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.

Easter at the LeGendre's: It's all fun and games until somebody's burns their nose...

After talking with many of my friends, I have discovered that Easter tends to be a laid back holiday for most families. Church in the morning, lunch in the afternoon, and egg hunts in the backyard if weather permits. Through in some candy, pastel colors and way too many hard-boiled eggs and you’ve got yourself the typical American Easter celebration.

Here is another thing I have discovered: my family is extremely atypical when it comes to Easter celebrations. If you visited my house this past Sunday, you were more likely to believe that the 22^nd Olympiad was taking place, because in my family Easter equals game central. Ever since my mom was little, we have a slew of tradition games that take place (traditional in the sense that we have done them for 40 years. Not tradition in the sense that you have heard of them or played them). Let me tell you folks: Easter gets crazy, Easter gets exciting, and most of all, Easter gets competitive. Here’s the rundown of games:

• ·          The Money Hunt: My great-aunt Stella started this game: she would save her spare change every year, wrap each coin individual in wrapping paper, and hide it around the yard. While Aunt Stella passed away a few years ago, the tradition holds strong. This year coins were hidden everywhere from the top of our tree house to underneath the bricks of the deck. I may still have mulch marks on my jeans from the little scuffle my sister and I had trying to reach a money pot hidden within the flowerbed…
• ·         The Nose Roll: Here is all you need to know. You place a plastic Easter Egg at one end of the living room carpet. You then must roll the egg to the other end of the living room. With your nose. The fastest time wins. Yep, that’s right folks, I practice nose stretches all year. This is my far the most coveted title in our family.
• ·         Egg Bocce Ball: Same rules of the traditional game, but family dyed hard boil eggs replace typical bocce balls. A few neighbors gave us puzzling looks this year when we were chucking eggs around the yard…

Sometimes the battle wounds of nose burns and money hunt bruises might give off more of a feeling of Good Friday as opposed to Easter Sunday. However, at the end of the day, you’ll find one happy family. For instance, I came out of the day with yummy candy, hilarious hunting stories, and the title of Nose Roll champion (4.61 seconds baby)! Most of all though, I always finish the day with big smiles and an intense love for my family. Our traditions each year remind me how lucky I am to be part of a family that truly enjoys having fun with each other. Stories from previous Easters get told year after year, creating that deep family bond critical for bringing people together. Hard-boiled eggs and nose rolls might not be the typical material, but they build a strong foundation for my family.

The social marketing compass

This week I dove deeper into Engage by Brian Solis, another book our social media class is reading and discussing. Chapter 21, entitled “Creating your Social Media Plan,” really jumped out at me. The chapter was centered on a concept called the Social Marketing Compass. Its function, as described by Solis, “points a brand in a physical and experiential direction to genuinely and effectively connect with customers, peers and influencers where they interact and seek guidance online.” The following diagram is included in our book:

The more I read about the process of using social media and online public relations techniques to promote an organization or campaign, the more I realize the overwhelming importance of a brand. A brand encompasses all the things that make an organization or product unique: an image, a voice, a feeling, an emotion. All of these elements provide a solid foundation that can draw a customer in and create a personal attachment.

The importance of a brand is truly expressed by the social media compass; by placing the brand at the middle, it reminds practitioners designing public relations campaigns that all decisions should always be made with the brand in mind. Once you have a strong grasp on the brand, you can expand outward, deciding what audience to target, which social media tools will resonate most with that audience, and how they will emotionally react to your message.

Solis’s diagram provides a unique, fresh perspective on a social media plan- a perspective all practitioners should consider!

Social media session with Dr. Iseman

After learning about podcasts in my social media class, we were given the assignment to pair up with a classmate and create our own podcast on a concentrated topic of social media. Below is the result of the pairing of Ellen Keough and I. We interviewed Dr. Stephen Iseman, PRSA Fellow, APR, professor of public relations at Ohio Northern University, and smartest and wittiest man I have ever met. We sat down to discuss the changes he has seen in social media over the course of his career, and how he feels social media is shaping the academic field and young students making the move to the professional playground. Enjoy!

http://reneelegendre.podbean.com/mf/web/8dsy8r/EllenandReneepodcast.m4a

Web communication

In the midst of blogs, podcasts and viral videos, David Scott linked them all together in the ninth chapter of The New Influencers. The chapter discussed web-based communication, primarily related to the beginning steps one takes when creating, designing, and launching a website.

