Gracias/ONU/week 10

This being my final post for the ONU part of my blog I wanted to take this time to thank Agozzino for teaching me tools that I will be able to use throughout my life. I know this sounds like "OH please give me an A" which it should lol just kidding but seriously this class has really taught me things that I would not have taken the time to learn on my own. Being a senior I have taken a lot of classes, some which were good and others that were not so good. Social media is by far one of the best classes I have taken in my time here. Was there a lot of work? Yes, but all of it was for a purpose. I know that because despite all of the reading and work, I got the most out of this class. In closing, if you ever have a chance to take a Social Media class, whether it is at Ohio Northern or another college, DO IT!!

Merry X-Mas!/PR/Week 10

I read an article recently that was talking about Bass Pro Shop gearing up for the biggest Christmas season ever. Bass Pro Shops across the nation are setting up a winter wonderland scenario that is geared towards families. They are putting together a magical village for kids with old-time model trains, remote control cars, Red Ryder laser arcade, Nerf soft gun range and craft activity tables every weekend, and it's all absolutely free. Families need something like this in tough times and Bass Pro Shops is the first I've seen provide a free form of family fun during the holiday season. Their plan is also PR genius. Not only will they get their customers in but they will be able to receive free advertising from local stations as well as word of mouth. The company is doing this to help sales but they are also promoting doing things as a family as well. Every company should try to follow.

Do It NOW!!!!!

F2F/Week 9/Readings

In this week's readings a part that really stuck out as important was the section detailing ways of reaching the masses, other than media outlets. At the core of public relations is the face-to-face interaction. I can understand that using media outlets for a small company would be important because they are trying to get exposure for their company, but for an established company that does not need the media attention, the old school form of face to face communication would be perfect. Massive media outlets to me feels cold and unemotional. I would like to see the CEO blog about how the company is doing instead of a campaign bragging about the company's accomplishments. Maybe I am just old school for a 21 year old, but I want to know that a company actually cares and wants me to buy their product.

I Don't BeLIEve!!/Week 9/PR

Some people give PR a bad name. On Friday Criss Angel revealed his finished product of his collaboration with Cirque du Soleil called "Believe", at the Luxor in Las Vegas. After a 5 week preview period, the reviews are in. One review from Doug Elfman said "Creatively, 'Believe' is a possibly unsalvageable 'waste of time' and a 'dead end' that literally bored some audience members to sleep." That was one of the nicer reviews. Instead of responding to the reviews in a professional way, Angel's PR spokesman said the critics were being "unfair" and "the fans are the ones Criss cares about." Way to handle the situation professionally. On Friday, October 31st the Luxor hosted a black carpet gala in which several celebrities were interviewed prior to the show. The reporters were told they were not allowed to interview them after the show. I was able to see the show when in I was in Vegas on October 18th and I can see why they did not want the reporters to interview the celebs after the show. I literally fell asleep during the performance. This is one of the worst pieces of crap I have ever witnessed. Unfortunately Criss Angel's PR practitioner has tried to "spin" the situation to make it favorable to him. You can't sprinkle sugar on crap and that is what's happening. In PR sometimes it's just a lose-lose situation and Criss Angel's Believe is a LOSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful ONU/Week 9/ONU

We really do have a beautiful school. I may have been brainwashed by the unbelievable weather that we had on Friday, but I took a walk around campus (a.k.a I drove around campus) and was in awe by how beautiful the grounds were. The leaves on the trees have turned colors and I do not know why, but I just felt at ease. There cannot be too many schools prettier than ours. We do pay top dollar to attend this university and it seems the school has finally put our money to use. The grounds keepers are doing their jobs. Visually our school is top notch, now if we could only do something about the wind.

Gotta do Research/Week 8/Reading

Each week in this class I feel like I get a little bit smarter. Not a lot, but a little. This week's reading, Chapter 10 in New Rules of Marketing and PR, really hit home to me as I go into the workforce. I learned through the reading that for an effective web PR campaign to work you have to first and foremost think of your audience. While reading this I thought about one of my all time favorite classes here at ONU, public speaking. In public speaking before you write a word of your speech you need to assess your target audience and try to figure out what would work best in that particular situation and what would not work. Same goes for PR campaigns, they need to take the time to see who they are trying to reach and evaluate what the best ways to reach those people are. After that, then they can send the message. By no means should a PR practitioner just send a message without doing research. I'm taking public relations research this quarter and one thing I have found out is that research is key to having a productive anything.