Public Relations... We did it!

As my last Public Relation class comes to a close, a time of reflection is in order. As many times as I have struggled with the course load I am glad that I stuck through it. My Public Relations concentration will come in handy no matter what field I chose to go into, whether it be advertising, sales, management information systems or a typical pr job. So, the question that was brought up in class is what this blog post will be centered on. "What ten things did I learn in my PR concentration?"

1.) Take advantage of every Public Relations related opportunity, no matter how small or time consuming.

2.) Push your limits, don't stay in your comfort zone.

3.) Make connections in every walk of life and take advantage of those connections

4.) Approach everything with a Cheery disposition and a go-getter attitude

5.) Take advantage of every assignment you are given to increase your portfolio and knowledge.

6.) Your teachers are you mentors, and they will support you.

7.) Don't give up. Push through

8.) Breathe, stress is going to be everywhere but sometimes you need to just cut off your phone and take a break.

9.) Don't view your classes as just classes, they are the windows to opportunities

10.) Develop hard skin... criticism is there to make you grow.

From winning a national campaign competition to making scrap books as the PRSSA historian every experience I have had has made me grow as a Public Relations Grad. Experiences are what make this concentration different from every other major. In order to increase your knowledge in PR the best way to learn is through trial and error. Don't give up if you make a mistake, learn from it. This isn't an easy concentration, but it is as beneficial as you make it.

I have made some life long friends, and I wouldn't trade the time I have spent for anything. I am proudly a Public Relations concentration. My education doesn't stop from here, my experiences will keep teaching me.

Philanthropy as a Business- Google's Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility is becoming exceedingly popular and important for companies. It is an easy way to get in the media's good light, and many companies are tapping into this opportunity. Personally, I find it a lot easier to get a press release published if there is a "good-deed" attached. One company that I am marveled by in all aspects is Google. From various class projects my knowledge of Googles history and company structure has grown drastically. Before I begin on explaining the gist of their Social Responsibility, a brief history may be in order. For a typical Social Responsibility paper, the length of my history below wouldn't be so long but I find Google's history to be very interesting.

History:

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Page and Brin met at Stanford University as Computer Science grad students. According to the google timeline Brin showed Page around on his college Visit. In 1996 the two created a search engine called BackRub. After a year the campus server's bandwidth was not cable of handing the search engine. 1997 was when the name Google was born from "googol" the mathematical term meaning 1 followed by 100 zeros. After securing 100,000 dollars in funding, Google sets up shop in Susan Wojcicki's garage. Craig Silverstein was their first hired employee. By December 1998 Google was recognized as a search engine of choice in the top 100 Websites. From there, Google exploded with almost every year marking a new product or feature being created.

Google's mantra is "don't do evil" and they try to apply that to every aspect of their business. Their Philosophy includes ten things :

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well
3. Fast is better than slow
4. Democracy on the Web works
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer
6. You can make money without doing evil
7. There's always more information out there
8. The need for information crosses all borders
9. You can be serious without a suit
10. Great just isn't good enough

Perhaps Social Responsibility doesn't have to always be a separate entity of a company. I think Google does a great job of incorporating it into its daily business practices.

Google.org:

In 2005 Google created the Google Foundation which was managed by google.org. It took 10% of the 3 million shares of google to fund the foundation. Larry Brilliant headed up the google.org project but has since then become the Chief Philanthropy Evangelist. Megan Smith now manages google.org along with her other duties as V.P. of new business development. Google.org focuses on:

• Helping develop cheap clean energy
• Finding and fighting disease out breaks before they sweep the globe
• Inform and Empower

Google not only contributed money to google.org but it also contributed man power. Its original goal in 2004 was to donate 1 % of equity and profits in some form and also to donate employee time. One thing that Google does in it's Social Responsibility venture that is different is that they also invest in for profit companies that advocate for policies that follow Googles. This has raised eyebrows on whether this can be considered truly philanthropic. Google believes in approaching philanthropy like a business and tapping into the resources and strengths that Google has, its employees, products and technologies. One of these for-profit ventures is clean energy, this is considered philanthropic because it will benefit the greater good.

