Andrew Kaplan Live - Public Speaking, Radio, and TV

Andrew Kaplan,award winning Toastmaster and public speaker, is speaking to groups around the country regarding social media and branding. Kaplan brings a lively and interesting perspective to his talks which can be customized to your group. Kaplan brings his unique perspective of being an early adopter of social media combined with his backgrond working in traditional media. In 1987, Kaplan started a consulting practice to bring sales and mobile computing technologies to with over 200 companies including 30 Fortune 500 companies. If your organization would like to book, Kaplan as a speaker, please contact us with your dates, name of your group and topic.

Andrew Kaplan Public Speaking Biography


Andrew R. Kaplan is the Managing Partner of MediaMensch Networks, a company focused on building brands and communities using social media and traditional public relations. Over the past two years Kaplan has launched LinktoCharlotte which was one of the first and now one of the fastest growing Charlotte groups on LinkedIn. He also launched LinktoMotorsports which has over 700 executives from around the world and includes an advisory board from Motocross, NASCAR, NHRA and Boat Racing.

In 2007, Kaplan started blogging as a facebook branding expert in his blog Facebook Enthusiast. In 2008, MarketingSherpa.com voted an article featuring Kaplan's discussion of Facebook Branding, as #1 in its "Great Minds" series.

Kaplan recently has been involved with the local film industry as what he calls "an accidental actor". He has worked on 6 films from major motion pictures such as Leatherheads to local independent films. In January 2009, he received a "movie credit" as Social Media Marketing Advisor for the independent film In/Significant Others.

Kaplan is also on the advisory board, providing marketing and branding advice, to EVPowersystems which won the "2008 Green Idea of the Year Award" from the Charlotte Business Journal for the development of electric hybrid trucks and the eco-vehicle.

Kaplan began his career in college at WNBC radio at 30 Rock and worked in the early days at Home Box Office and The Movie Channel. After his career took a turn, he became one of the first trainers and certified consultants for ACT! contact management software. His company ARK Sales Automation Group brought sales and marketing technology to hundreds of companies in the NY/New England Market including Gartner Group, GE Capital, Virgin Atlantic, and Colgate Palmolive. He personally trained over 5,000 sales and marketing executives worldwide. He moved to Charlotte in 1995 to start his family and to build the new market around the banking sector and professional sports.

Kaplan enjoys giving back to the community and working with non-profits and received awards for leadership over the past few years including Toastmasters International NC President of the Year, NC Area Governor of the Year and Dickinson College's Alumni Volunteer of the Year. In Connecticut, he was one of the founding leaders and chairman of Corporate Volunteers In Action, a professional community volunteer group serving the Fairfield County area.

Currently Kaplan coaches business executives and creative professionals who are working on their own brands. He has active clients from countries such as Ireland, Germany, and Italy which found him using social networking. He also has a valuable team of coaches and advisors to help him reach his personal and professional goals as well.

Social Media Motorsports Summit Takes Checkered Flag

For Immediate Release
Contact: Andrew Kaplan
Media Mensch
704.293.2151
ewarriorbizdev@gmail.com

Social Media Motorsports Summit Takes Checkered Flag

Industry Leaders and Influencers Gather to Build Social Media Horsepower for 2010 Season

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Feb 3, 2010) – Try as you may, you can’t hear a “tweet” over the roar of race cars, but if you embrace social media you’ll quickly see it has more horsepower than 43 cars taking the green flag at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The first Social Media Motorsports Summit concluded at the Charlotte Westin, where motorsports and social media leaders met to discuss trends and share best practices. Now that one of every four Americans gets the news online, a communications authority wonders if one can conduct a successful enterprise without engaging social media.

"When I was at the May NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, I saw an opportunity to help brands with social media strategies and programs,” said Andy Kaplan, Chief Idea Officer at MediaMensch. Kaplan also saw demand for the social media motorsports event from MediaMensch’s LinktoMotorsports.com members, a group of over 1,500 motorsports professionals worldwide who embrace social media. Kaplan has spent his career working with corporations to become early adopters of technology and built his brand on being ahead of the technology curve.

Panel topics ranged from creating a social media toolbox and measuring social media ROI to social media and brands and social media trends. A broad spectrum of expertise was represented by speakers including Mark Walsh (GeniusRocket), Craig Coblenz (Facebook), Terry Dry (Fanscape), Ramsey Poston (NASCAR), Leilani Münter (ARCA driver/environmental activist), Joe Tripp (SPEED), Kevin Kennedy (PCG Campbell/Ford Racing), Jeff Gluck (SBNation.com) and Stephanie Agresta (Porter Novelli).

Keynote speaker Walsh put social media in perspective and set the tone of the summit when he discussed the change of marketing from elevator speech to the microscript – a simple one or two-word phrase that captures brand essence and consumer self perception. Think of President Obama’s campaign microscript of “change”. Kennedy, EVP, PCG Campbell / Ford Racing shared, "I really enjoyed the Summit and the exchange of ideas between the panelists and the audience. The discussions covered a broad spectrum of ideas of where Social Media is now and where it is headed in the future, and left everyone who attended richer for the experience."

