Bryon Riesch: How to Communicate with the Disabled

In my PR Tactics II class we had the opportunity to hear from  Bryon Riesch. Riesch is a graduate from Marquette University and has won many awards from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, and Caroll College. Riesch has had a lot to overcome, starting with his accident after his freshman year of college in 1998. Riesch's injury resulted from a slip n slide at a party. He spent three months in the hospital and is classified as a C5 Quadriplegic, however he has full feeling in his toes. After this Riesch decided to go back to Marquette and persued a double major in information technology and marketing.

Riesch insists that he owes a lot of his success to Goodwill Industries because they help people with disabilities find jobs. Since graduating, Riesch has worked at Northwestern Mutual as a systems specialist and at PR Insurance as a project manager.  He also started his own foundation in 2001. Last year they were able to raise $225,000. The proceeds go to the Milwaukee Medical College to further paralysis research.

Riesch also owes a lot of his success to technology. One thing that never leaves his lap is his iPad because it allows him to be more productive in meetings. The Hal 2000 is an environmental control unit that allows him to live more independently.

Riesch had some advice for all of us when it comes to communicating with the disabled:

•       Use common sense!
•       Don’t stare- instead ask what happened
•       Be respectful
•       Introduce yourself
•      Be a friend
•       Be yourself
•       If they offer to shake hands then shake hands- or fist bump
•       Talk to the person in the chair, not the caregiver
•       Ask “Can I help you with that?”
•       They will tell you what they need
•       Only ask once
•       Get to eye level
•       Do not touch the chair or pull at body parts
•       Don’t apologize
•       Remember that people with disabilities are hired or are in school because they are capable of doing so

Blogger Trish Skram Comes to Whitewater

This week I had the opportunity to hear from Trish Skram when she visited my PR Tactics II class at UW-Whitewater. Skram works for Mercy Health System in Janesville, Wisconsin as a media specialist and PR manager. Skram graduated from UW-Whitewater in 2006 with a double major in Marketing and PR. In 2008 she launched her own website, trishskram.com. Skram specializes in blogging, as she blogs for the Janesville Gazette, Wisconsin Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society and her own personal use. 

Skram also offered advice on how to blog successfully. She explained that there is a strategy to blogging: to grow your networks, help to better the PR/communications industry, and to talk about what you know and love. Skram also said that blogging is a way to generate original content, establish experience, and offer people a place to engage. Additionally, Skram offered advice to those who have trouble with blogging. She reminded me that it is important to understand that no one has all the answers, social media is where you can start a conversation and that mistakes are okay. 

Furthermore, Skram gave us eight ways to build a brand through blogging. The first is to determine what you are going to get out of it. In short, who are you? Second, know your competency by relating and connecting to your reader. The third way is to add a personal touch by posting a picture of yourself, offering opinions, jokes and using favorable jargon. Fourth, and most important, be positive! Fifth, be sure to encourage engagement by being passionate, telling stories, and asking questions. Sixth, research key words using google. The seventh step is to make sure that people can actually find you. Lastly, is to be consistent! 

If you want to connect with Skram, follow her @TrishSkram

UWW PR Alumni Speaks to Tactics 2 class

Yesterday recent UW-Whitewater graduate, Amy Paul, spoke to my PR Tactics 2 class. Paul graduated in May of 2011 with a degree in Public Relations. When she started at UWW in 2005 Paul was a Music major, but realized that music wasn’t really what she wanted to do so she tried business and finally landed on Public Relations. 

Currently, Paul works for the Milwaukee County Executives Office as a PR assistant. Some of her duties include managing the social media sites, writing press releases, monitoring media coverage, managing the website, writing constituent letters and planing major events. Recently, Paul was in charge of coordinating the 10th anniversary of 9.11. 

Paul attributes her success to the courses and professors at UW-Whitewater and the numerous internships that she had during her academic career. Paul asserts that there are certain classes that PR students must take such as strategies, electronic media copywriting, advertising, and photoshop in order to help them in the competitive job market. Her involvement in PRSSA is another thing made her stand out. Paul served as secretary, Insight editor, professional development chair, and regional activity coordinator. Some of Paul’s internships included Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, being the brand ambassador for the Qdoba Mexican Grill, working as the student assistant in event planning for the UWW University Development Office, and as the communications intern and street team member for the Milwaukee Admirals. While none of these internships were paid, Paul believes that each one was an excellent learning experience and its all about what you make of it. 

I asked Paul if there was anything else that she thinks that she should have done to better prepare her better for the real world. Her only recommendations were to start looking for internships earlier and join PRSSA earlier. 

Be sure to follow Paul on Twitter @AP2005 and to check out her online portfolio. 

The New and Improved PR Student

Welcome back everyone! I am so happy to be back at Whitewater and am looking forward to starting my junior year. Even though this is my third year here, this will only be my second semester as a PR student.

I spent most of my summer working at The Limited and interning for Barb Endl, the president of Tomorrow’s Hope. I spent most of my internship working on social media for the organization. I used tactics like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and YouTube. Before the summer started we had approximately eleven followers on Facebook. So I really had to brainstorm and come up with a way to get people aware that Tomorrow’s Hope is on Facebook. We started out by using Endl’s personal email and sending a request to like us on Facebook. This helped us gain our followers to about eighty. However, we still wanted more. So we started putting the Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and YouTube logos on all of the newspaper ads and PSA campaigns which ran on the radio stations. Our main promotion was going to be creating a Warhawk Tech Booth at Walk Fest, Ride with a Buddy, and Dirty Fit. We set up computers and a projection screen and went around and took pictures of the events. We then uploaded them to the Facebook site and displayed the pictures on the projector screen. We also had business cards printed and handed them out at the events. After the events our number of followers grew significantly and right now we have 193 followers.

