Hope you enjoy!

No, really, all I did was Google “Dance Internships” and applied! I applied for a lot of jobs that semester and had no idea when if ever I would land anything. But I tried my best to keep hope alive. I tried my best to become a “Prisoner of Hope” as Joyce Meyers calls it. And sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. I was really depressed a lot of the time.

It was quite the interesting Spring…I started working at the movie theater, I got back into dance more, found a new church…near the middle of the semester my life finally made some type of sense since I graduated…but now God has moved! Now not only am I intern for The Yard, but I am also a Social Media Intern for baby gooroo !

Now waiting for what comes next…I’m searching but we’ll see…

This summer I have been extremely blessed for this opportunity! There have been a lot of ups as well as many challenges but all in all I’m grateful!

At The Yard I’ve gained experience in Communication Arts and in a beautiful place too! I’ve gotten to network, work with professional artists, meet professional artists/dancers and made friends along the way!

Me and Ashley Sleeth

So yep, that’s my life at the moment. There are definitely the difficulties but God gets me through them. I pray I never stray too far from Him and that He never stops moving in my life. I am blessed!

Sammii-Chan <3

What is the first thing one thinks of when they think of a Social Media News Release (SMNR)? You might think of public relations, writing or advertising; or maybe even blogging, Twitter or Facebook. That is definitely on the right track to understanding what exactly a social media news release is.

Social Media Training describes a Social Media News Release as “taking advantage of the linking, multimedia and social media capabilities of the Web to make releases more reader-friendly and useful.” RealWire describes it as “a press release format designed for the online world.”

Both are pretty good definitions in my opinion.

A SMNR is a great way to get a news/press release out there without being too dull and boring. I’m not say press releases are boring, but compared to a social media news release, to many, it may look somewhere around those lines.

SMNRs have so many advantages:

• They can have so much more than a simple photograph, print and e-mail links. SMNRs, as seen in the photo above, are filled with social connections and media. Along with photos, print and e-mail links, SMNRs can have links to desired twitter, facebook, and blog accounts. They can also include RSS feeds, graphics, music and any other type of social media or links the creator of the SMNR feels is necessary.

• Another advantage is that SMNRs are press/news releases that stay up to date with our ever-growing media and actually gives the receivers opportunities to respond, and a lot more quickly and easily (something much needed in our fast-paced world).
• Another advantage: we thrive on technology!!!! Let’s be honest, our attention span has become a lot shorter and gets even shorter as time goes by. It’s hard for a regular news release to keep our attention, at least in comparison to an SMNR.
• SMNRs are also quite cost-effective. (PittsburghSEOLady)
• SMNRs also let media-savvy audiences feel as if you understand them. A company that can use Facebook, Twitter, or create blogs like a human being can’t be all bad right? I know I am very pleased when I see that companies have Facebook and Twitter accounts, it makes the job easier for me if I want info on that company.
• Another advantage comes directly from the last advantage I mentioned: it makes it easier on the receivers/audience to get back to you.
• And last but not least (and probably not all) SMNRs give you instant access to a WIDE amount and range of people.

There aren’t too many disadvantages to SMNRs that I can really think of,

• besides the obvious fact that the person reading the SMNR will only be computer-savvy individuals. Therefore, if that is not your target audience, I wouldn’t recommend using an SMNR :OP
• MaryEllen Tribby of WorkingMomsOnly recommends to just be careful that SMNRs and social media marketing in general don’t backfire on you. A huge way to do that she says is simply dishonesty. I’ve seen it happen. Some companies make fake accounts and pretend to be their own “fans”. This won’t work. I completely agree with MaryEllen. :O]
• One other disadvantage PittsburghSEOLady points 0ut is that one, though honest, wrong advertisement (described on the site as a “foot in the mouth”) is immediately seen by an extremely large group of people.
• Though more cost effective, PittsburghSEOLady also points out that social media marketing in general is much more time-consuming than companies expect.
• Tying into this last disadvantage, is that SMNRs are not a one-shot deal like traditional news releases. It is something that needs to be constantly checked so that statuses can be updated and responses can be read.

Are you confused about when you would want/need to use an SMNR if you are a PR practitioner? Don’t be. Just look at the advantages versus the disadvantages and way them. Are you looking to access an extremely large audience quickly? Use an SMNR. Is your target audience media-savvy? If the answer is ‘no’, I wouldn’t recommend an SMNR for you or your company.

If you still need help with writing SMNRs, here are some tips I found from RushPR. This probably won’t have all the answers, but tips are always helpful.

1. Strong title – Make it short and punchy
2. Length, your release should be at least 250 words and no more than 900
3. Don’t put dates in your title.
4. Hyperlink your keywords to relevant pages/urls.
5. Put the most important information at the beginning.
6. Don’t say it, show it. Avoid saying something is “unique” or “the best”. Instead, show how people will benefit – i.e. save time, save money, make their life easier, etc.
7. Spell-check and spell-check! Do remember to proofread your press release for typographical errors before you send them out.
8. Get a quote from someone who has reviewed your product or used your services.
9. Bottom line: For more information, contact: followed by your contact information. Provide all possible contact information including mail address, telephone, fax, e-mail and web site (especially for online business).
10. Finally, you may add a boilerplate, be it a short bio or company’s profile at the end of the release. The boilerplate remains the same in all release and is typed in a smaller font. At the very least, add a “About Us” paragraph.  For corporate clients, I recommend a boilerplate, for individuals,  include a one-sentence bio.

I hope this helped! =)

Here’s another interesting video on social media marketing! Enjoy!

Online shopping and advertising have boomed recently, outdoing regular Black Friday according to marketwire. Like anything else on the internet, this is a terrific way for people to shop and get unbelievable deals without risking their lives and being outside with all the “mess”.

