Feeding People

This week I got to "return to my roots".

PRSSA & Lambda Pi Eta (Communication Honor Society) teamed up for an awesome volunteer effort at Ozarks Food Harvest!

(I may have been a bit bias in my planning, but it is such a good cause!)

Two girls went with me (Susan & Tara), 

and we had a blast with this other older group.

Our job was to pack food boxes after the others sorted through dented cans and expired foods.

It was neat to be a part of tangibly feeding people  who need it most. 

Our volunteer supervisor told us we pack about 6,000 pounds of food (if I remember right),

or what they normally pack in 6 hours.

Yeah, teamwork!!!

It was great to return to my internship location and give back again!

If you are ever looking for a place to give back in the Ozarks,

check Ozarks Food Harvest out!

They are doing so much to reach a significant problem in the community.

Lindsay's current intern, Sara, and her put together this new awesome video to.

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Social Media Boot Camp with Sarah Evans

Today, I attended a Social Media Boot Camp with Sarah Evans and Social: IRL. It was incredible. Sarah Evans is a PR and new media consultant at Sevans Strategy and a guest writer for Mashable, a prestigious social media blog. She also has her own blog at PRsarahevans.com and is a "social media freak", and her Twitter is @PRsarahevans and leads a Twitter chat called #journchat.

Photo here

 Here are my 7 Social Media Tips from her today:

1. Hone in your passion when blogging. If you care about what you are writing about, it will show.
2. Twitter is all about the "re-tweet". Always leave room for others to "re-tweet" your tweet.
3. Always create a Facebook Fan page for business NOT a personal profile page.
4. Every moment is a PR moment. "Tweet" about news breaking news you experience such as earthquakes, and journalists may come to you.
5. Make Social Media Releases that are SHAREABLE with strategic time releases.
6. Blog headlines are for search engines, and "Tweets" make it attractive to click on.
7. Do not "pitch" Bloggers, but partner with them and establish relationships instead.

It was a great event, and I left with lots of ideas and networking opportunities. The Coffee Ethic even catered the event, so I baked the muffins for the event. Coffee and Community really did collide for me today! I also got to spend lots of time with my classmates and my former internship supervisor, Lindsey Neddenriep. My fellow Bear Communications member Doug and I came up with some great ideas for Urban District Alliance. I appreciated Ben Smith of Social: IRL to bringing such a reputable social media guru to Springfield, MO.

Extra tip from Sarah: Share a little "link love" with others. Link others and sometimes they will link you back. It's about the relationships you create online and continue offline.

Do you all have any tips for Social Media and PR users? Pin It

I Got a Pen

 So I got a new pen this week...

This doesn't mean a whole lot to any of you, but the reason I got the pen means a lot to me. 

I am a PR student, as you may know. This semester, I was in Dr. Dyer's Public Relations Writing Class. We got "clients" to write our pieces on; mine was AIDS Project of the Ozarks. And Dr. Dyer always encouraged us to get our work published.

Well, this past Wednesday, I had my first PR piece published in the Springfield News-Leader.

Dr. Dyer promised a pen if we got published. It says: 

"Personal Excellence Award

Dr. Dyer says: Well Done".

I have had pieces in the paper before, but not like this one. The News-Leader did not ask me to write it (nor did they pay me for it); I annoyed them until they put it in the paper. Well, annoy might be a strong word--you get the picture.

Do you know what the best part was though? The first person to congratulate me that I did not tell was my former supervisor at Ozarks Food Harvest. Lindsey Neddenriep tagged me in a her Facebook status, and it made my day.

The best part of the pen is it lights up!

If the coolness of this pen is any indicator of my future in PR, I would say it is bright! ;)

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