Nikki

PR practitioners know the importance of having a well-informed public, and realize the responsibility they have when it comes to handling public issues. Usually an issue can be settled through a campaign or debate, but sometimes an issue maybe too sudden or threatening to take the time to come up with a well-planned campaign. This category of public issue is called crisis, and it happens when the decision of a certain issue is so great that it could mark a turning point that will change everything for an organization and its publics.

As I have said before in previous blogs, I have spent my summers working at several large summer camps. One of them operates out of Missouri and Colorado, with thirteen different facilities that host more than 30,000 campers nationwide each summer.

In the summer of 2002, one of the camps that was located in Colorado had to shut down in the middle of one of its sessions, send all of the staff and campers home, and cancel the remainder of its summer sessions. This was due to enormous brush fires less than 20 miles from the camp. Although the fires were put out fairly quickly, no more were started the rest of the summer and nobody at the camp was injured, they still made the decision to shut down. There were several people on the staff who were against this decision, including some parents. They believed that the camp should have continued operating after it was evident that all was well.

This event qualifies as a public issue because it had two or more strongly opposing arguments, it emotionally involved a large portion of people and the decision had an impact on people’s lives. It also qualifies as a public issue crisis because it was an issue that had to be settled imediately because it was so unexpected and threatening. It was not an issue that could be decided after a lot of debate and campaigning, it was an immediate issue that needed action quickly.

The ultimate resolution of this crisis changed a lot of things for the camp and its publics. For one thing, there were no more campers or staff there for the rest of the summer. Staff were not paid for what they thought was going to be a summer job, and campers were not reimbursed. Because of the way the camp handled the crisis this particular branch camp had a hard time filling up each summer. While the other camps were still thriving, this one was struggling to fill each session with enough campers and staff to keep it open.

Fortunately the camp has completely recovered from their lack in good judgement, and are not suffering any more enrollment or staff problems. They realized their mistake, and did their best to make up for the damage caused to so many employees and family. This situation is proof that how an organization handles quick decisions in a public issue crisis is extremely important. One decision made in the heat of the moment can make or break you.

Community relations is an essential part to any successful organization. Good community relations will have both the organization and the community benefiting from the other. Without CR, an organization can lose credibility and crucial support that is necessary, especially in times of crisis or need.

The old-fashioned view of CR was that a company did not owe anything to the community based on the fact that its community duties were fulfilled already. Organizations believed that things such as taxes, facilities loaned, and wages paid to employees sufficed as community obligations. This kind of view can be detrimental to an organization’s reputation and flourishment.

I was thinking about this the other day while watching an old Friends episode.In this episode, Monica and Phoebe want to rent out a room at a local hotel to host a party in which they can showcase their catering skills. Their goal is that the people in the community who come to the party will hire them for future catering jobs, thus beginning their new catering business.

The hotel in question is very upscale and snobby, and they initially turn down the girls’ request to rent them space when they realize they don’t have the money to pay for it. The manager tells them that the hotel makes charitable donations to people like them, and belittles the girls. The girls get Chandler, who has enough money to pay for the room, tocome back and rent it for them. Of course, the hotel employees treat Chandler like a king. While having their party, the manager discovers the trick and kicks everyone out and bans the friends from the premises forever.

Because of the hotel’s old-fashioned views of community relations, Phoebe, Monica and their friends develop distrustof the hotel and vow not to support them in the future. Although this example is only an episode of a TV sitcom, real life situations such as this happen all the time. An organization’s target market may not be within its community, but building and maintaining positive community relations is still vital to success.

I’m doing an internship in the External Affairs department in the College of Education next semester, and I’m pumped! This will be my first hands-on experience related to PR outside of the classroom and activity related projects. I think I’m ready for it.

I went in to talk to my supervisor today, Michael Tullier, who is the Director of External Affairs. He is APR certified and has received a lot of recognition for his contributions to the field. I’m excited to work alongside him and gain insight into his knowledge of Public Relations.

He went over the Internship objectives with me, and we discussed all of the various projects I’d be working on. The list covers a lot of important aspects. What do you think?

• development, planning and operation of special events for faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and special college guests
• development of printed communications, including writing for and design of direct mail pieces, brochures, magazines and other college materials
• development and management of online communications, especially the college’s website
• contributing to the college’s overall efforts in marketing, branding, reputation management and image enhancement
• contributing to the office’s role in supporting the college’s development function, which includes communications and special-event execution

He showed me the publications and pamphlets they have done in the past so I could get an idea of what they were looking for. I’m already forming ideas for stories and new things.

