November 1, 2011
Charles Bloom: SEC Commissioner of Media Relations
Bloom gave the chapter members some very beneficial advice regarding the aspect of PR in the sports world. He opened up his speech by explaining the four things he and his team wish to accomplish every Saturday: have close intra-conference games, win all non-conference games, for officials to make all of the right calls and no injuries for the players. Bloom served as PRSSA president his senior year of college at USC and was hired at SEC in 1995. During his first few years on the job, he was heavily involved in BCS (communication and crisis management) and baseball. What does he think is most important for undergraduate students? The business environment is very competitive. You need to set yourself apart from those you are competing with. This can be done by beefing up your resumes with skill sets, action items and communication skills. You always want to make a difference! For seniors that do not have a job lined up directly following graduation: consider graduate school!
David Knight: SEC Director of Ticket OperationsKnight is a graduate from The University of Alabama, and he too served as president of his PRSSA chapter. Knight's main responsibilities deal with all game operations and event management. Along with these responsibilities, he also needs to take the PR role when it comes to crises. In his explanation of two SEC events where PR was needed, he emphasized that PR is everywhere and every professional uses it at some point in his/her career. Knight ended with advice we all can take advantage of: Mistakes are critical! Because writing skills are so important for PR professionals, each and every one of us need to take advantage of the experience we have here at UA (even though the grading seems tough at times). Knight is a living example that the hard grading and amount of writing we do in our communications school will pay off.
October 4, 2011
Stephen Bradley of Stephen Bradley & Associates, LLP
Bradley is an Alabama graduate who was also involved in PRSSA. He has gone from stuffing newspapers, covering county football games, joining the naval rescue and ultimately serving as a public affairs liason in his unit at Vietnam (his first taste of PR). Following his service in Vietnam, he worked at the Alabama Press Association in Tuscaloosa and worked for the Alabama Power Company at the height of the Wallace era. In 1995, he formed Bradley & Associates. Advice: have a good core group of people and a menu of outside sources to bring in.
Eason Balch of Balch & Bingham, LLPBalch works for a very large, older firm that employs over 1,000 people. He has been working for Balch & Bingham since 1972. During his introduction into the legal aspect of PR, he was doing whatever came his way, ranging from dealing with cross-sectional practice groups and government relations. Balch's company is basically representing two clients: the banking association and the government procta. Definition of government relations according to Balch: "developing relations with the government in order to influence official action." Advice: As a PR student, you need to grasp the concept of a business. It is not just about the logistics of PR. You need an overall knowledge of how a business works.
September 20, 2011
Matthew Reed, Public Relations and Marketing Representative for Wilbanks Agency in Birmingham
He gave members a brief idea of Wilbanks diverse clientele, as well as its services its provides. It serves clients ranging from nonprofits to fortune 500 companies. Wilbanks increases its client's profits through strategic planning, branding development, social media and public relations. Wilbanks has been generous on giving UA students internship opportunities. The company looks for new interns every semester but they are open to applications through out the year.
Meredith Lynch
A recent graduate from the UA Graduate Program, she gave members a great presentation describing her experience as an intern at the mayor's office during the April 27th tornado. The presentation started with shocking statistics from the damage by the tornado; 7,000 people were unemployed in less than 6 minutes, 51 fatalities and over 1,200 injured, over 600 businesses damaged/destroyed. Tuscaloosa had become a national and international news story. Meredith said that the mayor's office took advantage of this spotlight to let the public know that Tuscaloosa is already making an effort to rebuild the town.
At the time of the crisis, the mayor's office needed to conduct a number of media interviews, answer non-stop phone calls, relay information from the Incident Command meetings to interviews in order to keep the public informed and constantly update City of Tuscaloosa social media accounts.
Social Media became a very important media tool during the crisis. Through its account name, @TuscaloosaCity, there were up to 50 tweets during the day of the tornado, followed by constant tweets regarding the recovery several months afterward. These tweets included information regarding power outages, shelters, fatalities, water usages, volunteers, school schedule, donations and etc. Some of the other tweet accounts that were used during the crisis include @helpttown, @UA_Greek_Relief, @crimsonwhite, @AlabamaPower
Along with Twitter, Facebook also contributed to the recovery process. Pictures were posted in order to inform people around the country of what was going on in Tuscaloosa and of the progress that was being made. www.facebook.com/TuscaloosaCity: Fan Page
www.facebook.com/Tuscaloosa.Alabama: Facebook page
Interviews with the mayor, who was designated as the official spokesperson through out the crisis, were conducted through a number a news outlets: National/International news stations, local news stations and radio interviews,
Press Releases were not as pivotal as social media during the time of the tornado. Because Twitter and Facebook could lend such immediate information to the public, there were just a number of press releases sent out.
The City of Tuscaloosa is currently conducting its "Moving Forward" project in order to rebuild the city. It is a citizen driven and transparent project.