Imprezing Employers

My boyfriend was at a tech startup conference the other day where he learned of Prezi, "the zooming presentation editor". I watched some of the sample presentations on the website and I've been playing around with it for days now. This is a great way to spice up any kind of presentation whether it be for school or business, and it's great for unconventional portfolios and resumes as well. I'm currently working on creating a combination resume/portfolio in hopes of standing out from the crowd when applying to jobs. Graduation is five and a half weeks (WEEKS!) away so I've been racking my brain for creative ways to enter the competitive race for employment. Being a communication major looking for a career in public relations, marketing, event planning, or a related field, I though using a new and creative avenue would be appropriate.

This is a great tool for sales pitches for businesses. I'm sure clients see paper and PowerPoint pitches constantly, so seeing something fresh and eye-catching would be a relief. It also discourages those who tend to be text-happy with their presentations, because it's really all about the graphics and short snippets of information. Videos may be embedded as well. Check it out and see what you can do for upcoming presentations, applications and pitches. Here's an example of one that explains how to convert an existing PowerPoint presentation into Prezi: Turn a PowerPoint to Prezi. Enjoy!

I'm reading: Imprezing Employers

Not Failure, Opportunity

A great deal of Easter weekend was devoted to the application for 10X, a competition through ONE Fund offering money and mentoring to tech startups. The Metropreneur explains the competition in more detail. The project team matched the set of criteria and could answer all of the questions thoroughly, so this seemed like the defining moment that was going to kick start the business. Not only did the ten chosen teams receive $20,000 in funding and a summer full of mentoring and aid from professionals, but they also had the chance to be placed in front of a panel of angel investors at the end of the summer. This was it-- this is what the team had been waiting for to really get the ball rolling. Everyone read the questions multiple times and had several brainstorming sessions before finally tackling every single question and getting the answers (in 125 words or less) to be concise and meaningful. This went on for about seven hours on Saturday and for another five hours on Sunday. Everyone was trying to get inside the heads of the judges and the mission of the competition to answer to the best of their abilities. After thorough editing the final submission went through with about half an hour to spare.

And so we wait...

The answer came through surprising soon. Less than four days after the submission the rejection letter came explaining the competitiveness of the competition-- of the 120 worldwide submissions just 25 were chosen. Luckily even to those not chosen advice is offered by the local experts, so the team is waiting to hear back from them to see what they need to improve or change. This was a major disappointment and blow to the team's steam, but everyone is trying to look at it as an opportunity. This apparently isn't the road the business is meant to take, and another one with come that better fits its needs and goals. It is extremely disheartening to put your heart and soul into something you're really passionate about only to be rejected, but it's no reason to quit or even slow down. Will it be a harder and longer road? Yes, but this gives the company a chance to regroup, find out what needs to be done, and find the opportunity that will lead to success.

While the engineers are working to improve the prototype and prepare for alpha testing, those on the business side are continuing to crunch numbers to prove the product is definitely a great investment. Also, we've created a spreadsheet to compile a running list of any personal contacts, educators, local experts, mentors and investors we can think of so we can get as much advice and guidance as possible. Though the 10X program would have been a huge asset, we're doing the best we can to attain some of the benefits of the program ourselves. We're continuing to look for networking and funding opportunities for tech startups to get the business of the ground.

I'm reading: Not Failure, Opportunity

Commencing Countdown

There haven't been many updates on the project lately other than the usual fine-tuning continuously being done on the hardware and software. There's now a team working on the software which should help somewhat distribute the workload. There was a meeting with a family friend who has invested in and aided startup businesses before, which boosted the confidence of those working on the project. It was great news for them to hear from someone who'd gone through similar endeavors that their product is marketable and the cost of start up and production is reasonable. The next step is to work out the kinks before sitting down with a patent lawyer. I haven't been working on it much lately either, but I've laid out a rough PR plan and definitely have some ideas for getting feedback before going to market as well as getting the company's name out there. I'm currently taking a communication research methods course which is giving me a lot of ideas for surveys relating to the company and the product to be distributed to upper level personnel within the industry.

