The Puppy Performs so I Don't Have To

This is not lazy blogging. It's an experiment to learn how to post my own video to the blog. During the 30-day blogging challenge, you're also likely to see me learn to mobile blog and learn to post a youtube video.



Awesome. What other blogging tricks should I learn?

APR Flash Card: PR defined

As I prepared for my APR examination in 2007, I developed an extensive set of APR flash cards. I carried the cards with me everywhere in the weeks leading up to the exam, and grabbed a few minutes of study every chance I could. I still look over the cards occasionally. They are a nice reminder of something that makes me very proud: my APR, and they help keep fresh all the tidbits of information I deemed worthy of a flash card.

Here's your APR flash card of the day.
Category: Terms
Front: Public Relations
Back:
1. The various activities and commuications that organizations undertake to monitor, evaluate, influence and adjust to the attitudes, opinions and behaviors of groups/individuals who constitute their publics.
2. Helping an organization and its publics adapt mutually to one another.
3. Systematic communication of an organization with its publics.

Since studying for the APR exam, I've developed my own personal definition of PR. It borrows bits and pieces from other definitions and smooshes them together in way that defines PR for me. Public relations is the research, planning, communication and evaluation that continually propels an organization and its public toward a state of improved mutual understanding and respect.

Agree? Disagree? What's your definition of PR?

30 Day Office Blogging Challenge

Last week, I was telling the office crew about my cousin's wife's recent 30-day blogging challenge. Inspiration hit and three of us made a pact to do our own month-long blogging marathon. None of us are particularly consistent bloggers, so it seemed like the perfect way to get in the habit.

April 13 to May 13, 30 days, 30 blogs, that is our goal. If you participate in the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) you can download a badge for your blog. Since, like Jamie, we are starting in the middle of a month, we won't qualify for an April badge or a May badge. So I am going to make my own badge, a I-Blogged-Every-Day-For-a-Randomly-Selected-30-Day-Period badge.

If you want to join us, post your blog's URL in the comments. We'll check in on you to keep you honest. And, I encourage you to click over to Ruth (http://muddypebbles.blogspot.com) and Valerie (http://vtrammell.blogspot.com/). They are funny ladies, I think you'll enjoy.

Who I Met at Work Today

We oversee a variety of programs and meetings in the Library Communication/Public Programming Office. One benefit that comes with this work is the opportunity to meet some interesting (and often well-connected) people. Here are some examples of people my staff and I have met the past few years:

The Big Wigs
Each fall we host an author for our annual fundraising dinner. In 2008, we featured T. Boone Pickens. My staff escorted Mr. Pickens throughout the day and also spent some time visiting with Jay Rosser, Mr. Pickens' publicist. In past years, the Cobb Speaker Series has brought in Frank Deford, S.E. Hinton and Kurt Vonnegut, just to name a few. See the complete list here: http://www.library.okstate.edu/friends/cobb/previous.htm.

Politicians

Our events and meetings also provide the occasional opportunity to meet politicians. The Mayor and other city officials, OSU Regents, State Senators and Representatives are just some of the VIPs you might meet at a Library function.

Local Celebrities

I define a "local celebrity" as someone you could easily see at the grocery store, but you still get kind of excited when it happens: the University President and First Lady, OSU coaches and athletes, even Pistol Pete. Every so often, our programming and outreach efforts bring us in contact these folks.

Professionals in the Industry

Last, but certainly not least, we have several chances each semester to meet and network with other PR professionals. My staff has met local pros like Gary Shutt (OSU Communications), Sam Sims (Jones PR), Dustin Pyeatt (Oklahoma Blood Institute), Becky Endicott (OSU Foundation), and even a few industry biggies like Ed Schipul and Peter Shankman.


Wow, kind of makes you want to apply for my internship, huh?

Four Reasons You Want to be my Intern

Today, I listed an opening for my fall 2009 Communications Internship. We sent the typical announcements—PRSA Job Line, email to Brooks Garner’s listserve, listing on the Library’s job site—but, I’m kind of excited to see what kind of increased interest we can get by utilizing some social media promotions as well.

This year, I’m also using Twitter (my account, the Library’s account, creative use of hashtags, and hopefully some retweets from PRSSA_OSU and some past interns), Facebook (status updates, notes, shared links, and again hopefully a little love from PRSSA and some Bonnie-pire members), and here on my very own zero-traffic blog.

If you are looking for an internship in PR, this is why you want to work for me.

1. I get that you are a student first.
The great thing about all the student positions at the Library is that we understand that job 1 is being a student, everything else is secondary. You are at OSU to get a degree and we are here to help, not hinder.

2. My internship is built for learning.
The point of an internship is to learn, that’s why it’s eligible for course credit. The library’s communications internship is designed to teach you the fundamentals of PR and allow you to experience first-hand how a PR office operates. I’ve had more than one intern tell me they learn the most by just being in the office, seeing the kind of issues that arise on a daily basis and how we handle them. You’ll also be able to take advantage of the professional development we participate in as an office. I offer to host my interns at one PRSA-OKC meeting a semester, we have monthly meetings where we share new research, and we regularly subscribe to webinars and teleseminars.