In a day and age when it seems like there are about as many existing websites as there are starts in the sky, one might think it must be easy to create a website; they are such common forms of communication. How can they be hard?? Quite the contrary. I chose to take a web design class last quarter as was greatly humbled concerning my web skills. There are about twenty million steps that go into the design of a website, and each is difficult. Programs that help build websites, such as Dreamweaver, seemed confusing to my layout-oriented brain and proved to be difficult to learn. While I finally learned to master HTML code, it felt like I was back in high school learning another language. Even layout elements are hard; I cannot tell you how many times my navigation pane did not line up with my main body.

The moral? Do not assume all projects related to the web are easy, even if you feel like a social media guru. More importantly, have some respect for the webmaster. Their skills make our lives as a web-driven public relations practitioner much easier. 

Confessions of a Music Junkie

Things I’m worried I’ll lose when I leave college: my knowledge of bizarre and obscure music.

Along with sharing class notes, car rides and cookies (ok, I usually just steal cookies from my friends) one thing me and my college friends share constantly is music. Just this weekend we had a music swapping session: everyone brings their laptops and a flashdrive and we do some music exchanging. If you are a music junkie like me, it is like Christmas. I am constantly receiving new music and getting a new song stuck in my head.

Probably my favorite part about college music exchanges is getting introduced to music I would have never considered. While I’m still not sure I will ever be open enough to accept country, I am constantly surprised at the types of music I can get into. Just this weekend, while I was in Columbus, I was introduced to a new type of music called dubstep, a genre of electronic dance music. While I found most of it to be ridiculous, annoying and seizure inducing, I found that I could not get the song Cinema by Benny Bessani out of my head. Listen. Imagine dancing. No judging :)

My best find of the weekend? My new favorite blog, Cover Song Archive. The tagline is “Songs you know by artists you don’t.” Some of the song covers literally blow my mind. Check it out and be inspired!

Cover letter? Please!

As a senior getting scarily close to graduation day, the job search extravaganza is in full swing. Searching job banks, applications, interviews…most of the time I find myself sitting down at 11:00 p.m. and saying “Maybe I should actually make some time for that class work that is due tomorrow.” Job searching is a full time job itself!

After completing multiple job applications, I have discovered something: organizations and recruiters are getting creative! Gone are the days of simply submitting your cover letter and resume. If you are going into a field based off of creativity, clearly employers want to see if from the start. I have been asked to do a series of creative pieces of work to prove why I am worthy of an internship. The latest? Create a 30 second video answering four question related to your candidacy for our internship. Do you know how complicated it is to fit quality information into 30 short second of video, all while making it creative and memorable? Trust me, it is not a cakewalk.

That is only one example of the interesting assignments I have done for interviews. I have answered real tweets from company consumers. I have written essays around my quirky hobbies. Pretty soon I am just expecting to have requests for a full-fledged novel…

However, while I think these new interview requests are challenging, I think they are speaking loads about the companies that are assigning them. The public relations industry demands unique, creative, innovating individuals…why not test out the skills early? Plus, with some hard work, I find it gives applicants the true opportunity to shine. These applications might be more work. However, with some time commitment and effort, a little bit of extra creativity might just be your way into the office.

Do podcasts have potential?

After covering viral videos and blog posts, we reached another new medium of communication this week in social media class: podcasts. A specialized, small snippet of audio, podcasts offer an alternative to radio. As covered in both our social media class and David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing & PR, podcasts have a lot of benefits: they are cheap, portable, and simple to obtain. With a laundry list of benefits, podcasts should be the next big social media craze, right?

This girl is not convinced yet. I am skeptical for a two main reasons:

1.      Podcasts are supposed to be the new form of radio. However, how popular is radio as a communication dissemination tool? I certainly do not want to knock the radio industry, but figures show that radio is taking a hard hit. The 2011 State of the Media Report by the Pew Research Center showed that radio usage as a source of news for Americans fell by 6 percent. While podcasts are different than radio, they share the same qualities. Qualities that Americans seem to be turning away from in 2011.