Although there haven't been any major updates on this, another reason I haven't been working on side projects much lately is because I'm graduating in two months. Two. I'm trying to remain calm but wow-- I always imagined the end of my senior year as being totally laid back and fun, mainly used just for creating memories. I am so much more stressed than I was at this time last year. And so, the pressure is on and all free time must now be spent submitting applications to potential employers, and the eye strain begins from scouring the Arts and Sciences Career Services site, the PRSA job board and others. Once I've submitted applications for every job I could possible qualify for, I guess all I can do is cross my fingers and pray. Having a job lined up before the day I graduate will make the walk that much sweeter. 

I'm reading: Commencing Countdown

PReveloping

I'm fairly new to the PR campaign as a college student and so far have really only been presented with "Hey, here's our brand and our message, can you do this?" or "Well we branded ourselves like this and have been using this message, but aren't getting the results we wanted. We need help re-branding and developing a new message." So, as I'm helping come up with ideas for a PR campaign for this startup company, I feel as though I'm "preveloping". There is no brand, there is no message-- only an idea and a product. I think this is why I'm so interested in this venture because I've never had the opportunity to see a company actually be created. It's been really intriguing to listen to all those involved talk about the product, the business plan, the patenting process, etc. It makes me want to nerd out and research best PR practices for up and coming businesses, particularly in relation to social media and crowdsourcing. Wanting to learn everything I can about social media, I went to Barnes & Noble last night and bought Social Media Marketing For Dummies. I love it! It has everything you could possibly want to know about social media sites, liking multiple sites, how to utilize them for personal and/or business use, and explains all the ins and outs of functions I haven't nailed down yet. I can't wait until I have time to actually go through all of it. Helping to lay out a PR campaign plan for the product launch is going to be interesting and will definitely be a learning experience. Just from reading articles under the "startups" tab on Mashable and entrepreneur.com I've gotten a ton of ideas to pitch that will hopefully help make this a successful campaign.

I'm reading: PReveloping

Talking Logos

Now that the group has temporarily decided on a name, coming up with company logo concepts is next on the list. First they talked about what they wanted the logo to represent, what style they wanted to go with, and how complicated/simple they wanted it to be. They determined simple would be best, and we all started coming up with sketches of ideas. We tried different fonts, played with capitalization and color, and tried to come up with simple graphics to embody the concept of the product. We started doing research as well not only to find inspiration, but also to see what other notable companies have done and how they have evolved in recent years.  Simply Googling "technology company logos" was helpful in seeing what types of graphics and fonts other companies in the industry are using, and an article on the evolution of 20 corporate logos was a great place to see what format popular logos are going toward. After the group gets together to discuss the sketches everyone has come up with and decides what they like or don't like and want and don't want, I can send all of their information to my friend who's a great graphic designer. This way they can narrow down their ideas first, and then the designer can come up with a few designs that meet the criteria they come up with. Once the name and logo come together, the company will be looking less like a concept and more like an actual business.

I'm reading: Talking Logos

Namestorming

Lately I've been trying to help my boyfriend come up with a name for the startup company he and a few of his family members are involved in. It's coming to the point where "the project" just isn't cutting it anymore, and they want to make it seem a little more tangible with an actual name. Okay, I'm a PR person, no big deal, right? I've come up with campaign names and concepts, team names and event names so it should just take a little brainstorming. Wow-- it is an entirely different story when you dive into something that is outside of your comfort zone, and for me computer hardware and programming is exactly that. I definitely had to be creative and get a little help from web articles and a thesaurus. Some articles I found really helpful were: How to Pick a Company Name: Tips From the Trenches and 10 Company Name Types on TechCrunch: Pros and Cons. From this I decided the best way to go about it would be to first generate a list of words. Next I took longer words and broke them into two pieces so I could see if two split words would go together, or if part of one word would fit with another whole word. This way I could include multiple concepts the group wanted in the name while also creating unique names that are not already in use. This was a lengthy process and out of a fairly long list I found through Google searching that about 75 percent were already in use. As frustrating as this was it forced me to get more creative and more specific to this group's ideas and product. After coming up with another lengthy list I weeded out the ones I wasn't happy with, pulled the couple that stuck out to me, and added a few I wasn't sure about to share with the group. The next step is to put all of our brainstorms together, cut it down to a manageable number of names, and then create a survey to get thoughts from potential clients. This will help ensure that the name of the company will be as effective and client-friendly as the product it represents.