Dr. Larry Brilliant said, "... our greatest impact has come when we've attacked problems in ways that make the most of Google's strength in technology and information."

The five initiatives that Google will focus on in the next five to ten years are:

• Predict and Prevent - to predict eco and social crisis like infection disease outbreaks like the flu by spreading the information of the outbreak quickly and effectively
• Inform and Empower - improve public services of communication in undeserved areas
• SME’s - investing in small and medium sized enterprises
• RE - help combat greenhouse gas damage by developing renewable electrical energy
• RechargeIT - reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, stabilize the electrical grid by supporting companies that feature things such as hybrids

According to this article, thus far Google.org and Google Foundation have committed more than 75 million dollars in grants and investments.

Some interesting things to look at that Google has done are here:

• http://www.google.org/projects.html
  http://www.project10tothe100.com/

PR Day!

Recently the GCSU PRSSA chapter hosted PR day on our campus for the second time. PRSSA is very new to our campus and its incredible how many times I have had to say the mouth full of a name (Public Relations Student Society of America)

Customer Relations- Using Social Media as a Listening Device

Customer Relations has changed drastically in the past couple of years. Before, complaints to a company were typically private and made through either the phone or mail. Today, complaints are typically public through twitter and other social media outlets. Some companys use Twitter as a "talking device" but perhaps it should be more considered a "Listening device". Through Twitter you can search for the name of your company and can see who is saying what about your products. The good thing about this, is if you approach them and fix their problem right away you can turn a bad thing into a really good thing. There are other programs throughout the web that measure and record the presence of people talking about your company.
My advice for this post... Listen more, talk less.

Ladies Lawn Night

Recently I competed in a National Campaign Competition with The CW and PRSSA. As a group of four, we had to research, create an event, and submit a campaign booklet in an attempt to promote the two new shows, 90210 and Melrose Place, on campus. Groups were only allowed to have four people, therefore, my Public Relations Campaign class split off into three groups. I can honestly say, between the three groups, The CW accomplished its goal of promotion on the GCSU campus. Flyers, radio announcements, news articles, and news shows cluttered the campus for a month as we all rushed to fill the deadline of when our event had to be held. Crazy is an understatement.

Three groups... three events... three completely different ideas. My event, or rather my groups event, was titled Ladies Lawn Night. A night of ladies bonding time. In between the freshman dorms at GCSU there is an amazingly inviting lawn that is flat and expansive, we chose this for the location. At the event there was a fashion show, a jazz band, trunk shows from local boutiques, breast cancer awareness, a red carpet with the actual CW background, makeup and hair consultations, and blankets were placed on the lawn to watch the two shows on a big screen. It was a lot of fun, there were tons of giveaways and there was a very nice turn out.

One of the things that I did learn during this event is how much work really goes into an event. Every minute of my spare time for over a month was filled with Ladies Lawn Night activities. From organization, to booking, to promotion, to decorations..... the list is huge. Thankfully the hard work really did pay off, the event was beautiful. For decorations we stuck to two colors, dark pink and white. White table clothes covered all of the tables, hurricanes with sand and candles graced every table, and christmas lights fenced in the area creating a very magical and girly environment. The ambience was embellished with the jazz band playing to attract girls to shop at the beginning of the event and guys dressed in white shirts and black pants running the tables.

Creating a campaign book is not an easy task. It is one of those things that you basically have to be thrown into creating, there is no "how-to" book. Everything from analysis to design goes into the large book. Everything that was created we stuffed into the book, everything that was written about the event we stuffed into the book... everything was there. We analyzed how the event went, how the show is doing, and included any research we had done. I am glad that portion of the project is over.

Now is the waiting period... who will win the competition. Keep your fingers crossed, and I will keep you updated!

Dear Job Market, please pick up

I am a little behind on my blogging, so get ready for a blast of blogs this week. Today I am headed to a graduate school fair. Despite the fact that I have been in school my whole life, minus four or five years, I am not yet ready to leave. I feel with the current economy it is best to enter the job market with my resume packed and my qualifications shinny. Jobs aren't easy to find, especially in my chosen field so I am choosing a different avenue, graduate school for Management Information Systems. How does that have anything to do with Public Relations or Advertising? With Management Information Systems come a lot of planning. Part of a Project Manager's (one of the jobs for MIS grads) job is public relations especially employee relations. Hopefully when I graduate from Grad school I will have a sure-fire job. I will basically have the qualifications for a million different jobs especially with my recent interest in computer programing classes. Wish me luck as I try to accumulate knowledge in a million different fields to increase my chances of surviving in the "real world".

