visions (red)efined…

i’ll say it now, that i’m so willing to be a whore for starbucks so long as bono approves it.  i know contradict myself somewhere therein as a result.  if you haven’t yet noticed because you live under a rock or are simply unfamiliar with product (red), starbucks has teamed up to form yet another co-branded force to be reckoned with.  as in the footsteps of gap, dell, apple, and a few others, starbucks has trademarked three holiday drinks and co-branded to the extreme.  today was “(red) friday” instead of “black friday” to those of you familiar with the idiocy of the american consumer on the day after thanksgiving.  at any rate, i hate admitting that i disagree with naomi klein on this issue of the co-branded world.  yes, capitalism is king, and how much of the $.05 actually goes to the purchasing of pharmaceuticals could indeed be argued vigorously, but given that i’m no investgative reporter, nor working [yet] at starbucks corporate in marketing, i have to take the endeavor at face value.

it’s an absolutely brilliant move; timely and tugging at the heartstrings of the selfish and jaded american consumer, to remember – hopefully – to do at least one good deed this season by buying one of the uber-branded drinks we offer in a partnership with quite possibly the largest charity brand since the red cross.  have i said “brand” enough yet?  i want to get that through to all of you.  this is huge, whether or not you recognize it.  not only huge in the sense of the money and marketing involved, but of the enormously huge corporate responsibility attached to it for both mega-brands.  i’ll not get into the contradictions of that argument, because for once, i’m not being as pessimistic as usual, but i guarantee that post is soon to come.  right now, i’m satisfied chilling and slinging drinks in my trendy (red) apron and giddy that such a hideously contradictory practice is in place for the holidays; i’m hoping for limited ulterior motive.

another thing that has starbucks tugging at my own heartstrings…SOCIAL MEDIA!  yep, it’s official, starbucks has broken the barrier of social networking!  not sure yet how i feel about it, aside from the fact that it needs much, much, MUCH more development, i’m not sure how comfortable i am with customers searching for me via “V2V” as it’s called.  still, i can’t help giving it a chance in hopes of someday being one of the people continually developing it.

my "giving tree" flyer (click to enlarge)

the giving tree (click to enlarge)

finally on my tardy list of holiday newsworthiness – concerning starbucks that is – my store’s “make you mark” teamed up with humanitarian service project.  nice to indirectly help them out through customer charity.  definitely didn’t expect it to be as successful as it’s proved to be so far.  feels good…makes me feel like i’ve got a good handle on cutting my teeth in PR lately.  my next big project – aside from the PRSSA conference in february and the american lung association “climb chicago” – is a local 5k or something of the sort in march.  i’m in no way gloating for once, but i’m proud of myself with the giving tree; i wasn’t optimistic at all and the response has been so positive that i hope i can keep on plugging away for HSP even though i’m not an intern anymore.  so, how busy am i that i still think of writing a stupid story about the past year at starbucks?  given that i’m on break until the new year, i think i’m just going to have to crack and give in to writing again for pleasure rather than obligations.  i’ve been worrying everyone in my complete lack of blogging and inability to concentrate effectively on my writing.  surprisingly, i found i do have a limit for writing, and it hadn’t occurred to me until it was recently pointed out by my best friend.  but i’m back, and i’ll be annoying everyone in the blogosphere even more as the break crawls on and i suffer more cabin fever when the first blizzard hits.  so here i close for the night considering i have to be up again in four hours to open the store.  i leave you with this:

(do something good everyday)

social media ethics in public relations…

just a rough overview of my final presentation…not totally done, but you get the basic idea. just felt like sharing…also, you can find my sources of information in a previous blog…just want to make sure lee odden, brian solis, and deirdre breakenridge get their dues as i admire all three for their theoretical input on the concepts of social media as i’ve learned much from them over the past few months:

chocolate & cheese…

yes, you read the title correctly. i’m currently enjoying a nutritious lunch of month-old chocolate cookies and cheddar cheese curds! quite a tasty combo actually…though technically irrelevant.

i just finished up with my site visit. i suppose it went well…kind of hard to gauge when you’re sitting in your cubicle while the executive director and head of co-op are touring the building without you. i hope it went well. see, now i want that award…i want it so bad i can taste it.

