Independent Task 2 - LIA

Literal:
a) “I, Kaitlyn Bradshaw, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
b) I made the color-coded post its with labels and dates for each magazine deadline, and put together the template for the calendar for them to use as their visual for ed. cal. deadlines


Interpretive:
My product is being used by the entire office, and it has increased their efficiency in meeting deadlines, since they can visually see what they need to hit. I had to type, print, and cut labels with magazine names, date of release, and magazine theme, and had to put them on the color-coded post its, and helped with the template of the calendar.


Applied
It showed me that organization is an important part of PR, and it helps to have visuals to see deadlines, instead of having to search for them either online or in the giant binder they had been using. Simple tricks can drastically improve your productivity.

2-Hour Reflection

PART ONE: 2-Hour Presentation
P+/AE-
1) I made my time so I was proficient, but I went over the time required and I did it well, in my opinion. I put a lot into it, typed up worksheets, had everything timed well, and overall I think it went well.
2) The thing I am most proud of in my presentation is that people seemed to really understand what I was teaching, from what I saw in the activities.

PART TWO: Overall Senior Project Experience
1) I think I did well on my products and my independent components. What I made for the office is something that they use everyday, and they have all said that it has been extremely beneficial. I wish I had kept up on the blogs a little more, and I think that I could have done better on some individual components, like science fair and 20-minute presentation
2) My EQ is "What is most important to be successful in Public Relations?" and my best answer is to be persuasive in writing, speaking, and presenting.
3) My answers to my EQ changed during the iSearch, because I realized that they were too general. In having the advisory meetings for the two hours, it helped show me what they needed to be and what I was missing in my answers. I redid all of them, and narrowed them down more so that they were more specific to my topic.
4) The only thing I wish could change is to have more details in the beginning, because it was hard to do some of the things later on in the year with my topic being Public Relations. (Like the science fair.)
5) P or P-, because I did everything that was expected, but didn't do anything above and beyond.

Service Learning LIA

Total Hours: 67
Duties: I would help around the office, making copies, organizing things, helping interns with editorial calendar information, helping Alyssa find deadlines of magazines she wanted to find placements for, do research on past placements, help organize the ed. cal. binder

Alyssa King, Account Executive
(310)248-6158

The most important thing I gained from this experience was to see all the work they do that isn't glamorous, because anyone looking in at a PR specialist's job will only see the fun stuff, like the events they go to, the people they meet, the lunches they have with editors, etc. However, being there all day and doing all the sideline work of just doing chores showed me what it really is to work as a PR specialist, and now I have a real true picture of what I would be doing, should I choose to go into that field.

I got all of my EQ answers from the experiences I had with Alyssa; before working with her, I had no idea what the job really entailed. She is also the reason I chose being a persuasive writer/speaker/presenter as my best answer, because I got to see her in action in her job and I got to see exactly how she does things in order to be successful.

Alyssa King, Account Executive

(310)248-6158

2 Hour Lesson Plan (Rough Draft)

• Sponge Activity: Have posters of people that have had accomplished amazing things in PR hanging around the room, then ask if anyone knows who they are. (they won't, because PR people are never put in the spotlight, which will emphasize my later explanation about how PR people are the ones that come in and fix everything but never get the credit for it)
• Intro: 
• EQ: What is most important to be successful in Public Relations?
• Important: most crucial, needed, or necessary. Successful: Always completing the job efficiently and making the client the most satisfied they can be.
• I chose my topic because it seemed really interesting, and like something I might enjoy doing in the future as a career. It also helped that I had all of my interviews, service learning, and other things already set up for me, because it made it easy to fulfill the requirements of the project.
• Plan for the day: Say foundation and body (specified below); go over the first answer, which will be the most important answer; do activity that relates to my answer; go over the second answer; do second activity; go over third answer; do third activity; conclude presentation; ask for questions

• Foundation: Go over the differences between advertising and public relations to give the students basic knowledge of my topic, because the distinction must be made before the presentation to avoid confusion later.
• Body:
• Answer 1: Being a persuasive writer/speaker/presenter
• Activity 1: Give them examples of persuasive and non-persuasive writing styles or pitches, then have them identify what words make it persuasive; give them clippings of a press release and have them organize it so that it makes sense, see which groups get it closest to being correct
• Answer 2: Know how to target demographics
• Activity 2: Give each group pictures of products (15 pictures?) and give them different possible demographics, and have them place the product with the demographic they believe it would best sell to, and see which group gets the most right
• Answer 3: Be able to identify variables
• Give each group a paper with a company history on it, and have each group read the history and write down the possible problems a PR representative might come across if they were to promote that company, and write down the things the PR representative could emphasize to make the company look better.
• Conclusion:
• My best answer is to be a persuasive writer/speaker/presenter, because without this skill you will not make it into public relations at all, because to even get a job at a PR firm you have to be able to pitch yourself to the interviewer, and convince them you would be a good addition to their firm. Once you do get a job, you have to use this in any project you work on in PR, whether it's pitching a story to an editor for their publication, writing a press release, or pitching an interview to a producer.
• My 3 most important sources would be 1) Alyssa King, my service learning expert, because I learned more things from following her during a normal work day and seeing first-hand what she does throughout the day, and getting examples of how to cold-call and pitch stories to people. 2) My second important source would be the LG National Texting Championship, because since I got to go to the interviews and stuff I got to see how they interact with producers and editors, and I got to see what it takes to set up the interviews, and I got a first-hand experience of all the behind-the-scenes background work that people don't usually realize goes into making appearances and getting publicity for a company. 3) My third important source would be the database I found, aboutpublicrelations.net, because it gave me a lot of articles that proved to be extremely important in gaining knowledge about my topic. I learned really important information, and these articles helped me to be able to support my answers to my EQ.
• My product would be the visual representation of the editorial calendars that I made for Ogilvy, because I came up with the idea on my own, and they have used the calendar I made for them a lot in the office, and it is used by the whole office. Before my visuals, they had to flip through a giant binder to find the deadlines of different magazines, but with the big weekly calendar and the post-its that work with the system I came up with, all they have to do is look at it and know when the next deadline is coming up. They said it has proved to be extremely useful, so I am pretty proud of that.

