04.25.08
Posted in PRSA News at 4:57 pm by Rick Hodson
The other day, I ran across an item in the news that dealt with academic freedom, the American flag, and our reaction to both. It seemed a student at the University of Maine, Farmington, decided to spread a whole bunch of flags on the floor at the school’s student center to document whether students and staff would step on them.
Of course once word of this experiment got out, there were the predictable protests by veterans and others who considered the whole thing blasphemy and that it should be stopped at once.
What caught my attention was the reaction of the University’s PR machine. Instead of waving their own flag of surrender, the school basically said it expected the controversy and sanctioned the project anyway.
“We were supporting and would continue to support any student’s First Amendment right to free expression under the law,” said Celeste Branham, vice president of student and community services at the university.
Too often, we as PR professionals earn our reputation as those who obfuscate and mislabel reality at the first hint of controversy.
I applaud folks who have the courage to look down the barrel of political correctness and fire back. Academic institutions should be places that spark debate as part of the learning process. This small incident in Maine is a lesson for all of us that the benefits of doing what is right far outweigh those of doing what is expedient.
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04.21.08
Posted in PRSA News at 10:32 am by Eric Fletcher, APR
Judging by the crowd at the April 11 meeting, about half of our 107 members were in attendance for the presentation by Liz Goodgold, keynote speaker and author of DUH! Marketing. For those of you who weren’t, you missed a good one. But lest you punish yourself for being unable to attend, allow me to share a golden nugget from Liz.
During Liz’s insightful, humorous and thought-provoking talk she developed a powerful argument for understanding your own personal brand. When people hear your name, what words come to their mind? What is it about you that “sticks” with people? Are you the gregarious, funny, engaging red-head with the cool name (Liz Goodgold)? Are you blessed with brilliant creativity? Are you innovative? Affable? Inspiring? Strategic? Are there less flattering words that may be used?
Liz described going through the exercise of discovering your personal brand. That is, systematically, and preferrably through an unbiased third party, soliciting feedback about you from co-workers, clients, bosses, subordinates, even family members. It’s an exercise that several of our members have undertaken (Tamara McClendon, for one). It’s an exercise that I recently completed.
For some, the exercise will validate much of what you already suspect, although even in these cases some feedback will be eye opening. For others this process can be life-changing. Personally, I used Marshall Goldsmith’s book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There as the basis for identifying my personal brand, and found the process invaluable. You’ll find you can make small changes and have a large impact on the brand of you.
So, on behalf of Liz Goodgold, this post is to implore you to find out who you are in the eyes of others, and use that information to create an even better you.
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04.14.08
Posted in PRSA News at 4:06 pm by Aaron Wall, APR
Congratulations to Elon’s Bateman team who scored a Top 10 finish in the 2008 Bateman Competition. This is an impressive follow-up to last year’s Top 3 finish, since only the University of Georgia — last year’s winner and this year a Top 10 companion of Elon — had such back-to-back success. About 100 teams from 76 universities entered this year’s competition.
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04.11.08
Posted in Professional Development at 3:13 pm by John Mims, APR
I am so excited that we have had so much interest in the APR examination. As you know, we had a general interest session on Wednesday to discuss how we might make the study sessions work best for us. After much discussion, the group decided that it would be best to have a 12-week study course that could be extended to 14-15 weeks depending on summer schedules and such. That would put our group ready to sit for the readiness review panels in August – September.
The group will meet weekly on Wednesdays at noon for approximately one hour. I am currently working on getting a caterer to feed us; each person will be responsible for the $5-$8 lunch. We will rotate the location to make it convenient for everyone.
Our first meeting will be on May 7 at noon. We will meet at Altyris Advertising, 4196 Mendenhall Oaks Parkway in High Point off of 68. It’s not too late to join us!
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04.09.08
Posted in PRSA News at 2:48 pm by Caroline Matthews
Trends are everywhere and impact everything. They decide what electronics we buy, what clothes we wear and what leisure activities we do. In the world of public relations, these trends have a similar effect as they can alter the way we practice. Globalization, for example, is an exploding trend that impacts business overseas, revenue, business culture and employee qualifications.
