Winter 2019 Winter 2019 FORUM FINAL version 1:2 | Page 2

Fundamental Tools to Showcase Your Personal Brand By Colin Wylie Brigham Young University can be a great tool to build your reputation. You also can develop a follow- ing and impact a larger audience. Understanding who you are and sharing that with the world has become essential for young professionals. A personal brand works just like one for a corporation — giving your audience an expectation for how you might operate. Twitter Take a large corporation like Apple or Audi. Just a glimpse of the logo makes you think of high quality products and low bank balances. The same applies to you as a professional, whichever industry you choose to work in. “As technology continues to dominate common daily processes, personal branding is ‘the business of people,’ inclusive of perceptions and proven career leverage,” suggested LaKisha Greenwade, president at Lucki Fit LLC. Once you take the time to craft your brand, it’s important to take an inven- tory of the resources available to promote yourself. There are several free and paid services that young professionals can use to build a brand. Social media Your social profiles afford a vast sea of opportunities for self-promotion. Deciding whether you want your social profiles set to public or private is a personal choice. If you choose public, make sure what you post reflects what you want your brand to be.To understand how you can use your social profiles, it may be easier to break them down by platform and how they are often used in professional settings. Facebook Most people use Facebook to foster personal connections and share news about their lives. Some individuals feel inclined to discuss controver- sial topics, but this is something to exercise caution with. Be professional in your interactions and try not to burn bridges. You never know which one of your Facebook friends could end up hooking you up with your next job. Instagram Depending on your industry, using Instagram to establish your brand is essential. For example, if you are a creator, sharing visuals from your work Like Instagram, the use of Twitter can depend on the industry you’re involved in. Using public relations as an example, professionals are en- gaged in Twitter conversations on a daily basis. Look out for scheduled industry Twitter chats, trending hashtags or stories that you could engage with. You can strengthen your network and also start to build credibility as you engage with others online. Winter is near and the semester is wrapping up. Holiday breaks are great for refreshing motivations and aspirations, which provide the perfect opportunity to evaluate your firm’s fall semester and prepare for the spring. Digital portfolio Gone are the days of carrying around a binder full of work from your internships or classes. By creating an online portfolio, you can share your work with anyone who has a computer and an internet connection. With the continued expanse of the internet, there are many free sources that help you create an online portfolio. I’ve used Wordpress and Wix and enjoyed using both. Many of the site builders will come with templates you can look through to match your personality. Link your portfolio off your social media profiles and list the web address on your resume to start getting traffic on your page. If you want to spend some money, there are also a lot of tactics that can be used to strengthen your SEO. Continue on page 6 worked with your firm and why. Collaborate with your colleagues and make sure to note successes and failures to apply in your strategy for the spring semester. A Nationally Affiliated Student-run Firm that takes advantage of these opportunities to plan ahead is 1910 PR. “Step by step we have been building this firm, starting in the spring with naming, branding and formation of a client list,” said Emily Kinsky, associate professor of mass communication and adviser of 1910 PR. “It has been thrilling to see this dream come to fruition and provide real-world PR experience for our students.” Established firms should use the upcoming breaks to evaluate client work, operations and retention. Use this time to understand what Firm Director, Hope Stokes, has even identified new opportunities this past semester to grow the Firm and sustain its success in the future. “One of the primary practices that we are implementing at 1910 PR is a mentor program. We are going to require our leadership to identify and train a protégé throughout the semester in order to achieve smoother transitions between leadership positions in the future.” 2 www.prssa.prsa.org/forum With the beginning of a new semester comes the start of an old stressor — PRSSA recruitment. If you’re like me, this time daunts even the best of us. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but you also want to be engaging and new, which leaves you with quite the predicament. This goes without saying, but your LinkedIn profile needs to reflect who you are as a professional. Make sure to regularly update information, im- ages and links so future employers or connections can see what you have accomplished. This is critical, especially if you don’t have an online portfo- lio. Hopefully the next section will convince you to make one. New Firms could use these next few months to build a framework or standard of operations with their Faculty Advisers. PRSSA provides a Student-run Firm Handbook, which provides best tips and practices on how to do this. Once this is in place, reach out to clients and start planning recruitment efforts to launch your firm in the spring. Members of the Student-run Firm 1910 PR By Derek Heim Ball State University LinkedIn 1910 PR is unique because they started as a spring 2017 course This is where the PRSSA Chapter at Ball State University found themselves at the beginning of the year. Our num- bers were down, our outreach was low and we were on the hunt to rebrand our Chapter. After countless brain- storming sessions — and even more dry-erase markers — the Executive Board came up with the idea for our “PR and YOU” recruitment campaign. At our Chapter, public relations majors usually find their way to our biweekly meetings one way or another, but the students outside of our program are the ones we can’t guarantee. Lindsay Grant — our chair of member relations and recruitment — worked closely with me, Chapter president, to devel- op handouts distributed at our university’s activity fair. These handouts highlighted how public relations applies to different majors and professions such as