Year: 2013

Clairemont Interns: Introducing Sydney McKinney

Margot HorganBlog, The Clairemont Team, , , 1 Comment on Clairemont Interns: Introducing Sydney McKinney

Say hello to the next member of our Clairemont intern team – Sydney McKinney. Erin recently sat down with Sydney to learn a little more about her. Here are the highlights…

Screen Shot 2013-02-04 at 12.09.39 PMThis January, Sydney McKinney brought her talents and skills to Clairemont’s spring internship team. Sydney, a Greensboro native who considers herself a “chocoholic” and loves pastel colors, is currently a senior advertising major in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC Chapel Hill.

However, she wasn’t always on the Ad path. Sydney tested the waters with several different majors before finding her passion for creativity and landing an internship with Seventeen Magazine last summer. As a marketing intern for Seventeen, she spent two months in New York City learning the inside track of the magazine industry. While her favorite part about Clairemont so far is the people, Sydney is excited about the transition and challenge this internship will bring to her current skill set.

Get to know Sydney by checking out these fun facts:

  • Sydney’s favorite snack to sneak into the movies is Raisinets and Diet Coke, however, the best meal she has ever had was lobster at Mama’s Fish House in Maui. According to her, it was not only the best but was also the biggest, juiciest lobster she has ever eaten.
  • Her ideal pet? Definitely a dog. She is currently thinking about a Goldendoodle, not to be confused with the “not-as-cute Labradoodle.”
  • Her weird quirk? She likes to speak in a variety of voices. Just today she demonstrated how by talking in the back of her throat she can sound like the animated movie character Stitch.
  • If you checked Sydney’s browser for most visited websites you would be sure to find FABSUGAR and Pinterest at the top of the list. But, these are not just hobbies. She hopes to use her Pinterest collection to fully decorate a house one day.
  • While she is afraid of bugs, she has no problem with heights. In fact a dream of hers is to go skydiving one day.

After graduation this spring, Sydney hopes to land a position in a public relations or advertising agency. Her advice for other college students looking for internships or jobs? Network, network, network! She credits networking as the most valuable channel for landing an internship. Thanks for the advice Sydney, and good luck with your future endeavors!

 

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Clairemont Interns: Introducing Erin Owenby

Margot HorganBlog, The Clairemont Team, , , 2 Comments on Clairemont Interns: Introducing Erin Owenby

This semester, we have three wonderful interns working with us at Clairemont and we can’t wait to introduce them to you. In a bit of a team building exercise, we asked our interns – Erin Owenby, Sydney McKinney and Natalie Baker – to interview each other and share some background information (and some fun facts!) with you, our blog readers. Sydney recently sat down with Erin and learned some pretty interesting facts…

erinBorn and raised in Asheville, this North Carolina native bleeds Tar Heel blue.  She loves going to sports games and is into country music, sweet tea and all things Josh Lucas (remember the hunk from Sweet Home Alabama?). But, those are just the quirks—this PR junkie also has a diverse background in the industry.

A public relations major at UNC Chapel Hill, Erin has done it all! She’s organized events for several nonprofits, coordinated logistics for a wedding planning agency and has somehow managed to work two part time jobs in the meantime.

Want to know more about Erin? Here are some of the details:

  • She loves cheese. Parmesan’s her favorite food—she eats it daily.
  • She is currently reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen for her third time. Why? Because she’s a die-hard classics fanatic.
  • In her spare time, she likes to paint furniture. Most recently, she painted a shelf for her room in coral and cream.
  • This girl loves to exercise! She goes to spin class every week at 6:30 in the morning, has run a marathon and is training for another half marathon in February.
  • She claims to be a tomboy. BUT she wears purple dresses and bows in her hair to Clairemont.
  • More fun facts? She’s a dog person; loves Mexican food; dreams of going to Europe; drives a stick shift; would choose the mountains over the beach any day; enjoys salty food more than sweet; and has a slight obsession with Snapchat.

So where does Erin see herself in the next year? Working in an agency setting and living in a large city—preferably New York or Washington D.C. But that’s not all. Erin’s wants to remain involved with Building Tomorrow, a nonprofit that raises money to help build primary schools for underprivileged children in Uganda. In fact, she’s going there this summer to visit schools that she helped raise support for over the past three years.

