Being in the public relations field means that PR professionals will always be collaborating with journalists for a mutually beneficial relationship between one another. Benefits to this relationship are PR professionals being able to have journalists write about their clients to reach a vast audience while journalists look towards PR experts to help them write a story whether that be done through quotes or to get a news-worthy story from them. Dangers of this collaboration could be that if a PR professional does not necessarily want to give the journalist all the information they want, this could damage the PR professional’s reputation and future relations with the media and vice versa.

Social media currently allows for a company to be able to speak to their customers in real-time and the customers are able to speak back through social platforms. Because of this shift in conversation, professionals are starting to realize the importance of how professionals should interact with the public online. From this Huffington Post article, one tip I heavily agree with is that there should be “24-7 conversation monitoring for clients and offer rapid response within 24 hours”. This could be said true especially when there are negative comments online. PR practitioners should be monitoring all of their client’s web pages to negate these negative comments and try to shed some light and positivity instead. Backing up this opinion, this Cision article wrote that they have noticed that one negative comment can attract so many more negative responses thus turning one comment into a full-scale PR crisis. In addition to monitoring social platforms at all times, a PR expert should also address the problem stated in the negative comment clearly and as soon as possible. Whether the company has all the details of the allegation or comment right away, it is important that the company addresses the problem right away to show that they still care about their audience and they do care about their social responsibility. By showing that your company/client cares about their audience can strengthen their reputation, along with yours, in the end result. Real-time marketing refers to using marketing strategies on your target audience during the event taking place to help make your audience want to participate and join in on your campaign. An example of this is using social media for real-time marketing. Facebook Live can be a great tool to help audiences see what is going on at an event and make consumers feel more connected and more willing to participate with a specific campaign. The Women’s March used Facebook Live to show the speeches made by celebrities and the march itself to people who couldn’t be there in person. The audiences at home watching the Women’s March take place were still actively participating in the campaign because they were commenting, watching, and donating money to the cause. Due to real-time marketing, the Women’s March was successful due to its target audience in real-time and real-time marketing.

Welcome back to my second post! Our first assignment of the year definitely has turned out to be one of the most exciting and fun ones to say the least!

Assignment: Social Media Task 2

We were told to go on a social media Scavenger Hunt for multiple things that students should be familiar on and around campus. To complete the Scavenger Hunt myself and my classmate, Dante Trigo (@TreezysT), headed to downtown South Orange and Seton Hall to find student’s opinions on school spirit, popular eating spots, professor’s wisdom, picture-perfect spots on campus, and of course Seton Hall’s dedicated fanatic basketball fans. While it was fun to get to interview students and reminisce time here spent in South Orange, it was also challenging to get the perfect picture or perfect quote for our blogs and Twitter. Read below to see the adventure Dante and I went on to win the Pirate’s Gold of our Scavenger Hunt!

Our first find for the Scavenger Hunt was finding someone who has great Pirate pride! While Chance the Rapper was never technically a student at Seton Hall, he still reps the SHU Blue we all know and love! We thought it was pretty cool that a rapper as widely known as him roots for the Pirates.

One of the best things for students at SHU is that there is always a diverse number of retaurants downtown! South Orange promises great quick bites such as the Trat with their infamous “drunken grandma” vodka slice, burgers grilled by Seton Hall alumni at BGR, Latin street food at Miti Miti, coffee at Starbucks for the sleep deprived college students, and of course our pick – Falafel-ly Yours! This Middle Eastern eating spot is definitely something different and yummy for college students who are sick of the cafeteria. Just a short 10 minute walk from campus and students can experience a different culture’s food!

As far as professors at Seton Hall, our task for the Scavenger Hunt was to find a photo and quote from a professor on campus about why they love their job. We asked a well-known professor in the PR department, Professor Lancioni on why she loves teaching at SHU.

I got to meet with a student and ask them how they get their daily news from social media! Lysa Regan is a Marketing and Management double major and with her interest in these fields it’s important for her to keep up to date with world news!

Our next task was to find a scenic spot on campus. While most students find “the Green” to be one of the best spots to be when it’s nice outside, student Adam Gelo sees the beauty in our school’s chapel. Seton Hall’s chapel is famous – being listed as one of the most beautiful chapels across the nation and where most alumni look forward to getting married! Look at the tweet above to see why he thinks SHU’s chapel is a notable spot for visitors, alumni and students!

Seton Hall has been riddled with many secrets about its campus – those including tunnels underground where important figures used to use when travelling on campus. What Dante and I loved when we first visited our school was the story of a small blooper made in our very own Jubilee Hall. What was supposed to read “Hazard Zet Forward” (meaning whatever risk there is, one must keep persisting) instead reads “Hazard Zit Forward”. Not sure how this mistake happened, but it’s definitely a story PA’s and RA’s alike love telling on tours of SHU’s campus!

Chelsea FC fans listen up! While students usually dominate Prudential Center for the Seton Hall basketball games, they also are very diverse fans in terms of soccer clubs. Dante found a student and asked them what soccer team they root for and how they show off their pride!

With more than 150 student-run organizations, students can always choose what club fits them best! Dante interviewed a student who is part of the PRSSA here at Seton Hall on why they chose to be apart of this helpful club!

While Dante and I were walking all around South Orange to find the perfect fits for our Scavenger Hunt, I was also noticing other students had other unique answers to the tasks on the Scavenger Hunt list. Maria is another student in my COPR class and she interviewed one of my good friends, Kali Diamond for the Hunt. Maria chose Kali because she is a huge part of the WSOU family here at Seton Hall. I’ve known Kali since freshmen year and have seen how hard she has worked and the passion that goes into becoming a DJ at WSOU. Seeing her being noticed by another classmate was really cool to see and I couldn’t stop myself from telling her how I also knew the infamous DJ Kalzone! If you want to listen to Kali, among many other talented DJ’s, tune in at 89.5 for some great rock hits.

Within these three articles, I think it is safe to say social media and our modern technology has drastically changed the public relations industry. Social media is modern technology that allows people to share content and interact with people online

A way social media has evolved traditional public relations and the journalism fields is how it has changed the way these fields interact. Journalists are constantly looking for stories to write and PR experts are always looking to journalists to help them get their client’s news out to a vast audience. Social media now allows for journalists to find stories online, instead of traditionally going to the PR spokesperson. However, this also means that PR experts know that with every online story in the wake of “fake news” the journalists are going to have to still reach out to PR experts to get a verified and official statement from the company.

Social media has changed our daily lives and the way we consume information because social media allows any information to be received by the public in an instant. News consumers typically look more towards social media to get their news coverage rather than traditional newspapers, as newspapers used to be the only way citizens got their information from companies, government, advertising, etc. Now that social media platforms are free and instantaneous, people are more inclined to use social media to find news coverage for free and be able to spread the information with friends and family whenever and however they want.

As social media continues to evolve, journalists and PR professionals need to understand that they need to keep to up to date and freshen their skills over social media because it is not going anywhere. All entertainment and news information is transitioning to digital and only will keep evolving how people receive it. To be able to still engage with their publics, both journalists and PR experts should keep in mind how their publics will be able to view their story or clients online.