By Jesse Gettemy When people write well they not only differentiate themselves from their peers, but they stand out to their future employers. Throughout college, students are required to write in a variety of different platforms. These assignments cover goals and purposes; and most of the time, students are able to write about personal experiences. This is just the beginning of what should blossom into a great résumé builder. Not only is writing an important academic skill, but it is also an important skill that carries over into any career field, not just in pr. Nearly all professions require some type of writing on the job. In fact, recruiters for jobs look at writing before they even pass along a résumé. During a session at the PRSSA National Conference in Atlanta, “Writing Right: The Number One Skill Employers Want” presented by Ron Culp and Ryan McShane, some touchpoints were made on why quality writing is so important. Specifically, writing for PR has many perks. It is interesting to know that when a pr professional knows how to write in various formats, it increases their chances of being offered a raise or a promotion in the workplace. That being said, when a professional doesn’t know how to write well in these formats, typos on résumés and cover letters don’t go anywhere but in the trash. Some types of writing for PR are: releases, internal email, point-of-view papers, speeches, media outreach, campaign presentations, vendor requests and performance reviews. In the session with Culp and McShane, they broke down a list of 10 writing tips for young professionals to follow, to ensure future success and an equal opportunity for being hired in future careers. Ron and Ryan Writing Tips
Proofing your work in this industry is critical. It isn’t safe to just go over your writing once or twice to check for style and grammatical errors. It is something that we as pr professionals need to be constantly checking for at all times. If you aren’t good at editing and proofing, you can always ask a friend to help you, too. Don’t forget: writing for media needs to be technical and practical. These two experienced role models left the audience with an improvement plan for writers. This is to not only help less experienced writers in the field, but to give a reminder to those who do know a lot about writing to always keep educating yourself and to never stop learning. Improvement Plan
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By Charleah Trombitas At PRSSA National Conference this year, I learned tips and tricks about resume writing and formatting from Gala Jackson during the session “Rebuilding your Resume.” Jackson is the CEO of her own company, Interviewsnob, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, and provides expert resume and career search advice for aspiring professionals. Jackson started off explaining how to begin writing the resume. She stressed that it begins with studying the company where you will be sending the application. Review the history, analyze the prospective job description and connect with hiring managers. Company research will ensure your resume is tailored perfectly for the job you are applying for. Not every resume you send out should be the same. Jackson really stressed this. Once again, do not send out a general resume! You will not stand out that way. Market yourself and your strengths. Make sure the company knows that you know what you’re applying for. Show hiring managers how you can be an asset to their company. Ask yourself, “why? So what?” after everything you add to your resume. Keep it short and relevant. Tip to make resume writing easier: Jackson gave a lot of great tips and information, but one thing she said was my personal favorite: Jackson suggested creating a master resume. This would include everything you have ever done in your college career that is resume worthy. Don’t just update this when it’s time to apply for jobs; keep this up-to-date and organized. When it comes time to apply for jobs, pull the most relevant information from your master resume into each individual resume. This technique allows for an easy way to create job-specific resumes. Tip to make your resume REALLY stand out: A lot of things can cause your resume to stand out, but Jackson introduced me to something I had never thought of before. Rather than an objective statement at the top of your resume, sell yourself. Describe to hiring managers what you can do for them and why you are valuable. Use this section as if you have the ability to give the hiring managers a 30-second elevator pitch. Most common resume mistakes: Jackson has seen a lot of resumes, good and bad. She kindly shared the most common mistakes she has seen on resumes throughout her career:
In conclusion, Jackson reminded us we all have the ability to create a great resume. Overall, this session was so informative. I believe all of these tips will help me when I am applying to jobs and internships. After all, any resume help is always appreciated! PRSSA Kent will be playing their part in advancing the profession and the future professional Friday by presenting a Chapter development session at the PRSSA 2015 National Conference. Chapter development sessions are an interactive, peer-to-peer learning experience where some of the Society’s most influential Chapters present ideas and best practices to members from other schools. The Chapter development sessions are a remarkably important part of National Conference. These presentations give members an unparalleled look into other Chapters and best practices for issues such as member relations, fundraising, publications practices, Chapter branding and many others. Kent State’s presentation this year focuses on an indisputably important topic – university community relations. This presentation will teach Chapters creative and effective ways to create relationships between Chapters and other campus resources. The process of applying for and presenting a Chapter development session is challenging, but as I’m sure many PRSSA Kent folks would attest, it is well worth it. If anyone would know, it’s PRSSA Kent, which is doing a presentation for the second year in a row. The process begins by submitting an application to present. This year, PRSSA Kent’s application was selected from over 20 received. The selected presentation teams then practice their presentations via