On Monday and Tuesday of this past week, I had the pleasure of teaching Introduction to Web Design and Development at Emory. I’ve been teaching the class for over a year, and I’m always impressed by the caliber of students. This class was no exception—as it turned out, I had a local celebrity of sorts in attendance.

Ted Freeman, a student, designed and created an incredible art installation for the Modern Atlanta Week festival in his “spare time”, and called it the Melting Fan. After the installation was built it was placed prominently in the Five Points Marta Station. The placement of the sculpture was celebrated with an unveiling ceremony at MARTA.

Ted was thrilled to have his work displayed at the station, and thought that this would be the extent of it. Imagine his surprise when one of the project coordinators called him to inform him that a photo of his sculpture was featured in the NYTimes, and on their website. Incredibly, the popularity of the photo continued to explode as it surfaced in the websites of the Times, the Wall Street Journal, and YahooNews. It was one of the 14 “pictures of the day” on the CBS Nightline site, appeared on the Daily Mail site, the NPR Radiolab site, and was Tumblr’d over 22,000 times.

Ted emailed me before class on Tuesday and posed the question: how could he leverage the overwhelming press he received for his work? In the social media portion of my class, I opened discussion into how he could best utilize tools such as Wordpress, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter to continue the viral journey of his installation.

Ted didn’t have a website, so he needed to act quickly. Our solution - create a 4-page site via Wordpress, including basic pages such as About, Portfolio, Press, and Modern Atlanta. Wordpress is a free open source blogging platform and it gives users without HTML experience the ability to create and launch a site quickly. Utilizing a blog will allow for comments so the discussion around his art can continue and grow. We also recommended incorporating creative, interactive elements such as a video project in which we go to the station and video the sculpture and record how people react to it. Additionally, he would need to link all of the press pieces to the new website, and contact the various sources to supply them the web address and contact information. To continue riding the social media wave, he’ll need to create a Facebook page to capture fans, a YouTube channel to stream his video, and a Flickr account to house his imagery - all of these outlets will help him gain even more exposure. We didn’t feel like Twitter was necessary at this point because he has to create a following, definitely a consideration for the future. And of course, a PR initiative will be crucial in order to tap into offline buzz as well. Since our classes end on Tuesday, Ted has made some great progress with the creation of his website/blog Creatometry.com.

As you can imagine, it was quite exciting to have a living, breathing, and tangible project to discuss and brainstorm about with the students during class. The students applauded him for his success—with a little help and an aggressive social media and PR strategy, he’ll continue to be applauded and recognized for his brilliant work.

Be sure to stay tuned to our blog as we chronicle the developments of the media project for Ted’s Melting Fan sculpture.

Lil Jon’s “Celebrity Apprentice” stint not only boosted his fan base—it spiked an interest in his charity-of-choice: The United Methodist Children’s Home in Decatur, GA. UMCH called upon us to help them capitalize on the popularity of the show, draw national media attention and increase an interest in the organization through social media and their website.

UMCH was founded 140 years ago, and originally served as an orphanage for post-Civil War orphans. Today, it’s a haven that fosters young children, teenagers and families who need help getting back on their feet.

We began by revamping UMCH’s website just in time for the “Celebrity Apprentice” premiere. Website traffic spiked more than 200% throughout the duration of the show, and UMCH’s Facebook fan base increased 200% as well.

While Lil Jon went to work for Trump in the Big Apple, we hit the media circuit in Atlanta. With the assistance of Lil Jon’s publicist and management team, we secured coverage of Lil Jon’s UMCH connection through various publications and television stations, including the AJC, Decatur-Avondale Estates Patch, AP Wire, News One, 11 Alive News and CBS Atlanta, to name a few.

Lil Jon managed to be one of the last final four contestants standing before Donald finally let him go. Amazingly, during his time on the show, he raised a staggering $80,000 for UMCH. Upon his return, we coordinated a star-studded and heart-warming reception honoring the rapper. The event was held on May 24 on the UMCH campus. We pulled out all the stops, inviting prominent community leaders such as Dekalb County CEO Burrell Ellis, who deemed that day, “Lil Jon Day.” During an initial press conference, Lil Jon was presented with an award for his fundraising efforts by his mom. In a hilarious turn, Jon’s brother, Chris, showed up in a huge Lil Jon mask, complete with gold teeth and dreadlocks.

After the press conference, the good times continued as Lil Jon met with children under the care of UMCH, enjoyed a private lunch and was treated to a talent show. There were plenty of photo ops, and I was able to get in the fun and pose with Lil Jon for a picture.

But by far, the most rewarding experience was to see the impact of our PR and media relations strategy—it was instrumental in increasing interest in the United Methodist Children’s Home and its noble mission.