April is child abuse awareness month

Quite a large crowd of supporters joined the statewide partners against child abuse during a press conference at the Capitol Rotunda this morning. I do work for Child Advocacy Centers of Wyoming which along with state partners helped to put on this event to promote April as child abuse awareness month.

Wyoming’s First Lady Carol Mead spoke at the event and read the proclamation signed by Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead. After the press conference, the group planted 245 pinwheels on the east side of the Capitol lawn, each one representing three child victims in Wyoming. In 2010, there were 735 child victims and 445 substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect in Wyoming, according to the Wyoming National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System report. The blue and silver pinwheel is a national symbol that represents efforts to change the way our nation thinks about prevention, focusing on community activities and public policies that prioritize prevention right from the start to make sure child abuse and neglect never occur.

Statewide partners involved include: Child Advocacy Centers of Wyoming, Prevent Child Abuse Wyoming, Wyoming Citizen Review Panel, the Victim Services Division of the Wyoming Office of the Attorney General, Protective Services Division of the Wyoming Department of Family Services, and the Wyoming Children's Trust Fund Board.

Since Child Advocacy Centers of Wyoming is in the process of developing their website, I am posting the press release and proclamation below for those interested.

• Read the April 13 press release and Governor's proclamation (PDF)

Is social media really the right choice for everyone?

Thank you to the Cheyenne Sunrise Rotary Club for inviting me to speak on the pros and cons of social media. A quick straw poll of the attendees showed that less than half the group were on Facebook and only a few used Twitter. While a popular marketing tool, social media is not always the perfect solution for everyone, especially those focused on reaching audiences in rural areas. Depending upon your targeted customers and marketing goals, sometimes good ol’ fashioned networking efforts like joining membership organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club may yield better results than social media. Let’s face it not every business, nonprofit, government agency and initiative needs to have a Facebook fan page. The key is really to focus on your customers or the targeted audience. Put yourself in their shoes or better yet ask your customers what they want. A dude ranch may find great success in describing their daily activities on a blog or Facebook where a law firm might find success showing off their expertise through email marketing or Twitter. Remember social media is a conversation that you must participate in order to be successful and that can be time consuming at first. So if you are going to do it, focus your efforts on a social media medium that makes sense to your business.

Being a camera hauling & boot wearing pr guru

To  tie with the launch of my new consulting business, I have started a blog to chronicle the adventures of a camera hauling and boot wearing pr guru in Wyoming – namely me - as well as discussing ways to handle common communication and marketing issues faced by businesses and nonprofits in rural communities. So how do you spot the pr flack at a ribbon cutting? Easy, we are the ones schlepping a camera bag over our shoulder, gripping documents in one hand and desperately looking for either a wayward reporter or our client/boss who managed to escape us in the crowd. Being a pr person can be hard work but it also can be entertaining and rewarding as we have the opportunity to work with so many great people.