My Semester as practicum student for Digital Bridges

This semester I worked my practicum for Digital Bridges, a program in Milledgeville which I was already quite familiar with. From January through May I was employed by Digital Bridges as a public relations student assistant. My duties last semester were diverse and included tending to the social media sites Facebook and Twitter as well as other secretarial duties such as contacting news outlets with press releases which were self-generated as well as created by my managers.
This semester has been much different. I was given main duties such as creating a social media policies page to add to the policies and procedures booklet that is already in use at Digital Bridges, as well as logging, copying and compiling all of our press mentions. In addition, I was asked to attempt to reach over 200 Facebook likes. I created Facebook events and also created a large number of tweets in regards to the Candidate Forums, a series of events that took place at Digital Bridges this semester, which were shown live online as the forums took place. I publicized this event by placing posters around town and distributing handbills to students on campus that informed them of the events.
As for the successfulness of my projects I believe I did very well and succeeded. Since I spent only a little over three hours per week at Digital Bridges, it was crucial that I find another way to keep the social media updated when I was not in the building. For this, I created a Socialoomph.com account that I used to automatically post my tweets to our Twitter page throughout the week. I also created a hootsuite account although I did not get any use out of it. I created tweets not only about the upcoming events such as the Candidate Forums and the city-wide mobile treasure hunt, but also tweeted links to articles found on sites such as Engadget, Gizmodo, Mashable, NTEN, Readwriteweb, and Techcrunch that made mentions of technology or programs related in some way to the Milledgeville community. I also reached the goal set my Daniel McDonald of getting our number of likes to over 200. We now have 214. Previously we had about 100. I did this by continuing to suggest the program’s page over Facebook. I created all of the events that occurred this semester as Facebook events and invited all of our friends.
A large task which I took on this semester was logging all of our press mentions into documents as well as making copies of those, which I then turned into PDF’s online. The point of this was to make sure that all of the articles about us that have been published are now able to be published online on the Digital Bridges website to be viewed by those who visit our website. The log was created so that the articles could be cut out of the papers and we would still know the newspaper and date they were published.
My most important task of the semester was thwarted however I did remake it. I did a lot of research on the social media policies of large companies such as IBM and NPR. I constructed a mission statement for Digital Bridges social media use as well as a list of social media policies and procedures. This large document that had been sent by e-mail was lost when the Digital Bridges computer’s documents were cleared. Daniel no longer had the document in his e-mail either. Thus, after 3 weeks of research and drafting, I started over on the policies and procedures document. This time, it was saved to multiple e-mails to avoid the same mishap.
The last duty of my practicum was to distribute posters to various businesses around Milledgeville. I also created a document listing these businesses as well as a contact at most of them. I also took handbills for both shoplocalmilledgeville.com and the Candidate Forums and passed them out to people around campus. The problem with this is that I do not think that all students care as much about the candidates as the people of Milledgeville do. The students are all here for a limited amount of time and many are not registered to vote in Milledgeville if they are registered at all. All in all, I believe I had a productive semester with Digital Bridges. I produced content which was used by the program and I believe I have left my mark due to the creation of social media policies which will, of course, have to be mended once new social media sites come into the picture.

** I do not own the picture posted. It can be found at http://thedigitalbridges.org/

Professional Development Session 1 PRSSA National Conference

Bob Lehrman, a former speech writer for Al Gore as well as Taylor Griffin, who worked for the Bush campaign, were the first set of speakers at professional development sessions who I had the pleasure of listening to.

Here are some semi-random thoughts and things which I learned in this session:

1) Obviously, the Press Secretary is going to be highly scrutinized for everything that is said. He and the president really do need to spend tons of time together so that all of the information that the two of them put out can be in perfect harmony. The things that are said have to have a certain grace to them. Phrasing something one way could make some people happy, however could endanger our soldiers overseas, or saying that our soldiers overseas aren't doing well could be detrimental in other ways.

2) Unless you have been living under a rock you should know that news cycles have changed greatly. The first source for information in the past was the AP wire, but now any media outlet is putting out news instantly. News output is continuous and stories are updated so frequently that what used to be in the paper one night would be irrelevant by the time it got to you the same morning. Also, now with technology as advanced as it is becoming, average citizens are often the first to report breaking news over their phone internet, picture uploads to the web, etc.

3) This is something that may not strike people as obvious but it makes a whole lot of sense. The president and those who speak for him should never write a speech above an 8th grade reading level. Why? The average American reads at a 7th grade level. Yes ladies and gents, sad but true. So, speech writers really are limited by what the average voters can understand vocabulary wise. You may think that using big words will prove to everyone that you are smart, but really it just loses your audience.

4) Who are the people who you focus on in a race? Since the majority of people do vote on party lines, the people you really need to worry about are the 2-3% who are undecided. This makes a lot of sense when you look at the last presidential election.

