By Corinne Dolan

It’s no secret that driving engagement is key to a brand’s success on social media. But in an attention economy like ours, it’s much easier said than done to drive engagement and to see concrete results from it. Another issue to tackle is which platform to focus on to ensure your key audience receives your message. This past month, Pinterest joined the list of social media platforms that are playing the engagement game, with new features for creators and influencers alike to drive meaningful engagement.

Move over, TikTok. Pinterest recently launched their new “Watch” scrolling feature which takes content from creator’s “Idea Pins” and allows users to respond with their own pin, or as Pinterest calls it, “Takes”. Unlike Instagram stories, these pins do not disappear and they foster engagement by linking the user’s pin to the creator’s and allowing the creator to highlight the user’s responses. This encourages community engagement and presents the opportunity for brands to have conversations with a variety of publics. 

Influencers also have the incentive to use Pinterest to drive engagement. Launching its “Creator Rewards” program, Pinterest is offering influencers with over 1,000 followers to receive monetization by posting content that the app assigns. The Creator Hub allows creators to make high-quality, organic content that aligns with their brand and interests. Celebrities including Megan Thee Stallion and Jennifer Lopez are among the first influencers to utilize this, as they encouraged users to interact with their Idea Pins.

Pinterest’s new features offer influencers and creators to receive engagement from highly interested individuals who are seeking out specific content, not ones that mindlessly scroll. This no doubt presents the unique opportunity for meaningful interactions between creators and users. 

As a student eager to enter the PR industry, I am excited to see what these new tools hold for the future of Pinterest and its users. I feel that brands that are looking to break into influencer relations can benefit immensely from these new additions. As getting user attention and driving engagement becomes more and more difficult, Pinterest now allows for a unique space to gain mutually beneficial relationships.

Sources: https://www.prweek.com/article/1731029/pinterest-launches-bunch-new-features-creators

Pinterest unveils new influencer features with its ‘algorithmic plus editorial’ model

By Rachel Ornstein

Though hosted virtually again this year, the PRSA International Conference offered various powerhouse sessions with professional speakers. The last three weeks involved attending live webinar sessions in between classes or watching recorded sessions from the day before. Here is a roundup of my biggest takeaways from a few sessions that resonated with me.

Mastering PR Writing in 2021

Speakers: John Bianchi and Kelly Quigley 

As any aspiring public relations practitioner knows, the name of the game in this practice is writing. In this session, I learned about the core writing skills required for different types of writing such as social media posts, speeches, and news releases. Among many, here are three of my takeaways: 

1. Remove unnecessary words or phrases like “that,” “in order to,” and “to start” in your writing
2. Write press releases in AP style to give journalists the option to use as much of your content in their story, as AP Style is their language  
3. Use the active voice in your writing by having the subject act and the object receive the action.

Ex: Passive Voice: “The report was released by the CEO” 

      Active Voice: “The CEO released the report” 

Media Pitching Rules for 2022 

Speaker: Michael Smart

A common practice of public relations is media pitching, but as time goes on, the rules change to stay effective. In this session, I learned how to have the most success with media pitching in 2022. The key point for practitioners was to niche down their media lists, as that is what consumers are doing in their news consumption. 

The speaker said to niche down to daily newsletters rather than pitching to big organizations for higher results. He claimed media outlets who win in today’s landscape will do the best job at serving their focused audience instead of a broad one. Overall, the formula for media success is quality with niche audiences.

He also shared a tip for pitching outlets that involve subscription-based newsletters. These are outlets less interested in the shareability or virality of news since they are focused on serving their core audience. Therefore, the objective needs to be credible when pitching to them, because the focus is on being showcased in that specific outlet to their niche audience. 

Pledges to Purpose: Proving Brand Purpose in 2021

Speakers: James Wright, Ben Boyd, Ruth Harper

Now more than ever, brand purpose needs to be proven and not just stated. In this session, I learned about what it truly takes to prove brand purpose in today’s landscape.

A statistic shared in this session claimed that 73% of people think brands must act now for the good of society and the planet. This made me think of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as companies can’t just exist for their own purpose nowadays; instead, they must have a larger positive impact on society and the world. 

My biggest takeaway from this session involved the three pillars underlying brand purpose and examples to demonstrate them:

1. Wellbeing Before Everything

This pillar represents the heightened importance of employee wellbeing. The speakers showcased the brand Salesforce as an example, as they conducted internal surveys with their employees to gauge topics of interest and things that the company can improve on to better their working environment.

2. Doubling Down on DE&I

This next pillar encompasses the importance of how companies need to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to DE&I efforts, as it’s not just talking about the efforts the organization plans to implement, it’s about actually doing so. Paypal exemplified this idea by funding $500 million dollars to support black and minority businesses in addition to the company’s internal diversity program.

