Hello Goodbye

Hello real world, goodbye college. I am sad that the comfort of the college classroom is almost passed, but I feel ready and able to concur the public relations world. Thanks to the public relations concentration in the Mass Communication department at Georgia College & State University I feel prepared to become a professional. While in the concentration I learned how to:

1. contact the media and maintain a relationship with them
2. write an effective press release with little grammar mistakes and a catching lead
3. work with a team to execute a cohesive plan or idea
4. work for a client
5. present and assemble a pitch
6. maintain social media sites
7. publicize events
8. network
9. lead, plan, execute & evaluate a public relations campaign
10. make a campaign book

These skills will make myself marketable to an employer. All I need to take is senior seminar and I will hit the real world running. Armed with my best suit, portfolio & can-do attitude I enter the professional world in five months!!

Socially Responsbile Starbucks

Corporate social responsibility means that organizations must behave ethically and with sensitivity toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. Corporations should blend their mission with community relations in order to create greater customer relations. Starbucks is one of the many organizations who take corporate social responsibility seriously.

Starbucks Coffee Company was founded as a neighborhood coffee shop in Seattle, Washington in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker. The first Starbucks sold high quality coffee beans and equipment but not brewed drinks. In 1987, the original founders sold Starbucks to Howard Schultz who quickly expanded the chain. That same year Starbucks opened two locations outside Seattle at Vancouver, British Columbia and Chicago, Illinois. Today, Starbucks has 16,635 stores in 49 countries making it the largest coffeehouse company in the world.

The mission for Starbucks states, “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.” This mission balances the needs and concerns of community relations. Starbucks’ commitment plan for doing business responsibility is called Shared Planet. According to their website, Starbucks Shared Planet involves “focusing on the areas of ethical sourcing, environmental stewardship and community involvement.” To go along with this program, Starbucks has three goals that involve each of the areas of focus, which will be implemented by 2015.
1.100% of our coffee will be responsibly grown, ethically traded
2.100% of our cups will be recyclable or reusable
3.We’ll contribute more than 1 million community service hours each year

These ambitious goals show Starbucks is serious about executing their socially responsible promise. In a section of the website, consumers can check the progress of these goals.

Starbucks publishes an annual global responsibility report on their Shared Planet website. In this report, Starbucks talks about their commitment to the environment and wellness, growth impacts in communities and the value of their products among other things. The report has also been informed by the Global Reporting Initiative G3 Guidelines, a set of international reporting standards which recognize sustainability. Everyone who visits the site can chose which sections of the report they want to see. This aspect is important because not all people are interested in the same issues. Scrolling down to find the section that interests you usually results on giving up but Starbuck’s clever way of customizing the report makes the consumer feel empowered.

The Starbucks Foundation is another way Starbucks uses corporate social responsibility. The foundation was made in 1997 and includes supporting “young people creating change in local communities where Starbucks has stores, water projects through the Ethos Water Fund and social investments in countries where Starbucks buys coffee, tea and cocoa.”

Shared Planet and The Starbucks Foundation are both ways Starbucks practices corporate social responsibility. Starbucks is active in reaching their goals, which proves this Fortune 500 company wants to make a difference.

PR Day

This Wednesday, November 4, the Georgia College & State University chapter of PRSSA held an event called PR Day. The chapter invited four public relations professionals to come and speak about public relations topics to students. The speakers were found thanks to our PRSSA professional adviser Carlos Campos and college adviser Dr. Ginger Carter Miller.

The event kickoff at 1 p.m. with Cristy Williams, Vice President of Communications at GE Money. Followed by Jena Simonds, Director of Communications & Branding at Streamline Consultants. Our keynote speaker was Bert DuMars, Vice President E-Business & Interactive Marketing at Newell Rubbermaid. His speech focus was on the importance and growth of social media. He also discussed the significance of creating consumer relationships. The final speaker was Katherine Mason, Account Executive at Porter Novelli. Katherine brought her portfolio to show students, which I found very helpful. I have never seen a portfolio done like hers. All speakers were engaging and extremely informative.

The turnout for the event was fair. Most importantly, all attendees were focused and attentive because all the information given by the speakers will eventually be used in the real world.

PR Day turned out to be extremely successful. Surprisingly, I was not stressed before the event. I serve PRSSA as co-social chair, so this event was my responsibility. Publicity for the event included flyers, facebook event, chalking around campus and a brief wright up in the college newspaper, "The Colonnade."

The next order of business for PRSSA is the annual Holiday get together. At this event, we recognize the new members of PRSSA and eat some tasty food. I am looking forward to it!

My Parents Were Right...

When I told my parents I wanted to study the field of public relations, they were skeptical. They wanted me to have a career in medicine or education; so, I would have job security. But I stuck with my passion. Due to the current economic situation, I sometimes think I should have listened to my parents. I have always dreaded graduating because I wouldn't be able to sleep in till 10 a.m. or wear jeans and t-shirts everyday. After reading this article, my fears of May 2010 approaching grew.

The article called "Job Market Turns Must Worse" describes the job market situation for journalism and mass communication graduates of 2008. Most of the graduates only received one job interview and were able to find full-time employment. The article states, "only six in 10 of the graduates had full-time employment six to eight months after graduation." This statistic is the lowest level of full-time employment reported by graduates in 23 years. Definitely not something a senior Mass Communication major wants to hear. This article made me think of what I had to bring to the table. Why would a PR firm hire me? What makes me so special that I can beat the odds?

