To Twitter or not to Twitter?

I'm still not sure how to feel about twitter. I know Gee love it, which is awesome! But I think it may be more maintenance and upkeep then it's worth. It's like a mini facebook in which you have lots of status updates. I think it's cool how professionals use it, thus it may be better once you have a career, but right now, I feel like as a student I may not be reaping its benefits. I think with practice, I may learn to appreciate twitter, at least I hope I do. I do enjoy blogging more then I used to thanks to blogger.com. I think all these types of social media take some practice, and getting used to. Hopefully with Christmas break approaching, I'll have more time to hone my blogging and twittering skills.

TV Anticipating a downturn-

As everyone knows, the economy sucks right now. Everything is taking a hit. People are trying to save the money and they have are not really willing to spend it. Thus, advertisers and those involved in Public Relations need to come up with a new way to get consumers out there buying products. AdAge reports on how televions now is expecting a terrible 2009 season. Since TV is a great media to reach consumer's, and TV is seeing a drop, it is going to be harder to get to the target market. So what does this mean for advertising and the media? What can they do to change this? I think it's going to be important for agencies to step up and really take charge of the industry, otherwise, all these media industries will continue to see a downturn. It will be interesting to see how PR professionals will begin to handle these situations as well. Their clients are beginning to see huge profit loses and are turning to their PR people to help keep up the organziation's image.

look at the article here: http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=132400

Obama's Campaign Team

It is without a doubt that Barack Obama's campaign team did an excellent job getting Obama out and making his name a brand. AdAge examines what the team did to help get Obama's name out there as well as help him win the presidency. David Plouffe led the team and did a great job according to many professionals in the industry. He did a great job of of blending technology and strategic research helped him get the grassroots organization out there. He managed to coordinate and create a brand through the use of research, strategic decisions, and the right kind of advertising. But the Obama campaign didn't just focus on the Obama image, they also focused on getting people out and voting. Plouffe also did a great job as well of getting free press as well. This is the goal of a PR professional. Plouffe had other great resources as well. He had a wonderful team helping him plan and create. But most importantly, the team created a great strategic plan to get Obama's name out there and get peple excited about the Obama campaign.

Here's the article: http://adage.com/article?article_id=132357

Letter To A Friend

Dear Friend,

I know that you are concerned that I plan on pursuing a career in Public Relations, but I would like to assure you that I believe this is an honorable and excellent profession for me to enter. There are too many myths about what a PR professional is and I believe this is where you're getting your skewed perceptions of what Public Relations really is. 

Many people believe that the job of a Public Relations specialist is to spin stories and manipulate people. However, there is much more to this growing industry. Public Relations includes activities and policies used to create public interest in a particular person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. These Public Relations professional work to present their product, client or company in a positive and favorable light. This simply means that the PR representative is emphasizing the good of their client. In order to create this stellar image of the client, PR professionals use a mixture of media, advertising, and promotion. This combination gets their clients name out to the public. 

Another important part of public relations is creating a favorable relationship between the product and the public. The public is the target audience for many PR professionals. This means the intention of Public Relations is to inform and persuade. 

I hope that I have cleared up some of the negative opinions you may have of Public Relations. Please understand that there are many positive aspects of the industry as well. I would really appreciate your support in all my future decisions.

Thank You,

Christine

What Writing Means To Me

I think writing is a great way to express yourself and is an essential part of communication. People use writing in some way or shape every day. Being able to write takes time and practice. I think that it's important to work on this skill and perfect it. Writing is such an expressive form of communication. Sometimes it is easier to write something rather than say it. Because writing is so expressive, it can come in several different forms. For example. it can be funny, sad, happy, and emotional. I also think it's interesting that writing can be both controlled by rules as well as free flowing. There is a correct way to write according to teachers and academia. However, if you don't want to listen to the rules and guidelines, you don't have to follow them. 

Truthfulness in Political Ads

There's a new website, http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/, that goes through both presidential candidate's political campaigns and checks them for truthfulness. The website searches sites for the facts and then later posts whether or not the facts are true or not. This website it great because it lays out the facts and presents them in a clear format. I think this website it interesting for us as public relations practitioners because politics can be a large part of the field of public relations. Also, because PR people get a bad reputation for spinning stories to make their client look good, it's interesting to see that some websites go back and track whether or not what you are claiming is true. 

About Me.

Name:
Christine Griesmaier

Education:
St. Viator High School
Marquette University

Major:
Public Relations

Minor:
Marketing

Past Work Experience:
Coco Company
At Coco Company I worked as an administrative assistant. I created a new company catalog as well as compiling and organizing a comprehensive database for the company. I also completed daily tasks to help with the daily operations of the company.

Marquette Spirit Shop
I work at the Marquette Spirit Shop where I work as a cashier. I help customers with their purchases.