Before coming to Olivet Nazarene University, I felt like I already had my career choice planned out for myself, or at least the outline. I grew up in a Christian family and had the privilege of being a pastor’s son. My family is from Haiti, which means they learned English as a second language, which also means they will always have a Haitian accent. Communications were always involved in my life growing up. I found myself loving it more each time when trying to translate to people what my parents say because of their heavy accent. I knew growing up I wanted to be involved with communications in my career choice, but I just didn’t know what exactly to do with it. But then after having a college visit and meet Professor Elizabeth Kerns, I truly believe my mind was set on which field of communications I wanted to continue my studies in.
After taking a year of Public relations classes, Professor Kerns always stated that “Public relations is a way to present the company’s or organization public image around the world.” According to Public Relations News, “Public relations is the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.” As of right now, I’m currently enrolled in three Public Relations courses and even though I’m still confused on some things, I’m taking every day as a process.
There are a few things I’ve picked up with continuing my studies with Public Relations. The first thing I’ve picked us is you need to be ready for development of business contacts by means of individual systems, administration, or participation and supporting on occasions. Basically, you should be ready to sponsor and speak at an event with a Public Relations attitude and be ready to represent the company’s image. The second thing is composing and blogging for the web. A good writer will always write a weekly or daily blog to improve his or her writing skills and keeps their followers updated. Thirdly, be ready for emergency advertising procedures. As a writer or spokesperson, you should be able to react throughout any situation and be able to keep the critics from ruining your image. Finally, be ready for web-based social networking advancements and reactions to negative conclusions on the web. Professor Kerns gave me an example of a news reporter at a news press conference and the media asking negative questions to get negative and biased answers.
I couldn’t express how much learning about Public Relations has changed my outlook in life in a positive way. The more I watch the sports, the news or just a TV show, I see Public Relations being used in everything. The one thing that has amazed me the most is how similar but slightly different public relations is to advertising. The primary objective is to get the word out about you, your organization, your items, and administrations to the individuals who could possibly purchase from you. Advertising is only one player in showcasing, whereas promoting is comprised of numerous things. The uplifting news about PR is the cost and the adequacy when it’s before your objective market. Public relations is always used every day in real life situations. If we thought press conferences and the news were up to date with every day, I truly believe social media public relations is on the rise.
Written By: Jonathan Pierre, Junior Account Executive
