Taylor's Top Ten

It is very hard to believe that when I push that little "Publish Post" button down there (and shared one last meal with Team LASC), I will have officially finished my Public Relations concentration. I have learned so much over the past two years and I wanted to share with you my Top 10 things I've learned in PR.

1. Network

If I learned one thing in PR, it is the importance of networking. It does not matter the contact, the more you network the better! You never know when you might need that person you met at a conference, party, or wedding!

2. Good Writing Skills

Writing is such an important skill to have in PR. You never know when someone might need you to write a news release or an article for a newsletter. Being a good writer is also something that will benefit you not only in PR, but every form of communications.

3. Get involved in Social Media

This is another major thing that I have learned in my PR concentration. The benefits of being on Twitter, PR Open Mic, Linked In, and other social media sites allow you to accomplish my number one thing, networking, and keep you in the loop of what's going on in the PR world.

4. Learn How to Plan, Implement, and Execute a PR campaign

This semester was my first opportunity to do this in a group setting and not with my entire class. I learned the things that worked and the things that did not work. I think that practice makes perfect when it comes to doing a campaign and the more you do them, the better you will become.

5. Read Blogs

So I will admit, I have recently become addicted to reading blogs. There are SO many blogs on so many different topics and have learned a lot through reading them once a week. Most PR professionals and agencies have blogs where they post information about what they are doing in PR and it is a great way to keep up with new things going on in PR. (See #3!)

6. Find your niche and go for it!

There are so many aspects in PR, from event planning, to writing press releases, social media, and more. I think I have found my niche in Corporate Social Responsibly and would love to be a part of helping a company develop their CSR.

7. The more experience the better

I have done practicums with our student newspaper, our student radio station, and The GIVE Center, the volunteer hub of GCSU. In my PR classes I have done PR for a non-profit healthcare clinic, planned an auction for our Athletic Auction, and helped promote two shows on The CW. I can take away different lessons from each task I was handed and encourage you to try out different fields of PR so you can accomplish #6!

8. Learn to relate with the media

As a PR professional, you will probably be the liaison between your company and the media. Learn how to pitch well and relate with the media.

9. Event planning is more than just throwing a party...

There is so much more that goes on behind the scenes, you would be amazed. One of my favorite things to see is an event unfold. There is just something magical about it.

10. Have fun!

Life is not worth it id your not enjoying what you're doing! Don't get stressed about the little things and enjoy the fruits of your labor!!

ltf signing off.

The Happiest Place on Earth! (In part to their CSR!)

I will admit it, I love all things Disney. If you read my previous blog posts, you can see hints of this. I have been blessed to visit Disney World more time than I can count on my fingers, and my family likes to say that The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando is the only place where we can truly get along! As one of our final projects in my PR Campaigns class, we were asked to research the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) of a Fortune 500 company. When I found that The Walt Disney Company was on this list, I was more than excited to find out what they are doing in the realm of CSR. This semester I have learned that out of all the aspects of public relations, corporate social responsibility is something that interests me the most. Putting two of my favorite things together, Disney and CSR, I think I have found a possible career!

The Walt Disney Company has five main CSR objectives and they fall under five categories. These categories are Children and Family, Content and Products, Environment, Community, and Workplace.

• Children and families are at the heart of the Walt Disney Company and they deeply support the well-being of children and families. They have developed four guiding principles for children's content. They are encouraging positive development, making content for kids of all ages, partnering with parents and creating safe environments.
• Disney strives to create content and products responsibly. They have created many standards to which they produce their content and products.
• Since the company was founded, conserving the environment has been a major theme for the company. Disney has five major environmental commitments from climate and energy, waste, ecosystems, water, products, and education and action.
• The Walt Disney Company aims to be a positive and productive member in the communities in which their employees live and work. One way that Disney is accomplishing this is through their employee volunteer program, VoluntEARS.
• Disney is committed to fostering a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace. Many people consider Disney as an employer because of the way they treat their employees. Disney also aims to harbor good relations with their second party suppliers and manufacturers.

The Walt Disney Company encompasses so many different areas that covering all that they are doing in CSR would not fit on this little blog. I encourage you to PLEASE check out their CSR website and see how Disney's CSR is helping the company to become the "Happiest Place on Earth!"

The Times They Are A Changing...

Growing up I always knew that I wanted to go into the communication field. Little did I know that I would be graduating during one of the worst economic downturns our country has ever seen! My professor posted this Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates thanks to the people at Grady College at UGA. The info and statistics in this survey are not very surprising to me, but it still scares me to think about what I am going to do once I graduate in May.

One of the ways that I am trying to combat this economic downturn is to be a well rounded PR student. I am minoring in Spanish in order to broaden my skills and hopefully make me more marketable for employers. The Mass Communication Department at my university has done a great job preparing it's students for the real world and I think this past year's graduates can attest to this. Many people who graduated in May have now found jobs despite the economy at newspapers, television stations, and ad agencies. These connections that we have will hopefully benefit us in a few months!

