I decided to do one more PR Connection, before the semester ended to just close on a good note. I spoke with Ms. Ashlea Rogers at the Center for Academic Technology Support at Georgia Southern University. She met my sister when they both went to school as PR majors here at GSU. I love Ashlea and think she is a great person to ask for advice on life in the PR/Marketing/Communications field.

She is the Information Systems Coordinator, so she really is not active in the PR field anymore, but that just goes to show that none of us know where we are going to end up or what we will be doing in the future. She just knew what she liked and what she was interested in and took it from there. I suggest everyone do that same. Go with the flow and follow your heart. Do not just stick to PR if you see your life taking you somewhere else.

These are a few questions I asked her. Here is her input!

1) What was your first job out of college? Was it a job you really wanted?

My first job out of college was with View Tech, Inc. as a Marketing representative.  This was the same company that I completed my internship with, and yes after having completing my internship with View Tech, I did want the job.  The company’s focus was on videoconferencing and this was something that gained my interest when I was a student on campus at GSU.

2) Do you feel like you learned the correct skills in college to effectively do your job in the PR field?

Yes, I do feel like the skills I learned in college helped me do my job.  I learned early on in my career that communication was key whether you are talking about a formal press release or simply an office email.  A majority of my PR classes were focused on writing and this proved to be very helpful.

3) What do you wish you would have known before heading out into the workforce?

As I mentioned above, I started my career out with more of a marketing focused position and eventually moved into a sales role.  I wish that I had known more about what other ways I could have used my PR degree or what other types of job (rather than a PR only position) fields I could use my degree.

4) Do you believe that social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogging should be used in the PR field? Do you use them?

Yes, I believe that social networking is key in any field.  The use of these sites are being used more and more both in the public and private sectors.  I think that using these sites and using them effectively can be a huge benefit to communicating a message.  I currently use Twitter on a professional basis to relay updates about our department.

5) How has the PR field changed since you graduated?

Well, since I actually have spent a majority of my career in sales I am not sure that I can speak to the PR field specifically but in general I think that companies/organizations are looking for individuals that have the ability to not only focus on one area of expertise.  I feel that individuals who are able to focus on multiple areas such as PR / Marketing / Communications appear to be much more attractive.  This all due to the reality that companies want to do more with less.  Therefore, individuals who can lend expertise and work in multiple areas are the ones who come out on top.

6) Are there any books or websites dealing with PR that you would recommend to PR students and practitioners?

PRSA is a great organization to be a part of especially for networking.

7) Do think that PR students are prepared for the business world after graduation? What should they know?

I do think that PR students are prepared for the business world.  There is nothing like on the job training, but I do believe that students have been equipped with the basics to get started.  The rest only comes with time. 

For more information about what Ashlea Rogers does now or if you have any questions for her email me at Lauryn_e_williams@georgiasouthern.edu.

I feel accomplished having my 11th PR Connection done, but I am more excited about having created some networking through people like Ashlea and my sister, Robyn. Get started on making your connections while you are in college.

Just some more advice from the PR Girl

I really enjoy blogging. I know that sounds silly, but I see it as a way to get my opinion out and to talk about important PR issues. There a few things that students who are new to blogging should know:

1) Make your blog attractive through changing the theme of the blog from default to something that fits you. If your blog looks boring, your reader will get bored easily.

2) Make your blog easy to navigate. Create categories for each topic that you blog about, then provide a category cloud so that they are more accessible. Create a blogroll of interesting and similar blogs or blogs that you often visit. Provide a calendar so that he readers can keep up with when you are writing.

3) Use hyperlinks. If you simply write a post talking about another blog post, a video, or article, the reader can only read what you have to say. To allow them to create their own opinion as well as better understand what you have to say, link to the website or post. If you know of other posts that are similar to your and would be helpful to the reader, hyperlink to them.

4) Make sure you attribute any information retrieved from somewhere else to the correct source by citing their name, website, post, or article. Create a hyperlink to their page, the book, or put a statement in quotes and provide the speakers name. If you do no do this, it is plagiarism.

5) Use graphics. This creates an attractive appearance for each post. It gives the reader something to look at and identify the post with. Use photos as hyperlinks to original pages and post actual videos to your post instead of just the hyperlink.

6) Comment on other bloggers posts. This creates networking and allows you to get your opinion out.

7) Reply to comments on your own posts. Answer any questions readers might have. Doing this will create networking as well as allow the reader to know that you care about what he or she has to say.

8 ) Do not ramble. Treat a blog post as if you are writing an entry for a newspaper or perhaps a small opinion piece for a class. Be professional. It can be a bit conversational and informal, but keep your work neat, not sloppy.

9) Link to other social media websites that you are on. I linked to my Twitter account so that my readers could see all of my tweets. You can also link to your Facebook, YouTube, or another blog that you might have.