video chat regularly for two months with PRSSA’s vice president of Chapter development. Throughout the process, presenters are challenged to develop outside the box tactics to solving some of the most basic problems Chapters face. These tactics must then be packaged into engaging and educational presentations that will be presented to hundreds of the nation’s top public relations students. The teams spend hours developing aesthetically pleasing and “how-to” focused presentations. By presenting a Chapter development session, PRSSA Kent is standing out from the crowd. PRSSA Kent’s dedication to presenting a strong Chapter development session is helping to better the Society and educate its members, while also granting the Chapter the national recognition it deserves. Are you attending the PRSSA National Conference in Atlanta? If so, you can check out the PRSSA Kent presentation on Friday at 3:30 p.m. If not, don’t forget to check the PRSSA website for a recap of the presentation! Follow along with all PRSSA National Conference chat using #PRSSANC. See you in Atlanta! Gary Bridgens is the PRSSA National vice president of Chapter development and a senior in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. Follow him on Twitter @garingiscaring, connect with him on LinkedIn or email him at [email protected]. By Brenna Parker This past summer, I interned for the Lewis Center Business Association for their July 4 event, the LC Summer Bash and Fireworks. The LC Bash’s main event was a concert featuring headliner, multi-platinum recording artist Gavin DeGraw and featured local bands New Hollow and Liberty Deep Down. My role was to help with the community promotions, marketing and day-of events. As interns we were given odd jobs and tasks. One random task was to get Gavin and his band bath towels. We dropped everything to run to a store and get $200 in assorted white bath towels and other items. We drove the musicians around the stadium on golf carts, went on food runs for New Hollow and sold merchandise for Liberty Deep Down. Prior to the event, I promoted and handed out promotional materials at community festivals and events throughout the summer to spread the word about the concert. This included promoting the event online on local and statewide event databases and social networks. The event itself had multiple components going on at the same time, including live appearances from The CW stars Alissa and Cameron and a live on-site radio broadcast from Mix 107.9 throughout the night. The stadium was filled with food trucks, concessions and other events for families. The LC Summer Bash & Fireworks was an impressive community event. It was the concluding event of the Olentangy July 4 Celebration, which began with the Freedom 4 Miler run and annual Orange Township Parade. A portion of the event proceeds was donated to Honor Flight Columbus, a nonprofit organization that recognizes and celebrates World War II and Korean War veterans by flying them to Washington, D.C. to visit memorials dedicated to their service. This year the LC Bash went through a complete overhaul, after it changed venues it introduced a concert, festival and fireworks display. This event was unique because it was held at my alma mater and the programs manager Adam Piccin, an Otterbein University PRSSA member, is a close friend of mine that I did journalism with in high school. My favorite part of this experience was having the opportunity to meet and interact with the musicians and learn event production. After working this event, I learned a few takeaways: 1. Read and know what is in your artist’s contracts. If it is in writing that the headliner or entertainer is to receive something or have in their green room, make sure you know that material prior to the event. If a manager or representative for one of your clients is requesting something, accommodate their needs as best you can. 2. Know the emergency response plan. If something is to go wrong, just know that there are thousands of people in your venue, know what to do if something could go wrong. 3. Train and educate your volunteers about the event. Volunteers will be asked a ton of questions from people at the event. “Where is this? When is that?” Make sure you let them know the answers to these frequently asked questions that may come up. By Erin Zaranec PRSSA Kent hosted our annual Homecoming Silent Auction on Friday, Oct. 2 and Saturday, Oct. 3. Let me just start off by saying – it was a HUGE success! We raised a total of $5,394 towards chapter programming and sending 14 representatives to National Conference in November. It was amazing to say the least! Two milestones were reached for the chapter: we raised the largest sum of money we ever have in ten years of hosting the silent auction and we are officially sending more representatives to Conference than ever before! When I started serving as the Co-Vice President of Fundraising and Community Outreach, I had no idea how much work went into planning a fundraiser. We contacted approximately 200 businesses and auctioned off 53 baskets over the course of the weekend. Since the start of the school year, I have been running around Franklin Hall like crazy, coordinating donation pick-ups and calling more businesses than I can even remember. Generous donors stepped in at the last minute, including President Beverly Warren, who donated two poems that she wrote and signed herself and a lunch with her and four JMC students. Over the weekend, Thor Wasbotten, the Director of JMC, played the role of auctioneer at the end of each day. The auctions were full of bidding wars, laughs and plenty of happy tears (well, most of those came from me). The words “thank you” cannot be repeated enough to everyone that donated to our chapter this weekend. Within the past few weeks, officers and committee members have gone above and beyond to ensure the success to auction and everyone came together for a great day. Now, we can all go off to Conference worrying more about networking than about our credit card bills once we arrive back home. I am so grateful and humbled by everyone’s willingness to help. Thank you to my fellow officers and wonderful committee members, I would have lost my mind without all of you! And again, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all of our amazing donors. |
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