A press release from Handshake Media, Incorporated, a VT KnowledgeWorks member company:
Summary: Business news and online public relations services site addresses the universal through the local with innovative business model and celebrates one-year anniversary.
(Blacksburg, VA, July 23, 2009) – As a business news site, Handshake 2.0 creates its own content. As a public relations services site, it creates content for its clients. Built on a blog, the site features updated, dynamic content. The combination has generated growing site traffic and business results for clients since its launch on July 28, 2008.
“When Handshake 2.0 launched, I envisioned a business news site focused on the local economy. One year later, we’ve evolved into a site creating content for an international audience. Local business stories contain profound business truths,” says Anne Giles Clelland, President of Handshake Media, Incorporated, and founder of Handshake 2.0. “What differentiates Handshake 2.0 from other business sites is that we showcase people and the companies and products they’ve created. Other sites do reviews and editorials well. We tell a company’s story.”
Stuart Mease, social media and regional evangelist, City of Roanoke, VA, and host of Connecting People in the RNR, a Handshake 2.0 video series, says “Anne's vision - every business blogs - has the potential to transform our community by creating a sticky online presence, while reinforcing the offline image of our area being the most wired small community in the U.S. Her site is an example of a hybrid media company equivalent to a local version of TechCrunch.com, a Chamber of Commerce, and the newspaper. She is our region's technology reporter and Handshake 2.0 is the community where it all comes together.”
Handshake 2.0 exemplifies the services it touts by integrating social media tools into the company's public relations and marketing strategy. “Media fragmentation is a real challenge for businesses,” says Clelland. “How do they get the word out now that potential customers receive information through so many sources? Handshake 2.0 is an answer. Once we learn a company’s story, we share it through our network of social media information distribution channels. We share a company’s news with thought and heart, not automation.”
According to Jim Flowers, Director of VT KnowledgeWorks, business acceleration center and technology incubator at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia, “In only a year, Handshake 2.0 has established itself as a first-class blog, ranked in the top 0.3% of blogs tracked by Technorati. In addition, Anne Clelland is now the acknowledged regional expert on social media. Very few start-ups achieve that level of market success in their first year.”
About Handshake 2.0
An enterprise of Handshake Media, Incorporated, a digital public relations firm founded by Anne Giles Clelland, Handshake 2.0 is a business news and digital public relations services site. It features the latest developments in entrepreneurship, business models, business leaders, innovation and companies, from start-ups to moguls. Handshake Media, Incorporated, is a member company of VT KnowledgeWorks, located at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia. For more information about Handshake 2.0, please visit www.handshake20.com.
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VT KnowledgeWorks is a unique growth enhancement program open to entrepreneurs in the New River Valley of Virginia and beyond. Acceleration center and incubation facilities are located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.
VT KnowledgeWorks sponsors include Attaain, Inc., BB&T, Handshake 2.0, Harris Office Furniture, Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., Latimer, Mayberry & Matthews IP Law, LeClairRyan, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and The Becher Agency (TBA).
Where do I go to stay up-to-date on local and regional news – Handshake 2.0, of course! Congratulations on a truly successful year, Anne. I know I speak on behalf of many when I say you have branded Handshake 2.0 as THE GO-TO website showcasing the successes, talent and news of the region.
Posted by: Lindsey Eversole | July 24, 2009 at 10:46 AM