Ethically Ethical

Ethically speaking, I am in the middle. At least with Public Relations. A question that was brought up in class was would I be willing to work for a tobacco company. In this economy and job crisis I probably would. If the money and the job are there I would be stupid not to. Now if I had a choice on working for a ethical company over a slimy company then of course I would choose the ethical company. I suppose as I go through the job market and I climb the corporate ladder I will begin to develop my ethical views on what is right and what is wrong in the work place. At the moment though, I feel unequipped to really judge which track I will take. Of course there are things I wouldn't do including cheat, steal or sleep my way to the top, but the gray areas are still yet to be decided.

Public Relations Ethics in the News: (these are paraphrased from the article below)

1.) A public relations firm allegedly(using my mass media law jargon) created a program that would basically have a group of "tweeters" that would only say good things about the firms client and that client's products. Creating a false good image for the company.

• Though, this may not be ethical. I think its ingenious and kind of funny. I wonder if I could hire them to tweet about me and make me the most popular girl on campus. It's human nature to follow a crowd when it comes to liking someone or something. So, theoretically, this firm could make a company (or me) a fad just by creating the origional crowd.

2.) A public relations firm allegedly told its interns to write favorable reviews about the games sold by it's clients.

• Clever? Not saying I feel that this is right, but it is kind of what I assumed that companys did anyways. It's not as if they are taking the public by surprise by doing this and being caught. Silly them for being caught. These are the kind of firms that give Public Relations a bad name.

My Inspiration for this Blog Post:
http://prsay.prsa.org/index.php/2009/09/02/public-relations-ethics-and-the-role-of-prsa/

Freedom of Speech

This week I was in charge of publicizing the Times Talk. The topic was Walter Cronkite and the freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is of constant conversation in a Mass Communications concentration. Hence the term communications. It is what sets our country apart and makes me proud to say that I am an American. I will forever be a supporter of Protecting everyones freedom of speech. Kayne West, while completely inappropriate, has the right to say what he said. Just not when he said it.

In Article 11 of the Declaration of Independence
"The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the precious rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law"

This weeks was the biggest Times Talk in history (not to pat myself of the back much or anything). Perhaps being a Freedom of Speech topic had something to do with it.

My Box of Public Relations Chocolate

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get"

I wonder if my parents thought of that quote when thinking about how I would turn out. What skills would I acquire? What attributes would I possess? Would I be a cheerful person or a moody person? I believe some parts of my personal strengths and weaknesses were given to me naturally, others were from sweat and tears. So what's inside my box of chocolates you ask? Well, that question is influencing my topic for the week, "My box of Public Relations Chocolates".

According to a post on davefleet.com these are the skills, old and new, you need in order to be a Public Relations Professional.

Traditional:

• Writing
• Communications Skills
• Attention to detail
• Media relations
• Proactiveness
• Work ethic

New Skills:

• Blogging
• Microblogging
• Social Networking tools
• SEO
• Coding
• RSS, RSS Readers
• Blogger relations
• Social media ethics

So, lets start with the old. My top three strengths from the "traditional" include Work ethic, Proactiveness, and Attention to Detail. I do, however, have a little bit of the other listed strengths that will be presented to you through my examples.

Work Ethic and Attention to Detail: My work ethic is typically what I am known for. I have been referred to as Katie the choo-choo train (it was in 6th grade soccer). When working at Victoria Secret (No, I do not know Victoria's secret) I was typically known for my attention to detail and making sure the job was done correctly. Speed would be one of my weaknesses. I am too much of a perfectionist to finish a job half "butt", which can require extra time. I follow the theory of doing it right the first time so you don't have to do it again later. My managers, being the awesome people that they are, figured this out and began assigning me to tasks that required a more detail oriented person. They, along with my coworkers also found out that I am the one you call if you need your shift covered. I don't like saying no and letting the team down. I will work until I can barely move if it is required. I also like to get the job done, socializing is for after the work is done. Work is work, fun is fun. Though, at times, work can be a lot of fun.