Community Relations

For our PR Campaigns class, we get to present a case study and discuss it with our class. My partner and I picked the chapter on Community Relations because we are both interested in non-profits and corporate social responsibility. This chapter gave a lot of insight on how to relate and impact your community. It is important to research your community so that you are able to best serve it. It is also important to know your companies strengths and find ways to use your strengths in service. There are many different ways for companies to give back. Some examples are event sponsorship and pro-bono work.

The case that we looked at involved a very small all-women college in New York, Wells College. In 2004, Wells saw a decrease in enrollment and was struggling financially as well. After looking into different options, the decision that the Board of Trustees and the President came to was to move towards co-education. The decision to allow men into this historically all female college was a shock to many, but overall Wells had a lot of support.

This case was interesting to me because when I first read it, I wondered how this fit into community relations. I realized that the college functioned as a community with it's student, faculty, large network of alumni and financial supporters. Community relations does not necessarily mean a non-profit or CSR. There are many different types of community relations and different ways to give back to your community.

Disney's Friends For Change: Project Green

So today is Blog Action Day and thanks to the help of my favorite PR Professor Ging, my PR class gets to participate! Blog Action Day is powered by change.org and seeks to spark discussion around a topic of global importance. The whole idea is not just to get big name blogs to participate, but little PR student blog's as well! This years issue is climate change and the first thing that I thought of was The Disney Channel.

Yep that is correct, The Disney Channel. This summer, Disney launched Disney's Friends For Change: Project Green in hopes of raising awareness to an audience that may be overlooked when it comes to going green. Disney viewers get to have a say in how $1 million will be spent in different charitable programs ranging from water, waste, and the blog action day topic of climate control.

Disney has enlisted all of it's tween a-listers from Miley Cyrus to the Jonas Brothers to help be the face for this campaign and to help raise awareness. They have done several PSA's and even recorded a very catchy song encouraging kids to "send it on".

One key factor in Disney's campaign is to get kids to take action on their own and not enlist the help of their parents. Simple things like turning off the lights when you leave a room and unplugging your cell phone charger when you are not using it are things that kids can do on their own. Getting kids thinking about ways they can make a difference in their world may be able to instill in them a more greener attitude that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. The many different causes, such as helping end deforestation in Central Mexico’s Oyamel forest and helping protect arctic wildlife such as polar bears from the effects of climate change makes kids more aware of what is going on in the world around them. Disney also encourages kids to enlist their friends in these causes also by letting kids know that there is power in numbers. One friend is powerful, but a million friends are unstoppable as one PSA put it.

So on this Blog Action Day 2009, I applause you Disney Channel for helping raise awareness in our youth and hopefully instilling in them values and determination to make the world that they live in a better place. This generation has the power to make a large impact and to conserve this precious planet we are a part of.

TV To Talk About...

This semester my PR Campaigns class is participating in a competition with PRSSA and The CW to promote two of their new shows, 90210 and Melrose Place. My class was split into three teams and we each had to plan and execute a campaign to help promote these shows on the college campus.

This past Thursday my group, Team 31061, had our event "TV to Talk About, Music to Jam About". Our group wanted to do something fun and laid back and something that students would enjoy. We had two music groups, Blake Whitworth and the Whales, come down and put on a concert on Front Campus. While people were enjoying the live music, they were able to enter a raffle with prizes from many different Milledgeville businesses. We also had fun interactive games like corn hole and ladder golf and gave out CW prizes to anyone who wanted to play. While doing this we got to talk to people about The CW and why we were doing this event.

Overall the event went really well, despite most of the student body leaving for our first ever Fall Break and some other events on Front Campus, but we made it work. We hope that after our event more people heard about these new shows and wanted to learn more about them!

Ethics

Since the beginning of my mass communication education, I have been taught the importance of ethics in the mass media. This past week my PR Campaigns class had a discussion on ethics and how our ethical views will influence what kind of job we look for after graduation. Some of the biggest influences on my ethical views has been my parents and my faith. Growing up, my parents never forced their views on me but allowed me to make my own decisions (and mistakes!) but I watched them and a lot of their values rubbed off on me. I think the role my faith has played in my life has been an even greater influence on my ethical views than my parents. The Bible is my favorite book and I want to live out what it teaches.

After college, I want to find a job that I enjoy doing and preferably makes a tangible difference in the world around them. I want to be successful in my career, but I will not compromise my morals in getting there and would not want to work for a company that does not stick to a code of ethics. I honestly don't care about the money that I can make, and would not take a job with a companies whose product I could not support, such as tobacco. Honesty is very important to me, and I would not want to work for a company who does not stand behind their word.

A lot of these are ideal situations and I know that we do not live in an ideal world, so the chances of me finding a job with a company with a high corporate social responsibility that is making a difference in the world may be slim, but I will still continue to stick to my personal code of ethics.