The Uncontrolled

For a while now we have been working under a cloud of stress, not knowing when the rain was going to start pouring down.  But at last, I think we some light.  We are nowhere near the completion of our campaign, but have come to the point where it is time to start implementation.  With implementation comes a new, different kind of stress.  A stress that isn’t based on how we perform, but a stress that worries about how OTHER people will respond.  Will the congregation at Istrouma Baptist Church fill out our survey?  Will people respond to our advertisements and come to our event?  Will journalists and writers pick up stories we pitch to them?  As a group, we can spread the word about the event, pitch stories as best as we can, but there is an overwhelming sense that what lies ahead is uncontrollable.

Speaking of the uncontrollable, our team has four weeks to set up this event.  The event is going to be an “open house” for Istrouma Sports Organization (ISO) in hopes that people will learn more information about the program and perhaps persuade them to register their children.  One of the challenges we have faced from the beginning of the campaign is a lack of social media presence from ISO.  ISO does indeed have a Facebook page, but it is not used efficiently.  One way we are going to try to combat this is by having a Facebook competition to get people to like the page and start having conversations about ISO on the internet.

Not only do we want to have conversation about ISO on the internet, but we want to develop relationships with some print media in order to gain some free coverage through them, not just through advertisements.  I have already started developing a couple of stories that may attract the eyes of journalists, but the scary part is the uncontrollable.  We may think that what ISO is going is great and beneficial to the community surrounding them, but a journalists may see the organization and think it is all propaganda in order to influence people to attend Istrouma Baptist Church.  Whatever we may say to the journalists, they can come up with their own opinion about ISO whether it is good or bad.  I think we can target to specific journalists enough so that we can get a couple of great stories, but the finished products are still out of our hands.

The foreseeable future may be uncontrollable, but I am confident that Champion Sports PR will approach these next few weeks with a desire to succeed, and that’s all I can ask for.

 

On the way

As students it’s hard for us to think of ourselves as PR professionals.  It’s hard for us to think we are knowledgeable or capable enough to help an organization become what it hopes to be.  We’ve always dreamed of the day when we would have our own clients.  The day when we would be the ones helping to make the decisions.  Ready or not, that day has come.  The day has come when we can impact an organization.  We can prove to ourselves and others that we are capable of managing a real client and a real campaign.

Today was our first meeting with our client Istrouma Sports Organization (ISO).  It was encouraging to see people who loved what they were doing and always tried to influence the community around them.  As we were sitting in our meeting, I quickly realized that while it is great to finally have a real client, the pressure to deliver results would soon follow. As ML was going over the organization of Istrouma it became clear there was a hierarchical system set in place.  One of the challenges that we are going to have to face is that ISO is at the bottom of that system.  One thing that really caught my attention and something I didn’t expect was a lack of participation in ISO from the members of the church.  Only 20% of ISO was from the church itself.  As we continued asking questions about ISO and how it worked, who they targeted and how they targeted people, research questions began popping in everyone’s head.

Now that the first meeting is over the fun can really begin.  As we walked out of the meeting the first thing someone said was, “what’s next?”  Well that really was a silly question considering it has been drilled in our brain for the last three years.   What is that next step?  The R in R.O.P.E.S.  Research, research and research.  Before going into the meeting I admit I was a little confused on what type of research we would need to do and how we were going to do it.  However, I think ML and Istrouma has given us enough information to begin thinking about research that is going to help us throughout the campaign.  We want to know things like why people are participating in ISO?  Why AREN’T people participating in ISO?  How are people finding out about ISO?  Why is participation within the church so low?  These are just some of the questions we are interested in researching so we have a better understanding of who to target and how to target them.

Its only been one day since working with this organization and campaign, but the future already looks bright.  I know we won’t always know the answer and we won’t always be perfect but we will always try our best.  PR Daily cam up with a list of “10 ways to be a dream intern,” and I think if we follow by most of those rules, we will be the dream interns for ISO.