3. The internship is customizable.
In the communications internship you will spend the majority of your time (50-80%) writing for a variety of media: press release, web, newsletters, ad copy, blurbs, Twitter, and more. The remaining time is spent developing skills you are most interested in learning. My interns have given media interviews, talked to donors, developed web pages, pitched stories, written promotion plans, laid out publications. The point is, you, in part, will decide what you’ll be learning.

4. I place students I want to mentor.
I take a personal interest in my interns, and I want to see them succeed. I do this in a variety of ways. In the first week of your internship, we’ll debrief your interview. I’ll tell you candidly what you did well and what you could do better. I want you to know what interview skills to keep and what you’ll need to brush up on before the next. Throughout the semester we’ll discuss career goals and steps you can take to put you on that career path. At the conclusion of your contract, I’ll help you build a resume that will accurately highlight the skills you’ve learned and build a portfolio of the pieces you created. You’ll leave the internship with a CD or zip drive of all your work and copies of all your clippings from the internship.

If you're ready to apply, follow the "internship" link at http://www.library.okstate.edu/personnel/index.htm and follow the instructions.

How to Not Land a Job

I just returned home from the joint TPRA/PRSA-SW District conference. I was there to network, learn about trends in my industry and hopefully meet some great new folks.

There were tons of students in attendance this year, as well. It's a pretty safe bet they were all hoping to do some power networking and maybe even land a job. That's why I (and everyone who was with me) was shocked at some of the outrageous behavior we saw.

There are plenty of list on what to do, but this conference was more fodder for what not to do.

1. Let your lack of grooming show us just how excited you are to be here.

Day one was a sea of bed head and I swear I saw some mutton chops in the mix. What better way to show future employers what they can expect out of you every morning once you hit the real world. Nothing shows confidence like giving the finger to basic personal hygiene.

2. Express yourself with visible tattoos.

Also sighted were wrist tattoos peeking out of shirt sleeve and ankle/foot tattoos on ladies in skirts. Sure 80% of your body is easily covered in professional wear, but why limited yourself? Way to make a statement about how appearances shouldn't matter. Everyone is looking for employees with such strong conviction to their values.

3. Get Sloppy Drunk
Here is one actual picture from the conference! Valerie and I hit the networking party on Friday night. It was billed as the "must attend event." We tried with little luck to locate someone, anyone, who could carry on a conversation without slurring their words. While we were looking we came across this bunch wallowing on the bathroom floor, playing with candles? As I snapped the shot, one turned around and screeched "That goes nowhere!" Wrong-o, it was already on its way to Twitpic. That automatically makes them all social media experts, right?

PRSA-OKC Responds to Smear on the Profession

On Feb. 10, USA Today published a book review which casts the public relations profession in a most unflattering light. PRSA chapters across the country are responding to this attack on the profession. PRSA-OKC has submitted the following letter to the editor.

Thank you to Derinda Lowe, PRSA-OKC President, and Katherine Leidy, PRSA-OKC Advocacy Officer, for actively supporting PRSA's goal of advancing the profession and the professional. Well done, ladies.

Letter to the Editor

February 12, 2009
To the Editor:

As the public relations profession continues to take hits in the media, we feel it necessary to respond to comments made in a Feb. 10 USA Today book review regarding the profession. In his review of the book PR: A Persuasive Industry: Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media by Trevor Morris and Simon Goldsworthy, Seth Brown presents the view that "PR is amoral, difficult to define, and difficult to measure." We'd like to share a local, insider's take on that notion.

As members of the Oklahoma City chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, we're part of a group of 157 metro area PR professionals who abide by a code of ethics that includes specific provisions for advancing the free flow of accurate and truthful information, and for disclosing all information necessary to foster informed decision making in a democratic society. These are professionals that serve an important role in fostering mutually beneficial relationships between the public and non-profit organizations, associations, government agencies, academic institutions and businesses. A majority of our members received a formal college education in public relations, communication and journalism, and 25 percent have taken the extra step to become accredited in public relations.

To the layperson, PR is often viewed as simply "publicity." Writing and disseminating information to the media and acting as a liaison between an organization and the media is but one small part of a PR professional's work. While it is the work that is most visible to the people who write about PR in the media and the people who read it, PR professionals and the organizations that hire them know that there is much more to it.

In our democratic, free society, PR helps people reach decisions and function more effectively by contributing to mutual understanding among groups and institutions through two-way communication and building relationships. It helps organizations understand the attitudes and values of different audiences in order to further the achievement of their goals. The PR professional serves as a counselor to management and acts as a mediator to help translate an organization's goals into reasonable, publicly acceptable policies and actions, and to mitigate risks.

Public relations involves a wide array of tactics and strategies, however its impact is easy to measure with both attitudinal and behavioral metrics, as well as financial measures, such as return-on-investment. PR's impact can be quantified in terms of sales, market share, brand awareness, stock price, reputation and trust, customer satisfaction, fundraising, employee morale and retention, event participation, Web site traffic, and regulatory changes.

We encourage those who want to learn more about the PR profession to visit the Oklahoma City PRSA chapter's website at www.prsaokc.com and join us at one of our monthly luncheon meetings.

Derinda Lowe, APR, President
Katherine Leidy, ABC, APR, Advocacy Officer
Public Relations Society of America, Oklahoma City Chapter