Stacey Bender, the CEO of Bender Group Public Relations is coming to speak to our class on September 25th at 6:30 P.M. in Schwartz Hall room 105. Bender has over 30 years of experience in public relations and marketing. She founded the Bender Group 19 years ago. Prior to starting the group she began working as an account executive at Ogilvy and Mather Public Relations where she eventually moved up to Vice President on various food accounts like Maxwell House and Crystal Light. She has won various industry awards for her work and is a regular guest speaker for universities. Bender specializes in strategy, high level media placement, creative planning and execution. The Bender Group specializes in public relations for technology, consumer packaged goods, health, fitness, toys, foods, consumer electronics and b2b. Bender earned her bachelors degree in mass communications and media studies at the University of South Florida and completed her masters a few years later at the New School.
Month: September 2018
Seton Hall’s First 56 Days
Seton Hall’s campus-wide programming initiative, The First 56 Days, aims to get students involved in all aspects of campus life during a critical time period, the first 6-8 weeks.
The initiative was named in recognition of the year Seton Hall University was established, 1856. These events are held in an effort to make the first few weeks of school enjoyable and to get new students engaged in college life.
The First 56 Days calendar is filled with fun activities, workshops, athletic events, and opportunities to meet new students on campus. This year’s calendar features outdoor movie screenings, Target shopping parties, sports games, a Six Flags trip and so much more. The events are not limited to Seton Hall’s campus but expand into the South Orange community and surrounding areas.
Senior, Cayley Krkljes, has attended several of the First 56 Days events throughout her four years at Seton Hall. “My favorite event was the Target party I went to freshman year. I met so many people and it was just really helpful to be able to get to Target to pick up some last minute things for my dorm,” Krkljes said.
Sophomore Katie Wanger has also attended several of these events during her time at Seton Hall. “Freshman year I went to the the Student Involvement Fair so I could decide what I’d like to get involved in. This year I went back to work a table for my sorority and help freshman decide what they would like to join on campus,” Wanger said.
This year’s calendar is packed with several events per day. “Moving away from home for the first time can be scary. It helped me to keep busy and get involved. I think the First 56 Days calendar is really helpful to new students trying to find their way on campus,” Danielle Dimezza, senior from Boston, said.
Social Media & PR – Sept. 11 Readings
Social media has had a major impact on the public relations field. Social media makes it easier for the public to involve themselves in a company by giving opinions, responding to things going on with the company and starting conversations. It also provides a platform for the public to voice their upsets or criticize something a company is doing. PR professionals must adjust to these changes and be ready to deal with crisis effectively.
Social media allows for PR people to respond to upset customers or address a major issue. This opportunity should be used to turn crisis into a PR win. Mistakes are expected from even the most successful organizations, but if they are not handled properly it can lead to dramatic results.
The Huffington Post article talks about how social media means that PR professionals are now in the business of conversation monitoring and engaging. Similarly, P.R. Newswire recommends that PR professionals jump into the conversation when it comes to crisis. Social media allows for an ongoing conversation between and organization and their public. This is a powerful tool that can help boost public opinion or tear it down if not used effectively. It also allows for opportunity to fix crisis through direct conversation. Often times when an organization has a major crisis, people just want answers. Social media is the perfect tool for providing answers in a way that feels direct to the customers and people affected by the crisis.
Real-time marketing requires constant engagement and keeping up with what is going on at all given times. When things go wrong, it is important to communicate effectively with the public and address the issue quickly and clearly. PR professionals must develop a strategic plan for public communication via social media as it can be a great advantage and a great tool when it comes to fixing problems.
The Rise of Social Media in PR & Journalism
In his article on Forbes, Robert Wynne, writes “social media has great value as an amplifier.” I agree that social media is used as an amplifier for PR and Journalism as journalists utilize social media for quick updates or more concise versions of their story, but I think that social media is becoming much more than an amplifier. Wynne seems to be wary about the emergence of social media in PR, calling it “low end”. I feel that the PR industry is evolving quickly and people are looking for their information digitally. I personally rely on social media for news, entertainment, sports and so many other things. Typically I’ll see something on social media and if it peaks my interest I then go to traditional media outlets to get more information. For me, I initially began using social media as a way to interact with my friends, but it has evolved so much and become far more global. I now see posts from all over the world and content has changed from updates on someone’s personal life to real time news.
Clay Shirky’s article focuses on the demise of print newspapers and asserts that print journalists must learn to use social media as a tool in the newsroom. It is widely known that print journalism has become less prominent and digital news is thriving. I think social media has a huge part in this. Social media has changed the newsroom and our daily lives as we can get information instantly and no longer have to wait for stories to be printed. We can access anything we want within seconds. As for the future of journalists, I agree with Shirky that they must become well versed in the world of social media. Although print journalist is declining, the print publications that remain need to utilize social media better as it will likely help their print publications survive. Social media allows direct access to the public and it’s a very powerful tool for journalists.
In The People Formerly Known as the Audience, the article says “Social-media technologies allow a far wider range of people to take part in gathering, filtering and distributing news.” I think this best sums up how social media has impacted the industries of PR and journalism. Not only is information instant, but it is more widespread. Social media allows us to know what is going on all over the world, as opposed to traditional media that is typically locally focused.
These articles really focused on the impact that social media has had on PR and journalism. I think that a lot of times the emergence of social media in regards to PR and journalism is talked about in almost a negative light as it is attributed to job loss in the industry, but I don’t actually think it is a negative thing at all. Times are changing and I feel that the social media will become an even more prominent tool in the future and the PR and journalism industry professionals need to adjust to these changes in order to succeed. There are so many benefits to using social media for PR and Journalism. This article touches on some of the ways social media can be useful for PR professionals. One that I found really interesting is identifying brand threats. Public opinion is always easily found on social media and keeping up with it is extremely important in PR.
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