ShopLocalMilledgeville.com

On Saturday, March 13th my public relations group consisting of me, Courtney and Cara, set up a booth in the Milledgeville Mall to promote Digital Bridges' new venture, www.shoplocalmilledgeville.com. We arrived at 9 a.m. and set up a very professional looking table that enticed others to come and see what was going on. The event ended around 5 p.m.. We made promotional material to distribute such as flyers and posters and also had an interactive game for people to play. We filled a glass jar with pennies that represented the number of local businesses in Milledgeville and had people guess how many local businesses they thought were in Milledgeville. We had a little over 20 people play the game and in return they received a Chick-fil-a coupon. We also had the people fill out a survey of what they did and did not like about shopping in Milledgeville. Of course we had candy on our table which helped entice people in and keep them there. Over all I believe it was a very successful event. We talked to many people and really promoted the new website. Everyone seemed interested and I think that once the website gets up and going it will be very beneficial to everyone in the Milledgeville-Baldwin County area. Digital Bridges has a lot to work with from our group and will be able to keep this project successful. Our group did an awesome job and achieved our goal.

Phi Mu Fraternity Celebrates 158 years of sisterhood

The ladies of Phi Mu Fraternity at Georgia College and State University celebrated their National Founders Day on March 4, 2010.

The Gamma Sigma Chapter of Phi Mu began the celebration by supporting National Badge Day on Monday and wearing pink to campus followed by a Founders Day Ceremony, "Pink & Pearls", with the local Milledgeville Alumnae Chapter. With old stories and dessert, these women were able to bond over many generations of sisterhood. Phi Mu is the oldest sorority at GCSU and has been on campus for 36 years.

"It was really interesting to hear what Phi Mu at GCSU was like in the past and it makes me excited for so many more memories we will get to share together," said Brenda Bryant, an active member in Phi Mu Fraternity.

On Thursday, March 4, Phi Mu hosted a Rock-A-Thon on the GCSU campus and collected spare change for their national philanthropy, The Children's Miracle Network.

Gamma Sigma President, Brooke Brookins said, "Rock-A-Thon is a creative way to benefit CMN and get the students at GCSU involved. This is our second year hosting a Rock-A-Thon and all the Phi Mu's love participating."

Phi Mu Fraternity is the second oldest secret society for women, and was founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga by Mary Dupont Lines, Mary Myrick Daniel and Martha Hardaway Redding in 1852. Phi Mu has chapters across the United States and nearly 150,000 collegiate and alumnae members. Phi Mu provides personal academic development, service to others, commitment to excellence and lifelong friendships through a shared tradition. Phi Mu encourages our members to imagine, believe and achieve their aspirations.

The Founders' Day Challenge

In honor of Mary, Mary and Martha, Phi Mu Foundation is launching its first ever chapter challenge virtual campaign. Their goal is to raise $18,520 in the month of March in honor of our Founder's Day on March 4th. The Foundation asked every Phi Mu to give up one dinner out to eat and donate it Phi Mu Foundation. They made it very simple by going to www.phimufoundation.org or Phi Mu Foundation's Facebook page and click the GIVE NOW button. Phi Mu Foundation supports leadership, scholarship and philanthropy. Their slogan is Women Helping Women...Sisters Helping Sisters. I personally thought this challenge was unattainable and did not believe it could be made in one month but boy was I proven wrong. Today is March 7th and we have already surpassed our goal! I attended Phi Mu Leadership Academy this weekend in Peachtree City where all current chapter presidents, one emerging leader and chapter advisor attended a leadership seminar. Before we arrived in PTC the Foundation had already raised $6,000. They made a presentation and asked us to give that day and boy did we! Three leaders from each Phi Mu chapter together raised $13,134.98 making the current total $18,670.50! We passed the goal within 30 minutes. Of course Phi Mu Foundation does not want to stop there and will continue to ask our chapters to give because they give back so much to the collegiate chapters but it is amazing to me that that much was raised in so little time. This challenge was great PR for Phi Mu Foundation because many collegiate members did not know what the money they give to the Foundation goes toward and now that all chapter presidents are fully informed they will take the information back to their chapter and ask them to give. A part of this challenge is that National Headquarters is bringing in a trained Foundation member to speak to every collegiate chapter across the US and better inform them. This will take a lot of money and time planning this travel but they believe it will be worth while to be personal with the girls. I love everything Phi Mu Foundation stands for and I am happy to donate my money to help my sisters today as well as tomorrow.

GCSU Purple Glove Dance

Relay For Life in Baldwin County has reached a new level and it includes dancing around in "Purple Gloves". A national campaign that benefits 4THEFIGHT against cancer will donate $5000 to the group or organization with the winning "Purple Glove Dance". The contestants must upload their video to Youtube and the video with the most views wins $5000 donated to their local Relay For Life. A few Georgia College & State University students came together to film GCSU's efforst in winnign this contest. This event was great PR for Relay For Life because it gives contestants an interactive way to get involved and support the fight against cancer. The people who headed it up at GCSU got many RSO's involved and I personally believe that the video is wonderful. Everyone I know at GCSU got very involved in the filming and excited for what the video represents. I really hope Baldwin County Relay For Life wins this money because our video has a very good message and did a great job promoting what the true meaning of Relay is about. To view the GCSU Purple Glove Dance, click here!

