The End of an Era

I feel this blog needs a closing post. The purpose of this blog was to show the transformation as I "budded" into a PR professional. I started this blog on January 16, 2010 and while that is just a year ago, it is amazing to look back and see how different I am, personally and professionally. When we all were required to start a blog, none of us (my awesome Mean in Green team) had truly used social networking for PR purposes. Since then we all utilize Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, etc. to accomplish PR.

For a reflection, I think a timeline of PR growth should be created on this blog...

Spring Semester 2010
Jan- Guest Speaker at Flagler College
Feb- Pitch auction themes
Feb- Read The Tipping Point and got inspiration for what PR is all about
March- Create Resume, figure out the art of cover letters
March- Search/Apply for internships
March- Watch firsthand the media's response to the Roethlisberger incident in Milly
March- First independent promotional night (mean in green bball game)
April- Countless hours creating by hand EVERY little perfect detail for our huge Athletic Auction
April- ATHLETIC AUCTION, the pinnacle event of any GCSU PR student's career
Summer 2010- INTERNSHIP @ The Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce
Fall 2010- whew, words/timelines cannot capture everything that went on during this last semester of college
Fall 2010- Senior Seminar- this class was split into two sections. The practical must know info for the real world, and then a research section. SO much is learned in these sections that are essential to learn before graduation
Fall 2010- Created professional portfolio and website
Dec- Final research paper presentations and portfolio presentations
Dec- GRADUATION!!!!!!!!!!! Finished.
Jan 2011- THE JOB SEARCH- I am in the midst of interviews and figuring out the next step in life.... whew what a true learning experience this time of adjustment this is!

Overall, I am so proud to say I am a GCSU Alum!!!!! GCSU and more importantly the mass communication department at Ga College is in my biased opinion one of the top schools/departments to attend to be able to bud into the PR professional that I always aspired to be. I could not have done it without our amazing professor/mentor- Dr. Ginger Carter Miller and my wonderful Mean in Green team. All of you guys have all my love and support forever!!

SWOT of Athletic Auction

I can't believe we don't have a million details to tend to, many people to answer to, and tons of projects to complete... we are finished, the event was a success, and athletics is happy!

The awesome feeling that overcame us as we looked around the gym before the event started is indescribable! Maybe because we thought all the tedious details were never going to end, but the "we did it!" feeling was incredible!

SWOT ANALYSIS- what PR event can conclude without doing a swot analysis??

Strengths:
* The PR DreamTeam is amazing! We all have so many qualities that truly make our team invincible! We each have characteristics that are essential to creating an awesome team that without one of us we couldn't work as well. Our individual talents balanced out to make the event a huge success!
*Tradition- the fact that this particular event happens every year, the clients and guests knew what to expect and how to do it all, even though we had no clue what we were getting into
*Client- our clients were very understanding and helpful during the whole process

Weaknesses:
*Timing- we really did everything the last two weeks before the event, even though we had all semester
*Budget- we did really well at staying within our budget, but if we had more we could have made it look even classier

Opportunities:
*We were able to put this night together!
*We had the chance to plan a huge night like this and gain awesome, valuable experience for the future
*Made friends with people in the community

Threats:
*The ticket price in this economy kept people away- not selling as many tickets as normal/not raising as much money as last year
*Not getting the word out to enough people that might have came if they knew about it
*Needs bigger/hotter items that would draw people in

Evaluation of Mean in Green

Planning my own basketball theme night was a huge learning experience. I thought it would be simple and that the hardest part was coming up with a cute theme for the night and everything else would just fall into place. Well that wasn't the case...

1) My event was “It’s All About Prevention” with Bobcat Athletics on Jan. 29. I helped ATSO, the Athletic Training Student Organization, plan their emphasis night. I worked with Kirk Armstrong to plan this night. ATSO had a Tape Off (ankle taping competition) and a Knock Out basketball competition during the halftimes along with a raffle to win two date night packages.
Itinerary for the night:
Women's Game
First Half- Media Timeout- student reading PSA
Halftime- Tape-off competition
Second Media Timeout- announce who won the 1st drawing
Men's Game
First Half Media Timeout- student read PSA
Halftime - Knock Out competition
Second Half Media Timeout- announce the date night drawing

2) I would say that the night was a success. All the details for the night went off without a hitch. The whole evening was smooth, the events during the halftimes were great, and ATSO made a good amount of money with their raffle. The attendance for the Women's game was pretty good and the Mens game was PACKED! My clients, Kirk Armstrong and GCSU Athletics, were completely satisfied with the night and that's all that matters to me.

