Greek Life Podcast

Here is a podcast a friend of mine, Carly Willis and I made in order to acknowledge and dismiss the stigma's of joining Greek Communities on college campuses. Like I had said about my experience with joining a sorority, it has enhanced my marketability.




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Marketing Yourself: Establishing an Image

A category of Public Relations that one may forget, is marketing yourself. Especially with social media sites, you are constantly putting yourself out there. This entail who you are, what you stand for, and why wouldn't you want to put your best foot first!

Something that I strive to showcase is my love of being involved. This in itself is marketing who I am. On my college campus I am involved in many student organizations. I am the Director of Chapter Events for my sorority Alpha Phi and a campus tour guide for the Future Alumni Network. I am currently working through the AmeriCore program where I have committed to 300 hours of community service. This semester I have logged hours by tutoring preschoolers at Community Action Headstart. I am also volunteering at two camps this summer. One is KYEA, a leadership program for high school students with disabilities. This will also be the third year that I will volunteer at Camp Quality Kansas, a camp for kids ages 5-17 who have, or have had cancer. I am also heavily involved with my school's Leadership Institute. This past semester I served as the PALS coordinator, where I rebuilt a peer-based mentoring program within the Institute. This next semester I will be in charge of planning the Institute's fall and spring orientations, bringing new and current students together to kick off the fall and spring semesters. This summer I will also be a Summer Orientation Councilor for incoming students at my University.

This may seem like a lot, and that's because it is. I am a very busy girl, but the connections I am making now I know will last me a lifetime and really help me grow into the person and professional I am striving to be. By being so involved I have had many different opportunities present themselves.

By choosing to be in a sorority, I am constantly surrounded by young women who only want to see me accomplish great things and who are motivated themselves. They are a support system and have pushed me to get involved with things that will allow me to grow. This has really helped me be able to meet people all across campus and network as well.

This year I was lucky enough  to attend a visit to Hutchinson Correctional Facility, a high maximum prison, to see first handedly how they operate. While there, I met their PR representative and I had the chance to see how everything really does need good PR in a professional environment.
I also had the amazing opportunity of being selected to go on a Leadership Exchange to New Orleans. It was here where I truly discovered that PR was something I wanted to do. I had the chance to meet new people from half-way across the country and hear their insight on various topics. I really was establishing new friendships all while creating a larger network. 

I hope you can see the direct correlation between getting involved and how this can help you to establish your own "brand." By having many different experiences I can easily relate to a wider spectrum- which hopefully will be marketable to future employers- and establish connections with people on a broader scale-literally across the country. Having such experiences and taking them as learning experiences, I truly am growing all while establishing an image for myself.

Get Out There!

There are always events taking place wherever you may be located that want to educate others on the ways they can get their name out there. Many cities have local organizations for professionals to come together and learn from others to enhance their own careers. This is especially vital in gaining good PR. Every business should want to get their name out there and highlight the positive things their working on.

I'm from Kansas City so one of the many local organizations is SMPS, or the Society for Marketing Professional Services. They are constantly holding events to get their community businesses involved.

The SMPS try to hold monthly luncheons to allow local organizations and companies learn of the opportunities they could take part in. In June, they will hosting another luncheon about a hot topic in the metro, KCTranist. Here they will discuss local initiatives, project and funding updates and how variosus firms can be involved. This is a great opportunity for people to network and be apart of something that will take place in the future, all while getting their name out there: building up their PR.  This luncheon is being held at the Brio restaurant on the Plaza. Here is a map:




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If you are interested in such an event, or other events the SMPSKC is hosting, be sure to check out their website. http://www.smpskc.org/

Sharing is Caring

It truly is amazing to me just how far we have come in such a short time in the media worlds. I can honestly say I barely remember the days without a computer in my household and cannot even imagine my life without the Internet! But the thing that I find so incredible is just how easy it has become to be constantly connected to those who really matter- and those who possibly don't as much- in your life.

With the advances with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and even YouTube, it just takes a couple clicks to see the ones you want to keep in touch with. But even with the convenience of it all, it has in itself changed the world as we once new it.

These accounts allow others to share things with all of their 'friends' or 'followers'. These shared items range anywhere from favorite places to eat a burger to new articles and links. More and more people learn headlining stories from these sites than the news itself! That is incredibly powerful, especially when think how easy it is to access such sites through computers and smart phones.

This has and will continue to have a huge impact on the Public Relations world. It is easier to get ones message out there and to the public, and if others share that information, there really is no limit to how far it can go. The best part about it too is that this is pretty much FREE advertising! Those in the Public Relations field must love this aspect along with just how one status or tweet can end up reaching numerous people. When people share the good information that PR representatives want to get out, every mention informs others and can get them  excited and involved as well.

Like I said before, this is truly powerful. So many people can be reached, so many people who I'm sure we never imagined it was possible to touch. As this grows, I cannot wait to see where this takes all of us.

Understand Public Relations Importance

Sometimes the best way to understand something is visually. I found a great video that really does a nice job of quickly summarizing what Public Relations really is. Please watch!



I hope that after watching this, you can understand just how important PR is. It isn't such a negative thing, or even lying. This is something designed for good and to showcase positivity.