1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to TVG’s EVP Kelly Ferrara!  Celebrations were held at Monday’s staff meeting which included cake, cards and our best effort at singing “Happy Birthday.”
2. Can you say Eyjafjallajokull?  Don’t feel bad if you stumble a bit.  It seems that even experts can’t agree on how to pronounce this Icelandic volcano which has grounded thousands of flights this week due to ash clouds.
3. As if wanting the new iPad wasn’t enough, this week Gizmodo leaked an exclusive first look at the next generation of the iPhone 4g.  Speculation has filled the web and social media outlets – was this all an accident, or was it a planned leak by Apple?  What do you think?
4. In honor of the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, click here for “Five Easy Steps for Going Green.”
5. Are you always connected to social media?  A new study by Ground Truth revealed that “approximately 60 percent of time spent on mobile internet is spent on social networking sites and apps.”

Look for another Friday 5 on April 30 – the last Friday in April.  Wow, where did the month of April go?

1. Kelly Ferrara took her first bite out of the Big Apple this week as she attended the Mirren New Business Conference.  She’s now working on sharing the wealth of her learning!  One of the tips:  the subject line of an email is the most important 6-8 words you’ll write!
2. TVG started off the week with our friends at 4ORCE as they celebrated their new brand and the opening of the first agency-run UX Lab in St. Louis with an open house on Monday.  4ORCE is doing some great things in user experience, an important element to all brands.
3. TVG’s Shelley Lester is in San Francisco today representing the St. Louis IABC at the Pacific Plains’ Regional Meeting.
4. The Sanford-Brown and Missouri College team at TVG spent Tax Day, April 15^th, getting the word out about free massages the schools were offering in St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Tampa.  Altogether the students and faculty gave out hundreds of free massages to help relieve the stress of tax day.
5. To wrap up this week, visit TVG’s Web site…I mean website.  It seems the people at AP Stylebook (the standard for grammar, style and writing in the newspaper/communications industry) have decided to change the term Web site to website.  A hotly debated topic across the industry and here at TVG.

Hope you enjoyed this edition of the Friday 5 and have a wonderful weekend.

1. The TVG team welcomes Bud Gregson who joined TVG as a web designer and programmer. His first order of business will be working with our great client ulrich Medical USA.
2. Sorry folks, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Groundhog’s Day which means six more weeks of winter. The famous rodent wasn’t replaced by a robot as PETA requested, but he did Tweet his forecast.  (Also an important day in my week personally, as I share my birthday with the groundhog. A fact that has earned me the nickname Phil throughout the office.)
3. Hot topics on Twitter this week included the Grammys, Toyota, the Super Bowl, Oscar nominations and Lost.
4. Facebook turns six this week, I joined the site back in 2004 and boy how it’s changed.  Dopplegangers and UrbanDictionary.com name definitions are the craze this week.
5. Congrats to the TVG team for being named to the Top 50 Women Owned Businesses in Missouri by www.diversitybusiness.com.

That’s all for this week. Enjoy your Super Bowl weekend.  Who are you rooting for? Will you even be watching?  I’ll be cheering on the Saints and critiquing all those ads.

So why am I telling you this? Well to kick off 2010, the TVG blog team wants to launch a Friday 5 right here on the blog.  Many bloggers like to recap the week or month with some of their favorite finds or links, and this won’t be much different.

We will share the news and developments in our industry and St. Louis that we found interesting each week, along with any news from your TVG team.

I encourage you all to add your own items to the Friday 5 list.  We don’t have to limit our list to five!

Ok, so here we go… this week’s Friday 5.

1. TVG welcomes Justin Donnell (@Jdonnell84) to the team! He joins TVG as a web developer.
2. The king of technology, Apple, launches their next big thing the iPad – sending Twitter and Facebook abuzz.  Will you be getting an iPad in 2010?
3. The Super Bowl is fast approaching, which means new big ads from our St. Louis neighbors at Budweiser.  This week, through their Facebook page they released a Bud Light commercial that won’t be airing on Super Bowl Sunday. (A lot cheaper than running the ad during the big game.) Check it out (@KellyFerrara and @CassieMcCloud are already disrupting the office by laughing)
4. During his first State of the Union address, President Obama focused on job creation in 2010. In the St. Louis region that includes a $1.1 billion, government-funded project to build a high-speed rail between Chicago and St. Louis.
5. The TVG team met this week to discuss our goals and strategic plans for 2010. One of the items at the top of our list: Innovation.  What are your goals for 2010?

Although on the other side of the world, this disaster has hit close to home for TVG and Pinnacle Worldwide (PWW). Our PWW member in Manila has been impacted by the disaster. PWW is a global network of public relations firms. I am incoming President. We support one another in our professional endeavors, but now we are coming together to support a colleague in need.

