You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Continue to Learn’ category.
Before I can tell you about my dream job, I need to take you all the way back. Up until high school I knew I was going to be a professional singer. I sang in every choir possible. I always did all of the duets, solos and honor choirs. Then one day I realized that the people who make it as singers and musicians are not just ok; they are great. And I was not great.
So in highschool I decided I wanted to write for magazines. I joined the newspaper. I wrote every fun feature story that I could get my hands on. Then in college I met a professor who changed that.
Most people tell the story about the professor who nurtured their dreams. My story is about the professor who made me realize I did not want to end up like him. Old and bitter about a failed career.
I did some research and every light bulb in the room went on when I discovered public relations. At this point I am new to it. I have done multiple internships, and I know I love the profession. However, I do not exactly where I want to (or will) end up.
Currently I am in my job/internship hunt. The rest is to be continued . . .
When I think of a Bucket List, I think people like the guys in Buried Life. People who drop what they are doing to fulfill their extravagant dreams. 
I do believe in the beautiful spontaneity of fulfilling your bucket list. But something inside me yearns for a list that I can actually complete before I die. So don’t judge me as bland, boring or even practical. I have plenty of dreams and ideas too far fetched to accomplish, but I believe a bucket list should contain goals. And I like goals I can achieve.
- Have a successful career as a professional who enjoys waking up in the morning.
- Earn a degree higher than my soon-to-be bachelors.
- Travel to the beach at least once a year to remind myself about the feeling of sun in the sand and the sound of the ocean.
- Go to a foreign country.
- See a musical on Broadway.
- Sing on a stage again.
- Have the kind of marriage that lasts and is true.
- Raise a beautiful family.
- Always find happiness in any situation.
Recently PRSA GA put on Shadow Day for PRSSA students in Georgia. When I was preparing for Shadow Day, I went to my boss, Vince Miller, for some advice. Overlooking the jokes he threw in about me, it was actually really helpful.
- You know that person in class that you want to throw stuff at? Don’t be that person.
- Don’t talk to much.
- Don’t answer every question.
- When they ask you a question always answer (with something intelligent — I made this inference from his don’t say something stupid Brianna stare. That is the look he gives me when his boss comes around.).
- When someone else answers a question (and you like their answer), tell them good job (for example: good point).
- Leave a good impression with every person you speak to. (For me this is the most frustrating piece of advice because I have no clue how to do that.)
When I walked into Shadow Day at MSL in Atlanta. The one thing that continued to play through my mind was my boss’ advice. Even though I may have talked the most in the group (everyone else was painfully quiet way too often), I think it went really well. I learned so much about PR, agency life, MSL and even tips on how to get a job after graduation. What do you think? Do you disagree or agree with any of his advice? Do you have some advice to add?
Keep a look out for my follow up piece on Shadow Day and the networking event.
So this is my first post in a while. Normally all I want to do in my spare time is sit down and blog. However lately I have noticed that I hardly have any spare time. So now I have to wonder: Did I over-book myself this year?
After thinking it over, I think my problem is not everything I have to do, but how I am doing it. I am a senior at Georgia Southern. I am about to apply for my final classes, buy my cap and gown, and walk across the stage at Allan E. Paulson Stadium. I have a to-do list a mile long with everything I need to do before I apply for jobs. But all I really need to do is stop for just a minute.
When you are moving forward to quickly (like I tend to do), you forget about what is going on around you. If you don’t believe me, try to remember what your friend wore at coffee yesterday or what you ate for breakfast last Thursday. Kind of embarrassing when your mind draws a blank right?
Well I have decided that it has to stop. I can no longer live in the future. I need to live in the present and just prepare for the future. To do this, I am going to try to put more focus on what I am doing rather than what I have to be doing.
With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
I want to know. What are you doing or proud of today?
Have you ever had a job that took you in a different direction then you thought you would ever go? I hope to work for a PR agency after graduation. However my path in college has lead me to some jobs down other roads. I started out being a hostess at a steakhouse. Then this past summer I went on to be a store intern at Target.
While I enjoyed both of these experiences, neither of them takes me any closer to my dream job. Or do they?
Here are the 5 things I learned from my customer service jobs:
- Understand the customer’s perspective. Marketers, PR professionals and advertisers alike need to understand what the customer or audience thinks and believes. In Target, I saw first hand the difference it makes looking at the store from the customer’s perspective. I was able to walk the store and give the other managers a customers perspective. As a student I have been a customer much longer than an employee. The key is to not lose that perspective.
