I don’t know why the client decided to keep its identity a secret, but one possible reason is that news stories about the CSR efforts could publicize the bad things the company used to do – things that most people probably don’t associate with the company today.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many professional communicators today who avoid publicizing their companies’ green efforts, and of course we know from research that companies get substantially better results when their stakeholders are aware of their CSR efforts (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004; Sen, Bhattacharya, & Korschun, 2006).

Some practitioners might avoid promoting their green efforts because they are concerned about being accused of greenwashing. As identified by scholars such as Bivins (2009), companies take a risk when they promote their CSR efforts because the act of promoting the efforts can make the efforts look disingenuous.

As you probably know, “greenwashing” refers to misleading environmental communication, and the term developed as people identified inconsistencies between companies’ actual behavior and claims about being green.

The term was coined in the 1980s by Jay Westerveld who saw the inconsistency in hotels that didn’t have recycling programs but encouraged the reuse of towels (Romero, 2008).

Through my research, which is available in the current issue of PRSA’s Public Relations Journal (vol. 5, No. 3), I investigated the fairness of online greenwashing accusations against Starbucks.

Highlights From the Study
In summary, most of the reactions to Starbucks’ environmental communication efforts that I analyzed were positive. Even the critical public tended to applaud Starbucks’ green initiatives while asking for more change, asking critical questions, or making a jab about Starbucks’ environmental impact.

When Starbucks was criticized, the arguments used were nearly always based on facts, observations, the need for more information, and requests for change, as opposed to deep-seated cynicism against corporate America.

Nevertheless, most of the criticisms I analyzed were technically unfair because they asked Starbucks to do things that Starbucks is already doing or they criticized Starbucks for advertisements that were actually student ad projects that had been posted to YouTube.

Starbucks did not post any comments to the criticisms I analyzed, not even to the greenwashing site where its efforts had been labeled as greenwashing.

This illustrates a drawback to Starbucks’ strategy for online engagement. A Starbucks representative explained that the company focuses on the zeitgeist of conversation on its own website. There is a benefit to driving conversations to your home turf; however, organizations should also consider participating in vibrant conversations about themselves on other sites, especially given the results of a study by Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser, and Howes (2009). In their survey of public relations practitioners, most respondents reported that they had found inaccurate information about their organizations in online chatrooms.  Starbucks is missing out on vibrant conversations that are regularly occurring on Starbucks fan blogs. There are many Starbucks employees and former employees who anonymously participate on these blogs who offer both vigorous defense of the company’s practices and behind-the-scenes criticism about environmental practices.

Given the lack of trust in companies and traditional media today, these informal word-of-mouth online channels should not be overlooked. The study I conducted points to the importance of building on Jeong-Nam Kim and Yunna Rhee’s (2011) recent study in the Journal of Public Relations Research about megaphoning, scouting, and microboundary spanning.

Their concept of megaphoning refers to employees’ positive or negative communication about their organization to external audiences.

They defined scouting as employees’ voluntary communication efforts to bring relevant information to the organization.

The term microboundary spanning refers to “employees’ voluntary communication behaviors to

(a) disperse positive information for one’s organization,

(b) search and obtain valuable organization-related information from internal and external constituencies, and

(c) disseminate acquired information internally with relevant internal personnel and groups” (p. 249).

It would be interesting for future research to investigate the perceived credibility of online comments that are posted by people claiming to be employees and former employees.

References

Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2004). Doing better at doing good: When, why, and how consumers respond to corporate social initiatives. California Marketing Review, 47(1), 9-24.

Bivins, T. (2009). Mixed media: Moral distinctions in advertising, public relations, and journalism (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Kim, J-N., & Rhee, Y. (2011). Strategic thinking about employee communication behavior in public relations: Testing the models of megaphoning and scouting effects in Korea. Journal of Public Relations Research, 23(3), 243-268. doi:10.1080/1062726X.2011.582204

Lariscy, R. W., Avery, E. J., Sweetser, K. D., & Howes, P. (2009). Monitoring public opinion in cyberspace: How corporate public relations is facing the challenge. Public Relations Journal, 3(4), 1-17.

Romero, P. (2008, September 17). Beware of Green Marketing, Warns Greenpeace Exec. Retrieved from https://abs-cbnnews.com/special-report/09/16/08/beware-green-marketing-warns-greenpeace-exec

Sen, S., Bhattacharya, C. B., & Korschun, D. (2006). The role of corporate social responsibility in strengthening multiple stakeholder relationships: A field experiment. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34(2), 158-166. doi:10.1177/0092070305284978

It was wonderful getting to work with my J452 class. All class members featured above gave permission to have a class photo used on this blog; however, only a few students chose to have their blogs highlighted.

Anna Reilly, an avid Pinterest user, presents five best practices for using Pinterest. As she explains, “Pinterest is a website where you can create theme-based image collections through social photo sharing. …In terms of PR, Pinterest can be a great curation tool for visual thinkers to express their plans and ideas for customers and clients.”

