1. Lisa’s Blog

Lisa did a great job on her blog this semester. She completed all of the assignments and did so in a well-organized manner. Lisa’s examples of companies that have successful dialogic loops were great and made it seem like she really understood what a dialogic loop was. I also like the layout of Lisa’s blog, it is nice and colorful. She did a great job of posting a lot of pictures, which made her blog even more fun to read. Good job Lisa, you should be proud of all of your hard work!

2. Rocco’s Blog

Similar to Lisa, Rocco did a great job of keeping up on all of the assignments throughout the semester. I really like the way that Rocco connected the assigned readings to his entries. He also took advantage of lots of videos and pictures, which complemented the information on his blog. Great job Rocco!

3. Tara’s Blog

I really liked to read Tara’s blog because she made everything seem so fun. She showed a great deal of enthusiasm for whatever she was writing about. Tara’s paper on Bagel Jay’s showed a great deal of understanding of the content from Kelleher’s book. Congratulations on a great blog Tara!

Additionally, students were able to watch an intriguing film called The Corporation that discussed the rise of corporations and their ethical struggles in the media. This film made students aware of the ethical dilemmas that public relations practitioners face while working in these corporations every day. Additionally, the film made students think about how ethical the profession of public relations really is.

Watch this trailer for the film The Corporation to see what cool things that COMM270 students got to watch and discuss. Visit the film’s website at: http://www.thecorporation.com/index.cfm

2.
The field of public relations has been in constant evolution. What is in store for the future of public relations? Students got to explore their thoughts about the future of public relations via lively classroom discussions as well as through readings from public relations experts. Students were encouraged to think not only of the history of public relations, but also how they think that public relations will evolve in the coming years. Most students found that public relations practitioners were focusing their efforts more online and the class assignments reflected this nature. Students were constantly online, taking advantage of the knowledge right at their fingertips, like public relations practitioners are doing every day.
Check out this video: “PR2.0 and the Future of Public Relations” by Gerd Leonhard

3. The online presence of public relations is becoming increasingly important. As a result of this, students in COMM270 were able to develop their own online presence. These online skills are so important in modern-day public relations and students were able to see that in COMM270. All assignments were submitted via the student’s own personal blog and students were also required to create and use a Twitter account. This use of social media made students of COMM270 prepared for a career in modern-day public relations.

If you have never used WordPress before to make a blog, watch this video to learn how!

Students were encouraged to critique companies’ online public relations presences via the semester-ending white paper. As part of this paper, students read Public Relations Online by Tom Kelleher and through doing so; they developed knowledge of how a company can have a successful public relations presence online. Students then chose a company and critiqued its website, giving the company alternatives that would improve its public relations presence.

4. Students not only learned about what public relations is, they also learned the importance of the field in modern society. From reading Stuart Ewen’s PR! A Social History of Spin, students’ eyes were opened up to the idea that almost every aspect of their society is touched by public relations. (Read the book here) COMM270 taught students to be more aware of the world around them and how the news they read every day is manufactured by public relations professionals. Students learned how public relations practitioners manufacture “pseudo-events” to create news and how these “pseudo-events” have influenced the way that people view news. These “pseudo-events” often overshadow spontaneous events, and in COMM270, students learned why that is and how society has been impacted by it.

This is a video of Tiger Woods’ recent press conference. A press conference is a good example of a pseudo-event – something that COMM270 students know very well!

5. Who created public relations? Students learn in COMM270 that public relations was not created by one single person. Public relations was a result of the impacts that many different people had as well as through the development of modern day society. Through lectures and readings, students developed a fundamental knowledge of who’s who in public relations. Students studied the numerous people who helped make the profession what it is today. Students also explored how each pioneer impacted the field and the changes that each person brought on. The most important public relations pioneers that students learned about in COMM270 were Edward L. Bernays, Walter Lippmann (Click here to read a short biography on Walter Lippmann), and C. Wright Mills.