5) Advice for those of you who would like to work in politics in D.C.:
-Do a semester/summer in Washington. An internship, though often unpaid, is the best way to get your foot in the door. Visit your home state senator's or representative's office and ask if you can start a position locally.

PRSSA National Conference 2010; Washington, DC

First of all I am so grateful to Bobcat PRSSA and GCSU SGA for helping to fund this trip to Washington, DC giving me a chance to soak up so much knowledge, expand my contacts, and steer my future career. This experience was such a wonderful tool.


The trip to DC was quite a trip. Not only were we there for our 12 hour days of workshops, speeches, and group meetings; We spent our nights exploring rich American history of the U.S. capital. Oh, and an hour in line at Georgetown Cupcake. Trust me, the Salty Caramel flavor cupcakes are well worth it.


Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting about individual lectures and speeches which I listened to while at the convention. First, I would like to write about the speech given the first day of the conference given by Jim Margolis. GMMB's Margolis worked on President Obama's 2008 campaign.


Margolis took us through how the campaign came to be, as well as what it meant. The focus of this campaign: CHANGE. A great part of his speech was about how Obama's campaign was unlike any other past campaign in the way that it truly embraced the online audience (social media as well as websites), from children to teens to adults. The campaign was very technology fueled. This is how Obama created a movement. An iPhone app was even created in order to show supporters how many people were being reached on a daily basis who were exposed to the beliefs of the candidate. Not only did his iPhone app and website help to fuel the campaign, over 442,000 user generated videos were created! Perhaps the most powerful and memorable video was the "Yes We Can" video with Will I Am.


Obviously Jim Margolis's efforts and campaign designs have not been in vain...


He is currently working on the Barbra Boxer campaign in California.

PRSA Shadow Day 2010

On Thursday, September 30, I attended Shadow Day. Students from Georgia were assigned to various PR agencies, corporate PR groups, and Non-profits. I was placed at Porter Novelli, a PR agency in Buckhead. Upon arriving at PN, we were seated in a conference room where we met Tia Jackson, the HR Manager for Porter Novelli. Throughout the afternoon we listened to several presentations about topics ranging from today's marketing mix to corporate crisis management. Learning about how very diverse the projects which PN's employees work on was a great indicator of how a day in the office at the agency could go. Previous interns turned employees explained to us the types if duties they are given while they were interning. Responsibilities included maintaining the intern blog, and also, and more unexpectedly, working side-by-side with the agency's employees on accounts on the very first day. They explained that they felt as if they were part of the team right away and that their input was as important as any other employee's. I really enjoyed hearing from the interns about how much they enjoyed being interns for PN. As explained, working for an agency first is the best way to enter the PR world. Why? I understood that because of the various projects which you are given. You are expected to work on more than one account at a time.
I am not sure where the future will take me, but I will not rule out an agency for any reason. Thanks to Porter Novelli for the experience they provided us!

Crisis Communication

Last week I gave a presentation to the Fall 2010 PR Campaigns class. This presentation outlined crisis communication. Because you cannot post Powerpoint presentations on Blogger, I have created an online location for viewing: http://www.scribd.com/doc/38358252/Crisis-Communication-CDC

I will go into detail, slide by slide.

Slide 2- What makes something a crisis?
Possibly being unforseen.
Crisis is defined in the Merian Webster Dictionary as:
an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; especially one with the distinct possibility of a highl undesireable outcome.

Slide 3- Ways to prevent a crisis. Conduct a risk assessment. What is a risk assessment? An internal activity that identifies potential problems within an organization. One way- learning from others mistakes. Ex. after Katrina- other cities like New Orleans viewed their risks.
Another way: Environmental Scanning- An external activitywhich requires careful objectiv scrutin of an organizations outside environment. It looks for problems faced by similar organizations. As simple as reviewing feedback. Also reviewing trade publications.

Slide 4- PR's role. To identify problems. Prioritizing problems- weighing which could be most serious if not dealt with. Managing problems- so that they don't become a serious issue.
PR & Managers ask: What if? and always think in worst case scenario.

Slide 5- Big crisis- product failure, facility, destruction, employee strikes, etc.
Small crisis- need appropriate responses for each situation.

Slide 6- key players in the crisis management team-
1- senior on scene- will make decisions and stay on spot.
2- security liason
3- PR/Affairs expert
4- Info center coordinator
others: IT, lawyers, counselors, advisors

each member taps ey individuals responsible for carrying out portions of the crisis plan.

Slide 7- What Happens once a plan is created?
Sitting around and waiting for something to happen is not an option. The plan must be tested and retested often. If they are not tested they are worthless. Must be able to act quickly.

