A Christmas Tradition

You know those fake Christmas trees most families buy and use every year in their home? The ones that don’t have real pine needles, the lights are already strung on the branches and the shape never changes. What’s the fun of having the same Christmas tree every year?

My family has a tradition each year on Black Friday. We refuse to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, so the day after seems like the perfect time! Our tradition is to visit a tree farm on the edge of town to search for a unique tree, cut it down and take it home to decorate. These trees have real pine needles, you get to string the lights on the branches and there are so many choices. My family always choose a unique shape because we believe in finding the beauty in the imperfections.

Our trees are not usually the perfect shape. There aren’t always an abundance of pine needles. It might have a few bare spots and a unique point on top, presenting a challenge for the star placement. Instead of finding the “perfect tree”, we look for the imperfect tree that has character. When our family comes to visit on Christmas, they love to see what our tree looks like and what unique aspects attracted our attention.

I love this tradition because we are the family that chooses the trees no one else would. We cut down the trees that would normally be overlooked or called ugly. Once we’ve cut down the tree and decorated it, my family proves that even the ugliest tree can be beautiful with the proper care.

This tradition might seem a little crazy to most, but I can’t imagine having a fake tree in our house on Christmas. I love finding a unique tree, the smell of pine needles in the house, the mess of pine needles on the carpet and the challenge of making a unique tree look beautiful. I can’t wait to find our tree this year!

Perfecting Your Press Release

We recently had David Trinko as a speaker at a PRSSA meeting. David talked to us about how to pitch to a reporter. In PR, it seems like we are always writing press releases. There are so many important elements required and a good press release can determine whether your story is used by the journalist you have sent it to or not.

A recent article entitled 5 Press Release Gaffes PR Pros Should Avoid outlined the five blunders most frequently made by even the best PR pros. Are you making any of these mistakes with your own press releases?

1. Forgetting the title: If you spend too much time perfecting the body of your press release and forget about crafting the perfect title, not many people are going to want to read the body. Yes, the body is important. Your title is vital to catching your readers’ attention and encouraging them to continue reading. An ideal title for your press release is concise, enlightening and interesting. If your title is confusing or boring, you’re going to loose the attention of your readers and they won’t want to read the rest of the release.
2. Using the wrong voice: Press releases must be formal and impersonal. Deviating from this format by using personal language more appropriate for social media posts will only get your press release ignored.
3. Not editing enough: After spending valuable time writing the perfect press release, you don’t want to ruin your chances of getting it published if you don’t take the time to edit. Scanning through the release once is not enough to catch all of the potential mistakes. Take the time to edit multiple times and even ask someone else to take a look with a fresh set of eyes that might be able to catch mistakes you are missing.
4. Trying to do too much: Ideally, focusing on one thing in your press release will keep your readers paying attention to the information you intended. Too much information will only confuse the reader.
5. Sending it to the wrong people: Sending your press release to anyone and everyone is not the appropriate approach. If you send your press release to the wrong people and your content is irrelevant to them, you will be rejected. If you have a press release that actually pertains to those people in the future, they’ll remember you sent them irrelevant content in the past and they’re likely to reject you before even reading your new press release.

Keep these in mind the next time you compose a press release, craft the perfect pitch, follow the tips I shared from David Trinko in a previous post and you are bound to get your press release published!

Reputation Management

“Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to a person’s nature by discovering the reason for his or her imperviousness to certain impressions.” –Eric Hoffer

The reputation you have with your stakeholders is vital to the existence of your organization: “Your reputation is the sum total of your relationships with all your publics. It is what people think of when they hear your brand mentioned; it determines the likelihood that they purchase or recommend your products, invest in your company, or apply for a job” (Measure What Matters). If you have a negative reputation, trust between your organization and your publics will be the only way to rebuild the foundation. Society gives your organization the permission to exist based largely on your reputation.

We talk about the importance of relationships and how building positive relationships is not something you can accomplish overnight. Relationships take time to build trust, commitment and satisfaction. Unfortunately, crises can threaten the reputation of your organization: “The key to measuring threats to your reputation is measuring the trust between you and your publics, and the effectiveness with which your organization handles crises” (Measure What Matters). Good crisis communication is more of a proactive approach than a reactive approach.

The best way to avoid a crisis is to listen to your audience carefully and respond immediately to any threats before they get out of hand. Daily monitoring can prevent a crisis from getting out of hand and allows your organization to determine what is being said about you and what kind of issues are surfacing. Listening cannot always prevent unavoidable crises, but being prepared for these potential situations will help your organization come out on top.

Why We Care What the Newspaper Guy Says

Tonight at our PRSSA meeting, we had David Trinko as a speaker. David is a journalist for the Lima News. Journalists and PR people have to work together whether we like it or not. This is why we wanted a perspective from the journalists side to understand how we can make their job easier and how to build mutually beneficial relationships with them.

