Advertising Going Green

If you click on the title of this blog it will link you to an article that I found on Advertising Age that I thought was interesting.

Procter & Gamble Co. had come up with an idea to help "go green". They have created a future friendly program with the use of RecycleBank to give back points and rewards. All someone has to do is sign up at RecycleBank.com to register, and then every time a person's recycling bin gets picked up it is scanned with the amount inside, which is then recorded into the RecycleBank to give participants points. With these points consumers can earn free products from P&G.

Participants are also rewarded when they are learning and blogging about being environmentally friendly. One is now not only getting points from recycling, but also receive points for watching videos, reading articles, and using social media to learn about being environmentally friendly. So far this program is only being conducted in Cincinnati, Ohio, of P&G's hometown, but could be expanded if the program works well at home.

My Social Profile

This semester I have learned so much in the social media class. I have learned how to use different types of medias and learned to love them. This is my blog and I have enjoyed learning how to blog and now enjoy blogging everyday.
I started learning how to twitter last semester, but never really got into until now. I always thought that twitter was just a place that people only updated their status; however, twitter is so much more. It is a place to communicate with so many different people all at once. You can talk about a specific topic such as a TV show or connect over a specific topic.
I have always been a huge fan of facebook and I still do love it. It is a great way to share information and connect with friends.
I have not been on linkedin and did not really know what it was all about. I have learned that it is a great way to network with others. This is a great place for you to really showcase yourself and your talents. Future employers can look up your linkedin profile and see what you are capable of.
I have also created a flickr account. Flickr is a great way to share photos and be able to own the copyrights to the pictures you take.
There are also so many other things that I have learned how to use. I learned how to make a podcast which you can view on this blog in the google buzz podcast blog. I have learned how to learn foursquare. I really loved learning about foursquare and I feel like I must get a smart phone now to be able to use it more accurately.
This was a great class and I have learned so much about different social media networks. I am sad that the class is ending, but I know that I will take what I learned from this class and use it the way that is best for me.

Bobcat PRSSA: Social Media Profile

For my social media client I decided to take over the Bobcat PRSSA's media appearance. I think the best place to start would be the website. On the website I have also included the blog so they are both easy to find and in the same place. With the blog I have encouraged members to send me there experiences in our PRSSA chapter to post on the blog.

Here is the blog and website.

The website also has ways to be able to connect to the other media outlets:

e-mail account (bobcatprssa@gmail.com)

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Flickr

We already have a facebook group page. The group page is a good idea for PRSSA because we want people in the group who are in the organization only. This is a way for us to communicate besides just with our e-mail. It has also become a way for us to share pictures and event experiences. I hope that that will change through the blog, however.

Next we have our Twitter account. Our twitter is a way for any one to follow us and to see what we are up to. It is also a way for members to get updates quickly.

I have created a Linkedin group as well. The linkedin group is a way be able to show that you were involved in a PR chapter with your university. This is a great thing to put on your resume and for future employers to see.

I also have decided to create a flickr account. I created this account because it is an easy way to share our pictures with each other of different events we have attended, what we have accomplished, and what we have done.

Google Buzz Podcast

24 Hours in 1985

For a class project we went 24 hours without certain technology. We decided that we could not use any technology that we did not have in 1985. That meant no cell phones, no dvds, no cds, no Internet (well the stuff that we use anyways, such as this blog), and no iPods. I thought that this would not be a problem for me. 2 summers ago I went to Israel for 2 weeks and did not have access to a cellphone or the Internet. I did not miss it and it was relaxing not having it with me. However, this time it was different. For those 2 weeks it was not just me that did not have access it was the majority of the group. It was easier not to care about it when I was not around it.

These past 24 hours, however, have been hard. Technology has become a convenience in my life and without it was difficult. I have become reliant on my cellphone, even so much as that I use it as a clock instead of a watch. I had people calling me and texting me and it was a hassle to have to be at home or to go home to use a house phone with a cord in order to call people back. I thought that not being on a computer for a day would also be easy, however, it wasn't. I did not mind not being on facebook, twitter, or a blog or a day; however, I relie on my computer to look everything up. My sister and I wanted to go and see a movie yesterday, but I could not get on the computer to look up the times. I wanted to know what the weather was going to be like, I could not get on weather.com and look at the forecast. I wanted to look up things that I found interesting in a commercial, but I couldn't. I did not realize how much I actually do on a computer on a daily basis.

