Digital Bridges Event: ShopLocalMilledgeville.com

ShopLocalMilledgeville.com is a new website that is being launched at the end of April as a part of Digital Bridges. This new website will allow every business in Milledgeville to have a FREE web presence. It is also a one stop shop for customers. Consumers will be able to search all possible businesses in Milledgeville and even print out coupons, search sale events, and be exposed to a business of the week.
My campaign for the semester was taking on ShopLocalMilledgeville.com. The website needed everything from promotion, promotional material, and support. Myself, Cara Wilmer, and Brooke Brookins took on this project and turned it into a success. We wanted to show the consumers of Milledgeville that staying local with your money will greatly benefit the community in the end. My team designed and ordered promotional magnets, designed flyers, and organized an event to spread the word.
In Mid-March the Milledgeville Mall hosted a business fair. My team set up a booth to help the community gain awareness of this great business opportunity. We wanted the community understand why shopping local is so important. We played a game where customers would guess how many local businesses were in local Milledgeville. A jar was filled up with pennies with the correct number of businesses. Guesses ranges everywhere from 1,200 to 450. The correct number was revealed the week after the event and many were surprised to hear it was 650. We also had handbills, candy and design work to show off to the community.
We found that our biggest challenge was getting the elderly involved. Most people over the age of 60 do not own a computer, let alone know how to work one. We wanted to show them that technology can bring great things, but it was hard to keep them interested.
I could not have asked for a better team to work with. We got along great and worked together like we have known each other for years. I would have been completely lost without Cara's dedication and design and without Brooke's attention to detail. Everyone contributed equally and I am so happy to have been able to work with them on this campaign.

How to Pick the Right PR Program?

I'm in my third week of my FINAL (and hopefully last) Public Relations course here at GC&SU. Public Relations Campaigns is a more hands-on do it yourself class that really pushes us to see what we are capable of on our own. Digital Bridges is a new non-profit organization located in downtown Milledgeville and is our client for the semester. This organization hopes to redefine Milledgeville by bringing a wave of technology and innovative thinking to the small business's and entrepreneurs.

This organization has a very big target audience in Milledgeville which can make it challenging to spread awareness. My group consists of Cara Wilmer and Brooke Brookins and we are excited for all the ideas we have to make this organization a success. Our main target audience are the small business's and entrepreneurs who would be more successful if they knew how to utilize technology and social media. With this said.....how to we acheive this?

I did some research on selecting a PR program that fits your need. I found an article that is very helpful and wanted to share it.
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/public-relations/803-1.html

Selecting a PR Program

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To determine the types of public relations programs that are right for your business, there are several considerations to keep in mind.

Your company’s goals and budget will determine which public relations programs will be most suited to your company. Do your homework first! Always know what your working with before you dive in!

• Evaluate your business goals: Are you a local, regional, national, or international business?
• Determine a timetable: How fast do you need to build awareness?
• Make a budget that's in line with your working capital and your goals.
• Create an action plan of programs and personnel to reach your goals — whether in-house or outsourced.

Then take a look at what your industry is doing and see what works for your competitors. Look to other industries for some innovative schemes.

Keep your PR function in-house and even do it yourself. Media types love entrepreneurs', energy and enthusiasm for a new business. Learn how to write effective press releases. Create reportable events and excitement about your business so that the press wants to give you publicity.

If you have national ambitions and sufficient capital to fund a powerful PR campaign, hire the experts. This is what they do for a living, so they are focused, knowledgeable, and results-driven. On the other hand, your business presents you with constant challenges — product development, building a work force, securing funding for expansion, etc. Without a dedicated team of experts, public relations are often left out, mismanaged, or forgotten.

Kicking it Off Right...

This was the first of hopefully many to come. This past week was my first formal pitch in my PR career. My team consisted of three members, Andrea Lowery, Rachel Ledford, and myself. We worked great together and I really learned how to bounce ideas and work as a team. It also gave me the chance to get to know them more alot better and I really enjoyed that.

Our assignment was to plan and implement the Kickoff Dinner for Baldwin County's Relay For Life. Our duties consisted of creating a menu, adopting a theme, finding decorations, designing an invitation, and maintaining excitement for Relay For Life. Because all of our food will be donated our menu option contained a wide varitey of options. Everything from Mexican food to Chinese would be offered. Our theme for the Kickoff was "Unwrap the Cure." Because the national theme for Relay was "Creating a World with More Birthdays", our team wanted to stay within a birthday theme. We wanted to make the room look like a huge birthday party. A balloon arch, colorful birthday presents, and lots of sweets would be all around the room.

This assignment taught me alot and I got to see how much work goes into an event like this. It also feels good to do an event for such a good cause. I am glad to be apart of Baldwin County's Relay For Life and I am very excited for our class to put all of our ideas together and come up with a Kickoff that will be remembered!