Check out this video to see Edward L. Bernays on David Letterman. This is a short clip of an interview where Bernays cracks a joke, while at the same time making an interesting point about how he can make the public perceive him in the way that he wants. This thought of manipulating public opinion is something that Bernays is very well-known for and why he is studied in COMM270.

What he is doing now:
Tom Kelleher lives in Hawaii. Currently, he is an associate professor at the School of Communications at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He typically teaches an introduction to communication class each semester. He is still teaching and also doing research. His latest research is “Measuring Ecoshock and Affective Learning: A Comparison of Student Responses to Online and Face-to-Face Learning Ecologies” (Sept 2009). (Read it here: http://jolt.merlot.org/vol5no3/kelleher_0909.pdf) He has also researched about organizational contingencies, organizational blogs and the public relations practitioner stance toward publics. He is also going to have a piece published in the Journal of Public Relations Research about social media sometime this year.

Tom Kelleher’s contact information is as follows:
tkell@hawaii.edu
(808) 956-9944

Richard L. Daft-

What he is doing online:
I do not think that Richard L. Daft is doing a good job connecting with people online. He does not take advantage of social media and does not have his own website. He has his regular “professor” website on Vanderbilt’s website, but that is about it (Check it out here: http://owen.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbilt/about/faculty-research/f_profile.cfm?id=96). It is strange since he is such a prominent figure that he would not take advantage of new technologies. Maybe this is because he knows that the richest form of communication is face-to-face and that is what he prefers.

What is he doing now:
Richard L. Daft lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Currently, he is a junior professor of management at Vanderbilt University. Daft helped create the media richness theory and has published many books about it. In 2004, he was listed as one of the most highly cited researchers in Economics and Business. It appears that he has taken a bit of a break from intense research since approximately 2003. He seems to be focusing on teaching and enjoying his life. He mostly teaches classes about leadership at Vanderbilt. He has taught at Vanderbilt since 1989.

Richard L. Daft’s contact information is as follows:
dick.daft@owen.vanderbilt.edu
(615) 292-0448

Survey
Here is a link to a survey asking people, “Is Cheerleading a Sport?”
http://cheerleading.about.com/od/cheercompetitions/l/blpoll_sport.htm

Let’s look at what Kelleher said in his book to see if he would approve of this survey.

In his book Public Relations Online, Kelleher asks, “How many…would be willing to respond to the survey?” Well according to the results of this survey, a lot of people were willing. Over 35,000 people took this survey. I think that Kelleher would think that this is a decent survey. It is short and concise and easy to take. This poll does not appear to have had any problem finding a large amount of people to take the poll. Also, the poll is multiple choice so people cannot really submit bogus answers, like Kelleher told researchers to watch out for.

I’m not sure how meaningful Kelleher would find the results: 60% said Yes, 35% said No, 2% said Depends on who you ask and 1% said I don’t know and I don’t care. Not many people who dislike cheerleading would visit this site that is about cheerleading. Maybe that it why so many people have answered yes. I think that the survey is put together well, but its results may not be completely accurate.

Check out this video of Messin’ with Sasquatch – Over 1,000,000 views!!

Their Overall Communication Strategy: very two-way, symmetrical, facilitative, dialogic and markets-as-conversations.

Case #2: Astorino – Discover.Design.Build Blog with Peppercom
Architecture, design and construction firm Astorino wanted to increase awareness of one of their new projects. At the same time, they wanted to get engaged with current and potential clients and get in touch with leaders in their field. To do this, Peppercom helped them create a blog, named Discover.Design.Build. Astorino posts approximately three times a week, updating readers on the latest projects and industry trends. Since its creation, the blog has been seen as an industry leader and has been featured in PR publications.
Check out the blog at: http://discoverdesignbuild.com/

Their Overall Communication Strategy: very two-way, symmetrical, facilitative, dialogic, and markets-as-conversations

Did the media landscape of five years ago resemble this? I don't think so. The only thing constant in media right now is change.

