Where are YOU?

Where are YOU?

By: Ryan N. DeGiacomo

Public relations practitioners utilize social media daily in their efforts to generate awareness about clients, to proactively communicate with clients, and to respond timely in reference to inquiries or issues. Social networking sites have quickly become important tools of choice in a public relations professional’s expansive toolkit. In the ever-changing world of social media, there is a hot new trend generating the buzz for public relations professionals: geolocation. Gowalla is a social media tool allowing its users to “check in” at locations that they visit and follow their friends’ movements around the globe.

Gowalla disseminates information depicting users’ real-time whereabouts, allowing users to share information about favorite haunts while increasing the odds of running into friends. PR Tactics says that the service links up with Twitter and Facebook, allowing a much broader audience to view location-based updates. In fact Mashable reports that Twitter launched its very own location-based feature last week, and Facebook is expected to soon unveil the same.

Public relations practitioners can utilize these sites to accomplish their objectives by offering users rewards for checking in at their sites while clients benefit from one another by exchanging information about new venues, causes, cities and businesses. The mutually beneficial relationships are infinite. Gowalla enables users to update their geolocation (similar to Facebook status updates), follow their friend's updates (similar to Twitter feeds) and upload videos (YouTube) and photos (Picasa, Flickr) depicting their current location. Gowalla is expedient for clients who travel frequently because, like most social networking media, Gowalla is now available in mobile versions on iPhones, Blackberrys, other smart phones and PDAs.

Creativity in Public Relations

By: Ashley Mistretta

I read Creativity in Public Relations by Andy Green. Usually when someone describes a public relations practitioner, the word creative is almost always used. Being creative is a lucky gift for anyone to have because it gives you an edge over everybody else. Creativity is important in this day and age because jobs are becoming more competitive, and the more imaginative someone is, the more they bring to the table.

The book I chose begins with a foreword by the Senior Editor, Anne Gregory, who talks about how creativity is a talent most people crave to have, but few are lucky enough to practice. She says in this book, people will learn that creativity can be for more people, but it will take hard work and involve several endeavors.

This book attempts to help public relations practitioners learn the creative process. The readers should be able to understand what and how the process works as well as how to keep it managed. There are also many techniques given throughout this book to explain how an individual can use their own creative skills.

An interesting way that Green starts off the book is by defining the general definition of creativity. He lists several phrases: as an individual talent; as a process; as a product; and as recognition by others. Then he talks about the adding value that public relations people can bring to this process. He says, “creativity is the ability each of us has to create something new by bringing two or more different elements in a new context, in order to provide added value to a task,” (pg. 8). This made sense to me as I was reading through the first chapter.

Creativity in Public Relations is a great book to have when you need those creative juices to start flowing. His book is written so the reader can ease through the chapters and find what they need. This book also helps PR practitioners learn how to communicate better with the media and clients.

Throughout the book, Green discusses debunking of certain myths about creativity, he talks about the creative process and the five ‘I’s. These include: information, incubation, illumination, integration, and illustration. He also talks about Green Light thinking and Red Light thinking. He lists obstacles to creativity and even offers more books, websites, training and courses for further study on creativity in PR. One thing that helped me get through this book with ease was that he included many charts and visuals. This is an important book for PR practitioners to have because it will have a great effect on their work, stimulate creative ideas, and allow them to open their minds to many opportunities.

Andy Green has his own public relations and marketing consultancy. He has over 20 years of experience in public relations and has won many professional awards for his creative work.