Slide 8- There are 7 ways an organization can react to a crisis ranging from defensive to accommodative.
1)preemptive action strategy
2)offensive response strategy
3)defensive response strategy
4)diversionary response strategy
5)vocal commiseration
6)rectifying behavior
7)strategic inaction

Slide 9&10- defensive & accomodative strategies

Slide 11- Preemptive Action Strategy-
Prebuttal- an organization tries to be the 1st to tell the story & set the tone before others.

Slide 12-Offensive Response Strategies-these tactics use shame, threats & embarassment.
attack the accuser- when accusers logic/facts are faulty & if said negligent/maliciously.
embarassment- humiliation to lessen accusers influence
threat- of lawsuits or exposure

Slide 13- Defensive Respose Strategies-
Denial- of a problem existing or that they have part in something.
Excuse-
Justification- such as "well nothing happened so it's ok". Sometimes blame shifts to victims. Ex. the six flags decapitation event.

Slide 14- Diversionary Response Strategies-
Concession- an organization gives the public something it wants, valued by both groups.
ingratiation- actions taken to appease unhappy people. ex. cupons or a donation.
disassociation- from the wrongdoer.
relabeling- new name for something if the old name has a bad connotation

Slide 15-vocal commisseration strategy-
Concern- no guilt however
condolence- recognizes sorrow. still, no guilt.
regret- admitting sorrow and remorse. may or may not admit guilt.
Apology- takes responsibility & asks forgiveness. Money is often included.


Slide 16- Rectifying Behavior Strategies-
Investigation- examines what led to the situation
corrective action- steps taken to repair damage & prevent reoccurance
restitution- restore to former state
repentance- fully accepts responsibility and offers to change practice

Slide 17- Strategic Inaction- Silence.
NOT "not comment"
An instance is victim privacy.

Slide 18- Actions to take during a crisis-
1- put the public first. Ex. pulling a product from the shelves. Whatever is best for the public. An exmple of this is Tylenol and their poison crisis where 6 people died. They pulled all products from shelves and now, they are still existing.
2- take responsibility- not always caused by an organization but still should take a leading role in fixing it. Fix first, blame later.
be honest, don't speculate.
3- Stick to the facts AS the story unfolds. Letting the public know why something happened "isn't known" but "is being investigated" is better than "no comment"
Keep facts straight.
4- Be accessible & accommodate the media. Communicate frequently. The news seeks constant updates. Don't make them go elsewhere for the story. This leads to speculation. This could be from employees, outside experts.
Leadership meets with news. Website uopdated. Respond quick to top tier media.
5- Single spokesperson- CEO or other high ranked official
6- monitor news coverage. May be monitoring service. If a news media puts out incorrect information, send them the correct information to correct it.
7- Communicate with key publics- Don't get lost in the media. Stay in contact with investors, employees, retailers, and customers because they are the stakeholders. Investors want to know how their investment is being protected. Retailers and customers also need to know if there is some type of recall.
8- Consult crisis communication experts- before a crisis strikes

Slide 19- Three C's

Slide 20 & 21- Do's and Do nots

Slide 22- The CDC’s Smallpox Communication Crisis Plan

Slide 23- Facts: 30 % of people who get it die. It's a very small, very contagious diease. It's transmittable through the air. You do not show symptoms right away. Just one case being identified in the U.S. makes a public health emergency.

Slide 24- Reponse Plan. This particular response plan addresses 8 areas including a 27-page communication plan and activities.

Slide 25- The Plan Covers- Several ready-to-go elements(fact sheets, tracking forms, vaccine guidelines)
When info is released, what is said and how it is said can have a big effect on a population. Fear v. panic. Be sure not to downplay a crisis such as Smallpox because of problems such as the SARS virus being downplayed in 2003.
The response plan covers 8 areas. Goals & Objectives for Smallpox communication, Key consideration for Smallpox Communication, Guiding crisis communication principles, communication preparedness strategies, CDC communication in event of an outbreak, core communication functions & CDC's emergency communication system, key stakeholders, CDCs key preparedness communication activities.

Slide 26- The plans Key Communication Goals- listed on pg. 119 but are mostly to increase the understanding of Smallpox. The key is already having plan & relationships in place. CDC partnerships with man organizations.

Slide 27- Early messages- Emphasize facts, transmission, symptoms.
Communication Presparedness strategies- getting materials to key publics.
The plan incorporates communication activities before, during & after

A list of preparedness activities is listed on p. 120- regular updates and mock outbreaks.