The concept of two-way communication is very important to my white paper. Kelleher went into a lot of detail telling his readers about the importance of building relationships through two-way communication. In my white paper, I discussed how these relationships can be built based on new ways of developing two-way communication online.

The article I used to find out about this study was found in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (80, no. 3, 2003). This is a peer-reviewed journal. Peer-reviewed journals are made up of a community of experts in a given field who are qualified to review submitted pieces. Not every piece is accepted. It is a scholarly journal that specialists use to publish their research or ideas.

If the same study was done in 2010, I would have done some things differently. First, the study did not research anything about new technologies. I think it would be interesting to focus the study on a new technology like social media. The study would ask practitioners how often they use social media to increase publicity and how they do it.

Here is a link to some information to Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly:
http://www.aejmc.org/_scholarship/_publications/_journals/_jmcq/index.php

This paper is intended to improve ST’s online public relations presence. Through my reading of Tom Kelleher’s Public Relations Online, I have learned a lot about what makes a company’s online public relations tactics successful. I plan to use that knowledge to present new ideas to the people at ST that will help to improve the way that ST’s website builds relationships with its visitors.

Currently, ST’s website does not have a relationship-building public relations presence at all. One look at the website and one will see that it is merely informational. ST’s website is not friendly and it in no way tries to develop relationships with clients, which is one of the goals of public relations. Kelleher discussed how two-way communication is a “lasting concept” for online public relations and I will take advantage of this knowledge to build up ST’s online two-way communication skills.

Kelleher said that “The function of PR is connected with the concept of interactivity.” I think that developing interactivity online is very important for ST to do. As of right now; there is no way for them to develop relationships through their website. ST has a great opportunity to develop these relationships through increasing the interactivity on its website.

The information in Kelleher’s book is very useful to ST. As discussed before, the website lacks in interactivity and Kelleher goes into a lot of detail of what to do to fix this problem. If this public relations problem is addressed and the website improves, it will have a positive impact on ST’s customers. They will be much happier that the website provides them with opportunities to connect better with the company that they are working with. The methods that I will discuss to improve interactivity on ST’s website will also help to increase public awareness about what ST does and will bring in potential customers.

How to Increase Interactivity
Visitors to ST’s website want to be more connected with the company. Increasing interactivity can connect these visitors better with ST. According to the Nonprofit Resource Center, “To remain current and competitive, organizations must incorporate enhanced, user-focused, and interactive features into websites.” (http://www.nprcenter.org/knowledgebase-mainmenu-203/web-20-for-nonprofits-mainmenu-402/website-interactivity-mainmenu-408.html)

Over and over again in the book, Kelleher emphasized the importance of using the website to develop relationships with customers by engaging them. This is relevant to one of Kelleher’s “lasting concepts” of relational antecedents: Individual people. Interactivity will help pull in these individual people by making the website more “user-focused.” They will find themselves more involved and will chose to work with the company that is involving them. These new methods that I will discuss will solve the lack of interactivity on the website and will help ST build relationships with its customers more effectively.

Forum
First, I think that ST should create its own forum. A forum is an internet-based discussion board. I think that this would be beneficial for ST because it will increase interactivity and also help to save time. Here is an example that Kelleher used to explain the importance of forums for companies:

“…if you’ve got a fairly specific question about your computer hardware, there is a pretty good chance someone else using that hardware has the same question, such as “Will my Hewlett Packard 4110 OfficeJet printer work with my Apple Airport Extreme?” We probably wouldn’t call this a “frequently asked” question, but even if it’s asked a couple of times, the organization can save time by making the answer available to anyone who looks for it in the future” (Kelleher 93).

