How to Make a Meal Out Of a Peanut.

Well…not literally. But hear me out.

I first want to say that PR Real World was absolutely awesome! Glad everyone attended, and I really hope that you guys got everything you ever wanted from it and then some.

Now, on to my sensational title. I’m not literally talking about making meals from peanuts, but say you don’t have much PR experience, but you still want to set up your LinkedIn, make a kickin’ resume and begin your journey into the world of PR. What do you do?

Well according to a post on PRDiva, there is a way you can make a resume work for PR, even if you haven’t had much experience yet. I’ll highlight some of the steps!

1. Do not fluff.

Don’t church up (yeah, I’m using a lot of my grandmother’s sayings.) what you did for past places. If you worked for a retailer for 6 months, don’t say it was 2 years. Be truthful in your time there, and be truthful about what you did. If you did nothing but fold t-shirts, then say that. Honesty is the best policy, and that’s not only a PR lesson, but a life lesson.

2. Highlight skills that can be used all over.

If you worked somewhere for 6 years, emphasize that! It obviously shows that you are committed to your employer, and are in it for the long run. Other managerial skills can also be used on a PR resume, as it shows you had responsibility and what you did with it. Also, if figures are relevant, don’t be shy about saying that!

Let’s say you switched majors. Well, going from English or History and Political Science to a PR track is still just as writing intensive. In actuality, I hold an Associate’s Degree in Journalism, which has greatly helped my PR writing.

3. Talk about your goals.

Even if you were originally on the PR track, always discuss your goals in your resume, as PR is such a wide and diverse field. Do you want to do more entertainment than corporate PR? How about music? Are you more into social media management than anything else? Highlight those desires in your objective. Even if you find out the position you’re applying for doesn’t need it at the time, you never know who knows who.

4. Build your portfolio!

Use your class work, volunteer your services if you can, write for your school’s newspaper, or place ads to manage a small company’s PR and social media. Any little bit helps and you can definitely hone your skills by doing this.

With these four steps, even with next-to-nothing PR related in your portfolio, you can definitely make it work out here in this industry. Good Luck! And enjoy the rest of your Spring Break!

Coming Soon!

With many great PR events happening in the Atlanta Area soon, we here at KSU PRSSA thought it would be a great idea to organize all of them into one lovely reference post for you to reference. Bookmark this entry!

EMPOWER PR, Mini-Conference

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Hosted by The Georgia Southern University Chapter’s of PRSSA, Statesboro, GA

During 9:30 am to 2:00 pm

Breakfast and Lunch will be served.

PoweR Plug PR Conference Comes To 

The City Of Atlanta

The New Face Of Publicity 

EVENT DESCRIPTION:

The PoweR Plug PR Conference is an annual PR Conference taking place at Georgia State University.  Produced by The Garner Circle PR, PoweR Plug will serve as a platform to peak the interest or expand the knowledge of PR Professionals as well as the emerging students professionals currently studying in the fields of Public Relations and Marketing.

This conference is open to  students, adults, those currently in PR, or seeking a career change. 

With in-depth information, engaging panels, and real-world assignments, participants will learn the skills to enter into the world of  publicity, execute campaigns and launch parties and appearances.  A hands on interactive approach is utilized to for the conference format in efforts to fuse the future of PR with traditional practices.

Invited guest speakers will include representatives from:Edelman, Def Jam,  Atlantic Records, Essence Magazine, PGA, People Magazine, CNN, AJC, Curlbox, Starfire Group, SF35, Turner, TNT, TBS, BET, Upscale Magazine, The Garner Circle PR, Women Interactive, social media experts and some of the top bloggers to date.

Date: March 23, 2013

Time: 9:00AM – 6:00PM

Location: Georgia State University (Student Center)

44 Courtland Street  Atlanta, Georgia

Phone: 770-256-1800

The UNC Charlotte chapter of PRSSA is hosting their regional conference, and has invited KSU PRSSA to join them! “What’s Your Professional Value…are you in demand?” will take place on April 27, 2013 at UNCC Center City.

As each date draws near, we as a group can discuss potential carpooling and housing arrangements, if necessary.

What is your brand?

Many huge corporations and companies have well-known brands and brand images. 

The Green siren for Starbucks.

The silver eaten apple for Apple.

You could even say the color brown for UPS.

Brand and brand presence are huge factors in personal and professional public relations. Establishing a successful brand presence in the world is a key component in spreading your client’s message and helping them get closer to their goals of public awareness of the company and the things they do. With PR Real World steadily approaching(less than two weeks!), having some sort of branding associated with your name and career is imperative to standing out from the rest in your networking ventures.

