Tuesday, March 18, 2014

People want it faster than instantly


  

         Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Robert Lowery. He gave me a new way of thinking and was very humble with the work he has done. 

      Here is the interview:


       What is your position here at Central Washington University?

Director of content development.

       What did you major in college? Was it your first choice?

Communications and Political Science, two bachelors degrees from Washington State University.

        What’s your view on social media now a day?

Its expanding at a tremendous rate, and in my position its important to keep up with social media and try to determine what’s going to be the next big “thing”. What’s trending and what’s important now. How much effort do we put to stay in touch with those social media platforms.  Every thing now is very specific.

        What was your work experience like?

I did radio in Seattle, Yakima, Wenatchee, and Spokane. I came to Ellensburg to be the play-by-play announcer for sports. I did a lot of on air news, behind the scene news gathering and reporting. Since then I got hired as a part time news writer, became a full time writer then went on to be the media relations officer and now I am here as the director of content development.

       What is a typical day at work for you?

No such thing. Every day is unpredictable. Things have to get pushed back if something else important comes up.
         What is your insight on how businesses target their audiences today? Has it changed over the years?

It has changed; 20 years ago you can get people to come in if you have hot dogs and popcorn. Now, consumers are savvier and more particular. Attracting students is not easy. You need to pitch the programs they want, the information, how programs will affect them, how they make you marketable and how program focused it is.

         Do you think advertising and public relations intertwine with one another?

Yes, they do. They do but they are distinct. Advertisement is a small part of public relations.  Not a big part of PR. It’s wider than just buying an ad; we make our ads to advertise to future students.
       
        Any advice for public relation majors or people in the communications department in general?

       Learn English, and know how to write well. The common denominator is writing. Delivering a message quickly and short. First 8 words are what really draw in the readers. Learning how to write for different platforms is a must because who knows what the next biggest thing will come around.



At first I went in for an interview, but after hearing what Mr. Lowery had to say about social media and the different aspects we have to understand made me want to stay and just talk to the man. He said, " People want things right away, back in the day consumers were patient enough to watch 2 minute commercials and now if you have a commercial running for more than a minute then you already lost your audience. They want it faster than instantly."



  

Friday, March 7, 2014

Circle of social media

Today, I'd like to talk about the hand in hand relationship social media and public relations have in today's world. When breaking new's occurs, it often is distributed through Twitter. A live tweet is more effective than trying to get a reporter down to the scene and speak about what just happened. In Erin Richard article, " 8 ways to use social media to optimize your campaign" She talks about how broadcast news channels often refer to tweets as part of their newscast now a days. She used Oprah as an example, stating how while Oprah was on a speaking tour across many cities, she instagramed " David's Tea" on her account and soon enough it led to mass amounts of press and rocketing sales. I loved that example because something so simple as posting a picture of where you went to eat can get so much attention on social media and spread like wild fire across all platforms.

Erin's 8 ways of using social media for your public relations campaign are :

1. Monitoring the conversation
You can find out a lot about celebrities or people on twitter who like certain brands. She used an example by searching a soda brand and adding pop after it and found out radio host Dean Blundell is a huge fan of Dr.Pepper based off his twitter account.
2. Sharing is caring
Sharing stories to journalists when a story drops can earn yourself some very generous thank you's.
3.Include social media information in interviews and scheduling
If you got an interview with a spokesperson or journalist, connect through twitter to better familiarize each other before the interview.
4.Document interviews with fun photographs to share online
Why not take a selfie with the interviewer or spokesperson and post it on twitter/instagram! Stir up some conversation so people can tune in.
5.Create key messaging specifically for social media
Have some tweets or posts ready for during/ after the interview to let people know whats going on
6. Establish yourself as a resource
Keep on eye out for breaking new's and follow journalists online to get ahead of other people. If you're paying attention, you might just score a great opportunity.
7.Keep an eye out
Follow reporters online to seize a great opportunity for yourself or a client.
8.Use video to tease your announcement
Before sending a press release or PSA, play with Vine or Instagram video to give a little teaser. Described as the "Drip Drip Drip" technique.




The article can be found here: http://socialmediatoday.com/erinr/1905096/8-easy-ways-use-social-media-optimize-your-pr-campaign

Friday, February 28, 2014

Aware, but unaware at the same time....

I think everyone at some point in their life time has plagiarized a piece of work they found on the internet or from some other source that wasn't their own original work. 

