POMA Donation: Social Media Marketing Crash Course

One day of consultation from Sherry Kerr of Outdoor Media Resources for initiating or enhancing your social media marketing program.

Social media marketing is no longer optional, and having a Facebook page is not the same as having a marketing program. We will work with the winning bidder to:

• evaluate existing marketing efforts and assets
• determine what you need to accomplish through social media
• create a strategy
• plan tactics for engaging an online community and “getting found” online
• create accounts/pages and/or enhance existing pages.

We’ll also show you many tips for marketing your brand online, along with do’s and don’ts. We’ll include such platforms as blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other video sites, LinkedIn, social bookmarking, etc. As time permits, we will also address other inbound marketing activities with which social media is integrated, such as search engine optimization (SEO), content development, email marketing, websites, landing pages, and more.

Your one-day crash course will save you months of trial and error and significantly advance your social media marketing efforts.

Available to individuals, businesses, and organizations. (No agencies, please.)

Consultation can be by phone and web or in OMR’s office in Anniston, Alabama.

Sherry Kerr is an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional with over 21 years of experience doing Public Relations and Marketing Communications exclusively for the outdoors industry.

Outdoors International LLC Is New OMR Client

ANNISTON, AL – Outdoor Media Resources has been selected as public relations agency of record for Outdoors International LLC, a network of booking agents for premier hunting and fishing destinations around the world. Headquartered in Hagerman, Idaho, Outdoors International LLC is owned by Cory Glauner, an avid hunter and fisherman who is also an outfitter himself.

“Cory understands both sides of a booking transaction, so he has very high standards for the outfitters he represents,” said Sherry Kerr, president of Outdoor Media Resources. “He’s experienced at evaluating hunting and fishing trips to get the client exactly what he or she is looking for, almost anywhere in the world.”

Unlike most traditional booking agents, Outdoors International LLC also leverages its experience in website design, social media, and internet marketing to gain new audiences for its outfitters and to make information easily accessible to clients.

Outdoor Media Resources is a public relations and marketing communications firm with over 20 years experience working exclusively in the outdoors and shooting sports. Sherry G. Kerr founded and heads the agency, located in Anniston, Alabama.
“My first job in the outdoors industry was doing marketing for a group of hunting lodges, and I’ve promoted many hunting and shooting operations since,” said Kerr. “Working with Outdoors International LLC will be a perfect fit with our other clients and with my experience.”

For more information on Outdoors International LLC, visit http://gothunts.com or contact Cory Glauner at 800-734-9818. To learn more about Outdoor Media Resources, contact Sherry Kerr, SherryOMR@cs.com, 256-831-7877, or visit our website at www.outdoormediaresources.com.

Morris McKenzie Boat Works Selects OMR For PR Services

ANNISTON, AL — Morris McKenzie Boat Works, Inc., makers of customized pontoon boats for fishing, hunting, and other recreations, has selected Outdoor Media Resources as its public relations agency of record.  OMR will implement a comprehensive PR and marketing communications program to introduce the Anniston, Alabama, company and its products to the outdoor recreation market. 

William Burt, founder and owner of Morris McKenzie Boat Works, says his products’ design premise is that “form follows function.”  The boats are designed for versatility, stability, and strength, and each one can be customized for its owner at no extra charge.

For over 20 years, Outdoor Media Resources has been operated by Sherry G. Kerr, its founder and owner.  OMR specializes and works exclusively in the outdoors industry. 

“I’m happy to work with a company that makes such exceptional products, and I’m especially pleased by their attention to pleasing the customer,” said Kerr. “Morris McKenzie’s policy is ‘it’s your boat,’ and they make it yours.”

For more information, visit www.mmboatworks.com and www.outdoormediaresources.com, or contact Sherry Kerr, 256-831-7877, SherryOMR@cs.com.

 

 

 

Hal Swiggett

Hal Swiggett came into my life in 1988, within weeks after Outdoor Media Resources came into being.  Hal died Monday, March 2, 2009, at the age of 87.

As an outdoor writer and editor who specialized in handguns, Hal was my first and best public relations success story.  Immediately before we met, he had written unkind words about not only the pistol scopes being made by my first client, Simmons, but about the company itself.  That meant I had to address it.  I wrote Hal a letter expressing my desire to change his opinion of Simmons, to have the company learn from the points he had raised, and to have him help us develop a better product.  We became fast friends.

A few months later, I sent Hal a prototype of a new pistol scope my client was considering producing, one they thought would correct the problems Hal had identified in no uncertain terms.  My accompanying note said, “See if you can break this.”  For many years thereafter, I read and heard Hal tell the story of that note, his effort to break the scope, and how he shot with right and left trigger fingers until he no longer could, then pulled the trigger of his 44 Mag with his middle finger. 

