MrAndrewBradley

I attended my first film festival this week, although I didn't see any films, so I'm not sure if it really counts. I was there working on behalf of a client to tweet during the event (it's frowned upon to tweet during movies).  It was a lot of fun to hang out at the Bosch Culinary Stage at the Oxbow Public Market , drink some wine from 1976 while talking to the stars from Bottle Shock in the Buick Tweet House at the Avia and be at VIP parties at both the Napa Valley Opera House and Robert Mondavi . It was a busy 27 hours, but luckily I got to hang out with my friends from The Meritage , meet the celebrities, eat some amazing food ( Siena , Gott's Roadside and Pica Pica ) and I even walked away with an early birthday gift from Bosch . I'm looking forward to my next trip to Napa (maybe this week or next week) and was glad that I could be a part of the inaugural film festival, can't wait for next year. Now I'm at the Bradley Lodge celebrating ...

After being in PR for a few years, I was accustomed to making my clients be a part of the story, but not actually being a part of the story myself. On Wednesday as I was driving with my family to Redwood City for Thanksgiving I was reading " Tweets " when I noticed that the Sacramento Bee was seeking to talk to people receiving a subsidy that helps pay for health insurance coverage for the unemployed (see graphic). Since I currently benefit from the subsidy, I figured I would e-mail the writer to see if I could help. I quickly got a phone call back and on Sunday, my story and those of others were featured in an article on the COBRA subsidy expiring for people who signed up when it was first implemented. After the story was published and remembering when I was contacted through Facebook a few months ago to be part of a story on new home ownership , I began to think about how reporters are now able to reach a much broader audience when seeking people to interview. In the p...

After a friend had to go out of town on business at the last minute, I was asked to fill in during today's American Marketing Association Sacramento Valley luncheon . My topic ... Twitter . Below are a few of the things I told my groups as they came by to talk (each table discussed a different topic). I've also included a few of the things I had planned to say, but in 10 minutes didn't have the chance. I know it's not an exhaustive list, but my goal was to give a brief introduction on how it could help their business start on Twitter. 1. Everyone that is on Twitter quit and then started again. Yes, even I signed up for an account, used it a few times, forgot about it and then eventually came back to it. 2. Be conversational. I don't know a single person that loves when a company (or a person) only provides one way information that tries to sell them stuff. Every good company interacts. Royal Caribbean has an almost daily post asking " Where's Royal...

Social media has an interesting common thread ... drinking. On Tuesday I headed to Downtown Sacramento's DeVere's Irish Pub to meet with people I mostly know via Facebook and Twitter with the Sacramento Social Media Club . It is always great to talk to these online friends in person, enjoy some great food and, of course, have a pint of great beer . Another upside to these social events, the raffle. I won a Sacramento Zoo family fun pack that included tickets to the zoo, a nice reusable bag and a small, plush lion. On Thursday I took part in my first social media chat . This particular chat was for Fresh&Easy , a chain of grocery stores making their way into the Sacramento region starting in March . Their PR team provided me with three bottles of wine to sample and as I tasted them I needed to tweet what I tasted and thought. It was very simple, the wines were all good and I cannot wait to check out the new Rocklin store when it opens in about a month. Although I ...

Drawing well over 75,000 people on Saturday and Sunday , the Luis Palau Sacramento Festival was one of the largest events Sacramento has seen in a very long time. The festival brought in top Christian bands , world renown speakers, including Luis Palau and his son, Andrew Palau, X-Game medalist skateboarders, BMX riders and motorcycles, a huge kids zone and much more . Although the temperatures didn't exactly cooperate ( 105+ degrees on Saturday ), many people came, heard a great message and hundreds, if not thousands, decided to radically transform their lives making all of the prep work of staff and thousands of volunteers across the Sacramento region worth it. Before the festival I met with the media relations director and gave him all of my Sacramento area media contacts. He was able to connect with each of them and get some great coverage of the event. Since I wasn't leading media relations efforts, it allowed me to focus on my other passion ... TWITTER . From Sa...

  Photo Credit | Dennis McCoy - Sacramento Business Journal After you hear the bad news, you go into an initial state of shock, then you pull yourself together, get organized, get motivated, set a goal and make every effort to reach the prize. That is my story, my plan and my hope.  After being laid off in September I did not know what to expect, I was in a state of panic, yet had a calmness come over me too, I had no idea what to do next, I packed my things, reached out to my network of business contacts and friends, updated my resume , searched for jobs, applied to jobs and waited.  Now, although I have not heard the words "you're hired," I have a plan, I am taking action and I am staying positive.  I wake up daily with a purpose, I look for jobs, I keep in touch with my network (with calls, in person and through social media),  I try to attend at least one networking event per week ( SacTweetUp , PlacerBizTweetUp , SPRA luncheons/mixers and IABC lunc...

