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!

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.