FINAL INSIGHT ON PR

At the beginning of the semester I was conflicted about what outlet in the communication field I wanted to pursue. I was unsure of what outlet I wanted to pursue and felt behind. However, throughout the semester I have learned about various aspects within the PR world that have assured me that I am in the right field and specialization. Two of the most important concepts I have learned are how to create a message that engages a specific audience and how to brand myself as a person.  This course has given me the courage to present myself to professionals in my career by strengthening my public speaking skills. As a communication major, I will have many more presentations to come so the courage this class has given me will allow me to present myself successfully and professionally.

I can now confidently say that I am studying public relations and that I want to explore nonprofit and possibly agency life.

Plus! Within PR I learned about two great websites: WordPress of course and PrDaily

Thank you for a great semester Andrea!

MY FUTURE: ONE STEP AT A TIME

My intention in pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in Communication at St. Edward’s University is to focus on organizing and creating effective relationships as well as publicizing organizations, in particular organizations that focus on supplying developing countries with basic necessities. My ultimate goal is to encourage others to be proactive in my community. I strive to fight for the lives of children who cannot fight for themselves by highlighting issues facing children in poverty, abuse, and neglect.

After graduating from St. Edward’s I hope to make my goals a reality by pursuing a career in public relations for a nonprofit organization. To prepare myself for the nonprofit world, I will be starting my first internship at KLRU/PBS this month. I am hoping to get an insight on what makes a nonprofit strong and how they manage to keep loyalty and relevancy with viewers/listeners.  Within the next six months, I hope to successfully balance school, two jobs, and my internship. While I realize it will be a hectic semester, I am ready to take on the challenge and step into the real world.

 

 

CLASS PRESENTATIONS

While I have enjoyed many of the presentations from PR class, my favorite so far has been Chelsea and Rachel’s presentation. I feel they captured the essence of true PR specialist because of their dedication and commitment to showcasing what their company was all about. To begin, I enjoyed their costume choice. I feel it suited the ice cream parlor theme perfectly. Secondly, I admired the cause they were attempting to promote and feel they had lots of creative thinking when coming up with their presentation topic. I believe it is easy to promote a product but harder to promote a cause. Chelsea and Rachel rose up to the challenge and were successful in engaging their audience. The only suggestion I have for them is that I would encourage them to speak in front of the podium instead of behind it. This would help engage the audience deeply by giving them the opportunity to make direct contact with the audience.

Finding My Place in PR

Today I have come to terms  with the reality that in PR, not everything is as it seems. While the world of PR may have its glamorous aspects, there are many unglamorous qualities as well. Although I am well aware that in the real world, not everything is perfect or even enjoyable, it is sometimes difficult to hear about the hardships and obstacles PR pros endure. During class today our guest speaker Dawn Wellington from Wellington Group entertained my class with stories about her struggle to get to where she is now. While I found most of her struggles and lessons learned very motivating, they also got me thinking about what I am willing to compromise for work. As I have heard over and over again, you must be passionate about PR because it will consume you once you start. This is where I struggle. I am not sure what aspect of PR I am willing to consume myself with. Nonprofit, Agency, Corporate?! There are many great options and each is very different. What is up to me is trying every aspect out and seeing what the best fit is for me. So I have decided that starting in December, I will  dedicate myself to experiencing PR.  I will begin my first internship and see what I learn about myself and the career of a PR pro. While I may just be a 19 year old student, I am well on my way in finding my place in PR.

Video Blogs, Video Blogs!

Throughout my PR class, I have learned about social media, networking,  press releases, and much more. One of the areas of communication I would like to learn more about is video blogging. While I have learned a lot about blogs through lectures and PRDaily, I  want to explore video blogs and analyze  how effective they are in motivating people to act on a cause.

As an aspiring PR specialist for a nonprofit, I want to learn how to make people listen. I feel the public is more inclined to listen when there is a face or image attached  to the message that is being said to them.  This is why I want to engage in video blogging. After seeing how popular my favorite video blogger, Community Channel,  became after a short amount of time, I was inspired and intrigued to learn about blogging not just with words but with a face!

