Spring Break Day 2: D.C.

Former White House Press Secretary for President Clinton Mike McCurry, myself, and Former Communications Strategist for President Carter Greg Schneiders

I caught the political bug as a young student in elementary school. Learning about the formation of our country and the history of the founding fathers lit an internal flame for the functioning of our government. Since then, I have been entranced by the inner workings of Washington and the political process.

Yesterday, the highlight for me was getting to meet with Mike McCurry and Greg Schneiders. Mr. McCurry was the press secretary for four years during the Clinton administration and Mr. Schneiders worked in the Carter White House as a communications strategist. Hearing the stories of their professional journeys was fascinating! Knowing that my chance to be in front of two people who had worked in the White House was a rarity I took full advantage by finding out as much information as possible. We debated the future of the Democratic Party, Republican Party, and the future of the American political system as a whole. I hope I didn’t annoy my fellow colleagues on the trip by monopolizing the questioning but I don’t regret it at all. Hearing their opinions on the topics I discuss with fellow politicos at home in Charleston was truly amazing. I now know that I hope to one day end up where they were-working in the White House.

We also visited the D.C. offices of Ketchum, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and the Beer Institute. At Ketchum, we heard from many speakers who offered invaluable tips about the job/internship application process and how to make ourselves better candidates. While visiting Senator Graham’s office, we met with Tate Zeigler, who is the deputy communications director for Sen. Graham. Tate told us how he ended up on the Hill and gave us tips on what we could do to end up working on the Hill if we so desired. Lastly, we ended our day at the Beer Institute where we saw the function of communications and good communication strategies in a trade organization.

Having thought that I wanted to end up in New York City upon graduation for the past year, this visit to our nation’s capitol has flipped that on its head. I now hope to end up in either D.C. or NYC and feel that I’d be happy no matter where I land. But for now, all I can do is continue to nurture the relationships I’m making, continue to grow professionally, and enjoy this snowy ride to the Big Apple!

Spring Break Day 1: D.C.

Over spring break, I’m traveling with the College of Charleston Department of Communication on a networking trip where we’re meeting with professionals and alumni in the Washington, D.C. and New York City area. Check back for posts each day about our experiences.

Wow! What a day! How often do you get to roam the nation’s capital with your fellow students meeting with some of the best entities within the communication fields?

We began our day at Fleishman-Hillard where we met with our advisory council member Karen Kaplan and her colleagues. As a political enthusiast who is passionate about public relations, the work that Fleishman does with public affairs and working for different government entities was fascinating to me. The great part about trips like this, is that they allow us to see various aspects of the communications field that we might not have been introduced to previously. I could easily see myself working for a firm like Fleishman.

Following Fleishman, we traveled over to the CNN Washington Bureau. Our host, Mr. Speiser, provided us with the opportunity of hearing from Wolf Blitzer, past interns, and other members within the CNN family about what it’s like working with CNN and for a national news media outlet. Particularly, it was fascinating to hear about the work that they’re doing with their new president. As a life-long CNN fan, it was fantastic to see their offices and meet with some of my idols. The highlight of our visit was the opportunity to stand inside the studio directly behind the cameras while CNN was shooting The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer live. A close second, would be getting to see the room where CNN does all of its 3D graphics that have recently been so instrumental in the network’s programming.

We ended the evening meeting with local alumni and advisory council members. We got to pick their brans for how they have gotten to where they are in their careers and find out what steps we should be taking to end up in similar situations. I enjoyed catching up with past colleagues from various classes and experiences on campus, reconnecting with some advisory council members, and meeting other College of Charleston students!

Today was phenomenal and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

Surviving an Internship

I consider myself a perpetual intern and at any given time, I am interning with at least one organization. It’s how I like to live my life and it’s where I feel that I excel. Interning has allowed me to get involved in my field of study while still in school and has given me the chance to learn without having to truly learn on the job. While some might prefer the “baptism by fire” approach, that’s never been something I’ve been comfortable with. I’ve approached my college years as the chance to get work experience before I’m held completely accountable for the inevitable mistakes that come with the learning process. Here’s my advice about what you should do at an internship to succeed:

1) Make yourself stand out! 

