Category Archives: News

Lovell Communications Inc. accepted 16 awards from the Public Relations Society of America, Nashville Chapter. Paula Lovell, president and founder of Lovell Communications, was awarded the PRSA Hercules award, which recognizes career accomplishments and professional leadership and is the highest honor awarded by PRSA.

Lovell won one Parthenon award in the category of Community Relations for their work on the Trinity on 280 in 2012 program. They also accepted 15 awards of merit on behalf of their work for Nashville General Hospital, Trinity Medical Center, TeamHealth, Newpoint, Optimal, CSHM, as well as for their own firm marketing.

The Hercules Award recognizes a current or former PRSA member who has a history of accomplishment in the public relations industry. Candidates are judged by their career accomplishments in the field, including contributions to PRSA, the profession and the community; quality, creativity and effect of their professional work; and the example set by their ethical practices.  Candidates must be in good standing and have at least 10 years of PR experience.

“I am honored to receive this year’s Hercules Award, which is in great part due to the outstanding team of professionals we have here at Lovell ,” said Paula Lovell. “Advancing our clients’ business objectives is always our top priority, and I am extremely proud of everyone on our team who worked on these 16 award-winning projects.”

Full list of awards:

PRSA – Nashville Chapter Parthenon Award 2013

Trinity Medical Center: Trinity on 280 in 2012—Community Relations Campaign

PRSA – Nashville Chapter Award of Merit 2013

Nashville General Hospital: Direction for the Future—Public Relations Campaign

Nashville General Hospital: Direction for the Future—Community Relations Campaign

Nashville General Hospital: Direction for the Future—Nonprofit Communications by For Profit

Nashville General Hospital: Direction for the Future—Crisis Communications

TeamHealth: Play Your Way Campaign—Integrated Communications

Trinity Medical Center: Trinity on 280 in 2012—Integrated Communications

Trinity Medical Center: Trinity on 280-2.0—New Media

Newpoint Article Placement—Media Relations/Media Placement

Trinity Medical Center: Trinity on 280: Alabama’s Next Mega Project—Special Purpose Publications: Magazines

Newpoint Trustee Article—Writing: Bylined Article

Column: Nashville General’s Model Must Improve—Writing: Bylined Article

Optimal Radiology Website—New Media: Websites, marketing/external communications

Trinity Medical Center: “Trinity on 280″ on Facebook—New Media: Social Networks

Lovell Communications Inc. Blog—New Media: Blogs

CSHM Online Reputation and Search Engine Analysis—Research

Founded in 1988, Lovell Communications Inc. is a full-service marketing and public relations firm with more than 50 clients in 40 states.  Visit www.lovell.com for more information.

# # #

Lovell Communications Inc. Signs New Clients

NASHVILLE, Tenn., (April 4, 2013) – In the first quarter of 2013, Lovell Communications signed contracts to provide public relations and marketing support for several new clients, including, Retief Skin Center, Telgian Corporation, Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, TradePro and Unique Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Retief Skin Center is a Green Hills-based skincare and cosmetic surgery center, founded by Carla Retief, M.D., a board-certified dermatologic and Mohs surgeon and creator of the prescription skincare line BuffRX.

Telgian Corporation provides comprehensive fire and life safety protection and consulting services for businesses across all industries.

Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, comprised of 1,150 pediatricians and pediatric sub-specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of the state’s infants, children, adolescents and young adults.                                             

TradePro, a specialty trades service provider network for homeowners and commercial property claims, is headquartered in Gallatin, Tenn.

Unique Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. is a PCAB Accredited™ compounding pharmacy that provides outsourced services to hospitals, surgery centers and clinics throughout the United States.

These organizations join Lovell Communications’ roster of clients nationwide. Celebrating its 25thanniversary this year, Lovell Communications Inc. protects brand reputations and helps launch and grow businesses through marketing communications, public relations and crisis management. Visit http://lovell.com to learn more about the firm’s expertise.