10) Keep up with your blog. It is your responsibility to your readers. I know plenty of PR bloggers as well as bloggers with other interests and professions that blog infrequently. This is a huge let down when the reader is really interested in everything you have written, but they visit your site for two weeks or so and there is no new information. You will loose readers and connections.

One additional tip: 

11) Avoid blogging about yourself. People are interested in topics that they can relate to or are interested in. A blog is not Facebook. Do not blog about your day unless it leads into something interesting that you can focus on and talk about. I would also suggest that you start talking about yourself as little as possible on Facebook as well. No one needs to know when you are going outside to get a breath of fresh air or when you have arrived back at your computer desk. No one cares.

I hope these tips are helpful and that you new bloggers get the same excited experience out of it as I did and will continue to do!

Keep in touch!

Sign off from the PR Girl…

Lauryn Williams

A social media news release has “expanded the audience beyond just the traditional media outlet.” (pg. 137 in Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.) )

Social media news releases (or SMNRs) are much more than the traditional news release with no photos, video, or audio. SMNRs include all of those things and more through links. Graphics are used along with embedded hyperlinks, social media tags, blog and online coverage, and user-friendly options. Comment fields and links to the organization’s newsroom allow for immediate feedback on a SMNR.

Paolina Milana, VP of Marketwire, “Social media releases are generally formatted so information is easy to scan, utilizing bullets and lists of ready-made quotes instead of dense text.” (pg. 137 in Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.) )

SMNRs are pioneered by the major electronic distribution services, such as Business Wire, PR Newswire, and Marketwire. These services have teamed up with search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN to promote maximum exposure of the news release.  (Paraphrased from Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.) )

Business Wire

PR Newswire

Marketwire

Additional:

PR Web

As Michael Lissauer, executive vice president of Business Wire told PRWeek, “The most important thing to our clients is seeing their news release on these search engines. They know consumers go there. If they write a news release effectively, they can bypass the gatekeepers, the journalists, who always had the opportunity of interpreting the release how they wanted”  (pg. 137 in Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.) )

The blog post “How to Write a Social Media Press Release” by Muhammad Saleem says “it’s perfectly fine to want to promote your company, because after all, we all have to make a living. But the social-web audience doesn’t like blatant sales and marketing speak.”  This post gives 3 main reasons why regular press releases fail in social media. Saleem explains what should be done to update a regular press release to social media status so that the audience will better understand what they are reading and become more interested. He also gives strategies used in the Alternative Press Release.

This PR- squared  post “The ‘Social Media Press Release’ Debuts” gives information and a link to the first-ever template of a social media press release. It is 100 percent free and available to all PR and marketing professionals. Here is the template in PDF form and the most recent PR-squared post on the social media release template, version 1.5 from April 18 with feedback from professionals.

PitchEngine and PRXbuilder can be used to create a Social Media News Release for your client.

When should a SMNR be used?

A PR practitioner should use a social media news release to allow further navigation by the consumer into an upcoming company event or into recent newsworthy activity of a company dealing with their clients or products.

I believe that while sending and distributing SMNRs online via blog or wire service is important to allow the customer to directly interact with your company, traditional press releases should still be used. I say use both as frequently as possible. Write the traditional press releases with journalists and gatekeepers in mind, and write SMNRs with your company and opinion in mind while avoiding hype. Hype will be recognized and cause customers to distrust what you say.

Lastly, Brian Solis states in his post “The Definitive Guide to Social Media Releases:”

“Social Media Releases are only one way to tell your story and they can work extremely well when paired with a traditional release and an effective outbound media/blogger/influencer campaign. Nothing beats knowing what you want to say, why it matters, and to whom. You still have to do your homework and you still have to write something compelling.”

“What this all means is that the future of the Social Media Release is up to you. Raise the bar. Experiment. Provide value. Remember, that releases, regardless of format, are only the tools that can help facilitate discussions, relationships, and also visibility. The ability to tell your story, your way, to the people that define your markets, is where we should all focus our time and effort…the rest, is simply a function of outreach.”

I feel like this is a perfect note to end on. Social media news releases are effective in the online world and should be utilized to reach your audience.

News websites are timely. They are constantly being updated. Sometime you will turn on a news channel and they speak on one subject, or by the time you can sit down to watch television the news is over.

I suggest BBC News online .

As a PR student, I have to keep up with what is going on in America and all over the world. BBC News covers a global spectrum, but also gives news in the United States. One good thing about this is that it is news from a non-politically partial perspective. You do not get a democratic or republican view. I feel like it is much more objective in that aspect.