- Best practices are best practices for a reason. As a student I can’t help but want to innovate. I see a problem and immediately want to be creative and make changes. The problem is that in a big corporation most of the problems have already been solved through best practices. Coming into a new company it is important to understand when to innovate and when to research past situations, best practices and case studies.
- Everyone needs to help ensure brand loyalty. I noticed that some people may have loved the steakhouse I worked for. They may have even refused to eat anywhere else. But one bad experience from a stressed out waiter quickly changed their opinion. Target challenges each employee to live up to their brand image because a PR professional can help the world understand a company’s brand, but the employees are the ones who can keep those customers coming back.
- Everyone needs a strong writing background.
As I looked over my boss’s shoulder while she typed a proposal for a new payroll plan for the logistics team, I couldn’t help but chime in with some editing advice. Even a retail job requires someone to write. In order to express your opinion, it is important to understand how to express yourself through your writing.
- It is important to lead. Everyone has come across a boss or manager who is an expert micro-manager. So don’t become one yourself. Learn how to ask questions. Don’t tell people what to do. Help lead them to the right problem solving decision.
The most important thing is that you can get something out of any job experience. So let me know. What have you learned from you summer job?
It has been more than a month since my last post, more than a month since I have regularly checked any social media site, and more than month since I started my summer internship.
I am in the middle of a management internship at Target. Don’t get me wrong I love the internship. I love the energy, and I love the responsibility. But working 40 hours a week for the first time in my life has been a huge adjustment.
After my first week my mom asked if I felt grown up. The truth is I feel like a college student trapped in a adult’s work life.I work for eight hours a day five days a week, and I work every other weekend. I am also living back in my parents house. I no longer have my own room or my own bathroom. So at home I feel like I am in high school again, but at work I feel like I have been graduated from college for years.
I know at this internship I am getting experience that has already put me ahead of the game. But interning is like being in limbo. I am not a truly a part of the company, but I am not just a student anymore. So my questions are how are your internships going? How are you adjusting to 40 hours a week? How are you trying to balance everything?
Check out these videos of internships gone very wrong.
At work the other day my boss told me to come up with some interesting ways to put information on the Southern Legacy giving education page. I immediately thought of an infographic, and I was shocked when he told me to give it a try.
First Vision
I first thought of Sweet Heart Circle, a historic area at Georgia Southern. I wanted to washout the background and use the bushes and trees to represent different statistics. When I told this to my co-worker (the only one out of the two of us who knows how to use photoshop and indesign), she warned me that it might not work. Let’s just say she was right. My boss took one look at our results and asked me to start from scratch.
Second Vision
After finding a countless number of infographics as Monopoly boards, I decided to try a Life board. I wanted students to be driving in the Life car picking which direction to go based on where other students have given. This time my boss wanted to teach me how to use photoshop along the way. We spent over two hours tweeking my vision. During those two hours my boss continued saying, “No you can’t do that with photoshop.” Finally I was able to finish up the infographic with photoshop the next day by myself. Here is our result:
After all was said and done I learned these six things about making infographics:
- Start out with something simple.
- You most likely cannot use photoshop to do everything your creative genius comes up with.
- The bigger the original picture the better the infographic result.
- Start with one statistic.
- Don’t give up, but try other possibilities.
- A little practice and patience goes a long way.
My advice to anyone who wants to create their own infographic with absolutely no training in anything graphic design: Get an amazing graphic designer to help you, and keep low expectations at first.
As a student, I have plenty of questions about public relations and the professional world in general. Some of the best answers and advice that I have received, have come from professionals who are currently working in a variety of different fields. Those professionals are doing what we aspire to be doing. They have made it through their internships. They have made it through their first real jobs. So it is time we learned something from them and let them tell us how they “PRactice what you PReach.”
My first interview is with Jeremy Pepper. He is a PR professional who has worked with clients such as Cisco, GM and Verizon Wireless. Pepper has also worked with smaller “grass roots efforts.” He understands that “the basis of any
campaign starts locally.” Pepper currently works as the Director of Public Relations and Social Media at Palisade Systems, but he also owns POP! Public Relations. Pepper was not afraid to be in the first wave of PR pros to accept integrating social media into the mix. His award-winning blog, POP! PR Jots, and his participation in communities such as BlogHer prove that he is not only credible but passionate for the field. With all his experience, Pepper has some strong opinions about PR and social media. I hope you all enjoy and learn from them as much as I have.