3. Counteracting Climate Change

This third pillar demonstrates the importance of CSR and how audiences are keeping brands accountable by making sure their efforts focus on the sustainability of our planet. To exemplify this, Mercedez Benz published an article by the company’s CEO detailing the comparison of learnings from the COVID-19 global crisis, and how society can adapt these same takeaways to the global crisis of climate change. In addition, the CEO specified how Mercedez Benz implemented sustainability practices.

Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to attend many sessions that reflected what the PR and Communication industry looks like today. I learned the most sought-out writing practices, the media pitching practices of next year, and how companies are held to a higher accountability standard by their audiences.

By Evelyn Zanowski

This summer I had the pleasure of interning at NYC-based integrated marketing and PR firm, HUNTER PR who have recently been named the Consumer Agency of the Year by Provoke Media. The agency is led by PRSSA-UD alumnus Grace Leong, and work with a variety of brands such as Tabasco (their first client ever!), Amazon, and Diageo brand liquors.

This summer, I served as the Marketing and New Business Development Intern and worked directly with the agency’s internal marketing division. During my time at HUNTER, I would consider my role a “jack of all trades,” as I was ready to help with whatever was needed to be done. No day was the same, and that was something I loved about my experience! Other responsibilities of mine included creating media audits for potential new clients, creating social media content for the agencies’ social platforms, and proofread some important RFIs! What is an RFI you might ask? It is a request for information and a process for PR agencies to complete when reaching out to new clients looking for an agency to work with. It was exciting to see all the behind-the-scenes work that is done to obtain new clients!

I went in wanting to learn as much as I could and to virtually make as many connections as possible. A unique aspect about HUNTER I noticed is how involved higher-level staff works to create connections with everyone at the company. I also enjoyed getting to know my fellow interns who study at other schools around the country. 

I want to thank PRSSA-UD for this opportunity, as I served as the Barbara Hunter Fellow, a program that allows one student from UD to work at HUNTER during their summer internship program. My engagement in PRSSA helped me obtain this role, and I encourage other members to get involved as well. 

On the last week of my internship, I was able to visit the NYC office which is in the One World Trade Center. I got to see breathtaking 360-degree views of NYC and was able  to meet my supervisor, Cal, as well as other staff members. I truly enjoyed the culture, energy, and work ethic of HUNTER, and I hope to one day work for this incredible company. Thank you to everyone who made this such an unforgettable experience.

By: Sammy Chmara

In our recent meeting held on November 30th 2020, we were joined by Samantha Antapol who does Marketing, Communications, and Events for Veuve Clicquot. Veuve Clicquot specializes in premium wines and is one of the biggest champagne houses in the world.

Samantha began the meeting by giving us some background on her education, college involvement, and internship experience prior to her current job. Samantha graduated from the University of Delaware as an English major who always dreamed of working at a magazine. She was very involved in UDress as she started as a writer and then was promoted to several higher up roles. She was also part of The Review on campus and PRSSA as a general member. Her writing experience began as she worked for Charolette Ronson as an intern and online editor who wanted to work at Teen Vogue. She has always admired University of Delaware and their PRSSA organization as she felt that these students have gone on to do such amazing things.

Upon graduation, she started as a Freelance Marketing Assistant and Freelance E-commerce Copywriter. Her first real career began at Vogue Magazine in the role of Advertising Assistant and then Coordinator. Her roles consisted of developing media plans and marketing programs. She loved focusing on French fashion and beauty advertisers here.

Her current role with Veuve Clicquot has been extremely rewarding and fun for Samantha as she has gets to do so much on a daily basis. She plans and executes marketing programs and events that LVMH carries out. She partners with PR firms to get their expertise in media relations and focuses heavily on celebrity and influencer relations. She does a lot of celebrity gifting, email marketing, and media buying. She said that even though she didn’t go through with a writing geared career, she still has to do it a lot.

Samantha ended the meeting by giving the group some career focused advice. She first stressed the importance of internships both in college and after. She advised us to intern at different places and not be so focused on just one brand. She also told us that you have to love what you do first and like where you work second. This means that you should care more about your daily roles than the name of where your work. She also addressed the stressful topic of not being able to find a job right after college. She says to just stay in contact with people because it might give you an opportunity and you should always take an opportunity even if it isn’t the exact role you wanted. Lastly, she gave some advice pertaining to interviews. She says be yourself and be upfront about things you don’t know. Additionally, always send a follow-up thank you email or letter.

We are so glad that we got to hear from Samantha and we will definitely be taking her advice to heart!

By Julia Sciacca

This week held one of the biggest wins for women in public relations. President-elect Biden named his communications team in which all seven roles are held by females. As a young woman looking ahead to her future in the industry, this is a very promising and motivating sign that women will someday be on the same playing field as men without needing to work twice as hard. Along with being fully female, the President-elect’s incoming communications team is very diverse, which will give the country more well-rounded communications.

