Allen Hall Public Relations

As I have started to work for my new client creating a public relations plan, the subject of social media and its uses with different audiences has come up often, specifically with Facebook.

There are many misconceptions when it comes to the uses of social media and what audiences it can attract. People generally associate social media with the younger generation, high school and college students, recent college graduates and young professionals. This is no longer the case.

Since opening its website to the public, giving anybody the ability to create an account, more and more people over the age of 35 have been creating Facebook pages. Not only that, women account for a large growing demographic in the Facebook world. Many people in older generations are beginning to see the benefits of Facebook and the connections it helps to keep. Mothers and grandmothers now have the ability to log-on and see their children and grandchildren’s status, look at pictures of them and send messages saying, “Good luck with that midterm,” or “Just wanted to say I love you.”

What does this mean for the world of public relations? It’s a smart idea for PR professionals, young and old, to remember that Facebook and other social media tools can reach many audiences of all ages. It’s also important to remember that older generations have more time and money than broke college students, making it important to reach multiple audiences with these tools. A non-profit organization that helps different audiences within the community needs to tailor its content to all its important audiences, not just the younger generation. With a better understanding of who is on Facebook, public relations professionals can make better decisions about how to work social media use into strategies for their clients.

For more information about which audiences are growing on Facebook, here is a really interesting blog post a friend sent to me, which I thought I might pass along: http://tinyurl.com/yadb4fu

Casey Colesworthy, Account Supervisor

Early in my public relations career, I found myself facing major pitfalls. Confusion. Crisis. Stress. Anger. All have been prevalent at a variety of levels over the past few years.

Insert Zack Schwartz.

Schwartz, an award-winning author and psychologist, granted 12 seniors 90 minutes to discuss his tactics as a professional working in a high-stress industry.

Upon arrival, our guest looked anything but professional. Sporting a gray, shaggy beard to match his equally elongated hair, Schwartz appeared more prepared for a rock ’n’ roll concert than an intensive question-and-answer session.

“Please stand up,” Schwartz first told us in a relaxed, congested voice. “Now, shake yourself loose because it’s important to be relaxed in order to be grounded.”

Grounded. I had never heard of the term. According to Schwartz, grounding oneself is the key to success.

Throughout the question-and-answer session, Schwartz continually spoke of grounding oneself when dealing with pressure, both professionally and socially.

“Grounding yourself unhooks a person from everything and allows you to go back to step one,” Schwartz stressed.

And he’s right.

When confronted with an uncomfortable situation, I, like many of my peers, often freeze up with panic. Although I am using my full effort to complete a task that best represents Allen Hall Public Relations, the New Venture Championship team, and my client, I have found myself in situations where I am caught in the moment and not using my best judgment.

Now, I simply stay grounded by taking a deep breath and regaining my focus. It allows clear and rational thoughts and prevents loose cannon mistakes.

Each individual has his or her own technique for grounding oneself. It may be as time-consuming as exercise or as simple as my deep breath approach.

“It’s important to find what works for you,” Schwartz said, “because doing or saying something you regret can ruin your credibility for a lifetime.”

Now, because of grounding, my credibility can stay safe and I can represent my client, my firm and myself in a professional and successful manner.

Hello! My name is Kristina and I am thrilled to be this year’s Firm Director. A brand new year has begun here at Allen Hall Public Relations. We’ve hired 19 amazing new students for the year and have also signed three new clients: PRSA Greater Oregon Chapter, RecycleYourMat.com and the OSU Extension Services Program. Please visit the “Our Clients” section of the site to read up on our clients this year. Keep your eyes peeled for member photos in the “Our Team” section of the site within the next week. 

This year, you can look forward to hearing from all of our members throughout the month here on our blog. You’ll get insight into how our student agency runs, daily client work and new innovative PR tips and strategies. 

We are so privileged to have such an amazing opportunity to practice real PR with real clients, while still being in college. 

Thank you for your continued interest and support in AHPR, we couldn’t do it without you! 

Best Regards, 
Kristina Rhodes

Cross-posting from Confessions of a PR pupil

One of the unique aspects of working for AHPR is the opportunity to work directly with clients. This experience provides young PR pros the chance to build skills and practice handling the challenges of client service. Leo Bottary, author of the Client Services Insight Series, was asked by Kelli Matthews last year to give her PR Campaigns class, the capstone course of the PR sequence at the University of Oregon, some tips on client services. I recently Skyped with Leo to discuss the importance of client services and how PR students can start building the skills necessary for client service success. In part one of my podcast, we focus on how passion, listening and curiosity are the keys to successful client services.

Check out part 1 of the interview: Podcast

Thanks for listening! Do you have any additional client services tips for student? Students: what were some of the most useful and most surprising tips?

College students are notoriously busy. With classes, extra curricular activities, going to the gym, and friends, it is a miracle we can fit all our activities into one day. So how does one add social media to the mix? How do you become an active participant without becoming a social media addict? That question has been on the minds of many of our staff members. Here are some great tips from PR pros who have managed to find a balance between real life and the virtual life.

You can’t do it all!

It is impossible for you to get your fingers in everything! So be selective. PR professor Kelli Matthews suggests that students pick a few social media tools they want to invest time in and select a few more to check once or twice a week. Subscribing to RSS feeds to your favorite or influential blogs will also help you keep up! Personally, I enjoy Facebook, Twitter and reading and writing blogs. I spend a couple hours a day conversing on Twitter and Facebook. I also spend a few hours each week working on the two blogs I contribute to and a couple more hours reading the various blogs I follow. Once you establish your priority list, you can slowly integrate these tools into your daily schedule.

Don’t let it take over

Ever log into Facebook just to check your wall and browse through a few photos only to find yourself an hour in looking at photos of someone you don’t really know? It is easy to get sucked into the social media blackhole that seems to go from link to link, on and on. Jason Falls, director of Doe-Anderson and active social media participant, says that he sets a time limit for himself when checking Web sites like Twitter. Jason reserves the majority of his social networking for his spare time. Checking it after hours allows him to enjoy the time he has on various social media networks without having to worry about it taking away from his productivity. Kelli says that she has learned to replace her old media tools with social media ones. Instead of reading the newspaper, she gets her news on Twitter, news feeds, blogs and other social media tools.

Be Efficient

Just as you should be selective with what social networks you want to participate in, you should also be selective in what you do on those media tools. Only share information that is valuable and adds to the conversation. You do not need to follow everyone on Twitter who is following you. Follow those whom you have engaged in conversations with or who add value to your field. Take time to grow your network. Learn how much activity you can manage and then decide how many people you can actively follow. Utilize social media tools to help make your networking more efficient, not more distracting. I like using TweetDeck because I can be notified when someone has directly replied to my tweet versus when someone makes a general update. I can use these pop up messages to determine the importance of checking or responding to these comments in a timely fashion.

Do you have any tips to add? How do you manage your social media activity as a college student?

Amanda Ip
Assistant Firm Director of Internal Communication

Welcome to Allen Hall Public Relations, a student-run PR firm at the University of Oregon.  

In the new year, we’ve made a lot of exciting changes.  Our firm has doubled in size since 2008, as has our client roster.  In the same vein, we’ve rolled out this new Web site to give our firm a more adequate and exciting public face.

On our home page, you’ll find frequent updates on our firm, clients and the work we’re doing together.  We’ll discuss the pros and cons to being a PR student and our aspirations for the future.  These posts will be diverse, thoughtful and inventive — much like our firm.

So, be sure to check back early and often to learn more about what we’re doing.  In the meantime, click around and explore the new AHPR.