Jerica Pitts, who is passionate about health communication, discusses the Pink Ribbon Sundays Program as a model for effective health outreach programs that are designed for African-American and Hispanic women. This is a must-read post for anyone interested in health communication who does not know about the pink Sundays case study.

Shannon August, who is committed to using public relations to make a difference in people’s lives, shares tips for creating an outstanding organizational culture. She provides concrete examples from her summer internship at AMN Healthcare.

Thanks for reading, and best wishes for the new year.

Photo from Richard Seamon: http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/PointMugu2004/Highlights/index.html

When I taught the principles class at UMUC during a summer of graduate school, I partnered with Teresa Heisler (who was an exceptional undergraduate student at the time) to study the effects of organizational structure on relationship outcomes. Our manuscript, titled “Relationship Outcomes in an Organisation With a Mechanical Structure,” is  available in PRism. Teresa starts graduate school at Johns Hopkins next spring.

Background

An organic structure, as opposed to a mechanical structure, enables employees to personally influence an organization’s decisions and policies, and it provides them with the autonomy to make decisions about their work that don’t need to be cleared with people at higher levels of the organization (L. A. Grunig, J. E. Grunig, & Dozier, 2002).

Research supports the importance of establishing an organic structure for effective internal relations (e.g., Boshoff & Mels, 1995; J. E. Grunig, 1992; Kim, 2007; Schminke, Ambrose, & Cropanzano, 2000).

Our Question

We wanted to find out if effective employee relations was possible in the context of an organization that has a mechanical structure.

Method

• Study of a rural Air Force base located in the South Central region of the United States
• 18 in-person interviews with military members, spouses who were stationed on the base, public affairs officers and the medical commander
• Four-person focus group with military members and spouses
• Follow-up interviews with seven military members to explore emerging conclusions

Key Findings

• This study demonstrated that contrary to previous theorizing (e.g., Kim, 2007), a mechanical structure alone does not result in low control mutuality, trust, commitment or satisfaction among employees in every context.
• Although previous theorizing about organizational structure held true for family members’ relationship with the Air Force base, military members were satisfied with the military’s mechanical structure.
• Most military members who were interviewed thought they had little influence in decisions affecting them and did not think that decisions were made with their individual interests in mind; however, they were supportive of this arrangement due to the significant normative commitment they experienced with regard to their moral motivation to serve in the organization.
• Although Boshoff and Mels (1995) found that participation in decisions increases commitment to an employer, the desire to participate in decisions was not an issue for participants, aside from problems with the healthcare facility.
• Likewise, although job satisfaction is associated with an organic structure where employees are empowered with significant responsibility (Hage, 1980; Peters, 1987), the extent to which the military members in this study were satisfied with their jobs had nothing to do with the amount of autonomy they had in their roles.
• The study provides empirical evidence to support J. E. Grunig’s (2002) statement that control mutuality can be high despite a low amount of control in the relationship when trust is high.
• The study also provides evidence for symbolic interaction theory (Blumer, 1969) by showing a case in which people tended to view occurrences that could affect the relationship through the lens of what they already thought about the organization.

The study can be read here.

References

Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Boshoff, C., & Mels, G. (1995). A causal model to evaluate the relationship among supervision, role stress, organizational commitment and internal service quality. European Journal of Marketing, 29(2), 23-35.

Grunig, J. E. (2002). Qualitative methods for assessing relationships between organizations and publics. Retrieved from http://www.instituteforpr.org/research_single/qualitative_methods_assessing

Grunig, L. A., Grunig, J. E., & Dozier, D. M. (2002). Excellent public relations and effective organizations: A study of communication management in three countries. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hage, J. (1980). Theories of organizations: Form, process, and transformation, New York: Wiley.

Kim, H-S. (2007). A multilevel study of antecedents and a mediator of employee-organization relationships. Journal of Public Relations Research, 19(2), 167-197. doi:10.1080/10627260701290695

Peters, T. (1987). Thriving on chaos. New York: Knopf.

Schminke, M., Ambrose, A. L., & Cropanzano, R. S. (2000). The effect of organizational structure on perceptions of procedural fairness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(2), 294-304.

We explored our participants’ opinions about the usefulness of Shannon Bowen’s model of ethical decision making. Here is the model we explored:

This Kantian model and an explanation of it can be found in the following source:

Bowen, S. (2005). A practical model of ethical decision making in issues management and public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 17(3), 191-216. doi:10.1207/s1532754xjprr1703_1

Highlights From the Study

• We found through our pretest that we needed to update some of the language used in the model so it would resonate with Millennials. You can see the updated wording in our study.
• Most Millennials found the revised six questions in the model to be very useful. The next step in this research is to explore the actual use of the model by an organization. If your organization is interested in adopting the model and engaging in further testing of it with us, please contact me at derville(at)uoregon(dot)edu.
• Minorities reported significantly more constraints from job security and personal ambition than did non-minorities, which suggests that employers can do a better job of relationship building with minority employees. More research is needed to parse out differences among races and ethnicities to avoid broad dichotomies of minority versus non-minority.
• Millennials expressed that they have far better relationships with their agencies when they are empowered to make their own decisions regarding ethical dilemmas.
• About 75 percent of participants disagreed with the model’s assumption that job security, personal ambition and workplace politics would interfere with their ability to make ethical decisions. Qualitative research is needed to explore why participants answered in this way.
• For more findings, you can read our study in PRSA’s PR Journal (volume five, issue two).