Q1: Looking back at your experience so far in PR, what inspired you to start out in the field?
A1: I fell into public relations – I studied philosophy at the University and wrote for the college paper as well as running student government campaigns. During that time I was helping a friend out on a PR campaign and he suggested I go into public relations. And the big part was the ability to talk to people, get them to relate and write well. Plus, working on the breast cancer stamp.
Q2: You have had experience working with huge companies such as Cisco and General Motors, but you also have worked local PR jobs. In your opinion, would you rather work on the larger PR projects or the local “grass roots efforts” and why?
A2: Both have their benefits, and, of course their downsides. Working on grassroots efforts, there are greater chances to get to do bigger work and more responsibilities, while the bigger accounts have bigger budgets and more opportunities to learn how big companies work in PR and social media. Right now, I like working on the large corporations (while I still do small companies and grassroots outreach). The bigger the corporation, the bigger the project, the bigger the budget – and the bigger the idea. But like I noted, both have their pluses and minuses.
Q3: You were ahead of the game when social media entered the playing field. How did you get a jump-start with social media and what was the most difficult part about the transition?
A3: I’ve always been somewhat a tech geek, so like different and new technologies out there. Plus being in San Francisco during the launch of most of the stuff gave me the opportunity to meet many of the developing companies at events and try out the tech as an early adopter (I have a whole blog post on it). But a big part of it was working on Kodak and doing outreach to influencer sites (eg, DPReview, Steves-Digicams, Imaging-Resource) as well as chat groups on the topic on Usenet. At the end of the day, though, it’s about community relations, whether it’s online or offline (or in real life). So I just always put that to use in PR and social media: finding the audience that might be interested in what I’m working on, and letting them know about it.
Q4: Many college students, including myself, are having to adapt their social media styles to a more professional audience. Do you have any tips for how students can stand out to PR professionals using social media?
A4: First thing is to network. But another key part – and probably the most important – is to know what you don’t know. Too many students walk in thinking they’re the end-all, be-all in social media without realizing that just because they’re the “digital generation” doesn’t translate into actually understanding how the tools work in a corporate environment, or how to design a plan with strategies, tactics and outcomes that best fit what the client wants AND needs.
But a key thing to take-away is that everything (or almost everything) is public. If you are going to friend people on Facebook that are potential bosses or colleagues, set up another group or setting that limits what they can see. And start building a portfolio with tangible results. This is an opportunity to highlight yourself with the usual internships, but also to show your value. Don’t let them treat you like an intern, but also strive to learn and listen.
Q5: Many companies are still not using social media. I have had professors suggest that I offer myself as a social media intern to gain more experience. However, I have a difficult time pitching to these companies and non-profits what I can offer as a social media intern. What advice can you give about pitching a social media position to a company or non-profit that does not currently use social media or utilize it to its fullest potential?
A5: Well, it’s hard pitching yourself as a social media expert to companies or non-profits as you are still in college. For internships, though, there are some opportunities but you need to present the pro’s (and con’s) of social media engagement, as well as conveying that this isn’t a one-off for them to do but something that needs to be done post-internship. Explain to the NPOs, etc that social media is an extension of their community relations or customer engagement and then showcase what is already being said in the space, on Twitter, in blogs.
One of the hard things here is that I’m one of the people that says never to rely on an intern for social media programs. Too often, they do not know the intricacies of the business and are unable to answer the harder questions, or say no comment in a polished way. There’s a way to deflect and not answer that still seems like an answer.
Q6: You speak at many different Universities giving advice to students. What is the most common problem you see with students and what advice do you offer to help fix the problem?
A6: I think I addressed it above, but there is this whole “we’re the digital generation, we know better” attitude that needs to go away. Being on Facebook or Twitter or Foursquare (or whatever) doesn’t mean that you understand how to use them in a campaign. It amazes me to see students lecturing long-time PR people (including me) on digital and how I don’t understand it because I’m too old. Um, okay, but ageism doesn’t work and the older people are what run the accounts.
