B2B Email

On Freelance Switch, Brain Zafron recently posted, The Art of Email-Writing and How it Can Make or Break Your Business. I was immediately interested in what Zafron was going to say and eager to pick up on any tips he might offer. For one of my jobs, I would say that about 95% of the communication takes place via email. When I first began this job, I knew that this was the case and was pretty excited. I thought that it would be much easier to correspond with my supervisor and media contacts this way. In some respects it is easier. It is more convenient than having meetings all the time to discuss a few details and allows me to reach a larger number of people much quicker. On the other hand, writing emails for business can also get a little stressful. I often find myself reading just a few short sentences over and over again trying to be as clear and concise as possible, but always making sure to include all the necessary details.

I wanted to share a handful of Zafron's tips that I found especially helpful.

Brand with a meaningful subject line. People decide whether to open, forward, file, or delete an email based upon the subject line.  Don't waste the reader's time: your subject line should succinctly describe the email's content.  Additionally, if you attempt any gimmicks or unnecessary cleverness in the subject line, your email could strike the reader as spam and wind up in the trash, alongside those free iPod offers, juicer giveaways, and subscriptions to "Amphibian Lover" magazine.  

Engage people with your sentences.  Don't write sentences that are indirect and obtuse.  Place strong nouns and verbs towards the front that lead to a clearly defined point.  Instead of "it has been decided...," consider, for example, "our company decided..."  The epitome of lackluster writing is the passive tense.  Make your sentences pop.  And here's another nugget of wisdom: don't end sentences with prepositions!  Instead of "I want someone to eat enchiladas with," consider, for example.  "I want someone to eat enchiladas with me."

CC with moderation.  Only carbon copy (cc) those parties that are directly involved with the content of the email.  CC orgies not only lead to traffic jams in other people's in-boxes, but create a sense of impersonality between yourself and the principle email recipient.  When in doubt, utilize the magic of the blind carbon (bcc) to conceal the addresses of subsidiary recipients.

While some of this may seem like a no brainer, I think that it's the easy things that often get overlooked. Thank you Mr. Zafron for these wonderful tips!

image: corbis/Holger Winkler

In Case You Didn't Get the Memo...

Following my post about Twitter, I came across Twitter for Health, a post by Nedra Weinreich of Spare Change.  She talks about how Twitter could be useful for non profit organizations and government agencies.  It's very interesting and reiterates that Twitter can be an effective social media tool.  Check it out! 

Twitter This, Twitter That...

When my class first started learning about social media at the beginning of this term, our professor, Kelli Matthews, mentioned Twitter. Twitter is a site designed to allow members to answer the question, "What are you doing?" by posting short updates. You can subscribe to 'follow' someone on Twitter, and beyond that I am not really sure what you can do with it.  Anyway, I never took the time to check it out, it seemed really silly to be constantly updating what I was doing all day for the whole world to see. I am on MySpace and Facebook, so I figure if people really want to know what I am up to they can find me there.

However, I think I may have a new perspective after overhearing a conversation between my peers in class today. As we all enter the classroom in the morning, people are always talking about their blogs, job/internship interviews and whatever else may be on the mind of a soon-to-be graduate. This morning a couple of girls were discussing their activity on Twitter. They were so excited and thrilled that others in PR (people they did not know) were following them on Twitter and leaving them comments. I found myself wishing that I too could be sharing in their excitement. Suddenly Twitter didn't seem so silly and I realized that it's not necessarily about whether you are posting to your blog or updating Twitter, but rather it's about creating conversations and connecting with others.

I came across this video by Lee Lefever on Eric Eggerston's blog Common Sense. It introduces Twitter in a fun way and also falls under the topic of presentations, which we have also been studying this week. Basically, I think that Twitter can be a really effective way to communicate and I think that I will have to give it a try!

image: flickr/danihernanz

Nearing the End

It's nearly the end of winter term 2008.  This means: 1. I have one term left of college.  2. Finals, projects and papers are consuming my life.  3.  I should have some sort of plan post-graduation.  Unfortunately, points one and two are all that I can think about right now.  Other than the occasional search on Craigslist, my job search is going  nowhere.  People are always asking me what I want to do after graduation....there are lots of things that I want to do.  But, what I want to do and what I need to do are two completely different things.  

In a perfect world, I would spend the summer traveling Europe with a friend, or two.  I would return to the States in the fall and begin working at a record label, doing some form of promotions.  

Reality is really more like this: After graduation I will stay in Eugene so I can be close to my friends and family.  Meanwhile continuing in my search for the perfect job in the perfect place.  I know life, jobs/work and everything else doesn't always happen just how we want, but I would be much happier if it did!  So, I will continue dreaming of the perfect scenario and maybe, just maybe I will pleasantly surprised with my perfect world.  

image:corbis/Gary Irving

Free Morning Tabloid Please

I came across an interesting post by David Reich in his blog my 2 cents.  In, So young people DO read the paper, Reich mentions the supposed decline in newspaper circulation among the 20- something age group.  Recently, in large cities such as New York, Boston and Chicago, free morning tabloids have been establishing a readership, many of whom are young.  

Like a lot of people I get the majority of my news information from the internet.  Mostly because it is quicker, more convenient and I can sift through a lot of information quickly.  While I do appreciate being able to access all kinds of news via the internet, I have always liked the idea of sitting at my kitchen table in the morning sipping a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper (even if it is a tabloid).  