This research was supported by the Public Relations Society of America Foundation and the University of Oregon. This study won the Jackson-Sharpe Award, sponsored by Jackson, Jackson & Wagner and Likely Communication Strategies, at the 13th annual International Public Relations Research Conference. We thank Shannon Bowen for her feedback on this study.

Thanks to Kaye’s inspiration and student interest, below is the assignment I created.

Assignment Handout
You will work as part of a team to write a script and publicity plan for a video that lasts between one and three minutes.

The purpose of the video is to promote the study of public relations at the University of Oregon. The primary audience is high school students, particularly students who live in the Northwest and enjoy writing. The video has to be appropriate for parents and has to be a video that the University could use if you wanted to submit it for approval.

In the video, you will need to concisely establish

• What public relations is
• Why people should pursue it as a career
• Why people should study public relations at the University of Oregon

Remember to cite your sources and avoid using copyrighted material. The video has to be entertaining and informative.

Track A: Creating the Video
Write a script and publicity plan for the video. Shoot the video, edit it and submit a final version to me. With this track, you will take on one of the following roles. You will also support your team in the completion of their roles.

Producer
The producer manages the team, keeps the project on track, coordinates details for filming, recruits talent with the director and creates the publicity plan. In addition, this person obtains a video release waiver from all of the people who appear in the video.

Deliverables include the publicity plan and the schedule for the shooting, including time, talent and locations.

Director
The director is responsible for directing talent and operating the camera. This person also recruits the talent with the producer. This person is responsible for the quality of the video. In addition, this person shares the editing workload with the editor.

The deliverable is the final video.

Writer
The writer conducts research and writes the conceptual idea. If the writer is an artist, a storyboard could be created as well. The writer also creates the script.

The deliverables include a summary of research and ideas that will be pitched to the team, in addition to the script.

Editor
The editor is responsible for editing the video and completing post-production. This person shares the workload with the director and gets final say over editing decisions. The end of the video needs to say something like “Produced as an assignment in a public relations class at the University of Oregon,” and it needs to include credits.

The deliverable for the editor is the final video.

Track A Points
This assignment is worth 15 points. Ten of the 15 points are based on the quality of your work. Everyone in the group receives the same score for the 10 points.

The remaining five points are based on your individual contributions to the group and your ability to work effectively with your team (e.g., by meeting deadlines, producing quality work, being fun to work with and keeping meetings on track). You will submit an evaluation of yourself and your teammates.

Track B: Pitching the Idea and Writing Another Tactic
Write a script and publicity plan for the video. Pitch the idea to me as a formal business presentation. With this track, there are no individual roles. Instead, you will work as a team to do the following things:

• Conduct research
• Create a fact sheet or memo that conveys your research
• Write the script
• Pitch your idea as part of a formal business presentation
• Produce a publicity plan

You will also work individually to create an additional tactic of your choice, such as a shareholder letter, fundraising letter or podcast.

Track B Points
This assignment is worth 15 points.

The research memo, script, presentation and pitch are worth 10 points. Five of the 10 points are based on the quality of your work. Everyone in the group receives the same score for the five points. The other five points are based on your ability to work effectively with your team (e.g., by meeting deadlines, producing quality work, being fun to work with and keeping meetings on track). You will submit an evaluation of yourself and your teammates.

The remaining five points are based on the additional tactic you produce, which is due on Tuesday, Feb. 22. If you choose track B, please add the tactic you’re producing to your course schedule as an assignment due on Feb. 22.

Memo Due Thursday, Jan. 6
Explain the track you would like to choose through a memo.

If you choose track A, list the four positions in your order of preference, beginning with the position you would like the most. Explain any relevant background you have (e.g., editing skills for the editor position, organization skills for the producer position).

If you choose track B, indicate which additional tactic you are interested in creating (e.g., fundraising letter, shareholder letter or podcast). You can change tactics later if you would like.

You can either apply as an individual, and I’ll place you on a team, or you can apply as a team. A team has four members. If you apply as a team for track A, each person should apply for a different role, and each team member’s memo should include a list of your teammates.

Below is the format for the memo.

To: Tiffany Gallicano
From: Your name
Date: Thursday, Jan. 6
Subject: Video assignment role

Single space your document and skip a line of space between paragraphs. Do not indent. Write short paragraphs like the ones used in this assignment description. The memo should be no longer than one page.

This memo counts towards your participation points.