The hardest part of this assignment was that even though I was not using these things does not mean that I can stop others from using theirs. My sister has an iPhone and was on it all day. Driving in the car with my dad, he uses his GPS in order to go anywhere. Whenever, I come home my mom likes to take pictures using her digital camera and always wants me to upload the pictures to her computer. My dad does not listen to the radio, but always listens to XM in his car. I did not break the rules, but I could not stop my mom from wanting to take a picture of me and my sister, I could not make my dad not use his GPS, and I could not make him listen to the regular radio in the car. At my house we have a home phone (with cords), but no one uses it anymore. My grandmother calls the phone occasionally, but for the most part the people who call it are usually trying to sell us something or wanting us to take some sort of survey.
This assignment was difficult. I really missed being able to just talk to someone on the phone when I was driving of away from a land line phone. I missed being able to look anything up with just a touch of a button online. This was a hard assignment and I have learned that I don't know what I would do without my cellphone or wireless laptop.

Reflecting on Henry Jenkins

We had the honor today to skype with Henry Jenkins. We were able to have a an hour in a half Q&A session. I am going to go over some of the things that I learned and found very interesting.

Henry Jenkins said that he is wanting society to realize that media can be a resource for the public. Technology has grown so much and there has been so many changes, but how do we use it properly.

Twitter has recently become a way for people to communicate and brand themselves. In Convergence Culture Henry Jenkins talks a lot about how fans influence transmedia and twitter is becoming a huge part of it. By using twitter's buzz factor we are not able to tell if a movie will succeed or fail within the first week before the film comes out. Some people believe that fans are powerless, but Dr. Jenkins proves them wrong in the chapter about Harry Potter. At first executives did not know what to do with fan bases, but now they have started to embrace them and realize that it is free, good publicity.

Within fan bases people are beginning to role play series such as Mad Men in their offices. This was not what the executives predicted what would happen within the fan bases, but they needed to figure something out. Executives are also uses fan bases to recruit new ideas and talents and fans are now becoming the new professionals.

The idea of social media tools has grown extremely in the past few years. We have facebook, twitter, myspace, and more. These social networks can be a great opportunity. These days we can keep the friends we know forever and never really stay out of touch because we are connected through a form of social networking. People of an older generation use to not be able to keep connected with friends who went to different colleges, moved to different states, etc.; however, today they are able to reconnect through these different networks.

Today, more and more children and staying indoors playing video games, connecting online through second life and more. Children do not play outside like they use to and some say that their social skills might not be as strong. However, Dr. Jenkins says that these are just new influences and teaching tools. You could even say that the children who play and connect through second life are socially interacting and having play date just different then the play dates I had when I was younger. By using social networks you can become socially isolated or create strong social connections. You just need to learn how to use it in a way that's right for you.

The advice that he gave us is to build our networks now. Be friends or follow people who are doing what you would want to do one day.

This was such an amazing experience being able to meet and talk with Henry Jenkins. I learned so much more and if you are wanting to learn more about him feel free to check out his blog.

Skyping with Henry Jenkins

Tomorrow in class we have been given the opportunity to have a skpye conference with Henry Jenkins the author of our textbook, Convergence Culture.
We have been relating his ideas on transmedia to our social media class and what it means to us. If you would like to see more on Henry Jenkins you can visit his blog.
In his book he talks about how fans use different medias to support what they love. In the chapter about Harry Potter he discusses how a 13 year old girl, after reading the first book, started her own newspaper, named after the paper in the book, The Daily Prophet. Other children write articles and she edits them. However, there can also be anti-fans, people who do not support the cause, but fight against it. Some people were outraged with the Harry Potter books and said that its ideals were those of the devils. However, they could not get the bigger picture and see how children were reading and enjoying it, they were also writing and improving their writing style and creativity.
I would like to ask Henry Jenkins about this topic. In the future, what role does he see fan-bases playing and how will it influence the medias?

Bobcat PRSSA

For my class we have to choose a client for our final project. We are going to revamp their social media and get them interested in wanting to more online.

I am the president of GC&SU's PRSSA chapter, Bobcat PRSSA, and we need a social media makeover. They are going to be my client.

We already have a facebook group and a twitter page. I am going to keep us as a group and not a fan page because we want it to be a place for the members to be able to go to and see what is going on.

