PRofessional CONNECTION Series, Part 2: Boutique PR

Okay guys, the blog is pretty much back on track… still needs some minor adjustments, but it’s at least visually appealing again! Anyways, back to my PRofessional CONNECTION series: the second session I attended was on boutique PR, and the panel speakers were Anna Sexton from Green Olive Media and Audraine Jackson of Jackson Communications (Audraine spoke in my first session as well, which you can read about here).

Green Olive Media is primarily in the food and beverage industry, an area of PR I have blogged about before and I am pretty in love with. Actually, I’d be pretty interested in finding an internship in food and beverage PR I think, but that’s beside the point. The panel started by addressing how boutique PR differentiates from a larger agency. Basically, boutique PR firms usually operate in more tight-knit markets and rarely delve outside of their main focus markets (so Green Olive Media is a perfect example as it deals almost exclusively in the food and beverage industry.) Also, boutique PR firms can guarantee more expertise because they deal in specific industries, and that requires market-specific skills and knowledge. One other thing that makes boutique PR unique (and often a great interest to intern-hopefuls like myself) is that you get to “wear many hats,” or do a lot of work in many different areas of PR.  Boutiques have smaller staffs and so interns are often considered valuable minds and hence often get to do more interesting things than making coffee (not that lowly interns aren’t happy to do that, of course…).

A great question that was asked during the session was if it was possible to advance in boutique PR. Because it’s so small, there are usually only 5-10 people above you, even when you’re at the very bottom of the food chain. So can you move upwards? According to Sexton, yes! The top people at Green Olive Media started at Green Olive as interns, so obviously, it’s very possible.

This was one of my favorite sessions of PRofessional CONNECTION because it got me excited (yes, excited) for the grueling job search ahead of me. I figure I’ll start looking in December for internships for next summer, and I will definitely devote a good chunk of my search to boutique firms, because it sounds like a great place to get experience and there are so many options in Atlanta alone, I should be able to find the right fit some way or another.

Stay tuned for more from PRofessional CONNECTION!

Caution: Construction Zone

I’m currently working to write a CSS for my blog… bear with me, it may look a little funny for awhile…

PRofessional CONNECTION Series, Part 1: Flavor of Communications

Welcome to my four part series on PRofessional CONNECTION, an annual PR conference hosted by UGA’s PRSSA! To start off the series, I’d like to talk about the first session I went to at the conference…

So, it happens to me more than I’d like to admit. Friends, family, new acquaintances, they all ask me the same thing when I tell them I’m a PR major: “Sooo… isn’t that just like advertising?” I sigh exasperatedly, and proceed to say something along the lines of “Well, I mean they’re related, but they’re different… PR is about relationships, and, er, advertising is about… well, they’re different.” I get this skeptical look, like I have no idea what I’m talking about, which before Wednesday was more or less true. But now, I am well versed in the distinctions between marketing, public relations, and advertising, and I learned a little extra along the way.

Alicia Thompson of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen along with Audraine Jackson of Jackson Communications spoke on the distinctions between the three “flavors” of communication, and interestingly, they didn’t always see completely eye-to-eye.

They agreed as far as the basics of each mode of communication was concerned. In advertising, you buy space and time for the message you are trying to communicate, whereas in public relations, you work to form relationships with stakeholders, employees, customers, etc., and marketing is mainly about assessing customers’ wants and needs. A blend of all three of these is most commonly known as marketing communications. Hence, marketing is the umbrella and public relations and advertising go under it, when the three are integrated.

Dissent between the speakers came from differing opinions on which mode of communication is most important. Jackson believes that advertising is the “silver bullet” because it brings in the money, but Thompson believes that public relations is most important because it is the most flexible and diverse. PR can involve everything from one-on-one personal connections to massive social media relationships.

I believe that all three forms of communication are extremely important, though I do think PR is the most admirable form in that is really is very flexible. PR practitioners need to have a wide range of knowledge and skills as far as communication is concerned; especially nowadays with social media playing such a big role in PR, there’s a huge learning curve. Overall, this session was an awesome way to kick off my PRofessional CONNECTION experience. And it gets better! Stay tuned for the rest of the series!