Memo to Track B
When returning memos to track B students, I distributed the following memo to them:

To: Diva Designers (insert student group name)
From: Tiffany Gallicano
Date: Feb. 3, 2011
Re: Finalist for SOJC Video

Thank you for your response to our RFP. You have been selected as a finalist for the PR video project.

Please meet me at 2 p.m. in Allen 302 on Thursday, Feb. 17, for a presentation of your ideas.

Your presentation should include the following components:

• Situation analysis (why the video is needed)
• Purpose of the video
• Research that informed your ideas for the video
• Video concept
• Publicity plan
• Capabilities

There will be a question and answer session following your presentation.

Selection Criteria

• Quality of content, including creativity
• Persuasive delivery, including effective use of visual aids
• Ability of agency to perform the proposed work

Video Instruction
I brought in a guest speaker from the University of Oregon’s multimedia team to provide tips for shooting video. Here are a few of the most important tips for beginners by our expert speaker, Mike Majdic:

• Make sure each person in the video knows where to look. Mixing between looking at the interviewer and looking at the camera looks amateur. In most cases, you’ll want all people in the video to not look at the camera.
• Provide plenty of cushion for editing by pausing before and after questions.
• Talking heads is boring, so cut to footage during this time. There is nothing more interesting than people, so include people in the footage.

My students have also shared tips; here is a blog post about shooting quality video by Taylor Long, and here is a blog post about video interviewing tips by Jesse Davis.

It was also valuable to spend a half hour watching and critiquing videos as a class. There are plenty of examples of university videos to critique on YouTube. We also discussed the importance of having a concept. Seeing the examples gave students ideas of what it means to have a concept for a video.

For the script, I had them follow the screenwriting template available here.

The students presented their videos to a panel of judges, including our communications director for UO’s School of Journalism and Communication, Andrea Kowalski, and the public relations faculty. Andrea surprised our students with free SOJC shirts after the presentation. Our director of Web Communications at UO, Zack Barnett, added both videos to our University of Oregon YouTube channel.

Final Product
Below are the two videos my student teams created.

Producer: Claire Tonneson, http://clairetonneson.wordpress.com, http://www.visualcv.com/pqqbhk1

Director and writer: Jesse Davis, http://jedavis13.wordpress.com, http://visualcv.com/users/237123-jesseleedavis/cvs/279473

Writer: Teeona Wilson, http://teeonawilson.wordpress.com, http://www.wix.com/teewilson08/trw

Editor: Taylor Long, http://tlong88.wordpress.com, http://www.visualcv.com/tlong88

Editor: Sarah Kirsch, http://sarahkirsch.wordpress.com, http://sarahkirsch.wordpress.com/portfolio

Producer: Liz Johnston, http://www.liz-john.moonfruit.com, http://thelegosofmylife.wordpress.com

Director: Shasta Smith, http://professionalswanted.wordpress.com, http://shastasmith.foliotek.me

Writer: Sarah Sullivan, http://sarahaasullivan.wordpress.com, http://www.wix.com/ssulliv1/sarahaasullivan

Editor: Stephen Hoshaw, http://learningpr.wordpress.com, http://www.visualcv.com/pu0j0p0

Editor: James Watkins, http://prprone.wordpress.com, http://www.visualcv.com/puo9290

Krista Detwiler blogs about 17 key things she learned during her Seattle PR tours to companies such as Microsoft and Starbucks; the tour was organized by AHPR, University of Oregon’s student-run public relations agency.

Katie Spellman creates a Stanley CSR Cup Final for the final four teams that competed for the Stanley Cup. Find out which team she chooses for the CSR Cup!

Sports fans will also want to read Paige Landsem’s blog post about the Seattle Mariners’ campaign to make fans feel like royalty, and she includes academic research about the effect of promotions on game attendance.

Niloo Mirani gets us up to speed about QR Codes and explores whether QR codes are in our digital future.

Melodie Seble provides tips based on one of my favorite Facebook campaigns, which is by Milk-Bone.

Kayla Albrecht shares an innovative nonprofit Facebook campaign and identifies reasons why the campaign was effective.

Angela Allison analyzes how a Facebook campaign by The Boys & Girls Clubs of America measures up against the best practices she has observed in Facebook campaigns.

Nicole Kramer shares a clever campaign by Honest Tea to identify the “Most Honest City in America.”

Sierra Baldwin wrote a blog post for students considering work in nonprofit PR that establishes key distinctions of doing public relations work for a nonprofit.

Maggie Dieringer shares what she learned about cultivating relationships with volunteers based on her interview with the volunteer manager for the Portland division of the Oregon Humane Society.

Allie Deane shares a story from NPR’s month-long series about public relations by highlighting the career of Howard Bragman, who has helped celebrities transition into openly gay lifestyles.

Page Fitzsimmons applauds the strategic move by the Obama camp to mock questions about the president’s birthplace in a comedic way that raises money for the re-election campaign.