The website is really easy to navigate. On the left you have a list of countries, regions and subjects for news, such as business, health, science, technology and entertainment. There is a sports section to the right of the page. Top stories are of course listed on the main page. There is a “Latest” section at the top the page that keeps a constant updated scroll of the most recent news. If you are looking for videos only and not news articles, there is a section in the middle of the main page called “Videos.”

This website is perfect to catch up on news quickly. Even if you only have 30 minutes out of your busy PR filled day, just stop by and check out the latest news.

BBC News online has a lot to offer.

says the PR Girl

People relate it to marketing and advertising. This makes sense, because PR does deal with those things. Here is a neat little video I found on YouTube about what PR is.

Public Relations Video

This video tells you a lot about what people think about PR and what PR really is. I believe that what most people do not understand and what most people want to know is “how PR is done.”

PR is a process to promote your company or client through efficient planning. A PR professional plans out events to promote his or her client, whether they are set up specifically for that company or client or whether they are events that are already happening that his or her client/company could join in. PR professionals plan campaigns and do tons of writing. They write speeches, news releases, and media advisories. They create photo releases and media kits.

When there is a course dedicated entirely to PR writing, it is pretty obvious that there is a lot to learn.

The video I linked to helps explain what PR is, but I think that another video should be made to explain how it is done. I think this would not only clear up some questions, but also shine light on what students who have not declared a major might really be interested in doing.

Solis talks about how PR is changing due to the Internet. PR professionals can now put more of their opinion in a blog, instead of striving to be more objective in such things as news releases sent to journalists. Twitter and Facebook are being used more for business.

Al Sargent’s created blog post and response to the video and Solis’s idea, called “Why traditional PR is dead – and what to do about it.”

I found out about Solis’s idea and video through Sargent’s post. I suggest everyone read the blog post and watch the video on their own to learn more about how the web is altering the way PR works.

I left a comment on Sargent’s blog. Just to get my opinion across I’ll show you what I said.

My comment to Sargent’s blog and the idea of PR 2.0:

“This post makes many good points. PR is changing due to technology and social media. I really like that you mention the importance and skill of bloggers. Blogging is a great way to get your opinion out without being punished for it. I would suggest for PR students to start blogging while in college. It doesn’t matter if it is about PR or not, as long as it is something that they are generally interested in and have a lot of knowledge about. I do not believe that journalists should worry about PR practitioners and bloggers taking their jobs, though. They write differently and usually address a different audience. What PR bloggers talk about is not necessarily newsworthy to everyone, because the blog is focused on PR. I love some of the points made in this post.”

This comment can also be found on my “Friendly Little Comments” post, which has tracked my comments throughout the Spring 2010 semester.

What I learned:

This course taught me the important steps that one should take when writing for multimedia. There are so many different approaches that you can take to getting news and information out online, such as text, video, audio, animated graphics, maps, and still photos. All of these have different ways of capturing the readers’ interests.

Text can be used to describe the history of the story or describe the process or provide accounts of an event. Text should only be used when another form of media cannot be used to convey the event properly.

Video is the best for depicting action. You can used this media form to take the audience to a place central to the story or to hear and see someone central to the story.

Audio makes photos seem more realistic. Using audio alone can be hard to understand sometimes. Avoid using it alone, but instead use audio with pictures to create intensity.

Animated Graphics show how something works. They can go where cameras cannot to provide the reader with information. This can be used as a primary medium.

Maps give a location to allow the reader to better understand where the story is happening or what is going on. Viewing different areas of a map is a great way to let the reader engage interactively on the website.

Photos emphasize strong emotion and create a mood for the story. They can be used to draw the reader to the focus of the story. The reason photos are so dramatic is because they do not pass quickly like a video. They stay still the entire time for you to observe them and make inferences.

Using any of these ask links from the main page of a website or veering off a second page is a good way to get the reader interacting and following along. They can choose where they want to go. It is your job to help them decide when during their reading and viewing that they want to go there to help accurately get the point of your story across.

What surprised me:

It really surprised me to hear that photos were thought of as being stronger than videos in the emotional sense. I really liked how they said we should combine them with audio to create a more realistic approach.

What I want to know more about:

This course was very interesting to me. I would like to learn more about how to make a story board before going out on the field. I like creating blogs and websites. I feel like it keeps me up to date with technology in terms of the PR field. I so like how it is interactive. I would like to learn more about how to apply a story board to the web. Each page of the website for Racetrack Playa’s moving rocks was carefully thought out in the course. I liked how they used the links on certain pages to direct the readers’ attention to that link, but the reader is not bombarded with tons of information and had the opportunity to choose what he or she wanted to read, watch, and listen to. The links created less clutter.

I highly suggest this course to anyone interested in PR writing, writing for the web, or journalism. It is a great way to learn the multimedia writing process step by step.

PR writers are major contributors to information clutter, because their jobs involve the dissemination of so many messages.