Proactiveness: Why I say that I am proactive is because I tend to do research and "google" my way into solutions. Example being my buisness analysis homework the other day. The teacher was out so as a class we were assigned to watch youtube video's on the Microsoft Project Management tool. Well, the videos wouldn't play so over 75% of the class left and refused to do the work because they didn't "know how". I stayed with one other person and we googled our way into learning how to use the program and then how to complete the assignment. I also ask a million questions. It's how I learn. I didn't realize how many questions I ask until I took a road trip with my mom and sister to Baton Rouge. They kept laughing at me for asking so many questions. In my mind, if I don't know an answer, I like to combine heads with other people to see if they may know. I learned my lesson with them though, from now on I will only direct my questions at my dad... who also asks a million questions.

For the New Skills section, its easier to say what I am taking classes and working on to improve daily. Over the summer I did a social media internship, so I worked on many of these bullet points. My strongest ones would be blogging(hello, you're reading it!), social networking tools, and microblogging. That is only because those are the ones I am the most practiced in. I have dibble dabbled in each of them and am currently taking a class on webdesign that teaches HTML and I am taking a computer science course next semester. So, when I say it is a work in progress, it is. As it should be for everyone.

That's My Box of Public Relations Chocolate!

Advice: Katie Style

Assigned Topic:

"What do I know now, that I wish I knew then"

Typically I don't advertise the topic in such a blatant way, but I think it is the easiest way to approach this topic. Advice is not really something I give freely. Freely being the key word. Sure, I have given it, but in most situations I believe that one should learn from mistakes and by asking questions.

I keep getting told that I am a "tryer" not necessarily a "do-er", but I am. I try really hard until I become a "do-er". That is pretty much the theme of my advice. If you are afraid suck it up and try. How do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time.

Put yourself in situations that you aren't sure if you are going to sink or swim, because thats the only way to realize your potential. I have drowned a couple times, learned from my mistakes, and tried harder the next time. Thankfully, that next time I swam.

Now it is time for the bullet list to answer the topic question:

- Do take Desktop Publishing before Writing for Public Relations

- Do volunteer to be Public Relations Chair for whatever organization you are interested in

- Keep everything!!!

- Be a do-er, don't be afraid to jump in

- Enjoy your first three years of college, because senior year is jam packed with school work

- Take on multiple internships throughout college

- Volunteer at local organizations and offer to help out with their PR work

- Don't keep pushing off your future, plan for it and act on it

- Become a To-Do lister. They help more than you can guess.

- Finally, have fun. Public Relations is hard work, but when you finish a project your amazed and have a warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy.

One of the major things I regret is not becoming active in organizations until my senior year. I always assumed I was too busy. Trust me, now I am too busy, not then. One of the major things you hear in college is about how when you go into the real world you don't have any experience, only book knowledge. Take it on yourself to get experience while in college.

Picture from http://ndn.newsweek.com/media/69/080102_CollegeApplications_xtrwide-horizontal.jpg

What I did this Summer

Walking to Principles of Advertising last fall I remember talking to a fellow student about how college is all about pushing you to recreate the boundaries on what you can and cannot do. I think that’s the same thing with an internship. Going into my internship at Salesnet I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to complete the tasks that were assigned to me, just as when I enter a new class I am nervous about the syllabus. My solution to those butterflies is to dive in, head first and tackle that sucker.

The first month at Salesnet was a toe dip in the pool of what I would accomplish by the end of my internship. I started off with organizing their blog. I researched Salesnet’s partners and assigned what blog topics I thought appropriate for said partners. I then emailed the partners and asked if they would do the assigned blogs. Throughout the internship I have built relationships with not only Salesnet employees but also the partners. I have contacts in companies outside the CRM realm because of it; hopefully one day they will come in handy.

Another activity that was assigned to me at the beginning of the internship was to basically learn all the ins and outs of CRM. I have a huge notebook full of notes detailing the industry. I researched the competitors, what made Salesnet different, Salesnet’s past and the basics of what CRM is. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Basically, CRM is an organizational tool that allows salespeople to improve and increase their sales. (See "What the Heck is CRM" post below).