The power and use of social media was not just conversation, but was also actively practiced as attendees “tweeted” and updated Facebook pages on their laptops throughout the day-long event. Joining in the conversations were representatives from Chevrolet, Toyota, Stewart Haas, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Stewart-Haas Racing, JR Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing. Participants and speakers came from Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Detroit and Daytona Beach.

“The Social Media Motorsports Summit proved that online community and social networking is having a huge impact on the motorsports industry in general and NASCAR fans in particular. In 2010, social media will grow to be an even bigger part of marketing and exposure for this sport.” said Agresta, who is EVP of Social Media and Digital Strategy at Porter Novelli.

Future Social Media Motorsports events are being planned for New York City and in Charlotte in May to coincide with the NASCAR Hall of Fame opening and the race festivities for the Coca Cola 600. Social Media Motorsports also plans to offer a “virtual summit” to accommodate motorsports professionals worldwide.

Additional information about the Social Media Motorsports Summit, please visit the summit website at www.socialmediamotorsports.com and the Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/mediamensch. The twitter hashtag for the event is #smmsummit.

Social Media Trends in 2010 - Are you Planning or Reacting?

As we enter 2010, Social Media is spreading faster than any technology we have ever seen. MediaMensch Networks currently putting together a series of Social Media events for the Motorsports Industry www.socialmediamotorsports.com and are planning events for film and entertainment as well.

Last year, many companies did not plan or budget for social media, nor did they set up a social media strategy. Many reacted and experimented to see what worked with results being mixed. Now organizations will find that it is essential to combine social media with their traditional branding strategies to reach their customers, clients and fans. For example, should the CEO or a celebrity twitter? Should public relations "control" the content? What impact does social media have on current marketing practices? Did you feel it is important enough to budget to get your own ROI - ("Return on Influence")?

Our company, MediaMensch Networks is out there reviewing social media strategies and advising on what tactics may work. Our ability to stay current and provide "out of the box" approaches can lead to new solutions and tactics leveraging social media. MediaMensch's Social Media audits and review are a great way to jumpsstart your social media planning and process.

For more information contact, Andrew Kaplan, ewarriorbizdev@gmail.com or call 704-293-2151. www.twitter.com/mediamensch or find the MediaMensch fan page on Facebook.

Social Media Motorsports Summit

Media Mensch and LinktoMotorsports announces the Social Media Motorsports Summit to be held on Thursday, January 28, 2010 at the Westin Charlotte. This event is for executives, drivers, team owners, media and pr professionals who want to learn and participate in a dialogue about social media as the new frontier of reaching your fans to build stronger relationships and your brand.

Registration and information is available at www.socialmediamotorsports.eventbrite.com

The Trial (2010) - Andrew Kaplan, Assistant District Attorney

Photo of Andrew Kaplan in his featured role as Assistant District Attorney in the film called "The Trial". The film is based upon the best selling book by Robert Whitlow. The movie stars Matthew Modine, Bob Gunton and Rance Howard. This is the 8th film for Andrew Kaplan since he began Leatherheads with George Clooney in 2007. Andrew Kaplan was also the stand in for Robert Gunton who appears in the television series 24 and had an award winning role as the warden in Shawshank Redemption. Matthew Modine starred early in his career in Full Metal Jacket and recently appeared in the television series "Weeds". Rance Howard is a seasoned actor has appeared in over 100 movies and is the father of film director, Ron Howard. Learning from these world class actors was one of the best parts of the newest MediaMensch journey.

Newest Journey in Film - The Trial

A few years ago, I decided to start this blog about what it was like to arrive on a film set for the first time, when I worked on Leatherheads directed by George Clooney. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that this would turn out to be something that I would be able to do on a regular basis while living in Charlotte. Great actors and directors continue to come to the Carolinas to produce their films.

For most of my films I have been an extra. This film for the first time, I am officially a featured extra, playing a district attorney. The experience of this film has allowed me to be on the set, and watch and learn about film direction, production, lighting and acting from very talented and experienced professionals. The actors in the movie have worked on some of the most successful films and television shows such as Full Metal Jacket, Desperate Housewives, 24 and Crash.

From the production side, I am learning about lighting, camera angles, script supervising and how the directors interact with the actors.

So I am off to finish week one of this film. It has been one of the most interesting times of my mediamensch journey.

Start Up Your Social Media Marketing

Social Media is now the biggest buzz out there. Are you able to understand how to leverage your business and brand. Even if you build a facebook fan page or set up a twitter account, do you have the time and expertise to build the audience.

Here are some of the ways a social media firm can help you.

1) Develop a high level strategic marketing plan to reach your audience and build relationships
2) Guide you and your team to integrate and use complementary tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your blog to execute your social media strategy.
3) Provide on-going support, advice and education about current best practices and changes within social media

MediaMensch works with clients who are looking to invest in their future. Old media such as advertising is not working well anymore. MediaMensch can provide you with a plan and the expertise to bring your social media plans into focus.

You can contact us at ewarriorbizdev@gmail.com with the Subject heading "Start Me Up"