Raleigh Public Relations Society
The Raleigh Public Relations Society (RPRS) aims to advance the art and science of public relations and to strengthen communication, understanding and cooperation among the diverse individuals, groups, and institutions of the Society.
“You’re already networking, but is it working well for you?”
That’s the big question our April speaker charged attendees with self-assessing and then gave us the tools to optimize both online and offline connections moving forward.
Christine Clifton shared compelling conversation techniques that inspired interest and created connections – so our networking conversations get better results.
Watch the full-length recording here… exclusive for RPRS members!
Today at our first RPRS Lunch & Learn of 2020, we had the pleasure of yielding the floor to Seth Palmer (@Seth_Palmer) Director of Regulatory Affairs and External Communications, at NC REALTORS®. Seth gave us generous insight into his daily practices and also generously shared his thought leadership on best practices when executing communications around hot button topics, especially politics in the south!
Seth has more than 11 years of experience in government affairs and communications as a staffer and consultant. Prior to joining NC REALTORS® in 2014, Seth served in multiple roles in North Carolina government, including on the staffs of the House Majority Leader, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of the Department of Transportation.
As part of our “exit interview” with Seth after lunch, he shared things he’s listening to and reading these days, in case you’re looking for a little inspiration for your Stitcher or Kindle lists:
“As far as something that I would consider a “good read/listen,” I would have to go with The Daily podcast from the NY Times. I read a lot of stuff for work and listen to a lot of children’s music so this gives me a daily dose of news that I really need. It is also a longer-format, deeper dive which helps me get through the 30-minute commute from my house in Fuquay to my office in North Hills. I also throw in the ESPN Daily podcast for my needed sports stories.”
What are Seth’s top takeaways for marketers broaching sensitive topics? Putting into practice age-old adages that stand the test of time:
We sincerely appreciate Seth taking the time out of his workweek to share his own take on professional communications with this month’s lunch attendees. Please stay tuned to our Events page for details on February’s after-hours event and March’s annual spring networking breakfast!
Back in February, we had the pleasure of hosting Jesse Lipson, founder of Real Magic and its contact-based app Levitate, for our monthly lunch and learn program.
According to the brand’s LinkedIn page:
“Real Magic builds SaaS products to help make the world a more creative and entrepreneurial place. Our first product, Levitate, helps small and medium-sized businesses manage their professional relationships to take their business to the next level. You can learn more at www.levitate.ai. Real Magic was founded by Jesse Lipson and some early team members from ShareFile (now part of Citrix), an award-winning business file sharing and document workflow tool that is used by millions of business people around that world.”
At the lunch, Lipson shared with us some of his learnings from his earlier career successes at Sharefile (now part of Citrix) and how he took his observations to heart in building Levitate, a tool that helps professionals overcome the hassle of “keeping in touch consistently with your network [as it] is way too much to manage in your head or on a spreadsheet.”
Hot Topic ? @RPRS attendees ask @jesselipson which subject lines make for the best response when keeping in touch… “Checking in” and “Quick question” and black belt version… Personalized based on sports team faves! #RaleighPR pic.twitter.com/lYevDWwJNl
— Raleighwood Media (@rmg_reg) February 26, 2019
“Levitate helps you build and maintain authentic relationships, which drive more organic referral and word of mouth business,” is the selling point listed on the brand’s website. I implemented the free version for low-volume users just a few days after Lipson’s presentation at my company, Raleighwood Media Group + Raleighwood Event Group. It’s easy to use and doesn’t require much effort to make part of your regular workflow.
Just a few weeks after activating Levitate, I reached out to an industry peer and past client that I had lost touch with in recent years just to say “Hello!” and ask about how work was going for him lately. We met up for coffee after a few email exchanges and he shared with me lots of new (to him) commercial ventures he had become involved with over the last year and that his bandwidth for in-housing marketing efforts had become taxed from the additional commitments. As the primary marketing decision-maker for these businesses, he asked me to put together two separate proposals for new lines of work for our boutique agency. One came to fruition and we onboarded within 30 days. The other is still open, but very much alive and well.
In mid-June, it was announced that Lipson netted a major round of funding from various investors to continue to grow the Real Magic offerings.
That came as no surprise to me given my very brief but valuable interaction with one of their product offerings.
My goal in writing this blog wasn’t to publish a several-months-late recap of the lunch but instead, to praise Lipson’s recent success in securing funding to grow his latest venture, “Raleigh startup exec Jesse Lipson lands $6M for Real Magic app startup“, and to share the impact adding this to my toolbox at Raleighwood has had on my business.
Whatever your reason for considering membership in the Raleigh Public Relations Society, I am proof that our group delivers many opportunities to grow as a professional and for business as a whole. Our lunch events through the remainder of 2019 are all posted online – I hope to see you at another impactful lunch soon!
Cheers,
Lisa Jeffries
RPRS Vice President 2019
Thank you to local publicist and PR practitioner Melinda Jackson for delivering this month’s lunch and learn topic: How to Position Your Client as a Thought Leader, Even When Their Field isn’t “Sexy”.
Were you out of town, had a conflict, or just on vacay mode and couldn’t make it? We’re happy to share this month’s speaker presentation, exclusive for our current members! View the video below or click here to view on YouTube.
We look forward to seeing you next month for lunch! Reserve your space at rprs.org/events/.
Thanks so much to each and every one of you that attended our July Unconference event! We had some great lightning speakers and inspired conversations – not to mention the delicious food and beverages (Thanks Mulino!).
For our new guests who attended, we look forward to welcoming you as a member of the Raleigh Public Relations Society soon! You can find more details on pricing and benefits here.
If you weren’t able to make it, we recorded a few of the inspiring and informational speaker presentations so you can catch up without too much FOMO. ?
A big thank you to Chris Alupului of Raleigh Influencers for capturing these great event pics!
During my lightning talk, I shared some of my favorite digital assets for marcom pros. It’s easy to think that we all have the same “toolkit” at our disposal, but I’m always amazed at the power of sharing tech tools with industry friends who have yet to tap into some of them!
Grammarly (Like built-in spell check, only BETTER! The weekly progress reports via email are totally geeky fun, too.)
CapitalizeMyTitle.com (When you just can’t remeber what to capitalize and when.)
Animoto (For creating quick storyboard videos from photos and licensed music.)
Dark Sky (Insanely accurate local weather conditions for your events.)
Cluster (Private photo sharing app with easy printed book production.)
Yammer (Team messaging app.)
Proposa (Locally-based proposal software from an experienced agency founder.)
Google Photos (Never worry about losing your phone, and your photos, again!)
And of course… the newly revamped RPRS Awards platform!
We had a great time hosting this event and making lots of new connections as well as enjoying some OOO (out of office) time with old pals. We look forward to seeing you at our next event. As always, you can find our line-up of events here!
