A Very Philly Summer

With summer right around the corner, it’s easy to forget about school and work, and hard to not think about relaxing for a few months. Staying in Philadelphia for the summer opens doors to mini getaways and a plethora of opportunities. Summer in Philadelphia is the perfect time and place to attend networking and volunteering events that help you expand your network.

Philadelphia houses hundreds of nonprofits that support different causes. Volunteering for them not only feels good and allows you to give back to the community, but it is a great way to form relationships and network. Start by browsing through the Get Involved section of Campus Philly’s website to find the perfect non-profit for you to volunteer with. Once you find it, reach out to the development or events coordinator to learn about the volunteering opportunities offered and create a relationship with the coordinator. Who knows, becoming a volunteer could land you an internship or your first or second job!

Attending formal networking events or seminars may be more feasible in the summer for those who are not taking classes. Returning to your alma mater for the summer to take advantage of these opportunities is a good start. Colleges often have multiple alumni societies filled with fun networking events for graduates and current students. A personal favorite is Temple University Women’s Network. Its events not only encourage members to form professional relationships with other Temple women, but also to create friendships.

The Young Professionals Network (YPN) offers networking and professional development opportunities for young professionals interested in learning from other recent graduates and experienced professionals. Also, if you are a dues-paying member, look out for emails from PPRA and PRSA featuring networking and professional development events held in the city.

Sometimes we forget Philadelphia is a city filled with opportunities for professional development. Now that you’re aware of them, find your perfect event and get ready to network!

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Miljenka Sakic.

Spring Has Sprung: The Best Ways to Take Advantage of it in Philadelphia

It is a beautiful time of year, where we, as students, love to get out of our apartments to enjoy the spring weather, and what better place to do it than right here in Philadelphia! Being located right by the heart of the city is an advantage that every Philadelphian should take advantage of. There is so much to offer with so many fun things to do for both your personal and professional lives. Here are some ideas to get you outside and enjoying the spring time!

(Photo courtesy of Roosevelt Peterson Photography)

·       Cafes & Coffee Shops.  With finals upon us, some of us may be feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Finding a café or coffee shop in the city where you can sit and do your work can be the perfect get away from the gloomy library. One of my personal favorites? Joe Coffee, which sits right in front of Rittenhouse Square and offers awesome beverages and scenery. It’s also a great spot for us PR students do to some blogging and networking.   

·       Philly Tech Week. Held from April 17^th- 25^th, Technical.ly Philly has organized over 100 events that will take place during the week that cover everything from business, media, creative, civic and access technology and digital marketing. It’s a great place to hear from media professionals through conventions and panels as they discuss the future of the industry. For those of you who plan to attend, don’t forget to dress your best and pack your business cards as it’s a great place to get your name out.

·       Food & Arts Festivals. Do you like good food and even better music? Philly is known to host some of the best food and music festivals that attract people from all over. These include the Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival, South St. Headhouse Spring Festival & Manifest, Plazapalooza, Spruce Street Harbor Park and more. Each event offers its own unique menus and activities while also giving you another view of the city.

·       Parks & Recreations. If you’re sick of your indoor workouts or just looking for a reason to be outside, check out Philly’s own Fairmount Park, Kelly Drive or River Boardwalk.  All three are great places for a run, bike ride or for walking your dog. The beautiful landscapes are also hard to overlook.

For more information on the events listed above or more things Philly has to offer, visit http://www.visitphilly.com/events/spring-events/  

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Breanna Fars

Made On Twitter: Budweiser Made In America Music Festival Releases Line Up Through Tweets

This Labor Day Weekend, the Budweiser Made In America musical festival will return to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for its third year in a row. While pre-sale tickets for the music festival were announced in the middle of April, festival goers were kept in the dark of the Philadelphia line-up until Thursday, May 22. On May 20, the Budweiser Made In America Twitter account tweeted that they were announcing the line up in two days and continued to keep fans updated until that time. In that two-day time span, the musical festival’s Twitter account consistently tweeted back at excited fans that were anxious for the lineup to drop. 

The morning of Thursday, May 22, the Budweiser Made In America Twitter account tweeted that that they were announcing the line up at noon and to stay tuned. Beginning a couple minutes after noon, this musical festival announced its line up exclusively via Twitter. While the Budweiser Made In America music festival could have just tweeted one graphic of the entire line up, they instead announced the artists through a series of short animations made to look like 3D neon posters. The musical festival’s Twitter account released a group of artists and then saved every headliner for last, each one having its own animation. The individual announcements were spaced out by about five minutes to build suspense and kept followers excited about what was to come.

While the Budweiser Made In America music festival could have simply just posted a general graphic of their line up on their Facebook, Twitter or website, they instead chose an outlet that allowed them to engage with their followers the most. By announcing the artists through a series of tweets, it kept followers connected throughout the line up process and reactions were live-tweeted as each round of artists was announced. By using Twitter, the Budweiser Made In America musical festival created a fun and unique experience for its followers by being interactive and follower-centered.

