I have finally fallen in love!

I never truly thought that I would love the career choice that I would make. I had always been told to choose something I love; however, looking around at all of the people who hated their jobs, I thought this would be impossible. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, said to “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”.  It wasn’t until I found public relations that his words came true for me. Western Kentucky University gave me the skills I needed to become successful in public relations, while fueling my passion for what I would be doing in the real world.

Nothing is better than working with real people!

It gives me such pride to become a part of my first real-world public relations campaign. Through my JOUR 300 class, we were given a project to work with the local Bowling Green Jr. Women’s Club to create a campaign to improve their organization and brand. What an experience this has been! As a part of a team, my work involved the SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities within their organization. Discovering each of these areas within the BGJ WC took extensive research and communication. When our group talked to one of the core members of the organization, we discovered what they saw as strengths and areas they thought could use improvement. After receiving this information, I then looked over the website and Facebook page and tried to put myself into their target audiences’ shoes. I also looked at media coverage of the organization, other nonprofits in the community, and prime demographics for the organization.

Never assume you know anything.

One of the biggest problems I faced when forming the SWOT analysis was how the community felt about the organization. From secondary research I uncovered the lack of awareness the community had about the organization despite all that the BGJWC did. Upon reflection, in my next public relations campaign, I will spend much more time in the research phase. I learned that even if a person thinks they know how the community feels or acts, this could be very wrong. To assume the thoughts of individuals is to open yourself up for failure. Also, working with a team for a campaign has both pros and cons associated with it. While working on the campaign, communication within your team is vital to success. Having one member slacking can affect your overall campaign. On the other hand, each team member can help each other out and bring many ideas to the table. By having a team, each member can build on another’s work to improve the campaign as a whole.

Remember to never give up

Throughout this experience I became aware of the faults within myself when using my public relations skills. I realize that experience is one of the main factors in maturing as a professional, and I look forward to the work I will do in the future.

Preview our FINAL campaign book: BGJWC_plansbookfinal!

My networking has begun.

I have just jumped on the bandwagon and created a LinkedIn account. For one of my college research classes I was asked to post a question on a group related to public relations (since that is my major).

I asked how nonprofits can be effective in branding on such a low budget. Here is a link to that discussion: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Marketing-Advertising-Media-Social-Media-76397

 

Nonprofit Branding

Enjoy!

Branding is the way the consumers perceive an organization. It is the open relationship between the organization and its audience. Nonprofit branding is an essential part of building a succesfull nonprofit organization and the focus should always be this topic. Here is a paper written about the area of nonprofit branding, including what it is about and why it is importatnt. I hope you enjoy it!

Creating Yourself

I have come to fall in love with public relations. And this love isn’t toward the skewed characterization that much of the world attaches to the practice of PR. I love true PR because it is about the challenge of changing individuals’ beliefs about a service, idea, or product through strategic planning, research, consumer interaction and creative thinking. It focuses on creating a link between the organization and its supporters, a business and its consumers, an institution and the society surrounding it. You see, I was destined to be a public relations practitioner.

The first word I ever spoke as a child was the word “good”. Even as a child, without a care in the world, I knew that I would spend my entire life trying to do just that—good. My mother socialized me to reject materialism, greed and selfishness. By rejecting those behaviors, my eyes were opened to the real world in which we live in. Although good does exist (I am not arguing it doesn’t), help is needed to millions of people around the world. And it is up to all of us to help.

I am not so naïve as to say that a utopia could exist. However, I am confident to say that if everyone, including myself, helped others around us in just a minuscule way, good could happen. I chose public relations so that I could use my strengths to help nonprofits around the world succeed. They do not have the luxury of huge expense accounts like other organizations, and must creatively and strategically think of ways to move the meter in what is known as the marketplace of ideas. Think of the marketplace of ideas as a linear scale. Everyone has positive, negative or impartial thoughts about any idea or organization that you present to them. What public relation practitioners try to do is move the meter on that scale in the direction that will profit their nonprofit the most.

With our world today changing every second, our technology has evolved in such a way that our society will now be forever connected. Organizations and businesses are now moving from a push sales approach to a customer service approach. Now the goals are not only to sell their product, service or idea but to also listen to what the consumers want and need. Content has become central to moving the meter in the marketplace of ideas. No longer are consumers wanting a hard pitch, but rather crave more information and content to help to make their decisions. With this new technological world has come people seeking more information, stretching out their imaginations and creating their own content if the business or organizations aren’t giving it to them.

This new era is where nonprofits seek their highest potential. I will dive into the world of branding, but through nonprofits’ eyes. I will explore the innovative strategies that nonprofits are using for fund-raising, along with the many social media platforms that are fulfilling their goals. I want to provide a place that can showcase all of the wonderful nonprofits across the country, and invites others to showcase any nonprofits that I fail to mention. There are so many artistic individuals that have a true passion for the beauty of their work whether it is photography, graphic design, video or art. I also invite those people to highlight a nonprofit using their skills to combine art with a great cause.

