, writing, editing, non-stop grammar checks and relationship building that goes into a successful PR campaign, and into being a successful publicist.

Between creating campaigns that will return the highest degree of buzz, there’s also maintaining relationships with media professionals, networking (via Facebook, Twitter or at an event), and working from a long list of do’s and don’ts.

To be truly great in this industry you have to consider yourself a “Life-style Publicist.” Not to say that you have to make your career your life but you have to work like your life depends on it. You have to continuously push yourself to deliver for your clients. So, in short, leave the Samantha Jones-syndrome to HBO and leave “real PR” to those who are willing to work and WRITE hard.

Tweets and drinks anyone?

One of our favorite things to do is meet cool and interesting people…Ya know, people like YOU! So we’ve decided to bring all of our favorite social networking buds from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and whatnot, together for a special event called “The Tweet Spot”…and yes, YOU are invited! In fact, you’re invited and all of your social networking Tweeple are invited too!

(((click here to grab this special invite and pass it along)))

We want you to take this as an opportunity to maximize your network. Take the buzz of your favorite social marketing sites off-line and bring it live and in-color. Reach out to those people you’ve been networking with on Twitter and meet them in person for drinks and hors d’oeuvres! Hey, it’s a great excuse to get your PR, Marketing, Socializing, business-minded swag on, so don’t miss it!

Who: The Social Chix Collective and all the cool socialistas of Houston

What: “The Tweet Spot” a Tweet & Greet Happy Hour

Where: Union Bar & Lounge (2708 Bagby,--that’s Midtown Houston)

When: June 18, 2009, 6 PM – 10 PM

Why: Because there’s nothing better than hanging out with TSCC, having a great VOX Vodka cocktail with some yummy bites, grabbing up a great gift bag and winning great giveaways, all while mingling with a bunch of cool people. Nuff said.

Stay tuned Twits, Faces and Friends...this week we'll let you know about some of the cool people and business opportunities you can get acquainted with through "The Tweet Spot"!

Who are these Chix?!

We Social Chix just love to meet new people, because expanding our circles ironically seems to bring our circles closer…it’s the whole 6 degrees of separation thing (although we tend to believe it’s more like 3). That being said, we felt it would only be cool and well-mannered of us to introduce ourselves to you—our new blog-reading buddies!

The Social Chix Collective (TSCC) is simply a professional alliance between three chix living here in Houston, Texas—Kelly King, Dorcey Kuti and Marjorie Sheriff. Each of us share several things in common—a passion for FUN stuff, a knack for making connections a mutual respect and appreciation for the grind that is Public Relations.

TSCC sprouted from our awareness of a lack of support among PR professionals. We’ve noticed how all around us the PR profession is growing. There are new budding PR agencies and aspiring pros popping up everywhere! It’s exciting stuff! The only problem is that many of us have become afraid of the competition and some of us tend to think that hoarding information and keeping our contacts under wraps will get us further ahead in the game. TSCC THINKS NOT.

After connecting with each other through shared interests and professional circles, all three of us decided to form a small union—a bond if you will—to support one another and other PR pros out there who are toughing it out on this daily grind. We build relationships through and with each other; we share contacts and ideas; we partner on projects and take on clients together. Simply put TSCC is about maximizing opportunities and we do it well between the three of us. We hope to set an example—we’d like to see more PR friends get with each other and make it happen TOGETHER!

Get to know us each a little better below and PLEASE feel free to reach out to us any time at

socialchix@gmail.com!

Kelly King

PR Specialist, The LiveWire Agency

For the past eight years, Kelly King's public relations efforts have showcased her distinctive brand of high-impact, buzz-infused publicity and her tenacity for fast-paced, competitive business. With a strong PR and marketing background that spans the range of journalism, strategic marketing, non-profit work, and public relations, Kelly has created a niche for herself and her company, The LiveWire Agency, a public relations agency rooted in it’s ability to bring out-side-of-the-box concepts together with proven PR tactics.
Kelly jump-started her career in 2000 with heavy focus in communications by working in both journalistic and business sectors for media powerhouses Clear Channel and Radio One. Her PR beginnings emerged from her work as Strategic Marketing Assistant for Music World Entertainment, record label home to Destiny’s Child and pop icon Beyonce, where she initiated one of the largest multi-artist endorsement deals any independent label had seen (General Mills/Music World Entertainment).

