UNT and the Class of 2026 - Blog 14

    Courtney Wright is a second grade teacher at Uplift Education. On Thursday, April 26, 2012 her second grade class and another took a field trip to UNT. Courtney is a UNT and NT40 alumni and asked current NT40 members to help put together a tour for her students. Administration and Athletics jumped on board and thought this idea to get the elementary kids excited about UNT was the best thing.

    The second grade tour started with a full fledged tour of Apogee Stadium lead by NT40 members and Paul Batchelder, Senior Associate AD, Marketing. The students we led through the tunnels underneath the stadium and met some of the players that were there training. Next, they were taken up to the 5th floor to overlook the stadium at the highest point on the balcony. They were given a tour of the President’s Suite and the club level as well. They were so excited to see how the rooms transformed in order to host a press conference.


    The students were then taken to the main entry level of the stadium stands and were walking to the field when they spotted UNT’s beloved mascot, Scrappy the eagle. The second grade students took off running toward Scrappy hugging and jumping all over him. The alumni, current students and faculty in attendance fell silent with a proud smile on their face when the chorus of the song made it to them. The second graders were singing the UNT fight song with all their might and the UNT spirit was strong in them. 


    “Visiting UNT with my kids was so much fun. Watching them run to Scrappy while screaming the fight song, having a picnic on the football field and a shopping spree in the bookstore all made this an amazing day. Or as one of my kids said, ‘Today was the best day of my life.’ Love the Mean Green and my Mean Green class of 2026” said Courtney Wright.

    The second graders were able to have a picnic on the field with Scrappy and some of the athletic staff. They then were shown around the main campus and were able to see a real college classroom. The students were beyond thrilled and hyper to get to the bookstore and have their parents buy UNT swag for them. 

    “We should do this with all of our alums that are teachers,” said Paul Batchelder. “If we can get the kids out there growing up loving UNT then we would be in far better shape. These kids that live around here should grow up with the spirit of UNT and not the other Texas schools such as UT.”

    The tour was from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm on Thursday and took administration and athletics three weeks to prepare everything. This was the best example of PR that I have seen from UNT. It is not enough to just rely on the current students to tell their friends about UNT but for them to take the time and reach out to the surrounding schools was smart. And as Paul said, it is important to start them young so that they grow up loving UNT and when it comes time to apply they apply here at the school they grew up cheering for.

You're Your Own PR Person - Blog 10

    What part of your personal life is private when it is posted to the web? At what part does the judgement start when you’re interviewing for a job? When do you turn on the charm and sell yourself? These are some of the questions that are commonly on the minds of college students who are looking for a job.

    Over the course of my three years in college I have learned the answers to these questions. I never really understood at the beginning when my parents didn’t like the idea of me posting a lot of personal information on myspace, Facebook and other social media sites. Now though I completely understand. No matter if the posts are deleted they are there forever. Anything I put out on the web is subject to be seen when I’m applying for jobs. Nothing is private any more when it is on the web. And that means whatever I put out there when I was 16 reflects on me now as a college senior applying for internships.

    That brings me to the second question. We all wonder when do they start judging us for the job. I have had the opportunities to listen to professionals come and speak to us in many classes. They all agree that judgement starts a good time before the interview. Whether it is when you drive on the grounds or walk into the building. Personally from my experience the best answer would be that is starts from the very moment you send in your resume. They judge you on that and go and look you up in LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. They will know so much about you before you even walk in the door.  This can really hurt some of us because some students don’t see the need to present themselves professionally online when it is supposed to be social.

    I have heard from professionals that if the person doesn’t look good online then they don’t hire that person. This means that we are making an impression at all times. It is not only important to charm the boss when you are in the interview but they are always watching and it is important to be on your best behavior all the time. We are our own personal PR. Anything I do is subject to grounds of how people see me. This is not only true for PR students wishing to go into public relations but true for every person. We are the best marketers of yourselves. We need to make sure that we are always presenting ourselves professionally.