I'm reading: Namestorming

Blog Stalk

Assignment: Blog Review

Review five or more blogs from the list provided and write about two or three of the blogs you reviewed.

After visiting several blogs on the list provided, I decided to really take a look at three: Mashable, AdFreak and Fahlgren Mortine, all of which stood out to me and caught my interest. The commonalities I found among the three were things like simple design, user-friendly content, applicable information, catchy titles and subtitles, and a particularly conversational tone. This was one of the major weaknesses I found in some of the other blogs I visited; they didn't seem to quite get the idea of a blog and what it's used for. I understand a blogger may have a more targeted audience, but if I want to read a plain-Jane business article I'll go to the paper or the company's annual report. I'm going to a blog to take a break from traditional, straight-forward and professional writing and am looking to have a more relaxing yet still informative reading experience. A few of the blogs I did not choose to look further into also lacked graphics, unique topics and an aesthetically pleasing design.

I particularly liked the information found in the said chosen blogs because they are either applicable to me and my career or they were about something that sucked me in enough that I had to read it. I feel a blog post has definitely succeeded with me as a reader if I feel the need to re-tweet it, and particularly with Mashable, I did. I was actually familiar with Mashable prior to this assignment and find myself on it frequently while searching for social media tips and other bits of advice, and I've actually re-tweeted something I've stumbled on almost every time I visit. I was immediately attracted to AdFreak as I have always been intrigued by the world of advertising and find myself analyzing ads while watching TV, trying to figure out how the idea came to someone, what message the company was going for and how it relates to their overall brand experience, and who the message was targeted toward. Being a Strategic Communication major I'm sure I'm abnormally interested in ads, but either way the content on AdFreak is informative and entertaining and the blog is a great place to find noteworthy ads I may have missed. Fahlgren Mortine's blog doesn't seem to be on quite as grand of a scale as the other two, but the content again was pertinent to me and not too stuffy. They offer great advice to PR professionals, interns and students, and the titles really make readers stop and at least read the first few lines. I also liked that an image was paired with each post so that a simple design was maintained while also having some element of visual interest.

I think while at first glance one might write these blogs off as only being significant to PR, marketing and advertising professionals, they are actually pertainable and appealing to a much broader audience. For

example, one of the instances when I was searching for something and landed on Mashable, I was helping out a friend who is trying to increase sales at his family's hotels in a small town where most of the hotels are within the same radius of points of interest and are all at about the same price point. Mashable had great tips on utilizing social media to make a small business grow, and also had a fantastic article on a small hotel that broke through the clutter of New York City to become a hotel known

for social media. This shows that blogs like this can be of service not only to those in marketing-related fields, but also to businessmen and women and anyone looking for advice on improving sales, a brand, an event or a message. Even if one is only looking for entertainment, I know many people who are interesting in advertising and marketing topics who are in fairly unrelated fields. 

The contributors on Fahlgren Mortine, AdFreak and Mashable are all employees of their respective companies, but with Fahlgren it's a bit different because "employee" means they have an entirely different set of responsibilities outside of the blog as vice presidents and senior counselors of the advertising agency. Those who work for AdWeek and Mashable are writers and though they do things with other sites through their companies, they are primarily editors and writers.

Though I got a little more personality and fun from the contributors of Mashable and AdFreak, those of Fahlgren Mortine still did a nice job of keeping things light and conversational. This makes sense as Mashable and AdFreak are devoted to blogging and other media-based tasks, and Fahlgren is an agency that has a reputation aside from and greater than its blog. The bloggers of all three are apparently well informed and well-versed in the topics they write about.

I would visit all three of these blogs again. Though I am most likely to continue to revisit Mashable as I have already done so, I feel AdFreak is entertaining and would help me keep tabs on what's going on in the realm of advertising, and Fahlgren holds useful information in the industry I'm pursuing, and it comes from current public relations and advertising specialists.

I'm reading: Blog Stalk