Nonprofit PR

This semester I will be working my practicum for Digital Bridges Milledgeville. All last semester I worked for them as their Public Relations student worker. Over the summer, one of the management figures changed, thus, my job description has changed. I used to find articles online 2 days per week which pertained to how technology could be related to and/or affect the community. A huge project which I am beginning my work on is working with a website called ten questions (10questions.com). It gives people a change to record themselves asking questions which they would like to ask to the candidates for governor and house, both at local and state levels. Visitors of the website are asked to vote on the questions which they would most like to be answered by the candidates. The ten questions with the most votes will be asked to them. My job is to create a campaign to draw people into Digital Bridges in order to record their questions. Any ideas?

Little Tidbit About PR for Sports Information

Working for Al Weston, the Sports Information Director, hasn’t been easy, but it’s been quite the learning experience. As we began working with sports last semester in PR writing, Al Weston became our liaison between mass communication and athletics. As his student assistant, I did a variety of jobs. As far as print goes, I wrote a couple short press releases for the Athletics website, as well as created numerous table tents and game programs for various sports. On the non-print side of my practicum, I worked all of the GC&SU basketball games this semester as well as a few softball games.

My hours were sporadic, except for my usual Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:15 to 5:15. Other than my usual hours, I worked on game days. Setting up for the games began at about 4, and the ladies games began at 5:30, the men’s at 7:30. By the time cleaning was done I was out of the gym by about 10.

Leading up to a game on the day of, there is a great deal of preparation to be done. I The screen between the score boards is a color screen and message board. One of my pre-game jobs is to make updates in the computer program which corresponds with the board. After updating the slides that cover topics such as upcoming games, the athlete of the week, and the team’s rankings in the Peach Belt Conference, I take the wireless router which connects the computer and the board without a wire and I transfer the information to update the board so that event goers will be aware of the current information. Also before games, I created game programs which include statistics for both teams, rankings in their conferences, individual player positions and statistics, and information about coaches. The programs must be placed on the information table located at the front of the venue, as well as be readily available at the court-side media table for announcers to use in their broadcasts. I create a box of goodies such as Frisbees and t-shirts for the cheerleaders. I usually wrapped up about 30 Bobcat t-shirts into throw-able balls using rubber bands , for the cheer leaders to throw to the crowd.

I learned a lot working the athletic events. At the basketball games, I ran the score board and the message board, picked random crowd members for the trivia question and Frisbee competition during time outs as well as conducted the Frisbee competitions. I must add that finding people who are willing to volunteer to answer a trivia question is not as easy as you would think. People seemed so reluctant to answer a simple sports question in front of a crowd.

Whenever something went awry such as a printer out of ink, cords disconnected, or anything of that nature, I was Al’s go to girl to fix the problem, keeping me on my toes and nearby at all times.

If I could do it again, I probably would not have picked this practicum because I will most likely never work in sports, however the practicum did cultivate a greater appreciation and enjoyment of basketball within me. Working with two of Alan’s graduate assistants, Katie Parker and Tyler Peck, was a good experience for me. I learned a lot from them while working on projects. Researching opponents was essential to creating the documents which I completed for athletics, and I learned how to work with the programs QuarkXPress as well as Adobe Pagemaker. I would reccommend this internship for a student who has an immense love for sports, or would like to work in sports information.

PR In Action

On Aprl 21 Digital Bridges Milledgeville held an open house. They invited community members into the Knight Community Innovaton Center for not ony a tour and free food, but to learn more about the program and what resources are available for free at the center.

Various student groups from Georgia College manned booths set up to teach event-goers about their various platforms which they were promoting as projects within Digital Bridges throughout the current semester.

The groups ranged from everything from a group who wanted to teach Milledgeville how to be healthy, to teaching the locals the ways to support local businesses by shopping locally.

The event also featured a pizza buffet, free ice cream, chicken wings, and lemonade. Also, the first 100 people received a free flash drive.

I think that by holding an event like this, public interest is generated.

The following video clip captures a glimpse of the event:

Athletic Auction SWOT

Mean in Green, We did it! It's finally over, and boy do we have some gorgeous pictures to prove it. We helped athletics raise over 30 grand. Pat yourselves on the back kiddos. Of course, there are always things that could have been made better, but with our budget and the small amount of people we have, we really put this together nicely.


Strengths:

- Centerpieces and Swag Baskets were AWESOME!

- We had so many elements of our theme in our event. Everything from popcorn baskets to the red carpet to a scene from a movie, everything tied together so well

- As a group, we've really got all of the bases covered. Some of us are very tactile-ish creative as in making the centerpieces and some are creative on photoshop

- We had everthing done before the event took place. We did things the day of, but no construction




Weaknesses:

- As for the Walk of Fame, the guests didn't really want to walk it for the most part. They actually complained about having to walk down it because it was "out of their way."