Honestly, I have no idea. I am a good design - so are a lot of people. I am a great organizer and leader - so are a lot of people. This really makes me need to have a self evaluation session. I am not good at the whole "sell yourself" approach to job searching, but I need to be. I need to have more confidence in my work as an up & coming public relations professional. I do have a multitude of public relations experiences; thanks Dr. Miller my public relations professor who believes in giving her students real life experiences rather than classroom busy work. There is a start - my start to beating the odds.

The economy will improve. If anything starting my career in the worst economy ever should make me stronger in the long runI have always been an optimistic person. I am determined to prove to my parents and grandparents public relations is a serious career. . Ten years from now I will NOT be saying "my parents were right!"

Case Study

My partner and I chose the "Big Brother is Watching: Browsing on Company Time" case study, which represents the Employee Relations chapter of "Cases in Public Relations Management."

This case dealt with a newly founded company called ComXSoft, a computer products company. The company prides itself on a fun and relaxed environment. Nelson Perry, public relations director, works well with the marketing and human resource departments.

One day Perry's assistant,Larry Meyers, complains about Perry's new secretary. Meyers says, "She spends all her time on eBay." When the secretary was told about the concerns, she acts defensively, saying she is only on eBay during lunch hour and breaks. Afterward, Perry starts to take notice of the secretary's computer. He suspects she might spend more time on eBay than she admits to. Since Perry is fairly new to the job, he asks Paul Johnson, director of human resources, for advice.Perry "explains the situations about his secretary's possible abuse of office equipment for personal use." Johnson tells Perry to have a talk to his employees about the difference between work time and personal time.

Three months later, Johnson tells Perry that his employee's computers have been under surveillance with software technology that can record every Web site visited and data downloaded. Perry's computer was also watched. The research found Perry's secretary had been spending excessive amounts of time on eBay, but the secretary was not the only employee misusing company time. 20 employees were identified as excessive users.

Perry was in shock. Perry did not think this was legal, but according to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 it is. Perry began to form a plan of action bases on this employee relations issue that he will present at a management meeting.

This case raised many questions about employee relations. Employee relations are at the core of any business. If your employees are not happy they will not go above and beyond what is asked. They will do the bare minimum, which does not result on a return on investment. I believe on occasion personal email at a workplace is acceptable. One can not work eight straight hours without a little relief. Also, a company should be clear on their view of personal computer use at the very beginning.

I will be the first to admit I am not the most environmental friendly person in the world. In my day to day life, I rarely think about my carbon footprint. I realize the importance of preserving our Earth. I do not litter yet I do not recycle. I think I am like many Americans who do not fully understand how my actions are directly affecting the environment. I have always wanted to change my ways and become environmentally responsible. I have wondered what I could be improving on. Thanks to this blog I realize simple changes can make a HUGE change.

Today I am going to start being more conscience of my decisions as it relates to the environment. Here is a list of I pledge myself to do:
1. Turn off my computer when I go to bed.
2. Recycle
3. Wash clothes with cold water
4. Buy local food (I have been wanting to go to the farmer's market!)
5. No longer preheat the oven (I had no idea)
6. Inform all my friends (something easy to do)

After reading the blog, I found I actually do more things to better the environment than I actually realize. For example, I always turn off the lights when I leave a room, I take short showers, I reuse wrapping paper, I always use a water bottle I refill, I only run the dishwasher when it is full and I turn the water off when I brush my teeth. I have a feeling people, like me, do not know they are already helping the environment. When people find out they are inadvertently helping out I think they will be more prone to step it up and consciously help out the environment.

Our world's climate issues can seem overwhelming. But if everyone helps out a little bit everyone will benefit in the long run. It is really just that simple!

"What's your Scandal?"

My group came up with a "What's your Scandal?" murder mystery party for the CW Campaign competition. This idea was based on the actual plot of "Melrose Place" because during the first episode, the landlord was murdered. We thought the murder mystery would be a great way for our guests to personally interact with the plot.

To publicize for the event, we sent out a press release to school and local media. An interactive facebook group was created with trivia questions and facts about "90210" and "Melrose Place." Invitations were handed out to the main characters of the plot before the event. Also, eye-catching flyers were made and posted around campus.

The day of the event a "What's your Scandal" tie-dye took place on campus. There were three colors which represented three scandals: red - murder, green - envy and purple - affair. The tie-dye worked really well in getting the event recognized.

The big event started at 6 p.m. When people arrived at the check-in table, they received a confidential packet, which included a notepad, pen, name tag, biography of the character they would be playing and menu card. Once everyone entered the room they transformed into their character. I was pleasantly surprised by how much people got into their roles. During the first fifteen minutes, the landlord was killed. During the event, three clues were given. Each clue contained three suspects, which everyone then interviewed. Also with every clue came a new course on the menu.

At the end of the night, everyone was asked to write down who they thought killed the landlord and why. The winner was given a $20 gift certificate to Blackbird. We also gave awards out to the best actor, best liar and the murder. Approximately 45 people attended our event. A survey was distributed afterward, and the results were amazing. Everyone had a great time and most of the participates now want to watch "90210" and "Melrose Place."

My team worked extremely well together. We all put in a 100%, and I think it paid off. Each team member brought a different skill to the table, which turned out to be the recipe for success. Now all we have left is the put together the campaign book!!