Drum Roll, please…

Duh-dada-DAAAAAH!

Get excited everybody, because starting tomorrow I will begin posting my four-part series on PRofessional CONNECTION! For those who don’t know, PRofessional CONNECTION is a conference held yearly at UGA, put on by PRSSA. This year it was really spectacular, and now I want to share the wealth of knowledge I obtained there with all my readers! Alas, I have a test today, and so will not have time to start the series until tomorrow. However, this gives everyone a chance to build their anticipation and excitement. I know, I know, I’ve got you all on the edge of your seats. Just wait, it’s about to get crazy up in here…

PR for the Cure

This past Wednesday, PRSSA had Ashley Skiles, the Marketing and Development Manager for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Greater Atlanta Affiliate (phew!), come and present their case on this year’s Race for the Cure, which took place in May.

For those who don’t know much about Susan G. Komen for the Cure (like myself, before this past Wednesday), it was founded in 1982 by Nancy G. Brinker, whose sister passed away from breast cancer in 1980. She made a promise to her sister that she would do whatever it takes to help find a cure for breast cancer in her lifetime. And although no cure has yet been found, I would say Brinker (who is herself a breast cancer survivor) has played an incredible role in helping to find that cure. Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest private funder of breast cancer research and aid. The Atlanta affiliate sends 25% of its proceeds to the national government for research, and the other 75% goes out to a 10-county area of Georgia to provide women in need of treatment.

Their case presentation on the race won them an award from Georgia’s PRSA committee, and it was really cool to see how they went about researching, planning, and executing the race. I wanted to highlight a few parts of the presentation I found most interesting, effective, and/or helpful to PR students.

- As part of their research, the team found that according to a Families USA report, one in three Georgians found themselves without health insurance at some point in time in the past two years. I thought this was a great piece of information to use when promoting the race and trying to getting participants.

- The “running ribbon,” as it’s called, is the race’s logo. It was on every ad and poster, so as to create a very strong brand. In PR, we have to make sure we stay consistent to our brand. And if you don’t have a strong brand, be consistent so you can build one!

 

The Running Ribbon

 

 

- The Thursday before the race, Ashley Skiles handed out to media affiliates a very unique reminder of the coming race, by turning pink tennis shoe into flower pots, then tying a media alert and info into the shoelaces. This is commonly known as a media teaser, though it came in a rather uncommon (and very, very cool) format.

- The day of the race, the tam passed out media kits. They came in a pink folder and were neatly organized with a timeline, business card, a sheet of breast cancer facts, a sheet of Komen facts, and a sheet of whom they had designated for interviews. This way, the media knew exactly what was happening where.

The whole presentation was really cool, and really touching as well. I was happy to see that PRSSA presented Susan G. Komen for the Cure with a donation at the end of the meeting; it was obviously well deserved. Sadly, a new case of breast cancer is diagnosed every three minutes in America, and every 13 minutes a woman dies from it. It’s good to know that there is hope though, as long as foundations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure are out there, fighting to make a difference.

How to make or break an interview

I feel like there have been numerous occasions where I have been spoken to about the dos and don’ts of interviewing. The thing is, it never gets old to me! This past spring when I was trying to get an internship, I was really focused on my résumé and building it up; I saw it as my foot in the door. But now that my résumé is well improved and I am more experienced in the PR field, I will be going for bigger, more PR-oriented internships. (This previous summer, I was fortunate enough to score a great internship at the RNC in the New Media department, and the position was in many ways PR-oriented, but now I want more of a full-package deal, like a PR firm or agency).

I only had a phone interview for my RNC internship, as the internship was in D.C., and though it was important, it was not a long process; the whole interview probably took less than 3 minutes. But this coming summer, I will be looking for internships in the Atlanta area, meaning I will be more than capable of coming out for an in-person interview, and I want to rock all of my interviews! This is why I was grateful that at this past week’s PRSSA meeting at UGA was on the dos and don’ts of interviewing. And though I do it at the risk of helping my future competition, I will list a few of the more crucial (but less obvious) dos and don’ts of interviewing.