Our twitter is in good shape, however, we do need to start twitting more. I have already uploaded our twitter to our facebook group so we can have more followers and we can then follow our members in return.

Next step would be to start a blog. A blog would be a good resource to have. I think that it would be good to post weekly. PRSSA and PRSA send out e-mails constantly. I can put on there important information for fellow PRSSA members of my chapter to look at and read. Also, I can blog about my expierence at the National Leadership conference in June for PRSSA. Others in the chapter could also post expierences that they have had in PRSSA or any PR experiences that they have had.

Lastly, I would like to start a website. We do not have a website. I think that it would be good for us to have one because we can then upload in onto our school's website for others to look at if they think that they are interested in PRSSA.

Reflection on Bert DuMars Visit to GC&SU

Mr. Bert DuMars came to our social media class on Friday to talk to us about the different aspects of social media.
One of the first things we talked about was twitter. He said that your twitter and twitter stream is a great way to promote yourself and your skills. That in the "about me" section explain who you are and do not leave it blank. Do not give out personal information on twitter and keep your location broad. If you don't have a career yet, like my classmates and I, use it to show your talent and what you can do.
No one is a social media expert, but a social media explorer or practicioner.
He showed us how it was like to go through recalls and how to deal with them. Bert DuMars works for Newell-Rubbermaid and a while ago one of there products for Graco was recalled (a baby stroller). Consumers crashed the website and the blog with over 2 million hits. The company had to do something. It was interesting to know that loyal consumers to the Graco products actually started blogs and were answering questions, they were helping to promote the good nature of Graco baby products. Social media helped to stop the craziness that other parents were creating about the fear of their child getting injured.
The next thing we learned about was how to use blogs for a company. Do not use your blog to promote to products, if they want to know about the product have a spot where they can go to the products website. Use the blog to showcase your customers and show them that you care. Make sure that you have someone to monitor the blogs and to answer posts.
We learned how Coca Cola is using their social media. They have started a happiness campign that will start to be aired on American Idol. Coca Cola has also started Expedition 206, where select people were choosen to go around the world where Coke products exist.
We also learned how to use facebook to promot products. You can start a fan page on facebook to promote your products and also see what they have to say. However, you must use the page and respond. Mr. DuMars said there are 3 things that you must do: 1. Listen 2. Respond to consumers and let them know you hear them 3. Act. The bigger your network gets on Facebook the more value it has.

Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

Yesterday in class we discussed chapters 2 and 3 of Henry Jenkins book, Convergence Culture. Chapter 2 is called "Buying into American Idol" and Chapter 3 is called "Searching for the Origami Unicorn".

For chapter 2 I agree with everything that we talked about. In this new day in age we do not always watch commercials anymore (people fast forward through them [DVR] or they "zap" through other channels) so advertisers must think of different ways to get their product out there. Advertisers use the consumers emotional attachment to, for example, with American Idol, they drank out of coke bottles and sat in a red room. Coke knew that loyal watchers had a connection with the people on the show and used the contestants and judges to advertise their product. Also, I agree that gossip creates convergence. Just as the family in the chapter discussed the show and then sent in their vote together. Social media makes it even easier for gossip created convergence. We now have the option of not only talking to people in person around the "water cooler," but we now have a "cyber water cooler" to gossip with. A "cyber water cooler" would be chat rooms, blogs, twitter, facebook, e-mails, etc. that is a way to spread conversation with. This chapter also says how American Idol changed texting. When the show started, out of the people viewing 1/3 of them had never sent a text before, but were now texting in for their favorite performers.

In chapter 3, "Searching for the Origami Unicorn," which is about The Matrix, we mentioned some key terms that deal with that we will discuss on these blog posts:

1. Storytelling



2. World Creating



3. Collaborative Authorship



4. Co-creating



5. Origami Unicorn



6. Cult Films Phenomenon



7. TRANSMEDIA



8. Encyclopedia Capacity



9. Additive Comprehension



10. Collective Intelligence

Storytelling, transmedia, collaborative authorship, and co-creating are all similar. They all deal with how The Matrix was not just the film. The Matrix was not just a film. To co-create the differnt medias, the creators of the film got together with animation artists and video game creators to make the expierence even greater. By just watching the movie you would not get the whole effect, you understood more by seeing the animated shorts and by playing the game, this is what it is meant by storytelling. We are using differnt medias to tell one story which is what transmedia means. The collaborative authorship deals with how a part of the story could be told in the video game, but then the story continues in the movie. World creating deals with the idea of designing a whole new world such as the one Neo enters in The Matrix. Consumers get involved and attached to The Matrix's many worlds (film, gaming, and television) and want to be apart of it. The idea of the origami unicorn and additive comprehension go together. The origami unicorn refers to a "director's cut of Blade Runner, where adding a small segment showing Deckard discovering an origami unicorn invited viewers to question whether Deckard might be a replicant". This is an example of additive comprehension, where this one addition of this sence causes you to change your whole "preception of the fill". The cult film phenomenon refers to movies such as The Matrix where information comes from other movies. "For example, Neo's apartment number is 101, which is the room number of the torture chamber in George Orwell's 1984" there are even more references throughout all three of The Matrix films for the number 101. Encyclopedica compacity refers to the cult film phenomenon. For a work to be encyclopedic it must contain "a rich array of information that can be drilled, practiced, and mastered by devoted consumers. Loyal consumers would look and know what Neo's apartment number meant. However, encyclopdic compacity deals with the high number of hidden messages in the film that maybe no one will really ever know how many their really are but the creators. The idea of collective intellengence is where together you can know more that just by yourself. The loyal fans put their minds together to try to understand The Matrix through all three medias. They helped each other find clues and answered questions. This is similar to the knowledge community that formed for Survivor.

Bert DuMars

Tomorrow in our social media class we are so pleased to announce that Bert DuMars will be a guest speaker. To find out information about Mr. DuMars you can read our teacher's (Dr. Ginger Carter-Miller) blog.

I am very excited to meet him and learn his expertise on social media and how to use it.

There are three questions that I would like to ask Mr. DuMars in class tomorrow:

1. I understand the need for websites and over the years, many people have used websites to find new information, buy new products, and more. However, do you believe that the blogs help and how do you get them out there where people will interact with it?


2. Did you have any problems trying to get older executives to understand the need for social media in their businesses?


3. How do you feel the best way to influence others to start using all the social media tools we have out there?

Teri Hatcher

A knowledge community is one where people come together with knowledge on a certain subject. Like my last post about the "Spoiling Survivor", the Spoilers were a knowledge community. They were all interested in the show Survivor and enjoyed trying to beat the game for instance and tried to find out information before the show started.
There are many types of knowledge communities. For my knowledge community and I am going to look at the show Desperate Housewives and one of the main housewives Teri Hatcher, who plays Susan Mayer.
Learn basic information about the show

Learn basic information on Teri Hatcher

Hatcher's website for women

Hatcher played Lois in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" from 1993 - 1997

Hatcher in Kenya and part of Team Africa

Charity Work

"Spoiling Survivor"

The first chapter in Convergence Culture, by Henry Jenkins, is called "Spoiling Survivor". In this chapter it talks about how people will try to find out all the information about the Survivor show and post it online before it aires on TV. There was a lot of controversy about one of the spoilers named ChillOne who leaked information about the 6th season. Spoilers were convinced that it was either a person who participated in the 6th season of Survivor or that it was a producer for CBS.

Spoilers to me seem like gatekeepers. A gatekeeper is someone who controls what gets put out there. There are a group of spoilers known as the "brain trust". This was a group of about 20 people who would find out all the information on the contestants as possible, even extremely private information. They were the ones that decided what information to release about the contestants and what information not to release.

Another form of gatekeeping is through the producer Mark Burnett. He knew that the spoilers would try to find out anything that they could about the show before it aired, especially the final 4 and who would win the show. He would put misleading information in the intro to the show and if he truly was ChillOne like others suspected he would have been gatekeeping what information got out and what did not.

As for me, I do not like the idea of spoilers. I like to find out what happens every week like all the other people watching. I do not like it when people ruin the ending of something for me, I like to figure it out while I am watching.

Social Media

Social media is used to describe a type of social communication used through the media. This means that any method of interaction between people online and any communication through digital means would be considered social media. Me, typing this blog post, and sending it out in the web is a form of social media. Others read my blogs and they could end up in other forms. Media is not just me typing and sending something into the web it is much more. Media is any form of typing, texting, pictures and sounds, etc. that is shared through the Internet or through any digital means. Social media is not something that is easily defined because social media changes everyday, there is always something new that comes out. Just in the past few months I have learned to use a blog and twitter and who knows what more I will be able to learn and what new forms of social media will come later.

