Speaker: Trish Skram

    During Tuesday's class I had the honor of watching Trish Skram's presentation on blogging and branding that she presented. Trish graduated from UW-Whitewater 5 years ago and now works as a media specialist and marketing person at Mercy Health Care. She also works at Janesville Gazette as a freelance writer and a blogger. Trish came to our Tactics II class with alot of great points, as well as statistics on blogging, such as:

-55% of corporations use social media for job applicants
-77% of internet users read blogs
-60-80% of blogs are abandoned within the first month.

She also gave us some reasons on why we should blog, kind of letting us know that will broaden our horizons on the job front; some of the reasons included:

-It helps expand your network.
-It helps build your relationship with customers.
-It helps "boost" your brand.

I thought Trish Skram was a wonderful speaker and I learned so much from her presentation! The fact that she was so positive about her career made me feel less anxious about graduation this May. I definitely am going to try blogging more because of this!

Amy Paul's Presentation

Today was a great opportunity to learn more about Public Relations. Amy Paul, a former student of Professor Knabe's, came to our PR Tactics class today! It was wonderful to hear someone elses story about how they got into their internships and profession and how much they enjoy it. She started off as a music major and then decided she wanted to do something else.She went for PR instead, and succeeded!The fact that she was fresh out of college and was able to put herself out there and get hired gave me hope. She talked about her work with the Milwaukee Admirals, as well as how planned a memorial event for 9/11 for Milwaukee County. She's taken countless internships, even being a brand ambassador for Qdoba and a social media manager for the Whitewater Cinema when she worked there.

My question to her had to do with how to make yourself stand out; whether it be through your resume or the like. She told me to include volunteer time to show how devoted you are to causes, and to also internship before you jump straight into anything. I'm so glad she came to class and I hope to work with her in the future if possible.

If you want to contact Amy, you can reach her at her Twitter, at @AP2005...

Senior Year & PR Fever

          I'm back from summer vacation and I'm ready to take on the final stretch of my college life! I researched internships and agencies in Chicago during the summer as well as trying to further network with other Public Relations professionals. I feel like there is always more to learn, and that keeping an open-mind to new ideas and concepts is a great way to do well at your job. Only time will tell how much this industry will change in the future. I'm very content with my major and minor. I think changing my major from Education to Communications was the best decision I made in my young life; that, and changing my religious beliefs.I would love to connect with other people my age who are as interested in PR as I am! Please feel free to talk to me in class about things or even comment on my blog!

Public Relations Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbZ4VJQ2r_U&feature=related

I thought Rick Daniels did the perfect job by motivating students and telling them what to do to get ahead of the game. He mentioned the importance of networking as well, which I think is key to people in our career field. As he put it, " Networking is about relationship building. Networking is PR, you are relating to the public that you would like to be a part of. So you know, when you are building relationships you are networking."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meKGSJFkuAQ
I thought Ginny Bosek was hospitable and detailed in her experience, she gave alot of good advice.I thought it was interesting that she used social media to get information about the Park System out and that she also plugged events there as well. Another thing I noticed is that alot of these alumni talk about how they "never have the same day twice"..That everyday they go to work is different. I like at the very end how she says to learn from other job experiences to better your future job/s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDUWZEc2Nws

I loved Merri Oxley's video a lot. She showed how Communication careers have changed and advanced over the generations and I thought it was great how she encouraged people to go out into their communities and socialize with people instead of always socializing electronically. She does go into detail about networking and social media being used too, but she doesn't think that should be your lone option, which I think is great.


---Jennifer Abaroa

Social Media Trend: QR Codes

 Social media is all over the place and there is no stopping it now! It can be seen in every aspect of the workforce now a days; whether it’s marketing, public relations, or advertising as a whole.
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/five-social-media-trends-for-2011/
What I found incredibly interesting is the use of QR codes. What is a QR code you ask?  A QR code is pretty similar to a barcode, only thing is, QRs are meant to be read by a smart phone or a phone with internet capacities. Many companies are now turning to these to reach out to their consumers. They can be on everything from newspapers to magazines. A great example of a company coyly using these would be female magazines such Cosmopolitan and Redbook. As of recent, I have begun to notice these on the pages of my magazines and wondered why they were there. In magazines marketed at young adults they put things such as behind the scenes info or special contests you could enter.I think with all the I-Phones and the like being sold that QR codes will soon be catching on in mainstream America! Andriod has an increasing amount of apps' that deal with QR codes and with the increasing popularity of Andriod as a whole, this trend may gain speed faster then we though, Android speaks about their use of them in the following page.
http://www.mediabistro.com/thinkmobile/qr-codes-for-android-applications_b5618


Unfortunately, if you don't have a smartphone or something such as an I-Pad or the like, you are out of luck. Marketing is using it frequently, and the following article describes it perfectly!

http://qreateandtrack.com/features/qr-codes-in-action/qr-code-examples-and-ideas/

BMA: Experiences At Manpower

       Today I am writing about my experience at the BMA event. I am so glad at went! It may have been late, and the drive over may have been long, but it was well worth it! I wish the interviewing process would have been longer; I had gotten such valuable feedback in those quick five minute conversations. Looking at my interviewers and their status made me want to succeed even more! I had gotten such good evaluations and that definitely made all the hard work I've been doing worth it. The Resume Reviewing was interesting, and I wish I would have had more time in that activity as well. I was surprised by how much the woman wanted to change up my  resume, but I definitely respect her opinion.
    It was also interesting to hear our teacher was ahead of the curve in terms of social networking, considering that even Marquette and UWM hadn't thought about that in their curriculum.
I would definitely consider going to this kind of event again!





http://www.bma-milwaukee.org/media/27370/bma_2011_bellssponsorshipflyer.pdf


http://www.facebook.com/pages/BMA-Milwaukee/143605512066

http://www.bma-milwaukee.org

The P.R.Student

                  Hi! My name is Jennifer Abaroa, but you can call me Jenny. I’m junior at University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater and I aspire to make my career as a Public Relations professional. I love meeting new people and just helping people in general, and I feel like a career in P.R. would allow me to help people and help me make connections at the same time. My goals in life are to have a successful career as well as a healthy and happy husband and child in the future.  If I were to pick today what "sector" of Public Relations I would like to work in, I would most likely pick a Non-Profit. I personally think my strong work ethic and empathetic nature would help me in this field, and that my past volunteer experiences would help me as well.

I am quite comfortable with the thought of working with people and that is why I think that this would be a great career for me. I work well under-pressure and I am used to obeying authority figures at my previous jobs, so this should be no different. I look forward to all there is to learn and all the people I am going to meet! I am definitely looking forward to my future!