- The balloon arch kept blowing over(we should have anchored it to the ceiling)

- We spent a LOT of time building the mural and nobody but us seemed to enjoy it

- We didn't have every single thing bought by the week of. We thought of a lot of last minute things that weren't on the original budget such as popcorn and candy for the buckets and extra lumber

- The Athletic Department didn't provide as much help the morning of the auction as I had expected




Opportunities:

- Raised over $30,000.00 for GCSU Athletic Scholarships

- We didn't realize the opportunity before the event, but we ended up selling some of the stars from the walk of fame

- The use of on-campus departments such as art helped us remain in our budget with amazing results

- We as PR students completed, from start to finish, our first large-scale event, congrats!



Threats:

- the economy isn't great right now, so people aren't as willing to splurge

- I feel the event was publicized a bit late because the programs kept getting changed(it wasn't really in our hands though)

- The work days weren't always convenient for all members to attend

- The class time wasn't always enough to finish large scale projects such as the centerpieces which had to be done in many class periods




All in all, I am so proud of the event. It went off without any mishaps. We all learned so much from this process that we can take away and use in our future careers and in future projects. Mean in Green! Mean in Green! Mean in Green!

Mean In Green

1. What was your event? Describe it, all elements, name your contacts, and describe how you planned the day to work out.


-My event was called Salsa on the Sixth. I asked Adela Valcea of the GC&SU Salsa & Latin Dance Club to ask the members of the club if they would like to perform the half time show at the games. Since the club is currently in great need of more members, they decided performing an original routine would probably excite the students, so they would want to join the club. I requested that the club set up a table with a banner, some brochures, and some decorations at the front of the centennial center where people enter the game. I met with Adela and helped her design a flyer about their club which listed some upcoming events, the meeting schedule and location, etc. I asked Al Weston exactly how much of the half time's time the club would have to perform. With only 3 minutes, the groups routine they had been working on would have to be cut. Why though? Well, after having to get the female dancers shoes approved by Patty Weimer, we found out that since the gym flooring is so expensive and fragile, we would have to move out 16 mats for the dancers so that they would be able to wear their dancing shoes. I would have to get 10 people to help me move the heavy protective mats, not including the dancers because the dancers would have to walk out onto the floor barefoot and then once the mats were in place, fasten their shoes for the performance. We managed to get both sets of 8 mats( we needed one set for each of the 2 couples who were dancing, one facing each side of the gym's audience) out on the floor in a little over a minute. The women's game performance went flawlessly but was more of the test run for the men's game because during the men's game, the former cleer leaders who were in town for a reunion, were to be named, as well as the sassy cats performance which also occurred in the women's game. It was executed flawlessly.



2. Was it a success? How do you know that? What forms of measurement did you use to assess your success?

-About 500 people attended the game. For a Saturday, I think that turnout is large. The stands looked semi-filled. The crowd was loud. The feedback I got from about 15 people who I spoke to who attended was positive. As for the Salsa Club, I'm not sure if their performance helped to boost attendance or not.


3. What was the best takeaway learning moment you got from your event?

-Make sure you get everything approved at least two weeks in advance, never the week of.


4. What is the one thing you wish you could do over?

-Put up a lot more posters around campus to publicize the event.


5. If you had to grade your event, what grade would you give it?


-A 95. The game was on a Saturday, yet the audience was still large. The audience reacted well to the energetic performance; It pumped them up. The half time entertainment took place within the allotted time.

6. What's your one best idea to keep "Mean in Green" ALIVE?

-Make sure that the brand is put on posters, shirts, swag, etc. Also, people who attend the games regularly such as the cheer leaders incorporate Mean in Green into their cheers. The fans learn the cheers, so if they cheer "Mean In Green" the fans will too.

What is this SPINdustry all about?

So I've only caught one episode of this show, but SPINdustry, Kim Kardashian's newest endeavor, is a new show on E! The show features Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck in some of their 'adventures' thanks to their PR firm, Command PR, based in LA. I've watched episodes of Kell On Earth on Bravo, a show focused on People's Revolution, a fashion PR firm. Kell on Earth has never gone as deep as SPINdustry has with just one episode. The episode that I caught showed a last minute event that the firm had to throw together. Sugar Factory, a couture lollipop company, needs a PR event thrown together in about 24 hours and needs a celebrity to be the face of this short-lived 'campaign.' Mel B to the rescue. I liked that this episode showed the behind the scenes un-glammed side of PR where people have to literally show up to an event in heels with one hour till opening, and are expected to drag carpets and other heavy components to the event for set up. The PR world and PR events aren't all glam. There is a lot of labor and hard work that goes into them. Recently my PR Admin class has learned this, as we've spray painted and cut circles out of foam board for an upcoming event. In PR, you do what you have to in order to get the job done, even if it's manual labor in heels and a dress. The show also showed how full-time of a job the industry is. You live, sleep, eat, and breathe your job. I love that it keeps you busy and there is never a dull moment. Ok, maybe there are a few dull moments, but there is always something that needs to be done.

