So, let’s take a step back. Wasn’t Justin that boy from the once-cool, boy band, N’Sync? How could this be the same person? How did Timberlake make such a success story for himself? He was once a singer and now he is a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actor and now, a fashionista. I’ll tell you why, he created himself as a brand.

Photo by music-atlas.com

He is not the first celebrity to do this. Many others have branded themselves over the years and have branched out to multiple professions in order to distinguish themselves from other celebrities. Jennifer Lopez, Sean (P-Diddy) Combs, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Kim Kardashian and many more. These celebrities are the ones who have managed to stay in the spotlight and grow as the years pass by because they are the ones that prove they are not just good at one thing, but they are good at many things.

For example, take Kim Kardashian. She is known around the country as a sex symbol. She’s always spotted on the red carpet looking fabulous and sexy. Her long locks, her voice and her diva attitude all convey sex. She’s even posed for Playboy. So, she’s used this image to her advantage and has developed a clothing line and a fragrance. Her overall demeanor, as well as her advertisements, communicate to consumers that “if you wear my clothes or smell like me, you can be sexy too!” She has used her status symbol to sell products; she has used her image to become a brand herself.

Jennifer Lopez, in my opinion, is the most successful at using this strategy. She started off as a struggling back-up dancer and now look at her! Singer, actress, dancer, model, fashion designer, record producer are all professionals she can claim.

All these celebrities created an image. An image they used to brand and promote themselves to become successful in life, as well as esteemed in the public eye.

Photo by babble.com

Who knows what’s next for Justin Timberlake? I for one am interested to see what profession he dabbles into next.

This tile piece was supposed to resemble the river itself. As you can see, it went along the entire wall and if you look close, you can see a building in the piece that is supposed to be the Alamo.

Above: This was my favorite piece. The writing means “Art is long, Life is short.”  From far away, it looks like a beautiful bench

Below: As you look up close, you can see little trinkets implanted in the piece.

Here the artist is explaining the reasoning behind this piece. Each black tile pattern represents the freeway system in San Antonio. He actually pointed out which tiles were I-35 and where we were standing in relation to the freeways.

This piece was described as, “A dog’s view of San Antonio,” this was the artist’s golden lab who recently passed away. the artist described this as his favorite piece.

This was one of my favorites. To me, it clearly brought out the beauty of the river.

The private tour consisted of art restorists, artists who contributed to the river pieces, River Foundation members, and Rio Vivo participants. It was such a great experience to get real insight into everyone’s believes and the passion they have for what this project means for San Antonio.

Step by step we evaluated every piece of art and the artists described what was behind the pieces and why the specific placement of each piece mattered. Other pieces were even related back to history, which was a real treasure to see the meaning behind all the pieces. This trip differed from the first because we got to hear the artists speak about their own pieces and we also experienced the cultural pieces, as opposed to the new contemporary pieces we saw on our first trip.

Pictures are coming soon, but some pieces stood out to me. One artists’ piece was a bench with tile and little trinkits infused into the bench. The artist said that she particularly loves the art that can be beautiful from far away but as you get close, you see parts that would otherwise go undetected. There was a saying stated in black tiles on the bottom that said in latin, “Art is long, Life is short.” I enjoyed this specific piece the most because as I watched her speak, you could see the passion on her face. It was such an amazing experience to hear first hand, what the artists were thinking as they created these beautiful pieces of art.

It’s a shame that they don’t have plaques by each artist’s work to describe what each piece means. If I were walking around the river on my own, without a guide, I would have no clue what each meant. And after hearing the description, each piece almost comes to life. I believe plaques should be placed along the river in order to show the cultural background of each art work.