Dalal Abou-Jamous shares the 10 myths of fundraising she learned from Matthew Ennis’ blog.

Stacy Sumoge discusses important reputation management tips that were inspired by the latest Facebook public relations blunder.

It's difficult to adequately proof without printing your work.

To prepare for success in a public relations job, it’s imperative to develop the ability to catch basic errors before submitting work to a boss. After all, how can a supervisor promote you if you can’t be trusted to adequately proof your work?

Examples of basic errors include missing words, quotation marks facing the wrong way, missing periods and spelling errors. These are errors that someone in junior high should be able to catch.

If your public relations professor penalizes harshly for typos, consider it tough love. As John Mitchell says, “I have zero tolerance for spelling errors…It’s tough love, but they’ll appreciate it later. Hear it all the time from the initiated.”

Grading rubric
In my writing classes, I grade work based on content, organization and writing mechanics, and I allow students to rewrite their work for an averaged grade. For the writing mechanics part, I apply the following rubric:

A: 1-3 minor errors

B: 4-7 minor errors

C: 8-11 errors, which could include one basic error (such as a spelling error)

D: 12-15 errors, which could include two basic errors

F: 16+ errors

Minor errors refer to mistakes such as comma placement and parallel structure.

I asked public relations practitioners on the #prprofs hashtag about how they penalize for typos.

• Tina McCorkindale at Appalachian State University lowers a grade to a C for the first spelling error and lowers it to an F for the second spelling error; however, misspelling a client’s name is an automatic F. Deductions for grammar depend on the frequency of the problems.
• Ginger Carter Miller at Georgia College deducts 10 percent for a spelling error and 2 percent for minor corrections.
• Richard Waters at North Carolina State University takes off 10 points for a spelling error.

Other public relations professors, feel free to share how you treat typos.

Why catching basic errors is important
I posted a question about why proofing matters to my Facebook page and received insightful comments from former students.

“Aside from the fact that your writing represents you and your organization, spelling errors (and grammar/punctuation errors for that matter) are simply careless. And, I would bet that most people wouldn’t categorize themselves as careless. And, tell them to appreciate that you are correcting them now because if they accept it and actually learn from it, then they will be better off in the long run.

In the end, you want to become the person that others come to for reviews/edits of their work and be known as the one who writes things that never need edits.” — Michelle Betrock, publicist, the Food Network and Cooking Channel, New York.

“Attention to detail takes on a whole new meaning when you’re just starting out — and working to not only establish yourself as a professional but also to separate yourself from your peers. People — more importantly, bosses — take note and do remember.

Just like any habit, once it sticks, you’re set — and it only happens after repeated effort and being held to high standards time and time again. Your students may not like it NOW, but I can guarantee that they will be thanking you later, when the quality of their work sets them apart and brings them big rewards.” – Kristen Bothwell, senior account executive, Rubenstein Communications, New York.

How to catch basic errors

1. Slowly proof a printed copy of your work, preferably the next day. Some people like reading aloud, and some people like to read in reverse order, from the last sentence to the first sentence.
2. Don’t write in all CAPS when you are writing a headline because spell check does not check all caps words (tip from Michelle Betrock). You can always change words to all CAPS later if you need to do so by going to format and font and then checking the box for “all CAPS.”
3. Have a friend read your work with fresh eyes to specifically proof for basic errors. In the professional world, this would be the equivalent of having a co-worker proof your work before you submit your work to a supervisor.

Michelle also offered the following advice:

“Tell your students to read ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves.’ Also, I always teach people to write AND edit ON PURPOSE. What I mean by that is this: Don’t just write something mindlessly and haphazardly; each time you type a letter, word, punctuation — be sure it’s the right one.”

Here are some resources for catching minor errors:

• Editing and Proofreading by the University of North Carolina
• Proofreading & Editing Tips by LR Communication Systems
• Improve Your Writing With These Editing Tips by Stepcase Lifehack

Readers, what are your favorite proofing tips? Public relations professors, feel free to also share how you penalize for basic errors.

It was a great journey with my students this quarter! I have selected a top blog post from each of their blogs to feature, provided that their blogs are public and I received permission to share this information (as well as the picture).

You can see from the picture below how much fun we had.

Employers: This group is sure to contribute energy and fun to your organizational culture.