In just a few years I went from having a Facebook account to actually using it (now with more than 700 friends), signing up for Twitter (my first tweet was on October 16, 2008, since then I have "tweeted" nearly 1600 times and nearly 450 people seem to care) and now I attend "TweetUps" throughout Sacramento and Placer County , have joined a Meetup group or two, have been featured in several news stories just because I use social media, perhaps most importantly I have been fortunate enough to meet hundreds of great people from throughout the Sacramento region. Mashable.com declared today, June 30th " Social Media Day ," so like any good member of the Social Media universe I attended the official Sacramento party at News10 (KXTV) .  The event, which included lunch, was sold out within hours (tickets were free, but limited to the first 75 to sign up) and it was a great opportunity to meet the people I follow on Twitter, talk to friends I have met via ...

Tonight was supposed to be a memorable night for 500 to 1,000 people at the Roseville Galleria .  The idea, break out into song in the Food Court in an effort to spread some holiday cheer and perhaps break a flashmob world record.  The result however was an estimated crowd of 5,000 and as Westfield put it "The enthusiasm for the Hallelujah event tonight was far greater than anticipated by organizers," as the floor began to creak under the weight of the crowd the Roseville Fire Department was called in and the mall began to evacuate for the second time in two months (check out video of the crowd booing the announcement ). Social media takeaways: - @scannerboy02 and @sacnews were the first "media outlets" (they supply video to most local TV stations) to report the news, a full 10+ minutes before any other representative from other major Sacramento news outlets (note this is only based on the reporters, assignment editors, producers and outlets I follow, which ...

As part of the marketing and communications team for the Placer Food Bank (which actually covers more than just Placer County) I got to attend an evening open house at the Food Bank. We wanted to showcase everything that the food bank does for those in need within the community and let people see the warehouse that helps feed thousands everyday. After that event I was able to head to Lincoln's Fresh&Easy to pick up four bottles of Big Kahuna wines for a " Taste & Tweet " party. The aim of the project for Fresh&Easy is to invite bloggers/Twitter users to share their experiences online in a group setting and also share their thoughts with their readers and followers. The theme of the night " Chuck the Chuck " ... all wines were just $1.99 and for the price point the four I tasted were all very good. I'm not a huge fan of whites, but at $1.99 I'll drink to just about anything and both the Crisp White and Chardonnay did the trick. The red...

In May 2009 I bought my house , by July my backyard was complete and I had a BBQ . The BBQ started out with a cover, which continually got blown off by the wind and ripped to shreds, needless to say I gave up the fight to keep it covered. I never really liked the design of the BBQ and rarely used it (since 2009 I have refilled the propane tank once). A few weeks ago I decided it was time for to fix the BBQ. It still worked fine, but it needed a new grill and new burner covers . I went to Home Depot and bought the parts, $80 worth. On the way home, I realized that was a lot of money for a BBQ I didn't like. I thought more and decided it was time to sell the old BBQ on Craigslist , then use that money and what I was going to spend on replacement parts to buy a new BBQ that I actually liked. Less than 24 hours after posting the BBQ, I had an offer and shortly after that I had $60 in cash and an empty spot in my backyard. I did some online research, went to Home Depot and then end...

After watching the Food Network's " The Great Food Truck Race " last summer I was intrigued. The food trucks of today were not the "roach coaches" of yesterday, these offered the gourmet food one would expect at other fast casual restaurants,  but they were on wheels.  Sacramento got its own food truck a few weeks ago and today I got to experience it firsthand during their stop at the Roseville Automall .  I read the tweet, direct messaged a friend to see if she was up for trying a new "restaurant" and then it was off to find the truck. I had the "3 Pack" with Sweet Potato Tots . All the food was truly amazing and reminded me a little bit restaurants like SmashBurger , but it had its own unique taste that set it apart.  Each burger was well cooked, the toppings made them spectacular. The bun was delicious and the Sweet Potato Tots were something I have never seen on a menu before.  I would definitely recommend heading to the Mini Burger Tr...

After buying and assembling my new BBQ , it was time to test it. I was invited by Fresh & Easy to participate in one of their " Taste & Tweet " events, which gave me the opportunity to spend some of their money to buy selected summer white wines and a few items to BBQ. I purchased a package of marinated chicken for my dinner, while getting a mixed grill pack to take to my parents' house for a full weekend of BBQ'ing. The chicken BBQ'd perfectly on the new grill (I wore my new Bogle Vineyards hat), and unlike my old grill, had grill marks. I invited a friend over for the wine tasting, so we enjoyed a complete dinner with vegetables, chicken and bread, plus an assortment of white wines: Unwined Pinot Grigio, Half Shell Crisp White Wine and Ora Pinot Grigio. After an evening of tasting white wines, we needed some red wine, so we quickly headed to La Provence for a glass of wine, before getting invited to Yard House . Once there we ordered from the...