"So, what is PR anyways?"

Many people outside the industry seemingly have no clue about what it is that PR people do exactly. Just yesterday I was telling a peer in my economics class that I am a public relations major. His initial response? "Oh, so you like send press releases and stuff?" Yes, we sometimes write and distribute press releases, but there is much, much more to the public relations profession.

I enjoyed Jackson Wightman's humorous articles on "21 things PR is not" and "21 things PR is" on the Proper Propaganda blog. Below are just a few items pulled from his posts.


To check out the full lists, click on the following links: 21 things PR is not and 21 things PR is.

What PR is not:

• The department whose sole purpose is to write, edit and hawk press releases.


• A business function that deals with the media and/or bloggers and nothing else.


• Capable of whitewashing all sins.


• Necessarily or invariably the adversary of media.


• A synonym for spin.

What PR is:

• A craft that requires fundamental understanding of human needs/wants.


• A profession that has been seriously changed by the Internet.


• A profession that is...about relations with various publics and not just the media.


• Regularly misperceived - especially by journalists.


• Capable of significantly helping reduce organizational costs if applied correctly.

Trying to rest? Give your eyes a break

It seems as though there are never enough hours in a day. Chances are, your waking activities and daytime responsibilities have a tendency to bleed into your sleep time. At this point in the semester, mine certainly are!

Do you check your e-mail or play around on your smart phone or tablet before bed? Are you up late working at the computer? A new study by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) sheds new light on why this can be a bad thing.

Besides cutting into your sleep time, the use of these devices before bed time can actually "increase alertness and suppress the release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin," according to the NSF as reported on prdaily.com. The disruption is caused by exposure to the bright artificial light of the screen before bed, the NSF said.

Moral of the story? Giving yourself a break in between using the computer, TV or your smart phone and going to bed can have a positive impact on your quality of sleep. If you're like me, you need all the sleep you can get!

Using house parties to build relationships

In PR we focus on building relationships with all sorts of internal and external publics. It is important that we constantly seek new ways to interact with our publics and maintain those relationships.

I recently learned about what is essentially a new PR tool called houseparty.com. The site describes itself as a collection of "thousands of parties across the country, hosted by people like you." Each event offered on the site is "sponsored by a leading brand and focuses on something the sponsor wants its best fans to experience firsthand and share with their friends." The concept is simple: organizations put together and sponsor themed parties and consumers can apply for the chance to host the parties in their homes. The chosen consumers are supplied with materials, decorations, prizes, discounts, freebies and other supplies to host their parties.

I think this site is on to a great idea. What better way to raise awareness and generate buzz about your company or product than to offer your consumers a chance to try it for themselves- for free- in the presence of their friends? Further, these parties represent the basis for a two-way, mutually beneficial relationship between the company and the consumer; the consumer gets a social experience, "insider" information about the company's products and some free stuff while the sponsoring company gets a chance to wow a whole group of people with their product and has the opportunity for that excitement to spread to attendees' other contacts in a viral, grass-roots fashion.

Would this type of party work for your company or client? What other creative ideas do you have for fostering relationships with your publics?

My Opinion - You Need Brain Balance for PR

I was reading my PR Daily News Feed yesterday (2-10-11) and couldn't resist taking the Right Brain versus Left Brain Creativity Test from the Art Institute of Vancouver that was posted. Typically, creative people use the right side of their brain more than the left side, and vice versa for more logical people. I consider myself a fairly creative person, but am also very diligent and focused. I am actually surprised at my results! Due to my love of "to-do" lists, classical music, research and numbers I would have assumed I would be overwhelming left-brained, but alas I am only left-brained by a slight majority. It turns out that I am 58 percent left-brained and 42 percent right-brained.

Although I came out as more logical than creative, I am confident that I am entering the right field in public relations due to my dominant left brain characteristic: verbal processing. Verbal processing is a method used by the left hemisphere to process our thoughts and ideas with words.

What brain are you? Also, do you feel like most successful PR people are right-brained? I personally think that those in PR need a good balance of both (maybe I'm biased...). Although I think creativity is an essential aspect of finding attractive angles for the right audiences, I also think that organization, logic and diligence are extremely important for managing heavy workloads and strict deadlines, and advocating for your projects to upper-level management, who often may only want to hear about the logic and numbers behind your idea, rather than its genius creativity.