3) The best learning moment from my event was dealing with a difficult client. I never thought that I would be met with such resistance. It was hard to not take it personally. I'm glad I had to go through all those hoops with him in this type of setting instead of experiencing it on a tougher level in the professional world.

4) The one thing I wish I could do over would be dealing with my client. I hate that someone views me in a weird way for no reason. Maybe if I had met in person first instead of an email then everything would have been spelled out and not confusing to begin with.

5) I'd grade my event an A. My first reaction was to write a B based on the internal communication and struggles that happened but then I realized that those elements don't matter to the overall success of the night. They help me grow as a professional but in regards to the basketball night, it really doesn't matter. I'd say an A because everything went as smooth as possible.

6) I think consistency is the most important thing in order to keep "Mean in Green" alive. We need to keep the core elements the same every single time and keep reminding people of them. I think the most important parts of a Mean in Green event is the logo, the name, and wearing green. We need to emphasis wearing green in all descriptions of a Mean in Green event in order for people to pick up on the fact that GCSU Athletics wants fans in green at games! It's the easiest and most effective way to unify us as GCSU Athletic Fans!

Oh MillyVegas.... oh Ben Roethlisberger...

This past week, Milledgeville has been home to media vans and reporters, a sight most have never seen before. As a mass communication student in this community I can see both sides to this debacle. It's neat to see what professionals do in high profile/breaking news type stories. But as a lover of this community and school, it is frustrating to see what lengths the media will go to in order to get a scoop. In class, Pate called it "Drive-by reporting" comparing it to a drive-by shooting... they come in, disrupt, cause tension, get the story, and get out of town, leaving everyone to deal with the strain their presence created.
Dr. Miller asked some questions on her blog concerning these reporters....

What did you learn this week about the nature of media coverage in a time of crisis or emergency?
~The nature of media coverage in a time of crisis or emergency is FAST, FAST, FAST! It's pretty cutthroat! They want the details first and it doesn't matter to them who they tick off, hurt, or embarrass. As long as they have the stories as they develop then they are golden.

What's the one lesson of crisis public relations you'll always remember from this event? What is your takeaway from this, as a practitioner?
~It is important to speak first on behalf of your client so that the story everyone is talking about is the one you want them to hear. Once a side gets presented, the court of public opinion has already cast their judgment. You have to make sure it is in your favor by getting your story out the way you want it, before anyone else has a chance to sway peoples minds.

And what would you like to tell the people of the world who have a whole new impression of Milledgeville?
~Milledgeville is a wonderful, small, southern town. It is our home away from home. An incident like this would have happened regardless of the actual town Roethlisberger was in. Milledgeville is one of the safest cities I've been in and this incident doesn't change how we feel about this town. And yes, the police chief may sound a little southern, esp with a name like Blue, but he's a cop, not a public speaker so give him a break.

Tip That Auction!

I enjoyed reading The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. The book was a smart, observant read. It made me want to go look up the other books by the author and read those as well.

The biggest key point that this book is trying to make is that every fad, trend, or popular item has a point at which the popularity “tips” from average to a success. It took specific instances and analyzed their tipping points to figure out what made them popular. It also looked at the three types of people involved with making things tip in our society. The three people are the Connectors, the Mavens, and the Salesmen.

The Connectors are “people with a special gift for bringing the world together”; they have to know a lot of people. Connectors have a “truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances”. A Maven is “one who accumulates knowledge”; “a person who has information on a lot of different products or prices or places”. “This is the person who connects people to the marketplace and has the inside scoop on the marketplace”. A Salesman has the “skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing”. If I had to put myself in one of these categories of people, I would be a Salesman. I could possibly be a Connector, because every friend that I have belongs to their own group of friends that I’m connected to as well. My friends are scattered and very diverse. I think Salesman above a Connector because people have always believed everything I say. For some reason people trust me and the things I say. I have the ability to convince people to do things. In the book it describes Tom Gau as having “energy, enthusiasm, charm likeability, and more”. There is just something about me that has the same kind of affect on people.