It’s a partnership – and we’re all here to learn. But too many young people think there’s nothing to learn or anyone they can learn from nowadays.
Q7: You have had a lot of success with your blog, POP! PR Jots. What advice can you give to PR students who are trying to stand out with their own blog?
A7: Write for yourself and a few friends. I’ve always written for a handful of people, friends that are also in the industry, so I don’t worry about audiences. If you write worrying about numbers and audience, it’s going to sound forced and trying too hard. But if you write for a few people, write in a way that they’ll be interested in and will read, you’ll come to a natural voice. Yes, I tend to chose more interesting topics, but I’m also writing for an audience that my equal.
If I wrote for traffic, I’d write daily and write long drivel that says nothing. There are enough social media blogs that do that – and do it quite well – but I’d rather help change the industry. The other thing I see – a lot – is the “you write for me, I’ll write for you” sharing nowadays. It’s a way to grow traffic, find new audiences, but I don’t partake as I’d rather keep it on my own site.
Another thing to look at is syndication. It’s a way to grow audiences. But key is having a natural, normal voice.
Q8: Any extra comments or advice you have is greatly appreciated.
A8: Advice: don’t be in such a rush. There is so much out there in public relations and social media that we all have to learn, that it takes time. And it’s about doing your time. We all start out at the bottom and work our way up. Yes, some faster than others.
But it’s not a race. Relax, have some fun and just do good work and things should come to you. But, I’ve heard too many stories of students or junior people presenting themselves as experts, and then it blowing up in their faces with clients and agencies. Badly.
- Choosing a story — the story should be able to be told using media and graphics. A topic such as how a tornado is formed can be broken down step by step using media.
- Making a Storyboard — a story board is like a sketch of an outline. You have to define the elements and identify the media.
- Reporting the Multimedia — be prepared when you go out to report. Make sure you bring all your tools such as a laptop and a notebook.
- Edit for the web — keep the story short, use great quality sound and graphics, add animation and also include text.
- Producing the story — the web designer is the editor. It takes many templates (drafts) to get to the final product.
Social Media from My Opinion
March 9, 2012 in Comments for PRCA 3030, Continue to Learn, My Trends | Tags: 1984, advantages of social media, communicaitons, disadvantages of social media, facebook, professional portfolio, social media, twitter, two way communication | Leave a comment
I want to make it clear that I do not consider myself an expert. I am a student. I have less than an ounce of experience compared to professionals who have been studying the advantages and disadvantages of social media on personal and public domains from its beginnings. However for my social media class, I was asked what my opinion was on the advantages and disadvantages of social media. Here it goes . . .
Advantages
On a professional level social media has opened the doors to a wide variety of interactions with an organization’s chosen public. With social media, professionals no longer have to rely on a less versatile print media. Professionals now have the opportunity to tailor messages to a direct audience through advertising on the correct social media site. Most importantly organizations can build relationships with their key target markets. There is no longer just a concept of relating to the consumer. Now relationships are forming with consumers every day through discussion boards, video posts, etc. Social media has transformed the web of communication.
Personally social media has some huge advantages. I have a group of girlfriends from high school who have now spread out across the country. However, we can never skip a beat of each others lives. With status updates, picture/video uploads, instant messaging, check-ins and so much more, we are all constantly in the loop. My family also has a Facebook group. This allows for the entire Gault Clan to stay up-to-date in our private family group. Social media has allowed me to stay connected.
Disadvantages
Professionally social media is a key to the consumer that can not always be easy to find. I hear the phrases “Content is Key” and “Engage, Engage, Engage,” but most often this is easier said then done. Being in a college town, I often see companies jump out of the Statesboro pond and into the social media ocean. They don’t always get eaten, but they often end up getting lost in the sea. Social media is not an easy tool to use. It involves tons of research, experience and time. If companies don’t want to put in the effort, they will most likely not reap the rewards.
Personally social media is developing this growing paranoid reality that “Big Brother” is not just a fictional story in 1984. The technology is out there. The question is — Who is using it? Nothing is private anymore, so what will happen when my generation of drunk college photos has to step up and be President? It seems scary to think about, but the signs haunt me everyday. Every kid who fails to hide their weekend party from their parents Facebook page understands what I mean. Transparency is not just about having a clean professional portfolio. Your personal social media portfolio needs to be clean from the get go; no matter how young you start.