2.      While podcasts may provide more topic specialization and ease of mobility than radio, they still require what I find to be a huge downfall of radio: time. I don not know about you, but I am on the social media boat because I can get my news quickly. Instead of sitting down and listening to a 30 minute news or radio program, I can check Twitter 3 times a day during the 10 minute break between my classes. Even with the ease, I may not have time for podcasts.

Take my opinion with large grains of salt. As a social media guru, I am certainly not naïve. Podcasts offer lots of the typical positive qualities of successful social media tools. However, I think a few of the downfalls of podcasts may prevent them from catching on as quickly as some of the other popular tools.

One for One: My TOMS story

Cute shoes. Creative brand. Heart-moving mission. Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes talking to me understands that these three phrases describe my favorite brand, product, and overall organization: TOMS. A quirky, fun shoe company based out of Santa Monica, the mission of TOMS is as simple as it gets: with every pair of shoes you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. I’m part of the TOMS club on the ONU campus, and this past week was huge for our organization as we helped TOMS celebrate their One Day Without Shoes.

There are about a million things that TOMS does exceptionally well that we could talk about (creative shoe designs, community photo wall, active social media presence…do not get me started). However, there is a public relations aspect of TOMS that I believe every business organization should take a lesson from: the power of a story. Ask any person how they heard about TOMS, and I bet four out of five people would tell you they heard the story by word of mouth from a friend or family member. That is how it started for me. I heard about the organization through a friend. After months of telling everyone I knew how much I liked the shoes, I finally got my best friend to take the bait. A spontaneous road trip and too many design debates later, not only was I the proud owner of TOMS; I was a brand activist. The TOMS mission has heart and is rooted in the ideals of giving, caring, and making an impact on the world. How could you not want to share that?

You will even find that many of TOMS promotional tactics to spread their message are rooted in a story. A recent free giveaway sent thousands of blue and white string bracelets to individuals across the county. Every time someone asks me what my bracelet means, the TOMS story is told. The community photo wall encourages TOMS addicts to share where they wear their TOMS. Heck, TOMS biggest awareness event, One Day Without Shoes, seems to function as one big story itself. TOMS supporters go an entire day without wearing shoes to raise awareness. This diagram says it all:

Ultimately, TOMS has found a PR strategy for success: tell a story. A good one will spread like wildfire. Below is a recent video from their 2011 One Day Without Shoes campaign. Watch the video, be moved by the mission, and start spreading the story.

Agencies in Chicago: The trip blew me away

Alright. I am throwing up my hands and admitting something.

I think I am an agency girl.

After years of assuming that the crazy, hectic, competitive lifestyle of a public relations agency professional was not my destiny, I am strongly reconsidering my standpoint. I just returned from a trip with the Ohio Northern University PRSSA chapter to Chicago to tour four public relations agencies ranging in size, clientele, and employee atmosphere (a big thanks to Ruder Finn, Ketchum, Golin Harris and Weber Shandwick). Somewhere between massive amounts of artery-clogging deep dish pizza and sugar rushes from too many Sprinkles cupcakes, I realized that the agency playground might be the best place to put my education to the test and develop as a young public relations professional. Below are my opinions on why all recent graduates should consider checking out an agency:

1. Mentorship around every corner

Any public relations student knows the important of having close professional relationships to turn to for career guidance. In the agency field, there is always someone in the organization who was recently in your shoes. For example, as an intern, you can turn to the account coordinator who was just in your shoes for advice. Some agencies even have structured mentorship programs. Joseph Tateoka shared Ruder Finn’s mentorship program, where individuals are matched up with a company professional that shares similar interests.

2. Built-in job ladders

Agencies are all about commitment: if you put your time in, you can easily climb the organizational ladder. I heard story after story about individuals who started as interns, got hired on as account coordinators, and eventually turned into account executives. In a job market that is still relatively insecure, it is comforting to see that agencies like to keep their employees close by moving them along the path of promotions.