Finding the tipping point to something is the key to making it a success. A lot of the instances in the book discussed the tipping point by looking back on what happened, but if one could discover this before then they would be very successful. We are in the midst of planning the Athletic Auction. Pinpointing things that we believe will make this auction “tip” will make our event a success. I think our theme for the night is an essential element to making this Auction tip. Our theme will get the attendees excited about the evening and will create the perfect atmosphere for them to feel appreciated and in return spend money on the Auction. We need to make sure that everything that we do (the invitations, program, decorations, etc) looks classy and set apart. They need to feel as if the money the spend will go to a good cause and that they are loved by Athletics. Even the small touches make a big difference in making something the evening spectacular. Without those touches it will just seem mediocre. Making sure it’s classy not cheesy should be our goal. Question: What can we do to make the auction tip? Answer: Details, details, details!!!!!

Fishing For Bobcat Success

This week my team (Leah, Lauren, and myself) pitched our theme for the Athletic Auction. Our theme did not get picked but we are excited to work with the other theme and get this auction planning going! The hands on experience with clients and event planning are the elements of PR that I LOVE!! In order to do the pitch we were given the event (Athletic Auction) and a $1,000 budget. Our team went through a couple of ideas before we finally settled on "Fishing For Bobcat Success". We wanted to highlight the success of GCSU Athletics. Last year we won the Commissioners Cup, which tells the world that we excel at sports here at GCSU. The community members that come to this auction and spend their money year after year need to know that their money is put to good use and we have a reputable program. We also thought about who our audience is and what they would like. We live in a Lake Community and the people that come to this auction want to be comfortable while having a good time, so we decided to focus on a fishing theme. We wanted to decorate the gym in fishing paraphernalia. We were going to bring in the fishing team's boat and set up in the corner, have fishing poles, netting, lures, tackle boxes and fish covering everything. With everyone's help,we know we could have turned it into a cute night and we hope that the theme gets implemented another year. For now, we must shift gears and create a beautiful, glamorous evening with the Stars of GCSU Athletics!

Guest Speaking at Flagler

This week my PR class from GCSU had to opportunity to travel to Flagler College and speak to a Sports Marketing class and their PRSSA chapter. We left Sunday morning and arrived in St. Augustine Sunday evening around 5:00. Flagler put us up in the World Golf Village Renaissance Hotel. Once we settled in we met with two professors from Flagler and ate dinner at Cady Shack, the restaurant Bill Murray owns. Monday morning we had the amazing opportunity of touring PGA Productions (soon to be PGA Entertainment)! We were able to see everything they did as a production studio, from where they store their film to their TV studio, editing rooms, and recording studios. It was amazing to see what a real life; professional production company looks like and see their day-to-day operations. We headed over to beautiful Flagler College and spoke to a Sports Marketing class. These students seemed eager to hear about what we at Georgia College do to promote our Athletic teams and games. It was a great experience being able to simply share what we do and see other students gain insight from it. After speaking to the students we went on a tour of the campus. Georgia College is a beautiful, historic college but Flagler is a different kind of gorgeous! That night we went and cheered on our Bobcat Basketball Teams as they both played and defeated Flagler! It was definitely fun to be able to cheer for your home team during an away game! I think they needed us there, cheering them on, in order to win! Tuesday, we had breakfast at Beachcombers, a little restaurant on the beach, and then headed back to Flagler to speak one last time. We listened to their PRSSA chapter tell us of all the exciting and innovative things they do at Flagler. I wasn’t aware that we were going to get to hear about what they did, but I was glad we got to because they are doing some awesome things around St. Augustine! After speaking to them we ate lunch in their amazing, Hogwarts-isq cafeteria! Talk about some amazing food! After spending time with our Flagler friends we finally said bye and headed back to Milledgeville. We will see some of them again when they come in April to see firsthand what we do with promoting athletics. Besides the 5 hour (maybe longer) van ride, the trip was a completely positive experience! I am so thankful for this opportunity that Flagler University and Dr. Ginger Carter Miller and Al Weston gave us!