Key concepts: Cluetrain Manefesto (Ch. 1)

While it is hard to pinpoint just a few key concepts from this highly informative reading here are a few that I found personally interesting and noteworthy:

• We are all human beings, we all have a right to communicate openly and freely, not restiricted to manuals, guidelines, or management.
• You must experience the Internet as a communication outlet for yourself to learn, mistakes are accepted and valuable.
• Boils down to a “two-way street” or in other words the two-way symmetrical model.
• The markets are conversations: ”word gets around”, “speech once freed is a powerful drug”.

BB Readings: Sept. 25th

The first blog that I checked out for our blackboard readings today is Katie Paine’s blog on measuring PR.  I think one of the main posts that interested me the most was the post linking me to the information on how social media is used by nearly 70% of adults.  I found this post very interesting because it points out that there are so many different forms of social media out there today.  I was thinking with a narrow mind because I was only thinking of the new arenas that I have learned about in class such as twitter, blogs, and PROpenmic. Outside of these outlets are facebook, youtube, and even ebay that I was not even considering because I participate in them so regularly.

On that note, we also read Paull Young’s post on his Charity:water social media case study.  One point that Paull noted was that facebook was far less effective than twitter and I think the very fact that I took facebook for granted as social media in the before paragraph is a good indication why this outlett was uneffective for the case study.  To embellish, I go to facebook every now and then, maybe not even every day just to see if someone has written on my wall or posted pictures of me etc. because I do not recieve emails, or I might visit the site for a specific reason, like to message someone for example.  The only time I look at birthdays is if I have some free time and see the link on the side. More particularly, on the new facebook it is even harder to find the birthdays so I am not as accustomed to this.  With twitter, on the other hand, all it is composed of is the statuses of different people so that is what I am going there to find and to view, plus it is not complicated and is updated regularly for me.  Therefore, I enjoyed this post and the information found between facebook and twitter. Lets hope all social media does not grow this “lazy” with me…

Chapter 9: Tactics of PR

Key Ideas:

• Tactics- A public relations action designed to have a particular effect on an organization’s relationship with a particular public.
• Third phase of the PR process, after research and planning.
• Tactics & Traditional Publics: Employees, News Media, Investors, Community Groups, Governments, Customers, Voters, and Businesses.
• Accomplishing the Tactics: Delegation, Deadlines, Quality control, Comm. within the team, Comm, with clients or supervisors, and Constant evaluation.

Chapter 8: Planning

The beginning of this chapter gave an example of bad public relations and bad planning through the Millennium Dome. This made be curious so I googled “bad public relations” + “bad planning”. One of the most interesting stories I found was about the 1965 caravan of Stars. This was a great public relations move that went really really wrong and then had a decent recovery. Check it out at: http://tiny.cc/uuz1V.

Moving on to the main points from this chapter:

• 3 Categories for Plans: ad hoc, standing, contingency
• PR plans have goals and these goals must tie in with the mission-statements and values
• Good plans are: realistic, flexible, win-win propositions, and values-driven

Chapter 7 Reading

Research and Evaluation:

• PR needs a way to be measurable otherwise jobs are easily lost, therefore we have research and evaluation.
• Two key questions: What do I want to know?/How will I gather that information?
• 5 ways to conduct PR research: Secondary (library) research, Feedback research, Communication audits, Focus groups, and Surveys.

Chapter 4 Reading

In this chapter I realized:

• the organizations of the “publics” in PR (traditional/non, latent/aware/active, intervening, primary/secondary, internal/external, domestic/international)
• the role that government plays
• that questions must be answered before a relationship can be built with a public

I was particularly unaware the role of government on PR but after taking a political science class I can relate a lot to the practice of PR. For example, in political science we studied the importance of gatekeepers and now I can make that connection to PR through press releases and the Kablooie Microwave Popcorn example.

History of PR/Ch. 3

There were a few central ideas which I derived from this chapter but the most central idea that surprised me and made me glad to know more about PR history is the fact that:

• PR is not as new a profession as I once believed and also that it has been in practice in some way, shape, or form since the beginning of time.