3. Pick your poison

I always assumed since agencies take on multiple clients, a career as an agency professional would be like eating one of those boxed chocolates…you never know what you are going to get. However, I quickly learned that is not the case. While agencies may have multiple types of clients, a professional often lands in a certain client category: healthcare, brand, B2B, consumer, etc. As a student who still enjoys exploring the field, I like the idea of trying different clients as an intern and then landing in an agency sector that best suits my interests.

Ultimately, the trip to Chicago opened up both my eyes and my career path. I am looking forward to exploring the possibilities of working in a public relations agency!

Get Personal

For those of you who may not know, I’m a recently turned coffee addict. When I need to get coffee in my hometown of Toledo, I refuse to go anyplace besides Plate 21, a small, quirky, locally owned coffee bistro approximately two minutes from my house. The owner makes individualized drinks, knows how your life is going, etc. The reason I like it? It’s personal.

Chapter six in Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers focuses on how small business can thrive by using blogs to get personal with customers and accentuate their individuality”

“One of the main reasons people do business with a small company is to get personal service. Blog are all about personality. If you bring a distinctive voice…people will feel like they know you. And that will make it easier for them to do business with you” said Gillin.

Small businesses face enough challenges as is: getting media attention, being financially stable, making ends meet. Therefore, a simple, inexpensive marketing service that allows small businesses to play off of their strong suit of personal service may be just the thing they need.

Powering through PaRtners

This week, my beloved Ohio Northern University PRSSA chapter successfully completed one of our largest challenges this year: hosting the 2011 Central Ohio PaRtners Conference. Sponsored by the Central Ohio Chapter of PRSA, PaRtners is an annual conference put on to help students connect with PR professionals and carve out a path in the career field. While ONU was certainly honored to host the conference, I will be really honest with you and tell you that honored is not a word that came to my mind often in the last few months. Cursed, overwhelmed, bombarded: those are words I felt when speakers cancelled, donations fell through, or registration websites went down.

Putting on an event is rewarding the day of and in the aftermath. But a fair warning to all aspiring event planner out there: it is short lived!  Furthermore, it is not glamorous. You will be hauling all the garbage out when maintenance doesn’t show up. You are not the center of attention. You will be running around behind the scenes fixing all smaller problems.

However aspiring event planners: if you happen to get lucky enough like me, there is one element of event planning that tops all the stressful scenarios and makes the whole thing worthwhile: a strong team. The dedication, energy, and creative enthusiasm my PRSSA team put into this event was phenomenal, making this whole experience worthwhile. Getting through out late nights and early mornings took us from friends to a family, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. That being said, here’s a shout out to my PRSSA polar bears; I would do this again because of you guys!

Shedding some skin: PR secrets from a snake

The few encounters I’ve had with snakes in my life usually involve the snake coming in one direction and me running in the opposite. However, I’ve been willingly following a snake for a week now. Ever since the now famous Bronx Zoo cobra managed to perform a sneaky jail break from its cage about a week ago, I’ve been captivated by the Twitter account for the slithery escapee launched by some genius social media savvy individual.

I would love to be looking at this snake situation from the eyes of the PR department at the Bronx Zoo. What started out as a potential breeding ground for a crisis communication situation Poisonous snake on the loose? No thanks!) turned tons of media spotlight on the Bronx zoo; and not in a negative way, in my opinion. People are flocking to the zoo to see the cobra. Companies are trying to cut promotional deals with the zoo (Venom Energy Drink offered a year’s supply of the product to the zookeeper who found the cobra). There is even a huge contest going onto name the crafty critter. The Bronx Zoo could have had an angry mob of ophidiophobes on their hands. Instead the nation simply fell in love with a toxic but terribly cute snake, and the Bronx Zoo did not have to lift a finger. Talk about a lucky PR break!

Social media tactics do not have to be detail heavy or carry a serious message…sometimes a few simple tweets and some humor can go a long way. Never thought I’d take PR lessons from a reptile, but this case seemed to be full of successsssssssssssssss…

I'm going viral!

