Ch ch ch changggges.

I attended 11:00 a.m. mass this weekend with my roommate. Feeling a little sleepy, I settled in the pew and will admit that I was not fully attentive for the first fifteen minutes. Along with a case of the sleepies, too many things seemed to be on my mind: impending graduation, a move down to Columbus, choosing a new apartment, leaving my friends…its enough to make any student freak out a little.

However, my brain snapped into focus when Father began the homily. Father detailed the difficult process the disciples went through when decided to follow Jesus. All Jews, they had to make a few big alterations to their life: believing that Jesus was the messiah they were waiting for and realizing that salvation was not just for them was a big change. Father went on to talk about how while change may be uncomfortable in our lives, it is inescapable. Therefore, we must focus on the few things that our stable in our lives, including God.

If I didn’t know better, I would have though Father had tailored that homily to me. I’ll admit it: I’m not good with change. I have many things that make me happy in life, and I don’t like when they are threatened. Considering that the things that make me happy – my ONU friends, living with my roommate, being close to home- are all about to change in a matter of weeks, I haven’t been the most stable or happy person. I’m excited about graduation, don’t get me wrong. But one thing I’m not excited about is change.

But you know what? Thanks to Father, I’ve realized the stable things in my life that will keep me on the right path. I have a friendship with my roommate Ashley that an earthquake couldn’t break. I have strong relationships with my family and friends that are sure to withstand some distance. While the logistics of these things might change, their roots are stable.

That’s my grand outlook in life as I approach my final few days in college. Things are bound to change in the next month. My address will be different. Classes will not exist. I can’t even promise this blog will still exist. However, one thing I do know is that the important things in life will stay constant. A little bit of comfort is never a bad thing.

Happy Graduation everyone!          

IKEA's social marketing

I’ve spent about 12 million hours this past week working on my senior public relations case study capstone. We were challenged to pick a recent public relations campaign and produce our own extensive cast study on the organization and campaign. I chose to explore an extremely successful social media campaign IKEA implemented about a year ago. Needing to promote a store opening in Malmo, Sweden on a low budget, IKEA ran a two-week competition where photos of showrooms were posted once a day and individuals were challenged to be the first to tag themselves on a product. The first to tag themselves on a product won the item.

Clearly I benefited from learning extensively about an effective way to use Facebook and social media to promote an organization. However, while researching the IKEA corporation, I learned  that successful online, viral campaigns are not new for IKEA. In 2005, IKEA launched a fun, quirky website that challenged consumers to build their own dream kitchen. However, my favorite online campaign implemented IKEA involved Mark Malkoff, a New York comedian. When his apartment needed to be fumigated, instead of turning to a friend for a place to stay, he turned to IKEA. Mark lived in IKEA for a week, documenting his visit with multiple hilarious videos on marklivesinikea.com

Check out an example video from Mark’s stay in IKEA below. Just another great example of great online marketing!

Road trip please!

It’s 12:34 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. I just got kidnapped. By my professor.

Here is how it went down. I walked into Alisa’s office, harmlessly thinking I was going to share a funny story and ask how her afternoon was going. Little did I know she was devilishly looking for a friend to keep her company on a spontaneous trip down to Columbus. Five demanding pleas and a Red Robin plea later, Kelsey, Alisa and I were in her Lexus headed down to Columbus.

You’re probably thinking there was some insanely important reason we needed to immediately make an hour and a half drive down to Columbus. Dropping off a dream job application. Picking up a visiting professor. Well, you would have a great imagination, but not be correct. We needed to drop off a book to have it bound.

Yep, that is what I gave up my Thursday afternoon for. A bound book. Should I have been working on my senior capstone? Probably. Should I have been prepping for apartment searching in Columbus the next day? Of course. Any sane person would have focused on the important things at hand.

However, I’m learning anything as a soon-to-be-college graduate, I’m learning that responsible choice doesn’t always have to be the right one. Yes, I sacrificed quality work time on my capstone. However, I gained invaluable time swapping stories with Aggie, treasuring the time I have with her by getting to know Aggie the person, not just Alisa the teacher. I’m not sure I would have remembered the three hours I sat in the PAC lab working on my capstone that afternoon. However, I can bet I’ll remember the funny conversations we had at Red Robin, the wrong turn we took off the highway, and the funny old bookbinding man who seemed to be convinced someone way pregnant…

I have decades of years ahead of me to work. I have two weeks left to take spontaneous road trips with my professors. Something tells me I made the right decision J

Takeaways from Twitter

The topic of the hour this week in social media class was the Goliath of the social media world: Twitter. We were challenged to make comparisons on the use of Twitter by two of our favorite businesses, as well as by two professionals in the public relations field. For my companies, I chose to compare TOMS shoes (@TOMSshoes) and DSW (@DSWShoeLovers); while both shoe companies, they have very different brand identities and company missions. For my professionals, I chose to compare Heather Whaling (@prtini), owner of Geben Communications and a self-starting public relations professional in Columbus, Ohio against Brian Solis (@briansolis), author of Engage.  My paper is a bit long to post, but I wanted to share a few Twitter tips I learned from these successful Twitter users.

·         Use hashtags: As long as you’re not using a hashtag as long as your tweet (#ihadthatminiheartattackwhen? Really people?), hashtags can only enhance your tweets! Not only can they help find other tweets and Twitter users that might share your similar interests, but you are instantly inserting your tweets into a content-focused conversation. Not to mention, they are the foundation for Twitter chats, online conversations that can be extremely beneficial if you have the skill to keep up with the fast pace.

