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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.
I promise once you understand what a QR code (quick response code) is, then you will find them everywhere. Professionals in many fields, friends, family members and even tattoo artists have been jumping on the QR code train. Why? Because they are applicable to almost everything, and they are easy to use. All you need is a smart phone and presto: You are connected to whatever the QR code holds including videos, pictures, text, pay pal accounts, phone numbers, hyperlinks and so much more.
Still not convinced? Check out QR codes I have found.
The world’s first ever animated tattoo via QR code. (Warning this video contains graphic images of a man getting a tattoo.)
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.
I have known for a long time now that I need to pay more attention to what is going on in the world. I need to keep up with the news. The problem is I don’t want to read newspapers. I don’t even want to read newspapers online. I have seen some different websites that claim they display the kind of news that I want to see and the way that I want to see it. All of those sites don’t hold my interest. Yesterday I decided to look at a new site Mark Ragan had tweeted about, One Minute News.
One Minute News displays news as videos and stories. The site is very easy to navigate. I can decide the topic of news that I want to watch. I can also look at trending news. The top story is not what a reporter thinks is important. My top story is what my peers think is important.
Most importantly all the videos are 60 seconds. They have a team of people from different professions summing up the new into a concise format. I don’t know about you but I am definitely willing to take 60 seconds out of my day to stay updated.
If you are worried about being able to comment or share the news, you don’t need to be anymore. One Minute News allows you to comment and even tweet your comment. You can also rate topics about the different videos in the polls tab of the website.
On the roadmap tab of the website you can see what they are planning on doing with the site. One thing that I am concerned with is that they have not yet created an app. According to the site, “From smartphones to tablets we’ll be working to optimize our mobile experience as well as build into our social community features for portable bliss.”
Joe Pompeo covered One Minute News in Yahoo News. He spoke to MTV advertising executive Mark Greenlaw who said that their key audience is people from 21 – 35 year-olds. This age allows them to target the portion of generation Y that has an interest in the news. Pompeo quoted Greenlaw saying ”We just really feel that in high school and even in college, the younger members of our generation aren’t necessarily quite there yet in terms of news and being interested in the news. We think that the post-graduate age is the key age.”
They recently launched the site. I think after they are done making their apps and increasing their social network the site will be a hit. If regular news is too boring and clips of news are too cluttered, then you need to check One Minute News out.
So I did not sleep on thanksgiving night. Instead I went to the outlets at midnight — BIG MISTAKE!! It took an hour to get through the initial traffic just to park. Then I had to wait in line at each store. Once I got in the stores I could not see anything because the check out lines wrapped around the clothes. I left empty handed.
But I did not go to bed instead I went to the mall. The mall was also crazy. I bought one outfit but no Christmas presents. I finished off the morning at 4 A.M. at Target. I managed to get all my Christmas shopping done. Still, I went to bed at 6:30 A.M. I love the sales, but I am beginning to wonder whether or not it is worth it.
I did a little bit of digging on other people’s experiences during black friday. I found that my late night did not come close to comparing. At a Wal-Mart a store employee was stomped to death by the crowd.
Guess what? Extreme Makeover Home Edition has come to Savannah! Carmen and Jim Simpson constantly give back to their community. They have three kids Zoe, Katelyn and Isaac. Zoe was born with a life threatening disease. The crew wanted to work with the family to help improve their lives with a more suitable home for their family.
The best part is Georgia Southern students got to volunteer. I helped work the media tent checking people in. At the end of the day I was able to sneak in to the construction zone. I was expecting to see a bunch of celebrities working on a house. What I saw was the community working on the house. It was great to know that the community is the one giving back to the amazing family.
I know that a favorite part for many viewers is the “Move that Bus” scene. I tried to find a good clip of the scene, so you can get the inside scoop before the episode airs in January.
This one shows the family entering the house. (And posing for pictures of course.)
I am a member at Kappa Delta Sorority. One of the biggest philanthropy events that we hold each year raises money for Prevent Child Abuse America and locally in Bulloch. Prevent Child Abuse is a non-profit that works with families in need to help maintain a safe environment for children. PCABC works specifically by putting on educational programs and awareness for the local community. PCABC is in the middle of their diaper drive to distribute diapers to families who cannot afford them on their own.
At chapter one of our vice presidents described their next charity event. PCABC is teaming up with Belk in the Statesboro Mall for Belk’s charity sale. The store and PCABC are selling $5 tickets to the event. Belk will give everyone with a ticket $5 off their purchase. Belk will also have 20-70% off store wide.
The event will be November 6 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. 100% of each $5 ticket sold will go to PCABC. The first 100 people in the door will receive gift cards ranging from $5 to $1,000. This event allows you to shop for a great cause. The best part is the money goes to the local charity, so you can see the difference you make in your own community. Make sure you get tickets soon!
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