But before we start talking about how we help brand clients in the office, we first need to learn how to brand ourselves so we can get into the office. (especially the one we want to work for.)

You might be asking yourself, why is branding important? I’m not cattle. Well number one, it’s not THAT type of branding. Number two, branding is important because it establishes to potential employers who you are before you are even called for an interview. It’s also important because it can help employers really find people who would be passionate about the types of clients they work with and what business they conduct.

For example, if one of your passions (outside of public relations) is fashion, then it would be beneficial to brand yourself in that way, so when you apply to firms and business that are fashioncentric, your resume and social media will stand out more to them than other candidates who are just looking for a job. 

But what are the steps to creating your brand? Although I won’t go into great detail here, Megan Marrs recently wrote a fantastic article for Forbes Magazine Online about how to find and establish your own personal brand while remaining professionally sound. 

To paraphrase her points:

1. Determine your emotional appeal.

Why should people be drawn to you? Is it your sense of humor? Is it your insane organization? Are you a natural born leader? Do you always think outside of the box? Things like this can definitely help determine what direction you want your branding to go. 

2. Determine your description.

Come up with a descriptive modifier to accompany your emotional description. For example, if your passion is sports, then the descriptive modifier would be what sport you are most passionate about. (eg., baseball fanatic, but all-around sports lover.)

3. Conjunction Junction, What’s Your Function?

No, not conjunctions, but what do you do? Are you better with social media? press releases? strategies? Connecting people? Be sure to highlight these attributes in your brand creation, and that will definitely help you and other employers find SPECIFIC jobs that you seek. For example, if you’re passionate about social media, be sure to follow and know more about new social media trends and innovative ways social media is being used. Stay ahead of the pack. 

And finally, put it all together!

Once you have figured the aforementioned three items out, place them all together in one nice, neat and orderly package, and send it out into the universe! Of course, this isn’t a 30-minute meals like process, as your brand can grow and change everyday, but these tools here will definitely help get the ball rolling. 

 

 

Are you LinkedIn?

As you can see in the previous entry, discussion of PR Real World and networking events very similar to it are a huge component in establishing and maintaining working relationships in this working world. But what happens after you leave that dinner, or walk away from that mixer with a few business cards in your hand? You hope for the best? You beg and plead for them to see what awesome qualities you have? Well let us introduce you to the tool that will introduce you to the employer before you even have to say one word in an interview:

LinkedIn can be best described as Facebook for job seekers. No, you can’t post pictures of yourself at that wild party on Saturday night (please God don’t), but, it is a great social media tool that many employers are starting to look at when considering potential employees. 

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is basically your resume online. Listing past and current jobs, organizations you are affiliated with, and other relevant skills related to the industry you wish to be employed in. 

What does LinkedIn do?

LinkedIn is a great example of online networking at its finest. Many times, your established connections (friends) can link you to other people who may work in industries you are interested in, or other professionals who may work in a much more specific section of the industry (such as Sports PR connects or Entertainment Marketing connects) to help in your prospective internship/career searches.

LinkedIn also has very specific groups for its users to join based on their career interests or other specialized groups, such as the Atlanta Young Professionals groups, the National Society of Black Journalists, and even PRSA has their own LinkedIn group, all of which post relevant jobs, internships, and other important news to their members.

What can I get out of LinkedIn? A JOB.

Many companies on LinkedIn post job and internship openings on the website, most of which you can apply for using LinkedIn. As I said before, you can also research and hopefully make connections with other professionals in your field and use that to your advantage. No, we don’t advise just haphazardly adding random strangers on LinkedIn, but please have knowledge of its full potential. 

But I have no relevant job experience, do I still need LinkedIn? 

Absolutely! Even if you’ve worked nothing but part-time jobs up until this point in your life, list those! Nothing says professional like any sort of job experience, especially while balancing school and real life responsibilities. Even if you worked at Old Navy for 3 years, but have no desire to work retail for the rest of your life, your tenure at Old Navy shows employers that they can rely on you to stay at their place of employment for awhile and grow.

Want to see a semi-decent LinkedIn profile? http://www.linkedin.com/in/rpless/ is mine! You can see the recent changes LinkedIn has made to make the website easier for users, and be sure to CREATE YOUR OWN PROFILE, especially if you plan on attending PR Real World at the end of February.

