By Tanya Henderson, Advertising & Membership Relations Director

An’ I don’t give a damn ‘bout my reputation
The world’s in trouble, there’s no communication...
Lyrics from Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation”

More than 30 years later…a lot has changed. Joan may still not care, but in today’s word-of-mouth world, businesses need to be a step ahead and understand how they are perceived. We’ve all heard of the phrase that “perception is reality” and today that is never truer with people commenting, blogging and reviewing their experience for the world to see. In an IMA Reputation Management webinar last week, Shannon Kinney, Founder and Client Success Officer of dreamlocal shared their company’s philosophy and strategies when working with clients. It’s more than providing technology to a client. You have to be constantly monitoring a brand, their listings, search and directories.

They monitor 125 web sites and they are looking for brand mentions, social mentions and things that should be more obvious that may be overlooked. She mentions a client who had great reviews and comments but when checking their address online, it was wrong. People were going to that address and the sales were scooped up by another business at that address resulting in lost sales for their client.

Matt Coen

Quality of summit is comparable to a course at Harvard Business School according to Local Media Association Board Chairman Jon Rust

A bonus pre-conference executive-level summit on daily deals has been added – at no additional cost – to the agenda for the Key Executives Mega-Conference next month in San Antonio.

This two-hour session will be led by Matt Coen, president of Second Street Media Solutions. It is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 26, from 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. Please note this when making your travel arrangements.

"I attended a two hour deals boot camp led by Matt Coen at Second Street Media last year that proved to be one of the best conference sessions of the year for me. I felt like I was back at Harvard Business School – it was that compelling. More importantly, I was able to go back and implement changes to our deals program that will set us up for strong growth in 2012. This is a high level summit – ideal for senior executives. I highly recommend it to my colleagues in the industry."
~ Jon K. Rust, co-president of Rust Communications and publisher of the Southeast Missourian

Register now for Industry Mega Conference February 27-29 San Antonio, Texas

Last year SNA, Inland Press Association and SNPA joined forces to produce one large mega conference for its members.  It was indeed “mega” – nearly 500 attendees descended on the Vinoy in St. Petersburg, Florida for a three day event.

"We are pleased to once again partner with Inland and SNPA to produce the industry's must-attend event for local media executives", said Nancy Lane, president of Local Media Association (formerly SNA), "This year's program is even stronger with a focus on new revenue streams and new business models all supported by successful case studies and best practices. As a bonus, the trade show will feature over 40 of the industry's premier vendors that will showcase new and proven revenue producing tools and services."

Listening to the Mike Blinder webinar on how they created $600,000 in 60 days with GateHouse Media you realize that in a nano-second world that spending time researching and preparing for client meetings is more important than ever.

It does take a village when you put together a sales plan for a company as large as GateHouse: 79 dailies; more than 250 weeklies and 95 shoppers plus more than 400 websites. Blinder had a host of GateHouse executives from around the company (and the country) on the webinar to discuss how they’ve been successful with a focused sales approach.

According to Brad Harmon, Corporate VP of Sales & Marketing digital goals for 2012 will be double this year’s percentages of 25-25%. Harmon says “that is very achievable.”

In order to reach these goals it’s important that three things happen according to Harmon: we simplify, standardize and automate. Infrastructure is key. Currently they have 10 digital specialists in the New England area and plan to add many more where there are regional opportunities.

Membership voted 5:1 to support name change

After forty years, Suburban Newspapers of America is changing its name. Local Media Association was recommended by a committee (including the SNA board of directors and the SNA marketing committee) that represented nearly 30 member companies. It was an intense five month process that included an enormous amount of healthy debate. The membership received ballots on December 1 and when the voting ended today, the motion had carried. In fact, SNA members supported the name change by a ratio of 5:1.

“It’s simple, self-explanatory, direct,” said Jon K. Rust, Co-President of Rust Communications and Chairman of the Board for SNA. “It puts ‘local’ first – just like we do as media organizations – and it shares that we’re not just newspapers anymore, but much more. It also says that we are united as an association, working together to become better.”

In 1971, SNA was formed when a group of entrepreneurial, family-owned newspaper publishers merged three other associations into this new one. The association has always carried the entrepreneurial spirit of those founding fathers with innovative and cutting-edge programs and research. In that vein, a new tag line has also been developed - “Innovate. Educate. Inspire.”