In 2005, Kelly established The LiveWire Agency. As an accomplished journalist and Public Relations Specialist, she brings experience from both sides of the PR table. She has worked with varying markets and as a result she has earned a track-record beyond her years. Her public relations and marketing experience includes work with brands such as DHL, Toyota, Estee Lauder, and The Stellar Awards and has serviced talent management for Dawn Rashard of Danity Kane (Bad Boy Records) Urban-Pop group Pretty Ricky (Universal), among many others.

She serves a member Houston Area Urban League Young Professionals and has served as a teen facilitator for Girls, Inc. of Greater Houston. Kelly continues to grow The LiveWire Agency with plans to expand with new company divisions this year.

Dorcey Kuti

Founder/President, Gazelle PR & Management

Having worked with some of the most recognizable names in entertainment and consumer brand industries, Dorcey O. Kuti founded Gazelle PR & Management (GPR&MGMT) in July of 2008. Dorcey founded this company with a vision of building the reputation and credibility that the brand deserves by putting forth strong marketing and PR campaigns.

Prior to launching "Gazelle," Dorcey served as Program Manager at Media Star Promotions for 5 years where she served as head Marketing and Events Manager for the agency. In addition to large agency experience Dorcey has worked in the marketing and public relations for over 10 years, with her start as pr assistant at one of Houston’s most respected independent record labels. Last year Dorcey was honored as a “Divine Diva,” at the Pursuit of Dreams second annual Divine Diva brunch. She received her award alongside Letoya Luckett, Cheryl “Salt” Wray, Eve, Tamiko Hope and many other phenomenal women who are doing great things within their careers.

In 2009 Dorcey is collaborating with publicist Kelly King and Marjorie Sheriff to form “Social Chix Collective,” an alliance of PR pros designed to set an example of what success women in the public relations profession can have when joining forces, maximizing three times the PR power. Dorcey’s client experience over the years include working with leading talent and brands which include Red Bull North American, Wreckshop Records, Priority Records, Warner Brothers, The American Dream Film, The Roots, John Legend, Common, Busta Rhymes, Floetry, Miri-Ben Ari and many others.

Marjorie Sheriff

PR/Marketing Specialist

As a freelance publicist specializing in entertainment related clients, Marjorie Sheriff uses her media relations savvy to manage local and national publicity campaigns and land targeted opportunities for clients, with media ranging from radio shows to national/local magazines and newspapers.

She has organized and publicized a myriad of entertainment events and has worked on projects ranging from Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child to the theatrical releases of Million Dollar Baby and Harry Potter.

Marjorie began her career at Grey Entertainment in Los Angeles, where she coordinated media planning for Warner Bros Entertainment. During her tenure, she worked with media outlets such as the New York Times, People Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly.

Marjorie holds a B.A. in Marketing from Texas Southern University is looking forward to starting her Master’s program in public relations at University of Houston in Fall 2009. While in college Marjorie was selected for numerous competitive internships including Sony Music in Los Angeles and Katz Media Fellowship program in New York. She has also worked with Music World Entertainment, The Houston Rockets and Clear Channel Entertainment.

...and then there were three!

Hello, hello, hello!!!! to all you bon fire publicists, aspiring PR wonders, media friendlies, business gurus, computer geeks, artistic freaks, sophisticated pros, club hoppers, home bodies and everyone else of you who makes the world go ‘round. This blog is really all about YOU. It’s about the creative ways we find to reach you, the experiences we come across as we reach you and the fun and crazy people we run into doing it. That’s our job and we each do it VERY well.

Dorcey, Marjorie and Kelly. We’re three Social Chix, living in the fourth largest city in the U.S.—Houston, Texas taking the world of PR by the horns. We’ve got heart, strength, connections and smiles bigger than the size of Texas and we’ve come together to form an unheard of PR alliance. We support each other by sharing PR info, contacts, projects, clients, partnerships ideas, troubleshooting tactics. Buckle up, sit back and enjoy the ride ‘cause we’re sharing a piece of the pie with you too.

Tweet us up on Twitter at www.twitter.com/socialchix and be sure to follow us there for invites and fun stuff @socialchix!

TTYL!