biology, ed- ucation, history and so much more. We know that public relations can be used in anything, but the goal of this campaign was to get everyone else to know that as well. This campaign delivered impressive results; more than I initially expected. Students came up to us at the activity fair and actively searched through the flyers to find their major. Then, looking into our meetings, we have one life science major, multiple communication studies majors and some history minors, all with regular attendance. An- alyzing our current recruitment efforts, and knowing that we did not have the bandwidth to launch a brand new, never-before-heard-of strategy, we devised a way to take what we are currently using and elevate it to the next lev- el. Who said you need to reinvent the wheel? Start with giving them a good rotation! Publications Editor in Chief Emma Ingram Managing Editor Elizabeth Frenaye Graphic/Design Coordinator Celeste Brown Podcast Coordinator Harrison Allen Editorial Assistant Sydney Wishnow FORUM is published three times per year for PRSSA members. The options expressed are not necessarily those of the Society or the staff. The editor in chief reserves the right to refuse all copy. Article submissions, comments and suggestions may be made via email to the editor in chief at [email protected]. Handout courtesy of Ball State University for their “PR in You” campaign The State of STEM Public Relations Firm of the Issue: 1910 PR By Ashleigh Kathryn Vice President of Professional Development Recruiting 101: PR For You! FORUM Staff 2018–2019 offered at West Texas A&M called “Establishing a PR Firm”. They have utilized that opportunity for strategic planning to strive ahead and achieve National Affiliation by the end of spring 2018. They continue the course as they apply to host CreateAThon and participate in national events ahead. This is a firm that embodies the “work hard” sentiment and continues to take advantage planning ahead. Stokes shared some of their best practices on how your firm can optimize planning. “Here are a few things I suggest your firm can do to prepare for a new semester:” • Select and train students to move into leadership positions before the next semester starts. • Identify if you have client work that needs to be completed during the break or rolls over into the next semester, and devise a way to complete that work on time. • Contact clients before the current semester ends and start working on a plan to keep them on board during the next semester. • Make sure your firm’s information and past work is accessible for the incoming students. We use Google Drive and Slack. These are just a few of the ways your firm can get ahead and stay on track for success. Connect with 1910 PR on all social media platforms, @1910PR, for further questions on best practices and tips. Fall 2018 FORUM By Ryan Will Vice President of Events and Fundraising The advent of the internet and its resourceful connectivity has revolution- ized the way we communicate about the things that matter, what these matters are and how they touch our lives as consumers. Along with the internet, a number of technological advancements have propelled us into a new world of what used to be science fiction. For communicators, this is a profound opportunity to articulate the narrative of technologies driving progress and changing the world around us. As public relations continually evolves, there is an ever-present need for strategic communicators in the science, technology, engineering and math- ematics fields. Better known by the acronym “STEM,” these fields can cover anything from medicine to nanotechnology. As messengers, I believe we have a responsibility to connect these incredibly intelligent yet jargon-filled professional communities with the various publics influenced and affected by their decision-making. This realization drove Rachel Rhodes and I to co- host the Nationally-Affiliated STEMulate PR Regional Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina this past spring, to highlight the growing public relations opportunities in STEM industries. communications. Proficien- cy in 4 to 5 of the following will ideally make you a com- petitive candidate for most positions in the industry: Social media listening, keyword research, search engine optimization (SEO), visual literacy, content cre- ation, video, social advertis- ing, influencer relationships, media anlytics, digital media relations, basic coding, goo- gle analytics, metrics, digital dashboard, reporting return on investment (ROI). While there is a need for more communicators in the STEM space, there is also a call for an integration of more technical skills and analytical thinking into public relations practice and education. Taking Brandi Boatner’s advice, it’s also important to heed the message of the PRSA International Conference’s keynote speaker, Jonathan Mildenhall and be cognizant of your purpose. Communicating life-changing, impactful and highly technical messages is an exciting and purposeful opportunity for some but not necessarily for everyone. Understanding and further articu- lating the significance of topics that technical professionals dedicate their lives to can be taxing and difficult at times but certainly has the potential to be just as fulfilling. At the PRSSA 2018 National Conference in Austin, Texas, former National President Brandi Boatner led a breakout session titled “Code for Communi- cation” discussing and reinforcing this integration. As the social and influ- encer communications lead at IBM, Boatner discussed a need for disrup- tion in the public relations industry with the development of #PRTech and utilization of technical skills to advance the industry. Her recommendations and forward-thinking ideas resonated with the audience and left members feeling empowered and energized. The future of the public relations industry, along with the future of our so- ciety at large will be contingent on the effectiveness of the communicators in highly technical yet impactful fields (i.e., medicine, fintech, engineering, etc.). As a young professional benefitting from my technical communication experience, a citizen of a bustling tech hub, Research Triangle Park – RTP, and an advocate for STEM communications, I highly recommend exploring opportunities within the space and learning more about the impact you can make. Her recommendations included a list of fifteen suggested competencies for students pursuing careers in public relations and integrated marketing 3 www.prssa.prsa.org/forum Fall 2018 FORUM