As for the third objective, I feel I am most prepared for this after taking Robert’s class. Online communication, particulary website management, is going to be my middle name! Watch out for the College of Education’s website next semester, I’ll be taking it to new heights! (Let’s see just how far they’ll let me go).

To check out the current website, pre-Nikki demise (just kidding), go here.

Wish me luck!

At $122 million, England’s Updown Court is the most expensive house in the world. The mansion boasts five swimming pools, a wine cellar,a commercial kitchen, tennis courts, a gymnasium, a cinema room and even a bowling alley. It also has two smaller mansions that sleep up to eight servants per building.

Rhymer Investments in the UK is overseeing the building design and project, which is currently nearing completion. Chairman Leslie Allen-Vercoe is the developer of Updown Court, and is targeting new, up and coming billionaires with the mansion. Allen-Vercoe views Updown Court as the first of its kind in a brand new market. He says that more billionaires are established every year who want to buy real estate similar to Updown Court. These “new money” billionaires are eager to show off their wealth, and buying  a mansion is the perfect way to do so. Allen-Vercoe is planning on expanding this market to Bel Air and New York next year.

$95.4 million was spent obtaining and renovating the estate. “The biggest challenge was putting myself into the billionaire class mindset,” says Allen-Vercoe. “What would I want when money was no object?” Nothing was overlooked when it came to amenities such as oak and marble panelings, and lavish Italian-style bathrooms. Allen-Vercoe even installed a windowless panic room, to set buyer’s terrorism fears at ease.

Allen-Vercoe wants to publicize Updown Court as a home that balances luxury and livability. Today’s billionaire desires not only a place of breathtaking splendor and luxury, but a home that is still truly a home. Updown Court attempts to encompass all of these things.

Rhymer Investments 

 

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was born and raised in the South by parents who are both undeniably Yankees. Once I started school at Auburn, I realized that I’d been missing out on a time-honored tradition in the South: hunting.

Of course, hunting is popular nationwide, especially in states like Wyoming and Colorado where big game hunting is outrageous. (Not to mention insanely expensive). But in Alabama hunting seems to be much more than a fun, recreational activity. It’s a way of life.

It’s a little scary that the majority of men here own some type of gun and know more about whitetail deer management then they do about the modern English language. Come October every truck bed in town carries a deer stand and at least three camouflaged items. If you happen to have your window rolled down next to one of these trucks, you might even catch a pleasant whiff of someone’s latest kill.

In keeping with my image as a bel esprit, I decided to jump on the hunting band wagon last year. I went hunting for the first time in my life last October and fell in love with it! There’s just something about being outdoors all decked out in camo that is so thrilling. Even if you don’t ever see or kill any wildlife, it’s an experience that I never got to enjoy growing up. I know it may sound crazy to some, but don’t knock it before you try it.

Anyway, this year I decided to get my hunter’s license and make it official. I spent a good month taking an online hunter safety course, which culminated in a field day event in Jasper, Ala. A girlfriend of mine who grew up in Dallas also took the course, and we drove up to Jasper together.

I don’t know how many people have heard of Jasper, but to two girls from big cities Jasper is the kind of place we thought only existed on television. We pulled up in the only sedan in a parking lot full of big monster trucks. We were running late, as city girls are apt to do, and walked into a room full of 15 year old country boys.

Needless to say, the entire Wildlife Management Team was a little shocked, and we basically got stared at the whole day. They also made us demonstrate some things I’m pretty sure weren’t necessary, such as lying in a prone position on an old tarp. (They said it was to see if we knew the proper shooting positions, but I didn’t see anyone else doing it).

Well, we passed our test and received a neat little orange badge, which I am seriously thinking about putting on a chain around my neck I’m so proud. It’s kind of my rite of passage into the Southern world. I’m a hunter! (Who’s scared besides me?)

The PR major at Auburn is required to take about 15 hours of journalism credits, and this semester I will be finishing mine. I can’t say I’m sad about it, though – journalistic writing is much different then writing for public relations. Learning to make the transition and remember the differences can be tricky and somewhat annoying. Nevertheless, taking these journalism classes is essential to being a trusted and efficient PR professional.

