HAWLEY, PA - Manassy Media Owner Erik Manassy announced today the launch of the FINsure360 web site (FINsure360.com) Web site.

FINsure360 is a Unit of Iron Cove Partners, LLC (“IC”). IC, a Whitmore Group, Ltd. Company, is a twenty-two (22) year old full-service insurance brokerage firm employing over seventy-five (75) dedicated insurance professionals with its Headquarters in Garden City, NY and additional offices in NYC and Florida.

Shout out to @manassymedia for doing a great job with the FINsure360 website! Everything is moving along nicely! #ironcove #hedgefund

June 22, 2011 6:01 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@FINsure360

FINsure360.com

Lou D'Agostino is a Former Running Back with the New York Jets

Led by Louis D’Agostino, Follow @louisdagostino, he is the Partner, Senior Vice President of Iron Cove Partners, LLC, a Whitmore Group, Ltd. company. Louis is responsible for the day-to-day insurance brokerage operations and business development initiatives of FINsure360.

Manassy Media developed the logo and branding for the unit of Iron Cove, FINsure360.  The idea was to keep it in the family of the Iron Cove look and feel.  The swoops and color branding were incorporated in the new brand.  The web site is a fully functional content management system that allows the users of the site to update content on the fly from any web browser or mobile device.

Equipped with a blog, Financial insurance information will be made available on a schedule which will also be incorporated into the FINsure360′s social networks (Twitter and Facebook).  Designed with SEO optimization in mind, the strategy was to develop a site to take advantage of the popular search engine’s criteria for ranking high.

The Main page of the FINSURE360.com Web Site

When developing the FINsure360 site, it had to be “Professional, Wall street and Clean”.  The site is minimalistic with a target audience for CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies.

Manassy Media is a new media company based in Hawley, PA. We work with small business owners and Fortune 100-500 companies to design and implement digital marketing strategies to connect them to potential customers, existing clients, future prospects, and partners, and to humanize and build their brand.  To inquire about services call Erik Manassy at (717) 469-5387 or inquire online about your project!

The Manassy Media Logo on the Camp T-Shirts

Steve Weatherford, the punter for the New York Jets, held his camp, Camp Weatherford on Saturday July 16th for 100 football players in high school.  Manassy Media had the pleasure of being involved with this event by creating the official site www.campweatherford.com, and the brochure and sign up forms.

Working with Chuck Vine from The Titan Group, the strategy, timelines, and end result were established in a effiecient and high quality matter.

In addition, Manassy Media facilitated the online contest to determine the logo for camp.

Instructor Gear

The project had 3 major goals:

Goal #1 – Get the word out about Steve Weatherfordʼs Camp “Camp Weatherford”

Goal #2 – Increase Steveʼs twitter followers, and his Agentʼs account (TheTitanGrp)

Goal #3 - Establish a logo and brand for Camp Weatherford for web site, shirts, and print material

Download the Weatherford White Paper

How Manassy Media achieved the goals:

• Developed Contest Strategy and Voting System
• Involved Sponsors, created a buzz on their products
• Developed Camp Weatherfordʼs Sign-up forms and Brochures
• Developed Twitter, Facebook Strategy and got the fan base tweeting, retweeting sending major traffic to the site.
• Managed the contest, the prizes and the correspondence.
• Recommendations of Tweets for Steve and his team. Timing is everything.

Camp WEATHERFORD 2011 was a smashing success. A special thanks to my sponsors and special guest coaches that made this day so special.

July 16, 2011 3:42 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@Weatherford9

Steve Weatherford

Steve Weatherford (Left)

Be sure to follow Manassy Media on Twitter to stay up on all the projects and updates!

Follow @manassymedia

I had the privilege to work on a website for the Japanese American Association of New York in conjunction with former MLB Mets Manager Bobby Valentine last month to support an event to help with the Japanese relief efforts.  This past weekend, Bobby held his Stamford on the Sound Wine Tasting and I attended the event with my wife.

Stamford on the Sound Took Place by the Harbor

…Valentine is dealing with the impact of the tsunami the best way he knows how — by giving and using his celebrity as a baseball manager to full effect. Valentine is spearheading a Stamford on the Sound charity event on Saturday, in which he will bring together former players, sports personalities and Hollywood celebrities, including former players David Cone, Darryl Strawberry and Lee Mazzilli.

