Many people join sororities during their four years of college and then once they graduate, they are lost in the transition.  They move to new exciting places, get new email addresses, and the sororities lose touch with their beloved former members.  Well, Kappa is doing something to reconnect with these lost members.  The six degrees of Kappa Kappa Gamma is spreading throughout chapters like wildfire.

Kappa has sent out an online form with a search engine where you can search for members that you know who have different contact information and/or have simply stopped considering themselves associated with our sorority.  The idea is that we will be able to reconnect with sisters all over the country, possible even the world.  Nancy O’dell, of Access Hollywood was a member of the Clemson Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma and she agreed to send out a video explaining the Six Degrees of Separation theory and how it applies to Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Our national headquarters have been able to get in touch with countless lost alumni since the release of the video.  I think this is great PR for Kappa Kappa Gamma because it shows that we care about the the members of this organization, both active and inactive, and want to create a sense of community with all former and current members.

Ok so remember way back when I said that the outdoors store in clemson was doing this really GREAT job at Grassroutes PR in Clemson? Well, that was when I wasn’t so INCREDIBLY annoyed with the emails that have been overflowing my inbox since the day I joined the group.  So he asked hundreds of people to join his facebook group to get exposure for the Clemson Outdoor Adventures Outfitters shop in may.  Then he sends every single one of the people in his group really long emails all the time telling us about the promotional events going on that week.  It’s like, enough already.  I’ll post one below that I received yesterday so you can kind of get an idea of how annoying this can be:

“It’s that time of year again when the pollen is out and students are cramming. Spring Finals are just around the corner and you know what that means…

Sell Books… Buy Gear!!!

Here’s your latest exclusive dealio:
40% off all Spring Clothing including Patagonia, North Face, Mountain Hardwear, Roxy, Quiksilver
40% off all Keen shoes
15% off Chacos and Rainbows (or more see below)
20% off all backpacks

Deal details: If you want 40% off of Rainbows do two things. Buy $50 worth of clothing (post discount pricing) and say the password.

What’s the password? Why it’s “Say hello to my little friends…”

There is a sale going on at the shop but the discounts are not as good as offered to the Facebook Group. Let’s just say it’s my way of saying thanks for putting up with all my posts…

How long will it last? Maybe one day or maybe through Finals… There’s only one way to find out and that’s to stop by the shop. Besides, you were planning on coming by and visiting before you left for your Summer adventures anyway… Right???

Good Luck with your studies and early congratulations to all the Spring Graduates! Just think, you are just days away from being able to wake up from the nightmare where you are in a class and there is a test and you have forgotten to study for it and think, whew! that could never happen to me again… By the way, I still have that dream on odd occassion. And no, I don’t need any dream analysis on that one but thanks just the same.

Lee”

This is the kind of stuff that should be posted on his group for people who WANT to be updated that specific week…not sent out in mass emails.  Maybe PRSSA could offer them some volunteer PR work?

This is something that I shared with our PR class this semester that I thought was a pretty cool PR thing that Verizon Wireless did.  So you know “the network” right? For those of you who don’t, verizon has this marketing idea that they have used in commercials where they say that their network comprised of hundreds of verizon employees, literally follows its customers wherever they go.  Well, verizon actually sent their network out to follow random customers to reach out to the verizon wireless community.  Here is the video.  I think this is a great idea!  Anyways, this was one of my examples of good PR because the video spread like wildfire and it was a great example of Verizon wireless trying to reach out to the community.

This is a really beneficial and important organization.  My dad practices medicine and growing up I was always aware of the issues surrounding high versus low income areas and the healthcare that is available to them.  In the time that I have spent reflecting on it, I have become more and more convinced that education is almost as, if not just as important an issue for these low income communities as healthcare.  A quality education is absolutely essential to creating opportunities for kids that can affect them for the rest of their lives.  The difference in the quality of education that low income communities face is completely unfair.  How can we expect people from lower income areas to compete with everyone else in the professional world when they have not had the same academic opportunities?  Teach for America is an organization that helps to end this inequity.  I was reccommended for an internship with them next year (ok, I didn’t get it, but I would encourage others to apply next year!) where they ask a student on clemson’s campus to promote and recruit for teach for america.  I actually only became really interested in the organization after the campus coordinator came to speak to my chapter about applying to teach.  I have never been interested in teaching before but something about the way he presented it sparked my interest.  Maybe it was that this is about so much more than teaching; it’s about changing lives and changing our world for the better.  This position is perfect for those interested Public Relations and Marketing and it’s something that I think any one of the public relations students would really enjoy doing.  You must be comfortable speaking to organizations or classes and, perhaps more importantly, speaking one-on-one with people who are interested in joining the corps.  It may even be beneficial to use online social media tools like a blog, twitter account or facebook group to market Teach for America on Clemson’s campus.  I think that the experience that I would gain in helping to promote Teach for America on campus would be invaluable in the real world and it would be such a privilege to gain this experience while promoting something that is so important. 

This was a cool PR example that I shared in class.  A couple of my friends, and some other spiritual leaders around Clemson have been praying a lot about having an event that was all about Jesus, not about promoting a ministry.  There were just a couple of guys with this vision and they had NO idea how they were going to make it work.  They needed lots of funding, lots of volunteers and lots of promotion, and they had no way of arranging that.  Last night was the event and I am so proud for them to say that the ampitheater was FULL!  These guys worked tirelessly promoting there cause.  They created a facebook group and event which constantly kept memebers updated with what was going on.  They had a website for why jesus that was pretty impressive once it went up.  They printed about 300 tee’s that I’m sure many of you clemson students saw around Clemson’s campus, and then they did something that shocked me.  They created a twitter account.  It wasn’t until I saw this that I realized how important twitter can be.  Some of the same guys that created this twitter account were the ones that had made fun of me for being on that crazy social media tool in the first place.  The event was a total success and I think the guys did a great job of promoting it around campus.  People were constantly asking whoever wore the shirts, what exactly it was about and the word spread fast!

