PR Meet Bloggin

Introduction:

For this expert blog I ponder what I was good at or knew a lot about so the first thing that came to mind was blogging. I started my first blog on with blogger in 2013 the name of that blog was Perfectly Tailored. This blog followed fashion trends hair makeup beauty and exclusive events in and around the Atlanta area, a year later I changed the name of the site to Style Me Famous and had a team of contributors that wrote about hair makeup beauty and fashion. I later turned that site into my fashion entertainment site which is a community for fashion enthusiast around the world to sell, shop, buy and share their fashion trends. Currently we are under construction for a new layout.

History:

Enough about me let’s get into the history of what is known today as blogging. According to Wiki, the term "blog" was not coined until the late 1990s, the history of blogging starts with several digital precursors to it. Before "blogging" became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. A few called themselves "escribitionists". The New York Times gave a wonderful timeline of the evolution of blogging starting with the first official modern blog by Swarthmore student Justin Hall creates first blog ever, Links.net in January 1994.

Relevance:

Blogging is more than just an online journal of people's lives at school, but that was the start of what is now blogging. Blogging has become its own entity in itself. Blogging allows people to connect on and specialize in special topics like Disney, Food, Wine, kids, or fashion like me. These individuals and their expertise and research on specific topics are an extension to a PR professional outlet. These specialty blogs are ways to reach targeted audiences, (influencers) influential people in particular industries. This allows PR professional to expand and target their reach and save their clients’ money or gain more exposure for their clients in a targeted audience. This opportunity will allow PR professionals to gift these influencers with their client’s product or service to share with their communities.

 

It’s also important for PR professionals to have their own blogs to help educate their clients on services and what’s happening within the PR industry and their industry. PR blogs are informative, providing guidance, advice, service, ideas, promoting their clients and their products. It’s a way to gain more exposure for themselves and their clients. It is also important for PR clients to have their own blogs. This allows them to publish information on their own and share what’s happening with them.

Significant:

Like social media, not just the art of blogging is important the people behind the blogs are just as important, without them, these influencers and their unique communities could not be formed. These influencers are like modern day celebrities, so long were the days when we hired overpriced superstars like Rihanna Beyoncé Taylor and Miley to draw in crowds for a new product or service with the chance of losing favorability with current consumers because the celebrity did something that was disliked by the public, there is a lot of risk involved. These influencers play a huge role in helping brands, PR professionals, and publications identify a targeted audience or audiences that were not so easy to identify before. The beauty of blogging is that that are so many and many have thousands of followers and just by simply gifting one they would be more than happy to write a post winning the gifter with favorable buys.

 

In a previous post, I wrote about a skype chat with Eric Qualman the social Media genius. Two facts he made and I wrote about are below:

• Follow the Trend Not the Tool: A tool like Google, Instagram, Myspace, snapchat come and go, however trends, where the people are going is what you should be following to stay up-to-date, current and relevant.
•      Network before you need your network:  This point hit close to home because I actually use this in everyday like, I run a blog and with that I get invited to many event which offers me an opportunity into many circles, although I may not need these individuals at the time I always keep in touch,      repost/retweet/comment to keep the relationship alive, because you do not know when you may need these networks in the future, and if you have already made that connection it would be a smoother transition into a need or a favor.

This is significant to PR and blogging because in this industry it is all about networking and following the trend because each of these industries needs each other to thrive in this ever evolving world we live in, tool die, and trend change regularly. 

Its A Small World After All

Dr. Richard Waters is a Public Relations Professor at the University of San Francisco. 150 hours out the year Waters spend at one of the most Magical places on the planet, Walt Disney World as a requirement to be a seasonal worker. During his seasonal work, Water is an operator at the famous Tower of Terror in Hollywood Studios.

 This afternoon I had the pleasure of following skype chat with Waters the public relations professor.  Waters began his chat with an introduction of who he is and how he got where he was today and his experience and journey with the Disney brand. This brought us to his key points: Becoming a cast member, The Underground Tunnels, and Safety.

Becoming a cast member:  

It is somewhat of a daunting task to become a Disney cast member, first, you would have to apply if your application is accepted then you are asked a series of questions, finger printed, and a background check ran. If all of that goes well those beginning personality questions are then used to determine where you will be placed in the park. This system is used in order to place people with similar personalities which helps keep down conflict. After being presented an offer Disney expects cast to hold an image standard, women and men must be well groomed at all times, and expects cast to know the safety manuals by heart because safety is the utmost importance at Disney.

 The Underground Tunnel:

 



Safety: As mentioned above safy is highly important to the Disney brand and they take extra precaution in making sure that safety is implemented into the every aspect of Disney.  According to Waters, there are huge manuals given to every cast member on how to safely run and operate the ride, weather, how uniforms should be run, handling guest, to even the best way to wave a flag on a float. Disney goes above and beyond to make sure the Disney experience is achieved, in the link above you will find more safety precautions.  

Not many may know about this secret area but I know most Disney enthusiast do. This area can be entered through hidden passageways throughout the park. Disney's underground tunnels were created when the park was established, their sole purpose was to assist with structure in the Florida swampy marsh. The tunnels are throughout the park except the most recent additions.  Later they became underground transportation ways to assist with emergencies within the park, and according to Waters it the place where Stitch, Pinocchio, and Aldan can be seen dining together, Mickey without his head and Disney princesses cat fighting in the alley. 

Creating Value

"Creating Value"

Erik Qualman is a social media veteran and formerly known as "the guy with the green glasses”. Qualman is the author of Socialnomics (#1 Best Selling International Book), and Digital Leader and What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube. He has worked with hundreds of brands like Coach, Google, featured in major publications and talk shows, and has performed in 44 countries.