Thoughts? Take the test here!

Super Bowl ads are more than just fun to watch

Whether or not you are a sports fan or you cared about the teams playing, chances are you tuned in to the Super Bowl yesterday. If you're like me, you were excited to see the ads.

While ads run during the Super Bowl, the "most-watched single telecast in the US," are usually entertaining, Susan Gunelius also points out that there is a lot to learn from them.

In an article for entrepreneur.com, Gunelius looks back on important ads of Super Bowls past and draws interesting takeaways from each. Of course Apple's 1984 ad for Macintosh made the list, but Gunelius makes some great points about the ad's impact. "[I]f you know your product is great, go big -- or go home," Gunelius says.

Remember this ad from Monster.com? I didn't, but I was really impressed by it:



Be sure to check out Gunelius' article to see what she had to say about this ad, what other ads she showcased and the enduring lessons we can all learn from them.

What lessons can you draw from the best and worst of yesterday's ads? What ads from more recent years do you think are worthy of addition to Gunelius' list?

The Social Network

The Social Network (aka: "The Facebook Movie") has officially been released on DVD as of this Tuesday, January 11! If you haven't watched it yet, it's an absolute must-see. I saw the film on opening night in October and there was not a seat left empty. I typically avoid seeing movies in Philadelphia theatres because of all the rude chit chat, but for this movie the audience watched silently on the edge of their seats as the drama behind Facebook unfolded. Okay, I'll disclose that I may be a biased Justin Timberlake fan, so to give you a more objective opinion of its public and critical acclaim I'll take a minute to note all of the publications that have named it the "Best Picture of the Year" (To view a more complete list of all award nominations - there must be hundreds - click here):

The New York Times
New York Post
The New Yorker
Los Angeles Times
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
LA Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Rolling Stone
The Huffington Post
W Magazine
The Associated Press
BBC
MSN Movies
Chicago Sun-Times
Denver Post
Boston Phoenix
Cleveland Sun
The Daily Mail
The Daily Telegraph
IFC.com
Miami Herald
Lincoln Journal-Star
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
North County Times
Oklahoma Gazette
Omaha World Herald
Orlando Weekly
Sight & Sound
Time Out Chicago
Time Out New York
Tulsa World

....among others. The movie's official site, TheSocialNetwork-movie.com, is also prepped for its award season campaign, complete with wins so far, nominations, interviews with the cast, and conversations with the people behind the editing, design, sound, cinematography, effects, and music score.

Facebook has arguably been the most influential communication and social tool seen so far in our generation, and this film is predicted to go down in history. If you weren't able to catch it in theatres, now you can watch it in the comfort of your own home!

It's that time again...

Happy Holidays to all of our members and readers!

As a public relations major who plans to deal closely with the media--and someone who strives to be a responsible citizen, for that matter--I know how important it is to pay attention to current events and stay immersed in media culture.

This past semester, I was required to read the New York Times on a daily basis for one of my classes. I really enjoyed reading the news every day and was grateful for the chance to force myself to stay current on the news. After all, as much as I strive to read the news on my own, other things sometimes get in the way.

With this in mind and the start of the new year fast approaching, I have begun to put some thought into my new year's resolutions. Every year, I try to choose resolutions that are both practical and realistic. This year, one of my biggest resolutions is to continue to read the news daily.

I have even come up with a way to keep this resolution within reach: I have decided to set the home page of my Web browser to the New York Times homepage. This is a quick and simple step that will make it easy to peruse the news everyday; it brings the news to me! This way, every time I sign online to check my e-mail (which I do several times a day), shop or look something up, I will also be conscious of the headlines and will be able to read several news stories each time I am online.

I also plan to use this homepage as a "reminder" to read stories on other news sites. This will enable me to get a balanced perspective and will help keep me a responsible consumer of the news.

Try it with me and see what you think!

Best of luck in the new year.

Do You Follow the Cheese?

Last night, my professor showed a short animated video to my class. The video seemed a bit silly at first, but the message behind it is a pertinent one. The video is based on Spencer Johnson's book Who Moved My Cheese? The story follows two mice and two little people on their search for "cheese." The cheese is meant to represent anything you want in life. Throughout the video, the cheese moves and the characters have to choose whether to follow the cheese. Ultimately, the characters learn the importance of following the cheese when it moves. In other words, the video conveys the message that it is important to anticipate change and adapt to change. I think this message is not only important for attaining what we want in life, but for success in careers such as public relations, which depend on keeping up with the trends. What do you think about this message?