Check out Community Channel’s Video Blog for a quick laugh! Community Channel

Photo credited to:  http://www.blogperfume.com/info-the-complete-guide-to-video-blogging/

Social Media in the PR World

  To be honest, before my PR class I did not understand nor did I value the use of social media. While I have had a MySpace and Facebook, I recognized social media as simply a passing trend. Since my PR class, however, the relevance and importance of social media has been engraved into my brain but for good reasons.  I honestly had no idea of how powerful media is in terms of communication, promotion, and motivation between people to people.  If I have learned anything it is that social media is power! It gives anyone and everyone the opportunity to be heard, be seen, and be talked about. Social media essentially is every public relations specialist’s dream!   Since learning about the perks of using social media, I have done some research on companies that were saved because of communication through social media. While I may not be savvy in social networking, I now understand and appreciate the ready-at-hand power social media has given us. Their stories have inspired me to get out and explore the world of Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.cleantechms.com/services/pr-2-0/

PR Pro in the Day, Lover in the Night

Recently, I read an article by blogger Jeremy Porter talking about how working in media relations is a lot like dating. There is the struggle for how to pitch yourself to the person of interest, how to say what you want them to know about you without sounding desperate, how to remain faithful to that one single person, how to have a “game plan” to keep them interested, and finally, how to ask them for a follow-up date. These keys elements are not only what will lead to a successful date but, if applied to the PR world, could also lead to a good connection between a PR pro and a journalist.

It is important to remember that the one major key in establishing a good relationship between you and your interest is by getting to know them. There is nothing worse than having someone talk about themselves without any regard to the other person. Additionally, you must recognize that if you are trying to have someone commit to you, you must commit to that one person. While it may be difficult, these are the steps to initiating a strong and beneficial relationship.

 

After all, once you master the art of PR, you will have already attained the skills in love!

 

 

 

 

Career Goals & How St. Ed’s Will Get Me There

While I am still in the stage of finding my place in the public relations world, I am sure of two things: one, I want to work for a company that values the well-being of children and two, a company that is proactive in helping raise awareness of a current issue. Through some research, I have found various companies that function by these two principles. One of which includes TOMS Shoes.  TOMS shoes stands out to me because it is a company based on the idea that we create the change we want to see; therefore, it correlates with what I am searching in a future career. Since TOMs is based off of San Francisco, California and has now spread around the U.S.  so it is a national organization.  I find TOM’s mission and pro-activity in making a difference very inspiring. My study in Communication will help me attain a job at TOMS because it will help me gain an understanding in how to reach a wide audience and also learn how consumers think, feel and what motivates them to take action.

My advice to students interested in the PR world is to really engage in conversations with different people so that you understand how people think and are able to send out a message they understand and/or are drawn to.

LISTENING & ITS INFLUENCE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public Relations, as stated in its name, is a field that requires relationships between publics. That being said, the number one foundation of a good relationship is strong communication which is composed of strong listening skills. Throughout our everyday lives, listening influences how we transition from situations, conversations, and relationships. What we hear is what inspires our actions; therefore, without listening, good PR is simply impossible. Additionally, listening is important within the public relations field because we are promoting factual events. Without listening correctly, messages could be misinterpreted or vital information about the subject could be lost. What matters most in the PR field is inspiring an action from your audience and the one sure way to do so is by listening to what society demands. As Writer Don Martelli puts it, “Listening is a cyclical thing. If the client listens to their audience, and the PR counselor listens to the client, a strategic program can be developed that is based on audience needs and is executed as such.” In conclusion, listening is highly valued in the public relations world because it is what links a message to an audience.

Social Media, Love & Other Addictions

Wake up. Turn on Laptop. Check Facebook. Go to class. Get bored. Check Facebook. Meet up with friends. Take picture to put on Facebook.ETC.

Everyday I find myself in a cycle of media. It is frigthening but I have come to terms with the fact that everyone and everything is hooked on social media. The reality is, social media is ony getting bigger. As time passes, media is getting a tighter grip on our every day lives. There is NO escape. Our generation has allowed media to enter into our lives. No privacy, no restrictions. In exchange for our personal space, we have given up our appreciation for one-on-one time with people and outdoor activites among the many things we no longer indulge in. WHY? Why have we left the simple pleasures and hooked ourselves to computers and phones? Because social media addiction gets the best of us. We want more and social networks like Facebook and Twitter allow us the power to not only know what our friends are doing but what EVERYONE else is doing. Life is in the palm of our hands (or on our screens) and oh, do we like that power.

 

Obsessed- Social Media Addiction

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