Danny Brown, who helps others explore and use social media, has termed a theory for social media called the Continuum Theory of Social Media. In this theory he states that social media is not just one thing but more of a continuum with social on the far left and media on the far right.

The social side is about communication and the media side is the way in which one communicated their message.

The social side includes areas such as facebook and twitter. There are millions of conversations that happen daily on each form of social Internet. These sites are great to use for networking and to help build you, your company, and much more.

The media side deals with how to actually sell your product. The product could be you, it could be a message, or it could be an actual product.

This is an example of how and why social media is always changing. People are constantly communicating and people are constantly selling different things. Media is something that changes daily and there is always something new to learn.

To read more about Danny Brown just click on the Title of this post: Social Media.

PR in Action

This is an example of PR in action. This is an event that was held on the GCSU campus by the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. The event is called War of the Wings and supports the sororities philanthropy of breast cancer awareness and education.

For PR they put up flyers, sent out letter, made a facebook group, and even advertised the event with the shirts they were wearing.

In order to prepare for the event they had to contact each restaurant and see if each place would come and donate there time and wings. They had to contact places like piggly wiggly for paper plates, cups, paper towels, and ranch dressing.

A Night with the Stars

As everyone entered Centennial center on a red carpet lined with a hall of fame of past GCSU athletes they were greeted under a balloon arch and presented with an auction number. When entering the gym you were back in the time of old Hollywood. A huge movie scene of King Kong was created. You could even take your pictures with it like my class is doing above. You heard the beautiful voices of two Milledgeville Idol contestants, including the winner, adding a feeling of being on an actual movie set. The tables were set with center pieces that we all created, of movie reels with pictures of different athletic teams on them. There were mini Oscars, team pictures, and some tables had swag bags full of popcorn, movie frames, sunglasses, candles, candy, and GCSU athletic wear. There were auction tables set up all around the edges guided by light post and large posters advertising each team apart of our athletic department.

I believe that the auction went fantastically. My PR class has been working on this auction for the whole semester and it is finally over. We all had a great time and helped the athletic department raise money.

I think that the strengths were firstly that our class is extremely close. We were able to work together very well and were not afraid to express our ideas. We are able to bounce ideas off of each other in order to create something amazing.

I believe that the weakness of the auction were things that my class was unable to control. Our dining hall always provided the food, and this year, for some reason, the food was not that great and people did not enjoy it to much. Also, when I asked one of my professors who attended the event what she thought, she said that everything that our class had control over was amazing; however, she thought that along with the bad food, the auction items were not as good as they usually were and that if the items were better then she would have bid on more things.

Doing the athletic auction was a great opportunity. I would love to plan events for a living and loved getting the experience of actually getting to be hands on and getting to see all sides of event planning.

I do not believe that there were any threats towards the class not finishing our goal. We had a plan and a schedule and we all worked to make sure that what Brittany, Shannon, and Zach thought of came to reality.

Being apart of the athletic auction was a great experience. It may have been stressful at some points, but was all over an amazing experience that I would definitely do again.