###

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Dec. 12, 2012) – Marketing and public relations firm Lovell Communications Inc. will soon mark its 25^th anniversary. Founded in January 1988 as a local public relations firm, the company has grown to an organization that has provided public relations, issues management and marketing communications services to businesses in every state in the country.

Since Founder and President Paula Lovelllaunched the business with a family loan, Lovell Communicationshas become one of the best known communications firms in healthcare and other service industries. Lovell made the business profitable in just four months, serving start-up companies and publicly traded enterprises in what are nowLovell Communications’ focus industries of healthcare, banking and education.

The firm is regularly recognized by its peers and has received more than 150 marketing and PR industry awards.Paula Lovellhas personally been the recipient of many business honors, including the 2012 Tennessee State University Women of Legend and Merit Award, 2007 Junior Achievement Spirit of Free Enterprise Award and the 2007 IABC-Nashville Career Communication Achievement Award; she was also named a Woman of Influence by the Nashville Business Journal in 2008, and Woman Business Owner of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners Nashville in 1997. She was the first woman to chair the board of directors of the Sixth District Federal Reserve Bank and served on the boards of both theNashvilleandAtlantabranches of the Fed for a total of 10 years.

“The industry has changed so much in the past 25 years. I remember thinking, six months before startingLovell Communications, that maybe I could retire before I’d have to give up my typewriter and get one of those computer things; what a joke,” said Lovell, a Vanderbilt University graduate who began her career while in college working in production and on-air talent in radio and TV at WSM (WSMV.) Later she would serve as a writer /reporter for The Nashville Banner, Nashville, Country Music and Southwest Art Magazines before working as on-air talent for WTBS-Atlanta and P.M. Magazine-San Francisco, among other national networks. “Now with social media, mobile marketing, SEO, and other new channels, it takes a village to provide all the services our clients need, which is why the diversity of our staff and their skill sets are so valuable and appreciated.”

Lovell maintained 100 percent ownership of Lovell Communicationsuntil 2005, when she sold a minority interest in the business to Partner & Senior Vice President Rosemary Plorin, who leads Lovell Communications’ Healthcare Division. Plorin offers 20 years of marketing, communications and issues management experience in the private and public sectors, as well as expertise in traditional and social media relations. She has served as adjunct faculty at several colleges and universities and is a frequent presenter at national conferences, particularly on the topics of crisis communications and the implications of social media in regulated industries.

“Our industrious team has been incredibly fortunate to build strong, enduring relationships with outstanding clients across the country,” said Plorin. “We thrive on helping businesses be successful, and our clients reward us with opportunities to work on game-changing – and sometimes market-moving – projects. We look forward to doing this for another 25 years.”

In honor of the company’s 25th anniversary,Lovell Communicationsis launching a re-designed logo, branding package and yearlong communications outreach. In addition, the company will also be searching for new office space as it prepares to relocate from its long-time home onRichard Jones Roadin 2014.

About Lovell Communications Inc.

With operations inNashville,TN, andWashington,D.C.,Lovell Communicationsis a national marketing and public relations firm that protects brand reputations and works with companies to build and grow their businesses. Founded in 1988, Lovell has received more than 150 industry awards and recognition for exceptional marketing and public relations programs and tactics. Visit www.lovell.com for more information. To view the agency’s blog, visit www.lovell.com/blog.

# # #

Senior Account Executive and Online Strategist

Responsibilities

• Lead agency digital marketing team to provide strategic online communications and social media counsel to clients
  • Develop and counsel on search engine optimization strategies including online reputation management
  • Develop and execute social media strategy across multiple platforms
  • Create social media policies
  • Analyze and evaluate social media campaigns for reach, effectiveness and ROI
  • Test new and alternative ways to leverage social media for agency and clients
  • Monitor larger trends in social media and marketing, appropriately applying this knowledge to further agency and client goals
• Provide experienced public relations counsel and support for four – eight clients
  • Coordinate and execute media relations campaigns
  • Develop written client materials such as press releases, white papers, brochure copy, website content, etc.
  • Design and implement marketing promotions, such as direct mail and email campaigns, results-oriented fundraising campaigns
  • Oversee production projects such as print material production, website development, video projects, newsletters production, tradeshow booths, etc.
  • Maintain overall quality control and consistency of marketing projects and materials across client brands
  • Manage multiple clients while coordinating internal staff and resources

