By: Tyler Madsen Many of us may have already seen the numerous “fire” tweets posted by popular fast food chain restaurant Wendy’s. Wendy’s is a company that immediately pops into people’s head when talking about brand awareness thru social media. They put a comedic twist into their tweets towards other company’s while subtly hinting at other competitor’s flaws. The following tweet is one of their more recent viral roasts towards McDonalds: The article hints at just how powerful social media is by using the example of Carter Wilkerson who tweeted at Wendy’s asking how many retweets he’d need to get free chicken nuggets for a year. 3.6 million retweets later Carter got his wish. This was a great use of social media by Wendy’s to extend their brand awareness. This moment is something that will remain in potential customers heads the next time they are selecting a place to eat. With social media, Wendy’s says they receive about 10,000 mentions a week that are being replied to by the customer relations team of about 16 employees. This is a prime example of how the public relations field is growing and including larger range of mediums than it was 10 or 15 years ago.
Source: http://www.dispatch.com/news/20171124/wendys-embraces-social-media-to-connect-with-learn-about-customers
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By: Mary Claire Reagan Relevant in today’s society, companies view their product as a direct reflection of who they are as an institution and organization. Twitter, is just one of the many companies that embodies this theory and is now changing its product to match their own company’s character. In the past, Twitter would often verify, or put a blue check mark, next to well known, individual accounts to signify that that was a main account rather than a spoof account. This served as a way to decipher between a LeBron James fan page and LeBron James’ own personal twitter account. However, Twitter has now shifted its guidelines in that only accounts that comply to company rules will be verified. This is one way the company is taking steps to protect the companies own values and reflect who they are on the internet, rather than “verifying” accounts that are not consistent with their own mantras. In order to make this change, Twitter is now “reviewing” twitter accounts and debating whether they accounts verifiable. By Rachel Zetwick
In the summer of 2016, I was a congressional intern for the Office of Speaker Paul D. Ryan. At the beginning of my internship, I expressed interest in working with the Speaker’s press team as I wanted to put what I was learning in my communication classes to use. Here are three things that I learned while working with Speaker Ryan’s team. 1. Build relationships with members of the media Throughout my internship, I was invited to attend numerous Speaker press conferences. I noticed that his press team and media members had built strong, respectful relationships with each other. This allowed for news to be provided to the public in an efficient and effective manner. 2. Think proactively about social media One of my intern tasks was to research the following base of the Speaker’s Twitter account. I learned about the importance of understanding a governmental official’s following, and how social media is an easy means of communication for congressional members and their constituents. I also learned about the importance of hashtags during a political campaign. 3. Be prepared for media appearances at all times Throughout my internship, the Speaker was required to make unexpected media appearances quite often. Since my internship was during an election year, this was even more true as the Speaker had to be prepared to continue his campaign while also answering unexpected media questions related to the election. By: Kayla Speros News is taking a new way of travel in our media driven society. Social media is taking over the industry which newspapers and TV used to dominate. It is no longer just the obvious forms of social media like Facebook, but has even made its way to Snapchat. Recode.net says that President Donald Trump plays a big role in the switch. I’m sure we all know how social media “obsessed” President Trump is. We’ve all heard about the tweets! He doesn’t make them easy to miss. This has brought Twitter up to the third most used social media cite to gather news from. The Pew Research Center says that it’s not even the younger generation alone. 55 percent of Americans 50 or older say they get at least some of their news from social media. Social media is giving us a new, easy, accessible way to get news. That seems great right? And it is! For the most part. Social media has made it just as easy to share news as it is to receive it. This gives everyone a platform to share whatever they want to share. Even if it isn’t necessarily true. Just something to keep in mind while scrolling though all the new political drama. Sources: https://www.recode.net/2017/9/7/16270900/social-media-news-americans-facebook-twitter https://jonathangreye.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/3059718-poster-p-1-heres-how-to-use-social-media-at-each-stage-of-your-career.jpg By: Kiley Harris Social media is becoming one of the most important media outlets for companies and their branding strategies. A recent article from PR Week discussed a study done by Kantar Millward Brown and the University of Oxford’s business school that looked into the importance social medial. This study discovered that campaigns that were run on Facebook and Instagram had a positive influence on consumer attitudes towards brands. Some had negative effects, but regardless, there was always some sort of influence. This is important for PR majors to understand since social media will always have some sort of impact, and because it is so constant and relevant today. PR professionals can learn from this study how to use to social media to their benefit. They can also learn why some campaigns do not work, in order to avoid these mistakes in the future. PR students still in school should strive to gain social media experience for their resume, or to take social media classes in order to put themselves ahead of others and stand