Other important points about PR history:

• PR has been slowly evolving and is shaped not only by the happenings of the world in which it lives (9/11, p.80) but also the people. ( Ivy Ledbetter Lee, p.67).
• PR has been visible in many points throughout our history, much in unpaid positions (Ex: woman’s rights) as well, as seen in Dr. V’s correspondence with Dr. Russell.

Chapter two reading/ PR job skills

When reading chapter two there were a few words that jumped out out at me:

• Research
• Write
• Create
• Willingness

I find that through the different job opportunities these four words are key. You must do your research to understand the organizations you are wishing to affiliate with and when you join the work force you need to continuously do the research to keep a good relationship with your public and company. You must also have strong writing skills. To be able to have strong writing samples for a portfolio, to be able to write a resume, and also your skills need to continue into your profession. Creativity is another key concept to obtaining a job in public relations. I have seen through my brief study thus far that to be on top in this field you must be creative and willing to try and adapt to new things. Finally, you must have a willingness to try and understand many different viewpoints and you must be willing to admit that you are not all-encompassing.  There are many things you will have to learn and much knowledge to acquire. Having willingness during the entire process of a job aplication will show your employer that you are open and excited to learn.

This chapter was particularly interesting me and answered many questions I have had circling through my mind about the field of public relations.

Chapter 13 Readings

The title of this chapter is “Public Relations and Marketing”. I found this chapter very interesting because I was not fully aware of the difference between the two practices. Here are some of the main points from chapter thirteen:

• Mass media is declining due to an increase in individualized communication such as email and text messaging.
• Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) – one of the most popular forms of consumer-focused marketing. (IMC focuses on the individual specifically, uses databases and a variety of approaches)
• 3 Pillars of IMC: – Advertising (controlled)   – Marketing (research, creating, refining, & promoting) -Public Relations (relationships, many publics)

In addition to chapter 13, we as a class also took a look at Bill Sledzik’s blog on what PR is NOT. In this blog it was mainly stressed how PR is above and beyond all things NOT marketing! It was an interesting blog, filled with down-to-earth language and definitions that I found very helpful in conjunction with my reading from the book.  For example, Sledzik cites marketing’s main goal is to “move product through the pipeline”.

Visit the blogger himself at: toughsledding.wordpress.com

Chapter One Readings

Chapter one of our book, Public Relations: A Values-Driven Approach, is centered around giving the reader an overview of the study of public relations while focusing on some key models and terms. It is mainly mentioned that public relations is a unique and highly diverse study. To derive a definition of public relations is often times very hard and also depends upon the ideals of the person doing the defining. I feel that the key words that jumped out at me to help me better understand this term are relationship and management. Hence, the very first key definition of this study is that it is a management function. In addition, the book goes on to state how it is a planned activity which I find impressive because much creativity and thought must go into this process. Thirdly, this study is a research-based science and is socially responsible.

In chapter one there are also varying models that lend a more concrete dynamic to the study of public relations. The first model mentioned is the Hunt-Grunig Model. This is a model that deals primarily with the people who work in public relations and the specific way in which they interact with their publics. The four primary areas are:

1. Press agentry/publicity model- deals with media, the truth is not essential, most widely practiced
2. Public information model- accurate information, “news reporters”, second most practiced
3. Two-way asymmetrical model- influence publics, “selfish”, least practiced
4. Two-way symmetrical model- preferred my Hunt and Grunig, conflict resolution, third most practiced

Next, the Traditional four-step model is outlined. This model doesn’t focus so much on the people who practice public relations, but on the process itself. The four key terms that form in a linear sequence for this model are:

• Research- discovery phase
• Planning- strategy phase
• Communication- execution phase
• Evaluation- measurement of how effective

While this model is simplistic, for this very reason it is not as reflective of the real world. The dynamic model still uses the four key terms of the traditional four-step model but they are all connected (p. 15).

Lastly there is the values-driven approach to public relations. While it is easy to say that this study deals with relationship and the management of them, one must also keep in mind what their public and the one in which they are working with value. Whether it be a dedication to organization within the company or the knowledge that the public highly respond to creativity, these simplistic but important values must be taken into consideration. The figure on page eighteen shows the same figure of the dynamic model and advised one to focus on the core values interlocking this figure.