Here is a preview of the video:

Social Media Costumes!

In light of this weekend's festivities, check out the top five entries in Mashable's technology and social media costume contest! The winners were posted earlier today. My favorite is the YouTube costume with the crying baby from "Team Social Media." What's yours?

Have a frighteningly fun and safe Halloween weekend!

Networking

I recently caught up with Jessica, a graduate of Temple University and PRowl Public Relations. After graduating last May, Jessica started a job with Cancer Treatment Centers of America. I am so excited to see her achieving the success she deserves!

I asked Jessica if she had any advice for me as I begin my job search. "I found my job on indeed.com which is basically just a listing website for job descriptions," she said in an e-mail. "I applied and got it. I knew no one there. It's not ALWAYS about networking, so don't discount jobs you think you might not get because you don't know anyone!"

I found this advice to be very interesting and insightful. While there is no doubt that networking is very important, particularly in the field of PR, I think it is important that we don't get too caught up on networking and overlook other opportunities for which we may be great candidates.

Coincidentally, a similar point was made in "Delivering Happiness," a book by Tony Hsieh that I am currently reading for work. "My advice is to stop trying to 'network' in the traditional business sense, and instead just try to build up the number and depth of your friendships, where the friendship itself is its own reward," Hsieh, founder of Zappos.com, says. "The more diverse your set of friendships are, the more likely you'll derive both personal and business benefits from your friendships later down the road. You won't know exactly what those benefits will be, but if your friendships are genuine, those benefits will magically appear 2-3 years later down the road," he said.

How big of a role did networking play in your job search? Do you agree that people sometimes over-emphasize networking, or do you feel that networking should be a focus during the job search?

The Power of Coupons

I am excited that marketers seem to have discovered every college student's "secret": we're all broke! This semester, for the first time, I am excited to have been bombarded with coupons targeted specifically for college students.

Collegeclipper.com (which is in the process of becoming studentcoupons.com) offers coupons for Temple students for places ranging from Fresh Grocer to the Pearl movie theater, to the food trucks on campus. The site allows students to select the coupons they want and will actually text the coupons to students' cell phones! Similarly, campusspecial.com has been heavily distributing coupon books on Temple's campus with deals for local points of interest ranging from Qdoba to Hollywood tans. Aside from its physical coupon booklets, this company also offers both printable and text message coupons from its website. In addition, McDonald's employees, riding on Segways, recently distributed coupon booklets on Temple's campus, offering many "buy one get one free"coupons on a wide range of its products.

I think these coupons are brilliant marketing because they target a population that is both on a tight budget but also one that historically has a higher percentage of disposable income than other segments of the population. They present a win-win situation: students save money on things they want and need, while participating companies benefit from student business being funneled their way.

Honestly, at this phase of my life, if you offer me the chance to save money, then you are much more likely to get my business than your competitors--even if I may prefer your competitors to you; if you help me out, I will help you out by patronizing your business. In this way, I also see these coupon-based promotions as good PR.

I have already used more than 10 of the coupons I have received as part of these marketing initiatives, and I look forward to taking advantage of more of these deals in the future.

Customer Service: Good PR at the Ground Level

While visiting my hometown of Lancaster recently, my boyfriend and I observed an excellent example of PR at the ground level.

My boyfriend purchased a watch in April from the Fossil outlet. At the time, we were thrilled with the customer service we received, particularly because the employees removed links to custom fit the watch--in just minutes and for free! After that trip, we were both quick to recommend Fossil to our friends and family members.

Since then, we have made several other purchases from that store. Recently, though, the watch we originally purchased in April stopped working. Disappointed that the battery stopped working after only four months, we returned to the store on Monday. Without any hassle, or even needing to verify our purchase history, the employees at Fossil replaced the battery for free! The employees were very friendly, attentive and apologetic, and they made it very simple and quick to repair the watch.

It was so refreshing to see a company so thoroughly stand by its products and its customers. Thanks to the excellent customer service we received, we have developed a deep level of loyalty to Fossil. In fact, my boyfriend has said that he will never buy a watch any place else! In addition, you can be sure that our recommendations to friends and family will be even stronger after this experience; the company has succeeded in unofficially enlisting us as its very own buzz marketers!