Whether you’re the only intern working for the company or organization at the time or one of 100, find a way to make yourself stand out. Pay attention to the culture of the organization and determine what they value the most and see how you can develop that quality within yourself or highlight it if it already exists. Don’t simply come to work each day and do the bare minimum.

2) Beat everyone in “seat time.”

My grandfather, a graduate of MIT with a doctorate in electrical engineering,  has a saying about how he survived his many years of schooling and became an extremely successful businessman. His motto is that you should beat everyone in “seat time” (he used another word but we keep it PG here at the Spin Room). In essence, work harder than everyone else. Work longer. Work harder. Make your time count. If you’re working longer than is expected of you on a project because you’re that dedicated to it, you’ll show your coworkers that you care just as much about their clients as they do.

3) Ask questions

Always, always, always ask questions! It ensures that you understand what’s expected of you, helps you to become a part of the culture, and will allow you to grow exponentially in your professional life. Be a silent observer and you might learn a bunch from the internship, but you probably won’t be remembered in any significant way by the employer.

4) Get to know your coworkers. 

While some might consider this taboo, I simply suggest that you proceed with caution. Get to know your coworkers and their professional stories first and then, if you start to develop a more open professional relationship, find out about their kids, what they value in life and what makes them who they are. Your coworkers will be able to provide you with valuable career advice and will be a great asset long after your time at your internship is over.

5) Take EVERY opportunity that is presented to you. 

Even if it’s outside of your comfort zone, take every opportunity that comes your way. You never know what lies just around the corner and no matter what, you will learn something. It might be that you find out the exact area that you never want to work in again or you might find the field that you’re meant to work in. You’ll never know what’s waiting for you though, if you don’t take the first step and try.

What advice do you have for interns? Comment below!

Sorry for the delay!

Hello Spin Roomers!

Sorry for the delay in posting the past two weeks. It’s those two weeks in the middle of the semester where every day there’s a test or project due so I’ve been slammed. Should have another post up tomorrow evening/Thursday morning about the recent social media hacks! Stay tuned!

 

Welcome to South Carolina!

I’m a born and raised South Carolinian and I couldn’t be happier with the state that I come from. But, too long our politics have brought shame to this great state. In recent years, we’ve gone from political scandal to political scandal without a seeming end. Our former Governor Mark Sanford (and avid Appalachian Trail hiker), or as he is affectionally referred to at times as the Luv-Gov, was involved in an extra-martial affair and lied about a hiking trip to the Appalachian Trial in which he really was visiting his mistress in Argentina. Under our current governor, Nikki Haley, our state’s Department of Revenue was hacked. We’re the home of the guy who yelled “You lie!” during President Obama’s State of the Union address in 2009. The list goes on and on and on (seriously, if you need a good chuckle just Google “South Carolina political scandals” and you’ll take a trip to weird lane via scandal alley). Where else would it be more possible for comedian Stephen Colbert’s sister, Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, to be in the running for the same congressional seat as former Governor Mark Sanford (back from his hiking trip just in time for the Republican Primaries) among 18 others? South Carolina, of course! After all, we were just named the Most Interesting State for Politics.

It looks like our politics are going to remain entertaining and scandal filled for the foreseeable future. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. Get your popcorn ready!

Women in the Military? It’s about time!

Today’s guest post is from Lauren K. Gray, National President of PRSSA. 

Equality can mean different things to different people, but to me it means everyone, no matter race, sex, religion, cultural history, sexual orientation or any other “difference,” is treated exactly the same. We are all humans. We are people. We deserve to be treated the same in every aspect.

Recently, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey announced the ban on women serving in combat positions in the military would be lifted. Although there has been opposition to this announcement, it is a great thing to see our country moving forward in the direction of progress for treating everyone equally.

Women deserve every right a man has. If a woman wants to openly serve and put her life on the line, she has every right to do so as a man.

This also means more women will be allowed in more training programs. According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, an anonymous woman said, “while some physical fitness requirements are slightly less stringent for women, men and women did the same activities and carried the same amount of weight in their backpacks on ruck marches.”

Although with every change we seem to make, there are conditions. According to The New York Times, women are still banned from serving in the infantry, combat tank units and Special Operations commando units. They also note, “many women in Iraq and Afghanistan have served in combat as attachments to infantry foot patrols, and in many cases they have come under fire and fought back. More than 140 women in the American military have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Women should be more fairly treated in the workplace overall. There should be no “glass ceiling” for us just because of our gender. We should be described as womanly and be proud of it. I don’t want a “manly” power, I want to be proud of my womanhood and all that comes with it.

