Welcome back everyone! Who else missed PRSSA over break?! We’re all very excited to be back on campus and in the swing of spring semester! If you weren’t able to make it to our first official meeting of the semester, here’s what you missed!
Join our mentorship programs! They are both fantastic ways to learn more about PR, get help and advice and broaden your social network! You must be a dues-paying member to be involved.
- If you want to be a peer mentor, or if you’d like to have a peer mentor, email Libby Bradford at eb395612@ohio.edu and she’ll hook you up!
- To be mentored by a PR professional who has made it in the real world, email Emily Barber at eb365312@ohio.edu and she’ll pair you with someone!
Pay dues!!! You can pay $80 to our VP of Finance Sammie Fisher by February 20th to gain access to exclusive content like internship databases and scholarships, receive priority advantage for trips and events, and run for executive board. The $80 will also cover your ImPRessions dues for the year!
We have swag! Come to the next meeting to buy a laptop sticker for $3 or a tee shirt for $15.
Go on a networking trip! We are going to Cleveland and Nashville to meet some great companies, so make sure you email scripps.prssa@gmail.com beginning at 8am on Friday, January 27th (tomorrow morning) to reserve your spot on a trip. It’s first come, first serve up to 18 slots. Make sure you don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity!
We are sending a delegate to PRSSA National Assembly in Seattle for free! Send a resume and cover letter to scripps.prssa@gmail.com by February 1st at 5 p.m. to apply.
Scripps PRSSA loooooves BobcaTHON! Register to be a dancer by Friday, January 27th to have the time of your life and support a fantastic cause. Contact Erica Stonehill at es485712@ohio.edu with any questions! Maura and Taylor will be your Morale Captains, so get excited! (And also Jennica is a morale captain for the red team, so catch her there too!)
Do you want to run for e-board? Come to an e-board meeting Wednesdays at 5 p.m. in Schoonover 508 to see what it’s like and attend an election info session on February 8th at 7:30 p.m. in Scripps 114 or on February 20th at 7 p.m. in Alden 319 if you’re interested.
If you want to get involved in ImPRessions, our student-run PR firm, email ouimpressions@gmail.com!
Congratulate Maggie Kaple because she is this week’s member spotlight! She’s a freshman who loves coffee, Game of Thrones and Shively Grab-N-Go, and we’re very excited to watch her shine in the coming years! Give her a follow on Twitter and Instagram @MaggieKaps.
This week’s speaker was OU grad Cody Ferguson, an Inbound Marketing Consultant and Content Program Lead for NR Media Group. He led us through an interactive growth-driven web design workshop and gave us some great tips on how to ensure your brand’s website is performing well.
Here are some highlights:
Traditional web design is broken. It takes too long, costs too much and often results in a site that is not beneficial to the company.
Growth-driven design is a new approach that utilizes user data to produce websites that are informative, easy to use and profitable for the brand.
A business’s website is its #1 marketing asset and #1 salesperson, so it must be done well.
Growth-driven design uses a three-step process to quickly construct a great site.
- Strategy- Gain an empathetic understanding of your users and how to fit your site into their lives. Then, brainstorm a wish list of elements for the new site that can solve user problems.
- Launch pad website- Build a site with only the core, value-driven elements that you can launch quickly to keep the user and the business happy. Break your wish list into wants and must-haves to find out what exactly the launch pad site needs.
- Continuous improvement- Collect user data to find out how they are using your site and what they find important. Then, prioritize what needs to be improved to expand the value of the site. Using analytics and user-mapping tools like Hotjar, find the problems, fix them and move on to the next. By continuously analyzing user data and making frequent small improvements, you can create the site your users want in a shorter period of time.
Advice from Cody:
- Don’t be delegated. Know what you have to offer and offer it.
- Read up on technology! He suggests learning HubSpot, Slack, Hotjar, Wistia, HelloSign and TeamGantt.
- Let data drive your decisions.
- Cater to the user, not the designer.
- Be curious!
Now that you’re all caught up, get involved in some of the awesome things we have coming up and come to next week’s meeting to hear from Samantha Smith, the Communications Manager for Ronald McDonald House Charities!
This week’s meeting recap is brought to you by Maura Anderson! Maura is a sophomore strategic communication major. Follow her on Twitter @agentmanderson!