Chris Davis: the creative among investment specialists

Chris Davis, director of integrated communications at Fi-Plan partners, spoke to our PR class last Friday afternoon.  Davis works on the creative side of investment planning.  “There is a creative side to investment planning,” you may ask?  Don’t worry, because I though the same thing.  Davis is in charge or communicating finance lingo to clients and prospective clients.

Davis described his life and what eccentric and eventful jobs led him to where he is today.  He went from being a guitarist for 11 years to an owner of a coffee shop to a bike mechanic to an employee at an investment company.

So, here are a few very insightful words from the man who’s done it all.

• Network as much as possible.  Get to know people in all avenues.
• “Nobody is successful or fulfilled unless they affect the people around them.”  Davis learned this from his boss, who genuinely wants to help people.  When you affect and help the people around you, you create relationships that last based on trust.
• Top 5 tips for getting the best results on Google:

1)    Keywords

2)    Links

3)    Changing/ new content

4)    Video

5)    Image tagging

When you use all of these efficiently and correctly, Google will love you and it will optimize your views!

Hot Coffee heats up conversation at Samford University

Hot Coffee, a documentary feature film by Susan Saladoff, came to Samford University, Tuesday, April 17.  This film illustrated the changes and reactions made after the precedent-setting McDonald’s Hot Coffee case. The case is known as the poster child of excessive lawsuits and began efforts for tort reform our justice system to prevent frivolous lawsuits.  The film showed how our 7^th Amendment rights have been targeted for erosion in Alabama and other states.

So, what really happened in the McDonald’s Hot Coffee case?  What is tort reform?  Those are questions students brought to the screening of the film.  The director and former Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice, Ralph Cook were on a panel for anyone to ask them questions after the film.

As a PR class, every student had a job to promote this movie last week to students and faculty on Samford’s campus.  My job was to write a feature article for The Crimson, describing the future event.  Others created posters to hang around campus, table-toppers for the caf, and Samford radio and T.V. announcements.  Classmates also went to business classes and sorority and fraternity houses to spread the news of the film.

Our job was to get the word around campus that this opportunity to see a Sundance Film Festival film, receive a free lunch as well as two convo credits was a pretty great deal.  We illustrated the screening as enlightening to those of you who did not know the case or wanted to know more about the case, its proceedings and effects on the justice system.

The first 80 students who arrived received a free box lunch courtesy of the sponsors.  And if lunch was not a good enough initiative, the film also provided undergraduate students 2 convocation credits.

Between our tweets and Facebook statuses throughout the day, the article in the campus newspaper and posters covering campus, we reached a great deal of Samford students and faculty who may not have heard or been interested in the film before.

 

Jessica Simpson speaks about Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center

Jessica Simpson, marketing and program director at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center at UAB, spoke to our principles of PR class April 4, 2012.  She described her life up to the point where she is now, how she got here and what she loves most about her career.  Simpson was very enthusiastic about her job and what she does on a daily basis.  She gave us a few words of advice about going into event planning.

Here are some wise words from Simpson:

• Everyone in event planning, marketing, PR, entertainment, etc are all in this business together to make money.  But in order to make money, all the avenues must work together.  Without one, you can’t have the others.  If the Alys Stephens Center did not exist for entertainers, then the PR and booking agents would not have a place to perform.
• When working with events and event planning, every audience is different.  They all like to see different forms of entertainment.  They also even buy tickets differently.  At Alys Stephens, they “work [their] strategic muscles” when it comes to having a plan for different demographics.
• Reward comes from making an impact on the community.  Simpson says that when she impacts people’s days or lives with whatever show is happening, she is rewarded.

Sean Wright speaks to PR class

Sean Wright, director of venue management at Samford University, talked to Dr. Martin’s Principles of PR class March 14th. His main responsibility is scheduling events for the Leslie Wright Center and Pete Hanna Center on Samford’s campus.

Here are a few take-aways from Wright’s talk:

• The biggest change that Wright deals with is the fact that the calendar year never ends.  Summer used to be slow, but not anymore.  They are constantly booking before and after the academic year.
• Every day is different.  No day is the same.
• “Product remains the key.”  You have to know your venue and market.  You have to know that your product is profitable.  Develop a marketing strategy before the event; otherwise you will not be prepared.

Meredith Foster speaks to PR class

Meredith Foster spoke to the Principles of PR class on Friday, March 2, 2012. Foster is the Project Specialist for the Girl Scouts of America for North Central Alabama. Her main responsibilities include: writing copy for publications, creating press releases, managing social media and assisting in graphic design.

Because Foster recently graduated college, she gave us a few interesting and helpful tips.  These are some of her words of advice:

1) Create and develop relationships with the people that you work with frequently outside of your office, such TV stations and publications.

2) Build a portfolio of your work to show future employers because it helps them see what you can do.

3) Get published. Showing that your work is good enough to get published makes it easier to get the job.

Wise Words from John Richardson

John Richardson spoke to our PR class on Friday, February 24 about his experience and knowledge of the PR industry.  Here are a few words of advice he gave us.

1)     Work well with others- you have to be able to work with people.  “Be a real person.”  No one wants to work with someone who you can’t bounce ideas of off.

2)     Awareness is what it is all about now.  The advertising field is consuming PR agencies.  Therefore, you must be aware of what the consumers want from your company.

3)     Do the coolest next thing-first!  Be the first to come up with a new and refreshing idea that blows competitors out of the water.  Get your client noticed with the best tools and resources.

Axia Public Relations Firm

Axia Public Relations firm builds strong brands and great reputations.  The firm specializes in media relations, social media, corporate communications, crisis communications, reputation management, executive media training and many other paramount tasks in order to create and expand brands.  Axia has 18 associates in offices in eight states, including Georgia.  The associates work with clients, such as Miller Lite, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Verizon select.  The award-winning firm produces campaigns for clients and keeps them in the national news, such as USA Today, NBC, CNN and The New York Times.  Axia takes clients’ ideas, creates relationships with them and gives them results.

When I called to ask about their typical day, they were busy and not able to give me an interview.

Lori Merricks Speaks to PR Class

Lori Merricks, Account Director in Public Relations for Luckie & Co., came to visit a Principles of PR class at Samford University on February 10.  Merricks presented her thoughts and ideas of what PR really is and what her job entails.  She explained to the class that this industry is for “writers, researchers and lovers of communication and news;” and if you are not one of those then you do not belong in PR.

Main points that I took away from her presentation were:

1)    Public relations matters more than ever in today’s world because “what others say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.”

2)    PR is about making sure what you have to say is fresh and relevant.

3)    Google can be your best friend.  Because Google is the “world’s reputation management system,” it is used to measure your credibility and effectiveness.

4)    Everyone has a story.  It is our job, as a PR advisor, to know the story, prove it and have a focused call to action.

Merricks described the business of PR in a realistic light and gave us tips on how to realistically get a job in the field.