Pod casting was also a big activity I was assigned. My supervisor handed me the people to contact and told me to research how to do a pod cast and what materials would be needed. I researched and did a presentation at one of the Monday morning meetings. The first pod cast I did was interviewing Roger Hamilton, he is a salesperson for Contact Science. I was also in charge of editing it. As of right now it is waiting to be posted on the website.

I wrote two press releases this summer. One introduces Salesnet’s presence on Twitter and the other talking about the new interface of the product, both of which will be disbursed in the next week. I not only wrote the Press Release but I also created a format for all future Press Releases. I was also instructed to try to get media coverage on a past press release, which was hard to do considering the Press release was from the beginning of May and I didn’t start work till June. I did post it to some wires and Salesnet now comes up on google alerts. Throughout this semester, I will be writing the Press Releases for the company in hopes of getting them more media coverage.

One of the main problems Salesnet was having was search engine ranking. In May, Salesnet launched a new website, but website search engine optimization was put on a back burner. I was assigned to research how to increase the search engine ranking. I made a presentation at a Monday morning meeting and basically told them what needed to be done. This was probably my favorite project of them all. I learned so much in the process and I was really treated as an employee rather than a lowly intern. I have also discovered I am a very visual presentation presenter. I don't like to just give information, I want charts and graphs to explain it, and justify the information.

Twitter was another one of my projects. I had to create a business plan and implement it. I also had to create a base of followers before we could send out an email through Marketo to Salesnet’s clients, and create said email in Marketo. Marketo is a Marketing Automation Vendor that Salesnet uses to help "spread the word" to its customers. Marketo was definitely a trial and error experience. I am told that this is actually a good program to know for future jobs, which considering how long it has taken me to get the hand of it, is a good thing.

The last thing that I worked on, and am still working on is how to do a Digital Press Kit. We shall see how this develops.

To sum up what I did outside of my internship:

-Visited Louisiana for my friend Emily's Wedding

-Took a Maymester Spanish Class

-Played on the Lake

-Went to White Water

-Visited a couple of friends in their home towns

- Went to the Redneck Games(that could be a whole post)

What is Public Relations

For class this week, we received a Flip Video camera to take around with us and shoot something related to Public relations. For the entire week, my Flip cam was attached to my hip and I took it everywhere. Including the pool, my induction ceremony,The Brick, and of course class. I edited my film down to a few people who I thought were either funny or very correct with the question I posed. "What is Public Relations?" So, if you have time, view the video(it is kinda funny) and enjoy. Now, thanks to me, you will no longer question was exactly Public Relations is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ik1t5P1yI

PR Open Mic Recipe

PR OPEN MIC RECIPE:
1 dose of all things social media
1 cup of Public Relations
1 cup of genius

Shake, not stir. Ta da! You now have PR Open Mic.

Not only is PR a separate social media outlet with its forums it also includes twitter, facebook and so many other social media outlets on the side. Need an internship? Check out PR Open Mic. Want to read blog posts ranging from PR students to PR professionals? Check out PR Open Mic.

The official definition:
"PROpenMic? A metaphor. Step up and speak your mind. Our goal is to be the social network for PR students, faculty and practitioners worldwide. We are ad free and nonprofit with an education focus."

I have now, unofficially, become their advertiser. If the Internets getting you down with all the different sites that you have to keep track of this seems like a pretty good alternative. Happy Interneting!

Go to:
www.propenmic.org

Larry, Thunder's crazy brother is on our banner.

This past Saturday I attended the second event that my Public Relations "Cohort" and I have planned. It was the GCSU Athletic Auction which raises money for athletic scholarships for the University. As Ging's (our teacher) son said it was a "success"!

The theme for the auction was "Thunder Rolls". Motorcycles graced the gym in all different sizes and shapes. Everything came together perfectly and we have had many compliments on the ambience we created. 

Fortunately for us, the auction was not only an event planning experience, it was also a lot of fun. There was a $10,000 reverse raffle that we were very close to winning. Only 7 spots away!

