Take a card but make a connection

Networking is an essential part of public relations but it is more than just shaking hands and sharing business cards. It is about the opportunity to make a human connection. However, connections are often lost or never fully developed. Like any relationship, networking takes work.

Business cards need to be taken out of the card file, phone numbers called and emails sent. Relationships must be maintained in order to keep the connection.

How many times does someone say, “My door is always open,” or have you heard, “call me if you need anything?” Now can you think of a time when you took them up on their offer? Unfortunately most people can’t.

OKC Thunder Marketing and Sales Senior VP Brian Byrnes spoke at a college marketing meeting and offered a challenge to the students. Byrnes said that he bet less than five of the fifty or so people in the room would email him. Less than five would utilize his willingness to help.

Byrnes mentioned this several times during his presentation and used an example. He said a student emailed him about opportunities and Byrnes gave the student a job shadow day all because the student contacted him after meeting.


Take this short quiz to see if you network.


Inspiration: Marketing meeting

Research advice

Wednesday I attended the Liberal Arts Symposium. The first session I attended dealt with involvement within UCO, or at least that is how it was described. In reality it was a focus group about what students liked and didn’t like about UCO, their advisors and other such matters.

One of the students brought up a point at how their advisor or professor would tell them something, or nothing, and then they would later find out the information was false. This became a great discussion about advice from various sources and the need to document and research everything yourself.

I love advice. However, it astonishes me how many people will take advice to heart and accept what people say as law. I believe in taking advice with a grain of salt and verifying the information by conducting at least some sort of research. A search engine is a great place to start.

Senior VP of Human Resources and Corporate Resources at Chesapeake Martha Burger, once told my leadership class that when she has meetings there is a general rule, to assume positive intent. I like to assume that everyone who gives me advice is providing me heartfelt information. I also know they are human and humans make mistakes.

So let me give some advice, but take your own knowledge and common sense and see how my advice can apply to you and your situations.

1. If someone says you cannot do something; try anyways. The experience and knowledge you will gain is worth the effort.
2. If someone says something is not typically done; create a new path. I know at many colleges they recommend internships for some juniors but mostly seniors. I prefer gaining knowledge as soon as possible and had an internship after only one PR class, my sophomore year. How else am I supposed to know, for sure, that the career path I am trying to take is what I actually want to do?
3. Listen to everyone, take advice and utilize what you learn to benefit your circumstance. Just remember to verify the information given to you.
   
   
   Inspiration: LA Symposium focus group

Social Media = Job

In every mass communication class I am constantly bombarded with the communication process. I am informed, and re-informed, how each part of the process is important from the sender to the noise to the receiver. Yet I must say, the channel, way in which a message is sent, intrigues me.

Today social media plays an important role in the communication process. It provides a newer outlet for a message to be sent. Internet sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are filled with millions of messages.

So why is social media so important for students to learn? It can be a deciding factor in job or internship interviews. Social media knowledge and expertise will easily place one candidate over another.

Even Ashton Kutcher, a twitter god, is hiring. He is looking for "the best social network and Facebook and Tweet virtuoso." The job pays $50,000, so check out the video below.





Let me leave you with an article I recently came across, Why Using Facebook and “The Twitter” Aren’t Enough. PR is the Fuel for Social Network’s Marketing Engine.

I found the article fascinating for three reasons:

1. The author tells how to use social media, for business needs, with only two suggestions.
2. Betty White is referenced as being more meant for Facebook than businesses.
3. One of my latest favorite people to quote, Zig Ziglar, is quoted.

Let me know what you think and feel free to share your own tips.


Inspiration: Ashton Kutcher

Letter to the Editor - I want published!

In what little time I spent in a newspaper I began to notice a trend with the letters we received. They generally fell into one of two categories: attack or praise.

If the letter fell into the first category, the writer would verbally attack an article, issue or personal cause. Their letter, which I am sure started out meaningful, turned into a rambling tangent allowing them to vent their latest problems.

On the opposite side of the spectrum are praise letters. The writer would thank someone profusely and explain how they could not have done some event or activity without their help. Or they would write about an upcoming event or cause, where the public was of course invited to attend.

Which of these two types usually get printed? Neither.

So how does an average John or Jane get published? Let me give you a few tips.

1. Know the rules of the newspaper you want to send your letter to and FOLLOW them. This seems so simple and yet very few people bother to look up the word count or which editor to address their letter to.
2. Be timely. If you’re replying to an article from a month ago, there is a slim-to-none chance you will ever see your letter printed.
3. Please, please, please do not ramble. Get to the point and stick with your point. In fact only have one point. Quality over quantity, remember this.
4. Use spell-check.
5. Back up your opinion with facts.
6. Don’t just attack; suggest ways to solve the issue at hand. Be a problem solver not a problem maker.
7. If you want to thank those that helped you, write them a letter, not the editor.
8. If you want to promote an event, buy advertising space or make your event so news worthy that every reporter will be rushing to make your even their lead story.

Do you have any more tips? Feel free to leave a comment.


Inspiration: PR Information Methods

Need experience to gain experience

Picture yourself walking into your dream job for an interview. Who wouldn’t want to hire a stud like yourself? You made the grades, led your school club as president and volunteered the last three summers in Kenya.

The interview goes smoothly. Before you leave the parking lot you update your status, “I should start my dream job right after graduation!!!”

A week or two passes and there is no call-back. Finally, after nearly four weeks you decide to call them. Their reply? “You were a great candidate, but we were really looking for someone with experience in the field.”


Ah, the dilemma. You can’t obtain a job without experience yet you can’t gain experience without a job. Many students graduate without any real experience but public relations is different. There are hundreds of public relations and communication internships in Oklahoma.

What is an internship? Internships are like a temporary part-time job with a business or organization related to your field of study. In public relations most internships are unpaid but it is possible to find a paid one, I’ve had both.

The key is to go out there and apply; besides most will let you earn college credit while interning.

(Check with your school internship advisor for more details. If you attend UCO or OCCC and would like more info, like whom to contact about public relations internships, give me a shout-out.)


I like to intern because it gives me the opportunity to obtain real world experience while letting me get my feet wet in different aspects of public relations. I’m learning that I prefer the event planning and community relations aspects of public relations.

Two great resources to follow are Greater Grads and PRSA-OKC. The first is a giant internship listing hosted by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. I’ll write, in future posts, more about all the awesome things they do. The second is a job listing which includes internships.


Inspiration: My first day at my internship, a la mode.

A letter to my future followers

Dear future followers,

My name is Jennifer and as part of an assignment in PR Methods, I am supposed to create a blog. So here I am. This blog will be the accumulation of the interesting articles I find relating to communication practices and my education on the run.

What exactly IS education on the run? Let me break it up into two parts, education and running. First is my education. I am a major in public relations and a double minor in both Spanish and leadership. I have been lucky enough to continually be in the right place at the right time and able to speak with several informational (and to me influential) people. However, luck is not everything and no matter how much luck I stumble on, I still have a great deal of learning to do.

Next is running. No, I’m not going to somehow blog while running, that would be some serious talent. Instead I use the word running as more of a metaphor for my hectic life. My roommate recently said, “You’re a like a self contained pinball going in a million different directions bouncing through three time dimensions” His statement couldn’t be more accurate nor would he be the first person to ask me if I have a twin or if I figured out how to clone myself.

I hope through this blog I will be able to share some informational tidbits while I travel along my educational path, speed bumps and all. If there is anything in particular you would like to know about me or communication please let me know because you are now a part of my education on the run.