While journalists and PR practitioners are vastly different in their purpose, they cover a lot of the same basics. Both groups deal with the media and communication, and both have a key message they are trying to get out to their publics. And now both groups are playing a big part in the overwhelming engulfment of blogging.

The American Journalism Review recently published an article called “Journalism’s Backseat Drivers”, written by Barb Palser. The article was about how blogging is taking over the news media. Bloggers are pointing the finger of blame at journalists, claiming they are too lazy and incompetent to report the news fairly and accurately. So the bloggers are doing it for them.

Bloggers are also being credited as the fast finds for good stories. “Bloggers do more than skewer journalists,” wrote Palser. “Journalists have come to depend on them as diggers and aggregators of information, conduits of public opinion and even media and policy pundits.”

Of course not all bloggers are watching and critiquing the news media. Many blogs out there are about celebrities, personal issues, health, etc. There are a specific group of bloggers that track news media professionals, many who are involved in public relations. This group is the group that Journalist’s have to watch at all times and be ready to counteract their information with something better and more worthwhile.

It’s a rough battle, and it seems that journalism and public relations might be against each other again. I wonder who will win?

I have been involved with cheerleading for the past 13 years, as both a recreational cheerleader, competitive cheerleader and a coach. Many people have the distorted view of cheerleading as a group of giggly, unathletic girls that stand on the sidelines during a sports game, jump up and down and scream, and look gorgeous. This view is outdated and completely incorrect.

Let me introduce you to all-star cheerleading: cheerleaders that are not sponsored by a school and do not cheer at games. They strictly compete at local, regional and national competitions. All-star cheerleaders are some of the most athletic kids you will find. Their routines consist of high-energy, elite tumbling and stunts that take years to master and perfect. There is also skilled dancing and jumps in these routines that require amazing skill. Anyone who has never seen an all-star cheerleading routine would be utterly amazed and wowed by the performance and skill.

Since its inception almost 20 years ago, all-star cheerleading has sky-rocketed in popularity. There are currently thousands of all-star gyms in the U.S. alone, with as many as 60 different organizations that host local, regional and national championship competitions.

Until recently, these competition companies each had their own set of divisions, rules and safety guidelines. This made it hard on the all-star gyms, because they had to change their routines to fit each set of guidelines each time they went to a different competition. There was also no real way to determine who was a “national champion”, since so many companies held national championships.

The solution to all of these problems came about in January of 2004, with the formation of the group the United States All-Star Federation, or the USASF. This group was formed by several CEO’s of the major competition companies and gym owners. They decided upon a uniform set of rules, divisions, levels and safety guidelines for all companies to follow. They also began a “Worlds Championship”, that brings together the national champions from each competition company to compete for the best of the best.

The USASF is a leader and innovator for all-star cheerleading worldwide. Many international competition companies follow its rules, and because of the USASF all-star cheerleading is being taken seriously.

For more information, go to http://www.usasf.net/

I wrote about my trip to the PRCA Conference in Huntsville, Ala. in an earlier post. While there, I attended numerous presentations and sessions, and learned a lot of information about building a succesful organization in the PR industry. I will be sharing many of these ideas in my posts.

One of my favorite sessions was called “The Art of Market Research”, and was given by Gene Pinder of PinOak Analytics. He started off by giving a little pop quiz to see how much his audience actually knew about market research. (I even scored higher then most of the professionals!)

Pinder explained that companies should participate in market research to identify marketing problems and opportunities, and to generate, evaluate and refine their actions. Pinder went over research basics, such as Quantitative and Qualitative research and the difference between reliability and validity.

Pinder then discussed true random sample, and told his audience there was no such thing! There is always bias and limitations with true random sampling, but you should still try to achieve it. Market researchers tend to make a lot of assumptions about random sampling such as: people are not always at home, people may speak a different language or not agree to do the survey. It’s important for researches to keep these things in mind, but not base their research off it.

Optimal sample size depends on your organizations’ cost constraints, data analysis and the degree of precision your aiming for. Pinder suggested a 200 minimum as a starting point for quantitative research, and from there you can add as needed.

Pinder explained the value of sampling error, confidence rate and margin of error. Alot of times researchers leave these out of the results, usually because they are misunderstood or because people don’t know how to read them. The website http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/moe.html will automatically compute these ratios for you.