The auction came together and went very smoothly. It was definitely an experience and well worth the effort. My favorite part was meeting professors and department chairs from the athletic department. It definitely helped the "connector" side of me. I now have contacts throughout the athletic department. 

Another plus was that I have began to overcome my fear of heights by standing on so many ladders! 

LASC my fellow PR students!

If I use my name, completely lowercased, as my logo, would my name be AP style correct still completely lowercased?

After taking Macon's class on Writing for Mass Media, my Associated Press style book has become my bible. I am constantly using it to check over papers that I have to turn in to my Public Relations classes. There are yellow, green, and even pink highlighter marks decorating the pages. It definitely looks well "loved".

Any who, I came across an article called "15 for '09: New media terms to know for a new year" by Joseph Priest. It goes over the correct AP style format to use for new words that have been added to our daily dictionary. So, here they are, the correct way to write the 15 for '09 words.

1) BlackBerry

2) Blu-ray

3) blog

4) cell phone

5) Del.icio.us

6) e-mail

7) Facebook

8) LinkedIn

9) MySpace

10) podcast

11) videocast

12) Web site

13) wiki

14) Wi-Fi

15) YouTube

Notice the spelling and the spacing on the above words. The article explains how Web site is two words though it is evolving and may soon become one word. It also explains that Web is capitalized because Web is short for the proper noun World Wide Web. Facebook is still capitalized even though their logo suggests otherwise. The rest of the explanations can be found in the article. It's interesting to see how the AP style gurus come up with choices on the spellings of things. 

Well, thats all for this week. I hope it was an educational post.

Picture was originally posted on Pitch Engine

Hello class... It's time for a lesson on the history of Public Relations.

After dibble-dabbling around the internet for an article to inspire me to write this post, I came across a website that tickled my fancy for historical knowledge. The Museum of Public Relations (www.prmuseum.com). The museum was founded in 1997 and is "a place to go to learn about how ideas are developed for industry, education, and government, and how they have been applied to successful public relations programs since the PR industry was born".

Five men are highlighted as "Early Pioneers": Edward L. Bernays, Moss Kendrix, Chester Burger, Carl R. Byoir, and Author W. Page. The website goes into depth on each of these men mentioning facts such as Bernays being referred to as "the father of public relations" and Kendrix being the first African-American to represent companies such as Coca-Cola and Carnation. If you play around with the site you can go view interviews of the men, how they celebrated their 81st birthday, and their theories and imprint they made on Public Relations. 

It's a nifty little site especially if you are new to the Public Relations world. It is always interesting to go back to the roots and understand why things are done certain ways. The basis of the post is, check it out. It has a lot of useful information. Hopefully one day, the sixth person will be a lady named Katie Farmer.

Ping-A-Linga-Ding-Dong

Mom, Dad, welcome to the internet and the wonders of social media! 

According to "Ping in the New Year! Simplify management and improve awareness of your online presence" by Ryan Zuk millions of Web enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, businesses and communicators have created multiple online entities. My father just added me on Facebook. I'm having to restrain myself at the moment from jumping up and down in excitement (only mild sarcasm). According to his marketing director, in order for his company's image to improve, joining social media networks are a must. 

One complication is, his company is small. Who will keep up with the Twitter posts?According to the article, in order for credibility to be obtained social media outlets must have frequent activity. Guess the old dad will have to schedule time in his blackberry (which he just loaded the facebook application onto) for updates on Twitter and Facebook.

What if he choses to add more social media outlets to his repertoire?  He can easily add LinkedIn, Flickr, and a Blog. Thats five things to maintain at least every other day, if not more. Thats a lot of work! 

Not to worry dad! Ping.fm is here to save the day! Ping.fm, and other similar tools address the challenge of maintaining and collaborating these separate entities. In one go, a user can update the different social media networks by creating a brief text message with or without images. That text message is then sent to the different media outlets simultaneously. What a time saver! Of course, you can't always have the exact same thing on every outlet, but it is a good tool just the same. 

By building his repertoire, my father will increase awareness for his company. Imagine the possibilities if he joins every new network as they are created. By casting a larger net he will increase his reach of new clients. So, after carefully considering this, I guess I will welcome my dad into the facebook world... weird as it may be.

