Just one more way to social network

I joined PROpenMic back in February, but I never took advantage of all the amazing things it has to offer until I had to write this blog post.  I found that this website is so important and useful to me because it is only open to people in the Public Relations profession.  It is open to students, faculty, and practitioners all in the field that I wold like to be a part of in a year! That's kind of scary to think about.  This website can really help me get over that fear by having a new network of PR professionals to turn to for my many questions and to find answers.  

It also is such a great way to see other PR people's opinions on everything that is going on in the world around us.  A few weeks ago I got on PROpenMic.  It was the day after the shootings at UGA.  There were so many videos and articles from so many different sources.  I could find out anything I wanted to know about the incident.  It was amazing that there was so much information of PROpenMic so fast.  It also helped me learn the whole story.  Sometimes one news source doesn't have everything.  You might have to visit a few sites to find everything you needed, but with PROpenMic, it was all right there. 

I haven't used PROpenMic much because it is so difficult to keep up with so many social networking websites.  Hopefully this summer when I'm not taking a full load of classes, I'll be able to utilize the site and learn more from it. 

PR in Action: Even where you don't know it!

                                

Public Relations exists even where people don't realize it.  When a fraternity brother on the GCSU campus broke a window at a local restaurant,  they immediately went into crisis management mode.  The night of their formal when we incident happened, the president of the fraternity along with the treasurer leapt into action to take care of the situation and their reputation in the community.  They said that they would set up a meeting the next morning to work out payment details and to assure the restaurant that something like this would never happen again.  

Although the fraternity did all they could in controlling the situation, the brother that destroyed the window would ultimately have to pay for the damage.  In order to restore the fraternity's reputation, they would shell out the money up front to pay for the damage.  The fraternity was able to take care of the problem fast and effectively.  The restaurant has even decided that the group can be invited back to use their facilities for future formals.  That would not have been possible if they didn't do such a good job with crisis management.  

Even after the crisis has been adverted, public relations continues.  One of the fraternity's brothers decided to help out his fellow destructive brother by raising money with a Walk-A-Thon.  I'm sure he had no idea that he was using very useful public relations tactics to get the word out about his event.  He put up posters and a Facebook group in raise awareness.  He also used word of mouth through the fraternity to reach as many people as possible.  The goal was to raise as much money as possible to help his brother pay for the $1000 fine to fix his broken window mistake.  Hopefully he will be able to raise even more money by the end of the week.  

I know Stephen McCloskey didn't know that he was using public relations when he decided to do a Walk-a-thon, but that's what makes it so interesting.  Public relations is everywhere! Everyone uses it at some point whether they realize it or not.  That's what makes public relations so relevant today.