Mean In Green

The end of last semester my PR class started to work with the basketball teams to help promote the games.
The first home game we coined the phase "Mean in Green" and decided to use it for the whole season. The first game we planned together as a class and it seemed to be a great success. When this semester started in January we each were responsible for a basketball double header game. It was up to us to create a theme and publicize the event. For my game I partnered with Zeta Phi Beta and the Creekside Flippers.
Zeta Phi Beta is a sorority on the GCSU campus who wanted to use a game to help support their philanthropy. My contact was a girl in the sorority named Natalie. Their philanthropy is the March of Dimes Foundation so we decided to make the theme of the game "Come to the Game and Bring Some Change". Zeta Phi Beta brought large baby bottle piggy banks for everyone to put change in to go towards March of Dimes and they also raffled off different prizes throughout the game.
During the half-time of the girls game the Creekside Flippers performed. Creekside is a local elementary school in Milledgeville and the Flippers is an after school program with the elementary school where they learn to flip and tumble. My contact was Donnie Coburn who is in charge of the Creekside Flippers. A lot of people came to support the elementary school children flip across the court. They were extremely cute and so much fun to watch.
During the half-time of the men's game the GCSU dance team, the Sassy Cats, performed their 9th place nationals routine and wowed the crowd.
This seems like it was all so easy, but I did encounter difficult situations along the way. Working with Zeta Phi Beta went really well, they knew exactly what they wanted from the game and what they wanted to do. It was easy to create a flyer for them and they decided that they wanted to hand them out around the campus. However, I did make one mistake I forgot to put the "Mean in Green" logo on the flyer.
The next problem I has was getting in contact with Donnie from the Creekside Flippers we seemed to have some communication problems, but in the end they showed up an performed great.
Because of the difficultly I had trying to get in touch with Donnie, I did not have my press release done in time, which was a big mistake and I still feel awful about it. I did get it done, however, and it went up on the GCSU athletics cite.
Another challenge that my whole class faced was dealing with the Thunder Crew. At GCSU we have a spirit group called the Thunder Crew. They come to all the game, sit in the front row, and head up the student section. While athletics had come to our PR class asking for our help it seemed that everything we did the Thunder Crew would do the opposite. We would create a facebook page for the event and then they would create another with different information. Same goes for flyers, posters, and support. The girls basketball team always has less people at them then the men's game does, and one of our goals was to get more people out to the girls game. The Thunder Crew only seemed to support the men's game and that is what they advertised. The Thunder Crew and our PR class seemed to always clash with multiple messages going out into the Milledgeville community.
With these challenges, however, came the best takeaway learning experience. I learned that it's hard working with other people who don't necessarily work the same way as I do. You must be patient, be able to compromise, and most importantly be flexible.
Even thought we encountered these difficulties of working with the Thunder Crew I would say that the "Mean in Green" season was a success.
I believe that all of the games we provided PR for were a success. For each game I think that success is based differently. For my game success came to me in three different ways. The first was with Zeta Phi Beta. They raised a lot of money for the March of Dimes foundation and thanked me for letting them have the opportunity to use a game to get their message out there. To this day I am still friends with Natalie. The next form of success was with the Creekside Flippers. At first it seemed very stressful, but when they went on the court during the women's half-time they did an amazing job. They had family and friends come and support them, which brought more local Milledgeville community members out to watch the game. It has been hard to get community members to come and support our athletics by coming to the basketball games, but that night they came out. The third reason that I feel that my game was a success was the crowd. I felt that there were more people at the women's game then there usually is and I felt that more people were at the game.
Throughout the season, I believe, that more and more people showed up to more and more games. I believe that our PR made a great deal of a difference and that the fans who came to the games made a winning difference to our bobcat basketball players.
If I had to do one thing over again it would be to take my time more with the flyers to make them truly great. I would not have left out our "Mean in Green" logo if I did not rush and took more time with them. If I had to grade myself I would give myself a B. I think this because I did not do everything as great as I could have done it.
In order to keep "Mean in Green" going I think that the phase needs to stay so the college knows that when it's "Mean in Green" time...it's GAME TIME. Also, in order to keep it going I think that we need to coordinate with the Thunder Crew more efficiently and work together. I think that if we keep the phase going more and more people will start to recognize it and start coming to the games.
In general I think that "Mean in Green" was a success. Our class really learned to work together with this project and became very close. This was an amazing learning experience for us and I had a lot of fun!

PR for Panama City Beach Spring Break

This past week I celebrated spring break in Panama City Beach. While there I started to think what makes people, especially college students, want to go there for spring break. When I was younger Panama City Beach (PCB) was thought the be a "trashy" area and the only reason one would go there would be to PARTY. It was Destin that was known as the more family friendly beach.
However, in more recent years PCB has started to clean up their image; for years they hosted MTV's spring break, but this year they did not invite MTV back. They have also built a new beautiful pier full of shopping and restaurants and have more family friendly attractions. While looking through different cites for PCB PR, it looks as though they have cleaned up their image and have truly become more family friendly.
Reading press releases, looking at advertisements and going to different marketing cites I have noticed that PCB has not truly changed its image after being there. The beaches were full of college students playing beer pong, funneling beer, and taking shots. While PCB did not invite MTV back they did host BET spring break. In PCB I did see a few families, but everywhere that there were families there were a lot more drunk or crazy college students. Even at a miniature golf course high school students and college students were drunk and acting inappropriately.
This got me thinking...Can good PR change the image of PCB?
I think that it can, but will good PR has to come changes as well. I believe that the advertisements for families and opening new family attractions and a beautiful new pier are defiantly improvements. If they want more families to start coming and enjoy their stay they need to keep the good PR; however PCB also needs to take some action. Putting out a press release is just the first step there must be follow through and there must be changes.
They should keep some areas of PCB just for families and use PR to advertise those areas more. I do not know if the stigma that PCB has as a place for college spring break partying will ever change, but if PCB wants to make its place more friendly to more then just college students partying they will need to actually put more action into there PR plans.