As for her time at Clairemont, Erin is interested in learning more about the client-agency relationship, applications of public relations in real world scenarios and the ins and outs of what it takes to be a successful agency. So, cheers to Erin and our adventure here at Clairemont! I can’t wait to see what this semester has in store for both of us!

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Tips for a Successful Job Search

Margot HorganBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Free Advice, , , , , , , 4 Comments on Tips for a Successful Job Search

Come May, all three of our Clairemont interns will be turning their tassels and leaving the beautiful UNC campus behind to officially enter the job market. With North Carolina currently at a 9.2 percent unemployment rate, we challenged our intern, Erin, to find out exactly what recent college grads and other young professionals need to do to make sure they get hired in an oversaturated job market.

1Twenty years ago looking for a job meant checking the newspaper, asking around town and simply submitting an application or resume. Today, the search itself has become a full-time occupation. With endless access to job postings through search engines and social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor, companies that at one time may have received 50 resumes for an open position now receive thousands.

So, just how do you beat out all those other applicants to land your dream job?

According to Richard Spector, Public Relations Society of America Jobcenter manager, you have to be just as strategic and persistent in your search as you would be if you were hired. In his recent webinar, “Your Guide to Career Success,” he outlined the top facts and “dos and don’ts” of a successful job search.

Interviewing

  • Do your research. Know the company inside and out from social media sites to media coverage.
  • Come prepared. Have a mock presentation with a strategic answer to that company’s needs.

Resume

  • On average, resumes are judged within six seconds, so keep it simple.
  • Your resume is your calling card. Use measurable examples to show things you accomplished.
  • Use technology such as a QR code to show you can be both digital and creative.

Cover Letter

  • Employers want to know what you have done, so start off with how you solved a problem.
  • Take note from the cover letter that went viral and stay away from personal attributes.
  • Be authentic! Keep to keywords and refrain from flowery language.

Online Profiles and Portfolio

  • Make sure your Linkedin profile is 100 percent complete. Recruiters can see the holes in your profile.
  • Google yourself. Are your online profiles easily accessible – and just as importantly, are they appropriate?
  • Utilize your social profiles to position yourself as an industry thought leader. Follow different agencies and industry professionals on Twitter and re-tweet and share interesting news with your followers.
  • In your portfolio, always remember quality over quantity. Only show the best examples of your work to potential employers.

Networking

  • Use social media, informational interviews, job shadowing, volunteering and freelancing to meet other industry professionals.
  • Build relationships by connecting over commonalities or giving recommendations.

BUT, what’s the most important thing to remember in every aspect of the job hunt? Be authentic and never give up! Twenty percent of job rejections will actually end in a job offer. As the old saying goes, when one door closes another door opens. Good luck and share your job search tips in the comments section below!

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What Does A PR Agency Do? Furniture PR Case Study

Josephine ButlerBlog, Case Studies, Furniture PR, , , , , , , , 2 Comments on What Does A PR Agency Do? Furniture PR Case Study

People commonly ask us what a PR agency does. We thought the best way to answer that question would be to share case studies from our work that was  recognized last year at the North Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (NCPRSA) InSpire Awards. Clairemont won 14 InSpire Awards, and we hope that this “Award Winning Wednesday” blog series will inspire you, too!

Client: Thomasville Furniture and Drexel Heritage

Planning: Twice a year, Furniture Brands International  — a global operating company that is one of the nation’s leading manufacturers and retailers of home furnishings — showcases new product introductions at High Point Market. Two of its subsidiaries, Thomasville Furniture and Drexel Heritage, hoped to stand out among the more than 2,000 exhibitors and capture the attention of the media. When the two North Carolina-based companies learned U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) would visit their showrooms during furniture market, Clairemont Communications was hired to plan and execute a press conference.

Faced with this task and exciting news that Thomasville and Drexel Heritage were relocating the company showrooms from Thomasville to High Point, the Clairemont team identified key objectives.