out in the job market. There is a social media class available (MAC 325) to Miami students, that would be a great resource to take advantage of. Young college students already have a good knowledge base of social media, so using this skill to their advantage and building upon it is a great use of time. This study also found that when it comes to branding and social media, campaigns that were more personable had a greater effect on brand awareness and consumer attitudes. This means that digital ads are worth it, but being able to tell a story and be personable is still an important skill set to have, which is important for students searching for jobs to understand. Social media advertising, according to this article, is definitely worth it, but implementing it is specific to each brand and should be experimented with. Since this is such an important medium, gaining experience with social media advertising is a great idea for students hoping to work in PR in the future. By Rachel Zetwick As many PRSSA members prepare to enter the workforce next May, students should get creative when thinking about industries that have job openings. One area of interest is higher education branding and marketing. Here are a few companies that provide public relations efforts to universities across the United States. Ologie https://ologie.com/ Ologie is a branding and marketing organization located in Columbus, Ohio, that provides branding and marketing needs to universities across the United States. The agency prides itself by “connecting donors with powerful advancement campaigns and shifting perceptions of institutions all over the country.” Ologie has provided services to institutions such as Skidmore College, Carnegie Mellon University and Bucknell University. Up and Up https://www.upandup.agency/ Up and Up is a higher education marketing and advertising agency based in Greenville, South Carolina. The organization provides a variety of branding services such as creative plans, digital marketing and general marketing. The company has partnered with universities across By: Lindsay Thomas
While you’re eating turkey and watching the football game this week, you are going to be surprised when you are interrupted with some not so traditional commercial breaks. Instead of your normal two-minute commercial blocks, you will now see six-second commercials taking up majority of the screen while the game is still going on in a small square on the side. What is Fox Sports’ reasoning for doing this nonsense? First and foremost, Fox believes that these types of ads are less disruptive to the viewer than normal commercials currently airing. And second, The National Football League has been struggling with its TV ratings as many viewers are unhappy with the frequency of commercial breaks and interruptions during the game. Ultimately, the goal of this initiative is to increase viewer satisfaction so viewers feel less annoyed when there are frequent commercial breaks. This new endeavor in commercial breaks is a test run to determine the success of engagement with ads and the overall satisfaction of viewers. There will be nine of these ads that will play during the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions Thanksgiving games, which will only replace one typical two-minute and 20-second commercial block. Depending on the overall success of these new advertisements, this strategy could become the new norm during NFL games. So this thanksgiving when you are stuck in your food coma, make sure to pay special attention to the commercials during the game! Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/business/media/nfl-six-second-commercials.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FAdvertising%20and%20Marketing&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=collection&_r=0 By: Hannah Banas When Twitter first launched in 2006, it started gaining exponential popularity. It was a huge success with young people because it was a new and innovative way to communicate with friends. However, as years have passed, CEOs and business owners have started to use Twitter to promote their companies. It seems that as more companies are now tweeting than individuals. Even though people seem to be tweeting less, it is still a viable advertising technique for companies for these reasons. 1. Easy communication with customers People like being able to reach out to a company with ease to give them feedback and ask questions. The easier it is for a customer to connect with a company, the more satisfied they will be. Twitter allows for this quick interaction, so all companies should take advantage. 2. Spread the Word Quickly Twitter allows companies to spread their product or service to people who would otherwise not know about it. It is a cheap and easy way for companies to connect with possible new customers. 3. Free Analytics Since Twitter does not cost companies anything, unless they want their ads to be further up on peoples’ feeds, companies get information on reactions to their ads. They can see whether people like the product based on how many likes and favorites the Tweet gets. By: Sarah Emery A unique benefit of entering the world of public relations is that there are dozens of incredible female role models throughout the industry. Here are four empowering PR professionals making waves and helping inspire the next generation of strong, professional women. Heather Whaling - @prtini Heather Whaling isn’t just the founder of Geben Communication, she is a well-known advocate for paid parental leave and has numerous accolades to back up an incredible and empowering resume. Christine Perkett - @missusP Listing all of Christine’s accomplishments would take days, so here’s a quick rundown - she has founded TWO companies, she’s an awesome working mom and she’s followed by Barack Obama and Ellen Degeneres on Twitter. Dreena Whitfield - @DreenaWhitfield It’s one thing to have your clients featured in Ebony, it’s another to be featured in it yourself as one of a strong group of “Black Women to Know in PR, Tech & Digital Media.” Such is the life of BA mom/former Press Secretary to Cory Booker/entrepreneur Dreena Whitfield. Kate Finley - @kateupdates Kate