DO:

- Prepare and over prepare. Think about the job you’re going for and the questions you will be asked there, and ask friends who have had similar interviews for advice before going in.

- Be clear about your experience. Don’t be afraid to talk about what you’ve done and what you learned from it, because an interview is all about selling yourself.

- Be able to articulate what you want to achieve. You MUST know why you want the internship you are interviewing for specifically (and not just because you’ll take any internship you can get!)

- Interview the interviewer. Have questions prepared in advance that you would like to ask the interviewer, as that shows your interest in the position and I can also be an opportunity to ask a question that specifically applies to the place you are interviewing for, which shows you have done your research.

- Write a thank you. This is something I have done before, but have always had some confusion about email vs. actual card. Here’s what I have since discovered: if you are interviewing for someone who you have been in touch with for some time via email or telephone and you now have a more casual relationship, feel free to email them a thank you. If it is a more formal interview, with someone you have never met before or only spoken with a couple of times, you should write a card.

DON’T:

- Be overly personal or casual. Sure, it’s great to be amiable in an interview, but only while maintaining a serious, professional demeanor. Don’t share details of your personal life unless they specifically ask for them.

- Say anything negative in the interview in attempts to guilt the interviewer into picking you for the position. For example, when asked, “Why do you want this position?” don’t respond with anything like “I need job this to pay my bills.” They probably care that you have bills to pay, but they care more about whether you have a real interest in the position. That answer shows that you don’t.

- Don’t lie or pretend in the interview or on your résumé. For example, don’t say you can speak Spanish fluently if you can really only know the days of the week and how to count to ten. Just make sure what you say in your interview or on your résumé can be delivered on the job.

- Ramble. Just don’t. You will bore them and they will tune you out. End of story.

“Everything is amazing right now, and nobody is happy”

Louis C.K. is the comedian in this Late Night with Conan O’Brien skit who with a few clever/hilarious examples draws attention to how many people ultimately view technology: poorly. I mean, maybe as a PR student I can argue with the best of them that Twitter is much more than a place to just talk about yourself, or that everything about Google is AWESOME-and-let-me-tell-you-why, but on the other hand, how much time do I spend being frustrated with these same incredible technologies and other like them? When Facebook doesn’t load properly in three refreshes, I start grumbling angrily, and anything over ten refreshes? I’m more or less ready to throw my computer at the wall, because that’s almost two minutes of my life wasted, and isn’t that a tragedy… hah.

The point is, this video clip really served as a reminder to me that the future of PR depends on present technologies. Just because new stuff is going to happen doesn’t mean I can start dissing existing technologies because they don’t always work just the way I expect them to every time. They are amazing! Only ten years ago or so, I didn’t even have the Internet in my house. Now, I can’t go more than hmm, an hour or two without it? Sad, but true. So I should appreciate it as is; we all should.

However, as this is a blog about public relations, I can’t just leave you with only this somewhat random personal revelation. So, I will say this: in the PR industry, part of our duty is to always be on the lookout for the next great thing in social media: what’s good, what’s bad, and all the in between. For this type of information, I pretty much always go to Mashable (www.mashable.com). It’s a social media guide in blog form, founded by CEO Pete Cashmore (who is a social media hottie, and bonus, he’s Scottish!) and everything about Mashable is great. Follow Pete on Twitter for the latest and greatest updates in social media (@Mashable).

Another good (though less time-sensitively informative) guide is GO2WEB20 (http://www.go2web20.net/). At this site, you can search for social media tools based on what kind of tool you are looking for (Twitter tools, design tools, management tools, etc.) and you can also follow them on Twitter also (@go2web20).

