Astroturfing? What in the world...

After reading last week's case study on Ethics in Public Relations Campaigns, I found this blog post on the PRSSA website to be very applicable. It focused on something called astroturfing, which basically deals with employees or interns posting biased pre-scripted reviews on websites for their own company.

This blog post highlighted this subject matter by reviewing the recent case with the iTunes app store. Their PR firm, Reverb Communications used their interns to monitor the website and post positive reviews without mentioning the company they were affiliated with. According to a company called Techcrunch interns monitoring web reviews is a common practice, but this situation crossed the line of ethics.

According to the blog (and Wikipedia) astroturfing can be defined as, “formal political, advertising or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous ‘grassroots’ behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass.”

Obviously, if interns were posting these comments they were not "spontaneous." I feel like this blog post directly paralleled to what I read about in the Ethics chapter of my textbook. Its pretty cool when you realize the things in your textbooks are real in the PR world too. The post gave a few other examples of unethical practices such as sneaking gift cards to sway bloggers, PR representatives in city council meetings and false opposition letters.

The final part of the blog post stressed the importance of our own personal ethics. Even as interns and young business professionals we need to be aware of how much this is going on and do our part to stop these unethical practices.

Looks like I have a lot to do...

This article really helped me discover what valuable skills I will need in the real-world of Public Relations. There were 14 Key attributes listed in the article. Some of the attributes I felt comfortable about, but others i definitely need to work on. Since I'm a SENIOR now (ah!) I need to be able to better evaluate my strengths and weaknesses.

After reading the article I came to a few conclusions regarding the different attributes of a PR professional that I am confident in. These skills aren't perfect, but I definitely feel they are my best selling points

1. Communication Skills: I love communicating with others. I feel I am good at expressing the way I feel, and being able to communicate effectively with other people. I feel that communication is the KEY to any good relationship.

2. Work Ethic: I definitely have a strong work ethic. I will not quit on a job until it is done. I like to be a team player, even if that means staying late.

3. Attention to Detail: I am a perfectionist especially when it comes to school work or any work I did this summer with my internship. I read, and re-read until I know things are the way I like them. I look into every aspect of a project to make sure it is complete and correct.

Some of the things I am not so sure about are:

1. Coding: I am not really sure how any of this works. I do not know much at all about HTML, PHP and VBScript at all.

2. Blogger Relations: I could definitely expand on my blogger relations. I only have friends in our class, but this really needs to change.

3. RSS, RSS Readers: I'm not exactly positive about how these work either. I need to figure this one out before I graduate for sure!

It looks like I have a lot of things to discover my last year in college. I want to really work on these 14 attributes before applying to jobs in the REAL WORLD!

I'm a Senior?

It amazes me to think that I am even writing this. I feel like I just came to college yesterday, and I was the one asking for advice. I had absolutely NO IDEA what I wanted to major in when I came college, and I think that is a common mistake. Everyone always says not to worry about that, and that you have plenty of time to decide. Luckily, I just went with something that seemed interesting to me and declared Pre Mass-Comm. Some of my friends waited to declare a major, and now find themselves behind. Most programs are at least two years, so the earlier you declare a major, the better.

One thing I definitely learned last semester is that it's never too early to begin networking and looking for a summer internship. No one is going to hold your hand and help you find an internship. You have to take the initiative to search for internships you are interested in, and find connections in the PR world. The more people you know, the easier it will be to find an internship.

Networking did not come to my naturally at first. I was overwhelmed by meeting so many people so quickly and all the social networking you have to keep up with. Now I realize that it's all just another part of PR. I learned that people are so much more willing to help than I thought. If you do a good job for people, they are usually more than happy to help me in the future. I was so afraid to ask at first, but now it comes much easier.

Obviously I have learned how to manage my time much better. PR is not a major where you can just stay up late trying to get everything done. You have to accurately plan out pretty much every hour of your day because a lot of the work involves other people. I have learned to just do things while I'm thinking about them instead of putting them off for later. My planner is my life saver, and I would probably cry if I lost it. I must write EVERYTHING down. If it doesn't make it in that little book, chances are I will totally forget it.

The last thing I have learned over the past three years (and I'm still learning) is that it's ok to say no. Sometimes I feel obligated to do things merely because they need to be done, whether they are my responsibility or not. I agree to do things that I shouldn't just because I feel guilty if I don't. Although I definitely still struggle with wanting to do everything, I do think I'm getting just a little better. Sometimes it's ok to just to simply say NO... well ok...maybe :)

Ha! I guess I still need to work on that one...

Here we are on the first day of college, and now I'm a senior? How did this happen?

Events, Running AND Public Relations?

I feel like I learned more about the real-world event industry over the summer than I could ever learn in a classroom. My internship was with a company called Corporate Sports Unlimited. The company had three main divisions; Corporate Events and Meetings, The U.S. 10K Classic and the World Children's Center. Since I had such a wide variety of interests CSU allowed me to split my time at the internship between the separate divisions.

I began my internship working everyday in the events division. I got to attend all the event planning meetings, site visits, sales calls and much more. The VP of this division, Bob, made sure I was included in every step of the event planning process. Some days I would help research venues or organize activities for the events. Other days I would be out of the office meeting with our clients or actually working at events. One of my favorite parts was getting to go to so many events. CEM does so many events, and I had no idea corporations spent so much money to make their employees happy. Over the course of the summer I worked at family appreciation days, team building, picnics, carnivals, lunch parties, snow cone parties, ice cream socials and sponsor luncheons. CEM produces so many different types of events, and it was exciting for me to see how these events are planned and executed in the real-world.