Required Skills/Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree
• 5+ years of experience in public relations
• 2+ years professional experience in a wide variety of social media activities such as blogging, online community development and management, social bookmarking, commenting, etc.
• Exceptional communications skills and documented expertise in writing
• Proven success in measuring and monitoring marketing success metrics
• Ability to think strategically in a fast-paced environment while prioritizing to meet deadlines
• Experience managing clients and/or internal staff resources
• Goal-oriented, self-motivated, creative, flexible and adaptable to new situations
• Passion for marketing and communications
• Availability for limited travel, as necessary

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive Base Salary – commensurate with experience
• Comprehensive Benefits Package – Health/Dental/Vision/Long-term and Short-term disability
•  401K
• Opportunity to work with committed, talented people
• Continuing professional education opportunities are provided and supported by Lovell Communications to encourage the continued development of its executives.

Resumes should be submitted to Paula Lovell or Rosemary Plorin.

Lovell Communications Inc. Signs New Clients

NASHVILLE, Tenn., (July 12, 2012) –In the second quarter of 2012, Lovell Communications signed new contracts to provide public relations and marketing support for several new clients, including Mariner Healthcare, Optimal Radiology and, within the state of Tennessee, UnitedHealthcare and Walmart.  Lovell also contracted with InQuicker, Knapp Medical Center, NextGxDx, W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co. and Vetcorps Landscaping earlier in 2012.

Mariner Healthcare operates 21 skilled nursing facilities located in southern and northern California.

Optimal Radiology provides  professional radiology solutions to hospitals around the country.

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has more than 40,000 Walmart associates in Tennessee and the company gave more than $21.1 million in cash and in-kind donations to local organizations Tennessee last year.

UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, is a diversified health and well-being company committed to helping Tennesseans live healthier lives.

InQuicker is the first company to offer an Online Waiting Room™, allowing patients to skip the waiting room at the ER, Urgent Care Center, and Doctor’s Office in 21 states.

Knapp Medical Center is a not-for-profit acute care hospital in Weslaco, Texas.

NextGxDx is a healthcare information technology company that simplifies and facilitates the process of genetic test ordering between hospitals, laboratories and physicians.

W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co. is a 50-year-old company with operating divisions across the Southeast and a new office in Nashville.

Vetcorps Landscaping is a Washington, D.C -based professional landscaping company established by American veterans and experienced horticulturalists.

These organizations join Lovell Communications’ roster of clients nationwide. Founded in 1988, Lovell Communications Inc. protects brand reputations and helps launch and grow businesses through marketing communications, public relations and crisis management. Visit http://lovell.com to learn more about the firm’s expertise.

Paula Lovell was recently named one of Nashville’s 2012 In Charge in Public Relations and Advertising by the Nashville Post. Lovell Communication’s Nashville clients offer their congratulations to the firm.

Lovell Communications Inc. was recently honored with nine Gold Pen Awards from the Nashville chapter of the International Association of Business Communications (IABC).

The agency was recognized with highest honors in the Internal Communications category for their work in designing, creating and executing an employee survey and supporting campaign for Whitney Bank (New Orleans, LA). The award was one of only three Gold Pens awarded by IABC Nashville this year.

Lovell received four Silver Awards for the Trinity Medical Center (Birmingham, AL) 280 NOW! campaign in the areas of public affairs, crisis communications, social networking and media relations. The firm received an additional Silver Award for their work on the MedSolutions (Nashville, TN) Oncology Program Launch news release.

Lovell was also recognized with three Bronze Awards for: Soles4Souls national media relations; Strength for Service video production; and Lovell Communications newsletter.

Paula Lovell, president and founder of the firm said, “I am extremely proud of everyone on our team and their diligence toward achieving meaningful results for a great group of clients around the country.”