"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

"The Tipping Point" is a book about epidemics and how they get that way. There are five ways for an epidemic to tip: word of month, the stickiness factor, the law of the few, the power of context, and the innovators and early adopters.
Word of mouth is a "multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns" and is the "most important form of human communication. In "The Tipping Point" the most prominent example about Paul Revere's midnight ride with the epidemic phase of "the British are coming!" In order for word of mouth to start an epidemic the person communicating the message is important. If a person of no importance ran around and said "the British are coming" many people might not believe him, such as William Dawes who also rode the midnight toward Lexington. Even though Dawes communicated the same urgent message, it did not alert local militia leaders. This is because Revere was the more prominent person to believe.
The next part of how epidemics tip is the stickiness factor. The stickiness factor is how does the epidemic stick, or what causes people to keep doing something. The most prominent example in "The Tipping Point" is the idea of Sesame Street. In order for something to have stickiness it must have ideas that are to be memorable and move us to action. This is what Sesame Street did. Children were not just watching television, but they were also learning. The creators of the show "discovered that by making small but critical adjustments in how they presented ideas to preschoolers, they could overcome television's weakness as a teaching tool and make what they had to say memorable." This is the idea of the stickiness factor, to make something memorable that we keep coming back to it.
The next way to make an epidemic tip is the law of the few. The law of the few is how a message travels through a population. The main idea that came from this is six degrees of separation. This means that most people are connected through others by a difference of six people. However, the law of the few states that the "one critical factor in epidemics is the nature of the message." Messengers are what make the message spread, such as Paul Revere could make the message of "the British are coming" stick better than William Dawes could. Another example of the importance of the message was the advertising campaign for Columbia. Columbia had a man named Wunderman who was in charge of the print ads, but they wanted to bring in someone different for the television ads. Wunderman did not like the idea of this and basically asked for Columbia to give him a chance. So Wunderman and the new competition, McCann, each made television ads for Columbia. In any other circumstance, McCann should have won, but Wunderman ended up winning. Wunderman's success was due to his tactic of a "treasure hunt". Since Wunderman was in charge of the print advertising he was able to put little golden treasure chest in every TV Guide and Parade ad. Then, in the commercial he told the audience that if they could find the gold treasure box that they could write in the name of any record on the Columbia list and get that record for free. In this case more people were interested in Wunderman's message than McCann's.
The next way to make an epidemic tip is called the power of context. This means that epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur. "And the kinds of contextual changes that are capable of tipping an epidemic are very difference than we might ordinarily suspect. The prominent example for the power of context was the violence in the New York subway system. The walls and subways were covered in graffiti and violence was at an all time high. Then a decade later when New York decided to clean up the walls and trains the epidemic tipped and violence is now seemed as unusual in the New York subways.These are examples of environmental tipping points, which are the things that we can change, we can clean up the graffiti on the New York subways for example. Another part to power of context is the idea of groups. You have to understand the purpose of the group in order for the power of context to work.
The last way to make an epidemic tip is the innovators and early adopters. These people want change, something that sets them apart from everyone else, and will take enormous risks.

For the GCSU Athletic Auction our tipping point will be where the unexpected becomes the expected. Since the auction happens every year we need to think as innovators and early adopters, we need to think of ideas that the groups before us have never done. Our message is clear this is an auction where all the proceeds will go to the Athletic program at GCSU. Our theme is "A Night with the Stars of GCSU Bobcats". When everyone comes into the gym, hopefully they won't see a gym, but they will be sent back to old Hollywood, where the athletes are the stars. We also need to concentrate on what we do best. Each person should use there talents to create something unexpected. For example, Zach and Ben are great with computers and graphic design, Brittni is a great writer, the rest of use are great creatively, which means that we can see what we want it to look like and make it a reality. We need to learn to take a small budget and make it look like a million dollars. Also, we need to learn our group, the people who are coming all have one common interest and that is there support for GCSU athletics. If we remember what they are here for then we can use the power of context to keep the group happy and wanting to come back again next year.