Finley has many titles: entrepreneur, influencer, speaker, blogger, aspiring dog owner (just to name a few). She founded her digital PR agency, Belle Communications, at age 28 and is an award-winning speaker and PR professional. By Rachel Zetwick This past summer, I was a PR and Marketing Coordinator at the Ohio State Fair. During the first night of the Fair, a ride malfunctioned and killed an 18-year-old man and injured seven. As soon as I got back to my desk after the accident, I received calls from NBC’s “Today” show, CNN and multiple local news networks. While my team and I learned about the importance of crisis communication under very dire circumstances, we left with new skills we did not expect to gain. Here are my three biggest takeaways from my crisis communication experience: 1. Have a plan in place Before the Fair, all employees attended a crisis communication meeting to prepare for a variety of potential crises. We collaborated with emergency staff, created a group communication system and shared documents that detailed plans for all aspects of the Fair. 2. Treat media to the same standard After the accident, we created a staging area for the media to go live and take B-roll. We made sure that all networks and reporters had the same access to footage so we did not give anyone preferential treatment. 3. Think about your scheduled content During the months before the Fair, we scheduled numerous Facebook posts, press releases and blog posts. We immediately changed our editorial calendar so that we did not provide insensitive information to our audiences. By: Kiley Harris Public relations is a constantly evolving field. With new advances in technology and social media, public relations has had to adapt in order to stay current with the trends and continue to reach target audiences efficiently. With each year that passes, there are new trends in PR to look out for. Forbes published an article this year about 6 PR trends to keep an eye out for in 2018, that all aspiring PR students should educate themselves on in order to get ahead of competition in future classes, internships, or potential jobs. We have mentioned below three of the most important trends from this article for students to know and use to their advantage in setting themselves apart in the internship and job market. 1. “Personal branding and thought leadership will go beyond executives.” This PR trend is especially beneficial for those working in a company, but who do not hold a top position. This trend implements a more companywide approach that allows for greater reach due to more people working on a brand. This is beneficial both for the workers, and for the ability to reach a larger target audience. Since this is a growing trend, getting experience with branding and thought leadership as a student, will help you set yourself apart from your peers. 2. “Owning your digital landscape will never be more important to attract followers.” Developing a strong digital landscape will be very important in PR for 2018 because it is getting more difficult to attract followers with an abundance of content. Being able to maximize SEO so your landscape comes up first, as well as having a good grip on the digital landscape in general can help set students looking for jobs stand out from their competitors as this trend continues to grow. 3. “PR will need to understand business goals besides its own.” PR professional will need to be able to understand the goals of other areas that can use PR as a tool such as marketing, recruiting, investor relations, etc. This will allow collaboration between these areas with PR for more successful communication within a company. As PR students, it would be very beneficial to take classes in these related fields and expose yourself to them in order to put yourself ahead on the job market as this trend becomes more important. PR students must be curious individuals. Being curious and researching up and coming trends, and then acting upon them by gaining experience in those trends can help you really stand out from your peers, elevating you in the job market. Educating yourself on these trends above, the other 3 trends, which can be found in this article posted by Forbes, and on any other trends you research is an extremely beneficial and smart thing to do. This shows initiative and can help you gain experience you need to land your dream job. By Samantha Conti Every month, PRSSA holds twitter chats to discuss a variety of topics. In October, PRSSA discussed “Relationship Goals: How Connecting with your PRSA Sponsor Chapter Improves your PRSSA Chapter”. On November 14, the discussion on twitter will revolve around “Punctuation, Publications and PRSSA”. The chat will also talk about ways to help students improve their writing skills through advice and articles. Then once again, on November 28, there will be a twitter chat entitled, “Host with the Most: How to Plan the Best Public Relations Events for your Chapter”. To join in on all of the PR twitter chats, follow these steps:
By: Hannah Banas There are many interworking parts of the business world that go in to running a company or creating a product, public relations being one of them. The importance of public relations has sky rocketed in the past decade, with social media on the rise. It is a great way for companies to send messages about their company to the public, and they need public relations specialists to do this. Here are a few of the reasons that public relations specialists are vital to the business world. 1. The basic task of being in PR is getting companies’ messages and products to the consumers. Without dedicated people helping to market to the public, products and services would go unnoticed. 2. To introduce a new product or company into the market, you need to network with existing companies, which PR people are trained to do. Without their knowledge on broadcasting, social media, and advertising companies, the product would have less of a chance at being a success. Knowing how to network is vital, and having a background in public relations teaches people how to do this. 3. With the business world constantly changing and evolving, people have to be able to think and make decisions quickly. Being creative and innovative allows public relations specialists to adapt to the current climate and understand how to brand things. Understanding the creative side of business helps to make decisions quickly that will be beneficial to the company. 