Jesse Davis shares a story about an organization that had to slow down its tweets to gain back its regular media coverage. He will graduate in June and will look for a job at a public relations agency, company or sports team. E-portfolio: http://visualcv.com/users/237123-jesseleedavis/cvs/279473

Liz Johnston reports on a new study by Harris Interactive that demonstrates the results of using two-way communication to follow up with customers who have posted complaints on the Internet. Liz will look for a Portland Experience internship for fall 2011 and will be on the market for a permanent job in March 2012. E-portfolio: http://www.liz-john.moonfruit.com

Lindsey McCarthy analyzes the effectiveness of awareness memes on Facebook in which people update their statuses with information such as bra colors and drinks. Lindsey graduates in June and will be on the market for a health communication job in the fall, after she finishes her summer internship. Lindsey’s specialty is breast cancer communication. E-portfolio: http://www.wix.com/lkmccarthy412/portfolio

Sarah Sullivan discusses how a country’s economic system affects opportunities and challenges for public relations practitioners on her cross-cultural public relations blog. Her summary comes from a journal article published in PRism by Dr. Krishnamurthy Sriramesh. Sarah graduates this June and would like to work for a public relations agency. E-portfolio: http://www.wix.com/ssulliv1/sarahaasullivan

Larissa Frei shares a strategy for cutting through the noise on her health communication blog. Make sure to watch the piano stairs video at the bottom of her blog post. Larissa is seeking a health communication internship right now and for next year. She will be seeking a permanent health communication job in June 2012. E-portfolio: http://www.wix.com/lfrei9/larissa-frei

James Watkins discusses a tag cloud comparison of various presidents’ state of the union addresses on his public affairs blog. It’s interesting to see the differences. He is looking for an internship right now while he finishes his final year in school. He will be on the market for a full-time job in public affairs in spring 2012. E-portfolio: http://www.visualcv.com/puo9290

Claire Tonneson shares tips for organizations to avoid getting blocked by fans on Facebook. She will be looking for a job in August, and she welcomes the opportunity to work in a major city, such as Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles. E-portfolio: http://www.visualcv.com/pqqbhk1

Taylor Long provides seven tips for shooting quality video. She will look for a job in spring of 2012, and she is interested in the following areas of public relations: art, entertainment, tourism, and food and beverage. She would like to work for an agency in Portland. E-portfolio: http://taylorkristenlong.com

Shasta Smith discusses a few tips for donor relations that are based on Ken Brunett’s book about relationship fundraising. She is seeking a summer internship and is especially interested in event coordination and donor relations. She graduates in June 2012. E-portfolio: http://shastasmith.foliotek.me

Sarah Kirsch, a public relations and advertising double major, addresses a situation where PR meets advertising: irresponsible advertising campaigns. She critiques Diet Pepsi’s skinny can campaign. Sarah is seeking a job with a public relations agency or an integrated agency and is available July 1. E-portfolio: http://sarahkirsch.wordpress.com/portfolio

Steve Hoshaw discusses tips for organizations who are interested in starting blogs. He will be on the market in December 2011 and is especially interested in working for a small public relations agency in Oregon. E-portfolio: http://www.visualcv.com/pu0j0p0

Teeona Wilson shares networking tips from Julie Williams, the director-at-large of new professionals for the Portland chapter of PRSA. Teeona graduates in June and is applying for public relations jobs. E-portfolio: http://www.wix.com/teewilson08/trw

Kelsey Waymire discusses a new campaign called Tobbaco Free New York. The campaign staff found through research that youths are more influenced by in-store cigarette marketing than by peer pressure. Kelsey will be on the market on June 14. She is open to anything and has a special interest in sports. E-portfolio: http://www.visualcv.com/pq6b4n4

Tina Freeman shares tips for crisis management. She has a solid business background and will seek a public relations job for a company or agency after July. E-portfolio: http://www.visualcv.com/pqwiqop

Jacob Rogers takes a position on the stakeholder debate between people who wanted the Matthew Knight Arena and people who resent the taxpayer portion of the investment. Jacob is double majoring in public relations and economics and has minors in business and mathematics. He is looking for a job in June that will enable him to combine his strengths. E-portfolio: https://jacobrogers21.wordpress.com

Best wishes to my class as they enjoy spring break and start spring quarter in a week.

By the way, feel free to follow my Twitter list of University of Oregon public relations students and alumni.

And I want to give a shout out to Sarah Sullivan, James Watkins and Jesse Davis for finding out about the AP Style change from e-mail to email before I did! It was great finding out from the three of you. Way to stay up on PR news via Twitter!

Here is what my week looks like outside of teaching classes and grading:

• Wrapping up a review of a few chapters of Shannon Bowen’s new public relations textbook. When a textbook is written, professors review chapters and offer the writer feedback before the textbook is published. Shannon’s textbook has an emphasis on ethics, in addition to business terminology and research.
• Finalizing the research design for a PR pedagogy study with doctoral student Katie Stansberry.
• Debriefing focus group experience with an honors college thesis student and checking in with two other honors college thesis students on their research projects.
• Attending a webinar by the Plank Center about how to teach public relations ethics.
• Checking in with the account supervisor for a team I’m advising for our student-run public relations agency.
• Meeting with graduate student Kevin Brett to discuss survey questions for a social media ethics study we’re conducting.
• Attending Dean Tim Gleason’s party for graduate students and their advisors.
• Meeting with a graduate student to discuss summer public relations internships in the San Francisco Bay area.
• Writing a letter of recommendation.
• Scheduling the last interview for a revision I’m working on for a study submitted to a public relations journal.
• Completing a revision for another study submitted to a public relations journal.

