Table of
Contents This Page
Deadlines -
Getting Started -
Finishing -
General Information -
Grading -
Learning Outcomes -
Proposal for the Project -
Project Ideas -
Project or Thesis? -
Schedule
- Submitting Files -
Textbook
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The
inspirational art work on this page is available for
purchase from
allposters.com
|
NOTE: I am
not on staff during the summer term.
Please do not ask me to direct your
project, meet with your committee, or
read comprehensive exams during the
summer.
SUBMITTING ASSIGNMENTS
TO YOUR COMMITTEE
Send your committee versions along the
way. Make sure you attach a single
.doc project file with each
communication with your committee.
Begin the file name with your last name
and include the version at the end, such
as
AitkenJoanProjectProposalVersion1.doc
AitkenJoanFinalProjectVersion1.doc
Only use a single, .doc or .txt file.
Make sure the version changes each time,
including when I add comments.
For the PowerPoint, use a small .ppt
file of the outline of the presentation
you will give. Avoid pictures, although you may
use charts.
ABSOLUTE FINAL
TERM 1 COURSE DEADLINE IS
FRIDAY, WEEK 8.
ABSOLUTE FINAL
TERM 2, FRIDAY, WEEK 4.
Please do NOT expect faculty to be available
over the summer when they are not on
staff.
DOWNLOAD FORMS ("Park" indicates
University forms, "JEA" my options.) |

Get your job done!
Picture source |
|
Week |
One Term Project (for a Total of 2-3
Credits)
Sunday deadlines |
First Term of 2-Term Project (for a
4-6 Total Credits for Project)
Sunday deadlines |
Final Term of 2-Term Project (for a
4-6 Total Credits for Project)
Sunday deadlines |
|
1 |
Read this page. |
Read this page. |
Read this page. |
|
2 |
DEADLINE: Submit project
plan (20
points) |
DEADLINE: Submit project
plan (20
points) |
DEADLINE: Submit final
project
(30 points) |
|
3 |
DEADLINE:
Revise and send proposal to committee
for approval.
(20 points) |
|
|
|
4 |
|
DUE:
Submit full proposal and review of
literature (20 points) |
DEADLINE: Send final
project to committee. (30 points) |
|
5 |
DEADLINE: Submit final
project (20 points) |
|
|
|
6 |
DEADLINE:
Send final project to committee. (20
points) |
DEADLINE:
Send final proposal to committee. (20
points) |
Defend. |
|
7 |
|
|
DEADLINE:
Defend (20 points) and make revisions
(20 points) in order to receive a
final grade. |
|
8 |
DEADLINE:
Successfully defend to receive final
grade. (20 points)
Make revisions and
send in signed paperwork in order to
graduate. |
DEADLINE:
Obtain committee approval in order to
receive a final grade. (20 points) |
DEADLINE:
Send in
signed paperwork in order to graduate. |
|
|
CA700
IMPORTANT GRADUATE PROJECT
INFORMATION |
|