As the holiday season kicks into full gear after a year of change, the public relations industry will be facing even more unfamiliar situations and tasks. The holiday season is usually one of the most important seasons for advertising, PR campaigns, and marketing, all of which tend to incorporate family together time, community events, and various celebratory gatherings to promote the warm, holiday feeling. How are these industries going to go about capitalizing on the holiday season when gatherings are now unsafe and families may not be celebrating the holidays together? With no surprise, Amazon was one of the first organizations to put out a successful holiday commercial that incorporated COVID, and still gave viewers holiday cheer through fantastic storytelling. Other possible trends for this coming season are an increase in animated content and capitalizing on the nostalgia most people are feeling for holiday seasons past.

This past Saturday, November 28^th, the Vanderbilt football team put Sarah Fuller in as their kicker in their game against the University of Missouri. She is now the first woman to play in a Power 5 football game. Fuller is a senior at Vanderbilt and was the goal keeper for the University’s women’s soccer team before joining Vanderbilt’s football team mere days before she stepped on the field. While Fuller’s new position on Vanderbilt’s team is one for the books, unfortunately many people are looking at is as an elaborate publicity stunt. Fox Sports Radio’s Clay Travis is one of those people. Travis did a whole segment on his show about why he believes that the decision to bring Sarah Fuller in was a publicity stunt coordinated by the team’s former coach to attempt to save his job. Clay Travis also tweeted multiple times about his thoughts on Fuller’s new position on his Twitter which has 748 thousand followers. Between his radio show and his significant Twitter following, he reaches a wide audience who now, unfortunately, instead of celebrating Fuller’s accomplishment, are questioning the legitimacy behind it.

There will definitely be more newsworthy events coming our way in the weeks to come. It will be very interesting to see how the public relations industry continues to adapt to the new COVID climate through the holiday season. As the public transitions to 2021 however, public relations professionals in D.C. and the political field won’t see much rest as the Presidential transition will be continuing on and the inauguration will be fast approaching. 

By: Sammy Chmara

As summer 2020 was quickly approaching, I was hesitant about if I would be able to find an internship or not. Internship searching is hard enough, and the COVID-19 pandemic was posing even more challenges to getting hired. After submitting a ton of applications, I decided to reach out to some local Marketing and Public Relations agencies to see if they were still offering remote internships for the summer. After a few weeks, the president of the Digital Marketing Agency called PurpleGator reached out to me. I was thrilled and relieved that this company got back to me and was really considering hiring me for the summer. After an interview with him and his fellow vice president, they said that they thought a Marketing internship with them would help me learn so much about the industry and be great experience to get my foot in the door. I excitedly accepted the role, even though I was not exactly sure what I would be doing. I knew I would have something to keep me busy for the summer while being able to add relevant experience to my resume.

The first week of my internship was extremely overwhelming, since working for an agency like this was so new to me. Being the only intern at the time, my two supervisors were constantly giving me tasks to do and it was hard to know how much time I would be spending each and every day on them each and every day. Since the whole company was working from home, we used Skype regularly to stay in contact with each other about what needed to be done. We would also have daily team meetings in the morning to go over everyones jobs for the day. Being the newest member of the team who was only an intern, I was definitely nervous about what my team thought about me and if I was living up to the companies standards. I found that my supervisors and other team members were extremely friendly and helpful towards me.I also made sure that I spoke up about any confusion or concerns that I had and made sure that I was extremely receptive to my supervisors and answered them swiftly.

During this internship, I was exposed to so many different elements of the Digital Marketing and Advertising fields. I was able to sit in on team and client meetings to see how these types of meetings operate. I also got to write blog posts on a variety of different topics such as business advice during the pandemic, mobile marketing, and website development. Being able to research and write about these different topics taught me a lot and seeing my pieces actually on the companies website made me really proud of the progress I was making. I also got to help format and insert content for company campaigns as well as research client companies and logos.

The opportunity that I had interning for this company taught me a lot about myself and what am I able to accomplish when I work hard and diligently. One thing that I learned is that if you want to find a job or internship, you really have to put yourself out there. If you look hard enough, you are eventually going to find something. Your first internship does not need to be the most glamorous or the most exciting opportunity, but any experience you can get is definitely worth it. This internship also taught me the importance of asking questions. Internship Supervisors do not expect you to know everything, and it is really important that you speak up when you are confused about tasks. This shows them how committed you are to the company and to learning Lastly, I learned that you are capable of achieving so much more than you think you are able to. I was so nervous about starting this internship because I thought that I did not have enough experience and that I did not know enough about the field. After each day, I realized that I have already been exposed to so much information just through my classes and extracurriculars. It is important to not put so much pressure on yourself and instead just keep an open mind, because you can end up accomplishing so much more than you thought you were able to.