Objectives: The Clairemont team aimed to do the following:

  1. Conduct a press conference that would garner the attention of trade publications and local media, with at least five placements, including local TV coverage
  2. Raise awareness of the Thomasville and Drexel Heritage showroom relocation and boost overall brand recognition among consumers, including engagement on the Drexel Heritage blog and Thomasville Facebook page

Execution: Faced with the challenge of capturing the attention of media, as well as the fact that Thomasville and Drexel Heritage had often been underreported at market because of their previous off-site showroom location, the Clairemont team had to get creative with positioning. Here’s what we did:

Kay Hagan speaks during her Thomasville press conference.
  • Local media: Senator Hagan’s visit to the Thomasville/Drexel showrooms was part of a larger tour of market, so why would media want to capture her tour in our showrooms? Talk of moving furniture market to another state was a controversial topic directly linked to job preservation and creation, an important platform issue of Senator Hagan. In our pitches, Clairemont focused on Thomasville and Drexel Heritage’s North Carolina-based headquarters and the showroom relocations to High Point to emphasize the companies’ commitment to the state’s economy. We also let the media in on a little secret: we would be surprising the senator with the unveiling of the Hagan Chair, named in her honor and sure to create photo opportunities.
  • Trade Magazines: Our trade pitches focused on the showroom relocations. We knew that these reporters would be less interested in state economies and more interested in why the companies moved from Thomasville to the International Home Furnishings Center, the most prestigious address in High Point. We also knew they would be interested in capturing images of the new showrooms that spanned an entire floor and part of another.
  • Facebook/Blog: Even though the showrooms are closed to the public, that didn’t stop us from sharing photos from the press conference and offering fans a sneak peek of the Hagan Chair.

Results: Local media and national trade publications, including News 14 Carolina, High Point Enterprise, Davidson County Dispatch, High Point Market Authority, ihfc.com and Furniture Today attended and covered the event. Clairemont exceeded the goal of five placements and successfully raised awareness of the showroom relocations. On Thomasville’s Facebook page, we received 130,675 impressions and 256 daily likes and comments on our total market updates, including the press conference. On the Drexel blog, we also received positive feedback, including a comment from one of the company’s top dealers.

What did you think of this public relations case study? Was it helpful? We’re here to answer any questions you may have!

Interested in Clairemont’s press conference services? Drop us a line!

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Clairemont Communications’ Dana Hughens Appointed PRSA’s Counselors Academy Conference Chair

Margot HorganBlog, Counselors Academy, The Clairemont Team, , , , 3 Comments on Clairemont Communications’ Dana Hughens Appointed PRSA’s Counselors Academy Conference Chair

Raleigh, N.C. – February 5, 2013 – Dana Hughens, the founder and CEO of award-winning public relations and marketing communications agency, Clairemont Communications, has been selected as the conference chair for the 2013 Counselors Academy conference to be held in Austin, June 9 – 11. Counselors Academy is a professional interest section of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)  designed to foster information and best practices sharing amongst a peer network of PR agency owners and senior managers.

“There’s no one better than Dana to chair the 2013 Counselors Academy conference,” said Martin Waxman, principal of Martin Waxman Communications and the 2012 conference chair. “As a successful entrepreneur and agency owner, she has an insider’s knowledge of the kind of content PR leaders need to take their businesses to the next level.”

The conference theme is “Get W.E.I.R.D. in Austin: Wired, Entrepreneurial, Imaginative and Results-Driven” with presentations focused on all aspects of agency management, business development, operational excellence and emerging technologies. In her role as conference chair, Hughens is leading a committee of PR agency leaders to select speakers, plan conference events and promote the conference.

“Each year I’ve attended the conference, I’ve gleaned immediately implementable information that helped me improve my business,” said Hughens “I’m excited to play a key role in delivering valuable content to the PR agency professionals who join us in Austin in June.”

Hughens, who has been a member of the Counselors Academy since 2007, was named to the executive committee of Counselors Academy last year and served as the co-chair of the 2012 conference in New Orleans, La. She was recently video interviewed about the 2013 conference content by Waxman for Inside PR.

“I worked with Dana on last year’s conference, and she is one of the smartest, most dedicated and creative people in the industry. I know she’ll use her talents to make this conference a real standout,” Waxman added.

About Clairemont Communications

Clairemont Communications devises communications strategies that utilize both traditional PR and social media to help clients achieve business objectives by influencing purchases, persuading stakeholders and influencers, and defining brands. Clarity in vision + the promise of monumental results = Clairemont Communications.

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