I recently had the amazing opportunity of attending the PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) National Conference in San Diego, CA. The conference was a great place for students to connect with other students and professionals in the industry, as well as to get a better feel for where public relations is at and where it is going. There were many workshops that I attended, but I am going to focus on two of my personal favorites from the event.

The first workshop, "A View From the Top: How to stand out as a young professional" was lead by Ron Culp and Kevin Saghy from Ketchum PR. This was a very valuable presentation because it gave both an upper and lower management view of young professionals coming into the field of public relations. They posed four main questions and then gave the responses they received from both upper and lower management, across many different agencies and corporations.

The four questions they asked were:
1. How can young talent stand out in your organization?
2. What example comes to mind of a young professional who advanced quickly in your organization, and why have they done so well?
3. How can/have employees hurt themselves by trying to raise their profile?
4. If you could anonymously say one sentence to your junior staff, what would it be?

There were many responses and quotes given for each question, so I will briefly go over the most common and relevant responses.

1. How can young talent stand out in your organization?

Senior Management - They show initiative, and they are a team player.

Junior Staff - They go the extra mile, and they show a positive attitude.

2. What example comes to mind of a young professional who advanced quickly in your organization, and why have they done so well?

Senior Management - They know the business, they show quality work, engage us with intelligent ideas, and they go the extra mile.

Junior Staff - Quality work, they present smart ideas, they work hard and they are willing to explore new learning opportunities.

3. How can/have employees hurt themselves by trying to raise their profile?

Senior Management - They should not seek credit all of the time, or follow own agenda instead of the agenda of the team.

Junior Staff - Don't throw co-workers under the bus, and don't skip the tactical work. The ones who succeed are the ones who do not have a sense of entitlement.

4. If you could anonymously say one sentence to your junior staff, what would it be?

Senior Management - What are you doing to prepare yourself for the next level? There is not a bad idea in a brainstorming session.

Junior Staff - Become known for your willingness to take on the most challenging, difficult assignments no matter how big or boring. Be the 3 C's: current, curious, and creative!

I feel they addressed a lot of the prominent questions a young professional has when going from college into the professional world. I also had the opportunity to stay after the seminar with a few other students to hang out and talk with Kevin and Ron for about 40 minutes. This was where the real insights came out, and allowed for some great one on one discussion about how the industry is evolving and where they feel it is going from here.

The other event I am going to talk about was the speech given at the PRSA National Conference by Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/)Arianna was a great speaker, and had some great insights on the industry. The most important piece of information she shared I felt was how drama is a necessary component in the news and in public relations. This is the driving force behind passion, and getting people to care about what you have to say.



Arianna Huffington speaking at the PRSA National Conference in San Diego, CA


Overall, I would say this was an amazing conference where I had the opportunity to meet a number of students and professionals in the field and get some great insight on how Public Relations is changing. Since the day I started at Drake Cooper, I have witnessed a passion and desire to always be ahead of the game by everyone in the agency. This conference strengthened my view on how important this fact is not only for young professionals going into the field, but for professionals already in the public relations field, and in any field for that matter. It is this drive that sets apart the amazing crew at Drake Cooper, and I am very blessed to be apart of it all.

Sean Winnett

Labels: Arianna Huffington, Drake Cooper, National Conference, PRSA, PRSSA, Public Relations

Labels: food and beverage

A recent survey of corporate communicators indicates that 49 percent believe that press releases are still "as useful as ever" and are not likely to go away soon.

Even so, the 49 percent figure reveals that the old tried-and-true press release device is diminishing in value in the eyes of media professionals. Journalists and bloggers who work in the social media sphere frequently are finding other ways to get the big story.

PR professionals who participated in the poll, conducted by Ragan Communications and PollStream, attributed the decline in the value of press releases to the growth in the use of social media (Facebook, YouTube, twitter, Digg, etc.) and the decline of newspapers and magazines.

The downward trend in the value of press releases has been felt here at Drake Cooper as well. We don't use them as much as we used to. As Joanne Taylor, our PR Director, notes in the PR section of Drake Cooper's web site, "to be effective, we have to work harder" than just issuing a press release. She's right.

We still find that when we have solid news to report, a press release can be an effective device. But to reach the media and bloggers in the social media sphere, we often post a social media news release (SMR) on PitchEngine, a very effective tool for spreading news online. The SMR should include photos, web links and video -- more interactive content that readers expect to see online these days. All of that is part of the extra effort.

In lieu of press releases, we often send out an individual story pitch to editors, a pitch that is customized to the audience and focus of their publication. A story pitch is usually just a couple of sentences to give the "elevator" pitch to an editor that fits his or her notoriously short attention span.

We also are producing more videos for clients to tell stories to the news media. The videos often have more lasting value, and they can be posted on a client's web site and shared on YouTube, Facebook, etc., adding to the number of people who view them by many fold.

So in a way, the poll of corporate PR folks was not necessarily new "news," but it is interesting to watch the trends in the rapidly changing world of public relations. If anything, some corporations have undermined the value of press releases by sending out shamelessly promotional material or glossing over trouble spots. This can undercut their credibility and the believability of press releases in general. We do everything we can do counsel against that type of practice.

Perhaps most telling, even corporate communicators put more trust in information gleaned from the social media than from press releases, according to the poll. Information on corporate web sites was thought to be the least reliable.

- SS

Labels: Drake Cooper, media promotion, press release, Social media, social media news release

We're trying to round up 40 turkeys for the Idaho Food Bank so we've challenged friends, clients, vendors and other agencies to help us fill up our lobby with frozen birds tomorrow. Free coffee and a doughnut for those who bring by a turkey. And, news flash, here is a list of prizes that will be given to the agency/company that brings in the most turkeys! (BIG thanks to those who donated prizes.)

-Idaho Steelheads Tickets (6)
-Zoo Boise Family Pass, includes 2 adults and 2 children
-Tully's Gift Card, $20
-Gandolfo's, $20 worth of gift certificates ($5 increments)
-PF Chang's, $10 gift certificate, 1 free appetizer, 1 free lunch bowl
-Idaho Candy Company 1 lb. box Butter Toffee

The turkey drive will be held here--416 So. 8th St., 2nd Floor, Nov. 13, 8 a.m.-noon. See you then!

Great white paper on why advertising agencies are called advertising agencies. Should they be called that now that we do so much more than advertising?

Labels: Advertising

Twittering To Keep Current

Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service.

Three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices and younger internet users (those under age 44).

Internet users who already use social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn are also likely to use Twitter (35%), compared with just 6% of internet users who do not use such social network sites.

And, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39% of internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console or Kindle) use Twitter, compared with 28% of internet users with three devices, 19% of internet users with two devices and 10% of internet users with one device.

For full article and demographic stats: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116583

Labels: Social media

More adults come into contact with broadcast radio than the Internet, according to aNielsen analysis of a Council for Research Excellence (CRE) study.

The CRE physically watched consumers throughout the day to see how they consume media. Unsurprisingly, people see live television the most. It reaches 95% of adults. After that it's radio at 77%, the Web at 64%, newspapers at 35%, and magazines at 27%.

The radio versus Internet thing is a bit surprising till you remember radio can play passively in the background in cars and offices. The Internet is something you have to actively seek. Read >

Labels: Media