in the same vein, i’m trying to gather information on how to nominate my PR professor for the outstanding faculty or adviser award. two can play at that game. besides, any success i’ve had has been because of his influence alone. i couldn’t nor would i have accomplished any of this without him.

so where do i go from here..? well, i’m struggling once again on my speech for his class. it has little to do with the class and everything to do with my internship wrap-up. i kind of wish i could just show it to him and see what he thinks rather than present it to a class that won’t care nor will they be the least bit interested. why? because the title is, “social media ethics in public relations: the benefits of utilizing social networking for nonprofit relations.”

that’s why…

otherwise, i’m nervous and excited about my meeting at depaul on tuesday afternoon. i’m planning on paying an impromptu visit to the school of education to see if i can’t put goffman’s notion of “face” to the test.

and since i can’t seem to motivate myself to get any work done, i think i’m going to duck out of here about an hour early and head back to school to wait for the traffic to wind down and maybe get more than two slides out of this presentation…

to blog or not to blog…while bastardizing hamlet in the process.

in lieu of all my recent social media adventures, i’ve had the opportuntity to come to a futher appreciation for blogging.  it might sound cheesy, but it takes a different breed of human to blog “successfully”.  i’ve been perusing around PR blogs for well over a month now and it’s all made me realize just how much i’ve yet to learn.  my three favorites would have to be deirdre breakenridge’s “PR 2.0 Strategies” (i bought her book, “PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences“, and it’s given me much more insight on the impact of social media…highly reccommend it), lee odden’s post about “push-pull public relations” on the toprankblog.com, and PR squared.

by “successful” bloggers, i mean bloggers who actually have people reading their pages.  i started a blog seven years ago – hard to believe it’s been that long – when i was a freshman in high school.  i started on livejournal with this very same moniker and it stuck when i became part of the community.  citing “drama” and overall dissolution among friends from high school, i avoided posting and i lost touch with all my “community” friends.  ideally, i’d love to rebuild that relationship here, but so far it’s been kind of slow.  maybe i just fell out of the loop…seems to be my general trend these days.

a toe in the pool of social media: part deux…

…so what does all that rambling have to do with my experience in social media? since changing majors and temporarily changing schools, i had the opportunity to play with what i wanted my new future to be since i ran away screaming from teaching. i picked journalism and found out it wasn’t at all what i had expected. during that time, i decided to take a class in public relations as i had no clue what it was truly all about, and i was hooked. by no means do i assume i know all there is to know about public relations; i’m only just skimming the surface during my work as an intern for a local nonprofit organization.

i bring up social media and my work up here at the humanitarian service project because i’ve been working as a “community outreach intern” for the better part of the summer. essentially, they have been looking for new ways to reach out – thus my title – and not only gain volunteers and interns and funding, but also to let those who they serve know that their aid and programs aren’t going anywhere.

due to extremely high oil and gas prices as well as soaring food prices, volunteers have been harder to come by the past year or so and it has become exceedingly difficult to maintain all of their programs. sure the organization has the support of rotaries, churches, some schools, and a few die-hard private sponsors – as well as democratic presidential candidate, barack obama – but they rely on old media outlets. one can only write so many press releases to the same fifty local newspapers before it all gets to be discouraging.

so i thought it was time for a change. this is the age of going green; the age of social utilities like facebook, myspace, hell, even craigslist was jotted on my little napkin of ideas. the point i’ve been trying to drive home is HSP need not be confined to illinois alone. there’s a much bigger audience out there that, before studying public relations, i never knew had such potential or influence.

another point…we’re all going through this economic crisis; some have it harder than others. but if i’ve learned at least one thing from my experience in communications is that it’s the responsibility of the community to bring about social change. not the government’s – not if you want it done right, anyway – not the corporations – though they provide funding which can lead to problems along the way – but the actual citizen.

common citizens have a previously unfathomable platform by which they can essentially change the world. it’s all about whether or not you’re going to do something about it…

as a sidenote, and since it’s my new baby and social experiment for the greater good, if you have a facebook, take a minute and check out the humanitarian service project’s cause. don’t be shy about leaving me some feedback…constructive of course.