Please Vote: Portfolio Reviews in Portland?

Each term, PR Campaigns students have the opportunity to showcase their portfolio before a panel of professionals. This term, that will occur on Friday, March 14. I’m thinking about holding the reviews at the Journalism School’s Turnbull Center downtown Portland this term. I could potentially secure more diverse reviewers and opportunities for networking in Portland.

Click here to vote.

Team Meetings: Tuesday, Jan 29

1:30 – Willamette Family (room 214B)

2:00 – Bateman (Evans, et. al)

2:30 – CHCLC

3:00 – Bateman (Myers, et. al)

3:30 – Growing Solutions

4:00 – FFIS

Fresh jobs, delivered

Rather than sending out emails, I’m going to start posting entry-level jobs and internships on PRos in Training. If you’d like to get them regularly, I’d recommend subscribing to the feed.

Paying Attention and Asking Questions are Key

Neil Tortorella at BODO (Business of Design Online) dishes out marketing and PR advice for designers on this blog. Often his advice is good for students, entrepreneurs of all sorts and anyone looking to build their business. This post is particularly so.

In this course, you really serve as a consultant to your client. They may think they know what they need, but rather than just fulfill pre-determined tasks and move on, Neil has this suggestion:

Ask a boat load of questions. Get to know your clients’ businesses, their competitive arena, their industry, their audience. In essence, learn all the gory details and become a partner in their success. Then, put on your consultant cap and get to thinking. What would help them out? What ideas can you offer up?

Read the rest of the post here.

image:corbis

Funny… but true

This is one of my favorite posts about working with clients. FreelanceSwitch breaks down clients into 12 “breeds” and gives tips on how to work with them successfully. Most of these aren’t going to be relevant for your teams, but you never know, huh?

A couple of good ones…

The Budget Client

I appreciate when a client is on a tight budget and because I often work with start-ups, this is a common issue, but it’s important that you set guidelines and not feel taken advantage of.

The “Decision By Committee” Client

This has to be worse than the Get a Good Deal client. Decisions by committee can be not only creativity killers, but time killers. For those working with more than one person for your Campaigns client, be sure to help them understand the tight deadlines you’re on. If they want to make decisions by committee or with a board of directors, they need to understand how that constrains the project.

See the others here: The 12 Breeds of Clients and How to Work with Them

Info Overload? Maybe.

I’m going to try Google Calendars. I’ll update the winter term calendar often and include what’s on the agenda for each class session. You can subscribe and get regular updates to your feed reader or your email (I think).

How to Give Great Service

The relationship with your client is, likely, the most important one in your working life. Doing good work is essential, but it’s more than that.

Here is a collection of great tips for providing stellar client service.

Have any others?

If it’s snowing, stay home

Official inclement weather policy for my classes: I will send out an email before 9 am the morning of class (Tuesday or Thursday) if classes are being canceled or altered in some way due to weather.

I live in Northwest Eugene. To get to campus, I have to cross many bridges and travel about 15 minutes with no traffic. I’m not a big fan of driving in ice and snow, so… chances are if it’s snowing or icy, I’ll be staying home and you should do the same.

However, if you’d like to go for a swim, who am I to stop you?

photo via Corbis 

PR Campaigns Clients

Interested in learning about your team’s client and all the others, too?

Check out the blogroll in the right column!

image via corbis

Welcome!

Welcome! PR Campaigns starts January 8.

This term will be an interesting mix of clients and projects from crisis management to tween social marketing to social media. You’ll learn about client relationships, research, planning, implementation and presentations.

Get ready! This will be great.