David talked to us about how he loves getting to do something different everyday, but there are some aspects of his job he doesn’t love. As a journalist, David is bombarded with information all day long. People are constantly contacting him, asking him to do something for them. Each day, he receives over 300 emails, 100 faxes and 25 phone calls. He joked and said "that’s four dead trees and a lot of deleted emails".

Put yourself in the seat of the person you are delivering your message to and simplify it as much as possible. David shared the best way to get him to read what you send to him is to get to the core of your message as quickly as possible and KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). He wants the who, what, when, where and why and he doesn’t even mind if this information is in bullet points. Don’t forget to include the pertinent information, keep your file sizes small and double-check your work. As a journalist, David suggests you do your legwork ahead of time. Establishing a good relationship with journalists is vital:

• Do what you said you were going to do. For example, if you tell the journalist you will call back tomorrow with more information, call back tomorrow.
• Be the person they can count on.
• Don’t be the person who makes their job more difficult.
• A good relationship with a reporter can influence future stories, putting them in a positive or negative light depending on the relationship.
• Although journalists are supposed to leave emotions out of their job, they are human and underpaid. They will take their aggression out on you if you give them a reason.

Why should we care what the guy from newspaper says? Some may think newspaper is dying. The fact is more people are using local media today than they were 10 years ago. How? The combination of print and online presents more opportunities for newspaper. People still use local information centers and online is only presenting more opportunities for the newspaper industry. Newspaper has the advantage because they are word and picture based. Online just gives them another way to share the words and pictures along with other material such as video. David Trinko shared a lot of valuable information with us this evening. My biggest takeaway was the importance of being gracious if you get a no from a journalist and the importance of staying resilient. Journalists and PR professionals will always have to work together, so keep these things in mind and the relationship will be a positive one!

Mutually Beneficial Relationships

It is more important today than ever before to understand, measure and improve your relationships with your local community. PR in general is all about relationships, but it is also vital to understand why your neighbors are so important.

As I discussed in my last post discussing the book Measure What Matters, social media has introduced an entirely new definition of communication. Communities now consist not only of organizations in close proximity to your business, but also virtually and through influential stakeholders. These influencers can include internal communities of customers, vendors, partners, external advocates, nongovernmental organizations and any other community with which your business has a relationship.

We know how important mutually beneficial relationships are in the PR industry. These relationships can influence all successes and failures of your organization. If you ignore the communities looking for answers from your organization, then your organization is bound to see a decline in the value of mutually beneficial relationships with influential stakeholders. If your organization is consistently responding and participating in the conversations the communities of influencers are participating in, then these communities are bound to have your organizations back during a crisis situation.

It's all about relationships. We hear this on a daily basis. If you don't understand the importance of maintaining these relationships, taking the time to understand them, measuring the involvement of your influencers and continuously work to improve these relationships, then your organization is bound to see unwanted residual effects.

The Benefit of PRSSA Firm Trips

Ohio Northern University's PRSSA nationally affiliated student-run firm, True North, takes yearly trips to allow students to experience different aspects of the PR industry. From nonprofit to agency and corporate to sports, each trip helps PR students see how diverse the profession is and encourages a better understanding of the kind of PR work they would like to do in their future professional career.

I have been on one Firm trip to Nashville, Tennessee. This trip was such an amazing experience because I had the opportunity to explore different agencies in our tours and I also had the opportunity to get to know the rest of the members of PRSSA who collaborate in the student-run firm, True North. If I wouldn't have gone on this trip, I wouldn't be as close as I am now with some of the people who went on the Nashville trip.

These trips are an amazing experience that I think all members of the Firm and PRSSA should take advantage of during their time as a student at Ohio Northern University. Our professors are committed to helping us figure out what we want to do when we graduate, but these agency tours are fantastic educational tools to assist students in finding out their likes and dislikes of the PR profession. There are so many diverse opportunities in the PR industry and it can be a bit overwhelming for graduates when they don't know exactly what they like or don't like. Firm trips give them the opportunity to discover this before graduation and can help with the decision of what job to potentially take in the future.

Take a look at one of my assignments from my Principles of Social Media class! I had to create a video about the Firm trips my PRSSA Chapter takes each year. Watch the video and see what these awesome trips are all about!

Thank Goodness for Thanksgiving!

I have reached the point in the semester where I am ready to turn in my final projects and just get it over with so I can enjoy a much needed break. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my classes at ONU and I love my professors, but I am worn out. The schoolwork and extracurricular activities I am involved in are taking a toll on me.

I’m eager for Thanksgiving break because I will have plenty of time with my family. I haven’t spent much time with them since summer because I haven’t been able to visit on many weekends, so I could really use some quality family time. I’m also extremely low on cash, so I will be working almost everyday while I am home for break. Although this is not ideal and I would rather spend time with my family, it is necessary for me to make some money before coming back to ONU.