Lovell has been recognized by their peers with 31 industry awards thus far in 2011. The agency accepted 16 Parthenon Awards from the Public Relations Society of America Nashville Chapter in April for social media, community relations, direct marketing and internal communications. Lovell also received six Healthcare Advertising Awards from Healthcare Marketing Report for strategic marketing and communications campaigns.

With operations in Nashville, TN, and Washington, D.C., Lovell Communications is a national marketing and public relations firm that protects brand reputations and works with companies to build and grow their businesses. Founded in 1988, Lovell has received more than 150 industry awards and recognition for exceptional marketing and public relations programs and tactics. Visit www.lovell.com for more information. To view the agency’s blog, visit www.lovell.com/blog.

# # #

Neely Burks is the founder of Nashville based start-up SourceYourCity, a virtual platform that connects local reporters with local sources attempting to increase the quality of local news. Neely founded SourceYourCity in 2011 with initial funding provided by Nashville’s JumpStart Foundry program. I had a chance to sit down with Neely and discuss her new business including her plans for SourceYourCity’s future.

Where did you get the idea for SYC?

I have a PR background and during my time spent in agency life, I focused on local market media relations for several clients across Tennessee and in Texas and Florida.

Through these efforts I interacted with HARO and ProfNet, which helped me see the value that a service like this could provide for local market reporters. As a result, I moved forward with the creation of a scalable product and brand that caters to the needs of local reporters, while eventually serving as a more targeted and effective resource for national media as we launch additional markets.

How is it different from HARO and other national services?

It’s really all about relevancy. National services like HARO offer media the chance to cast an extremely wide net when they’re sourcing their content. For reporters who are open to sources located anywhere in the country, this makes sense.

Reporters, however, are often seeking a local or regional expert weigh-in. For this, services like HARO are less effective because they don’t offer targeted communications based on both topic and geographic location. So depending on the level of interest from the expert subscribers, reporters seeking a regional expert are either forced to cull through 100s of off-base offers or they receive little-to-no response.

On the expert and PR side, you’re forced to cull through tons of content to find a meaningful media opportunity. If you succeed, you then have to compete with the entire country for the placement.

Bottom-line, existing national platforms don’t translate to a local level. And there is a need—local reporters have comparable time constraints to national media and on the flip side, businesses now struggle to get local coverage in the midst of shrinking news pages and high instances of newsroom turnover.

A lot of long-time journalists and PR professionals have established networks and relationships on the other side of the fence. What value do you think SYC can bring to them?

For reporters, if you find yourself recycling the same sources too often, SYC serves as an easy, fast and effective way to diversify your network of sources.

For the PR and expert user, SYC offers a chance to maintain consistent access to media opportunities that might come from contacts outside your primary media network. For example, freelancers who help generate content for newsrooms that are now forced to outsource might be working on a really interesting story that could showcase your company or client in an unexpected way.

If you don’t keep a pulse on what freelancers are working on, you won’t have access to an opportunity unless you’re specifically sought out. So this turns into a missed opportunity that you get to read about once it goes to print, even if you or your client would have served as a more interesting voice.

For the reporter, SYC helps you ensure that you’re choosing the best source, rather than the first-available.

How has your experience with reporters and PR professionals shaped the way you’ve built and marketed this service?

The conversations we’ve had prior to product development and throughout beta have shaped how the service functions and how we plan to build it out from here to deliver the most value to our subscribers.

As our pilot market, Nashville has taught us a lot about what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to launching a new tech-based service. The insights we’ve gained in the process have helped us think ahead when it comes to managing roll-outs of subsequent markets.

What advice would you give PR professionals looking to get the most out of this service?

SourceYourCity is a tool that helps PR professionals secure news mentions. However, it also serves as opportunity to build new relationships.  So I always encourage the PR community to participate by providing referrals or responding to human interest queries that might not have a direct business benefit. Both are acts of goodwill that improve relationships with media while strengthening the quality of their coverage.

Do you have plans to take SYC beyond Nashville?

Yes. We’re anticipating a roll-out of SYC Austin this fall. From there, we’ll have a better understanding of how different market sizes respond before we begin pursuing a more aggressive roll-out in various markets across the U.S.