Back in middle school, one of my history teachers had us do an assignment on haiku poems and at the time I was listening to a duo based out of Seattle (Blue Scholars) whom I really enjoyed listening too. Nevertheless, I copied one my favorite verses from one of their songs called "loyalty" and soon enough I got held back after class by my teacher a week later and he warned me about the consequences of plagiarizing somebody else's work. 

That was only one way of plagiarizing; what most people aren't aware of is that there several ways to plagiarize somebody else's work. This site below shows the different types of plagiarism that can occur and is also numbered by the severity of intent.

http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/types-of-plagiarism

In the world of public relations there is a lot of writing going on, thats nothing new. I think what makes a good public relations practitioner is how well they can avoid the types of plagiarism there are and generate original work. Is it important to know the types of way you can plagiarize? Well, if you want to work in this field you better be familiar with them because the moment your caught using somebody else's work and it's not being cited properly, is the moment your left jobless. Furthermore, being aware of these types of plagiarism is important, very important. 

One type of plagiarism that stood out to me and actually caught me off guard was number 10. If you read the article, number 10 is the "Re-Tweet" which is initially using the proper citations but rely's a lot on the texts original structure. I thought this was interesting because if it means what it actually means by re-tweet, then there is constant plagiarism happening on Twitter. I might be wrong but if it's true then plagiarism happens even when we aren't aware of it.  

So when in doubt, cite it out. 

It's not fair to the people who took time out of their day to create an original piece of work just to have somebody else copy it for their own benefit.

Monday, February 17, 2014

California Lovin'

My parents really like to stay in touch with me while I'm in college. They tend to call me about three times a week and I don't mind it at all. So last week my mom was calling me on a tuesday night, so I answered and we talked like we always did, except this time she was talking with excitement and so i had to ask what was up. All she responded back to me was "What do you think about Cali?" I didn't even hesitate to ask why and she just said, "Its time for something new." So I immediately started looking for future careers down in the bay area because thats the part of California my parents would like to move too. Since my last blog was emphasizing on the great PR agencies in Washington, I looked up some agencies in the San Fran area and came across W2O Group, the 4th largest PR firm in the United States. 

W2O Group has an exceptional background of work done for companies. Companies like Hershey's, Mitsubishi and Yoplait. But what i noticed was that W2O group isn't actually the whole company. They have firms within the group like WCG, TWIST Mktg, Brewlife and W2O Ventures. I looked up WCG's site and noticed clients like HP, Redbull and Warner Brothers. 

Going off my previous post, I am getting more and more anxious to work in this field one way or another. Handling big time clients like those stated above are some of the goals I want to achieve. They have this video on their website that portrays the work environment they have in their facility and they really touch base on bringing ideas to life. I really encourage you to take a look at the video to get a feel of what they are about and the work they bring to the table. And what's more exciting about them, is that they are global as well! They have a branch in London that i would love to go and see/work for. The homepage shows featured videos that show their employees explaining the company and the approach they take on.

There is a lot to still look forward too when I think about careers in this area. But I am curious to see what the feel is like to work for real life clients, in a real life agency setting, working along side real PR practitioners. That's what excites me and that's why I am embracing this move to California with open arms.

Friday, February 7, 2014

A future to consider

I am getting to the point where I am now thinking about future internships and companies that i would like to work for. Currently I am interning for an event coordinator here on campus with this years spring fest. I am pretty pumped for the opportunity to work with people that have years of experience on them and then theres me, with maybe 6 months of experience. This last week I started looking at companies around the Northwest and some were interesting to me because of the clients they had. It wasn't until last week when in class for agency we had a guest speaker who in fact was a PR practitioner and she talked about her career and her experience in the professional sector.

During her splurge of excellence she mentioned her internships and how I can be ahead if I can get an internship at a big company. She then went on to mention " Waggener Edstrom". That night I spent a couple hours researching them and what they do and how they do it. They are ranked 3rd in the nation, and not only do work in the United States, but also for companies around the globe. I started looking at the clients they handled and they were huge!


Microsoft
GE Healthcare
UNICEF
Chevron
T Mobile
Skype


My eyes popped when I saw those companies. I have yet to look into their campaigns and case studies but its something I want to keep looking up on because what she said about working for an agency, the research, marketing, the ideas and how closely we work with advertising sold me. I wanted to share that because it was the first time I think i know what I want to do for a career. The drive. The ambition. Thats what is fueling my fire to know more about this profession.