What changes can you make at your company to generate loyalty and to positively represent your brand at the ground level?

Who do you write like?

As PR practitioners, many of us are avid readers and writers. Ragan.com's daily PR newsletter recently made me aware of a fun tool available for writers. A site called "I Write Like" allows you to copy and paste your own writing into a form. The site then compares your writing with that of established authors and tells you which author out there your writing is most like.

Pretty cool! Be sure to check it out to see which famous author you write like!

Find Food on Twitter!

Here in Philadelphia, food trucks are very popular. Trucks park along curbs all over the city and serve hot food at cheap prices--on the fly. At Temple alone, I can think of over 15 food trucks lining various streets on campus. Many people have their favorite foods they like to get from their favorite trucks.

But what happens if one day your food truck isn't parked where it normally would be? Enter Twitter onto the scene.

That's right, food trucks all over the country are tapping the power of Twitter to keep their faithful customers abreast of their location.

Twitter is also facilitating a change in the types of cuisine that can be found on the streets. In California, as discussed in an article I recently read in Food and Wine Magazine, it is a rising trend for famous chefs to serve their cuisine out of trucks that allow them to travel around the city. Author Salma Abdelnour has credited social media for the success of these new "catch-me-if-you-can" entrepreneurial ventures. Some such trucks have amassed as many as 63,000 followers on Twitter, as people "chase" the trucks through the city for a chance to sample these fine foods.

Pretty cool, if you ask me. The power of social media never ceases to amaze me!

Click here to view Food and Wine Magazine's list of top restaurants, food trucks and and carts to follow on Twitter.

Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Great Summer Read

Summer is a time where most of us look forward to enjoying some well-deserved relaxation. However, between BlackBerries, iPhones, laptops and wifi it's difficult to completely disconnect. Have you ever planned on having a relaxing dinner, or on going to bed early, when you receive an urgent email that completely distracts you? I think we ALL have!

That's precisely why William Powers' new book Hamlet's BlackBerry immediately intrigued me. He wrote it as a 'practical philosophy for building a good life in the digital age' aimed at helping readers unplug from technology and be fully present around family and friends. Powers understands how difficult this can be, especially when so many people are married to their jobs as well as their spouses. The proof is in the pudding for Powers who practices this philosophy in his own life. To counteract his family's connectedness they have weekend 'dead time' where their modem is unplugged and cell phones are turned off. He claims to see a huge improvement in family communication that brings them closer together and has lasting effects throughout the week.

Powers also theorizes that constant connectivity both fragments our social network and distracts us from our own internal dialogue. When you're tending to relationships through several different avenues of communication (tweet, wall post, text, e-mail) it has an isolating effect. Keeping tabs on your friends and loved ones digitally just isn't sufficient as it's missing a human element. Similarly, all of this digital communication distracts us so much that we don't have time to think anymore. Our thoughts are so jumbled from the buzzing, beeping or flashing we don't have the chance to take a look around and 'smell the roses'.

Powers knows that the digital world is here to stay and doesn't expect readers to stop using technology all together. He's simply suggesting better ways to balance connectivity with real life, one-on-one communication so we can live happier, less stressed lives. As PR professionals we know the importance of connectedness all too well and it's good for us to take a deep breath and relax every once in a while!

Read a July 20th interview with William Powers by NPR and an excerpt from Hamlet's Blackberry here. How do you feel about the pervasiveness of digital connectivity today? Is it a friend or foe?

Domino's Turns to Buzz Marketing. Will it Work?

Domino's Pizza is turning to buzz marketing in its latest campaign. In its TV ad, the company explains that they are so confident in their product that they do not feel the need to doctor or manipulate their pizzas for commercial purposes. Instead, the company is turning to its customers and the public at large for its next advertising photos.

Customers are encouraged to take their own photos of their Domino's pizza and submit them online at showusyourpizza.com. Customers can win $500 and the chance to have their photo actually used in a Domino's Pizza ad.

The photo guidelines? According to the website, in all photos taken for commercial purposes, whether taken by a consumer-turned-photographer or the company itself, the following guidelines will be followed:

• pictures only of "honest-to-goodness" pizzas will be taken.
• pictures only of pizzas made by Domino's employees will be taken.
  