Public relations educators and students, feel free to share your plans for next week.

Social Media Education Trend

Out: Requiring students to sign up for various social media accounts (e.g., Twitter, delicious, PR Open Mic, LinkedIn) and jump through required hoops for participation (e.g., friend this many people, tweet this many times).

In: Designing a flexible assignment that enables students to create their own social media plans.

Inspired by Karen Russell’s experiment, Donna Davis, Kelli Matthews and I decided to try something new in our J452 classes this winter: a choose your own adventure PR plan.

This project enables students to choose the learning activities that would be most meaningful to them. My version of the project is below. Educators, students and practitioners, your feedback and ideas are welcome. As with any first assignment, I’m confident that opportunities for improvement will be discovered as we go.

Personal Public Relations Plan and Report
You will create and implement a personal public relations plan that is tailored to your interests and then update the plan by putting it in the past tense and by reporting your results at the end of the quarter.

You will never be required to publicly participate on the Internet in our class. You can design private goals if you would like. Feel free to see me for help.

You only need to write one of each item, provided that your plan takes on a meaningful amount of growth. You will likely have multiple items in at least some of the areas.

The plan has to include at least one social media component, and it can include offline components as well.

Goals
The goal is a generalized statement that begins with the word “to.”

In the goal area, state what you would like to achieve.

Objectives
Each objective must reflect the following guidelines:

• Specify one outcome (only tackle one outcome at a time)

• Be measurable (will you realistically be able to measure the objective you have written when you get to the evaluation component of this plan?)

• Be obtainable and a meaningful achievement

• Refer to what will be done rather than how it will be done

• Include a date by which the objective will be accomplished

The deadlines for your objectives can be any time between March 3 and four months after your graduation.

Strategies
Your strategies broadly explain how you plan to accomplish your objectives.

Tactics
The tactics explain the details of the strategies. Depending on your plan, you might want to consider these items:

• delicious (enables you to save useful blog posts for quick reference prior to a job interview and as an employee, helps you position yourself as a content expert because you can quickly reference information on the topics important to you, helps you compensate for areas you don’t know as well by saving information you expect you’ll need as an employee)
• Google Alert (notifies you of when your name is mentioned on the Internet, so you can listen and respond when people write about you)

• Google Reader (allows you to subscribe to potential employers and thought leaders in PR, including experts in your area of specialization, and engage with them in conversation)

• LinkedIn (expands your digital footprint, enables you to see if you have indirect connections to people you want to work for, so you can leverage your connections)

• Twitter (expands your digital footprint, helps you position yourself as a content expert by listening to others and by tweeting regularly on a particular subject, allows you to network with potential employers by engaging in conversations with them and retweeting some of their tweets and blog posts, also helps you network by participating in relevant hashtags and live chats – specify which ones if you use this in your plan)

• Blog posts (expands your digital footprint, helps you position yourself as a content expert by blogging regularly about a particular subject)

• Blog comments (expands your digital footprint, drives traffic to your blog, enables you to network with industry leaders and potential employers)

We will cover these tactics prior to the deadline for the public relations plan.

Evaluation
Your evaluation section will address how you will measure whether you have achieved each objective.

If you set deadlines in your objectives that go longer than this quarter, include a section for short-term assessments that will be made by March 3.

Example: Personal Public Relations Plan

Goal (Loosely stated outcome)
To develop a specialization in conflict resolution.

Objectives (How you will measure your achievement of the outcome)
To write five blog posts about conflict resolution by March 3, 2011.
(This is an example of an output measurement because it’s a physical result.)

To give a presentation about conflict resolution by March 14, 2011.
(This is an example of an output measurement because it’s a physical result.)

For myself to believe that I have a solid understanding of conflict resolution by March 14, 2011.
(HT to Kelli for the outtake example. As Katie Paine explains in her “Measuring Public Relationships” book, an outtake is “how people think as a result of experiencing the outputs” (p. 3). An outcome measurement would be a behavioral result, such as having your resume personally delivered to HR by someone in the organization where you want to work.)

Strategies (How to achieve the objectives)
Conduct primary and secondary research about conflict resolution.

Tactics (Details for the strategies)
Read chapters from “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In” by Fisher, Ury and Patton.

Read chapters from “Start With No: The Negotiating Tools That the Pros Don’t Want You to Know,” by Camp.

Read the chapter titled “Public Relations, Conflict Resolution, and Mediation” by Plowman in the book titled “The Future of Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management” (pp. 85-102, edited by Toth).

Read “Hot Waste in Utah: Conflict in the Public Arena,” by Plowman in the academic journal titled “Journal of Public Relations Research” (volume 20, number four).

Interview a public relations practitioner who has experience with negotiating conflict.

Monitor the #conflict hashtag on Twitter at least weekly to identify cases to write about.

Read The New York Times and Drudge at least weekly to identify cases to write about.