4. Many business people have strong backgrounds in math and technology, but may lack writing skills. By studying public relations, people learn how to write press releases, which is a task that is critical in promoting products and services. By: Sydney Nelson On October 24th, Twitter announced that they will be launching a new “Advertising Transparency Center” in the coming weeks. This Transparency Center will display all ads that are currently running on Twitter, how long ads having been running, creative content associated with the ads, and which ads are targeted to you and why. Additionally, users will be able to report inappropriate ads or give negative feedback if they feel a certain ad doesn’t pertain to them. In conjunction with the new technologies for general ads, Twitter’s Transparency Center places a huge emphasis on political ads. In this section of the center, users will be able to see all currently running political ads and ads that have run in the past, transparency about the identity of the organization funding the campaign, targeting demographics (age, gender, geography), and historical data about the ad. This need for a transparency center in regards to political ads was likely established in response to the 2016 election in which Russians bought advertisements that interfered with the U.S. election. By: Lindsey Nelson
As an extremely swamped college student, it can be hard to stay in the loop with news outside of your busy schedule or the tiny college town of Oxford. But as students interested in the Public Relations world, it could not be more important, and is a good habit to get into while you’re young. Here are 3 quick ways for busy students to stay in-the-know: The Skimm The Daily Skimm is a daily newsletter that Miami University students can sign-up to receive an emails breaking down recent events in government, sports, Hollywood, etc. Their main goal is to give their readers short blurbs that get to the point, so the subscribers are not bombarded with unnecessary information. It will only inform you of the most relevant news, with a wide variety of topics so readers can impress their friends with new facts daily. Most people think Twitter is just a platform for celebrities and following friends, but it is a perfect place to receive news and companies. Every major network is always updating their account with breaking news updates, before it can hit actual TV-news. Even if you do not follow news accounts, you are bound find current events updates from your friends liking or retweeting them. Or if you want to find news on something specific, the search feature is an awesome device to type in key words and instantly say what the world is saying about it. Snapchat Who would have thought that Snapchat would turn into a news outlet? With being one of the biggest social media apps out there, it is one of the easiest ways for college kids to quickly access different news sites of their choice. Daily Mail, People BuzzFeed, and ESPN are just a few of the channels that are provided. By: Lindsay Thomas As the semester is nearing an end, many students are stressed out about not having either an internship or full-time job lined up. The dreaded, “What are your plans this summer?” or “What are you doing after graduation?” or better yet, “Have you interviewed for a job?” will no doubt, come up during your family Thanksgiving. For those seniors who don’t have any idea what is next, full-on freak out mode will commence. Whether or not you have a job yet, I can say that time is no predictor on how successful you will be in the future. Some of us just get lucky and land a job early on, but many employers don’t actually start hiring until spring semester. And while it is unfortunate having to wait for what seems like an eternity, it should be reassuring that you still have a lot of time to figure it all out. You might feel like a failure right now because you’ve seen your friends landing interviews and receiving job offers and you’ve yet to get one, but know you are far from a failure. I wanted to share some advice I received from my mother when I was feeling discouraged after career fair last year that helped me stay positive: “Just because you don’t get a certain job doesn’t mean you aren’t qualified or they didn’t necessarily like you. They may just not see you as the best fit. And while it’s hard not to take rejection personally, you have to keep your head up and know that you are awesome, and you will find something that best fits you.” Enough said. Keep your head up! By: Kendall Cree With the new season of Stranger Things just coming out, Netflix decided to implement various marketing strategies in order to promote media attention. These strategies were able to make the buzz of the already popular show, even more hype. One of the best forms of marketing the show’s producers implemented was using interactive advertising. Netflix, the creators of Stranger Things, partnered with the company Lyft to provide an interactive experience for its viewers to promote the new season coming out. On October 26th and 27th nationwide Lyft users were able to change its map in which the cars would show up as common Stranger Things items in the show such as waffles, Christmas lights, trucker hats, and the show logo. In select locations, there was also an interactive car ride with pulsating ceilings, flickering lights, and many other show themed features. In addition, to partnering with Lyft, Netflix decided to use their social media to release trailers and other teasers. They released trailers about the upcoming season along with posters and a game for fans to download and play. This helped create brand loyalty and add more attention to the upcoming show. If this wasn’t enough advertising, along with the listed above strategies, Netflix also worked with Eggo brand waffles. Eggo claimed they were unaware of the iconic Eggo waffles being used in the show so frequently and