Equal pay and treatment would be a good start. We work just as hard and just as long as our male counterparts and we should be paid like it. We should also be given equal treatment with workload. No one should ever tell us “oh we can’t give that to her, she can’t handle it.” Trust me… we can handle it and MUCH more.

Emotions are not a weakness. They provide us the opportunity to think about all aspects of an issue before driving a solution. Being emotional is not a weakness, it can be used as a great strength.

Things are changing and we all need to move forward with these changes. Progress does not happen overnight, but I believe we will continue to move forward as a nation with more changes for equality in the future.

Why the “Spin Room?”

Author’s note: Sorry for the delay in posts. I’ve just started a new internship as well as a new semester and had been trying to figure out how best to balance everything. Unfortunately, the blog got pushed to the back burner but I’m glad to be back and posts will be more frequent now that my schedule has been worked out. I couldn’t think of a better post than to address my reasoning behind choosing “The Spin Room” name. Hope you enjoy! 

For the longest time I struggled with coming up with a creative name for my blog. In fact, this dilemma is what has contributed greatly to delaying the launch of a blog for over a now year.  When contemplating names, I always kept coming back to the “spin room” phrase. Few other terms are so closely associated with both public relations and politics. But, I was concerned about the negative associations with public relations and the light that we are often times cast in–as manipulators–masters of spin.

Many public relations and communications professionals resent the bad reputation that PR gets and I have to admit that I’m one of them. So then, why would I choose to name my blog with one of the descriptive terms that is so often used to the detriment of our field? The answer is simple. I choose to embrace it. No, I do not embrace the negative stereotypes nor do I embrace the morals, or lack there of, that are so often considered synonymous with our field. Whether we like it or not (or care to admit it) the vast amount of the general public think that we are manipulative people. It’s our job to change that perception. After all, isn’t one of the many aspects of our field brand management and brand resuscitation? Public relations needs a resuscitation. We need a resuscitation.

Too long have we allowed ourselves to be understood as the bad guys. Especially when, in the past few years, we have made strides to combat this image. Consider the lengths that PRSA has gone to make ethics and professional conduct a core of our field. But, do many people outside of our profession know this?

As a college junior, whenever I see family members or friends who haven’t seen me in awhile the second or third question (after the obligatory “How are you?”) is always what are you studying? When I tell them communication with the intent to go into public relations, nine times out of ten I get a shocked look and a snarky comment.

“Oh, you want to be one of those guys?”

or

“Why not just be lawyer? They’re both liars but lawyers get paid better?”

Clearly, our perception and image problem runs deep. When I receive a comment like this, I always respond with a level head and highlight the high regard that ethics has within our profession and that, unfortunately, there are a few practitioners who have caused the whole profession to have a bad reputation.

When offering a rebuttal to these questions I also ask people to consider the following (some may disagree with my outlook). Public relations professionals believe that their first–and  most important–responsibility is to the public.  Yes, our clients are a close second but above all else, we must be honest and transparent with the public and publics that we are serving.

Let us, as a profession, embrace the terms that are used to negatively describe us. President Obama did this by embracing the Republican party’s branding of the Affordable Care Act as “Obamacare.” He dulled their Obamacare sword. In fact, they gave him a gift. They should have seen the obvious, yet oh so slight, change that could be made to their term–Obama cares.

Let us show that PR cares. We care about the publics that we serve. We care about the clients that we represent. We care about you–all of you.

Welcome to the Spin Room. There will be no spin here. Only honesty and, hopefully, a bit of fun.

An Inaugural Birthday

Note: The Constitution declares the official Inauguration Day to be January 20th but because it fell on a Sunday this year the ceremonial events were moved to today, January 21st. 

