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This semester has provided students with tons of examples of good PR initiatives and not so great ones.
One of the better examples of PR initiatives was the U.T initiative for the boy who was bullied. This initiative took something negative, a young boy being bullied, and made it into something positive. U.T allowed a young boy to get the chance to be part of something that his peers made fun of him for.
Not only that, they granted him acceptance to the university once he graduated high school. What the university did aligned with their mission statement and values and allowed the college to receive so much positivity from the community.
On the other hand, one initiative that did not do so well was BoozePops. Not only that, they won a contest and were able to give out BoozePops to Emmy winners. Again, pretty cool. But the issue with this is how they formatted their press release.
For an organization whose brand is to be young and cool, their press release was boring and hard to read. They started off great by having a great introduction but after that the press released seemed to be more about their founder and less about the actual brand. Additionally they didn’t necessarily follow the inverted pyramid style or answer all the W’s upfront.
The difference between the two organizations is how the organizations responded to news, good or bad. U.T Knoxville was able to take bullying and create something wonderful for a student having a rough time. Not only that, they publicized it everywhere and people loved it.
While BoozePops took an incredible opportunity and made their press release less about the opportunity and who they were, what their brand is about and more about their founder. Which I’m sure is important but not-so-much to the consumer.
Additionally throughout this semester, I’ve collaborated with team members and have crafted real-world press release, social media posts, feature stories, and fact sheets. From this I’ve not only practice how to be a good writer, but I have grown as a writer.
For example, prior to this class I couldn’t stand writing feature stories. I thought they were hard to write and that they needed too many details. Now, I understand the inverted pyramid style better and how to interview people to receive the proper information. Now, I enjoy writing feature stories more than I have ever. I genuinely understand the story telling behind a feature story.
I’ve also improved on writing press releases. I used to find it difficult to write press releases because of their format. I was unsure how to properly format a press release but now I’ve gotten enough practice to write them on my own. So much that later this semester I wrote my first press release outside of the classroom for student senate regarding a PR issue we were having!
I’ve learned my strengths too. I am pretty good at writing social media posts. I’ve practiced using a call to action to create more engagement between audience and organization.
I would display all my work within this website. I would keep my word-press account and create a tab called “PR Writing” under that tab would be different sub categories such as press release, feature stories and such. That way, since most applications are done online I could link my blog to applications for future employers to be able to look at.
Not only that, I could display my blog on my instagram and twitter since in the “Bio” section there is a special section meant for inserting links.
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