1. Social Media Can Be Your Friend!!

Technological advances in history have made jobs for PR professionals easier. We now have the ability to spark the interests more publics and reach more individuals through non-conventional publics via the Internet. PR professionals should not look at social media as a foe. When used correctly and with caution, social media has the potential to improve the quality of your organization.

2. Do a Good Job

 Just because your organization uses social media doesn’t mean it is using it the correct way. Your PR professionals should put as much effort into creating and maintaining your social media outlets as they use when doing any other work. Update your page regularly to maintain current information regarding your organization. Remember that the U.S. population is becoming increasingly computer literate, so your friend list is not the only thing that matters.

3. Be Unique

Everyone has social media sites now days. The messages your organization produces should be creative and stand outside the box. Unique messages will attract and hold your publics’ attention. Also, pay attention to the design and layout of your organizations page on a social media site. Eye catching colors, great pictures and lots of interactive graphics will keep your organizations page from becoming an online brochure.

4. Lined Up

All messages sent out through social media sites represent your organization. It is a PR professional’s responsibility to make sure that all messages agree with the purpose of their organization. If any statement made through social media isn’t in line with your organizations mission or goals, it should be seriously reconsidered. Social media should be used to increase the status of your organization and to effectively communicate with your publics. If your organization stands for one thing and expresses itself otherwise it sends out mixed signals to all of your publics.

5.  True or False

Make sure all messages coming from any social media sites are correct. Everyone is able to view information put on the Internet.  This means people will be able and most likely willing to verify all information on the site. If your organization does release erroneous information, it would be in its best interest to clarify the information as timely as possible.

Home Depot L

Home Depot is negative example of how to use social media. It doesn’t update its Facebook page very often which limits its connection with its publics. The last post referenced springtime and it is clearly summertime. Home Depot needs to maintain open communication with its publics by releasing current information about what the organization is doing.

BET’s 106 and Park

106^th and Park is a television show that uses social media very well. During each show posts from 106^th and Parks twitter account are shown. It creates a different twitter trending topic and welcomes responses from viewers every day. This creates a strong connection with viewers because they feel a part of the show.

Boys and Girls Club Volunteers

Volunteers are hard to find nowadays. The present economy has pushed people to value their time and money more seriously. People must have a great reason to give their time a way, so organizations looking for volunteers must enlighten potential candidates of “that reason”. The key to finding volunteers is finding that plausible reason within your organization.

Boys and Girls Club of America

Boys and Girls Clubs were created to provide safe, supervised activities for community children. The first club was created in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. In the beginning, the clubs were invented to provide programs for boys only. In 1990 the organization realized that girls need the same programs and decided to change its name to Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Club programs and services promote and enhance the development of boys and girls by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging and influence. Its mission is to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. In its 2009 “Philanthropy 400″ report, The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked BGCA as No. 17 among all non-profit organizations, while placing BGCA in the No. 1 position among youth organizations for the 16th consecutive year.

Master Plan

We would like to create a big brother/ big sister program within nationwide Boys and Girls clubs. Creating this program will expose club members to people in different walks of life and empower their belief in themselves. The program would include individuals ranging from High School Athletes to School Board Members. It is important to show children that you are never too young to make a difference. This program has the potential to create lifelong bonds between children and positive influences in their community.

The A Day in My Life introduction program would introduce students and their mentors. Each child would shadow their mentor during a normal business day for 3 hours. After the introduction the children and mentors meet at the Boys and Girls club for an icebreaker luncheon to discuss what they learned about each other.  A listening ear and a kind heart reassure children that someone actually cares. Mentors will be happy to share their time with their mentee after meeting them.  If the sugar coated idea of mentoring doesn’t get your volunteers all riled up, maybe free food at the luncheon will be an incentive.

Relationship

The Uses and Gratifications Theory influenced this plan in many ways. This mentorship program will only be useful if messages from the mentor and mentee are received by each other. Each party is not forced to receive any message because they can pick and choose which messages they would like to listen to.

My plan was also influenced by the Diffusion of Innovation Theory. If volunteers like the program they will tell others that might be interested in mentoring. As mentors and mentees tell their friends, the program will grow in participant and volunteer numbers.

BP's oil spill mess is getting its hands dirtier than it initially thought.

On April 20, 2010,  11 individuals lost their lives while conducting their daily routine aboard a British Petroleum oil rig. The oil rig exploded into the Gulf of Mexico and British Petroleum (BP) exploded onto the media’s permanent radar simultaneously. Sadly enough it wasn’t the individuals’ deaths that brought the enormous amount of attention to the organization, it was the oil continuously leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20 reports concluded that oil was leaking into the Gulf at 1000 barrels per day. BP has applied many different tactics while attempting to eliminate the problem but unfortunately none of them have been successful. More than two months later oil is still leaking at levels near 19,000 barrels per day. Not only is BP as an organization forced to handle a situation that has called the attention of the EPA and DHA; its Public Relations practitioners are required to practice some great crisis communications techniques.

Torn Between the Two

The ethical dilemma PR practitioners are forced to face is a true test of the values the organization holds and the loyalty it owes to its it owes to its publics. People died in this disaster so the media, government, and U.S. citizens want to havehave  answers. Due to the nature of the situation any wrong move could leave BP as a smeared franchise. BP’s PR practitioners must be very careful with how they respond to different comments and questions from the media.

Lawyers are needed when a person needs to get out of trouble. I believe that if the PR practitioners at BP acted as lawyers they would give the impression that they are hiding something and that there is more to the story than what is currently known. This would completely go against BP’s pledge of transparency it made to its publics. Journalists serve as public informants and try and give the public what it wantsit wants , the raw truth. However,  in this situation the whole truth could bring more controversy and negative attention to the circumstance than needed.

 I believe that BP’s PR practitioners should behave not as lawyers or journalists but like wise parents. Parents teach us what is right and wrong. They provide a foundation for us as individuals to grow upon. To their advantage, they always give us just enough rope to hang ourselves before they stop something bad from happening.

BP’s PR people should use the same tactics in this situation. They should let the disaster play out as researchers and government officials figure out the best solution. Give the media enough information to keep them happy and simultaneously make the organization look as if it hasit has nothing to hide.

Keeping _________ Happy…….

There is no way that PR practitioners at BP will be able to satisfy everyone. I believe the efforts that the PR people are making at this moment are the best possible in this predicament. BP has created a website dedicated to its extra space?  current actions in response to the oil spill to date. BP has pledged $500 million for research of the effects of the oil spill. It also keeps a day to day record of press releases related to the incident. If its publics want something else at this point, I think they are asking for too much.