This is another oppurtunity that I cannot believe I have the option of doing.  As soon as I got to Clemson, my uncle told me that if there was any job I needed to get it would be a job in the Sports Information Department.  This was before he even realized that I wanted to pursue public relations as a career, and he had no idea how invaluable this job would be for my career.  Once I got involved with the basketball office, I found that I couldn’t leave…it’s a family atmosphere in there.  But it has always been in the back of my head that I need to be working in Sports Information.  I began talking to Tim Bourret this spring about possible plans for the summer.  What we worked out was that I get to work in the basketball office and come over to sports information one day a week in the summer to volunteer.  If sports and PR are my passions, then Sports information is where I need to be and Tim Bourret is absolutely who I need to know.  I have no idea what I’m doing, I am just excited about the oppurtunity to get in there and learn all I can.  I would say that I haven’t had the worst gig in the world as a college student…you know working in the Clemson sports department for all three years!

This summer, after considering a couple of internship possibilities elsewhere, I’ve decided to work in the basketball office.  However I’m looking forward to having new responsibilities.  This has been a transitional year for me in the office.  I have asked for more responsibility and the coaches and staff have responded.  After working in the office for two years, I’ve seen the staff begin to recognize my ability to do work and my passion for understanding the innerworkings of the office and they have been giving me bigger responsibilities.  This summer I’m looking to help our Director of Operations plan and possibly promote camp.  I would also love to help promote our Coaches Versus Cancer Tigerfest even that will take place next fall.  I think that the work experience that I gain in the office can be carried over into any career path I choose upon graduation, ESPECIALLY in the realm of sports promotion.  Anyways I’m really excited about the opportunity to turn my routine job into a unique experience this summer!

This past May I was asked to help out with a Student Body Presidential Candidate’s campaign.  I was not close friends with the candidate, but we did have a mutual friend and so I agreed to meet with him and have him share his ideas with me before I agreed to be a part of his campaign.  After our meeting, I realized that I really supported his vision for Clemson University.  His ideas were solid, ones that I would love to be instated here at Clemson, and his ability to lead an entire college community was evident and so I decided to join the campaign as one of his 15 at large members.  I was excited to help him out in any way I could, but was expecting that my help would be needed in the week of active solicitation before elections, passing out fliers, coupons and candy.  Within a week of agreeing to be a part of the effort, I realized that I would be doing a lot more that passing out suckers on the library bridge, I would be put in charge of promoting him to the entire school.  I saw him make requests to the people who were originally in charge, and get no response and his campaign was consequently suffering.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and to take charge of the campaign.  What was originally meant to be a 15 person team, ended up being a tag team effort between the candidate, a couple of loyal members of the team that agreed to help, and his new manager: me.  We created a facebook group, website, and one member created a really cool sign to put up around campus.  It wasn’t as flashy as some of the others, which may have not worked to our benefit, but but put all the signs in front of any designer and I think ours would have won.  One of the most unique things about our campaign was that we sent Richard out to digning halls, and areas where most candidates were not campaigning so that he would be able to have open communication with the students who would vote.  This was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I have ever been through.  I was thrown into a position that I never signed up for and had to make the decision to commit all of my time to a cause that I believed in.  Even though we did not win, it was a very close race, and at the end of the day I was honestly able to say that I was proud of the campaign we ran.   I think I got invaluable grassroutes promotional experience!

A small outdoors store is Clemson has been using facebook to create hype about the sales that the store is offering, and to get a “Facebook following” if you will, from students at clemson.  Here’s how it worked, I received an invitation about a week ago to join the group for the Clemson Outdoor Adventures Outfitters Shop .  I nonchalantly joined the group and a couple of days later received a facebook message with a challenge.  If the current members of the group got 200 more members to join, we would get a pair of rainbows at half price from the store that friday.  And the group worked.  The owner, who is completely new to the facebook group scene has almost 5oo members in the group, and they all get constant messages about the latest sales at the store, and special offers for the group members.  The sales are GOOD and the specials are even better.  I thought this was a great example of working from the ground up in PR because this guy, an owner of a small business, in a really small town, has figured out a way to create open communication between his business and his customers.  Not only are people able to receive information about the store, but they can post questions and suggestions on the wall of the group.  One guy suggested that they outdoor store should order more fishing gear.  This is not the most elaborate PR scheme, but i think it shows how public relations can be effective even on a small scale.

So I’m back on the blogging scene with a refreshed desire to perfect, or at least improve my Public Relations skills and techniques. In my first class of stakeholder communication, we started out by watching a video on propenmic featuring top PR execs who had specific advice on what characteristics were crucial in future PR executives. Below are some of the ideas that I took from the video that I thought stood out.

-We must know what the client’s next question is before they ask it.

-We tell stories that move people, and figure out how to best convey stories to our publics.

-We should be thoughtful, creative, and speedy.

-Curiosity is key.

-We should have a spine so that we can share necessary information even if clients may not want to hear it.

-Must write well

-Gotta know research.

-Acquire experience in crisis.

-Know how to do “word of mouth”.

-Understand how to apply social media.

-Get great at asking questions.

-PASSION

-Make suggestions that are out of the box.

-Transform from public relations to personal relations.

-Be an expert while remaining personable.

-BE BOLD.

I think that these ideas should help to define goals for myself in this upcoming semester, and keep me on track as I try to gain a solid understanding of what PR is and how best to practice it. The three things that I hope to focus on in particular this semester are: to be bold and consistent in expressing myself in the social media world, to practice thinking out of the box, and to improve my writing techniques.