Fall 2009 Practicum

This semester, I am doing my practicum with the GCSU Choral Department and loving every minute of it! The Choral Director, Jennifer Flory, is a joy to work with and is being so helpful. Thus far I have written press releases, designed posters and t-shirts and recorded their performances. I was unfamiliar with the poster designing and recording before I became her practicum student, but I am very glad she has asked me to do both because I will possibly need experience in both. As a professional, you do not say, "I do not know how to do that", you suck it up and get the job done.

I think practicums are a great thing and I am very grateful GCSU offers this because it gives us real life experience in what we are interested in. Having a client that depends on you changes everything. Besides giving us experience, these practicums give us pieces for our portfolio and things we can actually use to get future jobs.

Thus far I have had my press release published, my posters used and two of my t-shirts printed. The big events I have worked on are High School Choral Day, the Mendelssohn Bicentennial Celebration and the Disney Delights Concert. I am learning so much and having a great time while doing it.

I will be doing advertising for WGUR next semester and hope that I will learn as much from this one as I did with the music department. I would recommend this practicum to anyone!

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference...The Tipping Point

I recently finished the amazing book by Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. I believe this book gives insider information to everyone who reads it, and it was a great requirement for our Public Relations Administration class.

The tipping point is that dramatic moment when a trend or idea becomes an epidemic caused by a little change that has a big effect. It only takes a group of people to make a bold step for the whole world to be changed forever. I liked that Gladwell used real life experiences that most were familiar with to help everyone grasp and understand the concept of tipping. The book defines three characteristics necessary to cause the tip: The Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context.

The Law of the Few is the idea that a select few people drive society. Gladwell divides these people into three groups. These are the Connectors, the Mavens, and the Salesmen. The Connector is a person who knows many people. They have many acquaintances and can bring people together because they are involved in many social circles. The Mavens accumulate an abundant amount of knowledge and share it with others. Mavens want to solve others problems and do this by solving their own. They inform the connectors of the information. The Salesmen persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we hear. They make you feel welcome and they sell a product or idea to you.

I believe that I am a maven. I love discovering new things and finding out new information then sharing it with others. I like knowing things before others and I feel accomplished when I give them the inside information and help them out. When shopping I want to know that I am getting the best product I am searching for with the best deal. When I find this deal I am quick to tell my friends so they can benefit from it as well. I would like to think I am a connector but because I am a quite and reserved person, I usually do not make the initiative to meet new people. Luckily, some of my best friends are connectors and help me to branch out and still stay connected. I am defiantly not a salesmen because I do not like to put people in uncomfortable situations and make them feel forced to make a decision.

The Stickiness Factor makes something memorable and keeps you coming back for more. The Power of Context reminds us that “epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur”.

Our PR Admin class has all three types of people Gladwell describes, and I feel that we can use this to our advantage when trying to tip our Relay For Life event in a community that is unwilling to give. We can use our Mavens to research information and pass it on to our connectors who will find the people for our salesmen to target and get to participate in our event. Because money is such a big issue now days, I believe we can use free publicity to promote the event without requiring much money and still make it a success. If we target the right group of people, they will in turn spread the information and influence others to participate in the event as well as give to it. Having the “Relay For Life” name associated with our event also helps make it successful, because businesses are aware of the organization and are more willing to give if they know exactly where their products are going. Because we have such a diverse group of people in our class, we can come together with our different talents and benefit this event. When the event is over I hope we have achieved the Stickiness Factor because this is an annual event and hopefully the community of Baldwin County will begin to be aware of the event and prepare for it every year.

Twitter is a great example of what the tipping point describes. One person started it, and from there it became a huge fad. This did not only become popular in social lives, but now businesses and organizations are using it to connect as well. Blogging, microblogging and social media networking sites are beginning to take over the world and because a few people took that initiative and venture out, so have a million other people. It has helped many more people become connectors because once tweet can lead to a new friend, free food or maybe even a job. This book defiantly applies to everything social media is now offering us and I believe it is only going tip more.

I really enjoyed this book and believe everyone in the professional world should read it. My father was actually a maven because he passed it on to me. It was not until it was required for my class that I read it, and I am sure glad I did!

Blog Action Day 2009

First I would like to say that I think blog action day is an amazing thing! It is great that people from all over the world can connect and express their feelings of a uniform topic and all work for a greater cause!

Although it is not something we sit and ponder every day, climate is something that affects each and every one of us. Most of our thoughts on climate only go as far as the temperature outside or weather that day. We rarely think about the long term consequences we will face due to climate. The fact that climate threatens to cause famine, flooding, war and millions of refugees makes everyone stop and think a little more about it. Climate has made many drastic changes in our world recently with tsunamis, the war in Iraq and closer to home, the recent flooding in Atlanta.

Sadly there is not much we can do to change the climate. I believe that if it is God’s will, he will do what he sees fit, however there are preventable things that we can do. Using more eco-friendly products are a start. Many companies and businesses have made everything from toothpaste to cars that are better for the environment. Just recently we have all become more aware of how the climate is changing around us and “going green” has become a growing trend. I think choosing alternatives that are more environmentally friendly are great. I believe if everyone does their part to be more conscious of the products they buy we can improve and protect our ozone layer as well as our entire world.

As a future public relations specialist or working in an advertising agency, I do not see my career as being affected by the climate, but it will be. As the going green trend becomes more popular, clients will chose representatives that feel the same way, and are familiar with the products that support the going green life style. If I were to get a client that wanted me to promote a green product of theirs, I would have no idea what audience it needed to reach or what I needed to do with their information. Because this is so popular I know that I need to do my research and be familiar with it, because there is no doubt in my mind that this issue will come up in my future career. As far as the other issues with climate goes, crisis communication is a big part of public relations. If my business was caught in the middle of a terrible situation such as a flood, I would have to know how to over come it and get the business back on its feet. Also if the company I represented wanted to help fight hunger, I would want to promote it along with the businesses name in a successful way. Whether I go the public relations or advertising route, I will have to be fully aware of what is going on in the world how climate is constantly affecting it.

Although the climate’s affects seem to get worse on our world every year, I think the way people are beginning to do their part will help stop and reverse the damages drastically. I am excited to see how I can help and improve the environment through public relations or advertising dealing with climate change. This was all possible with www.blogactionday.com

Relay For Life Pitch

"Unwrapping the Cure" was the theme for my amazing group of Anna Bryson and Corinne Burstein. We worked very well together and spent a lot of time organizing and coming up with ideas. We tried to carry idea from the title all the way to the table decorations. We wanted it our theme to be simplistic and uniform which I think we accomplished. We chose the three colors purple, white and silver to represent Relay. The thing we found most difficult was trying to think of things that would be different from the other groups since we all had the same theme. We tried to find something that would make us stand out and judging by the request, they liked the candy bar the best. I really enjoyed this project because it gave us real life experience with real clients that we had to work for. Also the fact that it was a competition made us work harder to achieve the goal. I was a little disappointed after the pitch because we worked so hard and long and did not get chosen. We spent a lot of time and money on the pitch and I thought we had a really good chance at winning but our idea was not what the judges were looking for. I think the group that got picked did a great job and we will all have fun working on their theme together. I am really looking forward to making this event happen for the Baldwin County Relay For Life!