Posts Tagged with Public Relations
9
Heart racing, palms sweating… no, you’re not having a heart attack. You’re pitching your first story as an intern or entry-level pro. Whew! it can be nerve wracking, for sure. Through a good process, you can feel prepared and confident in your delivery. Know “why.” What’s the point of the media relations effort? What’s the big picture? How does this release, this pitch fit into what the client/company wants to accomplish? It’s ok to ask. You’re not just “smiling and dialing,” asking why can help you craft a better pitch, but also helps you understand the business of public relations and the media relations function. Know the story. Understand not only the primary story, but all the potential angles. You may not be able to pitch the primary story to every editor (in fact, you probably can’t). Create, refine and refine again your media list. An awesomely targeted and strategically... Continue Reading
11
Today I formally accepted a full-time instructor position at the University of Oregon in the School of Journalism and Communication. What, you say? You thought I already did that? Not quite. For the last six years, I’ve been an adjunct instructor. Full time, yes, but not permanent. Tactically, the position won’t be much different. Philosophically, it’s a world away. But accepting this position is really putting a stake in the ground – this is who I am and where my priorities lie. I will still do consulting and speaking and Verve lives on. But this position marks an important milestone for me and one that I’m pretty excited about. Thanks to many, many people who have supported me, trusted me, pushed me, challenged me and helped me get here. As part of the application process, I revised and updated my teaching philosophy (thank you, The Professor is In for all... Continue Reading
0
January, schmanuary. The real “new” year for those of us who are students and teachers is September. So as we all gear up to head back to the classroom, it’s time to set some new (school) year resolutions. SWOT Yourself Take an objective view – well, as objective as possible – about your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal. Strengths: What are you good at? What kinds of activities are a natural fit for you? Weaknesses: What areas are more difficult for you to master? I’m not going to say “what can you improve on?” because that’s not always an effective use of your time. But are there specific skills that you need to add to your repertoire? Particularly tactics or skills that you want to learn? I highly recommend a book called StrengthFinder 2.0. Take a little online quiz and get back your top 5 strengths.... Continue Reading
11
“…PR people are ruining social media…” “…P.R. people drive me crazy…” “…PR sucks…” Okay, that last one is more of a paraphrase than a quote, but you get the point. PR has taken a bit of a lashing recently. Beyond being tired, cliche and trite, the “PR Sucks” meme is an informal fallacy - a straw man argument. The assertion of most of these pieces is that because much of PR (particularly agency work and especially over the last 20 years) has been focused on earned media (media relations), that PR people are not suited/incapable/really bad at social media strategy and implementation. That media relations models don’t work in the social world, so clearly we’re ill-suited. But media relations of course is only one specialized function – this argument reveals more about the respective writers’ (lack of) experience or limited view of PR and its role in management than it does... Continue Reading
1
We had a little mini snow day here in Eugene today. It’s 1 pm and all the snow is melted, which makes those of us who cancelled class feel a little silly. But I’m enjoying the day, nonetheless. Some good stuff this week for you to enjoy reading today, too! You can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here. Five ways college students can jumpstart the job search from Edward Boches, a recent advertising Exec-in-Residence at the School of Journalism and Communication Landing a Corporate PR Job from Culpwrit. Great tips for preparing yourself for a career in corporate PR. Building Your Own PR or Social Media Measurement Index from chuckhemann PR – it’s a woman’s world on PR Conversations from Heather Yaxley Preparing Yourself: The Extra Steps to Take as a PR Student from Allison Ralston Twidiots have become corporate risk... Continue Reading
6
I’d argue that we all face ethical dilemmas every day, particularly in and with social media channels. They may be small (should I say this or that on Facebook) or they might be bigger (no, I can’t pepper the web with positive reviews of that client’s product or service). As you probably know, I’m working on a book with my friend and colleague, Michelle Honald. We’re focusing on the ethics of social media in one of the chapters. I’d love to hear your stories and examples of ethical dilemmas that you’ve faced working in public relations (or any type of communications). You can leave actual or hypothetical examples in the comments or email me. I’m not (necessarily) looking for case studies, I just want to make sure I cover the reality of ethical decision making for those of you working in social media. photo by yewenyi... Permalink
2
Kelli’s Note: Diane Gaines, an ’07 graduate was one of the first classes of students that was required to blog in my class. It’s been fun to follow her career and to hear her views on this topic. Pretty rewarding for those of us who think social media are important for you to learn. You can find her on twitter at @drgaines. Recently, several students posted their concerns about being “forced” to participate in social media as part of their public relations coursework to a student website. As a recent graduate of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, I feel compelled to share my insight and experience in the workforce. Millenniums, please know that you are explicitly hired for your innate understanding of social media and digital technology—something your older colleagues struggle to achieve. Your understanding of social media is not only an asset in this industry, it’s... Continue Reading
2
After a three term hiatus, I’m again teaching the advanced writing class – now call Strategic PR Communication. As part of that class, I publish a list of my favorite posts from the week for students to choose from and respond to on their own blogs. While the list is specifically for the class, I hope that other visitors will enjoy, too. Why Should I Work for You, Dude? (Council of PR Firms): In a tight job market, it’s important to hire good talented. How do you as soon-to-be grads look at your opportunities and how can organizations retain you for the long term. Interesting article on a really interesting topic (and one I study, for what it’s worth). The Community Manager Role Unplugged (Buzz Canuck): Our class is doing a little community management this term with PROpenMic during the first week of May, so I found this post interesting.... Continue Reading
12
Ah, April Fool’s. I have to say I’m not a fan. In 9th grade, I was voted “most gullible” by my classmates, if that tells you anything about my April Fool’s history. From a public relations perspective, pulling a prank on an audience – whether it’s your customers, the media or colleagues can be dangerous. The ones that work, in my opinion, are in good fun and have no victim.Year after year, organizations try jokes that just don’t work – they confuse, offend, humiliate or worse. Today, the Eugene Emeralds, our local minor league baseball team, put out a release claiming that Jeremiah Masoli would be pitching for the Ems in the 2010 season. I heard it this morning on the news as a real story and frankly, just didn’t give it much thought. Throughout the day, though, I picked up through Twitter that the story was a hoax, a... Continue Reading
0
This is a guest post from Jamie Szwiec, a PR colleague I connected with on Twitter. More about Jamie at the bottom of the post. I can remember when I went client-side and my boss gave me the task of personally monitoring the news, daily, through Google news alerts and RSS feeds. Something along the lines of … “Spend an hour a day, first thing. I’m not talking about those third-party monitors that charge an arm and a leg. Do it diligently, for competitive analysis, tracking trends and sharing ideas with the team. Most importantly, media relations.” The internal dialogue in my head was along the lines of … “Dude, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Fine, I’m client-side and don’t have to worry about the lingering 0.25’s and billing my time now.” At first, it was daunting. More than a dozen Google alerts to sift through every morning followed by... Continue Reading
1
Comments