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Students
Communication Edition!
Table of Contents:
How2...

How 2
page 1: Create PR Campaigns
page 3: Write Press Releases
page 4: Improve On-Air Skills
A newsletter for you: the college student who wants to learn how to do everything better, easier or cheaper

Creating a public Know your publics

It’s also important to consider all the different groups

relations campaign that are going to support you and be of interest, known
as enablers, customers, and the groups that are going
by Nicole McKillop to go against you, the limiters. Considering all forces
working for and against your campaign always import-
As communication students move further along in
ant to be prepared for any possible outcome, and to
their studies and define their focus within their major,
create the most appealing campaign directly aimed at
their tasks become less about learning new material,
your target audience. Continued on p. 2
and more about taking the concepts they’ve learned
and applying their studies to real-life projects. In a
concentration like Public Relations (PR), as students
near the end of their studies begin to apply the theories
and concepts they’ve learned and implement them into
a PR campaign. In this article, PR students can learn
what goes into a PR campaign and how to make it
effective to appeal to their audience.

Campaign modeling: research

A common model students follow in PR when cre-

ating a campaign is the RACE model, which stands
for Research, Action-planning, Communication and
Evaluation. The first two steps here, Research and Ac-
tion-planning, are crucial to creating an effective cam-
paign. There is a lot of background work that goes into
a PR campaign that the public is unaware of before the
final product is released. Within the Research portion,
a key thing to remember is to know your public, the
group of people with similar interests or values you
are trying to reach with your campaign. It’s important
to understand what they value in a product/service and
what kinds of campaigns would pique their interest.

“Every component is important,” said Dr. Cui Mead-

Photo by Nicole McKillop
ows, who currently teaches ECU’s “PR Campaigns”
capstone course, “but I would say research is most ECU Communication student Addison Carrasquillo,
important. You do research in every step of the cam- senior, gets ready for class at the Joyner East School
paign.” of Communication.
Fall 22 Communication 1
“A professional has to have a good understanding of
their public,” said Meadows, “What are their wants
and needs? Don’t create a campaign for all, really
segment and research your public and tailor your
message.” Professionals can target their audiences
wants and needs to tailor their messages by creating
an open and interactive space with their consumers.
Many companies nowadays lean towards social media
channels as ways
to connection and
better understand
their audience. They
can track who they
follow, what con-
tent they like, and
cater their messages
towards what the
people want to see
and hear from them.
Taking action
After you have
defined your pub-
lic, what they are
Addison Carrasquillo gets started preparing her campaign
interested in, and trends by conducting background research.
they may follow, have
explored all possible outcomes with your customers
as well as your limiters to remain prepared, you can
move into the next step: Action-planning. Now that
you know who you want to reach in your campaign,
you need to decide what message you want to say and tion-planning strategies and tactics, and then later
get across to your audience.
“Nowadays consumers are looking for relatable as-
pects to a brand. People want to feel seen,” Meaghan
Skelly, junior communications student at ECU who
will soon be enrolling in the PR campaigns course “I
think building an emotional connection within cli-
entele has been working really well in the PR world
recently.”
Brands and organizations can build these emotional
connections with clientele through researching their
demographic and finding what other topics, social
issues, organizations they are interested in that appeal and effort into knowing your public and your mission,
most to them. For example, in today’s market, more
clothing and fashion brands that are targeted towards a the people wanting more.
female audience are using more messages that empha-
size body positivity and making women of all shapes
and sizes feel beautiful, appreciated, and represented.
In Action-planning, two key terms to keep in mind are
strategies and tactics. In this stage, you begin to im-
plement your goals and create ideas for how you want
to get your message across. Strategies are your overar-
ching ideas on what you want to accomplish, and tac-
tics are how you want to get that done. For example, a
strategy can be that
you want to educate
your audience on a
certain social topic/
issue, and the tactics
would be things like
recording informa-
tive videos or cre-
ating eye-catching
infographics to use
as posters. These
two concepts work
hand in hand to help
you organize and
plan your PR cam-
Photo by Nicole McKillop paign and visualize
how to accomplish
your goals.
Implementation & evaluation
The final two steps are Communication and Evalu-
ation. These steps include implementing your Ac-
evaluating what worked well and what could be
improved in your campaign. Ways to track evaluation
involves methods like measuring impressions of the
tactics utilized in the implementation stage, check-
ing statistics from online and social media platforms,
gauging public opinion online and in person, and
seeing the effect your tactics have on your business,
brand, or organization’s sales or overall traffic and
awareness. It is commonly believed amongst PR
professionals that background work, analyzing your
public, and strategy planning are the most important
steps in creating a PR campaign. If you keep these
steps with the RACE model in mind and put the time
the campaign you deliver will be a hit and will keep
Fall 22 Communication 2
Writing a press release
by Emily Winslow
Writing a press release is a skill that communication
students will likely need in their careers. Writing an
effective press release is important for both the organi-
zation that is releasing it and the media that is receiv-
ing it so that the correct information can be spread.

What is a press release?

A press release is an official statement given to the

media, informing them of a newsworthy event. Or-
ganizations may send a press release to the media if
they are launching a new campaign or if they had a big
change, like a new CEO. Press releases are not limited
to organizations. If someone has newsworthy infor-
mation they would like the media to know, such as an
author releasing a book, they can also submit a press
release.