What do you think about the Budweiser Made In America music festival choosing to announce their line up exclusively via Twitter? Could for this work other brand announcements? Share your thoughts in the comments!   

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Rachel Draghi.

My Adventure with the PRSA Philly Pepperpot Awards

The Pepperpots are an annual award ceremony hosted by PRSA Philly in order to recognize outstanding public relations efforts across the city.  I'm luck enough to be attending the event tonight because of my current internship at LevLane Advertising.  The award categories arrange from special events to social media to medial relations.  LevLane entered several of the categories and it was a whirlwind process.

The great news is that we won a Pepperpot in at least one category! I'm honored to have been part of the submission process.  One of my duties was coordinating the submission binders.  These binders were packed full of clips, releases, media alerts, and the works, some of which totaled over 50 pages.  

The biggest benefit that I got from working on the Pepperpot submissions was familiarity with the clients.  It's often hard to really get the 360 degree view of a client when you're only interning somewhere for one semester.  I really got my hands dirty (metaphorically, of course) with the submission binders, so I got to see a lot of the previous work that was done and I saw tons of great information.

I would highly recommend asking to get involved with these types of projects.  Even if it means you have to stand in front of a photocopier for three hours like I did, you're going to be rewarded with a wealth of information and understanding about your clients.

I'll be updating this post after the awards ceremony tonight, so make sure to check back tomorrow!

Happy 4th of July

The members of PRowl Public Relations will like to wish everyone a happy 4th of July.

If you are in the Philadelphia area and unsure on how to celebrate your 4th of July, check out Wawa Welcome America week schedule. There are a lot of activities for everyone to enjoy.

Keep safe and Happy Holidays!

Networking: PRowl & PRSA Philadelphia

Networking is essential in the public relations industry. Effective networking goes well beyond introducing yourself and shaking hands. The ability to make valuable connections with industry professionals well before your job search begins is crucial in today's world. 

Get to know local organizations within the field that plan events in which networking can take place. Subscribe to their free emails newsletters so you can be notified about upcoming networking opportunities. Create business cards so you are always ready to give a new connection your contact information. 

PRSA Philadelphia put on their annual Spring Sunset Happy Hour this past week and members from PRowl PR and Temple University's PRSSA chapter were lucky enough to attend. This event allowed us students to meet public relations professionals who work right here in Philadelphia! Held at the Waterworks Restaurant and Lounge, we were able to enjoy food and drinks while taking in the gorgeous views of the establishment, the Delaware River as well as Boathouse Row. 

PRowl PR members from left to right: Samantha Wanner, Emily Storz, London Faust, Amanda White, Jessica Mancuso, Kaitlyn Sutton & Gregg Fesitman, Faculty Advisor

Uwishunu Receives National Recognition For New Video Series

Ragan.com recognized a hometown favorite blog Uwishunu, an outlet under The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp, for their new 101 video series, “Uwishunu’s Philly 101”. The campaign will feature 101 Philadelphians, including some Philly favorites such as The Roots, describing the things they wish you knew about the city of Philadelphia. The series will run every day, including weekends, for 101 days.

Other successful campaigns brought to you by The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp include Philly360, Visit Gay Philly, and With Love, Philadelphia XOXO. In February, Visit Philly ran a successful Facebook promotion in which it have away 29 dates with a grand prize of a red With Love Vespa.

Philly.com: To Allow Comment or Not to Allow Comments

A news website is generally no stranger to controversy. However for Philly.com, much of the controversy takes place in its infamous comment sections. Philly.com’s comments are getting out of hand, and soon the website must decide once and for all if it will continue to allow them.

Philly.com’s comment sections have long plagued an otherwise quality news website. Commenters often overwhelm stories with nonsensically vicious, racist, sexist and downright nasty comments. The most recent example of this is the website’s story on Fox 29 firing its weatherman John Bolaris. Even seemingly tame stories get special treatment from the Philly.com comments, including Stu Byko’s recap of the New Year’s Day Mummers Parade.

Philly.com has become wary of its anonymous commenters. The news website now disables comments on its more controversial stories. On other stories, Philly.com forces users to log into their Facebook accounts to comment. This attaches a profile picture and name to all comments, theoretically deterring hateful speech.

Unfortunately for Philly.com, the Facebook log in system hasn’t quite worked to its advantage. The comments continue to be just as brutal as ever, forcing the news website to disable comments within hours of posting many new stories.

Comment sections can be a great way to increase user engagement, but what do you do when users get out of hand? Philly.com needs to decide if this added engagement is worth the humiliating content.

If the website decides to allow comments, I would suggest it creates a set of guidelines setting acceptable comment content dimensions, much like NewsWorks’ Community Discussion Guidelines.