BobbyV_ESPN Thanks to the 1100 people and the many celebrities and friends who came to Stamfordonthesound last night. Special thanks the Richard Gere 6/19/11 8:31 AM

As a HUGE Mets fan, I was looking for Darryl Strawberry and Lee Mazzilli but didn’t see either at the event.  I immediately recognized Bobby Valentine, who was very approachable and talking with just about everyone in the VIP tent.  Richard Gere showed up for the photo ops in the beginning, but then I saw David Cone and approached him.

Cone and I spoke about his rookie year, how his arm was holding up, and what he was doing these days.  I asked him if he keeps in touch with any of his past teammates and he said not really because they are scattered all over the country.  He did know that Darryl wasn’t coming and that he was still in St. Louis busy with his wife.  I tried not to show my disappointment, as Strawberry was my childhood baseball idol.  I wanted to be him.

David and I talking about Twitter

I then asked David if he was on Twitter and his reaction was priceless.  He kind of jumped and said NO WAY.  I”m not ready for that!  With all the controversy and headaches twitter has caused some celebrities recently, I could understand why he felt that way.  I told him it’s not the tool, it’s the person that would be exposed.  He agreed and then said that maybe he would consider it but no time in the near future.

I ended my conversation with David with him showing me his range of motion left in his pitching arm.  Let’s just say that baseball has wrecked his arm.  He clearly couldn’t throw anymore and when he tried to force his arm into the motion, you could hear this horrid clicking noise.  I made a face in wonderment and knew that he would not trade his MLB career  for anything as he was only one of few to ever throw a PERFECT GAME in the majors.  The clicking noise was just a small price to pay for the glory.

BobbyV_ESPN Also a big thank you to David Cone for being at the event and staying all night 6/19/11 8:32 AM

Bobby Valentine was the MC of the event, and with the silent auctions, the wine tastings and the samples of great food, the event was a great success.

Bobby V was a great MC

Valentine remains mum on how much he wants to raise from his charity event, but he has already secured several prominent sponsors and hopes to sell 1,000 tickets to the event, bringing together groups such as the Stamford Chamber of Commerce, The Japanese-American Association of New York, BLT Harbor Point and the Manassy Media Group.

“We want to do as well as we can, raise as much as we can,” Valentine said. “But in something like this, you don’t have to hit a home run. You can hit the warning track here and we’d be quite happy.”

From what I saw, it looked like the ball was hit out of the park into the upper deck.  I want to thank Kristian Dyer for the plug of Manassy Media in the quote and article.  Manassy Media appeared on MLB.com!!

HAWLEY, PA –  On June 1, 2011, in partnership with The Titan Group, Manassy Media launched the official Camp Weatherford Web site along with a logo contest. In support of The Titan Group’s client,  New York Jets Punter Steve Weatherford, Camp Weatherford is a free football camp for grades 9-12 held in his home town and H.S. of Terre Haute Indiana.

Camp Weatherford Site and Contest

The web site was developed to get the word out about Steve’s camp.  With no graphical presence, an idea to run a contest for a fan/designer to develop the look and the feel of the camp was hatched.  With the web site going up literally in one day, fans were hitting the site the moment it was launched.

New York Jets Punter Steve Weathorford on Twitter

Social media and crowd sourcing were key elements that made the web page work, and it worked very well as the site was averaging traffic comparable of sites that have been around for years.  One of the key components of the site was the ability to allow the fans to vote for the logo.  As new entries were submitted, users could vote to determine the outcome of the contest.

President of the Titan Group, Chuck Vine's Tweet

Also on the site were the companies that sponsor Steve Weatherford.  The logos were strategically placed throughout the site giving exposure and links back to the companies.

On June 13th, the contest concluded and the winner was awarded a handsome grand prize, Jets Tickets, a signed authentic Jets Jersey and player parking passes.

The strategy was simple:

• Create a lot of buzz for Camp Weatherford
• Create exposure for Steve Weatherford on social media including Twitter and Facebook
• Get the buzz and conversations going between Steve, his fans, and camp supporters

All the goals were achieved and excelled expectation.  There was a tremendous amount of traffic to the web site in just over one week.