For example, Facebook. Facebook I think is one of the least functional social networking sites for a corporation. Whether the company is for profit or not for profit does not matter in this circumstance. Facebook users can follow pages of companies they like and can interact with others who are also fans of the company. Starbucks is a perfect example of this. Starbucks has over 5 million fans on Facebook and many fans post and comment on their status updates. This is a perfect place for Sbux lovers to go and converse with other Sbux lovers that live in other countries. In this circumstance, Facebook would be appropriate. However, the majority of businesses who are on Facebook do not have this many followers, which forces the conversation to die down.

In today’s world, companies are feeling the vast pressure to enter social media. They tend to want to be on every social networking site, no matter what their goal/cause. As PR practitioners it is our job to LISTEN to what they need accomplished and perform accurately. This doesn’t necessarily mean entering every site that deals with social media. While sites like blogging and twitter are perfect for internal members of the company to communicate with external publics, other sites such as Facebook, may not have that much impact. It’s important for companies to realize that they can’t just bombard social networking at once, because this is going to create clutter. This clutter will dimish the quality of the messages and once again, consumers and publics will not be as receptive to messages. Round and round goes the merry-go-round.

Internships are the essential key to getting real, honest insight into the PR field. Well, really any field. You need to get thrown into your profession and watch, listen and ask questions from those who you work for. Whether they are other interns, account supervisors or actual principals/owners, soak up everything you can like a sponge. I have had two internships so far, one with the nonprofit, Prevent Blindness Texas and the other with Kristy Ozmun Public Relations. Both were vastly different in every aspect yet I loved each of them. I have already accepted an internship offer for the spring and it’s yet again completely different from what I have experience in. I’m trying to receive as much background in the PR field before graduation as I possibly can.

I digress, going back to common misconceptions with PR, not only do people frequently relate PR with crisis management but they also love to use the word, “spin.” This connotation bugs me. Yes, PR does involve communicating problems in a positive light, but it does so much more than that. I am extremely passionate about customer service. I have experience in customer service from working at Macaroni Grill and Starbucks and I bring this background in customer service to my job as a PR practitioner. Customer service can translate into client experience. This all ties in to the quality of your communication. PR communication should enable clients and publics to feel comfortable enough to communicate with the PR practitioners and express concerns. The PR professional should, in turn, come back and engage in active listening and in the conversation. It all goes back to customer (client) service! Public relations is so much more than crisis management and “spinning,” and I feel many corporations have de-valued the PR profession. I honestly don’t know if I could work for a corporation who can “spin” their negative messages. This to me is unhonest and takes away from the whole point of PR, which is open, 2-way communication. However, I could just be a naive student. Hopefully I will stick to my gut feeling and values. I guess I’ll see what happens when I get out in the real world, hopefully I’ll be able to stick up for what I believe in.

The artcile discusses how NBC is preparing for the Olympics and how social media is being integrated into the games next year. One of the new features is Facebook Connect, which  allows people to chat with their friends as they are watching the events. NBC is expecting this new feature to make the videos a more social and engaging experience for viewers and is hoping that viewing times will increase as a result.

I look forward to the Olympics every year. I absolutely love the competition and how you can turn on your television and multiple channels are airing the event throughout the whole day. The fact that the implementers of the Olympics are taking social media into consideration excites me. Facebook chat is extremely unreliable, yet I like to chat with my friends about events going on, and television shows that are occuring in real time. Facebook Connect will hopefully provide a reliable connection that enables me to talk to friends and family while the Olympics are going on.

Social media is the wave of the future. The Olympics should be even better this year.

I just don’t understand the point of this device. How can even companies utilize this new device? Employees who are responsible for keeping up with tweeting/blogging/ social media are not going to need this machine. It’s called phones/iPhones/Blackberries and laptops. No one needs a slow, tweeting machine for over $100 when other devices are readily available.

Twitter peek…I doubt you last for very long.

During this class, my professor brought up Edward Bernays’ breakfast campaign. Did you know that before the 1920s, eggs and bacon were not considered an American breakfast. They were more typical on farms where families could get these ingredients fresh. Since I was born, I always thought eggs and bacon was just a normal, American breakfast. I didn’t know it wasn’t always like this. And why is that: Edward Bernays.