Alright guys, I’m just letting you know ahead of the game: I’m going to be the next big viral video. I’ve watched enough YouTube videos with approximately 30 billion views to learn that I’ve got what it takes. I’ve said highly embarrassing stuff while under the influence of anesthesia after the dentist, a la David. I have good home movies of me dancing ridiculously as a child. And you have no idea how many altered versions of popular songs my friends and I have co-written and are just waiting to perform on the big screen of YouTube. Anyone know Katy Perry’s “Peacock”? Let’s just say when you see the version “Pecan” explode onto the scene in a few months, you’ll know the star of the video…

The bottom line? After reading Chapter 10 in Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers and watching too many videos, I’ve learned that just about anybody can go viral. Gillin outlines steps for marketing professionals to follow if they are trying to turn their latest news or product into a web video wonder. I took the chapter a bit further by deciding to apply the message to the general public: anybody can be the next big web hit. You don’t need to be a marketer with a message. In fact, it seems like the latest batch of viral videos are everyday Joes looking get their 15 minutes. Rebecca Black anyone? The technique has shifted from company strategy to means of personal promotion.

Regardless of whether it’s for a good cause, big name company, or an egotistical teen trying to up his reputation, I’ll readily admit that I’m enjoying the viral video craze. I think I’m laughing more than ever nowadays. For instance, let’s end this blog post with my current favorite video: it hit about 12 million views in one week. You won’t find any product placement or the latest corporate craze here…just one ridiculously cute baby :)

Holy Bateman!

This Friday I sang Halleluiah as me and my five teammate finally finished up our Common Cents financial literacy campaign for the Public Relations Student Society of America annual Bateman competition. Seeing this is the second time I have competed in the Bateman competition, you think I would have learned how to work all the stressful kinks out of the process. But of course, the complete opposite panned out. Late nights in the lab, problematic printing errors, missing appendix pages…the same problems followed me once again.

Bateman is stressful. There are not buts about it. But each year after I’ve pulled out all my hair and breathed a sigh of relief after the book has been sent a printer, I always feel an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. My instructor, Alisa Agozzino, shared lessons she learned from Bateman on her blog. Therefore, she inspired me to share my reasons to participating in Bateman. Bateman is a bear, but I admit that I would do it again for the following reasons…

Three Reasons to Compete in Bateman

1. Learn to work with tight deadlines. Bateman is the epitome of a tiny time limit. A few months to completely research, plan, implement and evaluate an entire campaign squeezes a PR process into a tight timeframe. But let’s be real…tight deadlines are the norm in the real world. Bateman teaches you how to be efficient in fully executing each element of a campaign and getting results in a particular time frame.

2. Apply your knowledge in real situations. Classrooms are great places to learn the theory behind executing a public relations campaign. But I don’t think you truly learn how to run a campaign until you fully try it in the real world…mistakes and all. Running a full blow educational campaign has given me valuable skills…and a unique experience to highlight in job interviews!

3. Your allowed to make mistakes. Bateman gives you a free pass to make mistakes. Between formatting an InDesign appendix wrong, publishing incorrect times in a student email, and a bit of group communication mix-up in a printing situation, my group made our fair share of mistakes. But this is the time you’re allowed to make them…no boss was breathing down my neck with the threat of a pink slip. Making mistakes early helps smooth the world for running a campaign in your first job.

And on the eighth day, God gave social media…

Didn’t know there were commandments for social media, did you? Well, I at least certainly didn’t, but I came across the mighty list in the second chapter of Paul Gillin’s “The New Influencers.” While they all provided great guidance to the people of the blogosphere, a few particular ones really stood out:

Thou shall be transparent

This commandment can be taken on a fairly simple, direct level: use strikes if replacing a word, alter a post through a comment instead of deleting it. These matters of transparency seem like common sense. But I also think it hits a bigger notes: blogs are truly becoming a powerful player. We count on newspapers to be transparent- they have been our reliable source of news for years. If people are demanding transparency from blogs, it must mean people are looking to blogs to be a credible source of news. Not bad for a fairly new communication medium

Thou shall comment

The word “communication” implies a two way sharing of message. Therefore, we would assume that any communication channel, including blogs, has a balanced two way flow of information. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always seem to be true; people get caught up in their own opinions and forget to consider those of others. The commandment “thou shall comment” reminds us that what we truly need from a communication channel is a conversation. The sharing of ideas and opinions is what truly fosters good communication.