Are you ready to hear what people are saying about your business online? Monitoring social media can be a daunting process unless you know the right tools to use. Here are some of our favorites:

Search Engines: Sometimes it’s as simple as typing in your company name into the major search engines and looking through the results. Most search engines, such as Google or Bing, have a NEWS option allowing searches for current news on any topic. If you don’t feel like Googling your company on a daily basis, set up Google Alerts instead. Google will search news sites, blogs, forums, and most other places on the web and email you whenever your company is mentioned. Another option for more advanced scouring of forums and discussion boards is to use a service such as BoardTracker.

Twitter Tools: Google previously displayed current tweets for searched subjects in its NEWS results but has discontinued providing that service. Google also does a poor job of providing mentions from Twitter in its Google Alerts emails. One solution for this is to use the actual Twitter search engine or the search field on Twitter itself. Another option would be to set up a service similar to Google alerts but specific to Twitter called Twilert. The best option, in my opinion, is to use TweetDeck. TweetDeck is free desktop software that can continuously search Twitter for mentions of your company name and alert you with a desktop pop-up immediately whenever someone tweets about your company. (Learn more from this article on maximizing your TweetDeck alert system.) Assuming you already have a Twitter account set-up, you can respond immediately to mentions directly from TweetDeck and avoid having to open a browser.

RSS Feeds: Getting a bit more advanced, another option for monitoring social mentions of your company is to set up a social media monitoring station using an RSS reader. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and allows you to pull a specific feed of information from different sources and display it in a single location (RSS reader) for review. There are many free RSS readers available, I tend to use Google Reader. RSS can be difficult to understand but I like to think of it as a blank newspaper (RSS reader) that fills up daily with all the newest stories from the sources that you choose (feeds). As you read through each story, it is automatically marked read and archived (unless you choose to save it or share it, which are both easily done with most RSS readers).

You know there is an RSS feed available when you see the RSS symbol as shown here. It is almost always orange but can be different colors. All blogs and search engines have feeds available. So now you can return to Google NEWS or Twitter’s search engine, type your company name in the search field as you did before, and then grab the RSS feed for this search. Another option would be to set up an RSS feed from the service (sometimes buggy) SocialMention, a site that attempts to search all social media services, or from the reputation management search engine SamePoint. Now, whenever new results from these searches are available, they are placed into your RSS reader for quick review. You may also want to consider setting up feeds to monitor different subjects in LinkedIn Answers or for Quora questions, major blogs concerning your industry, and your competition’s blogs and news rooms.

Influence Checkers: Once you start receiving results for mentions of your company, you’ll want to know the amount of influence held by the people doing the talking. Each person, blog, and/or news site online has a certain amount of influence that can vary immensely. Finding a negative article about your company on a blog read by 10 people a month is much different than finding a negative article about your company on a blog read by 10,000 a day. Services such as Compete or Quantcast can be used to measure and compare a site’s effectiveness. Klout can be used to measure the influence of specific online individuals. Highly influential people will have Klout scores above 50. This isn’t to say, though, that users falling below 50 should be ignored!

Paid services: All the services listed above are available for free, but don’t be fooled; there is a cost. The cost comes in many forms including your time, lack of capabilities, and overall lack of results.  I’ve used the above services for years but have recently been working with paid platforms such as Radian6, Vocus, Cision, and Meltwater’s Buzz. Paid platforms are going to provide a single interface to review all of the above information and more. They will also provide information on the overall sentiment concerning a certain comment or topic. This is a quick way to see if the general conversation concerning your company is positive or negative, before digging into individual mentions. I’ve found that paid platforms save me time and locate mentions that I would have missed using the free services above. Another option is to hire a PR and Communications firm already experienced in using these tools, to monitor your company for you. The added benefit here is a good communications firm will recommend appropriate responses when knowing what to say becomes unclear. This helps to ensure the company messaging stays consistent across all mediums.

There are plenty of options for monitoring mentions of your business online. Listening, however, is only the first step. Are you ready to start engaging your customers online? Are you ready to start influencing the conversation?