In my life I would think that I am in the stage of innovators and early adopters. I am still in college and have the whole world open to me. I still think that I can change the world and think that I can take extreme risks without harm. I know that this may seem naive of me, but I do believe that just one person can change the world, but not just anyone can, you must be able to risk putting yourself out there and stay strong in your beliefs.

PR Real World

PR Real World was hostessed by the Georgia Chapter of PRSA for students evolved in PRSSA. This was an opportunity to meet professionals in the PR field, found out what they do for a living, network, get internships, and future job opportunities. The morning started out with breakfast and getting to meet people involved in different chapters of PRSSA from Georgia and other states. There were four breakout sessions each with 3 to 4 seminars you could choose to attend.

The first session I went to was Social Media's Place in PR. I found this the most beneficial seminar that I attended. The reason for this is that PR is becoming so much more then just press releases and events; it's becoming more about how you work different social media's such as facebook, twitter, etc. There were three people who lead the session: Ashley Payne from the Georgia Aquarium, Stephen Brown from MS&L Worldwide, and Nick Ayres from The Home Depot. They helped us to understand the importance of social media in today's PR world and how to make older professionals who did not necessarily grow up with facebook and twitter to understand why it may be important. The most important thing to remember about social media in PR is that you still need to remember ALL ways of PR. We go to the audience, we do not make them come to us; for example the older generation may not know how to use facebook or twitter and then there are some people who always want that newspaper in there hand, so we use all of our PR skills. I really enjoyed the seminar on social media and could have spent the day talking to the professionals, learning how they use the social media, and getting good advice.

I also went to seminars on Health care, Nonprofit, and Government, Celebrity PR, Resume critique session, and Sports PR. After the resume session we were able to meet people from PR agencies, corporations, etc. We were able to apply for internships or even jobs. PR Real World was an amazing experience and I can not wait to attend again next year for PR Real World 2011.

First PR Pitch

Our PR class was assigned to come up with a pitch for our schools athletic auction. We were divided into three groups of three. My team consisted of Lauren, Angela, and me. We considered many ideas before coming up with "Fishing for Bobcat Success!" For the pitch we created an invitation, program, dinner ticket, budget sheet, floor plan, two different center pieces, and decorations. We worked for weeks making sure we had everything perfect. When it came time to present our team was picked to go first. We were not allowed to talk about our ideas with our teacher, classmates, or any of the athletics staff. I was so nervous when it came time for us to present; however, I was glad to go ahead and present because I was so excited about our idea. We came prepared with folders for everyone with all of our information and ideas in the packet. We explained everything, including borrowing a boat from the GCSU fishing team to put in the gym. When we were finished presenting no one had questions for us, which made me both nervous and excited. I was nervous because maybe they hated the idea and did not want to know any more about "Fishing for Bobcat Success" and I was also excited because maybe it was that we explained it so well that they really didn't have any questions for us. After the other two groups went I became extremely nervous. There was a Hollywood idea with the "Stars of GCSU Athletics" and then there was a Hawaiian theme, "Tropic Thunder". All the ideas were great, but I could not help hoping that our team would win. It turns out that our team did not win, and to me it seemed like my first PR pitch was a failure. However, I am very excited for my classmates who won with "The Stars of GCSU Athletics" and I can not wait to help them make their ideas into reality with the Athletic Auction coming up in April. I have learned a lot about how to present a PR pitch and even though I was disappointed to not have won, I am so very thankful for the learning experience that came with the ability to have Athletics want us to put on the Athletic Auction this year.

Why did I choose to major in public relations

When I first came to college I was determined to be an athletic trainer. I went to some of the classes, but soon decided that it was not for me. It was not until my sophomore year that I decided to look into mass communications as a major. When I started taking the pre-mass communications classes. I learned to love the major and thought that public relations might be for me.
When I first got into PR I thought that I might use it as a route to go into event planning. I have always loved planning events and figured that PR could help me get there. However, now being the program I have learned to love all aspects of the PR world. I have learned how to write press releases, brochures, make flyers, and even plan events.
The greatest thing about the mass communications program I have to say is the professors here. Being in college I have realized that if you do not have a good professor you are most likely not going to enjoy the class and I think that that is what drew me to the mass communications program. Every class that I have taken has been a challenge and definitely not an easy A, however, I have had amazing professors along the way that have made me want to go into the PR world and continue studying mass communications.