GenPink

The news clips starts out … "you ‘digital divas’ already love Facebook and Twitter, so why not take your passion to the next level, like the 600+ members of the Social Media Club of Dallas are doing. We learned about this club from a popular North Texas blogger who writes about and for Generation Y. So tonight, this digital diva takes us into her world". You guessed it, that digital diva is ME! I’m sorry I have to say it again, tonight I was on TV, I have officially had my 2 minutes (2:19 to be exact) of fame and I couldn’t be more excited!

You can watch it here on CBS11tv.com
*I am a little disappointed that I can’t embed the video directly on the blog

Insider trading (stuff you wouldn’t otherwise know):

• I’m glad they said my name right – seems like a small thing, but for those of you who have names other than Amy & Jennifer you know what I mean
• I talk really fast … I mean really
• I lovingly call Social Media Club people nerds, I hope no one takes offense.
• Speaking of offense, no disrespect intended for the mommy bloggers.
• Moments after it aired I received a tweet from Frank who had videoed his TV screen with the following message "If u missed @elysa on tv check it out http://ivtweet.com/video?qk"
• I laughed that my dad called me 20 seconds after it ended to ask if I really drove someone home (from sxsw) that I met on twitter. Um sorry dad I did – Zane calls it twitter trust.
• Also, you will likely not be surprised to know my mom (aka the proud peacock) has already emailed out the video to everyone she knows … and she knows a lot of people!

I love what they said about GenPink

Her blog GenPink is described as an explosive, creative, running commentary of life as a twentysomething.

This upcoming month is going to be jam packed with excitement, and traveling, and meeting fabulous people. Pretty sure I’ve never been so excited!

What’ I’m looking forward to this month:

• 3rd: I’m going to be on TV! I was interviewed by a local new station about my blog and life in the social media world. It airs Wednesday night the 3rd in Dallas some time in the 7-9pm slot on channel 21. I know it’s also set to re-air on channel 11, not sure of the date yet. If I figure out how to get a version online I will most definitely share.
• 3rd-4th: I’m going to Memphis for work. This is my first traveling by myself adventure since I’ve been at my current job (June 09).
• 10th: I’m on the board of the local Social Media Club (Dallas) – we are having a tweetup (aka geek happy hour) after work just for fun. If you’re in the Dallas area – join us!
• 11th-17th: This deserves about 47 exclamation points – I’m going to Austin for SXSW!! Since this blog is targeted to Gen Y, and you may not all be as nerdtastic as I am, I’ll be blogging about the panels from SXSW on my personal blog Elysa Says. Also, I have an ever-growin twitter list of who to watch/meet at SXSW, if you want to be added to the list just let me know.
• Monday the 15th @ 3:30pm: For all of you lucky enough to be attending SXSW mark your calendars. I’m on a panel with 4 fabulous Gen Yers. We are speaking about Why Gen Y Wants to Work ‘With’ You, Not ‘For’ You. Though we all are gen y, our work experience and current working environments are very different.
  • Sydney Owen work out of the Chicago office of Weber Shandwick – one of the world’s leading global public relations firms with offices in major media, business and government capitals around the world
  • Ryan Paugh is the Co-Founder and Director of Community at Brazen Careerist, Inc. His job is to manage and develop one of the top social networks for Generation Y professionals.
  • Nisha Chittal is a writer, blogger, and new media consultant, she’s based out of Washington D.C. working as a Digital Strategist for New Media Strategies which has about 100 employees.
  • Ben Smithee (aka my glober trotter friend) is a founder and Managing Partner of Sypch Research, he works with a small team but gets to travel to work directly with his large client base.
  • and then there’s me: Elysa Rice, I work for Ellipse Communications, Inc. we provide websites and develop software for the multifamily industry (apartments). Our company can best be described as entrepreneur owned and operated with a little less than 50 employees, if we don’t count the Spiderman cut-out (he’s doesn’t produce a lot of work these days).
• 23rd-24th: I will be attending the Optimization Summits, two days of unconventional conferencing which is sure to give us a few ideas for what’s next in our marketing plan.
• Tuesday 23rd @ 6pm: Jason Falls, will be our featured speaker at the Social Media Club of Dallas talking about social media best practices for agencies and corporate marketers.

And so there you have it ladies and gents! What are you looking forward to this month?

Proud as a peacock …
Those are the words that my mother sent back to me in an email this afternoon when I asked her to check out the blog post my boss had written about me. Yes, I did say my boss blogs… she blogs a lot actually.

I could tell you about my boss or I could just tell you that she blogs under the domain imstartingashitstorm.com – no I’m not kidding.

Anyway, this has been an exciting few months for me and I haven’t taken the time to blog about all my fun news, and it looks like I don’t have to because Lisa was bragging about me on her blog this week. And, well it’s a lot more fun for people to be “proud as a peacock” of me than to brag about myself. Dontcha think?