All
assignments are due by Sunday night in
the assigned week.
Grading
is based on submission of quality work, meeting
deadlines, and faculty approval.
Weekly
attendance is based on your weekly email
progress report to your project advisor.
Consult
the Graduate Catalog and Graduate School
Procedures. These requirements are the
ones that must be followed.
|
|
 |
If you haven't
already, DO NOW!
Make
sure you complete all admission and
graduation requirements before beginning
this course:
http://onlineacademics.org/DoIt/
-
Take the GRADUATE RECORD
EXAM (GRE), and send
the scores to Park U graduate school.
-
Apply for
graduation,
click here.
-
Schedule your
comprehensive exams, which must
be PASSED BEFORE your final term
of enrollment. For more
information,
http://onlineacademics.org/comps/
.
-
Pull your
materials together into a project
proposal you will show to faculty.
-
Think about what
faculty you will want on your
project committee.
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IMPORTANT: Use the schedule appropriate for what
you are doing.
|
CA 700 Tentative
Schedule for
one 3-hour term project |
Schedule for one 3 credit hour, 8
week course. |
|
If you plan to
enroll in only one 3-hour course,
you may want to complete all
planning steps BEFORE enrolling for
credit.
Week 1 |
You need to plan
a substantive project/thesis for
graduation. You need to decide what
you plan to study, but hopefully it
will be based on the planning you
did in CA 501, 516, or 517. So take
your paper from that course and turn
it into a proposed project. This
proposal is the same basic format
you learned in CA 517, except not
experimental research, and you can
do whatever kind of project on the
topic that you want (and your
committee agrees to).
Please discuss
proposed project with your advisor
in person or via phone. If
appropriate, obtain and read a
relevant book for your project
choice or whatever research
materials are needed. Finish your
review of literature. In most cases,
you'll want to make sure you have a
quality review of research
literature on the topic. You can
synthesize papers and proposals you
prepared on the topic for previous
courses. Prepare your proposal.
Take the proposal from CA 517 and
modify it into to do-able project.
|
|
Week 2 |
Finish preparing
your proposal so that it is updates
and realistic for your project. Ask
two additional faculty member to
support your project and receive
approval for project choice. Send
your proposal to the committee for
their suggestions and approvals.
You cannot use human subjects
because there is inadequate time for
the one term project.
Finish planning
your project. Make any needed
contacts.
DEADLINE: Submit
project plan |
|
Week 3 |
Conduct needed
research and begin actual project.
DEADLINE: Revise and
send proposal to committee for
approval.
|
|
Week 4 |
Finish project
and send the project via email to
the committee.
Schedule a
meeting with your committee when you
can defend your project. |
|
Week 5 |
Prepare a
PowerPoint to orally defend your
project. Check with your
committee members to see if there
are any changes you need to make.
DEADLINE: Submit final
project |
|
Week 6 |
Defend your
thesis to the faculty committee.
Get signature page signed.
Send copy of signature page to
Program Director, Graduate School,
and Registrar.
DEADLINE: Send final
project to committee. |
|
Week 7 |
Make any needed
changes, add the signature page, and
print off the project. |
|
Week 8 |
By Monday, give
faculty on your committee a hard
copy of the final project.
DEADLINE: Successfully
defend to receive final grade.
Make revisions and send in signed
paperwork in order to graduate. |
|
Schedule for
two 8-week courses
|
Schedule for
two 8-week courses.
Assignments and Deadlines
|
|
Week 1
|
-
Discuss
proposed project with your
advisor in person or via phone.
-
I do NOT
recommend studying human
subjects for a project. If
you plan to do plan to use human
subjects, you will need to
complete the certification and
apply for Park University's IRB
approval. Do the certification
now. You will need a
detailed proposal approved by
the whole committee before
submitting to the IRB. For
more information, go to
http://onlineacademics.org/IRB/
-
If you plan
to study things or do a creative
project, no IRB approval is
needed.
-
Send your
work as it stands to all
committee members so they know
where you are.
Send any new chapter major
revision to all committee
members as you go along.
You must keep your
committee up to date.
|
|
Week 2 |
-
Obtain and
read a relevant book or conduct
library research for your
project choice.
-
In most
cases, you'll want to make sure
you have a quality review of
research literature on the
topic.
-
Revise your
proposal from CA 517 or another
class that is the idea for your
project work. You can synthesize
papers and proposals you
prepared on the topic for
previous courses or come up with
something new.
-
Send your
proposal to your advisor.
DEADLINE: Submit
project plan
|
|
Week 3 |
-
Put your
committee together.
You need a committee of
three faculty. Make
suggestions to your advisor,
then contact the other two
people to ask them to
participate. Don't
take it personally if
someone refuses because some
faculty are just too busy
and part-time faculty are
not expected to participate.
-
Send a
photo and paragraph bio to
your committee members, any
names you use, any email
addresses you use.
|
|
Week 4 |
-
Finish
preparing your proposal so that
it is updates and is a do-able,
realistic plan for your project.
If your advisor approves, send
your proposal to your committee.
Ask committee members to send
any concerns, suggestions, or
needed changes directly to you
within the next week or two.
Otherwise, you'll assume the
faculty member approves.
If you haven't heard from all,
resend the proposal with another
request for suggestions,
explaining that you plan to
proceed on X date.
DUE: Submit full
proposal and review of literature to
committee.
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|
Week 5 |
-
Finish
planning your project. Make any
needed contacts, corrections,
additional research.
-
If possible,
obtain written or email approval
from three faculty on your
project proposal.
|
|
Week 6 |
-
Work on the project.
DEADLINE: Send final
proposal to committee.
|
|
Week 7-8 |
-
Continue
working on your project.
-
Send an
update of new material only--or
highlight new material in
color--to your committee
members.
DEADLINE: Obtain
committee approval in order to
receive a final grade. |
|
Between your
first term of enrollment and last
term of enrollment. |
-
Continue with
your project. Communicate
regularly--at least once a
month, preferably once a
week--with your advisor.
Make sure your work is nearly
complete before enrolling in the
last term of the Project.
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|
Wk
1, Term 2 Get finished! |
-
You may want
to highlight changes in color.
Make sure it's readable.
-
Remember, if you don't
complete the project in time for
graduation, you will have to PAY
TO ENROLL ANOTHER TERM.
|
|
Wk 2
Write 2 pages a day for 30 days and
you'll have the essence done! |
-
Finish
project.
DEADLINE: Submit
final project
|
|
Wk 3
Conduct |
-
Email an
electronic file of your
draft to your
committee asking for suggestions
as you proceed. Tell them
your graduation date and ask
them about availability for
setting up a meeting in person
or by phone to defend your
project.
|
|
Wk 4
Draft |
-
Final deadline for sending your
project to your committee and
setting up a meeting for your
defense.
You'll need to find an
agreeable time and schedule a
room.
|
|
Wk 5 Time for
faculty to read your project. |
-
Give faculty
time to read your project. Send
a meeting reminder to each
faculty member.
-
Make any
needed changes before your
defense.
-
Prepare
PowerPoint in defense.
|
|
Wk 6 Defend |
-
Meet with
faculty committee to defend your project. You may want to
prepare a PowerPoint. Bring a
black pen and the signature form to your
defense.
-
Scan your signed defense form
and submit an electronic copy to
(a) your advisor, (b) the
Program Director, the
(c) Director of Graduate School,
and (d) the Registrar.
|
|
Wk 7 Revise
and Submit |
-
Make any
changes required by your
committee and submit one final
copy to your advisor and one to
the department or to the
committee members. You
must complete this step by
Monday of week 8.
FINAL DEADLINE:
Defend
|
|
Wk 8 |
Revised project
with signature page due by MONDAY. Congratulations!
Graduate at the end of the week.
FINAL DEADLINE: Send in
signed paperwork in order to
graduate. |
Select a topic and receive your advisor's
approval. I recommend you select a project
you already have studied in a previous course.
The content must be related to communication.
PROJECT INSTEAD
OF THESIS? If you plan to do original
research or conduct research on human subjects, you'll want to complete a thesis.
The thesis option can work well
for students who plan to go on
for a doctoral degree. The thesis is
typically original research, which uses
quantitative or qualitative research.
The project is a very flexible study. If you enroll for a
total of 2-3 hours, the project may be a
relatively short paper. If you enroll for
5-6 hours, the project will be a more complex one.
Of course it may be a website, handbook, or
forms other than a paper.
For a project. I recommend something that does
NOT require collecting data on human subjects
(interviews, survey) because that will
complicate your work because you will need to
comply with federal regulations and go through
the University's Institutional Research Board (IRB).
If you want to conduct research on human
subjects, please sign up for the thesis option.
|
Thesis and Project Requirements
Communication Arts Department
Requirements
The M.A. in Communication and
Leadership has two program
options. The first is the
thesis option,
which will provide students with
the knowledge and skills to
further research interests or
gain entry into a Ph.D. program
in communication or related
areas. The second is the
project option,
which provides the opportunity
for practicing professionals to
sharpen their skills or change
careers. The project may be a
video,
an information campaign,
or media kit, for example.
Both options require the
completion of a
prospectus/proposal and the same
level of ethical standards and
rigor. Additionally, IRB
procedures must be followed for
both the thesis and the project
options.
Typically, Thesis or Project
hours cannot be started until
the student has completed CA500,
CA501, CA516, and CA517.
Option 1: Thesis
Option 1 requires a graduate GPA
of 3.0 or higher after 10 hours
of graduate courses.
Consult the Graduate Catalog and
Graduate School Procedures
Manual for additional
information on thesis
procedures. A minimum of 36
hours is required under this
option, including five hours of
CA797 Thesis Design and
Research.
The thesis is original
scholarship that includes an
exhaustive review and evaluative
synthesis of literature or
documentary evidence and the
collection and analysis of data
not previously available.
Park University faculty believe
the Master's thesis is a major
part of the student's
educational experience. An
acceptable thesis
-
demonstrates independent
thought and research,
-
contributes to understanding
or potential resolution of
an issue in communication,
and
-
communicates effectively to
a relevant audience.
Students in the thesis track are
expected to prepare a high
quality thesis. Ideally, the
thesis should be suitable for
submission to a peer reviewed
journal or equivalent
publication.
The department recommends this
option for students planning to
pursue graduate study at the
doctoral level.
Under this option, the
department expects each student
to present a satisfactory thesis
and defend it before a thesis
committee of three members
of the graduate
faculty (one member may be from
another department).
Non-graduate faculty may be
committee members if they
possess expertise in the area
under study.
The Process
The first step is the selection
of a thesis advisor.
Student-thesis advisor
relationships are established in
one of two ways. Either the
student becomes interested in a
topic then selects a thesis
advisor on the basis of his/her
interest and competency in the
area, or the student first
becomes interested in the work
of a particular faculty member,
and then decides to write
his/her thesis in that area.
Either approach is acceptable.
The important thing is that the
student feels free to approach
any member of the graduate
faculty concerning the question
of thesis advising.
The thesis subject should be
selected by the student and
approved by the thesis advisor
who will direct the research and
writing. Through consultation
with the advisor, the student
will chose the additional
members of the committee and
contact them to obtain their
commitment to assist the
student. Typically, a committee
has three members from the
graduate faculty, and may
include one member from outside
the department.
The student should complete the
prospectus while talking the
initial two hours of CA797
Thesis Design and Research. The
thesis advisor will assist the
student until both advisor and
student are satisfied with the
prospectus. The student will
then submit the prospectus to
the other members of the
committee for comments and
revisions. The faculty believe
a well-developed prospectus is
essential for smooth development
of the thesis, so students are
urged to be thorough in
developing the prospectus.
The prospectus should indicate
(1) the purpose of the study,
(2) a justification of the
study, (3) a review of the
literature, (4) a research
supported explanation of the
method to be used, (5) a
timeline for completion, (6) an
outline of the chapters and (7)
a bibliography. The committee
members will act on the
prospectus in group conference.
It is best if the student
attend the meeting, although
attending via phone is
acceptable.
After comment and revision to
the committee’s satisfaction,
the student may take the final
three thesis hours. After the
advisor approves each chapter,
it should be submitted to the
other committee members for
comments and revisions. If the
student does not complete the
thesis after five hours of class
credit, the student must remain
enrolled in CA 799—Thesis
Continuing Enrollment, until the
Thesis has been approved by the
committee.
Instructions regarding the
preparation of the thesis may be
obtained from the Graduate
School. The department uses APA
style. Please note that it is
the responsibility of the
student to comply with the
thesis regulations established
by the graduate school. Failure
to comply with regulations may
result in delay in awarding the
degree.
Once the final draft has been
received and read by the thesis
committee, the student will
undergo an oral defense of the
thesis. Students must come to
campus to present and defend
their thesis. If this
represents an extreme hardship,
the student’s committee may
elect to make other arrangements
(e.g., a videoconference). The
thesis advisor will serve as a
chairperson of the examination
session. The grade is
pass/fail. The thesis committee
has the option to: accept the
thesis, reject the thesis, or
request revisions.
Following the defense, the
committee will meet in private
in order to evaluate the final
work. The committee may decide
to accept it as is, reject it,
or require revisions or further
work. Grades are on a pass/fail
basis.
NOTE: The student should
continue work on the thesis even
if not enrolled in thesis
hours. Typically the thesis
will take about six months to
complete. Students are advised
to consult the current
university catalog regarding
dates and deadlines related to
graduate work.
Option II: Applied Learning
Project
Option II requires a graduate
GPA of 3.0 or higher after 15
hours of graduate courses.
A minimum of 36 hours is
required under this option
including two to five hours of
CA 700—Graduate Project.
The project is intended for
students who are mid-career or
who would gain academically
and/or professionally from a
course of study other than the
intensive research and writing
experience required in a
thesis.
Under this option each student
must demonstrate the ability to
engage in independent study
resulting in a creative or
research endeavor involving the
formulation of new problems, the
elaboration of new implications,
or the development of new
relationships. The student
should consult with their
advisor to determine the number
of hours appropriate to their
project. For example,
developing a business plan and
web page for a home business
should take only two credit
hours but developing two
training and development
programs or media kits may
require the full five hours of
credit.
Students may prepare a degree
project that could take a
variety of forms, including a
place-based problem solving
exercise, a specific policy
proposal, a website, business
communication training
materials, a creative video or
photography exhibit, business
promotion materials, or a
videotaped program or other
project that is not
predominantly written material.
Such projects must meet the same
standards of academic excellence
as the traditional thesis.
An example project is to create
two training and development
programs. These may be
instructional units on topics
relevant to the student’s
employment or developed through
consultation with area nonprofit