Where does your loyalty lie?

Power spikes. Screaming fans. Sweaty hugs.

That is what encompassed my Saturday as I sat in the stands at my second ever men’s volleyball tournament cheering on by friend Joe Clarkson and the ONU polar bears (for more on their team, check out Joe’s blog). For being a big sports fan…and a fairly well-rounded one at that, men’s volleyball is a game I’m not particularly familiar with. Yet it only took me about 5 minutes to turn into a screaming fan, fist pumping when we made a key play and biting my nails when the score was close. The ONU volleyball game reminded me why I love sports so much. Rivalries are great. Unbelievable plays are exciting. But my favorite thing about sports? Being a fan.

I just love the crazy passion people put toward their team when your true fan. We dress up in ridiculous outfits and paint our faces just to show our loyalty Men refuse to shave because they are growing a playoff beard along with their favorite athlete. I mean, my deep love for the Green Bay Packers is a great example. For a week after the Super Bowl, I walked around with a cheese on my head giving people the belt (if you don’t know Aaron Rodgers signature victory move, check it out).

Bottom line: sure it’s fun to cheer for a winning team. But it’s twice as fun and way more satisfying to sign away your heart to a sports team. You honestly become an extension of the team. So whether I’m a polar bear, Spartan, or cheesehead for the day, one thing is sure: I’m always a number one fan.

Three pieces of advice from a PR pro

This past Thursday Rachael McKee- an Ohio Northern alum and PR superstar- came to speak at our weekly PRSSA meeting. Rachael is certainly no newbie our PRSSA meetings- she has been back multiple times to ONU to help guide and mentor students along their college path.

But this return visit was a little bit bittersweet for both parties; Rachael is getting ready to make a move. And I don’t just mean to another organization or across town. At the end of the month, Rachael is jumping on a plane and moving to Singapore! So in order to share a little bit of wisdom before she puts a 9600 mile difference between her location and ONU, our PRSSA chapter ran a Q&A session. Below are 3 words of wisdom that really stuck with me:

1. Be willing to go global.

Maybe not as global as Singapore. But Rachael has a point. Our world may be getting bigger in terms of people, but the distance- physical and communicational- between these people is getting smaller by the minute. You can get halfway across the world in 1 day with a plane ride, 1 hour with an email, or 1 minute with a Skype call. Global relationships are now key- they broaden company reach, broaden a consumer market, and most of all, broaden our general outlook. Companies have been taking their businesses oversees for years- isn’t it time we took our relationships there?

2. If you don’t love it, don’t work there.

Seems like such common sense, right? But I really think this is a rule that is both extremely important and easily forgotten.  As a college job hunter who is a little overwhelmed, sometimes it seems easier to just take a job to end the process. But how fulfilling would that be? I do my best and brightest work when I’m doing what I’m passionate about- no quality work would be done for an organization that doesn’t have my heart. It reminds me of some of the backbone rules of ethics we have been covering in my PR case studies class- if you don’t fully believe in a cause, your motives aren’t in the right place.

3. I don’t really do social media.

Ok, this wasn’t exactly a piece of advice as much as a personal pet peeve Rachael voiced. At first my mouth dropped- you don’t do social media? But it’s the truth. No Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Considering that we often judge people’s influence by their social media power, Rachael McKee probably doesn’t even exist. But I promise my 20/20 eyesight is accurate- she was sitting right in front of me, a successful PR professional. One that built up a strong career and extensive network in Columbus from the ground up by always maintaining a can-do attitude.

She did all that-and didn’t use social media. Don’t think I’m knocking social media- we all know I’m a ridiculous social media enthusiast. But Rachael was a refreshing reminder that while social media is certainly a powerful vehicle to communicate a message, it’s not the only vehicle. You can drive the sporty, souped up social media model off the car lot, or you can take the traditional, Model-T model that represents face-to-face communication. Social media is a strong tool when used properly. But it’s certainly not the only option for building relationships.

