06.02.08
Posted in PRSA News at 4:05 pm by Tamara McLendon
I saw an episode of a reality show about surviving in the wilderness of Alaska last night. It was really interesting for the first few minutes, with bears, glaciers and other dangers I like to watch from the comfort of my living room. And then one of the guys — a PDA and laptop junkie — said, “It’ll be interesting to see how I unplug.”
It completely ruined the show for me, and I realized then that the verb “unplug” has not only become cliche, but it’s also been given new meaning. Yes, it can mean simply to detach from electronics and communications devices, but people who say that they’re going to “unplug” are also saying that they want us to sympathize with their predicament, while simulteneously being jealous of their importance and gadgetry.
And even as I write this, I’m realizing that I’m one of those people, not so much with the gadgets, but with the complaining. So it’s time to move on. My phone is no longer my ball-and-chain. I will not only leave it at home when I go to the river this weekend, but I won’t even tell anyone I did it. Except you. So don’t tell anyone.
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05.20.08
Posted in Professional Development at 10:09 am by Donnie Turlington
Read Jim Sinkinson’s article and checked out Gina’s blacklist and thankfully did not see anyone from PRSA Tar Heel on the list — nor did I expect to! I think it’s important to take pride in the work that we perform as PR professionals and media relations is no exception. Bottom line, is that to be effective in media relations the pitches have to be on target. I can’t imagine spammers are getting any results to begin with, so why anyone is still randomly firing off hundreds of e-mails is beyond me.
For those of you who are actively involved in the art of media relations, check out Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out (HARO). You can sign up to receive daily e-mails from Peter with queries from journalists around the country looking for expert sources on a wide variety of topics. I’m a relatively new user and have already found this process to be worthwhile. Only catch, and it’s a good one — if your pitch is off target, you’re officially canned from the e-mail blast. Happy pitching!
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Posted in PRSA News at 7:41 am by Leslie Brooks
… posted an interesting article this morning about journalists blacklisting individual PR practitioners and PR firms for sending them unsolicited email. Interesting, and Jim makes some good points. Here’s a link to his article.
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05.16.08
Posted in PRSA News at 10:36 am by Leslie Brooks
… to a complicated question? Or rather, a series of questions.
I received an email from someone asking for some quick enlightenment on how to get the most for herself and her clients out of social media sites like stompernet and twitter. She wrote, “I’ve joined several but I’m just not sure what to do with them. how can I advise clients when I don’t get it?? Who in the world has time to sit on these sites and browse for other people you know or want to know or to write what you’re doing in a blog everyday?? And there are so many sites that seem to be “a must” how do you choose where to go? Last question.. how do people find you on these sites? Blog directories?”
Does anyone have insight they’d like to share with her? I’m sure lots of us would find it very helpful.
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05.05.08
Posted in PRSA News at 10:03 am by Tamara McLendon
I always learn new things at the PRSA Tar Heel luncheons, but I’m especially looking forward to this month’s “Green PR” topic. My agency has a client in the environmental technologies field, and that’s really forced us to get up to speed quickly, but I suspect that as time passes, we’re going to need to apply that knowledge for all kinds of clients — B2B, consumer packaged goods, whatever.
These last few years have really shown a growth in awareness and concern of environmental issues in the public eye. Many years ago, I was a reporter in DC covering the environment, and I remember how left-field most people thought the topic was back then. Not anymore. It’s clearly a hot topic these days.
And when the public starts to think something is important, so do the companies that are selling to them. The other side of the coin is that there’s a growing realization that environmentally wasteful practices also tend to be financial wasteful ones. in many cases, companies that adopt environmental plans will save money in the process.
So as the voice of those companies, we need to know how to talk about “green” for our various audiences, whether its driven by consumer demand, cost savings, or just doing the right thing.
Thanks to the Professional Development committee for bringing us such a timely topic.
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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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