Real World 2010

On Friday Feb. 19, the Georgia Chapter of PRSA hosted Real World PR for members of PRSSA at the Loudermilk Center in Atlanta. It was a day for PRSSA members to gain insight from professinals who already are working in our fields of interest.

It started out an early morning departing from the Milledgeville Starbucks at 5:30 a.m. and driving two hours. We arrived to breakfast and an opening session which was a general overview of what the day would entail. They gave us a few key points for meeting professionals. First, always smile. Second, have a great elevator speech that includes who you are and things you do. Third, take notes on the back of the business cards so you will not forget what you two talked about. Fourth, network with your peers. There were students from all over the southeast there and it was a great opportunity to learn more about what they are doing in their classes and with their internships.

We later had our first session and the one I attended was entitled, "Agency or Corporate". Agency was described as a 24/7 job where the employee can always contact you. You have weekly meetings with your account team but other than that you are working on your own client. Corporations is more about how important PR is to your business to ensure good communication. Both are very fast pace, entail a variety of things, require working with perfection and can be unpredictable. Some other valuable information they shared was you need to stay at a business for at least three years. If not you will seem uncommitted. They said quality writing was very important and also be a good reader. Learn how to write short sweet sentences. I learned about becoming APR certified and how important it is. "PR is a management function, not a marketing function." I do not believe I am cut out to work in an agency. Everything is too cut throat and fast pace for me and I like to focus on one thing and perfect it rather than jump from client to client.

The second seminar I attended was "Focus on Healthcare, Nonprofit and Government". I learned that will all three of these you are presented with a lack of resources. You use what you have. You do however have a lot of ownership in how you want to take the PR. It is important to be a sponge and soak up all the information you can because you may not be familiar with the section of work you do and need to be familiar with the terminology. It is important to make friends with reporters so they will go to you for information. I like the pace of the Nonprofit because it is for a good cause so it is not as cut throat as some of the other sectors.

After this session we ate lunch and listened to Sean Cassidy speak on the evolution of entertainment and celebrity PR from publicity to brand building.

After lunch we had resume critiques and sat at a round table with a professional about what a good resume should look like. Unfortunately our table leader was not very helpful but I did get a girl's awesome resume who was at my table and I will play off of hers for ideas.

Over all I had a great experience at Real World PR 2010 and learned a lot of valuable information. Public Relations is such an exciting field to work in and I am excited to be apart of it and see where my future will take me! #RW2010

Ms. GCSU Campaigning

It's that time of year again when banners hang, Facebook groups are made and tables by the fountain are abundant, Ms. GCSU campaigning. Sororities and large RSO's at GCSU take this week to campaign for their candidate and try to get their member to be GCSU's homecoming queen. In my personal opinion the campaigning at Georgia College is WAY over the top. Most schools make a Facebook group and stickers and call it a day, but not GCSU, we must think of slogans, and make it a cat fight to see who will win. Chalking the sidewalks causes the most controversy and thankfully GCSU decided to make it illegal to chalk this year which I know all sororities were thankful for. Phi Mu has big shoes to fill because our Keri Allgood was Ms. GCSU last year and we would love to carry on the title. In Phi Mu this campaign is the job of the Public Relations Chairman but it literally takes the whole sorority to get the job done. My roommate is a candidate so I have done a lot of the campaign work for this year's Ms. GCSU elections. As a PR major I know what needs to be done and in what fashion so I do not mind taking it upon myself to get most of the work done. Her name is Emily Brown and her slogan is "Brown for the Crown". We also have used the UPS logo and said "What can BROWN do for YOU?" I have designed many of the flyers and posters she is using in her campaign as well as the Facebook group. Although this is stressful for me, Emily deserves to win and it is all worth it. I hope Saturday at the Basketball game when they announce the winner her name is called and all of our hard work will have been worth while. Good luck to all the candidates and let the best PR win!

Super Bowl XLIV took place Sunday, February 7th resulting in a win for the New Orleans Saints. Apart from the hype of the game, the Super Bowl advertisements are one of the most anticipated events of the year. People love to critique and evaluate the ads they saw, and some go as far as voting for their favorite. The number one advertisement for this Super Bowl was one for Mars Snickers. Of course from paying millions of dollars for your advertisement, the companies expect good returns and for Go Daddy.com this was exactly right. Go Daddy reached an all new record from their Super Bowl commercials this year although some of the ratings were very poor from their two commercials that aired. Go Daddy had some of the most internet traffic after their commercials were aired and reached their personal record of having the most new customers than any other Super Bowl Sunday. Go Daddy also was a trending topic on Twitter the night of the Super Bowl. It amazes me that although the commercials were not highly rated, they still generated interest and traffic to the website which is what Go Daddy was aiming for. These commercials are not just advertisements but also a form of PR because they are talked about for months after and generate constant traffic to your business. Although these placements are very expensive, if you advertisement is good, or in this case just interesting, you will get the results you want to see.