Thanksgiving is always a great time with my family because we have the traditional feast and football, but with a slight twist. Instead of watching football, we play. I know it might be hard to picture, but I can throw a football and I’m honestly not that bad. My older brother taught me to throw a football before I could even ride a bike. On Thanksgiving, all of the male cousins, uncles and my dad will gather in the yard to play touch football. While the female cousins, my aunts and my mom gather around the windows to watch the game, I join the guys for a fun game of touch football.

I’m not trying to sound cocky, but my team usually wins. This might be because I run much faster when large guys about three times my size are running after me, but I would like to think I am also somewhat good at the game! I always look forward to this tradition, especially when both of my brothers are on the opposite team than me. I really enjoy bragging about how I won on the car ride home because they both are sore losers. Or maybe I am a sore winner? Either way, we all have a great time and I think a little bragging is necessary to keep them inline!

Are the PR Stereotypes Accurate?

It’s an extremely ironic fact that our industry of PR has a PR problem. The stereotypes our industry receives are often fictitious and make our type seem like a glorified party planner or the awful name we never want to hear, the master of “spin”. We don’t “spin” and we actually do plan some amazing events and parties. PR is a tough industry to define, but I found an article entitled PR Stereotypes: Fact or Fiction? interesting because it explored some of the typical stereotypes even further to determine what is real and what is not. Here is what the article covered:

1. All PR pros are Democrats: This is an untrue stereotype. Yes, our industry does lean to the left, but there are plenty of Republicans as well.
2. All PR pros are outgoing people: This is also an untrue stereotype. We’re not all outgoing and some of the best PR pros are very introverted individuals. I know I personally am more introverted and I still love everything about PR.
3. All PR pros are good writers: Unfortunately, this is not true. As vital as it is to be a good writer to be a successful PR professional, not all PR professionals are skilled writers. This is why it is so important for PR students to work on their writing abilities to help further the profession instead of damaging this positive stereotype.
4. All PR pros have degrees in communications/PR: This is completely untrue, especially in the agency setting. Many current PR professionals come from different backgrounds including political science, English and even the dreaded mathematics.
5. PR pros are hyper-organized: This is absolutely true. People do not survive in the PR industry unless they are organized.
6. All PR people are workaholics: This is untrue, especially since our PR pros tend to work smarter, not harder in today’s PR industry.
7. All PR people dress “on trend": Although this might have some truth to it on the agency side, corporate and nonprofits tend to be more conservative in their dress.
8. All PR people drink massive amounts of coffee: This is generally a fact of the PR profession. Coffee is the only thing that can help us get through our long, stressful days!
9. PR agency people are more creative than corporate types: Creativity is present in both agency and corporate settings. Creative minds are not solely present in the agency setting.
10. All PR people are women: It may seem this way because the ratio of women to men in our industry is 4-to-1, but there are still successful men in the PR industry.

I found this article interesting because I hear these PR stereotypes mentioned quite frequently. What kind of stereotypes do you hear of PR professionals? How do those compare to PR students?

The Lost Art of Snail Mail

What ever happened to writing letters? The good old snail mail? Sitting down and putting your thoughts to another person out on paper and adding a stamp when you’re done? It seems like no one writes letters anymore. Call me old fashioned, but I can honestly say I spend more money on stamps for the letters I write than I do on food for my refrigerator.

I love writing letters to my Grandma, my parents, my boyfriend and my friends from home. My Grandma sends me a letter almost every week. She loves to talk to me about what is going on her life, what kind of flowers she planted in her front yard and the books she is reading. She always asks me how I am doing and tells me how proud she is of me. I love writing back and forth with her and I keep all of her letters. My parents and I exchange letters usually around holidays or when they know I have had a difficult week. They know writing letters gives me a break to escape from everything else and focus on my favorite thing to do. My boyfriend also knows writing helps me relieve stress. He tells me about what’s going on back home and usually throws some sappy stuff in too. My friends from home will send me letters occasionally to let me know they miss me and they are thinking about me.

All of these letters mean so much to me. I might be considered a sentimental collector, but I don’t ever throw away these special letters. I always appreciate anyone who is willing to take the time to sit down and write a letter to me.

I think we get too focused on the immediate contact that today’s technology enables and we forget about the value of a handwritten letter. What will we look back on when we are older to help us remember? With photos only online instead of printed and emails instead of handwritten letters, this doesn’t leave much room for physical things with sentiment to helps us remember our past.

I’d like to challenge you this week. If you are someone who would normally prefer to send an email or text message instead of a handwritten letter, I encourage you to take the time to write to someone. Write a letter to a grandparent, your parents or even a friend you haven’t spoken to in awhile. I think you’ll find the time and effort spent on a letter is an enjoyable break from the fast pace life most college students have. Who knows, you might even find a real passion for physical mail. Opening my mailbox and finding a personally addressed letter is usually the highlight of my day.