Research-The Road map

                   Research is the road map to developing an effective public relations campaign.
Research allows the public relations professional to gain a prospective into the company by educating the stakeholders by identifying potential problems, needs or opportunities before implementing the campaign. Doing the research allows the public relations professional to save time and use the funds that were allocated to them in a productive way, this also allows stakeholders to see where and how there funds are being spent. An example of this would be how much is spent on advertising for the launch of a new store.
Through research you define your publics by polling, interviewing, and focus groups.  This allows the stakeholders to define objectives such as determining if their company is in the right location and if they are targeting the right publics.  They can set up goals and with the help of the public relations professional can provide direction to become successful.
With providing research this will ensure that planning the campaign will run smoothly as the public relations professional and the stakeholders will have a clear road map to follow.

Introducing Jason Permanand

I would like to introduce you to Jason Permanand, he works at the Canadian Cancer Society as a Communications Manager.  He graduated from Red River Community College and has always been involved with Public Relations and Communications.

I interviewed Jason as I was interested in knowing what he did, as it has always been my dream to work at the Canadian Cancer Society doing Public Relations work.  I was honored when I called him and he agreed to do a face to face interview with me for my PR class.

Some of the things that Jason and I discussed:

What's a typical work week like?
There is no typical work week and its a career that you will never get bored at.  He goes from one day working on a fundraising event to the next where he is in a press conference talking about Cancer Research.

Tell me about a project you worked on that you are especially proud of.
The daffodil campaign, where you wear a daffodil pin, it is the second year that it has been happening and it has raised awareness up a lot especially in Manitoba.

What do you do to keep current in the PR industry?
 Reading a lot of online blogs, facebook, twitter, and professional development.

What do you wish you would have known before starting your career in PR?
To never underestimate the amount of work.   This includes work in communication, marketing and advertising.

How important is writing in your career?
It is huge!  It is also the first thing that he describes when he tells you the things that he does.
If you've ever worked for an agency, how is agency life different from corporate PR life?
He has never worked for an agency, but when you do, you go from one project to another instead of working with the organization as a whole.

What three tips would you offer someone just starting out in PR?
Network as much as you can!
When doing work experience do it in two different areas so you can see what else goes on.
Writing and editing are extremely important.  Make sure you get an outside department to look at your documents, you can never edit too much.
Forge new relationships with media, make sure you are proactive.

What has surprised you the most about working in PR?
The workload is massive.  He did expect a huge workload but in PR you are always working, checking your emails, you always have to stay on top of what is new.

When your company is hiring for an entry-level PR position, what makes a candidate stand out?
It all comes down to passion to work at an organization and not afraid to get your hands wet.

After interviewing Jason for this assignment I am more likely to want a career in PR.  I know that it will be hard work and long hours but I do know that in the long run it will be worth it.  I look forward to never doing the same thing everyday and find that it will be a fun and exciting challenge.

For more information on the Canadian Cancer Society please visit www.cancer.ca

The Excitement On Giroux Street!

This is what my neighborhood was faced with on Monday night as I am one of the many people who live on Giroux Street.
I was in my PR class at the U of W when these pictures and buzzing of my cell phone kept going off from my husband Chris and my neighbor and friend, Nikkole.
There is a big fire with explosions and they are talking about evacuating the area.
My husband said that race gas has something to do with it (I know that race gas is highly explosive and flammable).

Then the text came in from my husband that we are getting evacuated and he wanted to know what I wanted.  That's when I said that I was coming home and I would help him, not thinking that it would probably be all blocked off....to be honest I think I was in a state of shock and I just wanted to get home to make sure everything was safe.
I didn't get a chance to get home as it was all blocked off, so off to my sisters house to figure out what we were going to do.  We waited and waited and finally at 10:30 we decided that we were going to go and take a drive and see if any of the police officers knew anything about getting back into our home or if we were going to stay at a hotel.
Once we got to the Curling Club we knew it didn't look good as the flames were still pretty high.  Once talking to the police officer there he said that the likely hood of us getting back into our house was not going to happen, so off to the Windsor Park Inn for the night!
In the morning I turned on my cell to see if we could go home and on CJOB it was posted that we could.
Since I am in PR I wanted to know what kind of stories I was going to see.  To be honest I was looking for one major thing and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed.
The news that I did see I was extremely happy with but one major thing that I didn't see was any type of statement from the owner of Speedway International, Royce Rostecki. Here myself and my neighbors were evacuated and not one statement from him in regards to making sure we were safe or anything.  I got to admit this makes him look bad.....is he hiding something?  Was the race fuel not stored safely?  I now have all of these speculations...I would have expected that someone in his position would have expressed his concern for his community.