The Importance of Professionalism

By James Mendez

University of North Texas

Mayborn School of Journalism

As someone who prides themselves on being professional, it astonishes me how many instances of unprofessionalism I see on a daily basis. This week I am going to discuss how important professionalism is in the PR world.

Photo Via Cartoon Lounge

As I student at a public university, I probably see more instances of unprofessionalism on a daily basis than most. The most blatant offense, to me, is what student’s perceive as “business casual”.

 

Photo Via Tarleton.edu                     

The way you present yourself is a reflection of what kind of work you are going to produce. It blows my mind when I am in a group and we are assigned a presentation that requires business attire and a group member shows up in skinny jeans and a t-shirt. Hopefully they will see the photo above.

Last week I went over to a friend’s house for a casual dinner and it amazed me at how some of them consume food. A few of them ate like it was last meal while others talked the entire time and didn’t even put a dent in their food. Since a lot of business is conducted at the dinner table, manners matter.

Photo Via MommyPoppins.com

I have also noticed that, today, people do not seem to be near as polite as they used to be. When I am speaking to someone if they don’t look me in the eye, I feel as though something is either wrong with me or wrong with them. The smallest details such as handwriting a letter instead of sending an email can make a world of a difference when it comes to getting a job, making a sale or simply impressing someone.

I recently had the pleasure of reading, You Did What? The Biggest MistakesProfessionals Make, by Kim Zoller and Kerry Preston and I would defiantly recommend it to anyone interested in being professional. As I stated earlier, I consider myself to be quite professional however I did learn several new things from the book. You can pick it up at your local bookstore or here.

Be Aware of Advertisements

By James Mendez

University of North Texas

Mayborn School of Journalism

Over the years we have all witnessed what we may have perceived as being “false advertising”. These potentially misleading ad’s have been the topic of many conversations and have even lead to a case in court. Let’s take a look at a few of the companies that have been accused of false advertising.

Let's start with a somewhat comical example. We have all seen a fast food advertisement and said to ourselves, "It definitely does not look like that when i order it." Burger King is definitely one of those restaurants. 

Picture Via Oddee

While they advertise a beautiful handcrafted cheeseburger, what you actually get is no where near what the "billboard burger" looks like. While Burger King has not been taken to court for their perceived false advertising, there have been companies who have.

Tobacco companies have always been accused of false advertising. The product they sell has and always will be "potentially" harmful and therefore means that the company that promotes them needs an excuse why they are not harmful. This situation makes for an awesome example of misleading advertisements. 

Photo Via Good.is

While the company knows that cigarettes are not good for your health, they now that people are willing to buy them despite the risk and therefore do everything they can to promote their product. Despite all of the lawsuits, tobacco companies still are able to print ad's that falsely adversities their product. They were even forced to change the name of their product due to false advertising.

Photo Via Fast Company

These two examples show exactly how companies are able to get away with misleading and false advertising. As consumers we must always remain aware of exactly what we are looking at. As sad as it is, companies will continue to advertise their products in order to sell as much as possible. While the FDA does as much as it can, false advertisements still reach consumers. With that being said, we, as consumers, must be conscious to what we are seeing so that we do not become victims of misleading ad's.

What Russia Has Taught Us During the 2014 Winter Olmypics

By James Mendez

University of North Texas

Mayborn School of Journalism

As the Olympics proceed in Sochi, Russia so do the headlines. If we take a leap back in time to three weeks ago before the Olympics started we find the usual “Olympic drama” was definitely not going to miss out on the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Via English Club

If you have been living under a rock, or in your parent’s basement, for the last 6 months, let me update you on what I am talking about.

Back in June of 2013 the Russian Parliament passed a bill that was, and remains to be, one of the most anti-gay pieces of legislation ever passed.

The bill, that was passed on June 30, 2013, bans the, "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors," according to Polymic.com.

The bill also bans gay pride parades, imposes fines to gay right activists and also denies registration to gays looking to join nongovernmental organizations.

When I first saw the following headline, I definitely had to take a second look to make sure what I was reading was actually there. I could not believe that in today’s world, a government would come out and blatantly discriminate against the homosexual community.

Via Huffington Post

Now I will admit that I am personally not a huge supporter of gay rights, however I do believe that all people were created equal, and therefore, should be treated equally.

With that being said, I totally disagree with the Russian Parliaments decision. From a PR perspective I feel like they sunk their own ship. Russia almost immediately felt the backlash from not only Europe but from Barrack Obama Himself.

And while I do not usually agree with anything President Obama says, I do have to agree with him on this one.

Russia made a terrible decision, and to make it worse made that decision when their country was in one of the grandest spotlights, the Winter Olympics.

Since this unraveling, Russia has tried to make things right with the homosexual community, yet, has failed again.

As I mentioned in my last post, we live in a multicultural, multilingual, gay/straight world, and in my opinion, the best option we have is to accept it.