Our colleague was hit with chest-high flood waters, but he is counting his blessings as his family is safe. As he works to rebuild, he hopes to help the others who are now homeless and less fortunate. Our colleagues shared his generous thoughts with us, stating:

“[My family and I] hope to be able to do even a little something for the thousands of others who are worse off from this disaster. Life is too precious to spend doing nothing for others. Just to share this with you, knowing that things like this do not happen to everyone, nor every day, and that the human heart understands. Thank you!”

Pinnacle Worldwide is collecting donations to aid the victims of the Philippines typhoon and flooding. To make a donation online, visit: Pinnacle Worldwide.

I would like to thank all of our clients who completed the survey and provided us with valuable feedback on our performance over the past few years. Our team utilizes your input to constantly improve our services and address any areas of concern.

This year TVG was pleased to receive exceptional results, with an overall performance rating of 92, based on a scale of 1-100. For all nine areas measured we received a score of 90 or above, with Business Relations (97), Personnel (98) and Responsiveness and Reliability (95) receiving the highest scores. Additionally, our Quality and Customer Support feedback was one-hundred percent positive. All other categories received positive or neutral ratings, with no negative feedback in any area.

We encourage all of our clients to continue providing us feedback so we can best meet your needs and offer the highest quality services. If you have any questions regarding the survey or any of TVG’s practice areas and services, please contact me anytime by phone at 314-991-4641 or email at dvandiver@vandivergroup.com.

Download Dun & Bradstreet Open Ratings Report

First, I am excited to announce the launch of our newest Web site, www.vandivergroup.com. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to explore the new and updated information on our practice areas and case studies. The launch of our TVG web site is part of a rebrand for TVG that we started last year. Since we do this kind of work for our clients, made sense for us to practice what we preach. We encourage you to share your thoughts on the site at our Twitter account @VandiverGroup or by email to info@vandivergroup.com. Our blog will be open for comments soon, so stay tuned for more opportunities to share feedback.

In addition to our brand, TVG has been significantly evolving over the last year. While maintaining our strong team culture, we have made some great additions to the staff, adding or promoting Practice Leaders for our core areas of expertise. And, we have continued our vigorous professional development to ensure our TVG team can continue to present and deliver leading edge solutions for our clients.

With a struggling economy, it is important to maintain strong business development initiatives, and our solutions team can help you select the best strategy and tactics to move your business forward. TVG has been in the social media and word-of-mouth space for six years. We are charter members of WOMMA (The word of mouth marketing association) and I serve on the ethics task force. We continue to find new ways our clients can use social media to deliver powerful communication solutions. Additionally, we are excited about the continued development of our sustainability, branding, web development, graphic design and employee branding services. You can view a complete list of our services at www.vandivergroup.com/services.

We are truly energized by the changes we’ve made and we look forward to serving our present and new clients in 2009. Thank you for your support and call us, twitter or email us to talk about how you’ll be positioned coming out of the current recession. Happy to offer our insight and counsel.

Another reminder that spring is just around the corner is the beginning of interviews for summer interns at The Vandiver Group. I could hardly believe it when I met our first candidate a couple of weeks ago (I think we must have skipped half of January or something this year!) After returning to my desk and validating the fact that it ACTUALLY is the end of February, I thought it might be a good opportunity to do a quick refresher on some dos and don’ts of interviewing.

1. You can never be too early! Like I mentioned above, at TVG, we are interviewing for our summer intern positions now. While May seems like years away, many organizations begin looking at future staffing levels far in advance in order to be prepared for upcoming projects. The closer we get to mid-May, the more and more resumes start to pour in our inboxes. Take the opportunity to start early and get out in front of your competition!

2. Be prepared. Bring extra copies of your resume, samples of your work and don’t be surprised if you’re asked to complete a writing exercise as part of the interview process.

3. Ask questions – if you need to, prepare a list of questions you have about the organization. And don’t forget to include questions about the culture of company. While skills and work experience are important, it’s also important to make sure that you are a good fit with personality and culture of the organization.

4. You’ve heard it a thousand times, but you need to turn off/silence your cell phone. Even if it is on vibrate, trust me, the buzzing sound is noticeable and is distracting during an interview.

5. Many companies accept cover letters and resumes via email. When submitting your information electronically, be aware of the file names. Files saved as “Resume to use for marketing jobs” or “Use this one” do not appear to be professional.

Best of luck to those beginning the interviewing adventure! I know it can be a nerve-racking experience, but my best advice is to make the interview more of a conversation versus a question and answer session. Oh, and one other reminder, don’t forget to send a thank you note following the interview.

If you need more tips and advice on preparing for interview season, check out Monster.com’s Advice page with job search, resume and interview tips and samples.

TVG has been a member of PWW since 1999 and this will mark the seventh year that Donna has served as a member of the executive committee. Throughout her years of service Donna has collaborated with a number of her PWW colleagues in enhancing client results and building the organization.

Her two-year term as president begins September 1 when she will lead one of the largest organizations of independent PR firms in the world. PWW offers access to more than 45 offices worldwide.