Millennials and Information

I read a report put out by Edelman group that stated that "according to a recent Kaiser Foundation study, teens today grow up spending 7.5 hours per day creating and consuming media and, according to Mintel, that average jumps to more than 13 hours per day for 25-30 year olds." The report goes on to say that "75% of global Millennials in our study said that they are never disconnected for more than an hour a day and one in seven Indian Millennials said that at no point are they disconnected during the course of their day."

What does this mean for PR?

• Because of the Millennial attachment to various forms of media, news of a crisis spreads quickly, and PR professionals must be able to respond to a crisis as quickly as possible to combat the effects of the crisis on on the situation.
• The report also states that Millennials "use four or more sources of information to make their final purchase decision on everything from clothes, to electronics, to grooming products." This means that public relations [and advertising] is more important than ever to build relationships with people. 
• Social media is becoming increasing more popular for Millennials to use as a form of customer service, with one in five Millenials turning to social networks for support. This means that companies should monitor their social networks and interact with their followers to maintain good customer service. 

A copy of the report can be found here.

I have thought a lot about Millennial media consumption lately, due to the release of the Baylor Lariat's special tab on Generation Y. (which can be found here). We have been pegged with words such as lazy, privileged and unprepared, but our commitment to social media shows we want to be constantly up to date with the latest information (and technology.)

Though I don't use myself as an example because I am likely consume more media than the average Millennial due to my editor position on the Baylor Lariat, I am still glad to see my friends occasionally post news articles and discuss events that are important to them on Facebook and Twitter. Since some claim that print is dead, I am glad that our generation is still consuming media on a daily basis. 

Public Relations and the Newsroom: The Divide

As a city editor at the Baylor Lariat, I am in charge of going through all of the press releases we receive daily. Almost every day, I receive a message from someone asking me why I didn't run their press release. Most of the time, the answer to the question is relevance. I release press releases from companies that have NOTHING to do with Baylor, who want us to write an article about them even though our readers wouldn't be interested.

The other big reason is whether the press release is newsworthy. I get press releases all the time about events that occur all the time and don't have any interesting news elements to them.

As a public relations major who works at a newspaper, I spend more time going through press releases than other people might. Here are a few tips I have thought of while reading other press releases that might be useful to you if you would like to pitch something to the newspaper.

1) Make it short--just include the main information. That way people can read it quickly and call you for more interviews.
2) Just like in a news story, put the most interesting information at the top. If you put the newsworthy elements at top, we are more likely to use it.
3) Don't include a lot of quotes- It's just easier to get basic information in the press release and then contact people for quotes. We almost never use quotes we get in press releases so just a few quotes works well.

Those are just a few things I noticed while reading press releases. Hope this helps!

Crisis Presentation-Nebraska and Colorado leave the Big 12

This PR crisis struck me because it hit so close to home. I was on a cruise to Alaska during the second week of June, and I kept turning on ESPN as soon as we got to our cabin because I was so worried. If the Big 12 dissolved, Baylor would have been in trouble because the university would have likely had to go to a conference that does not have automatic BCS qualification, and Waco would have lost quite a bit of money.

I am impressed with the way President Ken Starr and Congressman Chet Edwards handled the problem. President Starr assumed presidency on June 1, the day the rumors began to circulate. Thus, he was suddenly thrust into a crisis as soon as he arrived at Baylor. His e-mails to students and alumni, which explained the situation for Baylor and asked for support, were effective.

Today, the Big 12 came out with its new football schedule, with nine conference games. This eliminates a non-conference game for Big 12 teams, which could be hurtful for the conference. Furthermore, the schedule is the same every year, with alternation home/away games for each team. I think it really takes away the unpredictability aspect. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

I can't wait to write about this crisis for my paper.

LeBron James and PR

After the announcement of his decision to leave Cleveland for Miami, LeBron James has had to do a lot of PR in order to keep from being hated for his choice.

In order to avoid this situation, James should have told the Cleveland organization privately about his decision before announcing it on national television. This might have stopped the outburst from Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert and many Cleveland fans. Furthermore, he should have not made the decision so publicized, going as far as having a one-hour special on ESPN.

What he needs to do now in terms of public relations (and what he has been doing):
1. He went back to Akron, Ohio to thank those who supported him in his hometown.
2. He should do an appearance in Cleveland, thanking all of his fans there. Currently, he is not very liked in Cleveland and if he made an appearance, it would help.
3. Show that he cares about more than just winning. Talk about his love for the game.

Top Three Things I Learned at My PR Internship this Summer

Top Three Things I Learned at My PR Internship this Summer:

1.    Don’t be afraid to take initiative. 
When I first started my internship, I looked through the previous files and made suggestions on what can be changed to make the video production process more efficient. My supervisor loved that I was willing to suggest ideas as soon as I started, and many of my ideas were implemented. 

2.    Bounce ideas off each other.
Some of the best ideas that the interns worked on this summer happened when we would take the time to sit and discuss what each person was working on and help each other with our projects. It was difficult to find time to meet during our busy schedules at work, but every time we discovered it was worth it.  


3.    Don’t be afraid to take criticism.
During the middle of the internship, each person had a review with their supervisors to discuss what they were doing well, and what could use some help. It was a good learning experience and helped us grow in the PR field.

Those three things have helped me now in my work as a city editor for the Lariat. We are constantly taking initiative and bouncing ideas off each other. We also have to be unafraid of criticism since we face the criticism of students and professors when we write something they don’t like.

I will include more lessons I learned at a later date.

Olga

Website content

On Tuesday, I drove two hours to Houston to apply for a visa. When I finally made it to the consulate, they told me that it was too early to apply for the visa. This is after I made several phone calls to both the Houston and DC consulate and confirmed that it was OK to come and get it. Plus, I searched the consulate website and couldn't find a date restriction. The Houston consulate barely had any information on their website.

This made me think of public relations and website content. I think a PR practitioner should watch the content on their organization's website and make sure it is up to date and does not leave gaps. Furthermore, the website should be able to provide a good overview for visitors. A website should be able to provide enough information to answer basic questions and should be interesting enough to ignite follow up questions.

A Lesson in Learning Styles

This summer, when I was working for Profiles International, I had to create a lot of storyboards for possible video ideas. One of my huge projects was to plan a 15 minute video, which was shown at the company-wide meeting in July.

I came to my supervisor with a two page outline, complete with the time frames of each clip chosen for the video and why I chose those clips. My supervisor loved it and showed it to the Chief Marketing Officer. The Chief Marketing Officer then asked her to ask me to make a different version of the storyboard to take to the executive team: a version in Powerpoint--complete with a screenshot of each video and a short sentence about the video. My supervisor explained to me that the executive team is full of visual learners- who prefer to see a screenshot of the video and not read a lot of text.

Later, as the video was entering its production stage, I had to redo the story board another way. This time, it was a timeline format for our video producer, who needed to see where to place transitions.

From that point on, I made three different types of storyboards for the same projects. I learned that it is important to accommodate different learning styles so that everyone involved can understand the project.