Evaluation (How to measure whether you achieved your objectives)
This plan will be assessed by seeing whether I have written five blog posts about conflict resolution and whether I have delivered a presentation about conflict resolution. In addition, I will reflect about the extent to which I believe I have a solid understanding of conflict resolution.

This is just one example; feel free to design a different plan. Below are some other examples of goals:

• To position myself online as a public relations practitioner with a specialization in conflict resolution. This example is more focused on a branded digital footprint than the example used previously.

• To position myself for a public relations internship at an agency in the Northwest on the public affairs team. This type of goal could be measured in various ways, so the objective could be something like “To obtain two job interviews with Northwest agencies by May 1, 2011.” The strategies and tactics sections would then be more traditional than the example I wrote out.

Personal Public Relations Plan: Points and Deadlines
The plan is worth 10 points and is due on Thursday, Jan. 27. Type your plan in black 12-point font on a high-quality print setting.

Grading Criteria for Personal Public Relations Plan

• How is the writing quality? Check grammar, punctuation, spelling, brevity and AP Style. I’ll follow the quantitative rubric in the syllabus.
• Are the goals, objectives, strategies, tactics and evaluation developed according to the rules presented in this description?
• Are the objectives meaningful and achievable?
• Is there at least one social media component?

Personal Public Relations Plan Report: Points and Deadlines
The report (including implementation) is worth five points and is due at the beginning of your week 10 meeting with me.

Grading Criteria for Personal Public Relations Plan Report

• How is the writing quality? Check grammar, punctuation, spelling, brevity and AP Style. I’ll follow the quantitative rubric in the syllabus.
• Are the goals, objectives, strategies, tactics and evaluation still developed according to the rules presented in this handout?
• Is the writing tense correct for the report?
• Were the objectives achieved? The objectives need to be achieved for a perfect score.

You’re eligible if you read a politician’s blog, corporate blogs or nonprofit blogs at least monthly.

Corporate blog survey:https://oregon.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_b321IkqCEuiLwP2

Nonprofit blog survey: https://oregon.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8H5lDJ9gb4NYZ1y

Politician’s blog survey: https://oregon.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1yJ77Eh18FEliGo

Completing one or more would be a significant help to us. Thank you so much!

On Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010, news organizations announced the leak of 251,287 classified diplomatic cables. These diplomatic documents, also referred to as cables, represent a sampling of the everyday communication between the State Department and 270 embassies and consulates.

These cables contain damaging information, such as the following:

• Criticism offered by U.S. commanders, the Afghan president and local officials in Helmand of England’s military efforts in Afghanistan.
• Alleged corruption when local officials in the United Arab Emirates found that Afghanistan’s vice president was carrying $52 million in cash.
• Allegations that China’s Politburo hired hackers to sabotage Google’s system in China.

This is a small sample of the significant secrets that were revealed yesterday. The cables also include frankly worded messages, such as the cable in which Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (depicted as “pale and hesitant”) is labeled as playing “Robin” to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is called the “Batman” in the relationship.

These cables were allegedly leaked by a low-level Army intelligence analyst to WikiLeaks, an organization designed to share official secrets. WikiLeaks publishes original source material, along with news analysis, to bring greater transparency to the world. WikiLeaks shared the illegally obtained cables with five publications: The New York Times, London’s The Guardian, Germany’s Der Spiegel, Spain’s El País, and France’s Le Monde. Each news source has been instructed to release the cables in timed stages, which WikiLeaks has organized by country or topic. This slow-drip method will keep the cables in the news for a long time.

The Public Relations Response
White House officials learned about the leaks in advance when The New York Times contacted them, shared the information the newspaper planned to reveal and asked for any statements that appeared to put lives at risk. The newspaper complied with some of the White House’s requests and shared the administration’s requests with other news organizations, as well as its own decisions about what to exclude.

With advance knowledge of the leak, U.S. ambassadors were warned and instructed to talk with their contacts about what to expect before the information comes out. It’s a smart move to get ahead of a story and to prioritize publics when doing so. As developed by Grunig and Hunt and discussed by Brad Rawlins, publics with functional linkages to an organization have high priority. A functional linkage means that a public provides input or output to the organization.

Thus, U.S. ambassadors, diplomats and intelligence operatives should be among the first to know about the leaks, and they should have the ability to talk with their contacts about the stories before they appear. There is an excellent example of part of an ambassador’s statement on The New York Times’ blog (scroll down to the statement by Cameron Munter, America’s new ambassador to Pakistan).

Crisis in the Relationship With Ambassadors
One of the many consequences of the leak is the damage to the United States’ relationship with its ambassadors, diplomats and intelligence operatives: Will future cables be safe from leaks? How can ambassadors convince contacts to trust them when there is a breakdown in trust between ambassadors and the U.S.?

Trust is based on perceptions of competence and promise keeping (see Hon & Grunig). The government will need to communicate the effectiveness of efforts to fix the security breach. It will also need to make promises to the diplomatic community and keep those promises to gradually rebuild trust. Cultivating personal relationships can also play a vital role in repairing trust.