First Grady/LG Global PR Certificate Awarded

From left to right: Jooyoung Kim, Assistant Professor of Advertising; Junguk Jung; Dr. Jeff Springston, Professor of Public Relations and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies; Dr. Karen King, Professor of Advertising and Department Head of Advertising and Public Relations


Dr. Jeff Springston, Professor of Public Relations and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, presents Junguk Jung with a certificate of completion.

LG PR professional Junguk Jung of South Korea was awarded the first Grady/LG Global PR Certificate this week. Junguk has been studying at Grady since January 2009. Congratualtions Junguk!

PRSSA Update from Dr. Jones

"At the end of our Fall membership drive, we have
249 members, 150 of whom are on Creative Consultants teams.
More than 100 students have attended each meeting this year.
Speakers from Lockheed Martin, Edelman, The Reynolds Group
and Susan G. Komen have participated in the meetings this
semester. One meeting was devoted to interviewing skills.

PRofessional CONNECTION was the biggest and best event to
date. More than 200 students (not all Grady) attended the
afternoon workshops. About 65 faculty, staff, students and
professionals attended the dinner. Southern Company helped sponsor the event.

Five students attended the National Conference in San Diego.


Five students are already working hard with Kaye on the
Bateman competition. PRSSA pays their application fee and gives
the team $300 for expenses. When (I'm confident!) this team
wins the competition, their prize money will go back into next
year's treasury.

Two students (Samantha Riddle and Lauren Rohde) are waiting
to hear about Lockheed appointments. Eighteen students
applied originally; 10 made the second cut. Samantha and
Lauren have completed their Washington D.C. interviews.

In January, we will hold our second PR Workout. This event is for
PR directors of on-campus student organizations. Our students
will teach them how to do their jobs more efficiently. Last year,
20 organizations participated; we hope to more than double this
next year.

In February, up to 16 students will travel to Washington D.C. for
our second agency tour. Real World in Atlanta is also in February, and we will send hopefully more than 50 students (as we have in the past) to this event. The e-board is also planning another event that will involved Atlanta
professionals.

Congrats to Dr. Russell

Our own Dr. Karen Russell has been named one of the 100 smartest people in social media by Smarter Social Media. They are a leading provider of social media marketing services online. "Started with a simple philosophy - talk with your customer instead of yelling at them - Smarter Social Media has created and maintains the social media presence of some of today's greatest thought leaders, start-ups and well-known brands."

This is quite a recognition for an educator as none of the other honorees are educators.

Check it out at:

http://smartersocialmedia.com/blog/#2009/12/09/smartest-people-in-social-media-part-2

Fall ADPR 3510 Presentations

This fall 2009 Dr. Sweeter's PR students completed and presented original, IRB-approved research conducted entirely by the students. The students did great work, as you will see. You can see it on the sites listed below:

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Fortune 500 Blogs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh02AHELWLA
UGA Grady College PR undergraduate students Abby R. Marcinko, Casey N. Carter, Courtney A. Garmhaus, Erin E. Wilson, Jason H. Davis, Katie A. Brown, Kayla M. Payne, Elizabeth M. Peterson, Staci L. Dale and Tessa V. Baker present their original research "Closing the Loop: Reconceptualizing Message Control and Creating Dialogic Loop through the Maintenance of Corporate Weblog." This study content analyzed Fortune 500 corporate weblogs to measure relationship building through the historically influential features of dialogic theory.Their final research report is at http://podcasting.gcsu.edu/4DCGI/Podcasting/UGA/Episodes/28322/13563.pdf

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Use of Social Tools among Nonprofit Publics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tca00emVycs
UGA Grady College PR undergraduate students Catherine Capers, Lesley Anne Dickerson, Kristin Eichbauer, Rebecca Holton, and Lauren Miller present their original research “Relationship Management: A Study of Non-profit Internet Presence.” This online survey investigates how a non-profit organization's Internet presence strengthens relationship management between the organization and its publics, as reported by 222 respondents. Respondents reported online behaviors and interaction with non-profit groups, such as the American Red Cross. Data indicates a positive, moderate statistically significant correlation between donor’s and volunteer's trust and the relationship management factor of conversational human voice. Their final research report is at http://podcasting.gcsu.edu/4DCGI/Podcasting/UGA/Episodes/13833/9369.pdf

