Penelope Trunk’s Blog, “Brazen Careerist”, Scores Big

Last weekend at the Public Relations Student Society of America 2008 National Conference in Detroit, Michigan, college students from across the nation had the pleasure of hearing Penelope Trunk, author of “Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success”, speak at a general session for the Public Relations Society of America. Aside from publishing her book, Penelope is also an expert business advice columnist for the Boston Globe and author of the popular blog, “Brazen Careerist: Advice at the intersection of work and life.” In my quest to find fun and interesting blogs, particularly ones with some relation to PR or communications, I knew after listening to this remarkable woman that I had to start reading her blog.

 

“The Brazen Careerist” blog is fun, personal, and full of great advice for the new generation workplace. In one sense, Penelope reminds me of Carrie Bradshaw in the HBO series “Sex and the City.” She seems to have a crazy life wrapped up in her writing and relationships. On the other hand, Penelope is like Martha Stewart, Oprah, or even Meg Whitman, CEO of pioneering online auctioneer eBay Inc., in that she is incredibly intelligent, charismatic, and very knowledgeable on good business and public relations tactics.

 

This blog is definitely entertaining and informative. I think it’s fantastic when you can be good at something and love what you do. It is evident that Penelope Trunk enjoys writing, and I now look forward to checking up on her blog to see what will happen next, whether it’s another dramatic tale from her personal life or a new list of great advice. Between her clever titles and tips and her excellent writings skills, I’m sold on this ‘Brazen Careerist’ and give Penelope Trunk’s blog an A+.

PR Communications

I have recently started checking out new blogs (well, they’re new to me), and my latest find has sparked my interest. It’s a public relations blog entitled “PR Communications” with the subtitle, “John Cass, a marketer, writes about corporate blogging, PR, marketing, social media, and the Internet.” Sure, the title alludes to what John’s focus is, but his posts are incredibly helpful for anyone in PR who likes receiving tips about new software, social media, leadership roles, and news in the corporate world.

 

I am fairly new to blogging, so my skills could definitely use some improvement. I’m still learning some of the basics, like what sort of keywords should I not target, how to add quality in business blogging, and this blog answers these questions. He also incorporates other sites and blogs within his posts. John not only gives tips and good blogging techniques; he also makes comments on other business blogs and provides readers with a hyperlink to locate them. The format of his blog also makes it easy to navigate and see everything clearly.  

 

This blog clearly targets the many aspects of public relations communication, but I like how John applies the field of public relations to the various topics of his posts. I have really enjoyed gaining a new sense of awareness about blogs and their often valuable information. John Cass’s blog has certainly been helpful to me, and I hope to be just as informative about public relations in my own blog in the future.

Article Review: Admiring the Organization

This past summer, Denise Bortree and Richard Waters studied the relationship between volunteers and nonprofit organizations using the four relational quality outcomes originally proposed by Linda Hon and James E. Grunig a decade ago. The relational dimensions are trust, commitment, satisfaction, control mutuality. According to Hon and Grunig, trust is a critical factor in the volunteer’s decision to help an organization advance its mission. Commitment ultimately results in the volunteer’s relation to the organization’s mission. Satisfaction was proven to be a powerful variable used to predict an individual’s willingness to invest time and resources in the organization. Lastly, control mutuality seeks to evaluate which side has more power in the relationship.

 

After studying these four concepts and conducting their own research, Bortree and Waters tested a fifth dimension of the volunteer-organization relationship not found in the work of Hon and Grunig. The concept of admiration, meaning the degree to which one likes or approves of the behavior of the partner, would provide a way for organizations to assess how key publics view an organization. This addition to the four outcomes contributes to the quality of the relationship. “The presence of admiration in the volunteer-nonprofit organization relationship would likely improve the volunteer’s perception of the relationship. Volunteers seek out organizations that they admire and expect that their donation of time and their work be valued by the organization” (4).

 

As a public relations major, I am very interested in learning about the different aspects of the field. Public Relations involves the management of relationships between an organization and its significant publics (4) just as the nonprofit-volunteer relationship was studied in this journal. These relational quality outcomes could most definitely be applied to a PR professional’s practices. Although it should have come as no surprise, I was amazed how the relationship between nonprofit organizations and volunteers was so important.

 

There have been several instances that I volunteered, but my efforts varied among the different organizations. The American Heart Walk is a perfect example of how far a nonprofit organization has come over the years. I am always willing to solicit donations and serve within a community for The American Heart Walk Association because they make volunteering so easy, and they make your personal time and efforts feel much appreciated. However, other nonprofit organizations are less organized and no as appreciative of your service. This article helped me see why it is so important to gain strong relationships with your public and maintain them.

 

Now that I am more aware of nonprofit organizations and their role in being effective communicators with volunteers, I would like to learn how other organizations seek to maintain strong relationships. The concepts in this article are certainly useful guidelines for public relations, but I am interested to see how large corporations seek the admiration, commitment, and satisfaction of their key public. I will be following Kraft Foods Corporation as well as the Humane Society of Statesboro, GA in two upcoming projects, so I will be looking for the relationship attitudes of both organizations to see if their relationships to their public and volunteers are strong and effective.

 

Bortree, D., Waters, R. (2008). Admiring the organization: a study of the relational quality outcomes of the nonprofit organization-volunteer relationship. Public Relations Journal, 2, 1-17