On Wednesday, February 27th, NYU PRSSA attended Muck Rack’s monthly class on #howtopitchajournalist led by Patrick Flanary, a PR manager at Thomson Reuters and a contributor to Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post among others. Natan Edelsburg led the Q&A, as Flanary discussed his experiences and suggestions in building relationships with journalists in this ever-advancing technological world.

 Here are some key points:

• Customize your emails – journalists know what they’re doing; they will know if you send out that very same email to 15 other journalists.
• Subject lines and opening sentences are the two most important aspects in the email – journalists are so busy that they will often not read past that if it is already boring.
• Get to the point; be brief and try to make a connection. Keep it less than 2 paragraphs, make it 2 sentences, 3 sentences max.
• Call only if it is ‘the scoop.’
• Don’t bury the lead; bring it to the top.
• Link your sentences to why that particular topic matters to that particular journalist.
• If you promise an exclusive, make them aware of a deadline, so you don’t seem two-faced if you end up giving that information to another journalist.
• Wait at least several days to follow-up, maximum wait one week.
• Twitter is our generation’s newspaper, so get on that!
• Do not bold, underline, or italicize when sending an email pitch.
• Never pitch on a Monday or a Friday; a good time to pitch is in the middle of the week, from 10 – 11 AM before work gets too busy.
• Meet lots of people!
  

Hope you enjoyed these tips!

Till next time,

Claire

VP of Communications

We’re giving away 2 FREE TICKETS to see Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark for this Friday, February 15th @ 8pm! Here’s what you have to do to enter the sweepstakes (you MUST complete all 3 steps to enter)

1. Go to twitter.com/nyuprssa and Follow us

2. Show your love by tweeting why you want to see Spiderman with the hashtag #nyuprssalove

3. Embed a picture of yourself in the tweet, doing a spiderman pose somewhere in a public space

Submissions close on Friday at noon, and the winner will be chosen from the list of participants at random (we’ll Direct Message you!)

On your marks…….Get Set……….TWEET (and remember to say CHEEEEEESE)! 

During NYU’s fall break, three members from the PRSSA executive board had the special opportunity to attend the PRSSA National Conference in San Francisco. Shira Palka, Claire Ahn, and Cara McMahon went on the 5-day conference, and even managed to get in some sight-seeing in between sessions. Take a look at some of their favorite moments from the trip!

Left to right: Cara McMahon, Shira Palka, Claire Ahn

·         Shira, President: I had such a great time at the conference. It was nice to see many of the sessions run by other PRSSA chapters, and learn from students who are also working hard to better develop their chapters. Some of the key highlights I took away from the President’s session, led by Kevin Saghy, PR and Marketing specialist for the NY Cubs were the following:

o   Be honest and transparent

o   Find out what motivates your members and use it to your advantage

o   Set a strategy and corresponding goals

o   Listen to what people have to say

o   Cast your ego aside

o   Own up to your mistakes

o   Remember to say thank you

Another big highlight was listening to PRSA’s keynote speaker, Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone. It wasn’t just fascinating to hear how Twitter was founded, but it was inspiring to listen to him speak so naturally about a product he truly believes in. From his childhood stories, to how he worked with a team of friends, to starting twitter, he left off with the idea that we should think about how to help make the world a better place, and give back with our ideas. I felt proud to represent NYU at the President’s dinner, and honored to be a part of such a supportive and professional organization. San Francisco was a beautiful host, and after visiting Fisherman’s Wharf and sitting at the same bar as Jack Kerouac, it’s safe to say I will be back to see the rest!

Our PRSA Faculty Advisor, Lou Capozzi representing NYU SCPS

·         Claire, Social Media Coordinator: Overall, the PRSSA National Conference was amazing and unlike any other experience I’ve ever had, related to university organizations. Throughout a four night/five day conference, we had the freedom to pick and choose our own sessions and find the ones that best fit our choices of interest.

