Peace Love & Sillyness

Ok, so for my PR class we were supposed to do another 48 hours on Twitter, which I did, but I have been keeping up with twitter this entire time. Nothing has suprised me on twitter as of yet, but who knows..anything can happen. I’ve kept up with my account mainly because my good friends from back home (Richmond, Va) are on there and it’s an easy way for me to keep up with them. Besides my friends I actually know, I do currently follow other people, some famous, some in PR, and some just random. Here are my 3 top PR people I would recommend to be followed:
JRPublicity
Mich Sineath
Event Profs (because I want to be an event planner)
I am recommending these 3 because all of them tweet about things that deal with PR and internships, but they also tweet about current things going on.
If you aren’t already and would like to follow me, go for it! I am always up for new followers! 🙂

For my Intro to PR class we were given an assignment to interview a Public Relations Professional! So for mine, I interviewed a friend of mine who graduated from Georgia Southern, Michael Jung.

Here are the questions that I asked:

1.What’s a typical week like? (If no week is typical, then what was last week like?) 
Generally I don’t have a typical week.  I have specific things that I have to do everyday for specific clients, but for the most part each week provides something new and often times challenging that I have not had the chance to work on yet.

2. Tell me about a project you worked on that you are especially proud of. 
Personally the project that I have worked on the most, that has given me the most pride in what I have done is work on the Digital Television Transition campaign.  The work has been for NTIA (the National Telecommunications and Information Administration) and has been some of the most interesting and in depth campaign work that I have had the privilege to work on.
 
3. How important is writing in your career? 
Personally, I have not had to do much first hand writing at all, BUT I will say that writing is VERY important in the PR field.  Though I am just an entry level PR Practitioner, I have seen the importance and results that come from a well written piece of literature.
 
4. What three tips would you offer someone just starting out in PR?
1.       LEARN HOW TO DO A MEDIA LIST
2.      Writing skills will take you farther that you would think
3.      JOIN PRSSA and be active… Firms look for people with leadership experience and those that go to extra mile to help further their career.
 
5. What do you do to keep current in the PR industry? 
The private intranet at my firm keeps me apprised to many of the changes and current trends that are happening in the PR industry.  Publications like PR Weekly are also a HUGE asset.  
 
6. Did your education prepare you for working in PR? How?  
Yes, I feel that my education prepared me for the PR world, however I do wish that I had been able to spend more time on some things as opposed to others.  I will say the aspect of my education that has benefited me the most has been my strong writing background as well as my design background in such programs as InDesign.
 
7. What has surprised you the most about working in PR? 
The extensive research that has to go into every aspect of a campaign before anything can even be considered to be finalized.

8. What do you wish you would have known before starting your career in PR?
I really wish I had known the importance and necessity of paying dues in this industry.  Though the Public Relations industry is a wonderful and rewarding field to go into, all new pr practitioners will have to go through many trials of paying dues and proving themselves in the PR world.

So, this is kind of a late post, but in my Intro to PR class a couple weeks ago we were discussing interviewing and came up with a lot of really important tips. Some of these I knew, and have actually told friends about & done them myself, and some I had no idea!

1. Wear your name tag on the right. (I never knew this, I figured if you wore it on the right that by reaching across it would completely block your name which defeats the whole purpose of the tag. However, we learned in class that your eyes naturally are drawn to the right. Now that I think about this, it makes a lot of sense, so tell all your interviewee friends!)

2. Stand up whenever someone comes into the interview room, whether it be a male or a female.

3. Send a thank you letter afterwards. If more than 1 person was interviewing you, send one to each person (send an email immediately after, and then send a handwritten one. If you’re handwriting is not good, then type it)….

4. Make sure you get the correct spelling of those people that are interviewing you. (How embarassing would that be to send a thank you letter with the wrong spelling?! I would just die!)

5. Take your resume with you, even if they already have it.

6. Have some questions prepared to ask them (One I always ask: When can I expect to hear from you about the next stage in our process?, but never ask: How much will I be getting paid?)

7. Make sure y0ur cell phone is either off or on silent. (I personally don’t even take mine in with me to the interview, I leave it in the car)

8. Keep good eye contact and posture..aka: keep good body language! and stay focused! (No one wants to be interviewing someone who can’t even stay focused)

9. DO NOT CHEW GUM!

10. Dress nicely. Men should wear suits with ties & women should be in either pants suits or skirts. (This seemed like an obvious one, but I guess some people just don’t realize. If you are not comfortable in a skirt, though, wear pants…be yourself while still being professional!)

After watching this movie, I feel that the practitioners fell into the Absolute value orientation. Throughout the entire movie they did all that they could to protect/help their client (the President), without really thinking about the consequences. The decisions they had to make, such as the “war” in Albania and everything that happened with “Old Shoe”, were quick ones, so they had to trust that their ideas were right. No matter what happened they always had a new plan in a matter of minutes, which was not only impressive, but was almost intimidating because I’m not sure that I can think that quick on my feet all the time.

According to the PRSA Code of Ethics, the PR practitioners in this movie were unethical in that they were not honest. Not one thing that they told the public was true in any way. However, they were loyal to their client in that they were faithful to him and did everything they could to protect him.

In the beginning of the movie, it was said that “the dog wags its tail”..the tail cannot wag the dog because it is not smarter than the dog. So, I think that the logic behind the phrase “wag the dog” is that the dog represents the public and the wag represents the  PR practitioners & how they were able to get the public to think a certain way. This was shown throughout the entire movie with everything they were doing with their commercials and the war and “old shoe”.

I think that this movie made PR professionals look like scheming and unethical people. However, this movie did show that the PR professional is willing to do anything they can for their client. After seeing this movie I really did have to question myself about how far I would be willing to go for my client & how that would effect my career.