Creative Expression

- the wow factor will be how the project looks in general, because seeing a box with gears and a curtain will be something that piques interest.
- in public relations, everything is done behind the scenes, and so the main part of the ideas (light bulbs) and the gears (inner workings and processes) are done behind the curtains, where nobody sees them. PR is never in the spotlight, and is always done in the background

4th Interview Questions

1.) What is the number one skill you think is most beneficial to a public relations specialist?

2.) How do you use organization in your job?

3.) How do you use creativity in your job?

4.) Why do you think it's important to be outgoing and confident in public relations?

5.) Are there any skills you wish you could improve on? If so, which ones and why?

6.) My essential question for my project is "What is most important to be successful in public relations?". How would you answer this question?

7.) Why would you give these answers?

8.) My answers for my essential question are organization, creativity, and assertiveness. Do you think these are accurate answers? Why or why not?

9.) Do you think the skill sets differ for males and females working in PR? Why or why not?

10.) If they differ, how are they different?

11.) Do you think the required skills are different for different positions in PR? Why or why not?

12.) How do they differ?

13.) What role does being assertive play in your job?

14.) What do you think makes people who have had major triumphs in PR successful?

15.) What do you think has helped you the most in your career?

16.) What advice would you give to someone who is trying to develop skills to make them successful in PR?

17.) What skills would you suggest someone breaking into the PR field should focus on?

18.) Do you think there are certain skills that are helpful to a person working in PR that you're just born with? If so, what skills?

19.) What skills do you think are the hardest to develop?

20.) Do you think taking PR classes in college will help you develop the skills needed to have a successful career in PR?

Independent Task 2

For my second independent task, my idea is to put on a dance show, and I will run all the publicity for it, and put together my own Public Relations Campaign to get the word out about the show and it will be first-hand experience in running my own campaign. I am going to keep a log of all of the hours I put into it, and I will have anyone I work with extensively sign off on it. It will help me answer my EQ by giving me experience in running my own campaign. This way, I will see for myself what it takes to run a successful campaign for a specific reason.

20 Minute Lesson Plan

Topic: Public Relations
EQ: What is most important to be successful in Public Relations?
Lesson Objective: To touch on the various ways PR is used to create a company's image and to give the students an idea of how AT&T used it to their advantage.
Hook: Ask who knows what about PR, show pictures of PR people to show the students how the PR people are rarely ever recognized or are hardly ever in the spotlight.
Intro: Define the difference between ads and PR, intro the AT&T campaign

Body: 1) Short overview of AT&T campaign

2) Show different PR facets used

3) Show different techniques in each facet

4) Tell the results

Activity: Get into groups of 2, have them decide, if they were AT&T, what celebrity speaker they would get, why, and what they would say, to most benefit their company.

Check for Understanding: Ask the rest of the class their opinions on whether or not that group's approach seems like it would work

Conclusion: Go over main topics of presentation

Sources: Creating the Corporate Soul (Book), Service Learning Expert (Alyssa)

Materials: Computer (Powerpoint), projector

Independent Task 1

LIA: In public relations, they have what are called editorial calendars. These are the calendars that have the deadlines of magazines. They use these calendars to make sure they can get their clients into the magazines they want before the deadline is over. They print out the calendars from every magazine in every genre, men's, women's, teens, fashion, tech, travel, etc. They compile all of the printed calendars into a binder. For my independent task, I helped compile the binder, and then I took all of the deadlines until the end of the year and put them into a visual representation. I made weekly charts, and put the deadlines on post-it notes and stuck them on the days of the deadlines. These will be put up on the wall of their office, so they can have a visual representation of the deadlines they need to meet.

I had to make a chart for every week, from this month until the end of the year. Every poster represents a week, and with 4 weeks in a month, it was a total of 48 posters. Along with helping to compile the binder, it was a total of 30 and a half hours. By doing this, it helped to give me an idea of some of the things Public Relationists have to do in their work, even if it's as simple as organizing something visual for the office. Being organized and coming up with creative ways to get organized is extremely important in PR.

One of my answers for my EQ is to be organized and creative, and this project embodied both of those skills. I came up with the structure of the posters on my own, and put them together in any way I wanted. I did it this way because it was a very easy way to see the deadlines and the post-its are easy to take off when that deadline has been filled.

EQ

my eq is: What is most important to be successful in public relations?
my 3 answers are: organization, creativity, & the ability to make successful relationships with outside people

Service Learning

Ogilvy Public Relations
I do any work Alyssa might need, making copies, putting information into the computer, etc. I have done research on ed cals for the office, & I am going to be starting the independent task soon.
So far, the most important thing I've learned is to be organized & be able to do research well & know how to find the information you need, no matter what that information may be.