Senior Seminar Research....AHHH!!

So I am in the process of completing my first (and final) big research project. For my mass communication senior seminar class, we are required to do a group and personal paper on a research topic of our choice. A few weeks ago, we all submitted research proposals...mine was an idea to look at TV shows from the 1950's , 60's 70's 80's and 90's and compare them with the popular shows of today. Our society has gone from I Love Lucy where a married couple was shown sleeping in separate beds, to shows like Teen Mom, where we highlight the lives of unwed teenage mothers. After breaking up into groups, however, my team decided to look at alcohol advertising deciphering how beer, wine, liquor, and anti-alcohol campaigns all use different methods to hook their target audience.

Previous research has shown that beer ads as a whole appeal more to men, and often involve humor and women depicted as sexual objects. Wine ads have two main target audiences, ages 21-29 and 30-45. Their ads use specific jargon, leading viewers to believe knowledge is required in order for the consumer to appreciate wine as an experience. Liquor ads use lifestyle branding, grabbing their target audience by showing a desirable lifestyle of luxury or leisure.

So what next? we are going to look at the top ten brands of beer, wine and liquor and view five commercials and then compare these with anti-alcohol ads. At the end of the semester, we are going to turn in a 15 page paper on our findings and hopefully present at the student research conference at GCSU on April 16. Wish us luck!

Smile...You're in PR :)

For my small group communication class this semester, we were required to do research on a particular area of nonverbal communications, so I chose smiling. My researched showed that smiling, no doubt has a positive effect on human communication. The studies discussed in the articles I read proved that people are more responsive to other people when they are approached with a smile. In communication, public relations especially, a simple smile may be the key opening the doorway to gaining trust and building positive relationships.

Here are a few interesting things I found:

1. In Top 10 Reasons to Smile, Dr. Mark Stibich tells us that smiling can improve our attractiveness, health, and stress level. He notes that smiling can trick the body into changing the mood, and can even reduce stress and boost the immune system. It can lower blood pressure, release endorphins, as well as make one look younger and seem successful. Smiling is contagious; it helps one stay positive.
2. A Slow Smile Attracts found that a longer smile was seen as more authentic, flirtatious, and trustworthy and less dominant. Head tilting increased attractiveness and trustworthiness, but only when the head was tilted to the right. Smiling was associated with attractiveness in females and dominance in males, and in general, female smiles were found to be less genuine than those from males, though women seemed to be better at detecting the difference in short and long onset smiles.

3. Four graduate students in Amsterdam stopped people in the city square and asked them to help with a survey; when the experimenters approached participants with a smile, they were much more likely to get a positive response. They found that smiling participants were more willing to help and that smiles from the experimenter increased the helpfulness of the participants. Interestingly, it was also found that women smiled more than men, but a smile from a male experimenter was more likely to elicit helpfulness than a smile from a female experimenter.

4. A 2003 BBC news article showed a sonogram picture of a baby that appeared to be smiling, even though typically babies do not smile until about six weeks after birth. Dr. David Chamberlin says that infants instinctively respond to smiles. In his studies of brain activity in early infants, he found that smile centers in the brain become active early on in prenatal development.
5. Dr. Norman Cousins claimed to have cured his cancer by watching funny movies, stating that the body has its own biochemical responses to laughter and that even a fake smile can bring happiness by activating pleasure centers in the brain. Also, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Hughes tells of how he and his troops used smiles rather than weapons when dealing with a hostile situation in Iraq.

So, PR professionals, get out there and show off those pearly whites!! :)

Meeting Management in PR

I found a great article in PRSA's Issues and Trends, so I thought I would share...

Jill Geisler wrote an article called "What Great Bosses Know About Managing Meetings." In it she first talks about the goals that we hope to accomplish by having meetings. We may seek to provide timely information, give direction, make group decisions, produce a product, generate ideas, or observe rituals. But Ms. Geisler also goes a step further, providing a checklist for how to manage our meetings. In her list, she asks many questions, including how important is this meeting to our organization? is there an agenda? is the right person leading the meeting? are the people contributing? what can we do to improve participation? how well do we stay on track? and most importantly, do we end with a clear message?

After reading this article, I began to think of what I could take away and use in my current job as well as during PRSSA meetings. Firstly, knowing how important the meeting is makes a huge difference in who shows up and contributes to conversations. For example, at our last PRSSA meeting, we had three people come to speak about internships, which are of extreme importance to those of us graduating in May. By letting people know that they would be receiving valuable information that could possibly land them with a future internship, we increased our attendance. Also, agendas and staying on track are really important, especially in large groups. At my job as phonathon manager, we have a 15 minute meeting after our break to discuss and work through any issues that we may have encountered. If we lose track, people tend to forget about the overall importance of the meaning and go off on random conversations (like last week, when one employee brought up the fact that Wendy's was out of frostys, and suddenly everyone in the office had a story to share about fast food places) Though the stories may have been entertaining, they ultimately had nothing to do with fundraising tactics, the overall goal of the meeting. The most important thing I took from Ms. Geisler's article was to end each meeting with a clear understanding of next steps, roles, responsibilities, and deadlines and to keep communication channels open between meetings. This is important in PRSSA meetings because since we only meet once a month, it is essential that everyone has a clear idea of the goals we need to accomplish before the next meeting. Also, the exec board especially, needs to stay in contact throughout the month to follow-up on progress and set the agenda for the next meeting.

I found this article to be very helpful in the management world, and also the PR world. Ms. Geisler's checklist was a simple list of questions that could help any professional get the most out of their next meeting. To listen to more of her management tips, lister to her podcast.

Enacting a Senior Giving Campaign at GCSU

As part of my fundraising efforts towards Georgia College and State University, I am currently working on a team to enact a Senior Giving Campaign at GCSU. Last semester, we held an interest meeting and got some senior leaders and Student Government members to join our cause, and this semester we are working to spread the word about the campaign.

Basically, we are asking GCSU seniors to donate $20.10 in honor of their graduation year. This donation can be in honor of a friend or student, be set aside for scholarships or specific schools, or go towards the Heritage Fund which pays for things that state aid and tuition don't cover at GCSU.

We want these students to give back to GCSU for three reasons:

1) to say thank you to GCSU for four amazing years

2) to make and strengthen a tradition of giving for years to come

3) to increase alumni participation and raise our national rankings

So far with this campaign, I have learned (and been reminded of) some valuable PR lessons. Firstly, I was reminded of how important it is to get enthusiastic outgoing team players working with you. In fundraising especially, people need to be outgoing and confident. Asking for money is not for everyone, sometimes it can be really challenging. Also, I have learned how important it is to fully believe in your cause. You cannot ask someone to donate money to a cause that you do not support 100% yourself. Also, never underestimate the impact of social media. A facebook group I created in 10 minutes is continuously growing and making new people aware of our cause. The last big this I have realized lately is that you can never have enough people on your side. On May 8, over 1,000 seniors will depart from GCSU and make their way in the world, and it is my goal that all of them will have supported (or at least heard about) our campaign. In order to do this, we need to be connectors, not just within our own circles of friends. We need to branch out and come up with creative ways to reach a broad audience of students of all majors, clubs, and activities.

For more information about this campaign, please visit: http://www.gcsu.edu/alumni/seniorgiving.htm