Featured Website

Despite my recent journalistic efforts, I always find myself scrolling through endless pages of PR blogs. One of my recent favorite Twitter accounts, @nycprgirls, has quite an impressive and personable site that I couldn't help but mention.  Recently they spoke to the NYU PRSSA chapter. Visit their blog sometime. Every week or so they feature a PR professional, and tweet their #PR advice to up and coming professionals. 

Visit: http://nycprgirls.com/ to learn more! 

image courtesy of nyc PR girls tumblr

Linked In

I recently discovered the benefits of using LinkedIn. So far I have made quite a few connections. I am looking forward to what opportunities this service will bring!

Check out my profile:

Annie Kiersyn Cocke's LinkedIn

Bikers ready to conquer Belle Isle

RICHMOND, Va. – An empty plot of land on Belle Isle’s east end will soon become home to a bike skills course that all bikers in Richmond can enjoy.

Proposed by Mayor Dwight Jones’ Pedestrian, Bicycling and Trails Planning Commission, this new bike course is designed to not only be recreational, but also for instructional purposes for new riders.

The mayor’s commission is part of the city’s recent push towards increasing green initiatives. Jones created the commission in light of winning the bid for the World Cycling Championships in 2015.

Robby Osborne, a biker and employee of VCU’s Outdoor Adventure Program, believes that the new course will be beneficial to the entire Richmond community

“Not only will this course attract people to the sport of cycling, but it will promote a healthy lifestyle and environmentally friendly transportation,” said Osborne.

For more check out the rest at CBS 6

Tumblr grows rapidly, moves to larger Richmond offices

I recently wrote an article on the new Tumblr offices in Richmond. Read the article below!

RICHMOND, Va. – The popular blogging platform Tumblr is not only expanding at rapid speed globally, but also right here in Richmond. The Tumblr support service team that handles requests from users worldwide just had to move to a bigger office in the Corrugated Box Building in the Old Manchester District.

“I think that the new office is a symbol for the growth of both Tumblr and the Richmond technological community. We’re looking forward to using the new office not only as a place where we can work, but as a place to engage with the Richmond community,” said Renee Perron, the community manager at the Richmond office. “Our New York office regularly hosts gatherings, featuring Tumblr users from the city, and we’d love to do the same here.”

Perron said the new office provides ample room for new staff as well as giving more space for meetings and events. Tim Kaine, former Virginia governor and current U.S. Senate candidate, already visited the new office this week and Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp will fly down from New York to meet with his Richmond team at the beginning of next week.

Tumblr’s first local office opened its doors in early 2011. It quickly outgrew the space as Tumblr expanded quickly. The company had to lease a large, 4,400 square feet office space in the same building earlier this month. In just this one year, the local Tumblr team grew from eight to 29 employees.

Read more at CBS 6! 

Capturing online traffic with Tumblr

Renee Perron (@reneejperron), support manager for the microblogging platform Tumblrin Richmond, talked to our social media class on Tuesday about what makes the company she is working for so special in the social media sphere.  

By Annie Cocke (@cockeakPR)

Tumblr is known as “the place for creative people on the Web,” said Perron to the students in our class and in the Reporting for Print and Web class of Vivian Medina-Messner, who had joined us for the presentation.

Renee Perron, support manager for Tumblr in Richmond, is a 2010 graduate of VCU’s Multimedia Journalism Master’s Program.

Tumblr, which was created in 2007 by David Karp (@davidkarp), allows its users to post short pieces of information and visual media on their ‘tumblelog’ and share them with other users who they follow. The dashboard displays all information that users and their followers post throughout the day.

Perron explained that Tumblr has become increasingly popular worldwide. As of this week, more than 61 million posts were made a day. Tumblr is now the 15th most trafficked site on the Internet and the 2nd most popular social media networking site. Its usage has grown over 300 percent as of late.

For more of my article visit: the extended story