International Public Relations

Though I have never prevously studdied it, last week a gained a bit of insight into the world of international public relatons. Two main focuses of international pr are globalization and cultural differences. A company needs to be able to launch a pr campaign that can extend globally.

First, what exactly is International Public Relations? ****The planned and organized effort of a company, institution, or government to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with the publics of other nations.

What are some essentials here? 1)The sense of globalization(extending outside of our walls), 2) The sense of localization, 3) Understanding of cultural differences(screwing up here could ruin a relationship and cause crises).

What is Glocalization: The process of tailoring products or services to different local markets. Why is this important though? The product can be changed to fit the needs, customs, laws, etc. of the consumer. It is changed to meet the needs of a locality. One glocalization example brought up was McDonalds. The restaurant has locations all around the world, however the menu is varied in the different localities to fit the culture and the dietary wants and needs of the consumers there. For example, in Germany, McDonalds serves beer, and in Hong Kong McDonalds serves patties of meat between paddies of rice, a staple in that locality. Perhaps if McDonalds didn't cater to the consumers of different localities it wouldn't be so successful.

Stand Out In A Stack

How can you make your resume stand out to employers? I've been learning some tricks of the resume trade. These are some of the top recommendations that I have:
Brand yourself! By creating an eye catching,original logo, employers have a better chance of remembering you. If they see your brand, they associate it with you and the credentials that they learn you posses once they look over your resume. Branding yourself helps to sell yourself, like a brand logo for a company is what people associate with hat company When people see an upper-case H inside of a square, they think of Honda. Now only do they think of Honda, though, they associate what Honda sells, automobiles. Branding yourself means picking a design that you could associate yourself with. If you like fashion, pick something that has to do with fashion. If you like music, pick something that has to do with music like a music note. Branding yourself doesn't extend to a resume. To successfully brand ones self I believe that it is important to incorporate that brand in to other self promotional items such as business cards. And no, branding doesn't end at a logo. For example I recently received a business card from a PR professional for MS&L that had a quote that said "We're not living the good life unless we're fighting the good fight..." I personally like that she had this meaningful quote, however I do believe that it is a bit long. She is a great idea of how to brand yourself because her business cards and her twitter all have the exact same picture of a daisy, the same colors, etc. Though I have not seen her resume I can expect that it has a daisy incorporated into it. second thing to consider is the color of your brand. If you plan on using a neutral-colored paper, choose a brand logo that has a tad bit of color in it. Another important thing which is a no-brainer is nice paper. If you put your resume, the piece of paper that encompasses all of your greatest achievements all in one place, on nice paper, it shows that you are proud of it and it is something of value to you; It is something you care about it. Remember, paper can stand out in a good way or a bad way: neon green paper v. neutral-colored professional grade paper.

Any TIPS for me?