Be sure to join us on February 6th for our next meeting, where networking strategies (including LinkedIn) will be discussed with Guest Speaker Michael Touchton.

Are You Ready for the Real World?

Welcome to the Spring 2013 semester! Spring is one of our favorite times of year here at KSU PRSSA, because Spring means Real World. If you don’t know what we mean by that, click here.

A one day conference in Atlanta, hosted by our parent chapter of PRSA|GA, Real World is an experience unlike any other. Although not mandatory, it is necessary for a successful, young career in Atlanta PR. Our current chapter President, Catherine, was able to secure her current internship with a huge firm through this conference last year! We always tell you guys networking is everything and we mean it! This year’s Real World event will be held on Friday, February 22 so mark your calendars!

Please come to our first meeting next Wednesday, January 23, to hear more about this great, annual event. The meeting time is 2:00pm in HS 1103 which is in Prillaman Hall (the Wellstar building). If you cannot make this first meeting but are still interested in becoming a PRSSA member and attending Real World, please email us.

Can’t wait to see you next Wednesday! Have a great week!

Please email us prior to registering for Real World. As a KSUPRSSA member, you may be eligible for a discount!

You, Your Resume & Spring Internships

Hello everyone! Catherine here, your 2012-2013 PRSSA President.

Can you believe it is almost the end of October? What have we been doing that time as flown by so quickly?! November is coming up fast which means the spring semester is not far behind. Spring brings many fantastic things but the one I would like to focus on today is INTERNSHIPS! The spring is the perfect time to intern, especially if you’re either low on experience or low on time. I have a few quick tips to help you lock down a great internship:

1) Attend our PRSSA chapter meeting THIS Wednesday! Career Services will be there to give us a hands on resume critiquing experience. Bring a few copies of your resume and a good pen. The Career Center folks will walk us through a good resume and help you correct yours! This meeting will begin at 12:30pm in Prillaman Hall room 1103.

2) Complete your PRSSA registration! This Friday is the last date to register and pay your $60 annual dues. This $60 goes mostly to our national office and ensures that you receive the benefits of PRSSA on local, regional and national levels. Email me if you have questions but trust me, it is well worth it!

3) Once you’re a PRSSA member, you will have access to the PRSSA National Internship database! This will help you search for internships all over the country. Also, you will open up your network to other KSUPRSSA members, PRSA|GA members, etc. We can help you network and introduce you to some great PR pros in the area! Knowing these pros ahead of time will benefit you greatly when you try to get an internship or job, not just in the Atlanta area but everywhere!

4) Email our Communications Dept. Internship Coordinator, Dr. Thomas Gray, for more information on getting an internship and having it count for course credit. This will be huge for your resume and your transcript!

How easy is that? Like I said, if you have any questions, please let me know. I can’t wait to see you on Wednesday, resume in hand!

Catherine

In Anticipation of National Conference

Hey KSU PRSSA!

My name is Mike Gillespie and I am a new member of PRSSA at Kennesaw State University.  I just transferred to Kennesaw this semester and I’m continuing to study communications with a concentration in public relations.  Before Kennesaw, I was studying public relations at Belmont University in Nashville, TN where I was thoroughly involved with their PRSSA chapter.  I was fortunate enough to attend a regional conference in Knoxville and learn more about the public relations industry.  This was merely a taste of the possibilities within this exciting and vibrant profession.

I am proud and ecstatic to be representing the KSU PRSSA chapter this year at National Conference in San Francisco!  Not only will I enjoy the glorious city of San Francisco, I will be engaged in a culture of public relations like no other!  The seminars and speakers look superb, relevant, and exciting.  I am hoping to learn more and expand my horizon at this national conference and gain a fresh perspective of the industry.

I have a wide variety of interests and passions that could easily fit into the public relations field due to its versatile nature.  The national conference will allow me to explore my options.  Travel is a strong passion of mine so I will be attending a seminar that enlightens incoming PR professionals on the travel possibilities within the industry.  Since healthcare is at a pivotal and crucial point in this nation’s history, I will be hearing about the vital role public relations plays in the health industry from the social media specialist at Intermountain Medical Center based in Salt Lake City.  These two seminars are among many that I am looking forward in attending.

Please follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as I engage you with my experiences at the PRSSA National Conference in San Francisco!