Let's Keep America Beautiful

By James Mendez

University of North Texas

Mayborn School of Journalism

Last semester I took an advertising class and for our final group project we were asked to discuss a brand that we felt had a major influence on Americans. With that in mind, we decided to look into the Coca-Cola brand. What we found is that not only is Coke a major influencer in America, but that the Coke brand has an influence worldwide. 

This was recently brought to light in the recent Coca-Cola super bowl ad. The advertisement, entitled “America Is Beautiful,” shows a diverse group of Americans engaging in everyday activities.

I will admit that the first time I saw the ad the volume was on mute, however the ad seemed totally normal. To me, Coca-Cola was showing how diverse of a country America truly is. It gave me a sense of community. The term “one love” came to mind and for a minute I felt as though America was actually taking a step in the right direction when it came to the acceptance of different races.

Then I checked my Twitter feed. I was dumbfounded to find so many hate-filled tweets such as…

Via Mediaite

This definitely threw me off and after reading through over a dozen disgusting tweets, I went back and watched the ad with the volume to see what the fuss was all about.

What I discovered was that the Coca-Cola ad featured the song, “America The Beautiful” which was sung in eight different languages. While the ad itself did not shock me, the level of ignorance in America today did.

People were outraged that Coca-Cola would defame such a beautiful American song by having it sung in different languages when the fact remains that each and every American either came from another country or is the descendent of someone who did.

Today, America is a cultural melting pot. We are a bilingual and bicultural country who, more often than not, prides itself on being accepting of others. To see so many people speak out so negatively about the commercial truly upset me.

While I can understand why some people are upset about the song being sung in different languages, I can not understand why people have to react in such a hateful way.

I totally back Coca-Cola and their decision to go through with the ad. America has come a long way over the past 60 years when it comes to race relations; lets continue to take steps forward and not backward.

How To Make The Most Out of Your LinkedIn Network

By James Mendez

University of North Texas

Mayborn School of Journalism

Recently I began interning at Beverly Drive Magazine and part of my job, as an intern, is to contact different companies on our “comp list”. These are companies, or individuals such as doctors and prominent lawyers, that we send a free copy of the magazine to each month in order to reach the niche market they cater to.

While I did have the company name, the contact at that companies name as well as the address of the company what I did not have was a phone number or email address. This, obviously, makes the task of contacting these certain individuals very difficult.

All difficulty aside, I set out about the task at hand. The first couple of individuals were not very difficult to track down. A simple Google search for the company provided me with not only the company phone number but also the individuals extension.

It wasn’t until I attempted to track down a phone number for the owner of boutique interior design company that I ran into real issues. While I was able to locate the website, I was unable to find any sort of contact information without leaving a written message (which is supposed to inquire about the companies rates and services).

As I began to run out of options I decided to Google the individuals name instead of the company she owned. Google came back with several sites containing information related to the individual I was looking for and at the top of those was her LinkedIn profile. While this surprised me at first, the more I thought about it the more it made sense.

Photo Courtesy of Myrland Marketing

Donna Sapolin, the founding editor of Next Avenue, perfectly describes LinkedIn in the article, How LinkedIn Is Thwarting Your Job Search, she wrote for Forbes on January 17, 2014. 

She said that, “Without question, LinkedIn has become an indispensable tool for connecting with professionals to glean advice and recommendations for potential hires and to discover job opportunities and apply for them.”

This did come after she ripped LinkedIn for not allowing users to turn off the unprofessional automatic congratulatory message. If you are unfamiliar, Ms. Sapoline explains it in great detail in her article, How LinkedIn Is Thwarting Your Job Search, but for the sake of time I will briefly explain.

When you look at your LinkedIn profile, directly below your name is either the name of the company you currently work for or a brief description of what it is you are marketing yourself for. When you change this information LinkedIn automatically sends a message to your entire professional network asking them to congratulate you on your new job.

Photo Courtesy of Hearsaysocial

While this does come off as unprofessional, it is, in my opinion, one of only two major issues I have with LinkedIn. The second issue that I have with LinkedIn is how difficult it is to make my network work for me.

I have always asked myself, “This is all that LinkedIn does??” And, I will be the first to admit that I am not the most active LinkedIn user, but I have always thought that the number one professional network on the planted would do a little bit more for me than connect me with other professionals in my field.

Well, the Broadli team asked the same question, but they came up with an answer. In a recent article on FastCompany.com by Evie Nagy the brand new Broadli app was explained as a new mobile app that, “aims to rein in the perpetual disorganization of professional social networks, helping people find those connections, or connections of connections, who can help them most, and vice versa.”

Photo Courtesy of FastCompany.com

Nagy goes on to explain that the goal of the app is to, “use networks better to increase the chances of connecting with the right person at the right time.”

Halfway through the FastCompany.com article, I found myself on my phone downloading the Broadli app. While I am very new to this app, I do encourage you to download it as well and see if it can help land your dream job.