Take a look at an article I wrote about the topic; it will be featured in the next issue of FORUM under the section covering trends and is targeted at students interested in joining the global bandwagon. Some sources you might recognize are Assembly Delegate John Guiniven, APR, Fellow PRSA and local practitioner Susanne Powell from Trone. Enjoy!
Ten years ago, there was little clamor over the global public relations trend. In fact, according to a study conducted by Edelman in 1999, only 12 percent of the corporations surveyed preferred to use global PR firms over local ones. Today, however, globalization is everywhere.
Globalization is not only defined by expansion or outsourcing, it also requires cultural exploration and understanding.
John Guiniven, APR, Fellow PRSA and former Director of Corporate PR at Chrysler, calls globalization an expansion of markets, including those aimed at politics, ethics, capitalism and public issues.
“Environmental scanning now has to be worldwide,” Guiniven said. “Recognizing problems in Europe can be a problem here too.”
Beyond offering new economic opportunities, globalization allows US based agencies to expand their expectations of their employees.
The trend creates important opportunities for public relations professionals as new skills are required to conduct business overseas.
Susanne Powell, VP management supervisor at Trone in North Carolina, says her agency has a both operations in the US and Europe, including London based medical software company, Misys Healthcare Systems.
“In addition to helping these clients promote their brands and their products in this country, we often help them understand important differences in the American market and how those differences affect specific messages or marketing or communications strategies,” Powell said.
Regardless how extreme the cultural differences are between the U.S. and parent companies, there will be some variations in business practices. The can include differences in marketing materials design, print formatting, use of language in written communications, or time differences when critical events are announced to the financial community. Powell warns from her experience that it is extremely necessary to be mindful of the parent company’s social etiquette.Putting sensitivity to customs aside, globalization poses an opportunity to establish a new kind of partnership as it will play a tremendous role in creating more diverse environments for clients and agencies, according to PR Week.
In an effort to meet the demand of global public relations expansion, firms are broadening their staffs with a wider representation of cultures, ethnicities, and lifestyle backgrounds.
Powell finds that globalization plays a direct role in creative more diverse environments for both clients and agencies. Agencies must have both the business expertise and cultural understanding to cross the cultural and communication barriers between employees and overseas markets, she said.
“Gaining those skills is critical and requires cultivating a more diverse workforce and continually working to understand the needs and unique qualities of their clients and the countries they operate in,” Powell said.
Some students have already begun to get their feet wet with globalization. Elon University senior Katherine Dodson interned with The Clear Group, a PR agency in London whose clients range from Black & Decker, The Wildlife Trust and Popz Popcorn.
“Working in London was much different than any internship I’ve had in the States,” Dodson said. “The atmosphere was very laid back, and the work ethic was incredibly social.”
Interning broad is essential in understand the agency trend of going global prior to entering the work force.
“It put everything in perspective,” Dodson said. “I think that if I hadn’t interned in London, I wouldn’t have the confidence to go out of the country for work.”
In a presentation featured at the PRSSA 2007 National Conference, Jim Holtje, senior manager of leadership communications at Siemens Corporation, encouraged students to embrace the global trend if interested in working abroad.
Take the advice from this successful PR professional: travel often, learn a foreign language, don’t assume that everyone speaks English, know the core skills of speaking and writing, be culturally aware and, of course, network.
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04.08.08
Posted in PRSA News at 1:48 pm by Leslie Brooks
… to Teresa Loflin, this year’s VP of Membership. Teresa is doing an amazing job bringing in new members. Since January, she has added (Teresa, correct me if I’ve done my math wrong) some 14 new members to our chapter. New members – new perspectives? You bet. Fresh ways to look at who we are and what we do in this diverse world of PR. Yippee and amen! Welcome new members! And thank you Teresa, for all your hard work and great results.
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04.04.08
Posted in Professional Development at 2:12 pm by Aaron Wall, APR
I just returned to my office from a very interesting lunch meeting with two of the Tar Heel Chapter’s newest members, Kathryn Williford and Ken Luck of RLF Communications. Their interest is to create an improved route for new professionals to get involved in PRSA.