 

 This afternoon I had the pleasure of following skype chat with Erik Qualman the official social media guru.  Erik began his chat with an open ended survey “what social media platforms are we using, to how we would prefer our friends and professors to reach us”, it really broke the ice and taught us one of his key points “Follow the Trend not the Tool. 

• Follow the Trend Not the Tool: A tool like Google, Instagram, Myspace, snapchat come and go, however trends, where the people are going is what you should be following to stay up-to-date, current and relevant.
•      Network before you need your network:  This point hit close to home because I actually use this in everyday like, I run a blog and with that I get invited to many event which offers me an opportunity into many circles, although I may not need these individuals at the time I always keep in touch, repost/retweet/comment to keep the relationship alive, because you do not know when you may need these networks in the future, and if you have already made that connection it would be a smoother transition into a need or a favor.
•           Post it forward:   Think outside in not inside out: When Erik mentioned this for some reason everything seemed to click. I already knew about creating value for the consumer but for some reason it was not working. Erik gave an example “a company hired him to help with social media; they wanted to send out coupons to the masses no targeted audience, simply send them out. Erik suggested sending them to everyone online or through an app, the client said no, they did not want people to actually use them, just throw them away or lose them, we really don't want them to get a discount because they would be losing money. “ Erik goes on to say, “you have to work outside in, learning what your audience want and creating value for them and delivering on it, don’t chance the money it will come”.

Chegg

I am not sure about other countries but in the US customer service is a pretty big deal, and now with things like the power of online reviews and social media people praise and complaints can speed even further. In the US we expect a certain level of respect, cleanliness, a friendly smile, well groomed employees and an easily accessible environment which all plays to customer service.

Chegg is a company that most college students have grown fond to over their college years or experience. Chegg is a unique booking buying experience allowing students or individuals to purchase their books online from sellers around the world or what they have in house. Chegg tends to be the best online book store according to reviews and continues to reinvent itself every year with unique shopping options, ebooks, sometimes the best prices, free coupons when books arrive, free returns and great customer service.

For this post I focused on Cheggs customer service. Unlike other online book stores or any book store, chegg has gone above and beyond to deliver the best customer service possible.

Chegg has a twitter account with the handle (@CheggHelp) specifically to help customers with all their needs 24 hours a day.

I decided to monitor the @chegghelp and #chegghelp to see what people were saying about the brand and customer service particularly. I watched the account periodically throughout the day covering about 24 hours worth of tweets. From my research I was able to determine that CheggHelp was quit successful many people were very satisfied with the speedy reply and overall needs being met. out of the 30 post:

25 out of the 30 were very happy with their customer service experience via twitter.
3 out of 30 were not satisfied
2 out of 30 could not be determined.

From this data and personal experience, I can say that the @CheggHelp has been quit beneficial to customer and has earned great reviews.

Chegg Customer Service Chart

Disney The Place where Dreams Come True

• Identify three significant milestones in the development of the Disney company.  Why are they significant?

In the 1990s the Animation department was still having some setbacks with making competitive films, ultimately giving way to a possible termination of the department. This pushed the company to try something new “animated graphics”. Disney would be the first company to try this feature for the film. In reality the film was a flop, people did not feel a connection to graphics, however, it was the start of a new era in film and Disney would be the pioneer for that and giving Pixel their first debut to the world.  In 1937 Disney Released the first US full-length animated film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"; production costs exceeded $1.5 million. In 1955 Disneyland Amusement Park opened in Anaheim, California. These are significant moments because it changed the face of the film industry.

• What surprised you about Disney as a company?

There were a couple things that surprised me about the Disney company. First, I did not know that Disney was the first to produce a  full-length technical graphic animated film which flopped because people did not feel a connection to it, because the intensity of the eyes and the connect really matters, and Disney  had build a brand on hand drawn characters so it was not well received. I also did not know that the company that helped them achieve this was Pixel. I also didn't know that Disney was also the first to produce the first full-length Technicolor film. This is quite an innovative company.

• What are the keys to Disney’s success?  What distinguishes them from other companies?  What can other media companies learn from Disney?

Disney prides its brands on a few key things that sets them apart from many other competitors or brands: Provide a promise, not a product, Always exceed customers’ expectations, Pursue your passion, and the money will follow, Stay true to your company’s mission and values, Differentiate your offer, Lead by example and delegate, Defy convention, Leave behind something to grow. These steps set this brand apart because Disney executes it each and every day to the fullest. Other companies should use this as a stepping stone to elevate their brands.

http://www.businessbrief.com/walt-disneys-8-secrets-to-success/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvaBBNeRBPU

• Where do you see the Disney Company in 10 years?

         I am not a huge Disney fan or follower however joining this class has taught me more about the brand and its founders. If Disney continues on the train that they are on and buying up companies like the monopoly they are I think they will be even bigger world domination. Quite honestly its scary the amount of companies Disney secretly controls.

• What do you think are their most valuable properties?

I think the theme parks are most valuable because the parks deliver the ultimate Disney experience. It is more than just a movie, it's more than just a TV show, it’s your favorite characters in the flesh walking amongst you, there’s other enthusiast like yourself, food, rides, smells, fireworks, you can get the real Disney experience all in one. This is why I feel this is one of the most valuable properties. 

• What are the challenges that Disney faces currently?

According to SCMP.com Disney is once again in a fight with the state of Florida against the expansion of Casinos. Disney believes casinos will ruin the family friendly quality of Florida that they have fought to preserve.

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1341255/disney-faces-challenge-its-motives-fight-against-more-florida-casinos