RWU PRSSA Goes Bare on Campus

Four dedicated RWU PRSSA members will be competing against other universities in the U.S with PR programs  to develop a PR plan for Solo. The competition seeks to promote recycling, composting  and other sustainable practices, as well as understanding and use of  green single-use foodservice products at Roger Williams. The campaign slogan is  "Go Bare® on Campus." The prize for the winning team is $1,000, while two runners-up will each receive $500 for their Chapters.

The Solo team is made up of Rachel Lawton (SR),  a veteran of multiple PR campaigns; Brittany Vail (SR) a newcomer to the campaign trail but with several class projects behind her; Beth Manville, a former account executive for a PR project assigned in class; and Tessa Rickart, an excellent writer and editor. RWU PRSSA has an excellent track record in placing in PR contests. In 2009 they placed third in the nation in the prestigious Bateman Case study competition, and placed honorable mention in 2008,and 2007. In 2009, they also placed third for a campaign they undertook for the CW television Station.

RWUPRSSA Needs a Few Good Members

Anyone want resume experience for a REAL campaign? If so keep reading!  RWU PRSSA students are invited to participate in a case study competition sponsored by the Solo Cup Company. Participating in this competition is a chance to work with a corporate client, earn money for your Chapter and learn  from public relations professionals working at Fleishman-Hillard and  Solo Cup Company.

The competition seeks to promote recycling, composting  and other sustainable practices, as well as understanding and use of  green single-use foodservice products at your school, as part of Solo's  "Go Bare® on Campus" campaign. The prize for the winning team is $1,000 to their Chapter,  and two runners up will each receive $500 for their Chapters.

Let Professor Shelton or any e-board member know if you want to be part of this!

Study Examines Online News Reading Habits

Despite the push by organizations such as Google and Yahoo!, a recent study found not everyone is a fan of web-based customization for news.

Through an extensive study, Penn State researchers found certain browsers and readers of online news do not prefer customization. The researchers defined customization as when the user gets to choose specific topics to read on a daily basis. Instead, some prefer personalization. This is when the system chooses content based on a reader's past choices.

Heading up the study was S. Shyam Sundar, distinguished professor of communications at Penn State. Along with Sampada S. Marathe of the University's Media Effects Laboratory, Sundar's research appears in the current issue of Human Communication Research.

"The obvious assumption is people would like more control over what they read," Sundar said. "We found when it came to evaluating new stories and quality of content, customization was the preferred method for power users. If you were not a power user, you wanted the system to tailor the news for you."

Before figuring out the test subjects' online reading habits, Sundar, Marathe and the other researchers determined if he or she was a "power user" or not. Sundar said power users are typically knowledgeable with technology, they seldom seek help, often don't require a manual and intuitively troubleshoot with trial and error. Non-power users are more passive and less experienced. While power users liked the sense of control that came from customization, the study found non power users enjoyed the convenience of personalization. Sundar said the research was part of a larger study determining why some people prefer to customize on the web and some prefer to personalize. He said online news sites, specifically Google News, was a convenient venue to test this.

One variable that factored into the testing was privacy. Sundar said many people preferred customization out of concern for their privacy. In one test, the researchers did not tell the subjects data about their browsing habits would be used later. In another test, they did notify the subjects, and the difference was palpable.

"When they didn't think the system was secure, they wanted to take control rather than give it up," Sundar said. "Once they were assured of privacy, they were all for the personalization."

Article can be found at http://www.ibtimes.com

Stories declaring 'death of PR' are misguided

For a sector that specializes in communicating with the public, the public relations industry has done a bad job of explaining what it does.

PR is often misinterpreted as something companies use to spin the truth, or it is confined to a marketing afterthought in the promotion of a “breakthrough” product. Some journalists view PR simply as a set of media relations tactics, from sending (bad) pitches and issuing press releases to holding press conferences and being the gatekeepers for CEOs and executives.

The reality is that more than anything, good PR is about having an awareness of outside trends and sentiments, being a corporate conscience, and enabling authentic dialogue between organizations and the public – through traditional and social media, as well as several other means. The best PR counsellors, and the companies they represent, are known for enabling and facilitating valuable two-way communications that result in action or, at a minimum, a strong debate that leads the public to think about things a little differently than before.

Finish reading article here

Social Media the One Bright Spot for PR Hiring

While economists argue about whether we are now through the recession or whether we’re headed for a double dip, the Labor Market Outlook Report by the Society of Human Resource Management reports that 56% of their respondents expect job growth for the third quarter of 2010. 98% of U.S. companies say they plan to award base salary pay increases in 2011.
How is PR faring?