I also had an opportunity to do a PSA for the events Walk Fest, Ride with a Buddy, and Dirty Fit. This was really cool because I had to learn how to condense everything important that we have been using in the press releases into just a thirty second PSA. It took me a few attempts to get it perfect but I think that everyone was really happy with the end result. Overall I had an amazing summer and an even more amazing experience working with Tomorrow’s Hope.

UWW PR Alumni Have Great Insight for College Students

This week I had the opportunity to watch youtube interviews with former UW-Whitewater graduates who majored in some aspect of Public Relations. While they were all very interesting and insightful, there were a few that really stood out to me.

The first was with Ginny Bocek. Bocek works with the Waukesha County Park System as a Parks Program Specialist. What really caught my attention was that no day is ever the same. This is something that I am looking for in a job. I also found it interesting that she uses social media so much in her work, specifically Facebook. She explains that she uses Facebook for the golf courses and also puts together e-news letters and ad campaigns. Additionally, she spoke to the skills she learned at Whitewater. She acknowledged that the tactics she learned in school she still uses today just in different ways. It reassures me that I really am getting a great education here at Whitewater and the skills that I am learning right now are, in fact, preparing me for the real world. To watch Bocek’s interview, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meKGSJFkuAQ.

The second interview that really stood out to me was with Katie Monfre. Monfre graduated from UW-Whitewater in 2006 and is the corporate relations director at MGIC. What I loved about her interview was that she spoke so much about how her professors went above an beyond both in and out of the classroom to help her. I know for a fact that this is still the case at Whitewater, in fact, she stated that the professors are actually more important than the actual classes she took. The other thing that Monfre spoke to was internships and how important they are to finding jobs. She reminded me to get not just one internships, but two or three or four or five. Monfre had amazing insight and to watch her interview, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOhAaSEHwCM.

The final interview that really spoke to me was with Lynnette Hulgan, owner of Essential Details, LLC. Hulgan is a 1999 UW-Whitewater Alumni. Like Lynnette, I knew going into college that I loved speaking and writing it just took me a little while to figure out that Public Relations was where I needed to be. She speaks about how important it is to send your resume to every different aspect of PR that you can. You are so young when you graduate and you need the experience of working in different aspects of PR to really figure out what it is that you want to do. After listening to Hulgan talk about her duties, event planning is something that I am really considering. To learn more about what Lynnette does and to see her interview, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax1agT4OOHc. 

New Trends in Social Media

The newest, coolest, and probably my favorite trend in social media is the Bump app for the iphone and android. Bump is by Bump Technologies LLC and you can check out their website at http://bu.mp/jobs. Bump Technologies was founded by David, Jake, and Andy Huibers; together they launched the Bump app in March 2009. This article by Om Malik explains how the company got started, what their goal is with the Bump app, and why the Bump app has been downloaded by more than 15 million people since its inception. Click here to read more http://gigaom.com/2010/08/06/bump/. A lot of business professionals, especially those in PR, are using the Bump app as a new and better way to exchange information. Everyone at Bump Technologies uses the Bump app as well as those companies and organizations that they work with.The Bump app allows users to literally bump phones together and exchange contact information. So look out business cards- you are about to become obsolete. All you have to do is pick what you want to send, hold your phones together, and then bump. You can even message immediately, kind of like a long-distance “virtual bump.” What I find really cool is that you can use bump to text for free. You can also share photos, apps, locations, contacts, calendar events, messages, music; become friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Bump also works with the Android phones, Ipod and Ipad. It’s newest version has a landscape keyboard and sends you an alert just in case your message doesn’t go through. To learn more about the Bump app and to download this app go to http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bump/id305479724?mt=8.  

BMA Event in Milwaukee

The BMA event in Milwaukee was an amazing event and I am very glad that I had the opportunity to experience it. I spent the night being interviewed in a lighting round by Jim Bernthal, Laura Russart, Terry Hoffman, and Sarah Strauss, who are professionals in the field of Communications. I also ate pizza with fellow classmates, had my resume looked over by Tiffany Weigland and learned about how I can use social media to find internships and even a job from Tom Sanders, Anthony Piwarun, and Haley Landsman. My favorite part of the evening was definitely the interviews. I felt that the interview part is definitely my strongest area because I am so personable and easy to talk to. My interviews said that I have a great personality, great hand gestures, that I am a very quick thinker which allows me to have an answer to every question and that I should keep up the energy. They threw questions at me such as, “What do you do to give back to the community?” “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” “You are so young, how do plan to make up for your lack experience?” and “Why should we hire you?” Questions like these forced me to think quicker and be better prepared for an interview in the real world. Tiffany Weigland was also very constructive of my resume, she suggested I make it have more personality and bullet everything. She also said that having an objective right there on top was a good idea. 

• Jim Bernthal is the president of TopFloorTechnologies, check out there site by clicking http://www.topfloortech.com/
• Laura Russart is the marketing director for Present Music, to learn more about the company you can go to http://www.presentmusic.org/
• Terry Hoffman is the Director of Building Automation Systems Marketing for Johnson Controls and you can learn more about them by going to http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en.html
• Tiffany Weigland works for Rite Hite Corporation and to learn more about them visit http://www.ritehite.com/index.php
• Tom Sanders, Anthony Piwarun, and Haley Landsman work for Fullhouse and do a lot of work for Johnson Controls. You can follow all three of them on Twitter @stratocasting @apiwarun @haleylandsman

To find out more information on the BMA event in Milwaukee, check out this link.  http://www.bma-milwaukee.org/

Check out photos from the event http://www.flickr.com/photos/bmamilwaukee

You can follow BMA on facebook by clicking here... http://www.facebook.com/pages/BMA-Milwaukee/143605512066