Testimonial

(Facebook)- Louis D’Agostino (Former Jets RB & Partner of The Titan Group)

Great job Erik Manassy in putting everything together so quickly and efficiently. I really like the final logo…loved the whole contest idea but it wouldn’t have been possible without you putting it together so quickly. Glad you and Chuck E Vine connected!! It brought some great exposure to Steve Weatherford and what will be a great Football Camp!! #jetstwit #winning

In addition to the web site, Manassy Media developed the brochure / Sign up form for Camp Weatherford where participants can download the PDF.  (See it in action)

What visitors to any Manassy Media site do not see are the behind the scenes reports and strategy documents.  One of the advantages of choosing Manassy Media as your online digital partner are the clear and easy to understand strategies and recommendations to take customer goals to the next level.

Manassy Media Strategy Reports

This is the FIRST Post in a series called “Social Media Dashboards”.

Dashboards.  That was a big buzzword at one of my recent jobs.  The idea to get all kinds of information on one screen and then the ability to dig deeper is appealing to executives who want to graze the key issues with limited time.

Three main types of digital dashboard dominate the market today: stand alone software applications, web-browser based applications, and desktop applications also known as desktop widgets. The last are driven by a widget engine.

The more I blog on the New York Jets and other topics, the more sources I want to tap into whether it’s an individual, company, blog or any source.

What makes it difficult is that there is SO much information coming at you and without a plan to mine this information, it can become overwhelming and influence you to quit looking, researching and reading.

Over time, I didn’t realize but I started creating my own dashboard, my Social Media Dashboard.  My tools are ALL web based and I use various tools and platforms and at any given time.  Because it is web based I can see my entire world of the topic I follow (The New York Jets) anywhere on any platform.

What is amazing is that EVERY SINGLE tool I use is free.  I don’t pay one cent for any of them which is simply amazing and is proof that anyone can become a thought leader, blogger, and expert on any topic if the passion is there.  Without the passion, time, and perseverance, YOU WILL GIVE UP.

So first you are probably wondering what information and sources I keep in my dashboard.  For this example, let’s use my Jets Blog (JetsTwit.com) as the “company”.

Information Overload, How do you Track EVERY SOURCE?

For my blog, I want to gather a holistic picture of Market Intelligence to make my blog the best it can be.  I need to monitor the following topics, and I do it on social media platforms.  Topics include:

• Competitor Blogs
• Fans on Twitter
• Partner Sites / Blogs
• Influential People in Jets Land (Journalists, Bloggers, Jets Employees and of course Players)

The platforms include:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Forums
• Jets Blogs

I’m always listening to these channels.  There are days it looks like I’m not paying attention because maybe you are looking for output on my social media accounts or blogs, but trust me, I’m there EVERY SINGLE DAY, listening.  There are many reasons why I may not post such as no hot topics such as I’m busy or the main reason for me is that I do not tweet or blog just to do it.  I want to make sure I’m putting out the highest quality content possible.

There is SO much detail to put into one post.   I could go into about what my dashboard tools are or how and why I blog and tweet certain topics to gain certain calls to action.  In this blog series, I’ll be posting multiple times digging deeper into the method of my madness and how I tackle blogging, social media, and doing business on the new web.

Next Topic ——>  Setting up the Dashboard Foundation

I would like to congratulate our client Lou Cella from the Flexbone Association!

Flexbone Association Co-Owner, Lou Cella, will be joining the staff at The United States Military Academy at West Point Preparatory School this fall.

Manassy Media Client Lou Cella

This will be Cella’s second college coaching position as he spent the last several years coaching at Lackawanna College (PA) working with the winningest active Junior College Coach in the country in Mark Duda.  In 2006, with Cella as an Assistant, Lackawanna College went 10-0, the only undefeated season in the college’s history.  Now he gets to serve as an assistant coach at one of the most storied programs in college football history.

“Working in any capacity at West Point is such an honor,” Cella said in a statement. “I have been a fan of Army football since I was young, and some of the best memories in my life were during the 1990s when then-Head Coach, Bob Sutton was running the Triple Option there.”

Coach Cella has spent the last 16 seasons coaching football.

Cella, will work as an Offensive Assistant for Head Football Coach, Tom Simi at the United States Military Academy at West Point Preparatory School—also known as Army Prep or West Point Prep.  Coach Cella will spend his coaching days on the campus at West Point while playing home games at Michie Stadium. The preparatory school is moving from its current Fort Monmouth, New Jersey location to West Point this summer.