A more common practice in larger markets, Ken and Kathryn feel the new professionals model could be very well received here in the Triad. The idea is one involving a more segmented group of the Tar Heel Chapter’s members who have less than five years of experience.
In theory this group would meet once per month in the evenings at a variety of locations throughout the area. These meetings would of course be in addition to the regular monthly meetings, and could tend to have more of a social/networking flare. However, professional development would continue to be a focus in addition to networking.
I am impressed with their ideas for promotion and events for this new initiative including social networking tools such as Facebook. In addition there is a great tie-in with National’s New Professionals Affinity Group, which will be a great resource for the development of our own group.
Soon we’ll conduct a survey of chapter members to gauge interest in such an offering. Stay tuned for many more details on this new and developing effort. I look forward to watching this new initiative grow and benefit our membership.
Go Heels!
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04.01.08
Posted in PRSA News at 12:05 pm by Tamara McLendon
Ok, so I waxed poetic about how much I just love change. Bring it on, I said. I thrive on it, I said. And then this week it hit the fan.
You may know my company has been acquired by another local PR firm here in the Triad. We’d been working quietly on it for a while, and I’m excited and confident that it’s going to be great for all parties, but I think it’s just now starting to hit home. And what was the trigger for this realization? My email address.
I have several addresses — personal, client-specific, redirects for specific purposes — but my primary address has followed me for years. Sending that first email out with my new post-merger address and signature line made me extremely nervous. I had to come back to it a couple of times before I hit the Send button. It’s the virtual name under which I’ve presented myself for so long, thatI wonder if my friends, colleagues and clients will actually recognize me? I wanted to put big caps in the subject line: “IT’S ME! DON’T DELETE THIS!” Of course I didn’t, but I thought about it. Instead, I put a big note in the signature line reminding them of the transition and just cross my fingers that they get that far.
I didn’t have anywhere near the same amount of angst when it came to my phone number, or even my Web site. So what’s that about? I have no idea, so if anyone else (maybe with a degree in psychology) can shed some light on it, I’d appreciate the feedback. Anyway, just a weird little slice of life, and a confession that, protestations to the contrary, change will rock all of us back on our heels every once in a while. We live through it and we move on.
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Posted in Newsletter at 12:03 pm by Tamara McLendon
I’m continually amazed at how widely PR pros vary in their understanding and use of technology. For example, I spoke with a client-side practitioner recently who is still faxing out press releases to media. I’ve also spoken with practitioners who optimize their wire releases for search engine rankings. Clearly, there’s a spectrum of interest and knowledge.
My gut tells me that this is a problem for media relations work, but maybe it’s not. When I was a reporter years ago, I didn’t have a strong reaction either way to getting emailed news releases or faxed ones. So maybe the reason to take the time to learn it isn’t so much the reaction of the reporters themselves, but the work it takes to reach them in the first place.
Here’s an example of why I’ll never give up my communications technology. ILast week, I was able to complete a task within a few hours that would have taken days just a few years ago, if we could have done it at all. I had 40 doctors names that my client wanted to recognize for National Doctor’s Day, but the very idea of sending out 40 separate releases to 40 different markets made me break out in hives just thinking about it.
But there was a solution. Our email service allows us to include personalizing fields in each email, into which we could automatically load the doctor’s name, practice name, location, and even a quote specific to their market. We used our online media research service to quickly pull lists of consumer media in each of the markets, and loaded those email addresses into the email service as well.
Before lunch, 1500 reporters around the country had press releases in hand tailored to each of their markets and the specific doctors in those markets. We received several placements and blurbs, and the doctors were pleased as punch that we did it just for them. What was the alternative? Frankly, there was no alternative. If we’d been unable to automate the process, we just wouldn’t have done it. A manual send would have taken more than a month’s worth of retainer hours. Definitely not an option.
That’s just a quick anecdote to show that while communications technology may present us with a steep learning curve, once mastered, it can save hours of drudgery and even allow activities that would have been out of the question without it. Just some food for thought.
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