PSAs

Public service announcements are a great way to get the word out about your project. This is a sample PSA I put together for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank.

Eastern Illinois Foodbank, the Brochure

And without further ado, the brochure! Foodbank Brochure! I had a lot of fun putting together this brochure. Word is not my favorite design tool by a long-shot but it worked well for the text heavy Foodbank brochure. The template was available online at the Microsoft Office web site.

Podcast for Eastern Illinois Food Bank

Here's the podcast for the Eastern Illinois Food Bank.

Lots to do over Thanksgiving Break

This week, I am thankful for good work to do and good people in my life. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving break!

While I'm working, here's some food for thought. What if Kraft did more with the food donation drives? Here's what the press release might look like...

Kraft Foods Web Site

Kraft Foods has an investor site set up to release company information and contains press releases. All the information a stockholder could want is available online as well as press releases for public consumption. This corporate site is separate from their consumer sites which contain material directly related to consumer needs and questions. Overall, Kraft has an excellent web presence.  

Why I Love Macy's!

There are several reasons to love Macy's stores but above all else, I love them because they really care about people. I cannot imagine a world without the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! It is a celebration of all that is great about American culture and heralds the coming of the holiday season with the full pizazz it truly deserves.

If you know nothing else about Macy's, you know about the parade. It is public relations at its finest.

I just wrote a letter to Santa!

I just wrote a letter to Santa!

For every letter received, Macy's will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $1,000,000. Help make wishes come true by writing your own letter to Santa!

The Trouble with AutoCorrect...

Over the years, I've worked many different places and have volunteered for several organizations, as well. Every organization is different and has specific buzz words or acronyms they use in their publications, online and on paper. Having different needs for editing text, Chris Bryant from Microsoft suggests ways to correct AutoCorrect in Microsoft Word, so that you don't end up saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Social Media Myths

Pam Dyer of Pamorama had some interesting things to say about social media and some of the myths associated with it. This is an older post from back in January but she has a good point in stating that a lot of people think of social media as cheap or free. Social media may be free to use but incorporating it into a businesses practices and integrating it into a marketing plan is far from cheap. What do you think?

Second Post!

While trying to get the hang of this posting thing, I found out several of my friends are frequent bloggers. They had some great ideas to help me really get started writing this thing.

I found another great resource for PR blogging recently at Ogilvy. Betsy Lowther wrote an article on using Social Media for Social Good, citing the Pepsi Refresh project. Good read!

Testing the Water

For my first blog piece, I'd like to write about one of the first public relations blogs I found. Public Relations Blogger is an excellent source of ideas and tips for new PR professionals. I found myself drawn to the post on PR myths, the most important myth being that any PR is good. Like the author says, just ask BP if any PR is good!