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PRCA 3331 Final Project

For your final project in our PRCA 3331 Corporate PR class, you will analyze a Fortune 500 or Inc. 500 company from a public relations perspective. Your presentation on your company is due the week of November 17. The written portion project is due by midnight on December 2. The grading rubric will be available by October 13 15. Be sure to review the grading rubric.

This project is worth a total of 300 points of the 1000 available in PRCA 3331. The blog/paper portion is worth 250, and the class presentation is worth 50.

You will have the option of creating the written portion of the project as a traditional term paper or as a series of blog posts. Let me know your decision in WebCT Vista no later than October 20.

If you choose to do this project as a traditional term paper:

  • Use APA style for formatting and source citations
  • Submit your paper in WebCT Vista

If you choose to do this project as a series of blog posts:

  • Create one page (not post, but page) on your blog with hyperlinks to all the posts. Submit the URL of your page in WebCT Vista
  • Cite your sources within the posts, and also provide hyperlinks to the original source if it’s available on the web
  • Use tags on your posts

Required elements:

  • An overview of the company and what it does
  • A brief history or timeline of the company
  • Based on Grunig & Hunt’s models of PR, which model is the company using?
  • Describe the publics, including customers, of the company (or one of its subsidiaries)
  • Top challenges facing the company (including the current financial market)
  • Awards and honors the company has garnered in the past 10 years & how the company is using the awards/honors for promotion
  • An analysis of how the company uses and benefits from (or could benefit from) the groundswell
  • A critique of the company’s online newsroom
  • Career opportunities in PR, corporate communication, marketing, etc., within the company
  • Based on your research of this company, are you now MORE or LESS likely to want to work for the company? Why? Provide at least two paragraphs of a rationale for your decision.

Choose two from the following:

  • For at least one news release, compare how the news release was written to how the story appeared when it was published in the media
  • One crisis the company has faced and how it dealt with it
  • Describe how the company is involved in its communities
  • Interview (phone or e-mail) a public relations professional within the company
  • Create your resume and cover letter as though you are applying for an entry-level PR position within the company
  • Another section of your choice, as long as you clear it with me by November 1

Important Dates

  • October 20: Let me know your decision of whether you’ll do a traditional term paper or a series of blog posts.
  • November 1: Last date to pitch an idea for a section in your paper to me
  • November 17 & 19: Presentations in class
  • December 2: Written portion of final project due in WebCT Vista by midnight (if you’re doing the paper) or posted on your blog by midnight

Questions? You know where to find me . . .

Photo Credit: “Stiff Neck Guaranteed” uploaded to Flickr on January 24, 2007 by rpeschetz

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Blog Assignment for PRCA 3331 (Corporate PR Class)

As you saw in your Corporate Public Relations Syllabus and we’ve discussed in class, part of your grade in PRCA 3331 will come from your blog. After setting up your blog, let me know your blog address as a response to a discussion board question in our Facebook group for PRCA 3331. Then, write four blog posts, which are worth 50 points each.

Blog posts can be written informally and in the first person; that is, they don’t need to sound like a term paper. However, there’s still an expectation for proper grammar, spelling and capitalization. If you have questions about how informal is “too informal,” please let me know.

Blog Post #1

Blog Post #2 (Option A)

Blog Post #2 (Option B)

Blog Post #3

Blog Post #4 (NOTE: Details updated 12-1-09)

Questions? You know where to find me . . .

Photo credit: “Typewriter Letters,” uploaded to Flickr on July 8, 2006 by Laineys Repertoire

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Powerful PowerPoint Presentations

Creating Your Presentation

  • Always create an opening slide with the title of your presentation, and perhaps a relevant graphic, along with your full name.
  • Use a template that complements your subject.
  • SmartArt adds to the presentation when you want to show your words graphically.
  • As with any presentation, use the three-pronged rule
    • tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em
    • tell ’em
    • then tell ’em what you told ’em.
  • Always use an objectives or agenda slide (for a preview) and a summary or conclusion slide.
  • Remember the 6×6 Rule. . . six words per line, six lines per slide, never more than that.
  • Don’t use sounds in your presentation. They may sound cute when you are rehearsing it, but they are distracting to your audience.
  • Be consistent with the types of animation you use to introduce your bullet points. Or better yet, don’t use animation or fancy transitions.
  • Stick to one graphic style throughout your presentation.
  • Use Flickr as a source for photos to include. Look for ones with Creative Commons licenses.
  • Want to see the World’s Worst PowerPoint?

