Halloween is a very special time of year because it means Disney’s Hocus Pocus is on television and even as adults, we can dress up and be something else for one day. There is one thing most people probably don’t know: we can learn a lot about public relations from Halloween. Have a Plan – An Affordable One No one wants to be caught without a plan. That’s why most Halloween lovers plan their costumes weeks in advance. Public relations is the same—never be without a plan. When developing a campaign, it is important to keep in mind the campaign’s outcome objectives and the tactics to accomplish these objectives. However, to get the perfect costume, one must research the character. Same goes for the organization a PR professional is developing a campaign for. Research must be done in order to understand the mechanics of the organization to develop strategies and goals. Lastly, no one enjoys spending huge sums of money. In public relations, there’s a budget and the goal is to stay under budget. However, nothing says that good materials and resources have to be expensive. A PR professional must make people notice them and stay in budget, just like a Halloween costume. Go Big for High Rewards and Be Original Halloween costumes that are original and different are the ones that are noticed. When a public relations campaign is original and different it is heavily talked about and noticed by the public. When trick-or-treating, to get the most candy trick-or-treaters will invest a lot of time and effort into walking from house to house to get the most candy. In public relations, the goal is to put in time and effort to get the most attention from the public immediately. Halloween is a fun time of year; be safe and remember public relations is everywhere. Edited by Katharina Elberti, Webmaster and Editor-in-Chief 2014-2015
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It’s no surprise that Hillary Clinton is back in the public eye. Her June book tour promoting her memoir, Hard Choices, was a prime opportunity for the former US Secretary of State to reflect on her past four years while simultaneously building her presence for the 2016 election. While Clinton vocally remains consistent in her “unsure” stance on running for presidency, her strategic social media actions lead the public to believe otherwise. Clinton has learned from past mistakes in her PR tactics. In 2008 when Clinton ran for the US Democratic nomination against Barack Obama her intelligence and accomplishments were overshadowed by Obama’s larger-than-life attitude. Clinton not only had very little presence on social media, but her personality failed to reach behind the computer screen, leaving the public to view her as cold and impersonal. It was in 2012 when Clinton started to use the media attention and accessibility to her advantage. A photo snapped of an unamused Hillary sitting on a military airplane with blackberry in hand, became the inspiration for the infamous blog posts “Texts From Hillary.” The creators used the photo to impose amusing text conversations between Clinton and figures in both politics and pop culture. Instead of ignoring the trending joke, Clinton invited the two-blog creators for a group shot of everyone recreating the famous pose. This was simply the start of Hillary’s media plan. While using Twitter frequently through the US State Department, Clinton officially joined Twitter in June 2013. This personal appeal to the public is written all over Clinton’s Twitter feed. As any smart politician would do, many of Clinton’s tweets are about policy or her personal charities. The Clinton Foundation’s Full Participation project is often tweeted about and started the popular hashtag “#noceilings”. More importantly Clinton is able to portray herself as the average 67-year-old simply excited over the possibility of grandchildren. This humanization of Clinton is directly combatting the faults in her last campaign. Now, with Clinton’s book tour wrapping up, she is putting herself back into the spotlight and is putting her name in more places than just bookstore shelves. This trail of cities reaching across the states proves to be reminiscent of a non-stop campaign trail. As Clinton’s book focuses on her time in the State Department the tour proves a great opportunity to discuss her thoughts on policies without opposition or pressure from the opposing party. While this opportunity is certainly skyrocketing Clinton into the favorite for the 2016 presidential campaign it hasn’t been seamless. In an interview with Diane Sawyer Clinton spoke about the family’s finances after leaving the White House in 2000. Clinton’s comment that the family was “not only dead broke but in debt” caused Clinton to be a trending topic once again. Cynical tweeters chose to trade in the once empowering hashtags connected to Clinton for photographs of the family’s elaborate estate and glamorous parties with the simple description “#wewerebroke.” Political affiliations aside, it is safe to say that any trace of doubt in the probability of Clinton running for office is offset by the certainty of her social media finesse. Who knows, maybe Hillary has a different career goal up her sleeve… Edited by Katharina Elberti, Webmaster and Editor-in-Chief 2014-2015 |
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