Let's talk! Conversational marketing in The New Influencers

conversational marketing: creating a dialog with customers in which useful information is exchanged so that both parties benefit from the relationship.

I just started reading The New Influences by Paul Gillen for my social media class, a book that explores the explosive phenomena of social media and the power of the blogosphere. I really took to this concept of conversation marketing that was introduced in the forward of the book.

Honestly, I think this shift in marketing should come as no surprise to us. As a self-proclaimed shopper, I can willingly admit that I like being paid attention to. I certainly don’t want advertisements or products shoved down my throat. But if a company can take time to personally invest in my particular interests, and cater to my specific needs, you better bet a pretty penny that I’m going to quickly become a loyal customer.

I’ve found that it’s often the smaller, specialized organizations that handle this new marketing strategy the best. Last summer, I went on a personal quest to buy TOMS shoes, and ended up at Bivouac, an outdoor clothing and gear store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Bivouac has a wonderful, quirky atmosphere about it, and I quickly followed them on Twitter after my trip. Since my summer excursion, I’ve tweeted at Bivouac many times about various products, and every time they have tweeted me back. Marketing and customer service can’t get much more personal then that.

This concept, along with others highlighting the immense power and influence bloggers and their respective writers can have on the ebb and flow of the marketing and social media world, really drew me into the book- and I’m only on the first chapter! Looking forward for more to come.

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Who's the winner now?

Remember that obnoxious kid in grade school who was always the attention hog? Always needed to have the most attention at show and tell. Whined if they weren’t chosen first at kickball. Interrupted your story at lunch time. But what did mom always tell you? “Don’t give them any attention…that’s just what they want.”

Well apparently the moms of the world need to give all us Americans a little reminder lecture, because that obnoxious kid is back and he brought the big guns; Charlie Sheen is the king of the social media and pop culture playground right now. Complain about his attention antics all you want, but I think we are all to blame. We have practically rolled out the red carpet, welcoming him will all the necessary pop culture rights of passage.

A successful 24 hour quest to make an explosive entrance onto Twitter by gaining a million fans? Check. Multiple interviews with high profile news anchors where you voice your ultimate confusion as to why people aren’t worshiping the ground you walk on? Check. We even gave him the highest status symbol of ultimate pop culture takeover- a ridiculously catchy autotune YouTube video, mashing up the most hilarious statements from his multiple interviews. It racked up almost 6 million views in five days.

We’re all criticizing his poor decisions and inability to represent himself in a respectful manner. But do we really have room to criticize? As we all sit around and sing his winning song over and over, we are just feeding the PR monster machine Charlie and his extremely smart publicists have created. The man is at the top of the list on desired interviewees on newstations across the country, is a web viral star, and had the whole country is waiting with baited breath for his next move. Not bad for someone who just got fired.

Charlie Sheen’s life might not be right on track. But some of his publicity moves are right on. If Charlie can manage to ride his way of newfound pop culture popularity and turn the attention into some PR tactics (maybe figuring out his life along the way), he might really be the winner after all.

Love it or hate it...

Three things I love: public relations. social media. cupcakes.

Three things I question: blogging. graduation. oatmeal.

It’s easy to do what you love. I eat up the chance to write a good press release. I tweet like it’s my job. And I’m known as the girl who always manages to find the cupcake store when traveling across the county. You should see the list of cupcake menus I’ve collected within the last year…

But the real challenge comes when you’re asked to do something you’re not quite sure about. I ran into this challenge this week during the first meeting of my spring social media class: maintain a blog for 10 weeks. While I love reading blogs, it’s not my personal social media outlet of choice. But the deal has been made: maintain a blog for 10 weeks, ace social media class, and move on to graduation…another thing I’m not so sure about…

So pull up a seat, grab a cupcake (I recommend hot fudge lava from DC Cupcakes) and get to know a little about my opinion about the PR practice, pop culture, and everything in between as I begin my 10 week blogging challenge. And I’ll promise to be a little more open minded, giving blogging a true effort. Maybe I’ll even start to slightly entertain the idea of graduation. But I refuse to give oatmeal a chance. Who WILLINGLY eats soggy cereal?