The other divisions I worked for were The U.S. 10K Classic and The World Children's Center. The U.S. 10k is a huge (12,500 participants) road race in Cobb County on Labor Day. All the money raised from the U.S. 1oK goes toward the World Children's Center, which is the non-different profit division of the company. I really loved everything I got to do to help with the race because running is something I am extremely passionate about. It was really cool to work with my boss Stephanie in designing things for the race and helping her pull little details together for race day. I got to have some interaction with sponsors and see how some things work in the non-profit world. It was definitely a lot different then I expected.

About a month before the race (August 16th) the World Children's Center hosted a huge Gala for all the race sponsors. I got to do a lot of work helping prepare for this. It was neat because the Gala was similar to the athletic auction, except with a MUCH larger budget. They had hundreds of items for the auction, and tickets were $200 a seat. The event took place at the Cobb Galeria Center and the presentation was breathtaking. I was absolutely amazing at how lavish everything was, and it reminded me how much I love event planning. It felt great to know I had helped put so much together for this event.

Overall, I learned so much from my summer internship. I realized that doing PR for road races or triathlons is definitely something I am interested in. It was a great experience getting to work with an events division and a non-profit division all under the same company. It was just neat to combine so many things I am passionate about.....Events, Running AND Public Relations! What a great combo!

Oh, and if you don't have plans for Labor Day...check it out!

PR in Action...Younglife style!

Younglife is a high school outreach ministry. Every week Younglife leaders spend hours contacting high schoolers and spending time hanging out with them. We go to lunch, soccer games, track practice, chorus concerts and anything else we can to get to see the kids. Every Monday the leaders hold an event called club. Club is when all high school kids come to a meeting place and the leaders plan things for them to do. We act out characters, play games and sing songs, and one of the leaders shares at the end. (I know it sounds a little lame, but we always tell the kids they have to try it before they knock it.) 

At the end of the year all the leaders work together for the final club. We combine all the characters from all the clubs to make a big musical called the opera. Last Monday Gatewood Younglife held their annual Opera. Seven of the leaders wrote out their own script, gathered costumes, and rehearsed the opera over and over. We were all really excited to get to share all the opera with the kids, but we had to use a few PR techniques to get the word out...  

Now a little clip from the Opera. Enjoy...

This social network is getting a little crazy...

I officially just joined my SIXTH social networking website, and I have a feeling it's really only beginning. Pubic Relations people LOVE networking. Although I do feel like all these websites are getting a little crazy I was actually very impressed with the PROpenMic website. 

PROpenMic was almost a bit overwhelming when I first logged in. There were so many options I just didn't know where to begin. First I updated my information and chose a theme for my page so it looked presentable. Then I began to explore the website further. I saw a link to post your resume, and I thought that seemed like a good idea. 

I posted my resume, and then continued to click around. I found a list of internships, and jobs which would have definitely been useful during my internship search. I will be using that next year when it comes time to find a job. After clicking around a little more I found this article  about a PR Campaigns class at Auburn. 

I found the article to be very encouraging because this semester I have been doing PR for MBC-4, the GCSU news show. When I first started the position I was starting from scratch. They had never had a PR person, never advertised and had absolutely no budget for me to work with. It has definitely been a challenge, but I feel like MBC-4 has come a long way. This article gave me some great new ideas to publicize the show. If I end of working with MBC again I will definitely have some fresh new ideas next semester. It really is incredible what all social networking can be used for. 

Overall PROpenMic seems like a combination of a lot of the social networks I am already a member of. You can create a profile, chat with online friends and add pictures like Facebook. You can write posts and publish them like Blogger. It updates you on the latest PR news like Twitter. It has a place to look for jobs and internships like LinkedIn. It is really just a fantastic combination of social networks all rolled into one. 

Athletic Auction 2009 is a SUCCESS!

Planning the Athletic Auction for 2009 only assured me that event planning is what I want to do post graduation. When we got the motorcycle assignment months ago I couldn't exactly picture it, but Saturday night everything really came together. 

Our class worked so well together under the three AE's for the event. We stuck to out timeline, and everything went so smoothly. At no point did I feel extremely stressed out about anything. I think that is because we were very well organized about everything we were doing. The AE's assigned everyone an equal distribution of work so we all felt like we were contributing to the progression of the action. 

One thing I did learn from the auction was that even professionals mess up sometimes. One of my tasks was to get the T-shirts made for the class. I took the design and sizes to the place before spring break and he said he should have it ready a week later. When the week passed I sent him an e-mail to check up on the shirts, and he responded saying that the shirts would be ready the 10th. Considering that was the day before the auction I asked if we could push it back a day to the 9th. He said that would be fine. 

When I went to pick up the shirts the next day everything was wrong! Not only was the design huge on the front, but they had made up blue shirts. I have no idea how he got this idea. They didn't even have enough black shirts in the store to make the shirts that day, but they said UPS would deliver them the following day. I was just extremely thankful that I had pushed the pick-up date back a date. The owner of the T-shirt shop personally called to apologize and ended up giving me the blooper shirts, and everything worked out great. I learned a valuable lesson about how everyone makes mistakes and sometimes it is just better to plan ahead!

The thought the actual auction was a complete success. Our class worked great together, and everyone got along flawlessly. All the guests at the auction seemed to be having a great time which made all of our hard work totally worthwhile. I even got to be Thunder the Bobcat for a little while, but I won't say that was my favorite part of the night. 

Overall the auction was an amazing experience. We sold more tickets than ever before, and raised the money needed for the scholarships. I can't to plan the next event!