Teaching PR

Aside from teaching classes (these are some of the students from my Campaigns class celebrating the public support they helped drum up for OneAthens last night), we faculty have other responsibilities. For me that includes research, graduate student advising, and such public service as organizing the Connect conference. It's a busier life than you might think.

The great part about it, though, is that we have a lot of flexibility in choosing how we want to spend our time. I chose OneAthens as a client. I get to choose who gets invited to Connect. I decide which projects are interesting and worthy of research. So work becomes a labor of love.

I know some other PR educators who feel the same way. From my aggregator today alone, check out PR Open Mic, Robert French's new social network for PR educators and students, and Behind the Spin, Richard Bailey's online magazine for students and young professionals (be sure to check the editorial calendar, too). It strikes me that collaborative media are allowing us PR educators to teach people outside our schools, and to do a bit of learning ourselves.

Labels: campaigns, education, public relations, students

This semester marks the fifth time I've taught PR Campaigns, and I've gone and made it the most challenging yet. I have 20 students (not including the 5 working on the Bateman competition team) all working on a single project, Partners for a Prosperous Athens/OneAthens. The client is an ambitious, grassroots attempt to solve the horrendous poverty problem here in the home of the state's flagship university.

The class met with representatives of the client, which is a coalition convened by local government, business, school system, university, and other officials. Thousands of volunteers have contributed in one way or another over the past two years. They've conducted research on the issues, identified problem areas, and made 155 recommendations, which were combined into 10 initiatives, for which implementation plans have been made. Now it's time to stop talking and start doing. The client wants our class to help publicize and explain the implementation strategies and to build public support for the intiatives. The plan pushes hot buttons in just about every area you can think of, but I think there is general support for the idea that something must be done.

On Tuesday the class is going to divide into 4-5 teams to do a couple of weeks' research on the initiatives and implementation plan so we can figure out how to explain and build support for the complicated plan in our very diverse community. I have confidence that my students are up to the challenge, which is good because failure is not an option!

Labels: campaigns, classes, clients, students

This morning my second Campaigns team made its presentation on a campaign for the American Cancer Society's new University of Georgia chapter of Colleges Against Cancer.

Three of their most visible projects were revamping the Web site, creating a Facebook group, and interviewing Katherine Richt -- mom, water girl, and wife of UGA's football coach -- about her experience with cancer. A PSA recorded after the interview is posted on the Web site and on YouTube. They also set up a detailed plan for next year's Great American Smokeout. I hope the chapter decides to use it.

I think it's safe to say the team learned a lot this semester, but not in the ways they probably expected before the semester started. Working in a team, working with a client, dealing with change in the midst of their project -- all things they'll definitely need to know while working in PR!

Labels: campaigns, classes, public relations, social media, students

The Connect conference client presentation I mentioned last week is available now on SlideShare. My students used Josh Hallett's Flickr photos as the background and used the slides for their PR Campaigns class presentation.

Labels: campaigns, classes, client pitch, conference, public relations, students

Just finished my first meeting with UGA's team for the 2008 Bateman Case Study Competition. The client this year is Chevrolet/Safe Kids Buckle Up.

The team members are: Ashley Beebe, Jarek Beem, Abby Blaylock, Audrey Califf, and Sydney Carroll.


This team has big shoes to fill. I won't be writing about them because it is, after all, a competition; but we'll be working hard. Stay tuned.

Labels: Bateman, campaigns, students

The Web site for Connect: Public relations and social media conference is up and running, and we're ready to accept registrations. The conference will be held Oct. 19-20 in Athens.

My Campaigns students came up with the name and designed the logo, worked with Grady staff on the Web site and registration process, and are now working on getting the word out. They're also conducting a survey about current knowledge and interest in various forms of social media, so do 'em a favor and take 5 minutes to fill one out.

