Greetings!!

Hello Gaithersburg Patch readers! Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many blog posts from me, Robin Ferrier.

Who am I? Well, in a (not so small) nutshell:

• Communications Manager, Johns Hopkins Montgomery County. Lest you think this seems self-explanatory, my job includes: media relations, community relations, social media, internal and external communications, marketing and advertising, speechwriting, partnership development, business development, the campus web site (which is soon to be relaunched with a new and improved design), and a lot of other things that fall under that great phrase, "other duties as assigned."
• PR Committee Chair, Gaithersburg Book Festival. So this is my passion. (If they could pay  me, I'd work full time for the book festival! Awesome event. Have I mentioned this year's festival is May 21. Come! You wont' regret it!) I love to read. I love books and authors. I haven't yet been converted to a Nook or a Kindle lover, though I see the benefits of e-readers. I just can't get myself to give up that great feel of a book in my hands. I also blog  for the book festival, handle its Twitter account and update its Facebook page.
• Chair of the Communications/Marketing Committee for Leadership Montgomery. This is a great organization that opened up my eyes to aspects of the County I never knew existed.
• Immediate Past President of Capital Communicators Group. A really great group of 1,500+ communications, PR, and public affairs professionals from the D.C. area. We hold monthly lunches on a variety of comms/PR/PA topics. Really informal... which is part of the reason the blog page isn't updated as often as it should be.
• Past Co-Chair, Marketing Committee, Tech Council of Maryland
• Regular guest speaker on social media and PR topics. My most recent presentation was at the Rockville Women's Business Center.
• Contributing blogger at Women Grow Business.
• My professional background also includes work in the Corporate Communications Department of Choice Hotels and work within the PR and marketing departments of a book publishers, small PR firm, and literary agency.

My Blog:
So what is my blog going to be about? All things PR, marketing, social media, and communications. It's going to run the gamut. I'm going to talk about my successes and other company's successes. I'm going to talk about my failures. I'm going to lend my advice on what works and what doesn't. And I hope I'll be answering your questions. Please, please, please send me your questions. It will help me know what topics you find interesting.

So that's it for Post #1. A little bit about me and what I plan to do in this space. If you plan to be a frequent reader/commenter, feel free to introduce yourself below, post comments on what you'd like me to blog about, or send me your questions... and come back early next week for my first true post. Hope you'll be reading me again soon!