Milledgeville Convention & Visitors Bureau

This summer I was lucky enough to get an internship at the Milledgeville Convention & Visitors Bureau and I could not have asked for a better experience. I began working the middle of May and worked half days until my Spanish 4 class was over.

I cannot believe how much I learned in one summer. I worked on everything from simple media requests for local magazines to helping plan and execute this year's Deep Roots Festival. I got to write a few press releases and design a few different things that I am still working on. I updated all of our websites (we have around 4) and kept up with all of our events coming up and made sure all of the times/dates and other information was correct.

One of my favorite parts of my internship was getting to interact with all of the visitors and getting to know them. I was surprised to see how many visitors we had on a daily basis, but I loved getting to tell them about Milledgeville and fun things for them to do. I ever got better with my "direction-giving skills," which were somewhat pathetic before (and still kind of are, but they are better). Not only was it fun getting to help people, but it also really improved my confidence. Most of you would find it hard to believe that I used to be deathly shy and could not carry on a conversation with a stranger to save my life. Now, that was about 6/7 years ago, but this internship helped me to become more confident with conversing with new people which is crucial in the PR field. This was definitely one of the greatest aspects of my experience.

I was also given the opportunity to attend regional meetings and partake in very productive meetings concerning budgets, advertising, new websites we are working on, etc... I really appreciated that everyone treated me as an equal and not just as an intern with no ranking. The meetings definitely expanded my knowledge of the tourism industry which I have grown to love. Working with the other CVB's and visitor centers within the middle Georgia (Historic Heartland) area has really been an awesome experience.

My co-workers were (and still are) the highlight of my internship. I have formed great relationships with each of them and I feel as though this is one of the most important things in any work environment. If you do not get along with your co-workers, chances are you will not like your job. The four other ladies that I worked with all summer were incredible and treated me with the utmost respect. They appreciated every little thing that I did and never failed to tell me how appreciative they were.

I have enjoyed my internship so much that I have decided to stay and work through the fall. We have two BIG events coming up that everyone needs to check out!
**The first event is the Deep Roots Festival (formerly known as Sweetwater). This is Oct. 24 from 10a.m.-11p.m and the bands line up will be announced Wednesday (before class) the 26th at noon on the Tony & Philip Radio show on Z97.
**The second one is our 9th Annual Haunted Trolley Tour. It will run Oct. 26 thru Oct. 29 at 6:30p.m. and 8:30p.m. each of those nights.
(Sorry had to get my little plugs in)

So, come take a trolley tour one day soon and visit me at the CVB!

Magnolia Promotion

Magnolia Park Apartments is currently running a promotion where you can win a free trip to Cancun. Since the promotion began, leasing has increased over 10%. Take a tour, sign a lease and your name will be entered into the drawing!

PR Open Mic

PROpenMic is not really what I expected. Well, I'm not really sure what I expected, but I like it. It reminds me a lot of Facebook with the "news feed" on the profile and home pages and how it tells you when you make a change to your page/picture.

I was really overwhelmed having to join another social network! I already struggle with the four that I have, but I'm getting better. I think PROpenMic will grow on me, just as the others have. I have especially come to appreciate Twitter.

The thing I like the most about PROpenMic is that it is made solely for us people in the PR world. Whether you are a student, professor, or practitioner, PROpenMic is waiting for you to join! This really helps to keep the information concentrated on the site to information that pertains to all of us and that we find entertaining and useful.

So, all in all, I just wanted to say, "Thanks Ging," for opening my eyes to ALL these other networking sites that I know will be a great help not only now, but also in my future career!

BLOG-star in the making

Ok.  I am trying very hard to get better at blogging.

I think my problem is that I am always on the go.  I hate sitting still and I am always running errands, at the gym, tanning bed, store...you name it, I've done it today!  I like having tons of stuff to do and staying busy.  Sounds weird, but while most people consider running errands to be a task, it is one of my favorite things to do :).

I do love my computer and using it, but I'm not one to just sit down for hours and blog/tweet/facebook.  No thanks.  I almost have to force myself to make time to check e-mail and keep up with my social networking.

I think the reason I have such a hard time with blogging is because you actually have to sit down and take time to think of what to write, and then actually write it! On the other hand, Twitter and Facebook are more "Check and Go" social network sites.  I love the fact that you can only post 140 characters on Twitter.  It's as if it was made for me!  I do update my Facebook status fairly often, but I usually just get on to see what other people are up to...not like a stalker or anything haha.

We'll see how it goes.  I am putting in a conscious effort in becoming a blog-star though.  As i said in my last blog, "Practice makes perfect!"

Tip, Tip, Hooray . . .

       I found Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point," to be an easy read.  As I'm sure many of us felt when we were assigned this book to read, I automatically assumed it was going to be boring that I would have to lock myself in a dungeon with no windows to be able to finish it.  I was very wrong though. 

      I consider "The Tipping Point" to be a certain point that cause a behavior to "tip." As Gladwell states on page 7, "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do."  I think that the tipping point is largely based on the environments that the epidemic is exposed to.  Along with his example of the spread of syphilis, good things can spread just as easily.