• the pizzas in the photos cannot and will not be "artificially manipulate[d]"
  

To encourage people to participate in the contest (and also to boost sales), Domino's is also offering customers a special deal: two medium two topping pizzas for $5.99 (although, curiously, there is a two pizza minimum).

Do you think this campaign will succeed in generating word-of-mouth buzz about the company and its products? Do you think this campaign is a good way of connecting with customers and the public at large? It certainly caught my attention! While I don't plan on submitting my own photos, I think it is a fun and clever way to generate both business and awareness--not to mention cheap for the company (the winner is only promised $500 and the money spent on web development and TV ads is probably money that would be spent on promotion either way).

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Get Glue

One of the most interesting and exciting things about social media is that it is always changing and evolving. Plus, people are always creating new ways for people to use social media to connect.

I recently found out about GetGlue. "GetGlue is a social network for entertainment," the site explains on its homepage. "Check-in and rate things to discover new favorites, see what your friends are into, get stickers and win free stuff."

The site allows you to identify things you like, like movies, authors, and performing artists, and will then recommend other things to you based on your likes and those of your friends.

It's a fascinating concept! I look forward to seeing if this site and others like it will become big in the future. Have you ever used GetGlue?

The Customer Is NOT Always Right

"The customer is always right" is a company mantra that has been recited by almost every business since the phrase was coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge's department store in London in 1909. Most businesses utilize the phrase in order to:

1. Convince customers they will get good service at the company.
2. Convince employees to give customers good service.

However, as Alexander Kjerulf points out in his article- "the customer is always right" mentality is actually detrimental to many businesses and goes on to list the five main reasons why.

1. It makes employees unhappy. You can't treat your employees like serfs- you have to value them. If they think you won't support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.
2. It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage. Abusive customers using the slogan "the customer is always right" can demand just about anything. By definition, they're right and this makes the employees jobs much harder.
3. Some customers are bad for business. Most businesses think the "more customers the better" but sometimes businesses are better without the abrasive customers.
4. It results in worse customer service. When the company and management continuously side with customers instead of employees it sends a clear message: employees are not valued, treating employees fairly is not important and the employees have no right to respect from customers. At that point, employees stop caring about customer service and the best a customer can hope for is fake good service.
5. Some customers are just plain wrong. The fact is that some customers are just wrong and businesses are better without them.

As a retail employee myself, I found this article to be incredibly valid and valuable. There are often times when an unreasonable customer is preferred over an employee and the results of the situation are always counter productive in providing good customer service, leading to disgruntled employees who feel unappreciated.

What do you think? Is the customer really always right or should businesses consider nixing this mantra for good?

Ever make a "stop doing" list?

If you're busy like me, you are probably very familiar with "to do" lists. I make them all of the time. In fact, at any given moment, I probably have two or three running to do lists on various sheets of paper in my room or tucked in my planner.

"Do you have a 'stop doing' list?" The question was posed to me by the book "Good to Great," by Jim Collins, which I am reading for work. I'm guessing the idea sounds as foreign to you as it did to me when I first came across it.

In reality, though, it makes perfect sense. "Most of us lead busy but undisciplined lives," Collins explains in the book (139). "We have ever-expanding 'to do' lists, trying to build momentum by doing, doing, doing--and doing more. And it rarely works. Those who built the good-to-great companies, however, made as much use of 'stop doing' lists as 'to do' lists. They displayed a remarkable discipline to unplug all sorts of extraneous junk."

I came to see that a "stop doing" list can be a great way to help generate growth and change in life by helping cut down on things that don't matter, are detractors from your goals and/or are wastes of time. I am certainly going to try building one of these lists! For instance, I really need to stop spending money on clothes I don't need because I am trying to save money for vacation. What things would you put on your own "stop doing" list?

Will you tune in?

MTV's new show "Hired" begins today. The show "tracks young adults as they look for jobs" and demonstrates that "many entry-level candidates need guidance," according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Appropriately, the show makes its debut during a week coinciding with many college graduations. It also seems especially relevant given the competitive job market we face today as a result of the recession.

It will be interesting to see if the show proves to offer any useful advice for job seekers, or if, true to MTV reality TV, it will focus primarily on being entertaining.

Check out the whole Wall Street Journal article here:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/05/11/mtv-hired-teaches-interview-dos-and-donts/

Be sure to tune in and chime in with your impressions of the show!