BrAiNStOrM!?!?!

Last Friday, I spent the day at Manning Salvage and Lee in Atlanta, learning more about the real PR world and shadowing GCSU's PRSSA professional adviser Carlos Campos. I had a great day networking with people at MS&L, learning about their particular clients and experience and getting valuable advice about internships and much more, but one of the highlights of the day was an offsite "field trip" in the afternoon. We met Professor Larry Stultz of the Atlanta Art Institute, who is known for his creative brainstorming techniques, in order to get some fresh new ideas for the MS&L crew. Mr. Stultz had some amazing ideas. He said that with creativity, the sky is the limit and everyone must be involved and engaged in every step. He said that when brainstorming, the group should have toys, music, pictures, and NO smart phones.

First, he mentioned assumption smashing, where you ask questions like what can we add, what can we take away, can we make it bigger or smaller, or can we change the color or style? Then he talked about mind mapping, where you write the key word in the middle and let people write things around it, drawing lines and connecting other questions, phrases and ideas. He then talked about the six thinking hats of Debono (blue is the leader, white is positive, black is negative, green is creative, yellow is optimistic, and red is emotional) where group members put on different theoretical hats to look at the situation from different points of view. My favorite was “Out of the Blue” where everyone makes a paper airplane and writes one word on it. Then everyone flies their own plane, picks up a new one, reads the word on it, and then writes the first word that comes to their mind related to what they just read. All of this is done with loud music and lots of energy.

What I liked most about all of these ideas was the simple fact that they encourage outside of the box thinking, which I think people don't do nearly enough. In a world where we have information at our fingertips, I think people loose the ability to think critically, or creatively for that matter. If things as simple as toys, music and simple group activities can boost brain power, .why are we not incorporating more of these things into the classroom or workplace, and what could happen if we did??

Think Outside the Box

I recently read an article called Great Minds Don't think alike by Ray Silverstein. In it, Mr. Silverstein talks about how it is easy to hire people who think like you...everyone agrees and there are no conflicts. But really, this type of thinking is detrimental to growth and innovation. Silverstein says that in the workplace, collaboration is must. He says that to do this, we can encourage and reward new ideas, take action against negativity, let others be in charge, and bring in people from diverse backgrounds.

This article made me think about how things in the past have been negatively impacted because everyone just went along with the group, and agreed blindly to whatever the status quo proposed...groupthink. In fact, I can't think of any event in history where groupthink was a positive thing. I think of how a few girls fueled the crazy witch hunts in Salem in 1692 that ended in the lynching of innocent people and how thousands of people were senselessly killed in the Holocaust, blindly following orders to torture other human beings. I think of how engineers have failed with the crash of the Challenger shuttle and the sinking of the Titanic. Did one person not think differently, ask why, or propose better ideas for construction? Or how about with things like cults or the Pregnancy Pact (where a group of teenage girls agreed to all have babies together before even graduating high school). How do people rationalize killing themselves in the name of religion or throwing away their future at the thought of "playing mommy."

Groupthink, occurs when people don't want to shake things up, when they attempt to minimize conflict by not voicing or evaluating new ideas. Everything runs smoothly when we are in agreement, but is that always a good thing? History certainly says no.

So, my advice for the day:

BREAK OUT OF YOUR BOX!!

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

Bobcat PRSSA

Bobcat PRSSA received its charter on Feb. 25, 2008. During our first year, membership nearly doubled to our current total of 49 members. As an up-and-coming chapter, we pride ourselves on our exceptional membership involvement and the success of the events we have executed. We participated in a fundraising event called the PRSSA Media Mix, selling used books, CD’s and DVD’s to raise money for our chapter president to attend the national organization’s leadership rally in Scottsdale, AZ in June 2009. In addition to our monthly meetings and annual holiday party and service project, we held our second PR Day on Nov. 4. During this event, four PR professionals from Atlanta spoke with students about their jobs, social media etiquette, and future internship possibilities.

The event our whole chapter looks forward to most is PR Real World, a day-long conference held in Atlanta each February. Last year, 14 members met on campus at 5 a.m. to carpool to the event. That day we all went to various workshops, where we learned how to build PR skills and strengthen professional development. On the way home we all discussed what we had learned and the contacts we had made, and immediately began looking forward to attending again the next year.

This year, thanks to a $500 grant from GA PRSA, we will be able to help our members with the cost of Real World as well as the next PRSSA assembly. In our two short years, Bobcat PRSSA has excelled beyond all expectations. We received national recognition when two teams from our chapter took first and second in the CW campaign and we received state recognition when one of our members won a recent twitter contest and got to have lunch with the PRSA President. Also, at our last meeting our professional adviser brought along two young PR professionals to talk with us about preparing for summer internships. Currently, we getting ready to start spring recruitment as well as plan this semester's fundraising event. I think that the things our chapter has done just reflects the incredible work ethic of our members. I am so proud of the progress our chapter has made and I look forward to seeing it continue to thrive in the upcoming years.