Here’s what she had to say …

Tonight, I welcomed the numbing entertainment, as my day was crammed with tons of business, inclusive of calls and meetings. Typical for a new year, when the entire nation sat idly by for a few weeks with no decisions or processes being engaged, let alone purchasing or upgrading technology programs such as ours. I am really encouraged on what our sales team is developing, an insightful industry engaging social media program inclusive of our clients, products and services. Elysa Rice, our Emerging Media Consultant, is working on an outbound communications schedule that will feature education and client interaction. I have personally agreed to travel the country providing consultative services and complimentary education programs with whoever will hear me. Interested? There are so many programs we can provide that are designed for anyone who wants to be better at what they do. Personally, I like the concept of Transactional vs. Transformational management and tools that engage your employee base within your corporate intentions. Elysa can certainly facilitate, using the latest in Web 2.0 and social media. If you follow her Ellipse Tips, with her 15,000 or so page views monthly, then wouldn’t it be grand to have her in your Ohio office in February??? Ok, how about Florida or California? She’s so tiny, I’ll make sure she dresses warm when heading your way. Let us know via email or phone call, this is really a serious offer here; you’d be crazy to pass this up!

Interestingly enough, this young lady is so powerful in her Internet messaging that a reporter from the local CBS affiliate contacted her for an interview. They have heard how she is speaking at South by Southwest Media Conference in Austin, followed up with her personal blog, www.genpink.com so now they want an interview.

Oh, she is also presenting at NAA Student Housing conference as well in February. Man, I am so very proud of her. When I hired her, I did tell her I would sharpen her up for her professional consulting gig of instructing Fortune 500 companies on the art of social networking. But, I didn’t expect her exposure to be so swift… She should know that I will beat her tiny little ass if she cuts me loose prior to the two year commitment I suggested it would take:)

On that note, as a leader of a company, portfolio, or community, what are you doing to feed the passion for your rockstar employee? Getting serious for just one second, and then I am going to bed… if we don’t feed their need for challenge, knowledge and exposure, they will find someplace else to share their wares. Nobody ever questioned me for not engaging my key employees in new development ideologies, along with skill sharpening opportunities within Ellipse. I know when I’ve got a winner on my team. And they will be jettisoned into what makes them shine, even if it means sometimes that it takes leaving the nest and away my tutelage, but frankly that is ok. I know I did my part. See Gen X look for respect and recognition amongst their peers and family, Gen Y need a more extended circle for the accolades and high fives that come with success. To me there is nothing better in my world to support and grow a future, successful business person, ‘cause the personal, social conscience side goes right along with it. You know, isn’t that the "pay it forward" type stuff, right?

So yes folks you did read that right … in the next few months I will be on the news, speaking at NAA in Vegas!, speaking at SXSW and who knows whatelse. Craziness!

Long story short: 200 nominees and 15 judges later, Constructive Grumpiness has announced the Mentors crowned with the very first 30 Under 30 Tweeters and guess who is one of them!

Surprisingly enough, I only recognize two other people DShan of 20sb and Julia Roy. I look forward to connecting with the other mentors. Being given the title of mentor makes me feel like I should offer up some sort of twitter advice — all I’ve got for you is be who you are in real life (IRL). If you read fun articles and like to share them … do that. If you love ridiculous youtube videos … share those. If you respond to people when they talk to you … I might recommend that as well .

I actually spoke for the DFW Social Media group back in May about Utilizing Twitter for Small Business (be warned the presentation was 1 hour long and this video is unedited). If you are involved in marketing, PR, do freelance work or just want to know more about networking, or perhaps growing your blog, through twitter feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email. I’m always happy to help!

If you’re on twitter and want to follow me, I’m @elysa. To follow along with the discussion watch the hashtag #30u30t. New to twitter and want to know about hashtags?

Thank you to the judges of 30 under 30!

While I was in Austin for SXSW I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ben Smithee of Spych Research. Since somehow it’s the middle of April already and south by was a month ago (crazy!) I forgot that I hadn’t seen the end results. That was … until I got a text message last night that said "Hey, just watched your sxsw interview on youtube. You are amazing!". My first reaction to this text was "umm why is this guy stalking me on youtube?" that thought lasted for about .57 seconds before I went to the tube to watch it.

This morning I decided to watch a few of the other videos that Spych Research posted. The commonality I saw in the videos is that Ben asks some great questions. While I was being interviewed I felt like we were just two friends hangin’ out having a conversation. I think that’s what’s great about Ben’s interview style. He is casual and comfortable yet he obviously knows how to move the conversation along to have quality content in a short amount of time. So without further adu here are the videos:

My interview

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