Lee Anne’s Weblog

Archive for November 26th, 2008

Is it bad to do 3 blog posts in one day? Anyways, I forgot to talk about this PR example in class this semester, so I figured I would blog about it 🙂

Every year, my high school, J.L. Mann, in Greenville, has a spirit week in competition with its rival-Greenville High. We work all week long with activities such as car washes, class competitions, concerts, carnivals, date auctions, senior slaves, you name it. The most we have ever raised in one week was $123,000 for different charities.

This year was different.

The charity that J.L. Mann decided to give its money to was Habitat for Humanity. The students of J.L. Mann would take all of the money raised and build houses in honor of four Mann grads who lost their lives last year–three of which were involved in the Ocean Isle Fire, the other in a tragic accident in Columbia.

In order to make this public, J.L. Mann conducted a website called Jettzone.com. JETT stands for the four people who lost their lives–Justin, Emily, Travis, and Taylor. Donations were available online through the website. Anyone could donate by the click of a button. President Jimmy Carter even sponsored the event and wrote a letter saying how proud he was of how the school was handling such a loss and putting it to good use.

J.L. Mann ended up raising an outstanding $340,000–in ONE WEEK. The whole community really came together to show their love and support. Students will be able to build about 6 houses in honor of the four students who were so greatly loved and who had such an impact in the community.

Jettzone.com was an excellent example of PR.  The website really got the word out about the spirit week events, how to donate, and what the charity was in honor of. Jimmy Carter’s note was also extremely moving. It is amazing how in one week, a school and community can come together and raise such an enormous amount of money.

I spoke with the treasurer of the school who stated, “It was crazy how nothing mattered this week-tests, homework, quizzes. All that mattered was our school, coming together to raise money for four amazing people who we all loved so much, that were lost. We all worked so hard together and accomplished so much more than we ever thought.” –Senior treasurer, Danielle Meyers

Before taking the Public Relations Principles class at Clemson University, I really did not reazlie how many examples of PR there are around us.  We were only required to find three in the semester, but I could have talked about many, many more!

After browsing through other blogs by students in my class, I began remembering what everyone talked about in class.  There were examples from television commercials, online databases, face to face, brochures, magazine articles, and the list goes on.

It is so funny how now that I am a little more experienced in the field of PR, I notice things.  Whenever I experience a form of public relations, I automatically think, “Dr. V. would love this!.” Am I crazy?

While browsing through PROpen mic, which I am becoming addicted to, I stumbled upon a blog post entitled PR students: everything you need to know. This was extremely eye catching, as I am a PR student still trying to learn everything there is about social media and PR, so I decided to check it out. On this post by Darryl Ohrt, I found a link to results that Twitter buddy Brad Ward found about advice people would give college students in PR, in 140 characters or less, on Twitter. The results were astounding!

Some key points that people tweeted about:

  • Always understand your audience and goals before discussing strategy/tactics. –DJLitten
  • Tell people the whole truth. Half-truths may make for warm-fuzzy PR, but the public will see through it. The e-public isn’t stupid–Bruingeek
  • Learn to write. Don’t get into PR for the parties … it’s about preparation and perspiration. Love what you do, do what you love.–TimeNekritz

It is so amazing to me to find out about the kidns of advice people give PR students. I feel as though I learn more and more about social media and ways to get involved!


November 2008
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