The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point is a book by Malcom Gladwell that explores exactly what it is that makes something go from simply ordinary to extraordinary, unforgettable, or just huge. Throughout the book, Gladwell thoroughly examines many circumstances in which things have “tipped.” Some of these examples throughout the book include Paul Revere’s ‘the British are coming!’ ride, Sesame Street, Blues Clues, crime rates in New York City, Tetanus inoculations, Peter Jennings, Airwalk, Hush Puppies shoes, the AIDS virus, and cigarette smoking among teens. Gladwell makes a point near the beginning of the book that says that there are three rules of epidemics. They are Law of the Few, Stickiness Factor, and Power of Context.
The Law of Few talks about how there are 3 main types of people that make the tipping point happen: the connectors, the mavens, and the salesmen.
The connectors are, as Gladwell explains, “people with a special gift of bringing the world together” (p. 38). There is a simple exercise for figuring out if you are a connector. A person is given a list of 250 surnames. As the person goes through the list, they give themselves one point for every person they know with a last name listed. The more people someone knows, the more likely they are a connector. Connectors score, on average, double what most people score. “Among every walk of life, in other words, are people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. They are connectors” (p. 41). Paul Revere is an example of a connector because he knew people in each of the northern colony towns so that spreading the word about the British coming was easy because he had contacts in each of the towns.
Next and are the mavens. Mavens are explained to be people who retain enormous amounts of information. People are drawn to mavens because mavens do not wish to gain something out of relaying information to people, they simply inform people for the sake of informing. They are like students and teachers alike, they have a zest for learning and accumulation of knowledge. A personal example that Gladwell gives of a maven is Mark who seems to know everything about everything from the weather to Volvo cars.
Thirdly are the salesmen. The salesmen must have charisma. They are very persuasive. An example of someone who was a salesmen type of personality as explained by Gladwell was Peter Jennings. Jennings was a news anchor and he was proved through experimentation to be very persuasive. When other anchors expressions were watched by viewers, the viewers felt neutral feelings to the topics such as the Reagan election. However, when Jennings spoke about Raegan, the viewers who watched his broadcasts were swayed into supporting him for one reason or another.
I think that I personally am a connector. I know many people from many walks of life. No matter where I meet people, we seem to have at least one person we know in common. I am good at keeping in contact with people who I meet.
The stickiness factor is the idea that some concept or idea has the power to stay in someone’s mind. It sticks there. Gladwell explains this by exploring Sesame Street. Many tests and experiments were run on how ‘sticky’ different proposed segments of the show were to young children. Some were more sticky than others and those that didn’t stick at well were cut. The next phenomenon that he explores is blues clues and the way it surpassed the stickiness of Sesame Street as far as keeping children’s attention goes.
Lastly is the Power of Context. The power of context means that for something to catch on and to be a trend, something must be present already so that there is a need for it. It involves the ideas of time and place. Things must be introduced when they are necessary for them to catch on. For example, why would a designer introduce a new type of snow boots in the summer. They simply would not because snow boots are not necessary in the summer, so the fad would not catch on. Gladwell, however, explains this idea with the topic of the crime in New York City. When graffiti was painted on trains, the authorities simply brought the trains out of the station and repainted them before sending them back to pick up passengers so that the graffiti artists would never have the satisfaction of people seeing their graffiti. Since no one would see it, it became pointless, and finally, they for the most part, stopped.
The real question is ‘how can the mean in green dream team make the 2010 bobcat athletic auction tip?’ I believe this is a multipart answer. We need to make this auction sticky, and I don’t mean with sugar. The auction needs to be able to keep people’s attention and keep them entertained. Boredom is the enemy. We don’t want the event goers bored like the children watching certain Sesame Street clips, as Gladwell said. We need to keep them entertained with the decorations, the atmosphere, the food, and the company of the other event goers. The power of context section made me realize that even if people at the event knock our auction, we need to ignore their comments. Like the trains in New York City that had been painted with graffiti, when the problem is ignored, the problem goes away. However, we want to go above and beyond in not only meeting, but exceeding the expectations of the attendees. It is a known fact that people like free gear. No matter what it is, people want it simply because they do not have to pay for it. This is the reason I believe that the swag baskets need to be amazing. The things that people are able to take away from this auction, whether they are memories or tangible things, are what people will look back on and say “wow that was a really spectacular event.” If we give them something to take home from the event, even if it is not an auction item, they will be happier than if they left with nothing at all. Therefore, putting a lot of our budget into the swag baskets and making sure that everyone leaves with at least something would be very beneficial.

Twitter, Twitter, What is Twitter?

I've had a Twitter account for quite some time now, but I only recently became a real Twitterer(tweeting a lot). You can find me on twitter at twitter.com/maggieschiller . I've finally learned how to direct message people, retweet, etc. Also, I've learned a bit about followers v. following. I've finally stopped randomly adding everyone who adds me because it turns out, some of them are spammers. Hashtags are too cool. I can read everything about a certain topic that other people write. I'm yet to twitterparty, though my twitter homepage would say that it has been a victim.
Social networking on twitter is awesome. I feel like everyone who I find important has one. This week's PR Admin assignment was to add new people who I may find important in my future career or who hold positions in the type of career we wish to persue. I would love a career in entertainment PR so one person I chose to follow is Kim Kardashian's publicist, Jonathan Cheban, who founded Command PR. I've never figured that someone would be on the internet as much as some of the PR people who I follow through twitter. They tweet 5 times in 5 minutes or more! I realize that public relations has a lot to do with keeping in contact with people but wow, that's a lot.
Verdict-- I've got a lot more tweeting to do to catch up with the hot shots.