organizations. Another example
would be to create two media
kits, which contain an array of
promotional writing and mediated
materials designed for at least
two different nonprofit
organizations. For example, a
student might have the goal of
starting a business to develop
media kits for non-profit
organizations. The student’s
idea for the project is to
develop a media kit for a
woman’s shelter where he/she
volunteers. Because the student
completing this project has not
demonstrated the ability to work
for a variety of different
non-profit organizations, he or
she needs develop at least two
different media kits for the
project to help the student
reach his/her business goal.
In all cases a student must also
submit a summary of the research
and/or data collection that was
necessary for the completion of
the project.
Project Process
The project subject should be
selected by the student and
approved by the advisor who will
direct the research, writing,
and practical work. Through
consultation with the advisor,
the student will chose the two
additional members of the
committee (this can include one
member from outside the
department and/or one member
with subject-matter expertise)
and contact them to obtain their
commitment to assist the
student.
The student should complete the
initial stages of the project
while talking the first few
hours of CA700—Graduate
Project. The student will first
develop a proposal. The project
proposal should match the
complexity of the project
itself. At a minimum, the
proposal should indicate (1) the
purpose of the project, (2) a
justification of the project,
(3) a clear explanation of the
project, and (4) a timeline for
completion. Larger projects may
require a literature review and
bibliography.
The project advisor will
assist the student until both
advisor and student are pleased
with the work. The student will
then submit the work to the
other members of the committee
for comments and revisions. The
committee members will act on
the prospectus in group
conference.
It is best if the student attend
the meeting, although attending
via phone is acceptable. The
department will schedule
meetings during the second week
of Fall I and Spring I and the
fourth week of Fall II and
Spring II for project review.
Students are advised to plan
ahead to finish their work for
consideration at these meetings.
The faculty believe a
well-developed plan is essential
for smooth development of the
project, so students are urged
to be thorough in developing the
prospectus.
A Project Committee may include
one faculty member who does not
have graduate standing, if
his/her expertise is relevant
and necessary for the specific
project.
After comment and revision to
the committee’s satisfaction,
the student may take additional
hours of CA700—Graduate Project
as determined by their advisor.
The final work will be presented
by the students at a meeting of
graduate students, the
project
committee, and other faculty
members. The
department will schedule
meetings during the second week
of Fall I and Spring I and the
fourth week of Fall II and
Spring II for project review.
Students are advised to plan
ahead to finish their project
for consideration at these
meetings.
Students must come to campus to
present and defend their
project. If this represents an
extreme hardship, the student’s
committee may elect to make
other arrangements (e.g., a
videoconference).
Following the public
presentation, the committee will
meet in private in order to
evaluate the final work. The
committee may decide to accept
it as is, reject it, or require
revisions or further work.
Grades are on a pass/fail basis.
Students are advised to consult
the current university catalog
regarding dates and deadlines
related to graduate work.
Comprehensive Exams
All graduate students will be
required to take comprehensive
exams in order to graduate.
The comprehensive exam is
designed to assess the student
learning and the success of the
program.
Students are reminded to read
the statement on academic
honesty in the graduate catalog
before beginning the exam.
Students should expect four to
eight questions which will be
derived from the program goals.
They should consult their
advisor about which faculty will
submit and grade exam
questions. The program director
will obtain the questions from
the faculty and pass them on to
the student. Students will have
24 hours to complete the exam.
If students have difficulty with
particular exam questions, they
should contact the faculty
submitting the question. Exam
questions
will be graded by the faculty
member who submitted the
question and returned, with
comments, to the program
director. Results will be
returned to the students within
two weeks.
If the student does not meet
expectations, they may be asked
to rewrite portions of the exam
or address additional
questions.
Such revisions must be completed
within one week of student
receipt of the request for
revision. At that point,
students will either pass or
fail the exam.
Exams must be passed at least
eight weeks before graduation.
Students are advised to plan
ahead to meet deadlines.
|
The Project is a flexible
learning experience, which
fits
into one of multiple project options.
These project choices should be based on your
advisor's expertise for being able to guide
students.
If you want a different type of
project, work it out with your advisor in
advance of enrolling. So, select
a practical topic you love, which perhaps you have been
studying in the program so far. Topics typically relate to organizational communication
or
leadership communication. Here are
example topics:
-
Start an
eBay business.
-
Present a
Leadership Practices
Inventory training session.
-
Conduct
online PR and thought
leadership with webpage and blog.
-
Start an
eBusiness--online
money-making project.
Write creative stories or cases about family
communication.
Create and upload a website about
communication resources in the community.
Prepare instructional training
materials that can be used at work.
Create a business plan for a home business you want
to start.
Write a booklet about text-messaging language.
Learn about and set up a social networking
account for more effective business
communication (e.g.,
http://www.blogger.com/ ,
http://twitter.com/ ).
The project may include
synthesizing work for previous courses. Ideally,
you reflect on your program so that you will
actually use what you learned in a professional
context. In other words, the project may be a
pragmatic one, which you can use in your
personal or professional life.
BE PRACTICAL.
Because you are coming into this project having
completed the majority of courses in the
program, you should have a strong background in
communication and leadership research-based
theories. Select a project that will be
useful to you in some way.
ASSIGNMENT FOR WEEK ONE
I need
something "on paper" showing your idea for the
project. I try hard to give feedback on
everything by Tuesday.
FINALIZE YOUR TOPIC IMMEDIATELY
In the project, there is much flexibility. The
main problems for students are (a) failing to
get started and (b) procrastination. At this
point, you've studied enough about communication
so that you know a topic you like. Your topic
must relate to communication. Settle on what
you want to do and move forward.
I recommend something that does NOT require
collecting data on human subjects (interviews,
survey) because that will complicate your work
in that you will need to comply with federal
regulations and go through the University's
Institutional Research Board (IRB). If you want
to conduct research on human subjects, please
sign up for the thesis option.
You need a topic that interests you, preferably
that has practical applications for you. If it
turns out not to be the perfect topic, that's
okay. Here are my course objectives for the
project.
1. Study a topic in depth.
2. Demonstrate effective writing, media, or
other communication skills.
3. Defend your work and ideas through a
defense to your committee.
CREDIT HOURS
You can do a project for 3 hours if you began
the program in Fall, 2008 or if you obtain
approval from the Director of the program. If you are
taking the whole project for only 3 hours, you
need to finalize your topic immediately, and see
if all committee members approve before you
proceed. You need to complete the whole project
this term, and 8 weeks will fly by. Be
realistic. Figure out something you can do in
that amount of time.
If you are taking the project for more than 3
credit hours or over two terms, you need to get
the proposal by your committee this term, then
can actually finish the project the next time
you enroll.
REMEMBER TO TAKE CARE OF GRAD SCHOOL DETAILS
I hate to nag about these things, but before you
graduate you have to do the following.
• Take the GRE and submit the scores to
the grad school.
• Apply for graduation
https://www.park.edu/registrar/gradapp/
Deadline for Application:
December Commencement..................April 1
May Commencement..................November 1
August
Completion..............................April 1
•
Comprehensive exam must be PASSED before your
final term of enrollment.
COURSE INFORMATION
There is supporting information in the course
here:
Syllabus
http://www.park.edu/syllabus/list.aspx
My planning documents for the course
http://onlineacademics.org/CA700/
Forms:
http://onlineacademics.org/CA797/Forms/
YOUR COMMITTEE
You know that we have a small faculty at Park.
If you know a faculty member at another
university who would be willing to be your third
person, that would be fine. We can set up the
final project defense as a teleconference, so
having a committee member at a distance is
fine.
COMMUNICATE MONTHLY WITH YOUR COMMITTEE
Faculty may be on a dozen student committees, so
do not assume that they remember who you are or
the last thing you told them. Communicate
regularly with your committee members.
Send your committee members a photo and a
paragraph bio to help them remember who you
are.
If you use more than one name, send a list of
all the names you use (legal name, nicknames,
name changed by marriage), and emails addresses
you are using to communicate with them. Most
faculty prefer that you use the Park email
because of security and virus protection.
About once a month while you are enrolled in the
course, please send your committee a brief email
updating them on your progress. Also ask for
them to tell you any suggestions for changes you
should incorporate.
OFFICE HOURS
Remind me if you don't have my home phone
number. Do not hesitate to call me at home
because I don't mind at all. Please don't leave
a message, however, because I don't check them,
but instead call back. II seldom have my cell
phone turned on, but I don't have long distance
service at Park, so if I call you from my Park
office, it will be from this number. I think
it's identified as "Kansas Call."
We can always set up an appointment to talk.
Contact information:
Dr. Joan Aitken, Professor, Communication Arts
229 Copley, 8700 NW River Park Drive, Park
University, Parkville, MO 64152
816-584-6785 (office & message)
PROJECT PROPOSAL TEMPLATE
Put this information together and send it to your
committee as soon as possible. DUE WEEK 5. ABSOLUTE FINAL DEADLINE IS WEEK
SIX! MUST GO TO FACULTY COMMITTEE MONDAY OF WEEK
7.
Title Page (page 1):
Title is strictly factual regarding what the project is
about.
Your Name
A Project Proposal in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts,
Communication and Leadership
Park University
Abstract: The purpose of this
project is to _________. The importance of this project
is __________. The procedures will be _____________.
(page 2)
Proposal Plan (page 3-7):
·
Problem.
·
What is the question you will answer?
·
Operational definitions of independent and
dependent variables and any other key terms.
·
Importance.
·
Justification of the work, including
purpose and rationale.
·
Procedures.
·
Exactly what you plan to do and how you
will do it.
·
Timetable of when each stage will be
complete.
Review of Literature
(pages 8-20).
Reference List [Twenty
peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles from the
database Communication and Mass Media Complete (EBSCO
Host)
http://www.park.edu/library/ . All sources
actually cited in the review of literature are on the
reference list and everything in the reference list
needs to be cited in the proposal. (final pages)].
TIMETABLE
Do NOT expect faculty to
be available over the summer when they are not on staff.
Leave yourself plenty of time in your final term
so that you finish on time. Work backwards
according to your schedule. Figure on at
least one week and maybe two weeks for the
faculty committee to read your work. No
one has time for anything week 8. You'll
need to schedule the defense for week 6 or 7.
That means you should submit the final draft of
your project to the faculty committee week 4 of
the final term of enrollment.
THE DEFENSE
You take control of
the meeting, otherwise the faculty
will, and it will be less pleasant
for you. In person students
often provide food or drink.
There will just be three faculty in
addition to yourself.
PowerPoint
Please send your single file, small,
.ppt format PowerPoint in
advance to all committee members
particularly because someone may
decide to meet via phone. There
should be no voice over. This
should be an outline of your
presentation. You will speak on the
phone. There's no need for
visuals. Plan to
spend about 5 minutes on your
presentation. Everyone read
what you wrote, so emphasize what
you learned through the process and
how it related to your other
courses.
For distance
students, I'll show the PowerPoint
presentation on my computer.
Because it will be small, use high
contrast, large arial font, about 5
words across and 5 lines per slide.
Use bullet points. No
pictures, although charts may be
useful. Do NOT
write our paragraphs and read them.
PROJECT SIGNATURE PAGE
You will need a signature page for your project,
which is signed by the three faculty on your
committee. What I recommend is using multiple
copies if any faculty member is at a distance
during your defense. Make sure you scan and
keep a copy of that page(s) with signatures.
Not at Park, but I've seen committees that had a
problem after the fact and tried to hold up
graduation, which they could not do because the
student had the signature page. Don't expect
your advisor to make everything go smoothly.
What if I win the lottery and blow you off?
Ultimately you are responsible for all the
paperwork, sending it to the right people, and
making sure you graduate. Be responsible for
taking care of everything yourself.
You need three signatures on a page(s),
scan it, and send it electronically to the
Program Director, the Graduate
School, and the Registrar. THEN you can go
party.
HTML clipboard
See Department Guidelines for
Exact Project Requirements.
Remember, the
project is NOT a portfolio and NOT
comprehensive exams. You still must take the
comprehensive exams separately.
DEPT. & PARK
RULES. The student has the responsibility of
finding out and following departmental and Park
University rules. You will find those in the
graduate catalog. Your advisor cannot over-ride
departmental or university rules. The department
and university requirements supersede faculty
requirements.
GRADUATE RECORD
EXAM (GRE). Park University requires
that you complete the GRE and submit your scores
to the Graduate School. You cannot
graduate from the program without completing
this step. See
http://www.ets.org/
COMPREHENSIVE
EXAMS. The department or university requires
separate comprehensive exams of students who
complete a project. These need to be PASSED at
least 8 weeks prior to graduation. You will have 24 hours
to write. You can use any books or
materials, but you canNOT use help from any
person. Here is Dr. Aitken's information
about comps
http://onlineacademics.org/comps/
APPLICATION FOR GRADUATION. Go to the
Park website, find and complete the online form
(Application for Graduation), and pay fees for
graduation.
August Completion or December Commencement
Deadline: April 1
May
Commencement Deadline: November 1
COMMITTEE. You
will present your project and defend your
project, either by telephone conference or in
person.
You may want to talk
with your advisor about your project, do advance
planning, and receive oral approval IN ADVANCE.
You will want to have a clear idea of the nature
of your project BEFORE enrolling in the final
term so you can complete the project well before
the end of the one 8-week term.
Textbooks
Use the 6th edition of the APA Publication
Manual.
No required textbook.
This project should be a time when you review
all relevant course materials you studied during the
program, which may include books or peer-reviewed research
articles from journals in communication. Because you are coming into this project with a
strong background of the communication and
leadership research-based theories, however,
you may want to read a trade book from the
popular press to see what is being said about
the subject.
Grading
100% of the project
grade is based on the advisor's evaluation
of the project submitted by week 6 and
revised according to committee requirements
by Monday of week 8.
No incompletes.
If you don't plan on meeting deadlines, you
will want to use a different advisor.
August Completion or
December
Commencement: April 1
May
Commencement: November 1