Would You Like To Have Five Minutes Of Fame?!

I am pretty confident that almost everyone reading this has heard of YouTube. I have created a podcast about this social media site. Take a look at it, especially if you love Justin Bieber.

Keyboard Murders

Before social media even existed, bullying at school was a serious problem. Everyday some children would be taunted and ridiculed, helpless to the children’s bullying. However, this kind of bullying did have one slight relieving pro: the bullying could only occur while the kids were at school. With the creation of social media, the act of bullying has all changed. Now, not only are children getting bullied at school, but are also bullied online. The key factor about online bullying through social media is that tons more kids can get involved, and the bullying can practically never end.

Even After The End, It Never Stops

One of the most talked about cases of cyber bullying is the case of Alexis Pilkington. At the age of 17, she took her own life after cyber bullying had finally paid its toll. The sickening part of it all is that the vicious taunts even occurred on social media sites after her death. The fact that social media sites can create an atmosphere where communication is encouraged definitely proved to be a downfall in Pilkington’s situation. How bad it must be for the parents of this girl when the ridiculing did not stop even after she was gone. Sadly, Alexis is not the only person who has suffered from online bullying. As a community, everyone needs to step up to this type of abuse and stop it while you can, before it’s too late.

View the video from CBS news about the Alexis Pilkington case:

Now They Are Listening

Now is the time when businesses and brands are starting to listen.

Since the uproar of social media sites, businesses have discovered the great tools that these sites can ultimately be. By creating pages to their businesses via Facebook or creating Twitter accounts, companies can start developing better relationships with their consumers. When a company develops a new product, social media sites are a great place to receive feedback from the consumers.

I Really Don’t Like What You’re Doing

With millions of people logged daily onto Facebook or Twitter, consumers are able to better express their views or opinions when it comes to a company’s brand. However, this type of feedback can also prove to be very negative to corporations. Since the World Wide Web can practically spread news within seconds, any bad publicity towards a company can immediately be put in front of the eyes of millions of people.

• Kryptonite bike locks took a huge blow when a man uploaded a video on YouTube explaining how to unlock their bike lock with a Bic pen.

• Gap changed its newly transformed logo back to the original logo because of negative feedback on Facebook.

 

Skype Me

Throughout the years technology has changed how people communicate to each other.

• Smoke Signals
• Ham Radio
• Land Line
• Cell Phone
• Skype

Today, communication is becoming even better and faster. Here is a video I created about communication during Vietnam from the soldiers to their wives. It also talks about Skype and how the new social media is creating a new world of communication. Enjoy!

Five Minutes of Fame

If you were to ask anyone if they would like to be famous for a day, I can almost promise you they would all say yes. The idea of having five minutes of fame is chased by millions of people everyday. Whether they are wanting to be a movie star or a singer, everyone wants to be heard.

When social media was created, it definitely satisfied peoples’ craving for fame. When you post a status or compose a tweet, the entire world can potentially read it. It is through social networking that one person knows one person that knows another person and so on. No matter who you are, someone out in the world cares what you have to say and will be your friend on Facebook or follow you on Twitter to be a part of it.

You Have How Many Views?!

One site where the craving for fame has exploded is YouTube. This site is constantly being filled with videos ranging from the funny things children do, music videos, or crazy stunts. Everyone that posts on YouTube seems to want the world to watch them. It is through this site that normal people have fulfilled their five minutes of fame, and have kept others trying desperately to do the same.

Fantasy World

I want you to close your eyes and imagine a world without social media.

It’s hard to isn’t it?

Social media has become so engrained in our society and our daily lives that it is almost second nature to many. Personally, if I don’t have my smartphone with me at all times I am extremely anxious. And I am not the only one. It is almost like our brains are evolving to use social media as a main thinking and analyzing process. Everywhere you look, social media is there.

• 200 million views of YouTube via mobile per day
• During the average 20-minute period in 2010, there were: 1,5870,000 wall posts, 2,716,000 photos uploaded and 10,208,000 comments posted

Some people are even going so far as to letting social media become their life. Instead of dealing with life’s struggles and stresses, people dive into the world of Facebook or Twitter where they can pretty much do whatever they want to do. They can always be whoever they want to be. Just a click of the mouse and any person can immerse themselves into a fantasy world. For instance, Twitter is used by millions of people daily.

• 25 billion tweets were sent on Twitter in 2010

With this new craze, people are constantly following celebrities and tweeting that they are their biggest fans. It isn’t normal for people to be constantly obsessing over celebrities on Twitter. This is just one example of how obsessed the world has become of social media.

Watch out, before you become obsessed too.