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Marijean

Marijean Oldham (Jaggers), a social media specialist and public relations professional, is president and CEO of Jaggers Communications LLC, a strategic communications firm based in Charlottesville, Va.

Nov 02
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Jaggers Communications Adds Business Development Team Member, Erika Gennari

By Communications, Jaggers Communications News
Erika Gennari, Jaggers Communications

Erika Gennari

More than ten years ago I worked for a metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri-based eyecare company in its marketing department. Every semester we had an intern join us to support our efforts in public relations, internal communications and marketing. Some were forgettable, of course, but some stood out and left an impression of a student with great promise and a solid future in communications.

Fast forward to last year, when, out of the blue I received an e-mail from one of those outstanding interns. She was moving to Charlottesville, Va. and had heard from a mutual friend (the CFO of that eyecare company) that I had settled here. I was — and am — delighted to be reconnected with Erika Gennari. The 21-year-old student I knew then is now a wife, a mother and an experienced professional salesperson, marketer, recruiter and communicator. She’s the same organized g0-getter with boundless energy and ahead-of-her-years professionalism that I admired all those years ago, now with more than ten years’ additional work experience added to her resume.

And so, I’m delighted to share that Erika has joined the Jaggers Communications virtual firm to provide business development outreach and management. Erika will be helping manage the pipeline of prospects for the business, assisting in proposal development and conducting outreach on behalf of the firm. It’s exciting, for me, as the entrepreneur behind a ten-month-old business, to have the opportunity to institute this role in the firm and to be working with Erika again. I know that members of this community will enjoy knowing and working with Erika as much as I do.

Please say hello to Erika on Twitter @erikagennari1 and welcome her to Charlottesville! You can also reach Erika at egennari (at) jaggerscommunications (dot) com

Nov 01
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J.C. Penney Defines their Brand and How it’s Different from Kohl’s

By Communications

I caught the end of a J.C. Penney TV commercial this morning and a line stood out  . . .

Unlike other stores, J.C. Penney doesn’t make you return to save.

For regular shoppers, you know this is a direct hit on Kohl’s and Penney’s nailed it.  Kohl’s offers a program of “Kohl’s Cash” getting consumers to return to the store to spend dollars earned within a short time after their visit. Penney’s asserts in their advertising that they’re offering shoppers the savings up front, instead. Pretty savvy advertising.

It also struck me that the line is what I consider a critical element of a brand position — defining how your brand is different. It’s astounding to me how difficult this is for some brands to define. Take some time today and think about your organization and start with “Unlike other,” and see where the definition takes you. How can your company change the conversation about what you offer to your community through a strong brand statement? I’d love to see your results in the comments.

Oct 31
Love0

Accepting the Invitation to Connect on LinkedIn

By Communications

Last week I received an invitation to connect to someone on LinkedIn. I almost dismissed it immediately because it was a name that didn’t ring a bell and it was from someone in a foreign country. I’m pretty thoughtful about who I connect with on LinkedIn. I have to have had some working relationship with you and to have some context for how we’ve connected in the first place for me to want to link our social networks together.

I noticed, for the first time, although I’m sure it’s always been this way, the message that LinkedIn includes with the invitation to connect:

WHY MIGHT CONNECTING WITH MARIJEAN JAGGERS*  BE A GOOD IDEA?

Marijean Jaggers’s connections could be useful to you

After accepting Marijean Jaggers’s invitation, check Marijean Jaggers’s connections to see who else you may know and who you might want an introduction to. Building these connections can create opportunities in the future.

*I substituted my own name in here; you don’t need to know the name of this connection.

This morning I returned to the invitation and looked at the profile of the individual that sent the invitation and indeed, this is a person with whom I’d done business some time ago, on behalf of a client in another country. I was delighted to reconnect.

In another example, a college friend passed away a couple of weeks ago, leading to all sorts of college connections resurfacing on Facebook. One friend request came and I didn’t know the name at all; turns out a friend had changed her name — first and last — and so threw me completely. She sent me a note explaining who she was; I was grateful for the context and accepted her invitation.

It’s important to provide context with these invitations. We meet so many people in our lives and we cannot expect to remember them all or to keep apprised of name changes and such. When you’re sending an invitation to someone, keep that in mind, and give them the courtesy of a short note to remind them of how you know one another.

 

Oct 28
Love0

Branding: Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

By Communications

Let’s just get this out of the way, first: I have a dog named after a Battlestar Galactica character. A bit of nerdishness exists on my turf. We’re not as bad as Dwight Schrute, however, who, as a fictional character, has a personal brand that is easy to define.

Dwight’s topics are, pretty consistently, bears, beets and Battlestar Galactica.

 

If someone were to imitate you, what three topics would they identify as “you” and your personal brand?

If you don’t know, or you aren’t sure, you might want to ask the guy at the next desk — I bet he knows.

Oct 27
Love0

How I Jumped into Charlottesville With Both Feet (or the story of a 50+ year old Twitterer)

By Social Media

Today’s guest post comes from Liz Finkelstein, a Twitter user and engaged community member. This is her story about she harnessed the power of a social network.

As I was getting ready to put my house in New York on the market so I would be able to move to the Charlottesville area, I suddenly felt panicky about the fact that I knew hardly

Liz Finkelstein, @emarieg on Twitter

anyone there. I had met a few of my new neighbors, but outside of that I knew nobody. This was a bit frightening for me. I had grown up and lived in the same five mile radius for almost all of my life. This move was going to be monumental, psychologically speaking.

Coincidentally, about this same time, I had been hearing a lot of talk about Twitter. It didn’t sound all that interesting to me, but there was SO much talk about it that I began to wonder what the big deal was. I began to poke around Twitter and started, as most folks do, following a couple of celebrities. It wasn’t all that interesting (the celebrities), but I found the vehicle of Twitter pretty fascinating. Trying to get your point across in 140 characters was a word game which appealed to me.

As the date of my move approached it suddenly dawned on me that I knew nobody in Charlottesville. I had spent the last 50 years in the same place and ran into folks that had known me since I was baby on a regular basis. Everyone was familiar to me. The cashiers at the supermarket, the tellers at the bank, the teachers and administrators at the schools, the families who had spent generations in the same locale. I was about to step into space without a net by moving 350 miles away. Whatever was I thinking?

And so, one night while I was reading my Twitter feed I played around with the search feature and found residents of C’ville who were chatting on Twitter. I followed the feeds for a bit and began to get to know the Twitterers. Well, I began to get a sense of their personalities, at least. And, I liked them! I gravitated toward the people with a great sense of humor and I uncovered an interesting range of individuals who were great writers and had a great sense of fun! I began to follow those who made me laugh and gradually began to interject myself into their conversations and daily comings and goings online.

A YEAR later, (selling my house in NY turned out to take SO much longer than I anticipated) I had grown quite fond of many of the people whose lives I read about on a daily basis in my Twitter feed and when I moved myself and my husband into our new home, not only did I have a house and view that was beyond my dreams, but I had stepped into a community that welcomed me with a smile as a friend instead of a stranger. Having spent so long chatting with me on Twitter made me a familiar soul and I didn’t need to start from “scratch” in making my way into the community. In my first months in town I had already had a group of people who smiled at me when they saw me approaching – and that makes a really big difference when you are new. Instead of feeling alone I felt like I was home.

I never anticipated how important Twitter would become in my life, but I am certainly glad I stumbled into it and explored. Hooray for Twitter!