Check out the article in the PRSSA newsletter!

To the Tip of the Top

If you pass by a bookstore and need a book that enlightens and entertains you pick up Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. It’s a book about Malcom’s theory on how an idea, trend or social behavior becomes an epidemic.

 

Gladwell defines The Tipping Point as “the biography of an idea”. At what point does something become an epidemic? What “tips” ideas, products, messages and behaviors to spread like viruses? The Tipping Point is “ the name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once”.

            I like how the book defines epidemics. It says that epidemics have three characteristics: contagiousness, the fact that little causes can have big effects, and that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment. The Tipping Point is the element that causes that dramatic moment. It is the push that sets off the dominoes. It is the combination of factors that push a product into becoming an epidemic. There are three rules of the Tipping Point that Gladwell claims help make sense of epidemics.

Ø    The Law of the Few

o      “The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.”

Ø    The Stickiness Factor

o      In Epidemics the messages matters; it has to be memorable in order to spread.

Ø    The Power of Context

o      “Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur.”

           

The Law of the Few defines three types of people: Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Connectors are people with at gift for bringing people together. They do not necessarily have close friends but they have an abundant amount of acquaintances. They are the people that we go to in order to “connect” to the rest of the world. They introduce us to most of our friends and link us with people that we otherwise would not have met. Mavens are people with a vast amount of knowledge. They help themselves by helping us solve a problem, buy a car, or reserve a hotel room. They search for the lowest prices and they spread the information to their friends and find pleasure out of doing so. Salesmen are the persuaders. They perform a “dance” with you and persuade you into doing what they want you to do. They sell the product or the idea.

While reading through the book I explained to my roommates the qualifications of each type of person. Then, I asked them what they thought I was. Their answer was a mix. I can be considered a Connector because of the road my life has taken me on. Moving twenty-one times allows for a person to know people in many different locations. I also have only a few friends that I let get close to me emotionally while I many acquaintances. I’m a Maven when it comes to saving money and finding the best deals. When I buy a product I want to know that product inside and out and make sure I am not over paying. I went to over six stores pricing candy for the Homecoming to make sure I was getting Phi Mu the best deal. I am a salesperson because I was brought up to be one. My dad’s profession is sales. I have watched and observed him and have learned a lot. When working in retail and even when selling advertisements it comes naturally. It’s a game to me. How persuasive can I be?

Social media is an excellent way to contribute to being a connector. It allows for you to keep in touch with your acquaintances and connect other people to them. Twitter is the Internet’s version of a connector. Especially with the limit of characters allowed. The limit of characters is the equivalent of an acquaintance instead of a close friend. Close friends can direct message.

In order to “tip” the athletic auction I think we need to define ourselves as a class. Who in class is a Connector? A Maven? A Salesperson? By defining who is what, we can create a mini epidemic. The Connectors can link the Salespeople to people throughout campus who have influence. The maven can accompany the salesperson in order to answer random questions and be the encyclopedia of knowledge while the salesperson “sells” the auction. We need to create our own chain of events and spark an epidemic. Connectors will have connections into clubs and organizations that we can send a salesperson to personally talk the auction up. It has to be a group effort instead of separate entities and we have to realize our individual strengths and weaknesses. 

Good book. I am being a Maven and passing it on to my dad after this.

It's not all about luck

While on my weekly internet search for the perfect article to talk about I came across "Winning the PR Media Game, There are no lucky breaks" by Vicky Gallion. The article talks about the four rules to winning PR strategy. When taking Writing for Public Relations last semester I had a hard time getting stories about my client, a small town monograming store, written. Its hard to find a news worthy story about two ladies owning a monograming store. Fortunately I did get a story written about them before the semester was up. The rules in this article would have been, and are, very helpful.

Rule #1- Don't try to sell a reporter on your product or service

For the story that was published I chose to use the store as a background and focus on the charity that they were supporting. The store is raising money for Payton Thornton, a three-year-old who has recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. By running the story about Thornton, the stores name and location was printed in the local newspaper.

Rule #2 - Have a PR practitioner help you find and write your story

Grammer can make or break you.