January 20th-for many this is, often times, remembered as Martin Luther King Jr. Day (if it falls on a Monday), or every four years it’s Inauguration Day. For me, January 20th-Inauguration Day- just so happens to be my birthday (destiny?). For a political geek like myself, I can’t imagine a better way to spend my birthday than watching one of the greatest traditions in our society unfold and I couldn’t be happier that I also got to watch President Barack Hussein Obama be sworn in for his second term in office! Regardless of your political affiliation and beliefs, on days like today it’s beautiful to witness our political process unfold before our eyes. With all of the pomp and circumstance we get to celebrate not just the office of the presidency, but the utter beauty of our democracy. We, the people, elected this President into office. We, the people, made our voices heard. We, the people, have a say in who makes decisions that will affect us all. While everyone may not be happy with who wins an election, on Inauguration Day we can all celebrate the simple- yet important beyond measure-fact that we every citizen of this great nation has the right to vote. We are truly lucky!

President Obama’s words of hope, the future, and equality for all were just the icing on the cake of a phenomenal celebration of our democracy. I was truly struck by how far he went in his declaration of the steps we still need to take to ensure the words of our founding fathers that all men (and women) are created equal.

“For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.  Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.  Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.  Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.  Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.”-President Obama

For the first time in history, a President declared that LGBT Americans’ love for their partners is just as equal as anyone else’s. President Obama uttered the speech that I’m positive he’s been craving to make for four years. When he makes statements, gestures, and history like today I am reminded just why I chose to cast my first Presidential vote to re-elect him. He is a man of character who is truly trying to make this nation a better place. Congratulations, Mr. President and thank you for making my birthday a fantastic day.

Buster Berkeley to the Rescue!

This post was originally written and published as a guest post for RepMan blog. Be sure to check out RepMan Steve Cody’s fantastic reputation management blog! 

Many public relations professionals have trained business executives in social media, but how many of you have done so with high school and grammar school principals and administrators? During my winter break from the College of Charleston, I was able to do exactly this with many of the school administrators in Berkeley County School District in Berkeley County, SC. The County recently decided to give each school the option of having their own social media presence on Facebook. Having interned in the Communications Department over the summer, I was given the opportunity to conduct the training sessions.

Throughout training, I was surprised that teachers share many of the same concerns about social media as CEOs do: the loss of control, perceived time consumption, etc. Although almost every one of the administrators I interacted with shared the same or similar concerns, at the end of each training session almost all of them chose to go forward with launching their own Facebook pages.  We showed them how to make things as easy as possible for posting, monitoring, etc. and after seeing these suggestions and tips it helped quell many of their concerns (although they were certainly not eliminated).

One of the biggest fear and concern that was continuously expressed among the administration within each school and the District as a whole, was the perception that Facebook and social media would muddy the waters between their personal and professional lives. Each Facebook page has a section in the “Terms of Engagement” that specifically addresses this concern by stating that parents and students shouldn’t be offended if a school district employee didn’t accept a friend request, but we also came up with an additional way to help address this concern-Buster Berkeley.

Buster Berkeley is the official mascot for Berkeley County School District and he travels around to the various schools, departments, offices, and events that go on throughout the school district and then shares his adventures with the community on his Facebook page. Buster’s Facebook posts are done not only by the communications staff but also the Cabinet and senior level officials within the District and is used as a way for them to get involved with the District’s social media efforts without connecting, in any way, with their own personal profiles.

Whether your client is a CEO, school administrator or a member of the community we all share the same concerns and fears about our social media interactions. That apprehension is a blessing and makes us more alert, focused, always posting with specific intent. That apprehension is a blessing and makes us more alert, focused, and intentional  with exactly what we post online. Perhaps you can employ a similar tactic to Buster Berkeley to get apprehensive clients to take the plunge into the scary, but oh so important world of social media.

Best of luck!

Messaging! Messaging! Messaging!

It’s often said that in real estate, it’s all about “location, location, location!” In almost everything else in life, it’s not location that matters most, it’s messaging. Think about that “altercation” (we won’t call it a fight) you had with Uncle Bill over Christmas dinner about politics. Had you both chosen a softer tone and message to discuss your differing opinions, don’t you think you both could have avoided that nasty little screaming match that ended with you taking a brandy glass to the face? Or consider the recent presidential election. Had Mitt Romney not gotten boxed into such a tough postion on immigration (self-deportation) because of the Republican primary he probably wouldn’t have lost the Latino vote by such a dismal amount (71%-27%).

In our society, the messages we use matter. Messaging wins elections; brings in new clients; tells your company’s story; and nurtures existing relationships. So be intentional and strategic in developing a message for a well-developed message can beat an army of opposition-just ask Mitt Romney.