    I feel that as a PR student I have the upper hand because we are taught to please the client and present things to the public appropriately and effectively. I can take all that I have learned for how to handle a client and apply it to my every day life when wanting to present myself to the public. I am glad that PR has taught me that it’s not just for clients but for myself as well.

Komen Gets Fired At About Promotional Firearms - Blog 3

Susan G. Komen doesn’t seem to be able to catch a break. Earlier this week they came out and said they would not be giving money to Planned Parenthood due to a policy that denies money to be given to groups under investigation. However, at the end of the week Komen decided to continue giving Planned Parenthood the grant after rewording the policy. There are many people firing at Komen for these decisions and to top it off the NPO is also rumored to be partnered with a pink handgun campaign.

This week has been a PR nightmare for the communications people of the non-profit. The founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen, Nancy Brinker, released a statement trying to clear up the confusion as to why Planned Parenthood was receiving funding from them. Their Twitter and Facebook accounts are flooded with people from both sides expressing their opinions and concerns. It was all a roar on every social media site and it only got louder when they announced that they reversed the decision and will continue said funding.

Their PR manager must not be sleeping. From a PR standpoint I commend them for replying to every negative and positive remark posted. But, the Twitter page seems to be a regurgitation of the same thing. “Please read our latest statement” is one of the two responses that is repeated for a reply. Personally I think it looks bad that Komen has been so wishy-washy in their decisions. I feel that this reflects poorly on them. No matter my opinion on their decision to fund or not fund PP I believe that changing their minds, twice, lowers their credibility. In class we have been taught how important credibility is for any company. The last thing we want to clean up as PR practitioners is a credibility crisis. They should have stood by a decision. They made it very clear they would not be funding PP because of the investigation, but then came back around and changed the policy and went back to funding PP. It is this indecisiveness that reflects poorly on them. (Official statement.)

The backlash does not stop there though. While trying to handle the negative results of their decisions regarding funding they are also trying to handle the accusations of a partnership with Discount Gun Sales to promote a special edition pink gun for breast cancer awareness month. Discount Gun Sales was forced to take town their website with the gun, but I was able to get this link to a story about it. Right now on Twitter they are replying to every individual that refers to this gun company saying that “they are not an official partner of ours.”

They’ve also had to reword to say they have never been any type of partner. Yes responding to accusations of the partnership is good and providing the public with a list of official partners as well but they set themselves up for more speculations. People are paying attention to their every word and since they repeatedly assured the public that it was never an “official” partnership it left room for doubt. They had to come back and say it was never any kind of partnership but by now the damage is done. The doubt has already spread.

Like I said it has been a PR nightmare because of the fact that the rumors of the partnership were passed along fast. People are not focusing on the good that they do because there is too much talk about the funds and the promotional gun. This could have been handled better within the NPO and their PR reps should have warned them against reversing their decision. Be prepared for anything. I don’t believe Komen was prepared for this. Their image has now been changed to a cowardly mouse. No matter what side you are on for the funding you can recognize the cowardliness. It was cowardly to initially stop the funding if you believe the funding was appropriate and it was cowardly to change their mind and go back to funding. It portrays that they were easily bullied into decisions and did not want to take the heat for what they were doing but by not sticking to one decision makes both sides mad instead of just one. Their PR should have been faster in getting the gun site down and in releasing an official statement other than a tweet that the partnership was illegitimate.

This is a big mess for PR to clean up and I hope Komen and others learned from this. I know I have.

Sources:

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2012-02-02/Komen-says-Planned-Parenthood-plans-are-mischaracterized/52938458/1

https://twitter.com/komenforthecure

http://www.facebook.com/susangkomenforthecure?sk=wall&filter=12

http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=19327354148

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/03/1061310/-The-Susan-G-Komen-pink-pistol:-Perfect-for-shooting-yourself-in-the-foot