were more than happy to help promote the season. Eggo used their waffles as an ad space for the show and even made recipes “to enjoy while watching the show”. By implementing all of these strategies, Netflix was able to advertise to many different demographics. Lyft is mainly used for 16-30 year-olds, social media and a video game is for the younger demographic, and recipes can advertise to moms who cook and could tell their children and family about the show. All in all, I believe Netflix made excellent strides towards advertising for their already successful show to help make it even more popular. Source- https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/23469.as By: Sarah Emery There’s a lot that sets Empower Media Marketing apart from many agencies today. Not only are they one of the largest U.S. media independent media agencies left, it is family-owned and is a certified woman-owned business. Empower Media Marketing prides itself on a “values-driven culture of trust and transparency” and employs a mentality of engineering relationship chemistry. What is relationship chemistry? Empowering Media Marketing has two core focus areas:
Recognized as the 2016 Agency of the Year by MediaPost, Empower Media Marketing has worked with a wide variety of clients, including Ashley Homestore, Kroger, United Dairy Farmers and Wendy’s. Just last month, Empower Media Marketing opened a new headquarters in Over The Rhine in Cincinnati and has also recently adopted a new logo, brand colors and collateral. If you want to learn more about Empower Media Marketing and the world of media, you’re in luck! This week, PRSSA is welcoming Ashley Walters, the Vice President of Business Development, on November 7 at 7:00pm in Armstrong Student Center Pavilion C. By: Kendall Cree In this day and age, companies are branching out to many different platforms in order to reach their demographics. J-Crew has decided to take their marketing in a completely new way and placing their catalog exclusively on Pinterest. Pinterest as a platform has been on an upward climb in popularity, predominantly for young women and Midwestern women, a very hard-to-reach demographic. Major brands, in this case J-Crew, are finding new visual-based social networking in order to reach their buyers, as well as finding new buyers. In order to defy the norm, J-Crew debuted their September looks on their official Pinterest page in addition to their traditional print catalog. In addition to giving J-crew shoppers a new way of shopping, it makes shopping a “social experience”. Consumers can now share their pieces on their Pinterest accounts and let friends and families see their interests in the collection. This new initiative caught the business world by surprise and is creating major buzz. The real question is, how soon until other brands follow along and start adapting similar marketing promotion ideas through social media platforms? Sources: https://thrivehive.com/paving-way-businesses-pinterest-jcrew-debuts-fall/ http://jcrew.com By: Alyssa McKoy Let’s face it, everyone is on social media. Whether it is for entertaining Snapchat filters or connecting with friends on Facebook, there is a wide range of people that use these platforms every day. Some people use social media as their main source for news. Society has moved away from hardcopy news and has incorporated digital media into their everyday lives. But, is this the right thing to do? Social media has the power to bring about news and trends, create and share ideas through various websites, and to influence other’s opinion. Because everyone is able to publish something on a social media platform, it is harder to know what is credible and what is not. Anyone can post an article or a picture just to reach public attention. Are we sure the information that is being posted is coming from a credible source, or are we so used to believing the first thing we see or read? With various opinions and comments floating around on social media, we see a wide range of biased knowledge. It is easy for readers to feed into these arguments and create conflict with no prior knowledge. Some could easily jump into the argument and gather information that may not be accurate, and present it to their peers, therefore spreading inaccurate information. Yes, social media is a fast and efficient way to get things out in the open, but it is only helpful if the news is accurate. Many people can repost and share information, but how do we know to trust that information or know if it is reliable? Next time you read an article or repost a picture, make sure that you are checking to see if it is credible. By: Allison Haworth Miami University and the Miami Indian Tribe have a special partnership valuing the importance of education. With an ongoing relationship of over 45 years, their many interactions and relationship with one another is greatly valued with shared interests of a common geographic, historic, educational and cultural interests. Whether it be having relationships with another business, person or an Indian tribe, it is highly professional to stay on common grounds with mutual beliefs, compromises and upholding joint responsibilities to maintain valuable relationships. Unlike other universities’, Miami has created, developed and maintained a relationship with a diverse group of people. In PR, this is extremely relevant and crucial to have relationships with a plethora of people, companies and colleagues. You never know when your company will be in hot water for a recent incident, but having a valuable partnership and relationship with a variety of people can help yourself and others in the long run. “The Miami Tribe is proud and honored that these lands, the rivers, and this great institution continue to bear our name,” said Chief Lankford of the Miami Tribe. This type of mutual respectful relationship with one another not only makes for civil interactions with one another, but also creates good publicity for Miami University as they strive for a diverse, unmatched education, setting students up for success in their future careers. Sources: http://miamioh.edu/miami-tribe-relations/index.html |
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