Sunday, March 25, 2012

Kony PR lessons

If you haven't seen the viral video KONY 2012 yet, you can watch it here at www.KONY2012.com. The large response to the awareness campaign video urging for the arrest of Joseph Kony-- witnessed not only by 55 million views of Twitter, but also by becoming a trending topic on Twitter and Google -- inevitably received criticisms.

The video, made by the nonprofit organization Invisible Children and directed by Jason Russell, co-founder of the organization, inspires a social media campaign to make Kony famous because as explained, when people know, they react and spread information. Thus, contributing to their ultimate goal to arrest Kony in order for him to receive justice.

In responding to the criticisms by the people, Invisible Children offers lessons not only for social media campaigns, but also for crisis communciations within nonprofit PR.

  1. Communicate immediately: the longer an organization waits, the more they are perceived to be hiding. The founders of Invisible Children were talking to the media not long after the video went viral.
  2. Address specific concerns: The Invisible Children website, after crashing temporarily due to unprecedented high traffic, listed responses to several critiques without holding back any information.
  3. Include social media in your response: The organization hit Twitter and Facebook to respond to people's concerns, sometimes directly answering critics.
  4. Have others speak for you: In a time when credibility of an organization is weakened, those with credible reputations outside should speak for the organization.
  5. Ask for public input: Invisible Children is asking several others -- policymakers, nonprofits, victims of the LRA, and the general public -- to aid them in communicating their work and especially their goal to stop Kony in 2012.
To read the complete article on Ragan's PR Daily, click here. To find out more about KONY 2012, watch the video and learn how to contribute, click here.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Brands have fun with Facebook timeline too


A Coca-Cola advertisment in the 1970s.

Since Facebook timelines went live for brands to use at the end of February, several brands have become uniquely creative in developing their history. They've utilized the timeline to tell a story about their brand.

Coca-Cola includes a founding document from the 1800s, as well as consumer testimonials. There's advertisements from the '40s and '70s that display a hint of Coca-Cola's flavor as a brand like the one shown on the left.

Tide answers the question of how the laundry detergent brand got its name. Legend has it that the company president, while strolling on the beach, noticed how the tide washed the shore and cleaned the beach. It is amazing to see how advertisements developed through the years--just take a look at the '40s ads for Tide when it was founded!

To see more cool Facebook brand timelines including Old Spice and Burberry, check out the complete article here.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Best print ads of 2011

Gfk MRI Starch Advertising Research sifted through thousands of magazines advertisements to discern which could be considered the Most Effective Magazine Ads of 2011 in relation to engagement and the connection between the medium and the message. Check out which ads, including Target ads, made the cut: http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/effective-magazine-ads-2011/233159/

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Meet our incoming e-board!

Congratulations to our new executive board members for next year! Our chapter held elections on Wednesday, March 7th and could not be more excited to collaborate with the new board to keep growing as we enter another academic year!

2012-2013 Marist Red Foxes PRSSA Chapter Executive Board


Chapter President
Incoming: Michael Bernardini
Outgoing: Alexis Murphy

Vice President (President-elect)
Incoming: Erica Conover
Outgoing: Michael Bernardini

Vice President of Chapter Development
Incoming: Jackie Mucilli
Outgoing: Lina Kirby

Public Relations Director
Incoming: Meredith Lowe
Outgoing: Lindsey Sacco

Firm Director
Incoming: Charlotte Catania / Julie Moller (interim until January 2013)
Outgoing: Charlotte Catania

National Delegate
Incoming: Deanna Morosoff
Outgoing: Dana Karas

Treasurer
Incoming: Shane Kelly
Outgoing: Erica Conover

Secretary
Incoming/Outgoing: Abbey Scalia
 
Historian
Incoming: Elizabeth Odachowski
Outgoing: Catharine Gatlin

Faculty Adviser
Jennie Donohue

Monday, March 5, 2012

esPResso

Our chapter offers industry insight through a monthly newsletter publication, esPResso. It is distributed to our members, faculty and campus. Click the link below to hear about new faces on our executive board, members' internships and our chapter's recent events!

http://issuu.com/prssa.marist/docs/espressomarch2012/1

Saturday, March 3, 2012

New definition of PR

The PR Defined campaign has finally announced the victorious definition of Public Relations after feedback, deliberation, comments, and submissions. Its' iniative focused on explaining what PR professionals do in an ever-changing industry.

"Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics."

This definition replaces PRSA's 1982 description: “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”
The PRSA's new definition unveiled this year caters to the changing role of public relations. It is simple and straightforward, with an emphasis on relationships and communication process. Read more about the PR Defined campaign here.