Guest Speaker: Steve Jepsen

By Merrit Landsteiner

Steve Jepsen was our guest speaker at PRSSA on November 17, 2010. Steve mainly talked about public affairs and public relations. Steve has had a lot of experience working in both areas for various organizations including Republican Party of Minnesota, Minnesota House of Representatives, US Chamber of Commerce, Natural Resource Group LLC, Dowell Stute and Associates, and the U of M Academic Health Center.

Steve told us that public affairs and public relations work together to influence public opinion. He also taught us about dealing with clients. He said to make sure you to have stakeholder engagement whether that is through the phone, meetings, or presentations; research and prepare for your work; get to know the audience; find out what type of communication vehicle will be most effective for the particular audience; and evaluate your work.

Steve also talked about the benefits of working for a non-profit. According to Steve, success is the ability to understand and influence stakeholder opinion. In order to achieve this, one must tailor messages to the specific audience, even with the budget restraints that can be common in non-profit work. When working with a non-profit organizations, the communications professionals need to be their voice, create a positive image, deliver valuable results, and communicate effectively.

Lastly, Steve gave us some tips for when we go out into the work force. We must prove our worth to an organization. We need to make sure our goals are met and that we communicate effectively.

Students Classics Awards

The Students Classics Awards is a competition put on by Minnesota Public Relations Society. The competition showcases the public relations work of students from Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Students can submit work they have done for school, student groups, or jobs and internships. Students do not need to be a part of PRSSA to submit entries. The award categories are:

• Special Purpose Publications - may be single-issue publications designed for a special purpose. All entries should be published pieces.

• News/Feature Writing - should include pieces written with the intent of promoting a product or service or educating a target audience. All News/Feature Writing entries should be published or broadcast to an audience.

• Community Relations/Special Events - include community or campus programs that seek to win support or cooperation of, or that aim to improve relations with, people or organizations in communities in which the sponsoring organization has an interest, need or opportunity. All Community Relations/Special Events entries should published or broadcast to an audience.

• New Media/Technology - include Internet site design and writing or other new media creations that demonstrate a creative or unconventional use of technology in public relations.

• Planning - include well-prepared plans that were NOT implemented (e.g. public relations plans for coursework). Plans should thoroughly outline strategies, tactics, resources needed, audience, budget and timeline. Since the project wasn't executed, please indicate how it would be evaluated in the summary.

A completed entry should be put together in a binder. The binder will include the printed piece of work and a summary highlighting what the piece is, the objective, the outcome, etc. The summary is one of the most important parts because it is your opportunity to explain the piece to the review committee. 

Completed entries are due on Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 5 p.m. They should be sent to:

Minnesota PRSA Student Classics Awards

c/o Nonprofit Solutions

1821 University Avenue West #S256

St. Paul, MN 55104

For more information, visit the Student Classics website. If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact Katherine Hannon at khannon@webershandwick.com. 

Socialnomics

This video was inspired by the book "Socialnomics" by Erik Qualman. It is about the importance of social media in business and its return on investment. Check it out!

Promoting Social Media Offline

By Hilary Baril

We all love social media (if you don't, you should), but if a stakeholder is not online, how do you get them there? People in public relations are always online and using social media as a main form of communication. People that are not in our industry often do not understand or get involved in social media. Check out this article from OPEN Forum®:  http://bit.ly/94UHrC. It might give you some ideas of how to promote social media efforts offline, for your internship, job, or even your duities in PRSSA!

Holly Jolly Holiday Party

By Brooke Ahlers

Think back to your favorite holiday memories. Perhaps you were wrapped in a cozy blanket playing board games and catching up with your family. Or maybe it was unwrapping presents when you were a child. This year come make some new memories at PRSSA’s “Holly Jolly Holiday” Party! The semester is flying by and soon the trees will be barren, snow will be falling, and temperatures will be dropping. Heat up December 8^th with cookies, hot chocolate and fellow club comrades. This will be an excellent chance to mingle with other committees and relax before finals. Seize the chance to get to know your cohorts better.

Along with the idea of getting to know your associates, every day is a fresh chance to meet new people and expand your knowledge of the world around you. View this season as an opportunity to learn more about new cultures. New cultures bring new values and traditions. As future public relations professionals and the representation of a company, we need to be astute to the audiences we are communicating with. A way to do this is by exploring traditions both religious and non-religious outside of your own. Find out how these beliefs and customs originated and a believer’s favorite part of the holidays. By being well-rounded, you can adjust your future strategies in order to appeal to the maximum number of people as possible. Besides the pure satisfaction of taking an interest in others, employers want their representatives to be informed and prepared.

In the coming weeks, inspire curiosity in yourself, investigate new lifestyles, and come to the “Holly Jolly Holiday” Party and see what else the event committee has planned!

Domestic Violence Awareness Concert

By Edwina Reckel

The Philanthropy Committee teamed up with the Aurora Center in October to help promote their Domestic Violence Awareness Concert. The Aurora Center is an on campus center that is a safe haven for victims of sexual assault and relationship violence. It also works to spread awareness in the community about the prevalence of these issues and how to get help. 

Our committee used many media outlets to inform people about the concert. We created a Facebook event and invited our friends. We also teamed up with PRSSA’s internal relations to update our chapter’s Facebook status and Twitter to inform members. We rented a table in Coffman to hand out flyers, buttons, ribbons, and candy. The committee made T-shirts and posters to promote the concert. We also contacted the Minnesota Daily and had an announcement about the concert in the events section. 

The day of the concert, volunteers from the Aurora Center and members of the committee helped set up the venue with the Aurora Center’s promotional items, prepare the stage, and ensure the event ran smoothly. The concert showcased local artists, Racoon Racoon, Sara Boneville, Dustin Thomas, and Nice Purse. 

        The concert was a great experience for our members. They learned how to implement the skills learned in class. We gained familiarity with event planning, promotion, and how to work with clients. In addition, we learned about the purpose of the Aurora Center and how this non-profit is a great contribution to our campus. Plus, we all got to attend a great concert!

For more information about the Aurora Center or how to get involved, check out its website http://www1.umn.edu/aurora/. 

Finally, thank you to everyone who helped out and supported our event! 

CAC Update

We are currently working to get the word out about getting people with talented voices to be a part of the "Kicking Ash" event on November 17 at The Hole at Coffman. The event will be featuring several local bands to raise money for cancer research. The aqcuiring voices aspect is that CAC will be looking to use six individuals at the event to show off what someone with full lung capacity can do (i.e. sing, read a poem, etc.). The deadline for people to apply to be one of the six participants will be November 10.  

Other than that, the CAC group is looking to figure out what sort of event we can put on, should we be able to get a grant, that will help raise money for CAC as well as awareness about the Relay for Life event, which is happeneing next April.