     Gladwell breaks his book down into the Three Rules of Epidemics, the first one being the Law of the Few.  He states that certain people in our society are responsible for the spread or "tip" of epidemics.  In the STD example, Potterat interviewed 768 people from a small community did not spread gonorrhea to any other persons or just to one. That left the other 168 people responsible for transmitting the disease and causing the epidemic to grow.  In the Paul Revere example, the Law of the Few was viewed in a positive light.  Revere's social personality was able to stimulate the people while Dawes's was not.  Gladwell also states that we do not recognize these people enough within our society.  The Stickiness Factor is the second rule and the Rule of Context is what he calls the third rule of epidemics.  I found it very interesting the ways that Gladwell broke these sections up and enjoyed all of the examples that he used within each.

     In order to make this year's Athletic Auction "tip," I think that it is crucial that we focus on the "stickiness" to make an impact on the our guests.  Gladwell states on page 132, "There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible.  All you have to do is find it."  I think this quote fits perfect.  We want the auction to be somewhat simple and we do not want to have way over the top decor and props, but at the same time, we want our guests to get the WOW effect.  We want to impress not only our guests, but also the people that we are working with in the athletic department.  We want to leave a lasting impression so a few years from now, Dr. Carter's will be introducing her PR admin class to the auction project and she will always use our class as an example.

     There are three different types of people that Gladwell talks about in the Law of the Few section and they are the Connectors, the Mavens, and the Salesmen.  The Connector he refers to as someone who is known in society and has a connection with tons of different people.  Their relationship is not close as a best friend or anything, but more of a connection; someone to call up for a favor.  The Mavens are the helpers and the teach others what they learn.  The Salesmen are people with outgoing personalities that allow you to feel a connection and closeness right after meeting them.  They can quickly become someone that you are close to, but they have that ability in gaining peoples' trust after a short amount of time.  Proceed with some caution with the salesmen!

     I consider myself to be somewhat of a Salesman.  I realize i just kind of bashed them in the paragraph before, but I consider myself to be very outgoing and always wanting to please others.  If I come up with an idea that I think is just fabulous, I will run with it and make anyone else see it my way.  I definitely get this from my dad.   He works in the insurance business and never meets a stranger.  He is so friendly and outgoing and can hold a great conversation with anyone.  I like to persuade people and think that I am somewhat effective when it comes to allowing people to see things through my point of view.

     Social media in the Public Relations world is crucial, as we all learned at Real World.  I want to try and be more of a "connector" and to broaden my contacts and form some type of relationship with those important people.  In my Principles of Advertising class last semester, two ladies from and ad agency came to talk to us and I specifically remember one of them talking about how she would keep contact with all of the people that could potentially help her in the future whether it was a simple phone call once a week, or grabbing lunch.  Making and more importantly, maintaining relationships is crucial.  I feel that blogging and Twitter allow us to keep up with people and maintain our relationships.  I still feel that face-to-face communication is more important and makes more of an impact, but with the social networking craze in our society today, if you're not involved, you are losing tons of business and connections every second of the day.

       I am still working on tweeting more and blogging more often than our weekly assignments.  It is something that is definitely taking time to get used to, but as they always say, "Practice make perfect."  I think it is great that Dr. Carter has introduced us to Twitter and blogging so that we can help our future employees benefit from our knowledge.

DJ Ashley

Last semester I did my practicum with The Colonnade and unexpectedly ended up realizing my passion for writing. This semester I was at a loss for what I wanted to do and thought I would go out on a limb and try the radio station. Well, for my practicum this semester I am a radio DJ for WGUR. I have to admit, I was REALLY dreading it at first, especially because I got a late start with it into the semester. Things are really looking up!
I have my own radio show every Wednesday night from 8-9p.m. At first, I was absolutely clueless about everything. There are so many buttons to push, computers to use, and rules/guidelines to follow; I was overwhelmed.
Yesterday was my third radio show and I am loving it! I have decided to go with an " Ashley's Top 10" theme. Last week I talked about the top 10 downloaded songs on iTunes for the week and yesterday I talked about "10 ways to live a healthy life." Having my own show on the radio gives me a chance to talk about things that I find interesting that I think other people will benefit from.
I am so happy that I took a chance with my practicum this semester and it is going great. This will be something else that will be impressive to put on my resume! I am glad that I am getting a feel for many different jobs. Writing for The Colonnade and working for WGUR have both turned out great and I feel so lucky to have these experiences.

PR Real World

I absolutely LOVED PR Real World this past Friday.  Getting up at 4:30 and driving two hours was NOT fun, but they had a nice breakfast for us once we got there.  It also makes it better when you like all the people you are with (PR Admin :)) 

I also really like that we got to choose which sessions we wanted to attend every time.  The first one I went to was about internships and it offered me tons of useful information and interview techniques to remember.  This was great since my internship is coming up this summer!

At lunch, we sat with two ladies from UPS.  They were telling us all about what they did and introducing us to new people.  They were so nice and it was refreshing to sit with such outgoing and real people!

I got a lot more out of Real World than I really expected to and I am so glad I went!  I am already looking forward to next year, since I will be looking for a job then!