Blogger of the Week: Controversy and Social Media
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Matching the issues of the day with the platforms that distributed them. By Aryn Sanderson (Cal Poly PRSSA member) Want to know what matters? Post it online, and see if it catches on. Tweet it and see if it #trends. Update your status, and see if the same info (Arab) springs up on a “friend’s” [...]
Blogger of the Week – QR in PR
*Special thanks to member Jenna Watson for guest blogging this week!*
Get your smart phones out! First member to comment with where the code took you gets double participation points!
Being out of the loop. If you’re anything like me, you know how frustrating this can be. As the new age of smart phones and rapidly changing technology is upon us, we are exposed to more and more effective ways to practice public relations but we don’t always fully understand them. So what are these funny looking squares we see everywhere?
This is a method that I’ve noticed gaining lots of popularity in the last year (especially on ads around campus) known as QR codes. We see them in magazines, on flyers, business cards, and even on popular websites like YouTube or Amazon. Asking around, it doesn’t seem like many college students are familiar with their purpose or function. They may seem odd or pointless at first, but when used correctly, QR codes can be an effective way to connect the public (or target audiences) to clients.
There is a lot of information about QR codes and their many uses in different industries around the world. I would like to briefly inform you about the basics of QR codes.
QR codes, short for “Quick Response” codes, were created in 1994 by Toyota to track cars during the manufacturing process. While commonly used in Japan, they have gained popularity in the U.S. in recent years. It is a barcode that links physical objects to more detailed information or online content. Its uses are (as of 2011) used over a wide range of applications, including commercial tracking, entertainment and transport ticketing, product marketing and in-store product labeling. Examples of content a user might be “hard-linked” to can be a movie trailer, a website, coupons, photos, or mapped directions.
Accessing these codes is simple because all smart phones can download a free app that will scan the QR codes and link the user to the product content. The only issue here is that cell phone users without a smartphone can’t access the informative content QR codes provide. But it is very common for a non-smartphone user to have a friend around who could easily share the content with them. According to SmartOnline, in 2011, smart phones made up 54% of all mobile phone sales in the US.
QR codes are an essential tool in public relations because they are a quick and effective way to link audience/consumers to content regarding an event or product. Think about it; you’ve worked really hard on putting an event on campus together for your client. You make flyers and put them up with the basic information, but what if the readers of the flyers could quickly get hard-linked to your client’s Twitter account, YouTube video, or product discount coupon for coming to the event? It would make much more of an impact and add depth to your advertising.
Marc Lyne, a “Small is Beautiful” columnist for Search Engine Land, suggests creating QR codes to specifically link users to product details, contact details, offers or event details, competition details, coupons, Facebook or Twitter IDs, or links to videos.
(Check out his full article). Google and other online entities provide QR code generators.You can quickly and easily make your own for free! A simple one to start with is www.qrstuff.com!
We can see that these simple QR codes gives your audience the “inside look” at your product or event announcement, and you can get the content you want them to have, in their hands instantly. And now you know “the in” about the application of QR codes to
start enhancing your PR projects. I’ll bet we’ll continue to see many more QR codes as we grow and learn in the awesome industry of public relations.
Defining PR
Ask 10 PR professionals to define their industry, and you may get 10 different answers. In some ways, that’s a cool perk – it gives professionals the freedom to tailor their communications strategies to fit each client or goal. On the other hand, there’s a balance point at which consensus is needed to give the public relations field guiding principles. Plus, practitioners need to be able to answer the inevitable question, “What is PR?”
PR Thought and Opinion- President Robert Glidden
A “thought” from Robert Glidden, Cal Poly’s Interim President:
I have long been a proponent of Professor Howard Gardner’s (Harvard Graduate School of Education) theory of multiple intelligences. First published in 1983 in a book titled Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Garner’s research probed the nature of human cognition and postulated that we all have multiple intelligences. I have been interested because as an educator I have felt that we overlook a great deal of human talent because formal education is in many respects so narrowly focused. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that historically we have tended to shortchange people who do not demonstrate strength in linguistic or logical-mathematical intelligence. (Think about the content of the SAT or ACT tests.)
Gardner’s research led him and his research team to believe that there are at least seven basic areas of intelligence, i.e., relatively unique kinds of cognition, of understanding and expressing. The first of those are the obvious ones we all know about: linguistic and logical-mathematical. The others are musical (which, of course, piqued my interest), spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, and the personal intelligences—interpersonal and intrapersonal. Interpersonal, of course, is our ability to understand and deal with other people; intrapersonal is how well we know and understand ourselves.
It’s the two personal intelligences that lead me to think and write about this in preparation for the discussion we’ll have at the Cal Poly PRSSA meeting on Thursday, October 21. The principal topic will be “Building Relationships,” and as we think about that topic we will certainly understand that both inter and intrapersonal intelligence are key to our success. We possess those skills—sensitivities if you will—in various degrees, and some of us who enjoy excellent interpersonal skill may be lacking in intrapersonal skill, or vice versa. I hope you will join us on October 21 and be ready to share your thoughts about how we build relationships, either personal or professional.
PR Thought and Opinion- Dr. Dan Eller
Building Public Relations on a Foundation of Friendraising- Dr. Dan Eller
Most public relations professionals are quite adept at building relationships with their clients and publics, but how do we carve out a pathway that facilitates a smooth road for these relationships to travel and ultimately expand? What I’ve found in my professional public relations practice is focusing on friendraising. You ask, what is friendraising in terms of public relations practice and how do I get started?
Really the answer is simple…FOCUS ON THE FUTURE! Who are the people that you need to network with today, and how will this experience create future opportunities for everyone involved? How does friendraising differ from networking?
First, be on the lookout for new individuals and groups that will allow you to build effective and sustainable relationships by developing your use of friendraising. Don’t stay inside the box, or just look outside the box, throw the box away and be open to creating and seeking new opportunities to meet and develop a relationship with those who haven’t yet discover what you have to offer to meet each other’s needs.
Second, develop the strategies necessary to implement your friendraising tactics. Do your homework to actively seek out and interface with those who will benefit through a mutual relationship. Craft the message that will resonate with these new friends that draw them in to what you have to offer and how what they bring with them helps each other.
Third, develop and implement the tactics that will allow you to practice the art of friendraising. Be creative and do the things that show your forward thinking as a public relations practitioner. Remember not everything we do always hits a homerun, but choosing a different bat may be just what you need to hit the ball out of the park.
Finally, always look at the new people you meet, and who they represent as an opportunity to collaborate with to build a relationship through friendraising. Now that we have successfully created new relationships through our friendraising efforts, focus on continued collaboration and look for further friendraising opportunities that create almost a domino effect. I am always actively looking for new opportunities to develop friends, and foster a relationship with them that will build the foundation of my public relations efforts to develop and succeed!
