Save the Date: Chapter Luncheon July 9th with Christine Wright-Isak, Ph.D.

Christine Wright-Isak, Ph.D.

Dr. Wright-Isak received her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago, and then went directly to work in business, achieving national recognition as a branding and messaging expert. She began at BBDO New York helping GE manage their corporate brand, and launching the Lever 2000 brand. After five years, she moved to Young & Rubicam where she helped the U.S. Army Recruitment Command understand changing generations of warriors, lectured at the U.S. Army War College, and developed marketing communications for Colgate, DuPont, KFC, Jell-O, Dr Pepper and other brands. 

Chris served as Chief Judge of the national Advertising Effectiveness Awards (Effies) and won the Advertising Research Foundation’s highest award for advertising research excellence, the Gold Ogilvy medallion, for her work on the launch of Colgate Total toothpaste in the U.S.

Most recently Chris helped successfully reposition the Champion brand for Hanesbrands®.  In SW Florida she has provided branding guidance for numerous firms, small businesses and professional practices, including Arthrex, and the Collier County Public Schools.  She also helps community institutions and citizens groups with marketing issues, adapting “big brand” integrated marketing communications strategies for small business entrepreneurs.

Today as a professor Chris continues to consult with brand marketers while she educates business students at Florida Gulf Coast University.  “Dr. Chris” is the faculty advisor who helps returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans transition to civilian success through achieving their college degrees.  Today she will discuss “The Impact of Digital Communications on Advancing Your Brand.”

  
This event is sponsored by

 

2013 FPRA State Conference! Have You Signed Up Yet!!

We are getting closer to what is considered Florida’s # 1 Professional Development Conference for PR Professionals.  Mark your calendars for Sunday, August 4 through Wednesday, August 7, 2013 to attend conference at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club in St. Petersburg Florida.  This year celebrates the 75^th anniversary of FPRA, and will have a range of excellent speakers.  Some of the topics include optimizing digital communications, corporate social responsibility, overcoming challenges, handling challenging media situations and more.  To register for conference, visit www.fpra.org.  You are still able to register for the conference using the 'early bird' rate.  Additionally conference attendees receive a special room rate of $139 at The Vinoy if you register through the FPRA website.  Make sure you don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity.  

APR Trivia: June

Question: True or False: Questions concerning media relations represent the largest portion of questions on the written examination for Accreditation in Public Relations?

Answer: False. Media relations questions total only 5 percent of the written exam. The largest section of the test (at 30 percent) comes from the RPIE model: Researching, Planning, Implementing and Evaluating PR programs.

 

I can't live without...

Viki Moreland of Lee County Port Authority survives by turning to what we all probably consider a go-to manual in Public Relations:

"My AP Stylebook and a nifty book for any grammarphobe called 'Woe Is I'."

If you have something you can't live without, share it with chapter members by emailing:

fpra.swfl@gmail.com

Social Media Corner: The New Face of Disaster Response

In the United States alone, an average of 400 people die from disasters that also costs the economy $17.6 billion dollars. Social media is now the “go-to” tool for those that are responding to these cataclysmic events.

Online social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter often serve as breaking news roles for natural disasters. These are the first websites that mention the news and because both outlets are seen and used by millions of users, these sites help communicate the news to a large mass of people. Social media has played a large part in allowing people to ask for help, present volunteers and raise money once these disasters occur.

They ways in which social media helps in disasters are vast. Survivors use social media to contact friends to make sure they are safe, download disaster-related apps, let loved ones know they are safe themselves, buy supplies and retrieve emergency information.

Social media has a proven track record of success during natural disasters. When the tsunami hit Japan in March, 2011, Facebook recorded 4.5 million status updates from around the world. There were 1,188 tsunami-related tweets sent each minute during this time. When the earthquake hit Haiti in January, 2010, 2.3 million tweets were sent out in resulting in $3 million raised in the first 48 hours to the Red Cross. At its peak, Instagram users uploaded pictures related to Hurricane Sandy at a rate of 10 photos per second. A staff of 23 Red Cross volunteers monitored 2.5 million Sandy-related social media posts, tweets and pictures.

The results of a recent study released by the Red Cross has shown that the public is now seeing social media as an important medium to communicate with their friends, loved ones and colleagues and help seek help before, during and after an emergency situation. From locating survivors, to raising money, it is clear that social media is quickly becoming the most efficient outlet for managing disaster response.