Executives polled in the The Creative Group Hiring Index for Marketing and Advertising Professionals said PR and marketing research top their list of new hires they plan to add in the next year. But the Simply Hired metro area job trend report shows that PR jobs are highly sought after by job seekers, putting PR high on the list for ‘most competitive jobs’ in a majority of the 15 cities they track.

One area in PR that is a bright spot in this tough hiring market is social media. The biggest stumbling block to getting started with social media programs is a lack of resources and knowledge, say the majority of firms and already 59 percent of the Fortune Global 100 firms have invested in recruiting staff specifically assigned to core social media duties that include customer outreach, PR and marketing support and internal communications.

Online recruitment sites are being flooded with social medial positions. At Indeed.com the number of social-media job postings has increased by more than 600 percent, from roughly 3,000 in 2005 to 21,323 as of May 2010. Yahoo HotJobs has also seen a significant rise in positions with a social-media component, says a Newsweek article.
“Hiring managers, recruiters, and management staff are often confused on where they can find qualified social media professionals for corporate positions. They get a lot of resumes, but few are qualified,” says Jeremiah Owyang on his blog.

For the rest of the article here

Americans Spening More Time With News

September 14, 2010

Americans have more ways to obtain news than ever before, and we’re spending more time with news now than during much of the past decade, according to a report from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. In terms of news consumption, digital platforms are making up for slightly smaller audiences on traditional platforms, and people continue to receive news from both. Roughly a third of Americans went online for news, which was about even with those who heard the news via radio, but slightly higher than those read daily newspapers. Additionally, 44 percent of Americans say that they received news through Internet and mobile sources by cell phones, e-mail, social networks and podcasts.

The proportion of Americans obtaining news from traditional media like television, radio and print has been stable or edging downward during the last few years, the report finds.

But there isn’t an overall decline in the percentage watching news on television, and three-quarters of Americans still receive news from print newspapers and radio. Rather than replacing traditional news platforms, digital technologies are becoming part of the mix in Americans’ news-consumption habits. Only 9 percent got news solely through Internet and mobile technology — without also using traditional sources — according to the Pew report.

Click here to read more and find out how many Americans get their news from online and newspapers. 

Like It or Not, Twitter Has Become a News Platform

There’s been plenty of debate lately about whether Twitter has become “mainstream” or not, but examples continue to pile up of how the social network/microblogging platform has worked its way into our lives, to the point where it has become a form of media unto itself. Whether it will ever become mainstream in the sense that it gets used by your aunt or grandmother is almost irrelevant — the reality is that, for all its flaws, Twitter is a publishing tool, and an increasingly powerful one. And it can be used by anyone, journalist and non-journalist alike.

Examples:
Several days ago, a Japanese journalist who was kidnapped in Afghanistan managed to trick his captors into letting him post a message about his location to Twitter. It’s not clear from the news reports whether his tweets helped get him released or not, but it is yet another example of how easy Twitter makes it to broadcast that kind of news — and not just to one or two people, the way email or text messaging does, but to potentially hundreds or even thousands (in 2008, Twitter helped American photojournalist James Buck spread the news that he had been arrested by Egyptian police while covering an anti-government protest).

Two other examples of Twitter as a news platform are the recent hostage-taking and shootout at Discovery Channel headquarters in Maryland, and the earthquake that hit near New Zealand last week. In the first case, reports about a gunman in the Discovery building started coming in before the news was on a mainstream news outlet. And in the case of the earthquake — as in similar cases involving earthquakes in China and forest fires in California — reports flooded the Twitter network while most mainstream media outlets were still unaware that it had even occurred. One resident said she relied on news she got from Twitter more than the radio, because it was a lot faster (although it should be noted that she is a Twitter fan and web consultant).

You can finish reading this story at Gigaom

2010 Bateman Team Applications

It's that time of year again where the semester is winding down, but PRSSA is just getting geared up!  To get ready for next fall's Bateman challenge,  we are taking applications from anyone who is interesting in working hard, and completing an entire PR campaign for a client to be announced.  Candidates must be willing to  put their all into this nine month project, work well with others and be creative.  Remember RWU has a legacy now: two honorable mentions and a top three win (We will know what place we got out of three on May 14th).   If you are interested, or know someone who may be, please pass the word along, and fill out the official 2010 Bateman Application form found here.  Please direct any questions to Amiee Shelton at 401-254-3277 or at ashelton@rwu.edu

A Third World Nation in America

A New PR Initiative by RWU PR Students to inform faculty, students and staff, as well as the surrounding community of Bristol, RI of what we call "Third World America".  This third word is Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. In doing this, the students hope to raise awareness and alter attitudes toward Pine Ridge and help people to understand what is going on in their own country. 