Of the many lectures I attended, my favorite has got to be, hands down, the lecture done by Jeffrey Ory on the session of Creativity: Innovative Ideas; Create Unforgettable Experiences. He was a very charismatic speaker, which definitely made the session easy to follow and entertaining. What really caught my attention  was his creative, easy-to-memorize key points in succeeding in the PR world:

o   There’s no place for convention in creativity.

o   Creativity is kind of like pornography - you know it when you see it.

o   At the heart of PR, you need to be CREATIVE. 

So, if you think you are not creative (which is 98% of the world, apparently), then how do you cultivate creativity? According to Jeffrey Ory, “Let your inhibitions down and just let yourself go and dance!” 

But in all seriousness, “You can’t be creative just to be creative; you still need a strategy.” To sum it up, creativity is key in succeeding as a PR person, but one cannot be creative to the point of being illogical. It all needs to fit in with the strategy and campaign. 

Hope you all enjoyed these key points!

·         Cara, VP of Chapter Development: Attending this year’s National Conference in San Francisco was a fantastic experience. It was a great opportunity to network with PR professionals and other PRSSA members from across the country. Over the course of our stay in San Francisco we heard from amazing guest speakers from companies such as Twitter, Google, Pandora and leading PR agencies such as Edelman.

One of my favorite lectures came from Social Media Manager at Disneyland, Matt Prince. Prince spoke on the importance of personal branding as a tool for attaining a career in the industry. Prince gave an engaging presentation with 10 key points that are a must for anyone looking for a job in communications in general. We all use social media, but are we using it in an effective way that expresses our personal brand? Prince’s presentation focused on ways we can use various social media sites together to create one narrative about ourselves that we can present to the public. It definitely made me take a look at my own online presence and tweak some things to present a more cohesive message. 
Prince’s 10 Key Points to Personal Branding:

o   Find Yourself

o   Make an Impression

o   Do Social Right

o   Be Narrow Minded

o   Be a Content Creator

o   Be a Storyteller

o   Take it Offline

o   Repetition of Reputation

o   Know Your Audience

o   Have Fun!

You can find Prince’s whole presentation here: http://theprinceples.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/BrandYou.pdf and I highly suggest you take a look at it!

This past Wednesday, NYU PRSSA had the exciting opportunity to hear from the EVP, Director of WorldWide Communications of BBDO, Roy Elvove, who shared his insights on public relations in the field of advertising. Roy touched on many key points in getting us to understand what it takes to make it in the field and what it’s like to be in his shoes. For those of you out there interested in advertising PR, here are a few key qualities Roy narrowed in on:

 1.     Gain satisfaction out of pleasing others: In order to succeed in advertising, it is important that you are okay with staying out of the limelight. Creating ads is all about doing what it takes to make the company look good and that should always be the end goal.

2.     Ability to Juggle: Especially in a global company like BBDO, there are always hundreds of exciting projects going on so it is very important that you are able to multitask while keeping up the momentum that it takes to do great work!

3.     Attention to Detail: Advertising is all about detail, detail, detail! There is no detail too small to worry about, so it is extra important to be on top of even the tiniest spelling errors that can take your work from world-class to sloppy.

4.     Have a “Healthy Paranoia”: Roy stressed what he calls a ‘healthy paranoia’ saying that you should never get complacent with your work. You should always be making sure to stay ahead of the pack and don’t let yourself switch into autopilot.

Photo Credit: Claire Ahn (NYU PRSSA Social Media Coordinator)
Left: Shira Palka (NYU PRSSA President), Right: Roy Elvove

At the end of the day, Roy spoke passionately about what he does and about the company he works for calling it, “a place where clients want to come and people want to work.” From the short time we spent with Roy, it was clear that just as BBDO always says, it’s all about “the work, the work, the work.” Citing examples of thefamous M&M Superbowl commercial and even a project for Save the Children, Roy made it clear that even in the new digital age, advertising is still as relevant as ever.

Thanks again to Roy and everyone who came out to PRSSA’s event! All of us on the executive board are looking forward to more exciting speakers to come as the year continues!

Brittney Bhayana

VP of Communications 

I’ll be the first to admit that it is pretty easy to pass off STUDY ABROAD as just BEING ABROAD. My experience thus far studying at NYU Prague has been that classes are more lax, professors are more lenient and schedules are generally more forgiving. That’s not to say that studying doesn’t occur… it just occurs less often. 