“We write press releases announcing company-wide

accomplishments and awards, but some are also
mandated by federal and state government, like if we
have a sewer spill of over 1,000 gallons reach surface
water,” said Emily Garner, a communication specialist
at Greenville Utilities Commission.
What should I include?
The most important thing to include in a press release
is a descriptive, catchy headline. You want to catch the
media’s attention so they can include your information
in their broadcasts. This also must summarize what the
release is about.
Another must-have is a dateline. The dateline may say
“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,” or “HOLD FOR
RELEASE UNTIL [DATE],” which is then followed
by the date the release is to be published. The dateline
is the most important so that news outlets are aware of
breaking news or upcoming news.
Dr. Jin-Ae Kang, a public relations professor at East
Carolina University, said the pitch of the story and a
clear angle from a writer make a press release most
effective.
Photo by Emily Winslow
Emily Garner, communication specialist, reads
over a press release before submitting it to news
outlets to double check for mistakes.
“Journalists see thousands of news stories a day; you
need to have a strategic pitch. It should catch the
journalist’s attention in less than 10 seconds,” said Dr.
Kang.
Once you have a headline and dateline, keep your
release concise. The media wants to pull the necessary
information from the release as quickly as possible
so that they can inform the public. Put yourself in the
position of the public; what would you like to know
about a situation if you were the one being informed?
After the body of your press release is complete, the fi-
nal step is to end with information about the company
being represented. This should include relevant infor-
mation about the business and contact information.
Once finished, proofread and make corrections at least
twice. You may ask someone else to do the same to
catch anything you missed.
Continued on p. 4

Fall 22 Communication 3
Press Release
How do I send it to the press?
Once your press release is complete, your final step
is to send it to news outlets. This may be local news
channels, online news outlets, blogs or any other
platform that will be relevant for your release. When
sending it to a news outlet, ensure that you have a
strategic pitch. You may consider using services that
will distribute your release to relevant audiences.
The distribution services are usually paid, such as PR
Newswire or Prowly, but they are able to spread your
release to multiple outlets.
Writing a press release, whether for your business or
a large company, is a marketing tool that is helpful in
getting the word out.

Improving your on-air skills

by Jarrett Watkins
Over the years, I have found that students pursuing Managing your nerves
a career in broadcasting have a tough time finding a
starting point. Thankfully, I found college radio. Col- Broadcasting live, where there is little room for mis-
lege radio can be a good first step on your career path. takes, on a medium that reaches many people across
a wide range can be very nerve-racking. When start-
While it can be difficult balancing academics and ing the best way to alleviate your anxiety is to have a
managing a weekly show, these tips can help you im- script written out. The worst thing a young DJ can do
prove your on-air is have dead air
skills and make on the show, so
you the best DJ it is always best
you can be. to know what
to say. As you
Preparation develop going on
air becomes less
The key to being difficult.
successful in any
field is prepara- Demitri Suruy,
tion. You would production direc-
never show up to tor for WZMB,
class without a states, “As I grew
pencil or go out more comfortable
to dinner without on-air a script
your wallet, so turned into an
always bring a outline of points I
well-researched wanted to cover.”
topic for your
show. Additionally, deep
breaths help when
Shay Jones, Media Advisor for WZMB at Pirate Me- stressed. Many current and former DJs say that deep
dia 1, said, “In a perfect world, I would have a blank breaths are very calming and help clear your mind
notebook and before my show, I would find something when you don’t know what to do. Although mistakes
unique and see what voices need to be heard on the will be made early on, realize that they are part of the
topic.” process and eventually it won’t be your biggest worry
and you’ll move on with ease.
Continued on p. 5
Fall 22 Communication 4
On-air skills
Time management Just have fun

The hardest part about being a DJ in college is finding
the time to prepare for your show. Just like with any
other extracurricular activity, academics should always
come first. Be sure to know your class schedule before
you sign up for a time slot and never overbook yourself.
If you have a difficult class schedule, do one show a
week instead of multiple shows.
Suruy reminds us that, “this is just a paid hobby.”
Although this is training you for a career in broadcasting, listening to them on the radio. So, don’t let anything
remember that you’re in college to get a degree. Being
on college radio is fun and may seem like the most im-
portant thing, but a good GPA is necessary if you want to
stay on the air.
Jones states, “Be yourself. You are enough. You don’t
have to underdo it or overdo it. The audience will fall
in love with you no matter what.”
The key step in improving your on-air skills in college
is to have fun. School comes with enough problems
and pressure, don’t let your show become one of them.
The whole point is to develop your on-air personality,
which can include watching broadcasters on TV or
bog you down; just have a good time.

Photo by Jarrett Watkins

ECU students that are a part of WZMB work in rooms like the one above as a part of the radio station.

Both the content for this newsletter and the design

are created by students enrolled in COMM 3310
Copy Editing and Design in the School of Commu-
nication at East Carolina University in Greenville,
North Carolina during the Spring and Fall semesters
under the direction of course instructor Barbara
Bullington.

We welcome suggestions for article ideas for future

issues.

For inquiries, please email bullingtonb@ecu.edu

Fall 22 Communication 5