Available for purchase from
allposters.com
allposters.com
-
Demonstrate an understanding of the
centrality of communication in all aspects
of personal and organizational life.
-
Demonstrate your ability of students to read
and conduct research and apply the
principles to your own organizations.
-
Demonstrate that you exchanged ideas with
other students and organizational leaders
concerning the requirements to achieve
excellence.
-
Demonstrate an historical overview of
leadership perspectives from the 1940s to
the present.
-
Demonstrate an awareness of the
communication styles and values of different
cultures and how these factors influence
business in a global environment.
-
Demonstrate that you can combine theoretical
knowledge and practical skills to resolve
organizational issues and improve
decision-making.
-
Demonstrate that you have developed a
framework for ethical conduct in
contemporary organizations.
|
Caution! |
The main dangers of
the project choice are
student procrastination and
failure to have your advisor and any
committee members on board with the
project PRIOR to enrolling for final
hours. |
You may want to talk with your advisor about
your project, do advance planning, and receive
oral approval IN ADVANCE. You will want to have
a clear idea of the nature of your project
BEFORE enrolling in the course so you can
complete the project well before the end of the
one 8-week term.
Thus, you will want to make sure you plan your
project prior to enrolling and stay on schedule,
while working with your advisor along the way.
You can do this!


APA Writing Style
http://onlineacademics.org/APA.html
IRB Tutorial
http://onlineacademics.org/IRB/
Library Tutorial
http://onlineacademics.org/LibraryTutorial/
MA Project Ideas
http://onlineacademics.org/CA700/
Program Goals
http://www.park.edu/grad/masters-cl-goals.aspx
|
|
|
INFORMATION BELOW IS FROM
POSSIBLE TEXTBOOKS, WHICH YOU MAY USE TO
GUIDE YOUR PROJECT.
|
Survey
or Other
Action Research Project |
Have an action research
project idea? |
Textbook: Nardi, P. M.
(2006). Doing survey research: A
guide to quantitative methods.
(2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
The Action Research Project is
typically an applied study, which is
short on library research and long
on actual survey, focus group, or
other active data collection and
analysis. Talk with your advisor in
advance, and submit your proposal to
the faculty. You can use a proposal
prepared in another course (e.g., CA
517).
Project Organization
APA 1.06
Title Page
Use a
descriptive scholarly title, which
clearly explains the paper’s
content—NOT an attention-getter.
Give your name, Park University,
date.
APA 1.07
Abstract (100 -150
word summary of the question,
method, and results)
APA 1.08
I. Introduction
This is
the background to the problem.
A.
Research question.
1.
A brief history of interest
in the area.
2.
Specify unresolved issues,
theoretical questions, and/or social
concerns.
3.
Rationale for the study.
B.
Review of Literature. A review of
literature is an examination of key
peer-reviewed journal articles on
the topic. In an action research
project, this might be a brief
overview of theory building in the
field. Group information according
to ideas, NOT according to research
articles. This section is NOT an
annotated bibliography. Please use
subheadings to generally describe
each idea.
1.
Paragraphs about first idea from
review of literature.
2.
Paragraphs about second idea from
review of literature.
3.
Paragraphs about third idea from
review of literature.
C.
Problem Statement -- Drawing from
the literature review of 20-50
sources, explain the ideas you plan
to investigate. Include the
following:
1.
Identify variables (dependent
and independent variables).
2.
Delineate the research
problem to explain the relationships
expected among variables (research
questions or hypotheses).
APA
1.09 Method
1.
Description of Method
a.
Describe why the research
method (e.g., survey research) is
used.
2.
Instruments or measures
a.
Operational definitions of
dependent and independent variables
b.
Instrument – rationale for
the measure to be used (e.g.,
questionnaire, focus group,
interview).
3.
Participants and procedures
a.
Selection of subjects (i.e.,
who and how to get them -- sampling
procedure).
b.
Explain how materials will be
distributed.
c.
Describe how data will be
collected.
d.
Describe how data will be
analyzed.
APA
1.10 Results
APA
1.11 Discussion
APA
1.13 References
(emphasize peer-reviewed articles in the field
of communication and leadership).
Each reference listing needs to be cited
in your final proposal and each
citation in your final proposal will
be in the reference list.
APA
1.14 Appendix (e.g.,
text under study, measure or unpublished test and its
validation, the printout of results
from surveymonkey.com).
|
Survey Monkey
If using a measure, you can use a measure that already
exists or create your own measure. For an experiment, you might have
subjects complete the survey (pre-treatment), then do the
experimental treatment, then repeat the measure (post-treatment).
You
will want to write your questions in advance so you have an idea of
what you need to ask. You'll want to decide whether to ask
open-ended or close-ended questions or both. Here is some information
about
types of questions from San Diego State University:
How Do I
Know Which Type of Question to Use?
|
Type of question... |
Best Used for... |
|
Open-ended |
Breaking the ice
in an interview; when respondents' own words are important;
when the surveyor doesn't know all the possible answers.
If you use an interview, you will need a script of all your
questions. |
|
Closed-ended |
Collecting rank
ordered data; when all response choices are known; when
quantitative statistical results are desired. |
Likert-scale
|
To assess a
person's feelings about something. |
Multiple-choice
|
When there are a
finite number of options (remember to instruct respondents
as to the number of answers to select). |
Ordinal
|
To rate things in
relation to other things. |
Categorical
|
When the answers
are categories, and each respondent must fall into exactly
one of them. |
Numerical
|
For real numbers,
like age, number of months, etc. |
|
|
|
|
SurveyMonkey.com is a free service for data collection. More
sophisticated data collection and analysis can be purchased, but
you'll be able to do an array of work with the free service.
Everything is kept confidential on data collection so you don't know
who says what.
Click here
to go to SurveyMonkey. I've never had any problem with the
service.
Step 1: Create an account.

Step 2: Create your survey.
The key link tabs are at the top. Select
"Create Survey."

To create the survey,
start from scratch.

First select the colors.

Then enter questions you want to ask in the
order you want to ask them. Keep it short. Ask ONLY
questions you need answered. Use the dropdown menu to select
the type of question.

Make sure your questions are clear and have a single idea in each
question.
Add a introductory page

and thank you page.

You can select the colors you like.

You'll
want to proof your survey and make sure it looks like you want.

You might want to have a
friend test your survey to see if everything is clear.
When your survey is done and you have previewed it, go to
"Collect Responses." You'll need the url so you can collect
data. Here is my example,
click here.

Step 3: Email people about your survey. This will be a long url because it will go to your specific survey.
Step 4: Analyze the results by going to
the "Analyze Results" tab to see the answers.

|
|
Reading Summary
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |
Outline
1. Why
We Do Research.
Everyday Thinking.
Scientific Thinking.
The
Purposes of Scientific Research.
Research Methods.
2. Finding Ideas to Research.
Generating Topics.
Searching for Research.
Literature Reviews.
Theory
and Reasoning.
The
Ethics of Research.
3. Designing Research: Concepts,
Hypotheses, and Measurement.
Variables and Hypothesis.
Levels
of Measurement.
Scales
and Indexes.
Accuracy and Consistency in
Measurement.
4. Developing a Questionnaire.
Using
Questionnaires in Survey
Research.
Conceptualizing the Task.
Measuring Attitudes and
Opinions.
Measuring Behavior.
Demographics.
Formatting the Questionnaire.
Online
Survey Design.
Pilot
Testing the Questionnaire.
Coding
Questionnaires.
Ethical
Concerns in Questionnaire
Design.
Finding
Respondents.
5. Sampling.
Some
Basic Sampling Concepts.
Probability Sampling.
Nonprobability Sampling.
Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal
Studies.
Sample
Size.
6. Presenting Data: Descriptive
Statistics.
Presenting Univariate Data.
The
Normal Curve and Z-Scores.
7. Analyzing Data: Bivariate
Relationships.
Presenting Nominal and Ordinal
Data In Tables.
Testing
Bivariate Relationships.
8. Analyzing Data: Comparing
Means.
T-Tests.
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).
Differences not Strength.
9. Analyzing Data: Multiple
Variables.
Elaborating Relationships:
Control Variables.
Multiple Relationships.
10. Presenting Results, Making
Conclusions, and Writing Reports.
Interpretations and Conclusions.
Audiences and Reports.
The
Journey Finishes.
|
Chapter One
WHY WE DO RESEARCH
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |
Learning Goals
In
this chapter, the differences
between everyday thinking and
scientific thinking are discussed.
An argument is made about the
advantages of doing survey research
and understanding various kinds of
research: exploratory, descriptive,
explanatory, and evaluation. The
chapter concludes with a comparison
of quantitative and qualitative
research methods. By the conclusion,
you should be able to give examples
of everyday thinking, discuss the
components of scientific reasoning,
list the different types of research
methods, and describe them.
The
purpose of this chapter is to
understand that the quantitative
research method is one of many
different ways people come to
understand the world around them.
Some argue that the social and
behavioral sciences (such as
sociology, psychology, political
science, and anthropology) are not
“real sciences” and that any
attempts to mimic them just do not
work. After all, social sciences
deal with human
behavior, that is, it is governed by
free will and the vagaries of every
day life. Science just won’t
do.
Engaging students in a debate about
what is science and what is not is a
good
way to begin a course that
emphasizes the more scientific,
quantifiable, and statistical
methods used to gather data. The
outcome could be a solid
understanding that the scientific
method itself might also be a
“social construction,” albeit one
that has been verified over time and
has withstood numerous attempts to
change it.
Equally productive is to help
students arrive at an awareness of
the many ways throughout a typical
day they engage in both “scientific”
methods and “everyday thinking” with
its inaccurate generalizations and
sampling techniques. This allows
them
to see that we manage to survive
without scientific reasoning in many
daily routines, yet for many
important decisions we depend on a
more structured and systematic
method. This also gets students to
see that they already know some
quantitative methods and that the
course will build on their strengths
and develop the techniques in more
depth.
It
goes without saying that many
students are frightened, worried,
and anxious about the quantitative
methods or statistics course. This
is often not an elective chosen to
fill out their schedule, but a
requirement for their major.
Whatever can be done the first day
to alleviate these concerns should
be done. And one way is to engage
them in a discussion of what they
already know that could be helpful
in learning the course’s material.
|
Chapter Two
FINDING IDEAS TO RESEARCH
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |

Learning Goals
Discovering topics to study by
searching for research ideas and
finding existing studies is one of
the goals of this chapter. Learning
to write a good literature review is
discussed, especially in the context
of using theory to guide your
research. The chapter also raises
the ethical issues involved in doing
research. By the end of the chapter
you should be able to search for
topics in the library and in
computer databases, write a coherent
and focused review of the research
literature, and raise the ethical
concerns various kinds of research
topics might create.
Students
often
wonder where to begin a research
project. Too many times, they have a
very large topic that is virtually
impossible to study and they need to
learn how to narrow it to something
more manageable. Understanding how
to do a good library search and
literature review is an important
step in the research process. If
often
helps to bring in examples of literature reviews from journal articles
and show the students what goes into
writing them. Too
often
people begin by summarizing one
study
after
another without any attempt at
distilling key themes or organizing
them in any coherent way.
All
research requires attention to
ethics and ethical matters should be
a major focus of the discussion.
Ethical issues are easily
illustrated with actual examples
from research studies and by
presenting situations that can
result in
different
ethical dilemmas and
interpretations. The key goal is to
open
students’
eyes
to the impact of
what they are doing, not just to
have them come up with a definite
solution to an ethical
situation.
|
Chapter Three
DESIGNING RESEARCH:
CONCEPTS, HYPOTHESES, AND
MEASUREMENT
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |

Learning Goals
Central to doing survey research is
understanding the idea of
operationalization and how to go
from ideas to concepts to variables.
Learning the various levels of
measurement is also essential for
analyzing data. This chapter
discusses how to write
hypotheses using independent and
dependent variables and how to
evaluate the reliability and
validity of measures. By the end of
the chapter you should be able to
distinguish the different levels of
measurement: nominal, ordinal, and
interval/ratio; discuss the various
kinds of reliability and validity;
and write one-directional,
twodirectional, and null
hypotheses.
This
chapter is central to the use of
statistics later in the book.
Decisions about which statistic to
use are typically based on their
levels of measurement, so it is
crucial that you spend time working
through the topics in Chapter 3.
These ideas can be difficult ones to
grasp initially, especially if you
are unfamiliar with research. If you
have questions, be sure to talk to
your advisor.
Although many of the concepts have
everyday meanings (such as reliable,
valid, hypothesize, median) slightly
different from the scientific usage,
it does facilitate learning to think
about how you use them in ordinary
conversations. In so doing, the
terms and concepts might seem less
foreign to your.
It
is also important to communicate
that how researchers decide to
measure a concept can affect the
subsequent data analysis and
interpretations. Think about
“trade-offs” decisions and how no
study can be perfectly designed,
which helps to illustrate that some
choices even at these early stages
of research can have differing
impacts later on.
This is also a good time to think
about the “art” of doing research,
that is, to think about the creative
element in the design of research.
When researchers have to construct
their own measurements, to develop
interesting and unique research
questions or hypotheses, and to
decide on which concepts to assess,
they have the
opportunity to create innovative
work. The easy way is to simply do
what everyone else has, but
the imaginative route is to do
something unique.
|
Chapter Four
DEVELOPING A QUESTIONNAIRE
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |

Learning Goals
In
this chapter you will read about the
strengths and weaknesses of
different types of
survey methods. You will also learn
how to design a questionnaire: How
to write attitude, behavior,
and demographic questions and format
a survey. Coding responses and
preparing data for computer analysis
are important skills discussed as
well. By the end of the chapter, you
should be able to critique poorly
written questionnaires, write a good
questionnaire for distribution in a
small study, and understand the
different ways of designing
questions and format for surveys.
Writing a questionnaire is a creative task that comes more
easily to some than to
others. Faced with a blank screen or
piece of paper, many people have no
idea where or how to begin. This
chapter provides some guidelines
about putting together a good survey
for beginners.
Like
any writing assignment, drafts
should be reviewed and comments
provided on early versions of any
survey. It is important that enough
time be planned to allow for
rewrites and learning how to write a
survey good enough to distribute.
One useful task is to have other
students in the course or friends be
respondents for your survey. They
can “take” the survey and provide
feedback before a final version is
printed or put on SurveyMonkey and
distributed.
Sometimes it helps to think about
and to talk out loud about what you
want to know. Too often students
have a very vague or broad idea
about what to study. This makes it
difficult to begin to write a clear
and concise questionnaire. Carry on
a conversation with a friend about
the topic. How would you begin? What
kinds of things would you like to
know that you don’t know already?
Talk with your advisor about your
ideas.
As
with all new skills, practice is
important, so the more you can
review published questionnaires,
poor quality ones in magazines and
junk mail, and items printed in
academic articles, the more you will
see what goes into operationalizing,
formatting, and designing a
questionnaire.
You may want to use a questionnaire
that has been developed by a scholar
or professional in the field of
communication studies. That approach
is fine too.
|
Chapter Five
SAMPLING
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |
Learning Goals
This
chapter explains random probability
sampling and describes
different
methods for obtaining samples. You
will learn about longitudinal and
cross-sectional research designs. By
the end of the chapter you should be
able to distinguish several types of
probability and non-probability
sampling, describe various kinds of
longitudinal research designs, and
explain the idea of sampling error.
There are many ways to generate a
sample of respondents, but only a
few methods allow researchers to
make generalizations about a
population with any accuracy and
consistency. A key idea is to
recognized that unless you use a
probability sampling technique, your
results can only be reported about
those people completing the study.
The results will not be
generalizable.
Many
people erroneously assume that going
around and giving out surveys
randomly results in an actual random
sample.
It’s
important to distinguish the everyday use of the word
“random”
from
the more scientific meaning it has
when attached to sampling
strategies.
Most
assignments for a Master's project
do not allow the time and do not
have the funds to generate a large
sample. Yet it is not impossible to
attempt a random sample strategy.
More than likely, however, the
return rate for surveys, especially
on a college campus, is too low to
result in a representative or random
sample. Understand the limitations
of the sample you are likely to
generate.
Critical thinking plays an important
part in reading surveys and journal
articles. Think about call-in or
on-line computer surveys--e.g.,
SurveyMonkey.com.
As
always, journal articles provide
ample examples of sampling and the
limitations of response rates in
actual research.
|
Chapter Six
PRESENTING DATA: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |
Learning Goals
Understanding how to describe your
findings using graphs, tables, and
statistics is the focus of this
chapter. By the end of the chapter
you should be able to decide how to
use the mean, median, mode, standard
deviation when presenting data. You
should also understand the concept
of the normal curve and z-scores. In
addition, you will learn the idea of
probability and statistical
significance.
This
is the first of four chapters
devoted to explaining basic
statistical analyses. And this
information is the start of much
anxiety for many students. If
needed, your advisor can help you
review some very basic mathematics
and reassure you that the most
important skill is thinking
quantitatively, not calculating
arithmetic. You can use calculators,
online calculators, Excel, or SPSS,
or whatever software you want that
your advisor accepts.
What is crucial is your ability
to
make decisions about which
statistics are most appropriate in
different conditions and learning
how to interpret statistical output
and results. Knowing when to use
particular statistics and knowing
what they mean are the skills
stressed in these chapters instead
of how to calculate them by hand.
Some
faculty believe that students really
learn statistics by having them work
through problems and calculating
formulas. Others feel that math
anxiety overwhelms students’
abilities to understand the material
when they are expected to learn the
mathematics. For the purpose of your
project, figure out what you want to
know, what data you will collect,
and how you will analyze that data.
Students often relate well to data
analysis when they see themselves in
it.
The
statistics in Chapter 6 are the
basic building blocks for later
ideas.
|
Chapter Seven
ANALYZING DATA: BIVARIATE RELATIONSHIPS
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |
Learning Goals
Understanding bivariate statistical
analysis is the focus of this
chapter. Central to this concept is
learning how to read and construct
cross-tables of data and deciding
which statistics to use to measure
association and correlation. By the
end of the chapter you should
understand how to reject or accept a
hypothesis using the appropriate
statistics to
assess bivariate relationships. You
should also be able to put together
cross-tables and interpret
them clearly in words.
Once students understand how to
present data one variable at a time,
they often are eager to know how they could then
test whether there is a relationship
between two of variables at
the same time. How do I know if men
or women are more likely to strongly
agree or disagree with a statement
about interpersonal relationships,
for example?
The
goals of the chapter are to help
students make decisions about which
statistic to use when analyzing
bivariate relationships and how to
interpret the findings
presented in table form with the
accompanying statistics. It’s
important, however, to review
how to set up a crosstable of data.
A very common mistake is to confuse,
for example,
“20 percent of men are
communication and leadership
majors” with
“20 percent of communication
and leadership majors are
men.” You may need to work
with your advisor to make sure you
understand how to read tables.
Another typical mistake is for
students to attempt to put
interval/ratio data in tables.
Usually if these variables have many
values (such as GPA) the table will
have multiple empty cells and go on
for pages and pages. The table is
virtually unreadable. Realize that
crosstables are ideally suited to
nominal and ordinal measures.
Now is also the time to think about hypothesis testing and
how you reject or accept a
hypothesis based on the statistic
and its probability level. Much of
the output on computer statistical
programs, such as SPSS, include
items that are beyond the scope of
many students. You may want to read
the chapter, then discuss with your
advisor such ideas as the value of
the statistic and its significance
level. Now is a good time to think
about the elements required to
establish a cause and
effect relationship.
One
other point of confusion is the
increasing value of a correlation
from 0 to 1 and the decreasing value
of probability level from 1 to 0. A
correlation of .05 is not the
same as a probability value
of .05. Make sure you can
distinguish the difference.
Correlations are
measures of strength. Like when you
consider the value of money, the
closer you are to $1.00, the
stronger is the value.
For
alpha levels, realize that is important to have no
probability of something occurring
by accident or chance. You want to
be sure that the independent
variable exerts an
influence on the dependent
one because it is
meaningful, not just because it
could happen accidentally quite
often
(that is, greater than 5 percent of
the time).
|
Chapter Eight
ANALYZING DATA: COMPARING MEANS
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |
Learning Goals
This chapter shows you how to
assess differences between means
using t-tests and analysis of
variance. As with other
bivariate data analysis, knowing
when to use these statistical
procedures and how to interpret
them is central to testing
hypotheses. By the end of the
chapter you should be able to
understand what t-tests and
ANOVA are and when they are
suitable for data analysis.
Until now, you have been
learning to test relationships
between an independent and a
dependent variable. Sometimes,
however, the research question
or hypothesis can be evaluated
by looking at differences in
means. This comparison is
especially appropriate when the
dependent variable is measured
with an interval/ratio scale or
an equal-appearing ordinal
scale. In addition, many
researchers simply want to know
about a difference between two
groups in an experiment, or
between those subjects who
completed the questionnaire and
those who didn’t.
This chapter simply asks if
there is a difference between
two means (t-test) or among
three or more (ANOVA). Don't get
bogged down when trying to
understand the formulas or how
to interpret the output.
Formulas for the t-test and
ANOVA are presented in boxes for
those students who would like to
learn the statistics this way.
Realize that when researchers are comparing scores among groups
or categories of people (such as
between majors and nonmajors),
it is very likely there will be
some difference. It would be
highly unusual for two or more
groups to have the exact same
mean on a particular variable.
Hence, the object is to
understand if the difference
that is evident is a
statistically significant one,
that is, if it could have
occurred by chance alone less
than 5 percent of the time such
samples were analyzed. The
statistical question asked is
also whether that difference
among means is the same as the
difference among means in the
populations from which the
samples were drawn.
In this chapter, the basic ideas
of inferential statistics,
sampling, significance level,
standard errors, and confidence
levels come together in
relatively easily
understood terms. But if these statistical concepts become difficult, the
simplest way to think
about the content is to say that
these statistics (t-test value
and F-value) and their
accompanying probability levels
of significance help us answer
the essential question about
whether there is a difference in
means between two groups or
among three or more categories.
Be careful that you do not
confuse the wording of a
hypothesis used to test
differences with one used to
test relationships. Often
students will write “There is no
difference between gender and
GPA” when they really mean
“There is no difference in
average grades (GPA) between men
and women” or “Men and women
have around the same GPA.” Be
precise.
|
Chapter Nine
ANALYZING DATA: MULTIPLE VARIABLES
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |
Learning Goals
This chapter may be beyond the
scope of your project. This
chapter focuses on the analysis
of three or more variables to
answer more complex research
questions. It discusses when to
use various kinds of
multivariate
analyses and how to elaborate
your findings with additional
variables. By the end of the
chapter you should be able to
interpret multiple regression
analyses and perform elaboration
techniques with control
variables.
You may be wondering how to test
out more
elaborate research questions. A
useful technique is to speculate
what variables may be
helpful in explaining a
particular dependent variable.
This chapter introduces you to
some elementary ways of
evaluating the impact of two or
more independent variables on a
dependent variable. You will
want to examine concrete
examples of multivariate
analyses because these concepts
are more easily demonstrated
than explained. In particular,
when discussing elaboration
techniques, you might first try
analyzing actual data yourself
or
find
examples from published
research. It is not easy to
illustrate all the types of
elaboration
(antecedent, intervening,
spurious, specification, and
suppressor relationships) with
real data, so creating
your own fictitious tables may
be required. You may want to
discuss these principles with
your advisor.
Two-way ANOVA is mentioned but
not discussed in detail. Most of
the remaining chapter focuses on
linear regression analysis which
is used quite frequently.
Examples in academic journals
are numerous, and it helps to
distribute these when discussing
regression.
If you have complicated
statistical procedures needed
for your project, you may want
to ask a statistician to help
you.
|
Chapter Ten
PRESENTING RESULTS,
MAKING CONCLUSIONS, AND WRITING
REPORTS
Quoted directly or
closely adapted from
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey
research: A guide to quantitative
methods. (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson.
For use by students who have enrolled in
the course and purchased this textbook.
This information is protected by the
publisher's copyright and is for use
only in this course. |
 |
Learning Goals
In this final chapter, learning
to write a report of the
research project is emphasized,
