Sunday, July 19, 2009

Preview of CNN's Black in America 2 (Part 1 of 3)

This month, an amazing opportunity presented itself to me. Because of my blog and my connection to other larger African American blogs, CNN became aware of NuVision for a Nuday. Simply amazing!!!

Perhaps a year ago, I started getting updates from their PR folks about many of the specials and news stories that are deemed to be of some interest to African Americans. I always thought it was cool to get e-mails from CNN. But I must admit that I thought it was some sort of robotic, mass mailing service to bloggers of color; and I just happened to be one of them.

One day, I decided to reply to one of the messages to see if it would just bounce back undeliverable. I asked them why they were sending me programming updates via e-mail. Honestly, I don't know why I replied to the e-mail at all. I truly didn't expect a response back. Ten minutes later, I received a personal message from one of their PR folks, explaining why they selected me to receive notices of interviews and programs that would be interesting to African Americans.

I was immediately impressed! I thought it was amazing that CNN:
A. cared enough about African Americans to make an attempt to consider diversity in their programming initiatives.
B. understands the power and reach of the African American blogger.
C. is progressive enough to tap into the boundless marketing possibilities of blogs and social networking sites.
D. employs a personal touch when communicating with bloggers.

A few months after receiving that personal message, I started getting updates about their groundbreaking special, Black in America 2. Even though I didn't really enjoy last year's Black in america, I started looking forward to this year's. Many of the e-mails that came from CNN provided teasers of some of the things that would be covered this year, and I was impressed. I traveled to the website, and the content there seemed wonderful also.

A couple weeks later, some of my blogging buddies were posting status updates on Facebook, commenting on prescreenings of Black in America that they had attended in their hometowns. I bounced over to my e-mail and sent a message to CNN, asking them if they could let me know if any screenings were going on in Houston.

I got a response in about 5 minutes. Impressed again!!!

They told me that the prescreening in Houston had already occured, but I could host one myself if I wanted to. Of course I wanted to!!! So, I told them that I absolutely wanted to host a prescreening of the special. And three days later, a package arrived on my doorstep from CNN!

**This is 1 of 3 posts. I'll post the rest later today or tomorrow.**

1 comment:

Becky Andrews said...

That is so interesting! Can't wait to read the rest of the story on your next post!