For the next two weeks, my group will be working on including purple ribbons on the Homecoming floats at Clemson university in an effort to raise awareness for Safe Harbor. We have hit the ground running, and the support for our project is exactly as we hoped it would be. When we talked about how to raise the most awareness for domestic violence and how to let the public know what the purple ribbons on floats were for, we came to the conclusion that it would take more than simple grassroots efforts over email. Although we have started the project by getting the organizations building floats involved in our efforts, we quickly realized that in this century, it takes a lot more than placing an image on a Homecoming float to gain community support for a cause. Because there is so much media impact in our lives today, we often miss out on the less obvious signs of publicity.
As chapter 5 says, we have also realized that to gain the coverage we want we have to send countless press releases to campus organizations, radio stations, and newspapers. Because the internet has become to prominent in the media world, we are including information on our blogs and on news stations of the area. Although our efforts will not reach a large audience outside the Clemson community, as a news station such as CNN would, we have come to see that without placing information on facebook, twitter, blogs, and other internet forms, we will not gain the awareness we hope for. This is the reality our society faces today, and we had to be ready to make the jump. Newspapers, although a powerful source as the book states, are not going to be as big a source of information since less people today even get a daily newspaper. And why would they, when information is at their fingertips at any time of day on the internet. Everything form radio to magazines are adapting, and it is important for us to hone in on these changes as public relation students in order to stay ahead.
Although we wish we had more connections to the most popular media producers and reporters in the area, we have realized through our work on this Homecoming project that as students we possess many great contacts that will help us reach our public in a large way. For example, because each student is part of many different organizations on campus, we are easily able to find out A) who we should send a press release to in order to get the coverage we need and B) how we can run this story quickly using the connections we do have with organizations. People on campus respect us as their peers and as organization members, and this has greatly impacted our relations with Clemson through this project's process. The feedback has been respectful and positive.
Part of this positive feedback, as chapter 7 exemplifies, is because we have not overloaded groups with emails and we have simplified our communication processes to include only those people that need to know. We realize, as the book states, that each organization, newspaper, or radio station already receives countless emails and phone calls daily. For this reason, our emails are to the point and we work hard to pitch the importance of Safe Harbor without being overbearing. We want the press to support our cause, not be overwhelmed. When it comes to press releases, we tell them the date, details, and event location but not unnecessary information. Rambling in a release, interview, or even a phone conversation with a potential media relation is a good way to lose press coverage, as the book states. If we do radio interviews for our event, as we hope to do, we will keep it short and to the point. Radio is a great way for us to get a large audience in an inexpensive way. Our main goal is to get people to come out on Bowman field and to the game for Homecoming. Once they are there, this is when they can get more important information about Safe Harbor and their cause.
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