Gigi

Bobcats Athletic Auction Pitch 2010

Tuesday of last week each of 3 groups had the opportunity of making a pitch to the athletics department. Each pitch was allowed to be 15 minutes and had to present not only our theme choice for the athletic auction, but also a budget, invitation sample, decoration scheme, "swag" basket sample, table decoration sample, floor plan, etc. I was the A.E. of my group, the originators of "Tropical Thunder," a play off of tropic thunder. We chose the name because Thunder is the name of the mascot here at GC&SU. Tropical thunder conveyed our idea of a tropical island theme. The two wonderful group members I had the pleasure of working alongside were Lindsey Roberts and Ben Owens. I couldn't have picked a better group.
Anyways, our theme tropical thunder seemed to work really well. We envisioned our event looking very tropical, like a vacation. WHICH was also one of our slogan ideas. "Come take a vacation with Bobcat Athletics." The event pitch took a whole lot of planning; more than I imagined. We took shopping trips to places like the dollar store and shopped online at oriental trading and other party planning sites. We ended up being about $100 under budget once we factored in shipping and tax. I was impressed by that considering our budget was $1000.
As for the pitch itself, standing in front of a panel of judges who ARE the deciding factors, is difficult and scary. I'm a nervous person to begin with but knowing that they are taking every word you are saying and in their mind building the event in their head, makes picking the perfect words and ways to describe things really meticulous. We, Tropical Thunder, had prepared a powerpoint presentation prior to the pitch, so we had something a bit more eye-catching and solid for the judges to go off of(it doesn't hurt that we have a wonderful graphic designer, Ben Owens). Our pitch went fairly well. We were able to paint a picture in the judges minds as far as I could tell. Once our pitch was over and it was time for the judges to make their selection, all of the PR students headed out the door. We waited in the hall as the judges deliberated. All of the other students kept saying they thought tropic thunder was going to win and I really thought it would have too. I was disappointed to learn that we didn't win, the group that presented the Hollywood theme did. I really do believe that had there not been a similar theme in years past, that Tropic Thunder would have won, however I congratulate the group that did win and I'm excited to see their theme come to life.

GG

PR Admin Flagler College Trip

So my Public Relations Admin class was invited to Flagler College located in St. Augustine, Florida to speak with their sports marketing program and their PRSSA chapter about how our PR students work hand in hand with the athletics department at Georgia College & State University(GO BOBCATS!). Thanks to our wonderFUN professor Dr. Ginger Carter Miller who offered to bring us on this trip, we not only had an unforgettable experience in a beautiful city, but we networked and got some wonderful fresh perspectives and ideas.
Sunday we arrived in St. Augustine at the Renaissance Resort located at the World Golf Village(Pictured Left). A little later we dined at The Murray Brothers Caddyshack Restaurant right across the way. There, we were greeted by Dr. Margy Lang from Flagler College. Soon after, we were joined by Dr. Bernadette Twardy, also a Flagler professor. These two delightful ladies conversed with us about our ideas for all of the upcoming basketball games this season. Dr. Lang gave us some "swag" as Dr. Carter calls it.
Monday morning Dr. Lang brought us to the PGA Tour Productions building where we got a tour of the facility. We got to see all of the behind the scenes rooms which housed millions of dollars of videos and media equipment.
Later Monday we arrived at Flagler College where we met with Flagler's Sports Marketing students and presented to them our 'Mean in Green' campaign. Afterwards, we toured the school finally we attended both the mens and womens basketball games which I am proud to say we won. Aside from the rude students in the Flagler student cheering section, the game was great and the attendance was high for the size of their gym.
Tuesday we dined on the beach at the Beachcomber for breakfast. The sun radiated and we soaked up as much vitamin D as we could before we headed back to Flagler to meet with their delightful PRSSA chapter. Though only a few students were able to attend, we gained a great deal of valuble insight to how PR works at their school. Aside from PRSSA, their school has a PR agency called DOW Advantage PR. Students are hired on to the staff. The agency has gained a great deal of respect and clients are becoming more and more prestigious. Kudos to them! I think GCSU needs to do something like this to get students real life experience with real deadlines and real clients who are expecting a lot. Like us, they have an event where communication seminars take place, however theirs lasts a whole week instead of a day. I think a week would be a lot more to plan than PR day, however the experience and the networking students would gain from a whole week of speekers would be very worthwhile. Like them, we believe that networking is key in the communication industry, especially PR.
Now that we're back we've got some work to do. Our PRSSA chapter is still a toddler, but it is a 'baby einstein' really. For its age, it is doing so well.

More Soon,
GG

Learning to Blog

With as many blogs as I have read, Ive honestly never made a blog of my own before. Of course for Dr. Carter's lawclass we used our law blog to post our cases. That's as close as I've come to making a blog. I had no idea that I was going to have so many choices with this project. It's actually a bit overwhelming. I have already spent over an hour just trying to figure out color combinations for all of the different layouts. And now I can't even figure out how to see my own blog, but as far as I know, my blog has a green background with leaves. I just now realized that i can do different colors which really excites me. What on earth does "monetize" mean?
One thing we talked about blogging about in class was why I chose public realtions. I must say, I will at some point this semester, on this very blog, explain my reasoning. I find it interesting that people can blog about just about anything. I feel so blessed to live in a time and in a country where I can say what I want about just about anything. I heard this week that Google is/is thinking about shutting down in China because of all of the restrictions put on the online searches there by the government. I believe I saw it in Monday or Tuesdays New York Times. Here is the/a similar article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/world/asia/13beijing.html?scp=1&sq=google%20china&st=cse .
I wish I could figure out how to find groups or other public relations students. If anyone happens to stumble upon this and knows how, please, post something.
As for me, good night and good luck.