A forum would be a great way for ST to address specific problems while also making the website more interactive. Customers will be able to search for their problem and hopefully find an answer for it on the forum. This eliminates the “middle man” per say by using the website as the model for customer questions. If customers cannot find their answer, they can always call one of the phone numbers listed in the “Contact Us” section to speak to a representative.

Intranet
Public Relations is not all about external communication. It also focuses on improving internal communication. This can be done online through setting up a company intranet. An intranet is a private computer network that uses internet protocol technologies to securely share an organization’s information within that organization. The use of intranets “facilitates employee communication and provides important…information to front line staff that directly correlates with improved customer service.” http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/intranet-communication-key-in-distinguished-accreditation-program-honor-127259.php)

An intranet is a good idea for ST because it is able to bring together all of the regional sales representatives. These representatives are working all over the country and the intranet will be a great way to communicate with all of them at once to give instructions, notify them of updates, and to give them the news that they would not otherwise receive since they do not work at the headquarters in Fairport, N.Y.

Extranet

An extranet is similar to an intranet, but it also includes people that are not part of the company. ST can use this technology to connect itself with its customers, improving communication. ST will be able to let customers know exactly what step their product is in the order process. This opens up the lines of communication between ST and its customers and makes the customers more confident in their choice to work with ST since they will know what is going on at all times. Kelleher discussed how a company like ST can use an extranet to also communicate with suppliers to alert them of stock levels. This extranet has numerous public relations benefits for a company like ST.

Social Media

In a discussion with Ryan Nolan, who works in technical services at ST, it was found that social media is ST’s main concern online. “There’s this great ability for us to market ourselves on these new networking sites. It would be great if we could take advantage of this stuff. It is the kind of new thing that will help keep us globally competitive and connected.” This use of social media is becoming so important to online public relations. However, small companies like ST have yet taken advantage of these new technologies. Utilizing social media is imperative to stay competitive in the modern marketplace, just like what Mr. Nolan said.

The most obvious benefit to utilizing social media websites is that it is free advertising. It does not cost anything to sign up for Facebook and it puts the company’s name out there for more people to see the company who may not have before. Other than the free advertising, is the ability that the social networking websites allow companies to interact with their publics. According to Targeted Advertising Solutions, LLC, companies can use social networking websites to form “the visitor experience in a manner that creates a deeper more meaningful engagement between your corporation and the customers.” They can become “friends” with or “follow” other companies or customers and they can also keep each other abreast on company news. Users can comment on pictures placed on Flickr or Facebook, videos on YouTube and they can even post things on ST’s “wall.” This increases involvement with the company and helps ST to build more relationships through interactivity online.
(http://www.i-newswire.com/how-to-utilize-latest-social-media/24876)

Follow this link to see a lengthy list of all of the social media websites that ST could take advantage of: http://www.brandprotect.com/resources/social-media-map.pdf

Videos

Kelleher discussed that clients in other countries value face to face interaction. About 30% of ST’s sales are overseas. I think that the overseas customers would value the use of videos on ST’s website. At the same time, this would also increase interactivity. ST would put up videos of Autofacers, and of Herman Bilz tools. These videos would include an employee giving background information about the tool, showing viewers exactly how the tool works and there would also be videos of the tool in action. This is a great idea to increase interactivity by engaging visitors and to also appeal to a more global audience.

What Impact These Suggestions Will Have
These suggestions, based on what I read in the book Public Relations Online by Tom Kelleher, will help ST increase their online public relations presence. This increase in online public relations will directly affect its customer’s experiences and will also improve communication within and outside of the company.

Through increasing interactivity online with customers, suppliers, and employees, ST will reap the benefits of increasing its online public relations presence. Communication within and outside of the company will improve and become more efficient, saving the company time and money. Additionally, the use of social networking websites will improve the company’s ability to market itself on the Internet, and more importantly, it will help ST develop relationships with its public. These relationships are crucial for ST to become public relations savvy. In my opinion, this development of relationships between businesses and their publics is the ultimate “lasting concept” of online public relations.