Delivering Your Presentation

  • Never let your audience see you navigate to your file. Have the projector’s picture muted until you are ready to show your slides.
  • Speak to your audience, not the screen or monitor.
  • Practice using the laser pointer (if you’re using one).
  • When you’re not using your presentation, press B to blacken (or W to whiten) the screen. This helps the audience to focus on you, not the screen.
  • If using YouTube video clips, pre-load them so that they are ready to go. Or use Tooble to download the videos, so there’s not a fear of the Internet lag.

Additionally, here are some general tips I share in my public speaking classes.

Public Speaking Tips for COMM 1110
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: presentations speaking)

 

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Groundswell: People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology

Groundswell POST Process
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: relations public)
(Note: Portions of this presentation are reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press.  Adapted from Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.  Copyright © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc.; All Rights Reserved.)
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Groundswell: An Overview

This week in my Corporate PR class, we’ll be discussing Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. I’ve provided the slides for Monday’s class here.

Groundswell
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: groundswell social)

We’ll also watch Charlene Li’s presentation on Groundswell from Edelman’s New Media Academic Summit.

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Groundswell: Will It Blend?

 In my Corporate Public Relations class this fall, we’re reading Groundswell. Teams of students will present the five objectives of the groundswell: listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing. But for a little fun before we dive into the book, I thought it might be good to share this YouTube clip. What happens when you try to blend all the technologies together? Check it out on Will It Blend.

Interested in the story behind the Will It Blend video? Josh Bernoff shares the details at Forrester Research’s Groundswell minisite.

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Ethics and Communication in PR

As I promised my students in my Corporate PR class at Georgia Southern University, here are the slides that I’m using in class for August 25, along with two YouTube clips we’ll view. 

Ethics and Communication in PR
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ethics public)

 FEMA “Press Conference”

Cell Phones Can Pop Popcorn?

 

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Jumpstart on Fall Classes: Textbooks

If you’re looking to get a jumpstart on my classes at Georgia Southern University this fall, here are the books that I will be using. I’ve linked to many of them at Amazon.com, but of course you can purchase them from anywhere you like. I recommend you try the Facebook Marketplace first, so you can get a good deal AND help a fellow student.

For All of My Classes

A USB drive, at least 1G

Corporate Public Relations (PRCA 3331)

Doorley, J., & Garcia, H. F. (2007). Reputation management: The key to successful public relations and corporate communications. New York: Routledge.

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies
Boston, MA: Forrester Research, Inc.

Public Relations Publications (PRCA 3339)

Morton, L. P. (2006). Strategic publications: Designing for target publics. Greenwood, AR: Best Books Plus.

Recommended but not required: Botello, C., & Reding, E. E. (2007). Design collection revealed: Adobe InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 & Illustrator CS3
Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.

Public Speaking (COMM 1110)

German, K. M., Gronbeck, B. E., Ehninger, D., & Monroe, A. H. (2007). Principles of public speaking (16th ed.). New York: Allyn & Bacon.

Making Connections: Facebook & Beyond (FYE 1220)

No textbook required, but occasional access to a digital camera needed

Photo Credit: bookshelf, originally uploaded to Flickr by chotda 

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Groundswell as a Textbook?

GroundswellI’ll be using Groundswell as a text to augment Reputation Management in a Corporate PR class this fall. Are other public relations educators using Groundswell? If so, perhaps we could collaborate on discussion questions and exercises. Please drop me a line!

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Pix from New Media Academic Summit 2008

The Flickr photostream for items tagged with Summit08 is an interesting conglomeration of photos from several of us who attended Edelman’s New Media Academic Summit. Below are a few of my favorite ones.

Here’s a photo of me with Neville Hobson (blogger and co-host of For Immediate Release), taken by Edelman’s Rick Murray.

Barbara Nixon and Neville Hobsom

Charlene Li, author of Groundswell, posed with me for this one. (I’m the queen of arm’s length self-portraits.)

Charlene Li and Barbara Nixon

At the Avenue Hotel, there was a zebra chair in every room. Not knowing this, I brought my zebra shirt with me. I couldn’t resist another arm’s length self-portrait.

Barbara Nixon in a zebra shirt on a zebra chair

And finally, Clarke Caywood, one of the participants at the conference, carried the Beijing Olympic Torch in China in June. He graciously allowed many of us to pose with it.

Barbara Nixon holding a Beijing Olympic torch