Labels: campaigns, conference, public relations, social media, students

My spring 2007 Campaigns team for the UGA Department of Intercultural Affairs will be pleased to learn that all the faculty received in their mailboxes today a calendar of events for the year--with that troublesome logo and "I Am Intercultural" theme front and center. Lauren, Christy, Jamie, Charlotte, Mezelle, Allie and Kerri: all that hard work is finally paying off!

Labels: campaigns, diversity

It's the first day of classes, and I'm meeting with the Campaigns students for the first time later this morning. I've got two clients lined up: the American Cancer Society, which is creating a Colleges Against Cancer chapter at UGA -- I've posted on the success of the annual Relay for Life twice before, but this new chapter will promote education more extensively -- and Grady's PR and social media conference I've been promoting.

I will be asking the students to integrate a number of social media tactics in their campaigns, so I'm hoping you'll be seeing their work soon.

Labels: campaigns, classes, social media

On Monday, my third team presented to their client, the UGA Department of Intercultural Affairs. This client presented quite a challenge in that they asked the team to come up with a way to get more students, especially white students, involved in ICA events. The team struggled at times -- among other things they had to completely redesign their logo after both the client and a student focus group disliked their first attempt -- but came on strong at the end. The client liked not only the new logo, but also the 3-day event the team planned and their theme, "I Am Intercultural," which points out that everyone is intercultural in some way and therefore can and should be involved in ICA events.

Anyone who knows me knows that diversity is an issue near and dear to my heart, so I really wanted the team to come up with something the department would want to use. And they did. Great job, ICA team!

You can also read what Charlotte and Mezelle had to say about it.

Labels: campaigns, diversity, students

Yesterday the Athens Symphony team made their presentation to the client. This team did not always click, but they pulled it together in the end, and the client was definitely pleased with their work. The conductor, assistant conductor, and a board member all e-mailed me today to thank the students for their work.

Read what John, Kelly, and another student have to say about their experiences.

Labels: campaigns, students, teaching

PR Campaigns is a tough class to teach. All semester the students work on preparing a plan for their clients, but the April deadline seems awfully far away when they start working in January. It seems like I spend most of my time with the teams telling them how much more work they have to do, and how they better get on it or they won't get done in time. Then April arrives and they go bonkers, spending hours and days and even all-nighters in the PR Lab to get ready for the client presentation.

Yesterday the Home Depot Foundation team presented, and they did a great job. The client called their work "very professional" and went to work right away on one of their suggestions, setting up an internship program through the Grady College. It's a lot of hard work, but at least in this class there's a payoff at the end.

Here are some of the students' thoughts: Nikki, J.L.C., Elyse, Whitney, and the one that still has me laughing, Nicole.

Labels: campaigns, students, teaching

Last week I confirmed with the second client for next semester's PR Campaigns class: I have seven graduate students enrolled so I have decided to challenge them with working on the always controversial issue of intercultural communications. The team will work with UGA's Office of Intercultural Affairs to develop a campaign along the line of this one from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (my alma mater) and this one from the University of Michigan (not my alma mater, but vastly preferred over Ohio State when it comes to football).

I came across the two campaigns in my research for UGA's Task Force on Graduate Education -- I am chairing the Inclusiveness work group -- during the benchmarking phase of our work. I can't wait to see what my students come up with.

Labels: campaigns, students

Today I had a meeting with the first of next semester's three (plus the Bateman team) Campaigns class clients, the Athens Symphony Orchestra. It's a volunteer group, does six performances a year, and recently added a chorus. They've been around for almost 30 years, and I've been in Athens for 14, but I knew next to nothing about them--making them, of course, a perfect candidate for the class. The students will be involved with recruitment (members for both the orchestra and the chorus), fundraising, media relations, and whatever else comes up in the research phase.

Client choice is one of my favorite things about Campaigns. Local organizations and UGA departments pretty much line up to participate, and I get to choose whatever interests me and will benefit the students. In the past I've chosen two clients with competing teams on each account, but I decided to go with three this year as an experiment. It will undoubtedly be more work for me, but since I have a personal interest in the ones I choose, it should be fun.

Labels: campaigns, teaching