After “living the life” my first few weeks in Prague, I attended an NYU sponsored internship fair. NYU Prague has a great internship program, which has established relationships with many of the city’s biggest business and important firms. I know similar programs exist at other sites, and I recommend checking out the opportunities online before deciding on a site.

At the event I met Rachel, my current boss. Rachel is an ex-pat from America who has lived in Czech Republic for eight years. She has worked with several big name magazines, but in the past year has decided to open up her own Public Relations agency, Clout. Since she is growing her business, I have been lucky in that I am given a good amount of responsibility and am allowed to pursue my own initiatives. After working in a larger PR firm this past fall, it has been exciting to see how “traditional” PR works and I’ve loved being able to see our growth so far. The cultural exchanges that go along with doing PR in a different country, much less a Central European country, have been great to experience too.

If you plan to go abroad and are debating whether or not you want to intern, these are the main concerns I’d think about:

• Travel: If you plan to travel every weekend, it may be difficult to fit an internship into your schedule. Although bosses seem to be understanding, you want to make sure you devote enough time to your job.
• Free Time: Much of being abroad is about immersing yourself into the culture, daily life of the locals. If you rather be out exploring neighborhoods while you’re not in class, interning probably wont be worth it.
• Burning Out: Many use study abroad as break from interning. If you’ve had an internship the previous semester, and plan to have one when you return from abroad it may be nice to take a semester off while you can. 

Why I would recommend it:

• Balance: Daily life abroad is so much different than life in New York, that having an internship to schedule life around can help balance all of the crazy that is going on around you.
• Opportunities: The internships available abroad are usually well connected back to the states, expanding and enhancing your network for when you return to the city. 
• Immersion: Being able to do business with and interact with locals on a daily/weekly basis offers an immersion experience that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

-Gentry Brown

PRSA-NY Career Forum

Attention Communications Students and New Professionals                   

Whether you’re a college graduate or student applying for your first position or internship, a newprofessional ready to make a move in the industry or seeking information on continuing education…

…come meet HR recruiters from top New York City-based public relations and communications companies and gather information on leading continuing education programs.

When: 

Monday, March 5, 2012

4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Where:         

New York University: Kimmel Center

10th Floor, Rosenthal Pavilion

Entrance located on 60 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and  Thompson Street

New York, NY 10012

*Cost:           

$15

How:             

Register online at www.prsany.org

RSVP:          

By Wednesday, February 29

*Pre-payment is mandatory. Refunds will not be given after the registration deadline. Those who cancel their registration after the deadline or do not attend the event will remain responsible for the registration fee.

*The PRSA-NY Career Forum is hosted by the chapter’s New Professionals Affiliate Committee and the NYU PRSSAChapter. Follow the link to become a member of the New Pros Committee today! For more information about the NYU PRSSA Chapter, please contact chapter president, Doreen Naor, at doreen.naor@nyu.edu.

For more information, please visit www.prsany.org or email us at info@prsany.org.

We would like to give a proud and warm welcome to our new faculty advisor, Louis Capozzi!

Lou has a broad background in public relations and corporate communications. After 40 years of experience working at major public relations firms and with large multinational companies, he has become an adjunct professor in New York University’s Masters Degree program in Public Relations and Corporate Communications.

He served as CEO of Manning, Selvage & Lee (now MSL Group), one of the world’s largest public relations firms, from 1999 until 2002, when the firm was acquired by Publicis, the world’s fourth-largest communications conglomerate.  At Publicis, Lou led the Public Relations and Corporate communications Group, which included nearly 30 firms around the world.  He retired at the end of 2008.

We are very excited to have Lou on board with us and look forward to hearing his insights on the PR industry!

In order to have a fresh start to the Fall 2011 semester, we are launching a fresh NYUPRSSA Tumblr account! This will replace our wordpress account which we feel is not fully highlighting the potential of our chapter’s blog.

We welcome and encourage comments and suggestions to enhance the tumbling experience!