along with the key elements that
go into a presentation of your
study. Understanding the
different audiences reading a
report guides the preparation of
the findings. By the end of the
chapter, you should know the
different styles for presenting
your research and be able to put
together a clear, concise report
targeted to the relevant
audience.
Talk to your advisor about
expectations for your project
report. Students often wonder by
this point what is expected of
them to report. Many of their
attempts to generate a decent
sample may have failed.
Questions they felt were clear
now appear to have been vague
and misunderstood. And their
data analyses could turn up no
significant findings, often due
to small sample sizes. So what
do they have to say in their
write ups of their study?
Learning to present findings is
a very useful skill, including
oral presentations. Your advisor
or the department may require
you to present your project to
other students and faculty.
Examining examples of journal
articles, executive summaries,
and other kinds of reports is
also a good way of illustrating
the various styles of report
writing.
Rather than writing up one final
project, your advisor may
required that you submit
sections of the report
throughout the term. For
example, a literature review
could be due a early in the
course, then a set of hypotheses
or research questions can be
submitted, followed by a
description of the sampling and
a final version of the
questionnaire. Finally, data
analyses are completed and a
final interpretation and
conclusion are written. In this
way, feedback could occur
throughout the term, not just at
the end of the course. Remember
that an 8-week course moves
quickly.
When preparing your project
report, remember there is a
difference between (a.)
speculating about the reasons
for the outcomes and (b.)
speculating about findings and
interpreting with available
data. Too often, students imply
they have data to support an
explanation of the results when
in fact they do not. The project
is a learning process, so be
careful about making inferences
beyond what your data says.
|
eBay BUSINESS STARTUP
 |
Always
thought about starting your own
photography business on eBay? Wondered
if you could supplement your income
with an eBay business?
|
Start an eBay
business by applying principles of
communication and leadership. Come up
with an idea for what will start as a
part-time business, then actually begin the
business. Follow the step-by-step process
from coming up with the idea through legal
incorporation.
eBay B usiness
Startup.
Suggested text. Obtain week one. Read and apply the
steps by the end of the week 4.
Timeline.
Week 1.
Obtain the book and begin
reading. Obtain approval from second
faculty member for this project.
Week 2.
Getting ready to sell.
In the first week you will concentrate on
setting up your business correctly, learning
the keys to operate on eBay, researching and
settling on the products she will sell, and
learning how and where to find sources for
those products.
Week 3.
Putting your auctions to work.
Almost anyone can use the eBay interface to
launch an auction, but the devil is in the
details. Learning how to make your
auctions stand out from the millions of
others, how to maximize your bids in final
values, how to promote your auctions, and
how to build a strong feedback profile are
the keys to long-term success.
Week 4.
Building and growing your
business.
There is no trick to selling on eBay, but
only a professional can make money doing it
to week after week. You will learn how
to control your costs, save time with
automation, tried to repeat business to your
auctions, and open an eBay store, as well as
steps you can take to expand your business
behind eBay to the rest of the web.
Week 5. Continue your
business work. Print copies of your
online pages and add them to your type
business plan.
Week 6.
Submit project to advisor and
second faculty member on Monday. Continue business.
Week 7. Continue your
business work. Add additional
information and revise your project.
Week 8. Submit final
project to faculty on Monday.
Buy the book. This summary/lecture is
provided to help students focus on essential
content. The information is quoted
directly or closely adapted from McGrath
(2006) and is for use only by students
enrolled in this course who have purchased
the book. The content is protected by
the publisher's copyright.
Introduction.
eBay is the world's greatest marketplace,
electronic or otherwise. More than 18
million people in the United States alone
have bought or sold items on eBay, and
worldwide use each has surpassed 180 million
people in 27 markets. Over one million
people list an item for sale on eBay every
day, 600,000 of these are professional,
full-time sellers.
in 2006, eBay estimates gross merchandise
sales could top $48 billion. Yet eBay
in itself sells nothing but access to its
platform.
When you launch an eBay business, you are
opening a store in a city of 180 million
people. Except you have no rant, no
employees, and costly advertising, and very
little overhead.
It is somewhat complicated selling on eBay,
but not overly so. Over 10 million
people have sold items on eBay. This
book is designed to take you through the
process, step-by-step in a logical manner,
so you understand and master each step. We are talking about achieving success on
eBay, not just making a pew quick sale.
Setting up and organizing your business, be
searching and finding the right products,
and putting in place the automated systems
and services to save you time will take the
average person about three weeks.
How you define success on eBay depends on
your personal goals and how he fits into
your life. It is just a matter of
time, work, and learning the ropes.
McGrath, frequently seize items being
auctioned on eBay by veteran sellers who are
still making rookie mistakes. Clearly,
they did not set up their business for
success right from the start.
Take the time to set up and organize your
business correctly before you start
launching your first auctions. Do the
research and select the products you will
sell. Then bright your goals and write
your success plan.
See
www.skipmcgrath.com/3_weeks for the
various websites and products discussed in
the book. Below are links from
McGrath's webpage.
Profit Calc
The eBay Seller's News.
Bonding, Fraud Insurance & Customer
Confidence
buySAFE.
SquareTrade
Contacting eBay
eBay
800-322-9266.
PayPal,
888-215-5506 or
888-221-1161
Some FREE Bonuses for my readers
You can
click here
91 Common Everyday Items that Bring Huge
Profits on eBay!
Automation
Endicia.
Vendio.
Promoting Your Auctions
Sellers
Voice You can get a 3-week trial for
just $1 by
clicking here.
eBay Links
eBay Rules and Policies
eBay Announcement Board
eBay Help, Rules & Policies
Anthony McMurray at Pro-Impulse Design.
Taking Great Photos
EZauctionTools.com
Discount
Shipping Insurance (DSI).
Research Tools
Terapeak
Hammertap Deep Analysis
Hammertap3
Hammertap
The Silent Sales Machine Selling on eBay
Turning Auction Traffic into Cash.
The Complete eBay Marketing System.
The Wholesale Buying System.
Drop Shipping
WorldWide Brands. OneSource Drop Ship
click here.
Internet Marketing Center
Firepit-Grills.com.
PowerSellerBuilder.
AdSense Videos.
eBay Coaching
Bright Builders
1-888-782-2368.
Another great eBay Guru
Tim Knox. .
Selling Information Products on eBay
How To Create & Sell Information Products on
eBay.
Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay
Niche Markets Anyone Can Do.
WEEK ONE AND TWO
Chapter 1 checklist.
-
Register your eBay account in sign-up
for a PayPal at business account. You will need your checking and tax ID
numbers. It will take in a few
days for PayPal to make deposits into
your account.
-
if you have not ever purchased anything
on eBay, gain some experience by bidding
on in winning EQ items so you can learn
about and get a good grasp of the
process.
-
As you are bidding and buying, be sure
to look at each sellers feedback rating. When you win an auction, make sure the
seller posts feedback for you. E-mail the seller a polite request if
she forgets to do this.
-
Set up your About Me page.
-
Explore their resources on your My eBay
Page.
-
apply for a sales tax number for your
state.
-
Open a commercial checking account and
sign up for a business debit card.
Chapter 2 checklist.
-
Familiarize yourself with the eBay site
map, especially the links under
selling activities
and selling resources.
-
Bookmark important pages in a special
eBay pages folder, so that you can
readily access important tools without
searching through the site map.
-
Visit
Seller Central
and familiarize yourself with the
resources and tools available to eBay
sellers.
-
Installed the eBay toolbar on your
desktop.
Chapter 3 checklist.
-
In your notebook, make a list of your
hobbies and interests.
-
Next, brainstorm all possible products
that fall into those categories. Don't rule anything else at this point.
-
After reading the next chapter on
product research, search on eBay to
determine if there is a market for these
products.
Chapter 4 checklist.
-
Go to the suggested websites and read
the features and benefits of each
service. Determine if you would
like to sign up for one of the services,
and go through the necessary
registration process.
-
Review your list of potential products
to sell from Chapter 3. For each
product team are considering, use the
eBay advanced search tool, as well as
Andale
or
Terapeak, if you have signed up for
either, to determine:
4. Be sure to keep detailed notes on
your research, so that you can use this
information when you begin listing items for
sale.
5. Based on your research, began
eliminating products from your list that did
not appear to have the market, or whose
average selling prices are lower than you
are looking to charge per item.
Chapter 5 checklist.
For each item on your narrowed it down to a
wish list of products, ask yourself the
following questions:
is there a sufficient market for this
product?
-
How much competition is there for this
project?
-
What is the projected profit margin for
this part?
-
Is there a continuing, reliable source
of supply?
-
Does the product lend itself to up
selling?
-
Can this product be packaged and shipped
easily?
-
Does the product have a long-term
market?
Based on the answers to these questions
eliminate any products from your list that
do not appear viable this you should now
have a final list of excuses like to sell on
eBay.
Chapter 6, checklist.
-
Once you select a product or private
category that interests you, visit the
various search engines mentioned in this
chapter and run a product searches to
locate suppliers.
-
Make a list of potential suppliers and
begin contacting them to see if they
work with small accounts. If so,
ask about pricing and minimum order
requirements.
-
If you live in a city with the
merchandise Mart or design Center, visit
it and register for admission.
-
Called the convention Bureau in your
city or the nearest largest city and
find out if and when any wholesale trade
shows are coming to your town. Register to attend.
Chapter 7 checklist.
if you are interested in drop shipping, sign
up with PDO, E. A. for a one week free trial
offered to readers of this book.
www.skipmcgrath.com/3_weeks find
products that interest you and then see what
they are selling for an eBay, using the
completed listings only section option.
use the
Thomas register
to find manufacturers of products that interest you. Contact
the manufacturer's and asked if they will
drop ship for you.
As you explore,
wholesale marketer and other
potential drop shippers, maintain a list of
products that offer that you believe you can
sell for profit. Once you are ready to
begin selling, come back to this list and
try listing a few of these items.
When she began working with drop shippers,
even at a week each one in terms of
competitive pricing, reliability of
delivery, customer satisfaction, and ease of
dealing with returns and other customer
service issues.
Chapter 8 checklist.
-
Spend some time on eBay looking at the
various types of auctions. Analyze
which types of auctions seem to be most
popular, or successful, for different
products.
-
Think about the products you plan to
sell, and which type of listing is great
for each one. In your notebook,
and note which formats your competitors
use, and which appeared to have been
successful.
-
If you plan on selling multiple,
identical items, study various multiple
item listings until you become
comfortable with the Dutch auctions,
fixed price listings, and a
lot listings. Make a list
of what worked and what field for other
sellers.
Chapter 9 checklist.
-
Locate the few items from your attic or
garage that you can use for your first
listings. Make sure to clean them
so that they are in good shape for
selling.
-
Take some digital photographs of your
items. See Chapter 15, if you need
advice on how to do this effectively.
-
Determine and price point for your
merchandise. Do some research on
eBay to determine the average selling
price for your products.
-
I love the steps outlined in this
chapter to launch her first auctions. Take note of any questions that arise
regarding headlines, descriptions,
pricing, and so forth. We will
cover these topics in greater detail
later on in the book.
Chapter 10 checklist.
-
Go to this website
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html and become a familiar with the complete
eBay fee schedule. Bookmark this
link and be sure to check it before
listing an item or consult appendix E.
at the end of this book. This will
help you understand your potential costs
when deciding on your pricing strategy.
-
To a completed items search for the
product you plan to sell. Select
the price: highest first as the default
to display the search results. Look at the items that sold for the most
money, and open the auctions to see on
what days and which times they ended it.
Chapter 11 checklist.
-
Go to the eBay site map and click on the
links under the heading feedback.
-
Bookmark the links you will use most
