HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY PHILLY CHIT CHAT re: changes are coming

One year ago I set out to do something different for the Philadelphia blog scene. I had recently returned from NYC (Manhattan) where I had lived for 18 months on a business trip, and fell into a side career as a celebrity photographer/paparazzi/blogger (see http://www.ConfessionsofaPaparazzi.com ) I would shoot events and report about the on goings of the people I observed, including the other photographers. I was inspired by several social sites I had read even before I moved to NYC including the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Social Scene, Phila Magazines Party Pictures, Gawker, Patrick McMullen, Hamptons Magazine, NY Magazine, the NYT Society Pages, and a few other sites. When I returned to Philly I wanted to create something similar for our town, not particularly celebrity based, but something that would cover all the basis. A site that not only covered events, news and social happenings that weren’t getting the coverage they deserved by the dailies, or other blogs/sites, and certainly not on a daily basis by the monthly magazines; I thought what about A Social Journal or Diary with no regard to class, age, race or standing, with comprehensive coverage of the event including photos of the people who attended, the venue, the event planners, the PR Companies, what goes into creating an event, promoting the event, and anything else that was interesting to write about in the Philly area.For the most part over this past year I have done a lot of what I set out to do, and the results were amazing, a potpourri of coverage. First I want to thank Thom Cardwell who took me under his wing last April 2007 and allowed me to cover the Philadelphia International Film Festival from soup to nuts. That was an amazing experience, and really solidified my vision. Now I cover those Film Events as a press person as my blog has become a news source, in addition some of the photos I have taken in Philadelphia have appeared in the Inquirer, and in magazines including People, Us Magazine, Elle, InStyle and in the overseas market. Now many of Philly’s PR Firms call on me to cover their events as my site gets results. GOOGLE has taken notice and as soon as I post an entry they rank it, and in Philadelphia/Philly it ranks high when you do a word searches, most of the time when newly ranked as the first item. After a few weeks it will still be on the same page or the second page. So if someone wanted to know how to dress for the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center’s Round Up, held annually, and they did a search say on “children’s crisis treatment center round up”, my site comes up first and they can see how people dressed for that event.Which brings me to my second big thank you, to the Nicole Cashman & Associates. Cashman & Assoc. was the first PR Firm that realized the innovation of my blog as a news source and allowed me to come and shoot the opening of G Lounge, something that I wasn’t even sure someone would think was a legitimate news venue (I hadn’t heard about SocialPhilly.com yet) and it didn’t hurt that sometimes my photos would appear in INQlings as a photo from this event that I took did. From that one event, and the popularity of the G Lounge, Google took notice and drove traffic to my site as well as the G Lounge. My dream of creating a Philly Social Diary took off. Over the past six months I have gone to a lot of events and really gotten myself out there. Now when I shoot an event someone always tells me, your Philly Chit Chat, I read you every day. Which always embarrasses me a little. So as I pass my one year anniversary I want to say that I am kicking it up a notch and have started to make a few changes to make Philly Chit Chat the kind of site where people want to read, want me to cover their events, whether it’s a celebrity red carpet event (I won’t be giving that up), charity event, fox hunt, the grand opening parties held at stores, the Zoobilee, visiting dignitary, press junkets (hello Allied & Jesse Cute, of Terry Hines & Associates CALL ME I WANT TO COVER YOUR EVENTS), & promote as many charity events as possible while continuing to write about interesting things that occur in our City, and breaking news when it happens and photographing you and the people you want to know. I also want to thank YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU, MY READERS, and Michael Klein, Mary Patel, Holly Dean, Dana Lombardo, Carrie Nork, Nicole Bilcher, Ashley Schaffer and all the girls from Cashman, Steve McCann, Brett Silvers, James Duggan, Gus Calabrese, man about town Matthew Vlahos, Nathan Learner, Phyllis Halpern, and Sarah Doheny for their guidance & wisdom in the society world. (Mitch Williams at the Big Brother/Big Sister charity bowling party in March)And thanks to David Iams, Brian Rochford and Carol Springer for passing the baton to the next generation of folks covering the Social Scene. (which by the way I was going to change my name to, I even bought Philly Social Scene, but I did a survey and folks said I already branded myself Philly Chit Chat; so even if the Hilton’s and the Forbes roll their eyes when I say I am shooting for my site Philly Chit Chat, it’s a Social Diary! I have to grin and bear it – LOL; BUT by this time next year they are going to want to be on the site!! How about you, email me at Buzz @phillyChitChat.com won’t you?)