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!!!!!

Twitter

After learning in class all about the joys of twitter, I have been trying really hard to update it multiple times a day. It's difficult when you don't have a phone that allows you to use twitter as you go, so I feel a little silly updating it whenever I get near a computer but I'm still making the effort to do so! I am currently following 50 people and have 21 followers. I have gone through and added people/companies that I think will professionally help me in some way or another but we will see what comes from that. Two random people are following me at the moment and I have no idea how they found me and why the would want to follow me but I'm letting them just so it looks like I have followers, haha! I'm about to get unlimited text messaging so maybe once I do that, I'll feel as if twitter is more useful because I'll be able to text in updates as I'm out and about. If anyone has any more tips on how to make twitter a more useful part of my life, let me know! P.S. the title is a link to my twitter account :-)

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!

Catching Up With The Times

Part of my to do list for this weekend consists of creating a twitter account and a blog. It's 2010 and I'm a senior in college and all I use is facebook. I feel as if I am way behind on the phenomenon of tweeting and blogging so today, this rainy Saturday, is my day to catch up with the times. Everyone will have to bear with me as I figure out my twitter account and this blog, but I have a feeling that once I get the hang of it, you won't be able to get rid of me!