·         Tweet unusual content: As a company, I expect you to tweet product sale deals and event promotions. Things I don’t expect you to tweet are quotes or moving YouTube videos. TOMS shoes has this concept down pat; they  regularly tweet interesting and unique content that nicely ties in with their giving values and One for One mission. This type of content stands out on my news feed, making me much more likely to check your company out.

·       Talk with your followers: Whether you are an individual or a company tweeter, it is imperative to remember that Twitter is a two-way communication tool. You can tweet your heart out, but you are not using Twitter to its full advantage unless you are carrying on a conversation with your followers or people you find inspiring. Not only will you create more dynamic online content, but you would be surprised how much your personal or company network can expand by taking some time to talk with the Twitterverse.

The impossible search: Apartment hunting

One event that has been extremely stressful every single year of my college career at ONU is the housing lottery. Every single year something proves to be difficult. Computer systems go down. Lottery numbers are not distributed correctly. Rooms disappear right before your selection time. Given my unlucky housing experiences, I was thrilled that I was not a part of the lottery this year given my impending graduation. I mean, no housing process can be worse than the ONU system, right?

Enter apartment searching.

With a move down to Columbus to begin a post-graduate internship and my career as a public relations professional in my near future, I officially starting hunting for an apartment this week with Ellen Keough. I thought after spending approximately ten million hours of my life watching episode after episode of house-hunting themed HGTV shows, I would be a pro at this property purchasing business. Little did I know how difficult it is to find an inexpensive, well-kept, apartment with decent amenities and a good location.

Additionally, have you ever tried searching for an apartment online in a city that you are not entirely familiar with? It is impossible! There are never enough pictures of the complex, and they always seem a little too staged to be believable. Of course, prices for utilities are never listed, so you cannot figure out the true price of your desired abode. My main complaint? You cannot find out if an apartment with your desired layout is available until you sell your name, phone number, email address, and soul to the website.

I am sure that as a newbie apartment searcher, I am a little too nitpicky and worried with details (maybe it was unfair of me to instantly rule out the nice, pretty apartment complex when I found out it was on Booty Lane…). On the other hand, is there a reason apartment listings cannot be straightforward and transparent online? It seems to me it would move the process along much quicker, and create less stress for both parties.

Regardless, I am going to be on the apartment hunt for a while. If you have any tips or have the inside scoop on the Columbus area, give me a shout out!

The four p's, revamped!

Confession: at one time in my life I was a marketing major. While that did not last the entire way through college, I’ve taken my fair share of marketing classes at ONU. This week, David Scott addressed the main takeaway from my marketing classes in his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR: the 4 P’s- product, place, price, and promotion.

Everyone seems to have their own opinion on the importance of the four P’s. Some insist they are essential for any strong marketing or public relations campaign. Some, including Scott, voice that the rules are outdated and do not focus on the consumer. I’m hear today to offer a new way to apply the four P’s rule. I ran across a great article from Bernstein Crisis Management that suggested a new set of p’s to use when dealing with a marketing or public relations crisis situation:

·      Policy: goals and aspirations of the organization should be withheld and strewn through a crisis management situation.

·      People: identity key people involved with responding and communicating during the crisis situation.

·      Plan: complicated plans fail during a crisis. Crisis plans need to be simple, clear, and easy to implement.

·      Platform: the infrastructure that will be used during a crisis situation.

I really enjoyed this striking different list of 4 p’s of marketing and public relations. Crisis situations are their own type of beast in the world of public relations- situations that require careful planning, strategy, and implementation. I think designing a four p’s list for crisis situation provides great guidelines for marketing and public relations organizations across the country. 

Social media: Pink slip solution?

There are many things I hope to experience in my career as a public relations professional: being hired, moving up the corporate ladder, landing my dream job, leaving my mark on an organization. One thing I hope I never experience? Getting fired. It’s a situation I’m sure we all work tirelessly on to avoid. Yet, for some professionals a bad break heads your way and luck just doesn’t seem to be your friend. For Tyler Durbin, a young public relations professional in Columbus, that bad break arrived at his doorstep about a week ago.

Disclaimer: I do not know Tyler Durbin on a personal level. I spoke with him about a week ago at a conference, but that is it. Therefore, I cannot comment on why he was fired or reasoning behind the decisions. However, this blog serves as a space for what I can comment on: his reaction to the unfortunate situation.

When fired, people seem to turn to various things: excuses, hiding places, or maybe the large gallon of ice cream in the freezer. The item most people probably don’t think to turn to is social media. Apparently Tyler Durbin is not most people. About an hour after being fired, Tyler recorded a personal video on his instant reaction to this situation. Tyler chose to go public with the personal video a few days later on his blog. The video log proved to only be the start of his social media campaign. A few days later, this upbeat, inspiring video was posted, proving not only that Tyler has a positive attitude, but knows a thing or two about the power of social media.

These videos evoke various feelings in me. Discomfort. Sympathy. Curiosity. For some I know it creates negative feelings, viewing the videos as unnecessarily awkward glances into a situation that is all too personal. But you know what? We are all watching. No matter how you choose to react, you watch the video all the way through and learn Tyler’s story. This guy knows how to grab attention in a way that counts. Can you think of a better way to make a noticeable splash into a field fueled by social media? I sure can’t.

Regardless of whether you view this as a smart or harmful life decision, I think Tyler helps prove the overwhelming power a creative and thoughtful social media campaign can have on a public. If you play the right cards, you can have a viral hit on your hands. Time will tell, but I have a feeling Tyler will have few job offers in his hand soon.