Here is an excerpt from the site to explain this new phenomenon:

“Delivered as part of Coremetrics, an IBM Company’s third annual Black Friday Benchmark Report, the analysis of the online retail sector reveals the following trends as of 12:00 am PST compared to Black Friday 2009 (year/year):

• Consumer Spending Increases: Online sales were up a healthy 15.9 percent, with consumers pushing the average order value (AOV) up from $170.19 to $190.80 for an increase of 12.1 percent.
• Luxury Goods Make a Comeback: Jewelry retailers reported a 17.6 percent increase in sales. These affluent shoppers appear very willing to open their wallets.
• Surgical Shopping: Consumers know what they want and where to get it. People are viewing 18.0 percent fewer products on sites than they did last year, suggesting that they are shopping with a specific item in mind and quickly moving on.
• Social Shopping: Consumers appear increasingly savvy about their favorite brands’ social presence, and are turning to their networks on social sites for information about deals and inventory levels. While the percentage of visitors arriving from social network sites is fairly small relative to all online visitors — nearly 1 percent — it is gaining momentum, with Facebook dominating the space.
• Mobile Shopping: Consumers are also embracing mobile as a shopping tool. On Black Friday, 5.6 percent of people logged onto a retailer’s site using a mobile device, a jump of 26.7 percent compared to the prior Friday.”

“On Black Friday, consumers came, they clicked and they shopped their way across the Internet, and this time, they weren’t just looking for bargains,” said John Squire, chief strategy officer, IBM Coremetrics. “Consequently, we’re watching online retail, and increasingly social media and mobile, become the growth engines for retailers everywhere as consumers embrace online shopping not only for its ease and convenience, but as a primary means of researching goods and services.”

Consider this next Black Friday!! =)

Fear not Japanese Anime Fans and Viz Media fans alike! Not many of you may have been aware, but Viz Media has experienced/implemented some “restructuring” within their company this past summer. On May 12, 2010, Viz Media released a statement that the company had made major layoffs/cuts in certain departments of their company to “refine its focus” and “adjust to financial market realities.”

According to Anime News Network, the cut resulted in up to 60 people (40% of the company’s workforce) being laid off. The public relations and design departments were among the ones affected. In Viz’s statement the company states that they are “of course saddened by the departures, and sincerely appreciate the hard work, passion and dedication to those that have moved on.”

However, despite the company’s sadness in the loss of so many employees, Viz believes this is what is best for the company. They also apologize if this change has alarmed any fans and that business lines will not be slowed or cut; so fans have nothing to worry about.

Being a pretty big fan of Viz Media (and wouldn’t mind working for them =op) myself, I am really happy to know that this will not hopefully result in affecting Viz Media’s production, fan base or sales. It also saddens me however as a student about to graduate how things like this could happen. It makes me afraid to go into the workforce, considering that is the next stage of life for me. People happily have jobs one day and the company makes a decision and they have no job the next.

I really hope that all that were cut find jobs they enjoy just as much as they hopefully enjoyed working for Viz. I also wish Viz success and hopefully such a large plan of action won’t have to be taken in the future. =o]

This chapter covered Feature writing and Op-Eds.

• “Op-Ed” means opposite of the editorial page.
• Op-ed authors are perceived as experts on the issue.
• Op-eds are exclusives.
• Features: provide additional background, generates human interest, and creates understanding in an imaginative way.

This chapter of our textbook covered fact sheets, advisories, media kits, and pitches. :OD

• E-mail pitches require good subject lines.
• Pitches should have a follow-up all of the time.
• Media kits contain a variety of materials (e.g. releases, fact sheets, and photos)
• Media Advisories a.k.a Media Alerts are letting the media know about upcoming events you want covered.
• And fact sheets are one-page backgrounders. :OP

I had to sign up for Twitter for another class a little bit and at first I thought it was extremely weird and uninteresting. But now it doesn’t seem too bad now that I’ve actually been on it for a bit.  I’m not sure how to describe it…it seems like Facebook but more professional maybe, possibly?? It seems like a lot more adult people use it perhaps? I’m not sure.

A lot more celebrities use Twitter than Facebook it seems also. And I’m not I’m not sure why that is…It might be to update fans on what’s going on. . That is unfortunate for me since I use my Facebook more than Twitter and probably still will. Um…I like it though, I suppose. I think I prefer Facebook however just because I’ve used it longer. Basically all of my friends have one, and Twitter seems like it would be just another Facebook account in a sense, and I don’t really need another Facebook account. :\ That is…unless Twitter has an aspect of it Facebook does not. And it would seem that aspect is that Twitter seems to be a lot more useful for networking.

The lingo is cute, but kind of annoying at times because I get confused. But overall, I’d say Twitter’s pretty cool and seems like more of a link to the professional world. The fact that you can meet people through fun interests too is awesome however. I’m glad that Twitter is not just black and white boring professionalism, it can be fun too. But as aforementioned, as far as networking it seems pretty awesome. I am a dancer and Communication Arts major and am able to follow Dance Companies, Audition Networks, and businesses like TokyoPop to see what’s going on and when and if they ever need interns or employees by following their tweets. In conclusion, Twitter’s cool in my book. =OD

For this week’s reading notes in my PR Writing Class, I will cover the key points that stood out to me in chapter 5 of our book, Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (6th Edition) by Dennis Wilcox.

This chapter covered writing a News Release (NR).

• There are 5 types news releases: Announcements, Spot Announcements, Reaction, Bad News and Local News.
• The difference between an e-mail NR and a print NR is that an e-mail NR isn’t double-spaced, has to be brief, and have a catchy subject line.
• News releases help achieve organizational objectives/goals, are cost effective and lead to news articles, which affect purchasing decisions. So they’re really beneficial! :O)