Pine Ridge Native American Reservation is home to over 30,00 Lakota Sioux Native Americans. The Reservation is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined (spread across 1.7 million acres), and lies within the two poories counties in the United States. The following are disturbing statistics about the Pine Ridge Reservation:

- Unemployment = 80%

- 49% are under Federal Poverty Level

- Adolescent suicide is four times the national average

- Life expectancy is 47 years for males, 52 for
  females

- Infant mortality is five times the national average

- 30% homelessness

- 60% live in substandard housing

- The Lakota Sioux have the poorest health of any minority 

   group in the United States

- Most housing facilities have no phone, electricity or running 

   water

- Housing can be as bad as 16 people in a 4 bedroom home

If you are interested in learning more, here is more information

You Have Two Choices. That's It.

Get ahead or get left behind. You really don't have any other choices. The PR world is filled with fast moving people who aren't willing to wait around for you to get your act together. Whether you're looking for an internship or an entry-level job after you graduate in May, it's time to step up your game and not let other competitors out there take the position that you deserve!

Here are some suggestions:

Use social media to sell yourself. Obviously, we've heard it before thousands of times that social networking is now HUGE in the world of public relations. Don't be stupid about it. Keep it on the professional side, and try searching for agencies that your interested in on the web. Most likely, they have a blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Follow them! Stay on top of what they're doing. Not only will you impress them when you bring up something they've been blogging about in an interview, but it will show them that you really are interested in their agency.

Also, social networking can help you stay in touch with other PR students you've met along the way. The students who went to the PRSSA National Conference in 2009 in San Diego, CA have stayed in touch with other PRSSA chapters via social networking. They're great contacts!

Get Involved: While it's quite impressive to have several internships on your resume, extracurricular activities can definitely give you a one-up on other students. It's great to get involved in activities when your studying PR (PRSSA, hello!), but its also great to try something that will develop some new skills on a different level. It's nice knowing you have interests outside of public relations. Being well-rounded is crucial!

Learn a language: Whether it's Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, or anything, being able to speak another language is HUGE! This will help set you apart from other candidates. If an employer is looking for someone who speaks French, for example, and you've got that skill down, it will move your resume to the top of the list!

Utilize the Career Center. You get tons of emails, see dozens of fliers, etc., etc., I know. However, they really can help. Set up a mock interview with them, have them look over your resume, cover letter, or just ask them any questions related to your field of interest. It's their job. We pay for it in our tuition. Use it.


"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." - Denis Waitley

Put a Face to Your Voice!

We know that with its high level of source-receiver engagement, the most effective and persuasive type of two-way communication is interpersonal communication such as one-on-one communication or small group meetings. So why don't we use it more often? Technology could be an answer. Of course technology has its perks, with one being the convenience of being able to pick up the phone or send an e-mail to reach someone.

Cone Public Relations, located in Boston, MA, stresses that while you can be successful in communicating over via phone or email, there is still nothing like face-to-face communication specifically in media relations, where one must establish a strong relationship with the media, a strong influencer of public opinion.

Account Executive at Cone PR, Jennifer Newberg, provides a few approaches to restore face-to-face communication in media relations:

Deskside Tours: when a brand representative travels to the offices of several outlets a day. Reporters find these convenient because they don't need to leave their offices and feel comfortable to you in their own atmosphere.

Editor Events: when editors gather in one location to hear an announcement. This format slightly limits one-on-one interaction but still allows brand representatives to speak to a variety of people in one location.

Lunch meetings are always encouraged when a brand wants to create a deep relationship with a reporter or if the reporter is a new contact and the brand wants to build a personal relationship.

Lastly, Newberg reminds us all that for face-to-face meetings it's important to have any available press materials, key message points, and background information on the reporter including his or her recent stories on hand. In addition, developing a sample Q&A anticipating any questions the reporter may have will definitely be helpful. Always keep in mind the type of media you are trying to reach. If its a high-level business media, a CEO or senior level executive should be part of the meetings. If its a lifestyle editor, an industry expert could be valuable. If the reporter is in high demand, you need to be creative in your meetings or events!