Friday, January 31, 2014

YOU MAD BRO?!

Did anyone else find Richard Sherman's post game rant awesome?!


Well, the media made a huge deal about it thats for sure. I have never seen so much negativity toward a player who backs up his talk with his play. I am a die hard Seahawks fan and what Sherman did was a lesson for us. About character.

Our character is revealed by our actions. but also by our reactions. I think America's reaction to his post game interview revealed how our country judges another persons character and ignore their own. Richard didn't have enough time to prepare for the interview and when you go into that with all the adrenaline going through your body and let's not forget, sending your team to the Super Bowl is when your true character is revealed. When we are surprised, shocked and interrupted is when we truly see who a person is. C.S. Lewis puts it like this "Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is."

This isn't cold hard facts, it's about emotion, soul and dignity. What we should be thinking about isn't what the media say's about him, but what the media tells us about ourselves as a country and as individuals.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Making an ethical decision...

Many PR practitioners now a days understand the policies and ethics of being a PR professional, and the article I chose will help you understand why we follow these guidelines to help remind us that ethical thinking is essential for success.

http://prsay.prsa.org/index.php/2013/09/27/ethics-no-longer-optional/

Above is a link to the website where i read about how ethics are not an option anymore in this world if you want to succeed. The article talks about ethics month (September) where organizations stop and remember how we make proper decisions as representatives to an organization. It goes on my emphasizing the importance of ethics month to remind us also of how ethics can be followed and nurtured through your work. As stated in chapter 2, you should treat others the way you want to be treated. Moreover, making sure what you write or say is morally right in societies eye and has the feeling as well. These small examples can relate back to the article because when you practice these ethics you can ensure yourself for future success with your organization/client and with your own work as well.


I think the month of September is something that all new and current PR practitioners should keep in mind if they want to continue their success in this field because the practices helps us understand the guidelines in telling a story that is true and follows the standards of your work but are also ok with those of your client. Yes its true that there are professionals that bend these rules but in the end i believe its those who follow them that set themselves for a brighter future.

What exactly is Public Relations to the rest of the world?

Being a Public Relations major, I was curious as to how many people around my social bubble actually know and/or understand what it is. When I first came into the subject, I thought I had to do a lot of work with advertising and marketing. But instead it came out to being more of a writing thing to me. I have had many make believe campaigns that I worked on in the classroom that helped build experience on how it is to be a PR practitioner. So I went out and surveyed a couple of my good friends around campus to see how many people actually know about what public relations is.

A couple of my first responders were not really informed of what it is. My roommate Cam is an exercise science major, so if I needed to know a question about the human body I could count on him. But when i asked him about my major all he could say was "well I don't know a whole lot about it, i just know you have to talk a lot". Another one of my friends named Amanda said she has never heard of public relations, saying" I thought it was marketing". Well, no, it isn't just talking; public relations is a series of being able to tell someone else's story and managing an image for a company. Furthermore, I only had 2 people in my survey that had a close assumption of what PR was. Jordan mentioned that you have to write press releases to build hype for an upcoming event/show. Which is true, the drip drip drip technique is used to give out information about an event little by little to give the targeted audience a little taste until the big shi-bang! But i want to make sure people know the differences between marketing, public relations and advertising since most of the people in my survey didn't know.

Similarities and Differences :


  • Advertising-  advertisement is paid for, meaning that companies pay for space to place an ad they have designed who also have complete control of what goes on it. While public relations is less expensive and is focused on creating relationships with the clients to promote an idea for creating an ad.
  • Marketing- Many people say that public relations is part of the marketing mix. Both require strategic planning toward a campaign and both promote a brand image. But marketing is more focused on the sale while public relations is focused on the story.
  • Public Relations- is more focused on securing social media coverage over a client and maintaing an image. Through a variety of tactics and planning the job of a pr practitioner is to nuture the relationship between a client and anyone else that is involved.


I have always been fascinated with the idea of stories that have never been told to the rest of the world and how much it can impact a movement or a cause. I wanted to tell other peoples stories and creating relationships with real people like your customers who will value what you say about them. I wanted to make the news and maybe be the news. When i first started out i was a bit hesitant on whether or not i actually could manage doing that. but after a while it came easy for me to bond with everyday people and networking to create business ties. I wanted to be apart of being someones conversation and affecting moods and perceptions on things. That's why i love my field and why i want to tell your story.