Media Breakfast: Meet the Panel

Media Breakfast Panel

Krista Fogelsong

Krista grew up in Montana and got her start in TV as a reporter at KMOT-NBC in Minot, ND where she also attended Minot State University and received her BA in Broadcasting. In 2002 she moved to the Sunshine State and worked as the Main Anchor at FOX4 in Fort Myers for five years.  Krista moved back up North for a few years and worked as the Main Anchor in South Bend, IN where she helped start up an ABC news operation. SWFL was beckoning her back home. She is happy to be giving you the morning news for NBC2.  

Amy Tardif

Amy Tardif is the Station Manager and News Director for WGCU-FM. She’s responsible for the sound of the public radio station, is a reporter and occasionally hosts Gulf Coast Live. Her documentary Lucia’s Letter on human trafficking received a 2011 Peabody Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, among others. She serves the RTDNA (Radio Television Digital News Association) Board of Directors for which she helped write an e-book on plagiarism and fabrication.

Osvaldo Padilla 

 Osvaldo Padilla is the managing editor of Florida Weekly. A graduate of the master’s program at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, he has covered Capitol Hill for media outlets in Oregon and the Keys, and served as a reporter for WINK-TV and the News-Press. During his time at Florida Weekly, the paper has won dozens of awards including General Excellence from the Florida Press Association. 

Jean Gruss

 Jean Gruss is the editor for the Lee and Collier areas of the Business Observer, a regional publication that covers business news from Tampa to Naples. Before joining the Review in 2005, Jean was an editor with the Kiplinger business publications in Washington, D.C. Jean started his media career in 1991 with the Panama City (Fla.) News-Herald where he was business editor. From 1994 to 1999, Jean was a business writer for The Tampa Tribune.

Steve McQuilkin

Steve McQuilkin  is the New Economy and Education editor at The News-Press. Steve is on his second stint as the business editor of The News-Press, where he has also been executive metro editor, data editor and real estate editor. Steve is an investigative reporter and was on the team that recently broke the story about Hertz Global moving its world headquarters to Estero. He is also on a team investigating the Lee school district administration.

Sponsors for the Media Breakfast

Edison State College                               
Pushing the Envelope

Annual Sponsors

Lee County Electric Cooperative – Platinum Sponsorship
Shell Point Retirement Community – Platinum Sponsorship
Flame Productions – Premium Sponsorship
Owen-Ames-Kimball Co. – Deluxe Sponsorship
Charlotte Behavioral Health Care – Deluxe Sponsorship
JJ Taylor – Deluxe Sponsorship

Diary of a PR Intern

INTRODUCTION

By: Michael Clavelli

My name is Michael Clavelli and I am a senior at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) serving as Vice President of FGCU’s student chapter of FPRA. It was not until the summer of 2012 did I decide to pursue a career in public relations. Ever since then I have been working to fully immerse myself into the world of PR. 

I began my studies with the course: The Principles of Public Relations. In this course we were taught the basics of the very diverse field of PR. The curriculum covered everything from the pioneers of the PR industry to important PR tools such as press kits, press releases, the professional use of social media, campaigns and much more. Toward the end of the course we took the knowledge that we had learned from the class and applied it to a mini campaign that we were assigned to simulate. Completing this course is what really reinforced my decision that I wanted to be a public relations practitioner.

            

 During my first semester as a public relations student, a friend and I decided to join the FGCU’s Florida Public Relations Association’s student chapter. With the student chapter still on shaky ground, I wanted to become even more knowledgeable and involved with PR and become a part of the foundation and growth of FPRA’s student chapter. I was later nominated and elected as the Membership Director for our chapter.

             

Our new board was comprised of seven motivated, enthusiastic and intelligent students who, together, were able to get FGCU's student chapter up and running. As a chapter we held events and brought in PR professionals from the area to present their knowledge about PR to our members. As the Membership Director it was my job to promote the chapter and to inform our current and potential student members about upcoming activities of the chapter through class announcements, flyers, banners and tabling. I acquired a wealth of experience and knowledge from being a part of this chapter and I was able to network with professionals and PR professors at the university, who I now call mentors. Presently, I was just recently elected to be the Vice President of the upcoming year.

For the upcoming year FGCU FPRA hopes to gain further recognition from not only the FGCU student body, but also from FPRA's Southwest Florida Chapter. We will be including more of an interactive element to the chapter, such as hands-on workshops, promoting other clubs/chapters at FGCU, holding more events and running fundraisers. We plan to become more directly involved with FPRA by attending conferences and networking with professional members. We want this year to be our most successful year ever and to leave a strong foundation for our future leaders to build upon. 



If you'd like to learn more about FGCU's Student Chapter of FPRA, please contact Michael Clavelli: meclavelli7425@eagle.fgcu.edu