often, such as. Follow-up to feedback
you left for others. Leave feedback
for a member. The feedback for a
transaction.
-
For the auction, she launched in Chapter
9, sand waiting in winning bidders
confirmation e-mails and encourage them
to the seat back. Make sure you
leave positive feedback for them as
well.
-
Sell a series of inexpensive items for
the purpose of quickly building your
feedback rating. Include a
personal note in each package, thinking
the customer for his order and stating
that you haven't left positive feedback
for the transaction.
-
Consider sending a follow-up e-mail to
the buyers who have not left feedback.
Always include the leave feedback link
in your e-mails to buyers.
-
Visit the Square trade website
www.squaretrade.com
, and consider applying for squared
trades selling program, so that you have
recourse should someone be few negative
feedback.
-
Set up a folder in your e-mail program
for pre-written messages. Create
template messages for answering common
questions received.
Chapter 12 checklist.
PROJECT JOURNAL.
In your
eBay binder, right down short and long term
goals for your business. Determine how
much money you are looking to make and how
much time you can realistically devote to
achieving your goals on eBay.
-
Review your research and estimate the
average selling price of your products. Using the formula discussed in this
chapter, calculate how many auctions a
week you would need to launch to create
your monthly goals.
-
If the number of options you need to
launch to reach your goal will take more
time than you can realistically devote
to your business, reassess your product
selection. Two additional
research, if necessary, to come up with
alternative products to sell.
-
Either with your partner are alone, turn
your goals into a formal business plan. Keep updating your plan as your business
develops.
WEEK TWO.
Chapter 13 checklist.
-
Take some time to go through any
categories relating to the products you
plan to sell. Explore the various
subcategory listings, including the
number of auctions in each one.
-
If you are going to sell books, music,
or movies, go to the eBay help tab at
the top of any eBay page and type in
pre-filled information. This
will bring up a link to an excellent
tutorial on how to use this feature.
Chapter 14, checklist.
-
Sit down with a notebook and a pen, and
write out as many keywords as you can
think of for your product.
-
Now do a search on eBay for those words. Right down the headlines that its yield
to you. Open those auctions and
look at the corresponding hit counters. Determine which headlines appear to get
the most hits.
-
Using the above information as a guide,
he can create in your own attention
grabbing headlines.
PROJECT JOURNAL.
In your
binder, list every benefit of your
product. Now write a sentence
about each benefit and how it relates to
a buyer. Remember to romance your
item a little, however, do not go
overboard. You will include this
information in your project submission.
Once you have done this, list the item
for sale. In the description
field, first include all the facts about
the product that you are selling. Fill in the rest of the description with
the benefit statements you created.
Chapter 15 checklist.
-
After selecting the camera you are going
to use for your auto auction a foot
photography, spend some time
familiarizing yourself with the
instruction manual. Pay special
attention to this size settings, white
balance, macro or close-up feature,
manual focus, and aperture setting
priority.
-
Once you understand how all the features
work, take some practice shots. Upload them to your computer and use
whatever imaging software you have a two
crop, rotate, and resize the
photographs.
-
Compare the costs and benefits of
importing your photographs into your
auction using:
-
eBay's picture surface, basic or
enhanced, to individually upload images.
-
EBay's subscription hosting program.
-
A third-party auction management
service.
Chapter 16 checklist.
-
Visit the eBay fees page
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html
. Expand the listing to show all
the fees and print out a copy to keep by
your computer. Include this in
your project. You can also review
appendix B. in this book. Having
this information at the ready when you
are deciding on which promotional items
to use will save you time and help you
make better decisions.
PROJECT JOURNAL.
Create a
spreadsheet for market testing. After every auction, record the options
used, the number of hits and bids the
auction received, and the final outcome,
no sale or the final value. Use
this information to assess the
performance of your auctions with and
without fear he is upgrade combinations. Be sure to include this information in
your project submission.
Chapter 17 checklist.
-
Set us shipping station with tape, and
tape gun, scale, and any additional
supply she will need.
-
If you decide to use priority Mail, go
online and order your supplies.
-
Visit the websites for USPS, UPS, and
FedEx ground and compare their grades
for the size and weight product you are
shipping.
-
If you decide to use a private courier
service, visit the services website or
call customer service and open an
account. If you will be shipping
large quantities of packages each month,
consider calling the company to get a
customized quote.
Chapter 18 checklist.
McGrath would not suggest that you start
shipping overseas into you have mastered
domestic selling and shipping. But,
once you have successfully launched enough
options that you know all the ins and outs
of eBay selling, you should evaluate whether
there is an international market for your
product. You can do this in two ways:
-
Search completed auctions on eBay. Look for successful auctions away the
items sold at very high prices. Often these winning bidders are
international buyers. Use this
information to determine if there is an
international market for your item. Also, evaluate the shipping policies
specified by the sellers.
-
Go into overseas eBay sites, such as
eBay.co.uk or eBay.com.au. Unless
you speak German, French, or Chinese,
your will want to limit yourself to the
English-speaking sites. Search
completed items for the product you are
selling and see if there is a market for
it in these countries.
Chapter 19 checklist.
-
Familiarize yourself with the layout on
your My eBay Page, and all the
links and tools available to you there.
-
Click on the
sales reports link through to
my subscriptions link on your
My eBay Page to read and
understand what kind of information this
tool provides. When she starts
selling on a regular basis, McGrath
recommends that you subscribe to the
service.
Chapter 20 checklist.
-
If you have not yet signed up for
PayPal, open an account and follow the
steps to verify your account.
-
Visit the
seller protection page on eBay
via this site map or by clicking on
help at the top of any eBay page and
type
seller protection into the search
box. Familiarize yourself with the
eBay and PayPal protection plans for
both buyers and sellers.
-
Type the phrase
online security into the eBay
help search box. This will bring
up a series of links related to fraud
protection on eBay.
WEEK THREE
Chapter 21 checklist.
-
Set up a simple spreadsheet in Microsoft
Excel and other sure expenses. Be
sure to include things such as your ISP
and cable or DSL fees, and as well as
charges for telephone, postage, and
office supplies. Take a step back
and analyze your costs. Which line
items are costing you the most each
month? What can you do to reduce
your monthly expenses? Remember to
include all of this type of data in your
project's mission.
-
In Chapter 10 you bookmarked the eBay
fee schedule. If you have not yet,
go to this page and print out the full
schedule or go to a appendix E. to see
the fee schedule as of this printing. You will want the most up-to-date
information. Study the fee
schedule until you are thoroughly
familiar with how eBay charges fees. You do not have to memorize the piece,
especially those for optional features,
but you should have a good feel for what
they are and when to use them.
-
Now calculate the eBay fees for several
items listed and sold at different
prices. For example, calculate the
fees for an item that listed at $9.99
and sold for $20. Now do the same
thing for an item that started in at
$49.99 and sold for $75.
-
Using this information study the auction
should have launched this far and
evaluate your pricing. Have you
been paying higher fees than necessary?
What sort of ROI, have you been
realizing for op channel listing
features you have used?
PROJECT JOURNAL.
List steps
you can take to lower your eBay fees,
and light them in the binder next to
your computer. Of course, you may
be writing all of this information in a
computer file. Whatever format you
use, you will need to include all of
this information and similar types of
information you write about your
business, in your project submission to
the faculty.
PROJECT JOURNAL.
-
Set up a spreadsheet to list and control
your inventory. He sure to track
the day to acquire your inventory, so
you can assess how long it takes you to
move the inventory out.
-
In this spreadsheet, track your average
selling price, ASP, per item, so that
you can identify your most and least
profitable products. Use this
information in determining which
products and how many digits at each to
reorder.
-
Determine and implement strategies for
dealing with nonperforming inventory. Consider listing items in a wholesale
lots category or lowering your praise to
clear out slow-moving items. Remember to include all of this
information in your project submission.
Chapter 23 checklist.
-
Visit eBay's selling resources page and
read the information about the eBay
taste automation solutions turbo
lister, and selling manager.
-
Visit webpages and other sites listed in
this chapter and take a tour of each
one.
-
And once you have selected an automation
solution to try, either purchase a
subscription or sign up for a free trial
period began setting up your inventory
and learning the system.
Chapter 24 checklist.
-
As soon as you qualify, sign-up for the
Square trade in program.
-
Visit the other resources mentioned in
this chapter.
-
Begin running online in newspaper
classified ads for your auctions. Track the increase in sales to determine
your ROI.
Chapter 25 checklist.
-
Evaluate the products you currently
sell. See if you can come up with
combinations that would lend themselves
to up selling. In addition, write
up a list of products, you could buy or
create for the purpose of cross selling. When should have identified these items
and determined their pricing, start
featuring them in your e-mails to
customers at the end of your auctions.
-
Learn about eBay's e-mail marketing
program. To find out more
information about the program, click on
the help tab at the top of any eBay page
and type e-mail marketing into the
search box.
-
Visit
www.topica.com and read about topic
has programs for newsletter publishers.
Consider how to create newsletters that
would appeal to bidders and buyers in
the of Europe specific products.
-
Setup a system to capture and record
e-mail addresses from your successful
bidders.
Chapter 26 checklist.
-
Visit the eBay stores link from the eBay
home page. Click on several of the
store listings and become familiar with
how stores are listed in how other
sellers promote their stores.
-
From your my eBay page, click on the
manage my store link and sign up for the
basic store subscription.
-
Please some merchandise in your store,
and start linking from your auctions to
your store. Consider ways to
entice bidders to your store, such as
offering free shipping or give away.
Chapter 27 checklist.
-
If you would like to try consignment
selling, visit the eBay trading
assistant page on the site map, by
clicking on the trading assistant
program, underselling resources, and
read to require immense to see if you
qualify.
-
Create some small classified ads and 3 x
5 cards advertising your services as a
consignment seller, and start placing
the ads in local papers and the cards on
community bulletin boards and
supermarkets, laundromats, and the like.
-
Once you have some experience as a
consignment seller, if you decide to
pursue this business more aggressively,
visit McGrath's web site, where you'll
find his book on this subject, how to
start and run and eBay consignment
business.
WEEK 5
Run your business and put together all the
materials to document your project for the
faculty.
WEEK 6
Submit your project to the faculty. Continue running your business and
documenting your work.
WEEK 7
Continue running
your business and documenting your work. Add documentation and revise your project
submission.
WEEK 8
Submit your final project to the faculty.
|
ONLINE PR
& THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
 |
Do you want to
develop a presence on the web? Influence a political campaign?
Influence public opinion? Share your
knowledge?
|
Online Thought
Leadership
-
The New Rules of
Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases,
Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and
Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by
David Meerman Scott ISBN-10: 0470113456
ISBN-13: 978-0470113455
According to Scott (2007), online thought
leadership is a way of shaping information and
opinion on the Internet. First, select a
topic related to organizational communication
and leadership. Then, decide formats for
shaping opinion and information.
Online Networking:
Bebo -
Digg
-
eHarmony
-
Facebook
-
Match.com -
Meez -
MySpace -
Secondlife -
Squidoo
-
USENET
Online Money-Making
Opportunities:
AllPosters -
Amazon Associates -
Blingo -
eBay -
DoubleClickPerformics Affiliates -
Drop Ship -
Linkshare Affiliates
-
Surveys
Services:
Delicious
-
StumbleUpon
-
Google API Number
-
Google Maps Feature
-
Ping
-
Sitemap -
Online Business Networking -
Internet Marketing -
PayPal
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from David Meerman
Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR. This material is
