Meet our Social Media Success Panelists from September 2011:
Edward Bowser, @etbowser
Edward Bowser’s love of blogging and all things digital has helped him break new ground as Luckie and Company’s first community manager. In an effort to increase the ad agency’s visibility online, Bowser coordinates and edits its blogs The Luckie Rethink Tank and The Social Path and breathes new life into our Facebook and Twitter feeds, making them more potent news-business channels. He also is responsible for generating community outreach, organizing training opportunities and assisting agency recruitment.
In his free time, Bowser writes about music and pop culture on GeorgiaMae.com, a blog he shares with his wife, Javacia.
Julie Brannon, @Julia_Brannon
Julie Brannon is a marketing and communications specialist. She studied art and French at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Massachusetts – Amherst and the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts Paris-Cergy. For four years in the mid-1990s she was an art dealer in New Orleans. In 1998, she moved to Santiago, Chile, where she taught English speaking skills to U.N. Peacekeepers and to business professionals at CitiBank, Deloitte & Touche, Hewlett Packard, and American Express.
Brannon moved to New York in 2002 and began working with international art publisher McGaw Graphics tracking design trends and coordinating their exclusive Walt Disney publishing contract. In 2005, she began working with Adventure House Communications Group where she managed the Cambridge University Press ESL account as the Editorial Production Manager.
She returned to Alabama in 2007 and worked for four years in the direct mail advertising industry as Strategic Account Manager with MailSouth. Currently, Brannon is a marketing and business development consultant for Adventure House Communications Group, the Social Media Monthly Magazine and children’s book app developer One Hundred Robots.
Chris Davis, @chriscreates
Chris Davis is director of integrated communications at fi-Plan Partners in Hoover, working on effectively communicating in many different ways with clients and the community. He has used his creative talents to design the company website, as well as the Your Financial House site, to produce the music and information heard when placed on hold at our office and to develop the exclusive coffee, Financial House Blend. Davis is also a member of the ALsocme Leadership Team.
Davis spends most of his free time with his wife Amanda and son Camden, riding bikes, hiking, building forts with chairs and blankets and doing just about anything outdoors. He is an enthusiastic cyclist, having ridden across the Mojave Desert (from Los Angeles to Albuquerque) and across North Carolina. And he enjoys playing his Taylor acoustic guitar.
Melanie McCraney, @melaniemccraney
Melanie McCraney is a media strategist and founder of McCraney Communications, a Birmingham public relations and brand development firm that helps people shape their messages and tell their stories. McCraney also serves as the Alabama affiliate of PR ConsultantsGroup, an exclusive nationwide network of public relations specialists serving the needs of national accounts in local markets.
Her media career began in broadcast journalism. As news director, anchor and reporter for WZZK-FM and WBHM-FM, assignments included stories for NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” She made the switch public relations in the late 1990s and opened McCraney Communications in 2001. Clients have included Macy’s, Ritz Carlton, Krispy Kreme, Cory Watson Crowder and DeGaris, Quality Petroleum/Sunoco, Salsa Senorita, Infomedia and Zoës Kitchen.
Through her affiliation with PR ConsultantsGroup and PR firms coast to coast, McCraney has managed local media relations and project execution for Duracell, Tide, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Cold Stone Creamery and others.
Julie Wall
Julie Wall is a director at Markstein Consulting, a strategic planning and communications consulting firm in Birmingham. She has more than 11 years experience in public relations, marketing and communications in public, private and nonprofit sectors. Recently, she served as the director of communications and public relations for the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. Wall earned a J.D. from the Birmingham School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Auburn University.
While at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, Wall managed Sweet on a Cure, a campaign that gives Birmingham’s restaurant community an opportunity to partner with and support leading cancer research. Launched in 2009, the campaign centered around a Sweet on a Cure week, where more than 60 participating restaurants designate all proceeds from the sale of their designated desserts to support cancer research. In 2010, the center engaged in a social media strategy that helped grow the campaign, building broader awareness and generating more partnerships.
Ike Pigott, @ikepigott, moderator
Ike Pigott is a communications strategist at Alabama Power Company, owner of Positive Position Media Consulting and a member of the ALsocme Leadership Team. He was the keynote speaker at ALsocme’s first educational meeting.