I am not-so-secretly hoping this trend makes it to the west coast so I can one day be sitting at my kitchen table, sipping on a cup of coffee reading the morning paper.  Anyone want to join me?

 image: flickr/andybudd

Lesson in Podcasting

This term in my Advanced PR Writing class we have been learning a lot about social media tools. Blogs and podcasts for the most part, but we have also covered social networking sites.  It's exciting and a little scary at the same time.  Technology is constantly changing and it takes a lot of work to keep up!

This week we had a video conference with Paull Young.  Paull works for Converseon, a social media communications agency and is also involved with Forward, the online springboard for new and upcoming PR professionals.  As the Director of Forward Podcasts, Paull shared with us some great tips for producing a successful podcast. 

• Plan and outline
• Do your research
• Don't read from a script, use a conversational voice
• Make sure your personality comes through
• Listen to the podcast to see what it sounds like and fix any issues before publishing

This is just a little bit of what Paull discussed with us, but very helpful as I work on my first podcast so I thought I would share!

One Step at a Time

I have definitely not been keeping up with this blog like I had intended, my apologies.  For whatever reason I thought that creating and maintaining a blog would be a piece of cake, not the case.  Regardless, I vow to get things back on track!

I am the kind of person that likes to have a plan. I want to know when I will be doing something, where that is going to take place and how I will get there.  For my entire life that has always been fairly simple to figure out because I have always been in school.  Now that I am approaching graduation in the spring, I am forced to come up with a new plan.  I often find myself overwhelmed by the big picture: finding an open position, applying for the job, perfecting my resume and cover letter, moving somewhere unfamiliar, living by myself and really the list goes on and on.  

I have a friend that always seems to have the best advice when it comes to figuring out life and while I haven't talked to her recently, her guest post, Capture the Essence of Your Experience with the  Spiritual Resume, on Kelli Matthews PRos in Training blog has calmed my nerves and given me a bit or direction.

Leona has some great tips for creating what she calls a "spiritual resume."  Here is what she says, 

"The complementary tool I use with my master resume is what I call a "spiritual resume."  In a historical document, I have a history of all the qualities I expressed at each job, the things I learned and contributed, the relationships that helped me grow, and the principles I grasped.  In addition to being a psychologically valuable exercise (affirming the fact that even the worst job has some value), creating a spiritual resume leaves you with a document you can use as a resource when writing and preparing for interviews."

I am realizing that while it's good to look at the big picture I need to take things one step at a time.  Working on my resume is a great start and I will definitely take into consideration Leona's advice and create not just one, but two resumes.  

image: corbis

It's a great day at Bello!

I finally got back to work today at the brand new Bello Day Spa and Salon at Crescent Village.  It's beautiful and if you've never been you should probably put it on your to-do list!

Hey Aruba

I do my best to stay informed of what is going on in the news; however, this is sometimes a very difficult task.  The other day as I was skimming through news feeds from CNN one particular headline caught my attention: Van der Sloot on video: No sleep lost over Holloway's dumped body.  I watched the video as well as the 20/20 interview.

In reference to whether or not this would solve the case one man said, "I hope so...for the sake of this country, because this country has suffered a lot and this is actually a tragedy for this country, which it never deserved."  This statement immediately got me thinking from a PR perspective how a country would deal with a situation like this.

As a result of Natalee's disappearance a lot of people decided to boycott the island of Aruba where she was vacationing.  The boycott is not an official declaration by any country or state, but it is seen by some as much worse.  Scared Monkeys says, "It's a grass roots movement done by John Q. Public, "We the People." Aruba has become synonymous with missing persons stories, not because of the number of ones that occur but because of the manner in how they went about solving the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.  Hey Aruba, ever heard of Scotch Tape? It's not a product, it's a brand...Aruba, you have been branded."

Aruba claims that their economy has not suffered at all from this event.  How could this be true?  Not only has the disappearance of Natalee given Aruba a lot of negative press, but it has also created a brand that I doubt it will ever be able to detach itself from.  People will always associate Aruba with Natalee, and Natalee with Aruba.  I wonder if they will ever be able to recover.  Either way I think I will join the masses and avoid Aruba for the time being. 

Image: www.threebestbeaches.com

How Web Trendy Are You?

When I joined MySpace a few years ago, I wasn't sure what to think about the site.  The whole concept freaked me out a little.  I didn't like the idea of meeting people online, and it all seemed a bit unrealistic.  However, at the same time it intrigued me and it wasn't long before I customized my profile with a colorful background, a profile song and numerous pictures.

That was only 2 1/2 years ago and now there are more social networking and media sites than ever.  I just looked at a Web Trend Map for 2008 created by Information Architects Japan.  The map is of the 300 most influential and successful websites.  Some of the most obvious to me were Google, CNN, AOL and FOX.  As I continued to look over the rest of the map at all of the sites I noticed that I recognized only about half (maybe) of them.  Should I know what Badongo is? What about Gawker?

As a student looking to enter the field of Public Relations should I be worried that I didn't recognize everything on the Map?  And, is it important that I familiarize myself with such websites?

Clearly I don't know, but either way it seems as though I have a lot of catching up to do!

image: brandsizzle

Introduction

Hello! 

My name is Kendra, I am a student at the University of Oregon studying Public Relations.  

Last summer I interned for a local event, the Eugene Celebration.  It was a great experience and I learned a lot.  In September I began another internship with the Indigo District, a bar/venue in downtown Eugene, which has quickly translated into my first job as a PR professional!

After graduation I am hoping to take a break from this lovely place I call home and venture out on my own.  I would love to work in the music business or in event management. 

Thanks for visiting!