Communications

Know Better, Book Better and Go Make a Difference

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Again, I return from a long blog hiatus, and I’m proud to say that I have officially completed my graduate degree. Now I’m happy to share some of the work that’s kept me busy these past few months. For my last class, I stepped into the shoes of a corporate communications leader. From financial communications to corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance and issues management, we covered a lot of ground.

Given the broad applicability of these lessons, we began each class discussing the latest business news and also took turns posting more in-depth analyses to the DePaul Corp Comm Class Blog. I’ve included my analysis regarding TripAdvisor’s announcement of a new booking policy and education portal below. I believe their policy approach and launch communications hold valuable lessons for those involved in CSR strategy and communications planning.

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2015 Adobe MAX Recap – Part 2

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Adobe MAX stage

Allow me to set the scene with the Adobe MAX stage that was always adorned with art from many creatives.

In my last post recapping the 2015 Adobe Max Conference, I provided personal reflection prompts to encourage exploring your creativity goals and hang ups. While I found these sessions and the resulting guidance to be extremely valuable, the Adobe MAX Conference wasn’t all creative soul searching. Let’s shift to brass tacks with some concrete professional recommendations around storytelling.

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2015 Adobe MAX Recap – Part 1

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Adobe Max design wall

Post-conference Haleigh does not approve of pre-conference Haleigh’s creative doubts.

I recently attended the 2015 Adobe Max Conference where creative brains from around the globe gathered to learn about the latest Adobe Creative Suite updates and the different ways to leverage these tools to create works of art, from photographs to illustrations and videos. As a communications professional and aspiring creative services manager, I attended the conference to hear the latest trends in visual communications and to learn some new techniques for eliminating pesky creativity barriers. I got all that and much more.

It was an action-packed three days at the Los Angeles Convention Center so I’m going to divide my top takeaways into two separate categories and blog posts. Those looking for personal reflection prompts to unleash creativity, you’re in the right place. Practical professional recommendation folks, stay tuned.

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Digital Storytelling for Social Change

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roberto-morales-digital-story

Roberto Morales’ digital story “Dónde estas…” shows the deep impact of a miscarriage on young parents.

Continuing my exploration of digital storytelling, the medium’s cost-effective production and strong potential for engaging audiences makes it an ideal tool for non-profit groups. Digital storytelling for social change focuses on raising the voices of subordinate groups who are directly affected by social issues but seldom heard in public deliberation. The two to four-minute video format – composed of primarily voice over and still images – serves as a feasible platform for subordinate groups to speak beyond their immediate communities and to contribute to broader public debates by challenging commonsense understandings.

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Creating and Delivering Newsworthy Content

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Starbucks-newsroom

Starbucks’ online newsroom delivers engaging story packages that include photos, videos and downloads.

As I close the book on my Public Relations Writing course, I wanted to take a moment to share my key takeaways with my fellow communicators. To put it simply, our job is to create and deliver newsworthy content. While messaging and audiences will vary from role to role, all communications professionals must know how to craft a newsworthy story and how to effectively deliver stories to target audiences. Let’s take a closer look at what this means.

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Profit from Nonprofit

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profitfromnonprofit

Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse at DePaul University’s Facebook Page

I recently attended a career event at DePaul University, during which four nonprofit professionals shared job responsibilities and advice. Each had unique perspective, but there were consistencies in the experiences and skills needed to be successful as a nonprofit professional.

For those interested in pursuing roles in the nonprofit field, here’s a quick list:

Networking

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