Rule #3 Have a solid marketing plan in place before a PR plan

Rule #4 Develop the relationship with reporters

The article can be found here: http://aboutpublicrelations.net/ucgallion1.htm

The Dreaded "um"

Growing up my dad was a stickler for public speaking. If you ever observe my causal speaking habits you will notice that I keep my "ums" to a minimum. During a public speaking event my dad and I would sit in the crowd, and some times still do, and count how many "ums" that speaker says. A silly game, but the reason behind it stuck. I may shake, I may stutter but during a speech you will never hear me say the dreaded word. 

For this week's post I chose the article "The Truth About Public Speaking, Someone is Watching You" by Ed Barks. The article talks about how during speeches the author will not only listen to the speech but analyze the manner which it has been given. It is my dad's little game all over again but more in depth. The author takes in account the delivery, audience attention and whether or not the audience bolts for the door after the completion of the speech. The title of the article is perfect. Someone is watching you, possibly my dad and I or this author. 

Watch out and watch your "ums", I'm counting!

The Article can be found here:     http://aboutpublicrelations.net/ucbarks1.htm

"It's a Katherine day!"

Previously, I messed up and wrote a blog on an article when I was suppose to write about myself. Therefore I do believe that it is time to write a little synopsis of who I am and how I came to create this blog. 

My name is Katherine Farmer, though, it has been a long time since someone called actually me Katherine. Katie is my name of choice presently, though according to my mother I had a hard time choosing between Katie and Katherine. I would wake up in the morning and proclaim that it was a "Katherine Day". I would refuse to respond to anything else.

I attend Georgia College and State University where there is currently only one other Katie Farmer attending. This same Katie Farmer has been following me around since middle school and I have yet to be free of her. In middle school our files and schedules would often get mixed up until she finally had to change her name to Kate. I thought I was free of her when my family moved from Duluth to Hartwell but, unfortunately, we met back up at the same college. Funny how life makes silly things like that happen.

Mass Communications is my major with a concentration in Public Relations and Advertising. I'm still dabbling with what I want to do with my major, so much so that I couldn't decide on just one concentration so I had to chose two! Law school has been the plan since I was really little and I would still like to at least attempt to pursue that. I plan to sign up for the LSAT course next semester. Wish me luck!

I have been leaning towards public relations over advertising for about two semesters now. I like creating plans and working hard to set them through. My mom always said that my goal in life should not be to be the prettiest or the smartest but to be the hardest worker. I work at my work ethic everyday to make it stronger. I'm not a girl that will sit in the corner while everyone else sets up chairs. If something needs to be done, I will do it.

Twitter

Oh Twitter. It all started the day my two little feet stepped into PR-Admin class. Thus far, it has been a struggle for me to maintain a twitter, a blog, and a facebook. Too much technology for one tiny gal. I have gotten better at "tweeting" especially after the lesson on Twitter in class. I'm not sure love would be the word I would use to describe Twitter at this point. Tolerate would be a better word but, hopefully I will develop a fascination for it later on. After reading the assignment on tuesday I was forced to figure out a way to send 15 @reply messages. A task that I didn't find easy. I persevered and I have now successfully sent 15 @ replys and 1 direct message to the professor. Job well done. Hopefully me and Twitter will be better friends soon. Happy Tweeting!

"Media to-do list 2009" By Margo Mateas

The United States economy is on the mind of the majority of America at the moment. I picked the article "Media to-do list 2009" because I found it very in-tune with todays world. Media Relations is having to adjust its pitching practices because of the dwindling economy. The article talks about how the "long cynical about corporate do-gooders and ethical leadership" media will have to change in order to adjust and start pitching positive stories about corporations doing the right things for their employees. 

Here is the list of things to do in order to be part of the new developments:

1. Prepare to have your subject-matter experts articulate your plan for the future.

2. Green and eco-friendly stores will be important, but only as they show others how to become more environmentally responsible- or demonstrate cutting-edge breakthrough that will alter the way we do things on a grand scale.

3. Prepare more minorities to serve as spokespeople and subject matter experts, because there will be a greater demand for their visibility.

Obama's campaign wrapped around "Change", but I never considered change would include myself and the profession I am aiming to be part of.