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Fans, Relationship & PR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lKzthoKNws
UGA Grady College PR undergraduate students Samantha Badcock, Lauren Coppage, Meghan Crites, Katherine Durham, Mary Featherstone, Elizabeth Fries, & William Inman present their original research "Fan Identification in Sports: Public Relations as a Management Function." This study assesses the strength of fan identification of both sports fans and non sports fans based on their perceptions of two factors: team community involvement and sports’ benefit to society. A non-probability convenience sample of individuals (N = 172) from the University of Georgia was surveyed to determine if there is a correlation between community presence of professional sports clubs and the strength of their fan identification. The study also examines whether respondents perceive sports to have an impact on society and a personal benefit. Results indicated a statistically significant correlation as well as the presence of this respondent perception, showing that team community incorporation is im!
portant to sports fans, therefore demonstrating the need for public relations practitioners to understand and promote their organizations’ involvement in local communities and the benefits of their organization to society. Their final research report is at http://podcasting.gcsu.edu/4DCGI/Podcasting/UGA/Episodes/17969/17308.pdf

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Source Credibility in Tourism PR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY5NlbDtFtI
UGA Grady College PR undergraduate students Laura Lyn McLeod, Lauren Kelley, Morgan Ingram, Brooke Drinkard, Elizabeth Ragland, Brooke Gerber, and Emily Knab present their original research “Who Do You Trust?: The Source of Visual Social Media and its Effect on Perceived Credibility.” With the rising prevalence of social media in the public relations arena, travelers searching for a desirable destination have various sources for travel information, which means that in turn consumers must assess levels of credibility for information sources. Using the relationship management theory and a posttest experiment, this study analyzes the perceived credibility of a destination and its source based upon user-generated versus professionally-developed content in visual social media. Participants responded to an image of a little-known travel destination, answering questions regarding their reaction to the source of the photo. Findings revealed that potential travelers exposed to a !
destination through visual social media perceived a professional source as more credible than a personal account holder sharing photos. Their final research report is at http://podcasting.gcsu.edu/4DCGI/Podcasting/UGA/Episodes/9706/15363.pdf

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Sports Reputation Crisis Experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjn5LW_Hdys
UGA Grady College PR undergraduate students Kristin Ballard, Leah Bishop, Molly Davis, Holly DeJong, Jacqueline Derron, Alexandra Lanier, Megan Trammell, Van Vu, Casie Walker, and Mackenzie Washington present their original research “Sports Reputation Management: Crisis Communication Among Professional Athletes.” This post-test only quasi-experiment manipulates the variables of response strategy and history of drug usage to examine the effects of crisis communication strategies of professional athletes. The most prominent hypothesis in the study was that the mortification response strategy will have a positive impact on reputation management when paired with no history of drug use. Their final research report is at http://podcasting.gcsu.edu/4DCGI/Podcasting/UGA/Episodes/2267/7101.pdf

Grady alum shares SEO secrets at recent visit

Grady advertising alum Courtney Minton visited ADPR students and faculty Friday, December 4, to share her experience in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Minton spoke to the students in Introduction to Advertising and SEO strategy. Several students commented that SEO was the career path they were seeking but didn’t know there was a name for it. Minton also met with ADPR faculty to discuss the basics of SEO and share insights about the field.

Minton is a 2007 graduate of the Advertising and Public Relations Department at the University of Georgia. After a short stint working on AT&T Wireless at Nurun Atlanta, she was recruited to work for Search Discovery, a search marketing agency in Atlanta. Her clients include ApartmentFinder, Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers, Chick-fil-A, and GoldFellow among others.

AT&T Wireless: http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/welcome/
Nurun Atlanta: http://www.nurun.com/home
Search Discovery: http://www.searchdiscovery.com/