Twitter: mfgillespie

Instagram: preppiemike

Facebook: Michael Gillespie

 

Bridging the Gap Between Ethics and Trust

KSU’s PRSSA chapter had the privilege of hosting Stephanie Stinn, APR on Wednesday to discuss the issues of ethics and their nature in the realm of public relations. Mrs. Stinn works right down the road at Lockheed Martin, and she knows firsthand how crucial these guidelines are in her field.

The key point she chose to expound on was the relationship consumers possess with recognizable names in the business world. Trust, the nucleus of any affiliation people have with companies, is vital to success these days.

Stephanie displayed several surveys and polls regarding the nature of trust with businesses, and the results shown were rather intriguing. According the Entrepreneur.com, Amazon.com is the most trusted brand in today’s society, followed by Coca-Cola, Fed-Ex and Apple. Clearly this list is comprised of successful corporate entities, but what do they all have in common? Consumers believe in what these companies have to offer. They believe they’re buying from a reliable source that sells/offers good and services of the highest nature. Surely other companies have similar products of the same worth. However, brands that are trusted have proven themselves over time, building a loyal following over the years.

The least trusted name was Goldman Sachs, and the least trusted industry, as expected by many, was financial services. If you’re dealing with monetary funds or investments, you’re going to receive some flack along that way. That’s simply the nature of our society. However, Goldman Sachs does not do itself any favors by making headlines for nefarious activities. Recall this op-ed piece New York Times by former executive director Greg Smith. In his resignation narrative, Smith describes the wrongdoings of Goldman Sachs, directly addressing the issue of trust. “If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you,” Smith said.

Always keep ethical values in mind, regardless of the situation. Building trust will elevate your reputation in whatever field you choose to venture into, providing the basis for positive professional relationships in the future. We would like to thank Stephanie Stinn again for taking the time to speak to us, and we hope to see more of her at our meetings going forward.

Expanding Your Professional Network…at Maggiano’s!

Hello everyone!

Happy Friday! This is Catherine, your KSU PRSSA President, and today I want to tell you about a very beneficial relationship you can have as a PRSSA member. This relationship is between PRSSA members (students) and PRSA members (professionals). Each state/region has its on Public Relations Society of America chapter and each of these chapters acts as a “parent” to PRSSA chapters within their region. We are connected with PRSA|GA, based in Atlanta. I know what you’re thinking…”Catherine, that’s great I guess but why is that important to me?” 

It’s important because as a KSU PRSSA member, you’ve just expanded your professional network immensely. The PRSA|GA chapter is the second largest PRSA chapter in the nation. Yes, the nation! Imagine how many different professionals – from different local, national and international PR firms/companies – that includes! How can you make this professional network your professional network? Go to lunch! One of the easiest ways to exercise your networking skills, while sticking close to home, is to attend one of PRSA|GA’s monthly luncheon meetings. Usually held at Maggiano’s Buckhead (yum!) on Thursdays, these luncheons provide students with a great networking opportunity. Each luncheon focuses on a different topic with different speakers or panels. PR professionals from all over Atlanta (think Cohn&Wolfe, CocaCola, Engauge, etc) gather at these luncheons to mingle, learn, and (yes!) network! Remember, networking (and being effective in doing so) is essential to finding internships, growing your portfolio and gaining credibility within the PR community.  

Myself and our faculty advisor, Dr. Howes, will be attending the September luncheon next Thursday. If you are interested in going, please let me know. The deadline for registration is not until Monday evening. If you would like to go any other month, let’s talk about it. Myself or another officer can attend to make you feel more comfortable and help you with some introductions. It’s not scary or intimidating – it’s fun! 

Contact me anytime via email or Twitter. You can also visit me during my cubicle hours or stop me on campus! As your President and fellow PRSSA member, I want to help you become a wonderful PR professional! Have a great day!

First Fall Meeting

Hi everyone! Catherine, your current PRSSA President, here.

Our first meeting of the fall is this Wednesday, August 29 at 12:30pm! It will be held on the Dean’s Terrace of the Social Science building. To get there, take the elevator to the 5th floor then take two quick lefts. You will see the faculty lounge and a sign saying you’re in the right spot for the PRSSA meeting. Go through that door and outside to the terrace. There you will find pizza, drinks and your PRSSA executive board members!

This meeting will be informational and informal. We will tell you all about the benefits of becoming a PRSSA member and discuss this fall’s events. Remember, there is no major specification or GPA requirement to be a PRSSA member. You come just as you are and we will have such a great year together!

If you have any questions, email me anytime or tweet us @KSUPRSSA.

I am excited to see you on Wednesday,

Catherine