It’s important to remember that people typically overstimate what they will and won’t do, and researchers should immediately discount what someone says they will do. This difference is best explained as stated and derived importance. Stated is what people say they will do, and derived is what people will actually do.

This session gave me a lot of useful information about doing market research. I am currently putting together a survey to research job satisfaction at Auburn University, and these points have helped me put together my survey and plan my research.

Service Journalism is a relatively new concept when it comes to the traditional, age-old way of reporting pure facts and hard news just as they are. Although service journalism still does these things, the approach it takes to writing is very different. In the busy, modern world of today people just don’t have time to sit down and read newspapers and magazines like they used to. Service Journalism is about writing for people to meet their needs as an individual, and it has to be done quickly.

In the book “Beyond the Inverted Pyramid” by The Missouri Group, the writers state that there are three things that set service journalism apart from traditional writing. They are:
1. quickly shows the reader that the information is useful;
2. gives information to the reader in the most usable way; and
3. tells the reader how to take action or how to get more information.

Most SJ articles will read something like, “How to get more Bang for your Buck”, and “You can Save Thousands on Insurance”. They are typically your advice columns and informational pieces that allow readers on the go to get what they need quickly and easily. The Missouri Group says that the best service journalism is the kind that incites readers to take action. So if you write a piece giving readers insight into the lives of Hurricane Katrina victims, your ultimate goal would be for them to make donations to the Red Cross, or physically help if they are able.

It’s also important to use words like “save”, “quickly” and “easily” often. Readers want to know how the information will save them money, time, work, etc., and they want to know fast. SJ articles work best when they have easy-to-read information, such as bulleted lists and extras, such as a summarization box or sidenotes. This makes it even easier for a hurried reader to obtain the most pertinent information.

Service journalism is not just for “how-to” articles and advice books. It can and is being used in all types of media: online and print newspapers, press releases, websites, magazines, newsletters, etc. It’s a great approach to writing that encompasses the lifestyle of so many people.

This past weekend, I went to the PRCA (Public Relations Council of Alabama) conference in Huntsville, Ala. The trip was pretty eventful, to say the least, and I’ve decided to share all the details of the conference in my blog. Enjoy!

Auburn University has its own student PRCA chapter, and out of that group six of us went to the conference. It’s a good four hour drive from Auburn to Huntsville, but we kept ourselves busy with stimulating and intellectual conversation about the deep-rooted meaning of life. (Actually, we had a blast doing riddles and playing games!) By the time we got to Huntsville it was late, and none of the old folk were up, so we spent the rest of the night poring over the speaker profiles and choosing which sessions we were going to. (And doing more riddles.)

The next morning we woke up around 8 a.m. to eat breakfast and register. Needless to say, this was probably the most memorable experience for me, seeing as how my milk was very, very sour. I found this out not by smelling it, or noticing the large chunks coming out of the carton as I poured it over my cereal, but as I took a BIG, GIANT swig of it! (But we did get free breakfast.)

The rest of the day was spent going to one presentation after another. It felt very professional and exciting to do this, and I had a great time taking extensive notes at each session and asking the speakers questions afterwards. My favorite presentation of the day was by Nick Parker, Vice President Exhibits, of Inergi Design Services. It was called “Three Dimensional Communication”, and it was about the art of making successful 3D communications tools.

The highlight of the weekend was at the Medallion Awards Banquet, where Auburn took home top honors! Not only did several of our student win awards for their work, but we also received Student Chapter of the Year. War Eagle! That night we went to a social at the fabulous Monte Sano Lodge, complete with a fun, local band and barbecue. I won a cash prize of $60 for talking to the most PR professionals, none of which I have left.

The next morning we got up to do it all over again. I had two favorite presentations this day; the first was by Roger Brashears of Jack Daniel Distillery. He is the Spokesperson and Historian for the brewery, and he showed a hilarious special about Jack Daniel from the 1960s. The second was Dee Rambeau’s session called “Designing an Effective Virtual Press Office”. He is the Managing Partner of DVCO Technology, as well as a fellow blogger and mentor of PRblogs.org.

I was sad to leave at the end of the conference, even though I was exhausted and had a lot of homework to do once I got back to Auburn. Being at the PRCA conference got me so excited about graduating and beginning my career. All of the people I met were so helpful and encouraging. I will definitely be at the next conference this spring.