How did he do it: Before implementation of the campaign, he found a physician and asked him what he thought of a hearty breakfast in contrast to a light breakfast. Not surprisingly, the physician was favorable to a hearty breakfast for certain reasons, one including energy for the day. Then, Bernays asked this physician if he would write 5,000 other physicians throughout the nation and ask them if they agreed with him. The physician complied and the majority of physicians agreed. Bernays then used the support of these physicians to implement a campaign on the basis of how a hearty breakfast is better for you, and then stated how eggs and bacon will provide the hearty breakfast everyone should get. Ever since, bacon and eggs have been a natural part of breakfast in the American culture.

I am pretty stunned that I haven’t been taught any of these campaigns. I learned this in a theories of persuasion class, not a public relations class. I think it would be a great idea for UT to provide a history of public relations class. This class would provide not only a background of pr, but it would also help us determine where pr is headed in the future. History is a big part of development and you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’re from. UT needs to provide this class to inform pr students of important campaigns that have truly made a difference as a way to inspire students.

The study states that from 2008 to 2009, their was a major increase in the percentage of US intenet users with a social media profile. Also, the “Power to the People” reported that the US is far from tops in social networking activity. Surprisingly, seven other countries polled had higher percentages of Internet users with a social network profile. Russia came in first at 85.3%.

These findings prove that social networking is here to stay. I personally, do not believe that all these sites are a fad. Not only do they serve personal and commercial use, but they allow us to communicate to those across the world. Every country is connected and brought together easier because of social networking.

This past weekend at Whole Foods Market, Alton Brown was in town for a book signing and to discuss his new book release. When famous food writer and blogger for the Austin American-Statesman asked him, “So what do you think of all this Twitter and Facebook stuff?”

Alton Brown responded, “No Twitter, no Facebook, no involvement online whatsoever. He and his team spend $20,000 a year to kick impersonators off, he says, and he’s so fed up that he’s ready to take down his entire Web site.” This view of social networking as just an annoyance will hurt companies and professionals if they continue to have this attitude. People like Alton Brown need to realize that the benefits outweigh the cons when it comes to social networking and that if utilized to its full potential, social networking can alter the way we function. (p.s. it already has)

First, the Nook has a touchscreen vs. a keyboard. Positive #1. Next, the Nook can actually send books. I has the capability to send books to their friend’s Nooks, iPhones or iPods. Positive #2. (However, I don’t know anyone who would want to read a book on an iPhone) This amazing device can also play music. What else could someone want! Also, buying books on the Nook is as cheap as $9.99 and that’s for new releases too.

Now I want to take a step back and look at the broad innovation aspect. With technology growing so fast, how do we know what product is going to be “the best” forever? This is the single most frustrating aspect with technology. It almost inhibits me from buying new things because I don’t know if I should wait and see what other competitor’s come out with, or if this is really the top of the line, which is always unlikely in our competitive society. However, I really think the only brand that has been repeatedly successful at this is Apple and the iPod. Apple is such a distinguishable and status-signifying brand, not to mention they have the best TV advertisements I have ever seen in my life.

How do they do it? I remember when iPod’s first came out and I myself was skeptical. I liked my CDs and I thought the only way to put music on your  iPod was to buy it from the iTunes store. (Remember, I was young, probably around 15 years old) Anyway, iPod’s didn’t immediately win me over. It wasn’t till they came out with the TV commercial where they have silhouettes dancing with their iPods till I truly fell in love. My favorite: Hey Mama. And now, everyone has an iPod. You can’t walk across campus without seeing at least 20 iPods. Many companies have tried to introduce similar products, but Apple still dominates the market.

My whole point is technology is ever changing and in a competitive market, innovation is necessary for survival and will be rewarded. Technology will continue to bring new products into the market at an increasing rate. The downside, we have to face the fact that buying a “new toy” today, may mean having an “old toy” tomorrow.