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.