That actually turned out to be good practice for Hal.  What’s the worst thing that could happen to a gunwriter?  Near the top of the list would be somehow losing use of his trigger finger, but that’s just what happened to Hal several years later. A freak tire-changing accident cost him his trigger finger, but not once did I hear him complain.  “I have nine others,” he told me.

I hunted with Hal many times - moose, bears, whitetails, and hogs – and on our last hunt together, he even let me persuade him to use a muzzleloader. That still didn’t keep him from showing up at the Nail Ranch in Texas with his vehicle full of handguns. Big ones, little ones, new ones, old ones, some with the lowest serial numbers most of us had ever seen.

Once at an NRA convention, I complimented Hal, who always wore a vest, on the very distinctive one he was wearing. Two days later, I got an identical one in the mail. At the following NRA convention, we drew chuckles wearing our matching vests – unplanned – to the American Handgunner Awards dinner.  I wore mine so he could see me wearing it. He wore his, he said, to prove to me that he actually hadn’t sent me the vest off his back. I learned to be cautious when complimenting my generous friend, more than once saying something like, “I like your turquoise watchband – but I don’t want it!”

He somehow learned that I collected loon decoys, so for years he sent me every “loony” thing he came across – decoys, collector plates, photos, art prints. If it were legal to kill or capture one, I have no doubt he would have sent me the real thing.

Hal Swiggett was not only a gunwriter but also a Baptist minister who fulfilled his calling by visiting hospitals every day, and he was a devoted husband to his dear Wilma. To me, he was the kind of friend who would give candid advice, keep my secrets, appreciate my successes, give compassion or consolation when I needed it, and tell me what I needed to hear, even when it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

Hal was in declining health in recent years, and I’ve missed him.  Now, as I learned of his death, I’m celebrating his long and happy life, doing exactly what he wanted to do.  Goodbye, dear friend.

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 Note:  Thanks to my friends, outdoor writers Jim Foster and Bill Miller, who contacted me to pass along the news of Hal’s death.  Below is the obituary Jim forwarded.

SWIGGETT
Harold “Hal” Swiggett, age 87, passed away from the loving arms of his family to the loving arms of his Lord on Monday, March 2, 2009. He was born to Otho Benjamin & Mildred Swiggett in Moline, Kansas. He was preceded in death by his son, Vernon Lee Swiggett. He is survived by his beloved wife, Wilma C. Swiggett; sons, Dr. Gerald Eugene Swiggett (Ida); daughter in law, Linda Swiggett; grandchildren, Donna, Darryl, Leah, Katherine, Stuart; great grandchildren, Nathan, Leanne, Jordan, Ryan, Zachary, Meredith, D.J., Haille, Cameron.

Mr. Hal Swiggett was a gun writer for over fifty years; African big game hunter with over 25 hunts with a handgun only, a 30-year contributor to Gun Digest, Field Editor of the “North American Hunter” and Senior Editor of Harris Publications. Hal was included in the “Top Ten” Outstanding American Handgunner Award for 10 years and was awarded the first place bronze sculpture on the 10th time. He served on the committee that built the NRA National Firearms Museum. Hal is also an ordained minister giving comfort to hospital patients daily.

SERVICES
The family will be having Private Services. In lieu of flowers, the family requests yard plants.

Outdoor Media Resources To Represent Clearidge Optics

ANNISTON, AL – Outdoor Media Resources has been chosen as the public relations agency of record for Clearidge Optics, a new Michigan-based company offering Japanese-made sporting optics directly to consumers.

Outdoor Media Resources, headed by Sherry G. Kerr, has specialized in the shooting sports and outdoors industry for 20 years.  The sporting optics category has been a mainstay of OMR’s client list since the company was founded, giving it a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable and experienced agencies in the industry and in the optics category.

“I’m intrigued by and eager to work with Clearidge for two main reasons,” said OMR’s Sherry Kerr.  “First is that the products are of very high quality, made by the best optics manufacturer in Asia.  Having represented other brands with products made there, I know these optics are competitive with the best on the market and that consumers appreciate the quality. Secondly, selling the products directly to consumers, primarily through the internet, allows online shoppers to buy these exceptional products at very reasonable prices and in the way they want to shop.”

Clearidge Optics’ product line currently comprises three riflescope series, including six hunting and target models with a 5x zoom ratio. Clearidge made a “soft” launch of its product line last year, with retail sales through www.theopticzone.com.  It will make its official launch with direct sales through www.clearidgeoptics.com later this month.

For more information, contact Sherry G. Kerr, Outdoor Media Resources, SherryOMR@cs.com, 256-831-7877, or visit www.clearidgeoptics.com.

 

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