Currently, Cella owns the Flexbone Association, which provides triple-option based football camps to participating high schools while offering other amenities such as clinics, online forums, videos, and daily professional development at www.flexboneassociation.com.

Congratulations Coach Lou Cella from Manassy Media!!

Can you maybe give me a quote about how it has helped your blog start and grow?  I’d really appreciate it.  Doesn’t need to be much.

David – As you know, I am a DIE HARD JETS FAN.  I was spending so much time online reading and collecting everything I could about the Jets.  I then decided I was going to make the dive into blogging to get my voice out there (http://JetsTwit.com/).  Prior, I joined twitter in 2006 (@e_man).  I was the 11K person to sign up, talk about early adopter.  The problem was that I had no idea what the service was for AND there was no one online yet to interact with so I left it and came back in 2007.

 

EVERY SINGLE DAY, I would show up on twitter and just talk Jets football.  I would search for people who were also Jets fans.  I would share links, talk about the team, and just make friendships.  When the blog was launched, I already had a Jets cult following so people jumped on the blog fast because of twitter.  I didn’t have to work nearly has hard as most do because I was “established”.  In Jets land I was big, but if you look at it on a global scale, I’m small potatoes, but I was going after a niche group JETS FANS.

What twitter and other social media mediums have done is allow me to get my content out fast and it levels the playing field with the traditional media.  I’m viewed today as a Jets expert (I don’t believe I am and Humbled People Think That) and I have never worked for them and I do not have a journalism degree.  I am just a Jets fan who has taken twitter, blogging and other mediums to a high level to allow me to:

• Meet Jets players (Communicated with Kerry Rhodes to hook up this meeting on the field)
• Be on the fields during OTAs, Training Camps (Captured Jason Taylor)
• Form GREAT relationships with other Fans
• Start a company Manassy Media – http://ManassyMedia.com (this site)
• Land a LARGE deal with Bobby Valentine because of Twitter – http://relief.jaany.org/
• Improve my writing (I’ve posted over 1200 blog posts, and have 43,000 tweets)

Finally, I saw that many people were asking for advice about developing sites, blogging and just strategy as they saw I was having success.  I formed a company Manassy Media (http://ManassyMedia.com) , and the clients I’m attracting are in the sports field (due to what I believe is my twitter account since I talk mostly sports).

Clients thus far:

• Flexbone Association
• Football Strength and Conditioning Association
• Football Special Teams Association
• Bobby Valentine
• Japanese American Association of NY (Through Bobby Valentine)

So everything I’ve spoken about has happened because of Twitter.  One final note, I used to be made fun because I loved twitter and was an early adopter.  People thought all I used it for was to post pictures of what I was eating.  Who’s laughing now, and they KNOW IT.

Are you like me?  Thinking of starting up a business about something you are so passionate about!?  Hit me up on Twitter or email me!  erik@manassymedia.com or @e_man.

Thanks for reading!!

HAWLEY, PA – Manassy Media Owner Erik Manassy announced today the launch of the website http://Relief.Jaany.Org/, the site being supported by former New York Mets Manager and current ESPN Baseball Analyst Bobby Valentine and other members of the Japanese American Association of New York.  The website is a micro-site that focuses on awareness of the destruction that the Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims are now experiencing.  A press conference was held today in New York.

Visit Relief.jaany.org

Said Erik Manassy “I’m honored to have been selected to work on such a noble cause to help bring awareness for so many people who have been devastated by these natural events.  As a long time New York Mets fan, I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with Bobby Valentine and his organization as well as be associated with former members of the 86′ Mets team specifically Darryl Strawberry.”

The web site features an area where people can donate in any way possible including online, by check or direct contact.  In addition there are other opportunities to contribute by participating in two upcoming events in Stamford CT.  ”Stamford on the Sound” and the “Global Money Ball Softball Invitational” will be led by ESPN’s current Baseball analyst Bobby Valentine.

See this page in action

Former Mets Great, Darryl Strawberry

At the events there will be a host of celebrities as well including:

• Richard Gere
• David Cone
• Lee Mazzilli
• Darryl Strawberry
• Brian Cashman
• Omar Minaya
• Ed Randell

More are expected to attend once they confirm.