“Writers waste too much time producing texts that waste even more time for readers.”  – Richard Neff, consultant in Belgium and writer for the Communication World

E-Mail

“colleague spam” – Wall Street Journal‘s term for when your friends send you the latest joke or the cool video from YouTube

What E-mail does:

1. reduces the cost of employee communications
2. increases the distribution of messages to more employees
3. flattens the corporate hierarchy
4. speeds decision making

It is effective in

1. making arrangements and appointments
2. keeping up with events
3. reviewing or editing documents

E-mail is not suitable for all person-to-person communication, because it is an informal memo system. Sometime it is best to send a formal letter.

The content of an e-mail should represent you as you want to be seen. Every written communication should be flawless, showing you best work. Think twice about writing something that would be embarrassing to you if the sender decides to forward it to any number of other individuals. Management has the ability and legal right to read your e-mail messages, even if you erase them. There are suggestions about the contest of an e-mail message on page 390 of  Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.).

E-mail Format:

1. Subject line
2. Salutation
3. First Sentence or Paragraph (get to the bottom line)
4. Body of Message (20-25 lines; single spaced; no more than 65 characters per line)
5. Closing

Memorandums

Today the standard method of delivery is e-mail for most routine memos.

They can…

• ask for information
• supply information
• confirm a verbal exchange
• ask for a meeting
• schedule or cancel a meeting
• remind
• report
• praise
• caution
• state a policy
• perform any other function that requires a written message

Many public relations firms require staff to write a memo when there is a client meeting, because it creates a record of what was discussed and what decisions were made. When writing a memo be specific about what you mean to say. Do not be too vague or give the reader too much useful information.

5 Elements of a Memo:

1. date
2. to
3. from
4. subject
5. message

There is an example of a memo’s format on page 324 in Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.).

Letters

Letters are printed on paper and are sent via snail mail. They require a  more systematic approach to writing and formatting a message. It is written primarily to individuals when a more formal response is required.

2 Kinds of Letters:

• Personalized Letter – sent to a specific individual and s the most personal form of letter writing, because a one-on-one dialogue is established between the sender and the recipient.
• Form Letter - sent to a large number of people about a specific situation. They are often written by PR staff and signed by the head of the organization. They usually give background or an update on a situation affecting the company and a particular public.

Complain Letters include:

• Thanking the customer for writing
• Apologizing for any inconvenience
• Replacing the product or providing a coupon for future purchases

Content of a Letter:

1. The first paragraph is the most important part of any letter. It should concisely state th purpose of the letter or tell the reader the “bottom-line.”
2. The second and succeeding paragraphs can elaborate on the details and give relevant information.
3. The final paragraph should summarize the important details, and let the person know you will telephone them with further details or resolutions.

 See page 347 for format of a letter. (Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.))

Proposals

PR firms ususally get new business through he preparation of a proposal offering services to an organization. A client may issue a RPF (request for proposal), and circulate it to various PR firms.

Typical PR Proposal May Contain…

• the background and capabilities of the firm
• the client’s situation
• goals and objectives of the proposed program
• key messages
• basic strategies and tactics
• general timeline of activities
• proposed budget
• how success will be measured
• description of the team that will handle the account
• a summary of why the firm should be selected to implement the program

Possible Subjects of a Proposal:

• to move the office
• to adopt a 10-hour workday or 4-day workweek
• to provide a child-care facility at the plant
• to modify the employee benefit plan
• etc.

See page 399 for the purpose and organization of a proposal. (Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.))

All material here is quoted or paraphrased from Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Ed.)

In this post he says that many PR professionals in the UK have moved to Twitter and stopped blogging. He says that most of the time PR personal that do have blogs do not update them frequently enough or they create posts about something not related to PR.  Why?

This was my response:

“I believe that blogging is a wonderful way for PR professionals to get their name out, get their products name out, speak up about issues in the field, and receive feedback. I think that Twitter is a good way to briefly point out all of the above, but with Twitter it is hard to see opinions due to lack of word space. In blogs, PR professionals can state how they feel if they would like to. The reason I think so many people have moved to Twitter is because it is newer than blogging and it is easier in that you do not have to write much at all. I am currently blogging for my PR writing class in the USA, but I agree that most professionals blog infrequently. I see many posts, but not from the same person. I don’t necessarily think that this is a bad thing. I just think that as a PR student or practitioner one should follow many PR blogs not just one or two. The broader your scope is for taking in knowledge the more you will take in that information and be able to practice it. This is a wonderful post!”

Blogging is important, because you can bring up issues in the field and receive almost instant feedback with more opinions. You cannot do that as well on Twitter. I believe that PR professionals should keep up with their blogs and have their Twitter follow behind that. Have Twitter to back it all up.  What do you guys think?