Forget PR, when I grow up I want to be a chocolate ambassador

And no, I didn’t make that up—choocolate ambassadors exist! But that’s not really what I’m talking about. Where I learned such a thing IS what I’m here to talk about. Molly McFerran of the Reynolds Group spoke at the PRSSA meeting last Wednesday to talk about hospitality PR, more specifically, restaurant PR. And after listening to her talk, I thought maybe this is something I might like to do one day! But that’s beside the point.

So how do you do restaurant PR? It’s like any PR for any other business most of the time, according to McFerran, you just build buzz. You stay on top of the trends—no, not who’s wearing what, but who’s eating where. And you still put together press kits, with bios on the head chef and the mixologist (the person who makes all the cocktails and stuff, because cocktail culture is huge right now on the restaurant scene… cool, right??) The press kits usually also include recipes and menus (more on that later).

The most time-consuming and probably important part of restaurant PR is restaurant openings, because if nobody knows you exist, you’re in trouble right away. So how do you get the word out about a grand opening, aside from the normal stuff like press releases and pitch letters? Well, like I mentioned just a few sentences ago, recipes are a great selling point, because A) Um, make a real-life restaurant recipe from your home? Yes please! (probably not quite as good as the head chef, but an experience nonetheless) and B) magazines and journals publish recipes all the time. Include a photo and you’re golden: free publicity.

But what about after the grand opening, when press dies down? Then it’s up to the PR people to spike the press again. Set up specials at the restaurant, like half-off drinks on Tuesday. Also, work to frame your chefs and mixologists (and your chocolate ambassadors of course) as experts in their field; people love to go to restaurants where they’ve heard of the chef and know that his or her food is “simply to die for,” right?

Who can blame me for wanting to get into hospitality PR? It’s got all the fun of special events and in down time, there’s FOOD all the time! Yep, I know what kind of internships I’ll be looking for next summer…

Leave it to the PRofessionals (to Give you the Good Stuff…)

Last night, Evita Broughton, a PR practicioner at Edelman in Atlanta, came to speak at UGA’s PRSSA meeting. She talked a bit about her day-to-day life at Edelman (first thing, she checks her messages, returns some phone calls, etc.), how many clients she has (currently 6, but as many as 10 at a time (?!)), and who some of Edelman’s clients were (Wal-Mart, the Fox Theatre, and AstraZeneca.)

All of this was interesting and informative, especially to someone like me who is hoping to get an internship in Atlanta this coming summer. But what was most interesting was the general advice she had to offer about working in the PR industry, including misconceptions about PR jobs and what we can do now to make sure we get where we want to go in the PR field.

Someone asked how relevant all the stuff we learn in our PR classes is to having a job in PR. Broughton said that what she remembers most strongly about her PR classes was how they stressed the importance of being able to write a press release. Then she surprised me, by saying she cannot recall an occasion on which she has had to write a press release. Now, this might just be by chance, so I’d like to know if anyone reading this has shared a similar experience?

Another (more fun-filled) question for the readers: If PR professionals were superheroes, what would their superpower be?

Seriously, take a guess before you look at the answer…

And the answer is…

Precognition! Because PR people always, ALWAYS have to be a step (or even a couple steps) ahead of the rest. We have to think in advance about specific situations and all the things that could go wrong. Broughton gave what I thought was a great example, although maybe an obvious one I had never thought of before? Anyway, envision a reporter. Reporters are constantly on the lookout for a story that’ll make headlines. They will, without fail, look for this story at an organization’s weak points. So what we have to do in PR is patch up the weak points before they even become weak points. Do you wait for a car to start leaking oil before taking it in? Not usually, no. You go in for an oil change before the problem even arises.

One more thing that I found interesting was a discussion on getting your Master’s Degree in PR. Lots of people are doing it because the economy is down and jobs are harder to come by. But Broughton advised us to think hard about why we want to go to grad school. If it’s just to put off “the real world,” do not go to grad school. Grad school is hard work, and you should only go if you are truly seeking more education.

Good to know, because I was seriously considering putting off the whole real world thing. Hmm… maybe just aim for super senior status instead? We’ll see.