Along with the celebrities, attendees will also be able to bid on auction items which include some unique trips and New York Sports Memorabilia.

The website is a micro-site of the Japanese American Association of New York and can be accessed by visiting http://Relief.jaany.org/.

For Media Inquires About the Site Launch

Please Contact:

Erik Manassy

Manassy Media

570-470-9198

erik@manassymedia.com

I had viewed a tweet a couple of days ago where someone said that Gary Vaynerchuck, author of the “Thank You Ecomomy“,  put this executive in his place because as quoted by Gary “He put me in a corner”.  The Executive kept asking him for the ROI on social media.  Gary, not needing the business and not trying to be mean spirited, quiped back with:

“What’s the ROI of your Mother?”

Putting the mother joke aside, because that’s funny in itself, he has a point.  How do you measure the value of your mother in charts and numbers?   You can’t!  In order to see a Mother’s worth, you look at her children.  You look at their success.  Dive deep into their personalities and you will find out their value system.  Now there isn’t one perfect human being on this earth, but when you look at the Mother and see that the child has a great foundation, you know there is great return on investment.

That’s the point Gary was making with social media.  I have been killing it on twitter and facebook for a long time (well, 5+ years is long since these technologies were born around 2006ish).  I started a blog, created a persona (@e_man and @JetsTwit) on twitter and just showed up everyday talking about my passions.  I am authentic, what you see is what you get online.  I’m not trying to sell you anything, although it eventually went there as a progression.

I created Manassy Media because many people were asking me to help them with their social media goals.  I was in demand and my following was growing.  Now, I cannot put a return on investment on what I have done because how do you put a cost on the time I spent “hustling” (Gary’s word) on these mediums?

If you want me to guess the amount of hours I put online… Well, just think how long it takes you to tweet and then look at my tweet count from @e_man alone:  40K Plus!  You get the point.  Do I take it to the extreme, maybe, but I don’t look at my numbers, stats, etc to get worth.  I look at the lives I’m touching, the conversations I’m having and I know I’m creating value to most, not all.

Maybe one day there will be a way to track an ROI on Social media, but right now, I personally know that I’m getting return on investment:  The relationships I create today lead to bigger things tomorrow.  It’s already happening.

If you want a great laugh, and don’t mind the mouth of a sailor, check out Gary speaking to a group this month at “Summit at Sea.

Can you believe Twitter is five years old? They celebrated their birthday last week and I have to be honest with you, I have reaped some great spoils from being on this medium.  The first time I signed up in 2006 nobody was online so I didn’t see the value in it YET.  I was waiting it out to see if more people would join the conversation and offer up their conversation, but that didn’t stop me from trying to recruit my favorite blogs from joining.

I originally wrote a story on my Jets Twit Blog called “Twitter is the Game Changer for Sports News Online!!“.  Then one of my favorite bloggers Brian Bassett reminded me of a conversation we had back in early 2008 about Twitter and he recalled the conversation on his personal Tumblr Blog.

I love the fact that he was able to pull up our IM chat that he had saved in Gmail.  (I by the way found the same conversation in my archives).  I REALLY REALLY enjoyed reading it again.

If I had to explain what twitter is today, I would use the same approach I did back then.  You have to remember something, back in 2008, no one really knew what twitter was or what good it would do.  Just read Brian’s replies to me, he didn’t get it JUST AS EVERYONE didn’t get it, including me when I first found the site in 2006.

The one thing that makes me feel good is that I had the vision to see that this was going to be a game changer back then.  If you have ever worked with me in business you know the catch phrase I use when I get excited about something:

“Wouldn’t it be cool if….”

When the light bulb went off and I got excited about something, I would say with great passion, wouldn’t it be cool if, and then followed by the idea.  Now the reaction I get from that phrase is funny as most roll their eyes or sigh.  It’s because I’m looking into my cyrstal ball and my gut is screaming at me that I’m on to something hot.  Well, that day it was screaming to me that twitter is going to be a big deal and my goal was to try to get as many people on board early on so we could be the pioneers.

I’m happy that JetsTwit.com was born from years of using twitter in which Manassy Media LLC was born from that.  So, I guess when I became the 11,016th person to sign up for twitter, little did I know that five years later a succuesful business plan would have been born from that one action.

Thanks Twitter.  Let’s hope in five more years I’m talking about another big service I found!