Students Send Off Bid for $10,000

RWU PRSSA decided to respond to a Request for Proposals from Kohler.  Four students were chosen to participate: Kelly Ahern (SR), Mary Conconnan (SO), Sarah Beron (JR), and Stephanie Hunt (SP). This was an outstanding opportunity for these members to build their portfolio, learn about the RFP process and to get national recognition for RWU PRSSA!.

Kohler was seeking teams of three to four students to submit campaign proposals to build brand awareness and support for Kohler's Save Water America (savewateramerica.com) initiative. Save Water America seeks to increase awareness of the need for water conservation and sales of water-conserving products. Roger Williams sumitted their proposal Feb 1, 2010.  We are awaiting notification of our standing.

The top three Chapters will receive funding from Kohler to implement their proposals and will compete for prizes, including cash awards for the Chapter, water-conserving products for the students and a campus building, and a trip to Kohler headquarters. The top team will win $10,000.

To see the proposal the team put together follow this link: RWUPRSSA.COM

Relax Already!

As future public relations professionals, we are repeatedly told that we need to multitask, be aggressive and "network, network, network!" Sure, a major part of our job involves interacting with coworkers, upper-level staff and clients, however, a successful public relations professional is doing more than running up and down the office corridors all day shaking hands. When it comes down to it, we need to designate large amounts of time to planning and creating plans for clients, and this requires a huge amount of commitment and focus.

Think about the last time you completely forgot about the clock. This is what Everett Bogue challenges us to do in his post, The Hidden Art of Achieving Creative Flow. Bogue explains that flow is when part of the mind switches off and we "just do." The best work is sometimes created when we are in a state of flow because we are not constantly pausing to attend to other matters. If you were writing a PR plan in a state of flow, all of your thoughts would spill out on the page without your conscious brain having a chance to stop and look for faults and errors. (You can always go back and edit the work for simple corrections later). It is hard for PR professionals to achieve a state of flow because we experience so many distractions. To practice experiencing flow while writing or brainstorming, follow some of these steps recommended by Bogue:

1. Eliminate distractions- your phone, email or neighbor could easily break your state of flow.

2. Give yourself a time limit- it will be easier to dedicate complete focus to something for a designated amount of time.

3. Practice- we are so used to multitasking that focusing on a single activity is challenging at first. Stay with it!

Paid Internship: New York Times

The New York Times Company has a full-time internship at the Company's headquarters in New York, for a six to nine-month basis.  While assisting the eleven-member corporate communications staff in many projects and administrative duties, the intern will focus primarily on media relations.  This is a paid internship.  Active college students and recent college graduates are eligible. Duties: Assist members of media relations team in handling daily television and radio bookings; Work with team members to coordinate logistics of media appearances; Create and maintain press contact lists and databases; Assist members of the department in editing and drafting communications; Answer telephone calls; take complete and accurate messages; Provide back-up for other support staff; Various administrative duties; Other duties as assigned. Skills: Interest in and knowledge of TV and radio programming; Knowledge of and interest in social media; Excellent verbal and written communication skills; Excellent grammar and proofreading skills; Strong multi-tasking skills and ability to prioritize; Strong attention to detail; Excellent organizational skills; Ability to think strategically and creatively. If you have a passion for media and communications, please review our Company's Web site at www.nytco.com then e-mail your resume and cover letter to: ccmac@nytimes.com.  This is very important:  Please include the dates you would be available for interviews (preferably in person in New York).

How To Get Ahead

Building and maintaining a strong business network is critical to professional success. The key is accessibility. You must gain access to the key people, the job leads, and the industry-specific information that you need. In turn, it is crucial that you are connected and accessible to the people who want to speak with you.

Networking is especially important for a jobseeker in today’s challenging job market. In this “buyer’s market,” employers can choose from several qualified, interested, and available candidates (compared to a “candidate-driven” market where employers have to lure candidates to new positions). Employers prefer to hire based on referrals or recommendations which people in your network can provide. Managers and recruiters looking to fill a position will first search their own networks for candidates before the job hits the public. Gaining access to these key players and hiring managers in your desired field is tied directly to your professional network.

Building this professional network is easier than it seems. It involves figuring out who you know, deciding who you want to know, and implementing a strategy that showcases your best personal and professional skills. It may come naturally. Otherwise, you must figure out what networking style works best for you to meet and connect with your professional circles.

To see the five most important things to do, and to see specific sites for specific businesses follow this jump.