designed to provide summaries and
guidance about key principles in the
book. This information is designed
for use only by enrolled students who
have purchased the book. All
materials is protected by the
publisher's original copyright.
Chapter 1: |
Chapter 1. The old rules of marketing and PR are
ineffective in an online world.
Media makes targeting
specific publics with individualized messages
very difficult. Advertising also works in many
trade publications. Advertising agency, creative
people sit in hip offices dressing up ways to
interrupt people so that they pay attention to a
one-way message. Web marketing is about
delivering useful content and just the precise
moment that a buyer needs it. PR professionals
occupied their time by writing press releases
targeted exclusively three quarters and editors
and by schmoozing with those same reporters and
editors.
In the old days, a press
release was actually a release to the press so
these documents involved it as an esoteric and
stylized way for companies to issue news to
reporters and editors.
The
old rules of PR.
1. The only way to get ink
was through the media.
2. Companies communicated to
journalists via press releases.
3. Nobody saw the actual
press release except a handful of reporters and
editors. For companies had to have significant
news before they were allowed to write a press
release.
4. Jargon was okay because
the journalists all understood it.
5. You weren't supposed to
send a press release unless it included quotes
from third parties such as customers analysts
and experts.
6. The only way publics would
learn about the press releases content was if
the media wrote a story about it.
7 The only way to measure the
effectiveness of press releases was clip looks,
which he noted each time the media decided to
pick up a company's release.
8. PR and marketing were
separate disciplines run by different people
with separate goals, strategies, and measurement
techniques.
Today, you need to do PR work
yourself, and the Web is a terrific place to do
so.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from David Meerman
Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 2: |
Chapter 2. The new rules of
marketing and PR.
According to for on PR
professional. "Our goal is education." He writes
all of content for several sites himself, and
the design work has been done by a moonlighting
chiropractor. There's a content management tool
built-in, so he can update the site himself. You
wouldn't call it a fancy site, but it works.
Cervelo is growing very rapidly, but he is quick
to note that growth is not the result of any one
thing. This site is designed to work for a major
and often ignored audience: People who do their
own research and consider a decision over a
period of time before making a commitment. The
most effective web strategies anticipate needs
and provide content to meet them, even before
people know to ask.
PR on the Web is not about
generic banner ads designed to trick people with
neon color or wacky movement. It is about
understanding the key words and phrases that our
publics are using and then deploying
micro-campaigns to drive publics to page is
replete with the content that they seek.
Online content in all of its
forms is causing a convergence of marketing and
PR that does not really exist off-line. In the
Internet. In an interconnected web world,
content drives action. Create content means that
interested people return again and again.
We know how many visitors to
reach us via the news releases, and it is
similar to paid search engine marketing. But at
a lower cost.
Peterson understands the
power of content marketing, search engine
optimization, and are backed to consumer news
releases to reach publics directly and tried
business. Every business has information that
can contribute to the education of the market
place. You have to have a bit longer for you and
have a sense of how your business will be better
down the line.
The long tail of PR. Long tail means a business with large
distribution ability.
NPR, it's not about clip
books. It's about reaching our publics.
Instead of spending lots of
money to target a handful of reporters, we
shouldn't be targeting the plug-in bloggers,
online news sites, micro-publications, public
speakers, analysts, and consultants that reach
to targeted audiences that are looking for what
we have to offer. With the blogs, we communicate
directly with our audience, bypassing the media
filter completely. Long tail marketing is a
technique to increase sales, while decreasing
the cost per sale by developing and selling it
to thousands of niche market's.
Wouldn't it be better to get
dozens of the most influential bloggers and
analysts to tell our story directly to the niche
markets that are looking for what we have to
offer?
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from David Meerman
Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 3: Reading Your Buyers Directly |
Chapter 3. Reaching our buyers directly.
Mainstream media is still
important.
Consider the case study on
page 27.
Case
Study on page 27-30
Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg. They sent advance-reading copies of the book to
hundreds of influential bloggers. Then
made multiple targeted news releases. "Our
PR strategy is intended to circulate the ideas
that are in the book, not simply to sell books. One news release via Web each and every business
day for months. Check out
http://www.prweb.com/ -
ROI is return on
investment. Buzz doesn't have a measurable
ROI.
What links all of these
techniques together is that organizations of all
types
behave like publishers. Organizations
gain credibility and loyalty with buyers through
content.
Micro
targets are also known as buyer persona.
Instead of deploying huge budgets for dumbed
down TV commercials that purport to speak to the
masses and therefore appeal to nobody, we need
to think about the message is that our niche
audiences wait to hear. The online story is
about your product.
Smart
PR people understand their targets, "publics,"
or buyers.
We break the buyers into distinct groups,
and catalog everything we know about each one.
Consider the case study about the college site.
A well executed comic site might target the five
distinct personas. What visitors really want is
content that first describes the issues and
problems they face and then provides details on
how to solve those problems. Once you've built
an online relationship, you can begin to offer
potential solutions that have been defined for
each market. Well organized web content will
beat your visitors through the sales cycle all
the way to the point when they are ready to make
a purchase or other commitment to your
organization.
We
need targeted content. Another
suggestion is to offer free articles and tips.
I am diligent about links
from every page both to something free and to
the product page. When people register on the
site for a free offer, they are added to a
40,000 person e-mail list to get alerts on
significant new content added to this site and
blog, as well a special offers.
LEADERSHIP: Think like a publisher.
The new publishing model on
the web is not about hype and spin and messages.
It is about the differing content when and where
it is needed and, in the process, branding you
or your organization as a leader.
Provide information and
manage content as a valuable asset with the same
care that a publishing company does. Starts with
a content strategy, and then the focus on the
mechanics and a sign of delivering the content.
Publishers carefully identify and define target
audiences and consider what content is required
in order to meet their needs.
Tell your organization's
story directly.
Work to establish yourself as
a good guys in the industry. Establish yourself
so you are seen as the leaders.
Note the polls
and let content drives action.
What is the goal?
At successful
organizations, news releases, the blogs,
websites, podcasts, and other content draw
visitors into this sales consideration cycle,
then funnel them toward the place where action
occurs. The goal is not hidden, and it is
easy for publics to find a way to take the next
step. Ultimately, when marketers focus on the
same goals as the rest of the organization, we
develop a PR programs that really deliver action
and began to contribute to the bottom line.
We are seen as part of a
strategic unit that contributes to reaching the
organization's goals.
Content and thought leadership.
For many companies and
individuals, reaching customers with web content
has a powerful, less obvious effect. Content
brands are an organization as a thought leader.
Instead it just directly selling something, a
great site, log, or podcast series tells the
world that you are smart, that you understand
the market very well, and that you would be a
person or organization that would be valuable to
do business with. Web content sells any product
or service and advocates any philosophy or
image.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from David Meerman
Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 4: |
Chapter 4. Blogs
My blog is the most important
marketing and PR tool I have as a marketing and
PR speaker, writer, and consultant. My blog
allows me to push ideas into the marketplace as
I think of them, generating instant feedback.
Some posts have had truly phenomenal results,
quite literally changing my business in the
process.
Thanks to the power of search
engines, my blog is also the most vital and
effective way for people to find me. Every word
of every post is indexed by Google, Yahoo, and
the other search engines, so when people look
for information on the topics I write about,
they frighten me.
The bad news is that this
information about blogs is difficult to quantify
with any degree of certainty.
Blogs, blogging, and
bloggers.
An easy and efficient way to
get personal or organizational viewpoints out
into the market is the weblog or blog.
In many PR people are
monitoring what's being said about their
company, products, and executives on this new
medium of the blog.
With a blog, there is never
been an easier way to find out what the
marketplace is thinking about you, your company,
and your products!
A blog is just a web sight.
But it is a special kind of site that is created
and maintained by a person who is passionate
about the subject. The blogger wants to tell the
world about his or her area of expertise. A blog
is almost always written by one person who has a
fire in the belly and wants to communicate with
the world. There are also group blogs written by
several people and even corporate blogs. Blogs
produced by a department or entire company
without individual personalities at all, but
these are less common. The most popular form by
far is the individual blog.
A blog is written using
software that puts the most recent update, or
post, at the top of the site, in reverse
chronological order.
I often suggest that small
companies and individual entrepreneurs create a
blog rather than a standard website because a
blog is easier to create for someone who lacks
technical skills.
Many blogs allow readers
to leave comments. But bloggers often
reserve the right to remove inappropriate
comments. Most bloggers tolerate negative
comments on their blogs and don't remove them. I
actually like some controversy on my blog
because it can spark debate.
Understanding blogs in the
world of the Web.
Blogs are independent, Web
based journals containing opinions about
anything and everything. However, blogs are
often misunderstood by people who do not read
them. Blogging provides experts and people who
want to be experts with an easy way to make
their voices heard on the Web at-based
marketplace of ideas.
Organizations that don't have
their own authentic and human blog voices are
increasingly seen as suspect.
Bloggers never claim to be real journalists.
The metaphor of the Web as a newspaper is it
accurate on many levels. It is better to think
of the Web as a huge city teeming with
individuals, and blogs as the sounds of
independent voices, just like those of the
street corner. Soap box preacher or that friend
of yours who always recommends the best books.
Case Study:
Page 48 there is an interesting case study about rather and
CBS news. Ignoring bloggers cost Dan rather his
job. There is still a great deal of similarly
dismissive behavior going on inside the media
companies and corporate PR department.
Craig's list is like
the bulletin board at the entrance of the corner
store; eBay, acre price sale; Amazon, a
bookstore replete with patrons anxious to give
you their book tips.
Consider the source don't
trust strangers, and find out if the information
comes from the government, a newspaper, a big
corporation, or someone with an agenda. Take
blogs with a grain of salt, but ignore them at
your peril.
The
three uses of blogs for PR.
1. To easily monitor what
millions of people are saying about you, the
market to sell into, your organization, and its
products.
2. To participate in those
conversations by commenting on other people's
boss.
3. To begin into shape those
conversations, by creating and writing your own
blog.
There are good reasons for
jumping into the blog world.
By monitoring what people are
saying about the marketplace you sell your
company and products, you get a sense of the
important bloggers, their online voices, and
blog etiquette.
If you have monitored blogs
and know what they are, you will know what a
dozen influential bloggers writing about your
space. Those blogs have thousands of loyal
readers. You can show this information to a PR
person and show the importance of simply
monitoring blogs.
Monitor blogs: Your
organization's reputation depends on it.
Organizations use blogs to
measure what's concerning their stakeholders and
to understand corporate reputation. Know what
bloggers say comparing your products or services
to your competitors. Become an expert in what is
being said about your organization on blogs.
Case study page 55. The Draft
Mark Warner example clearly shows that making a
concerted effort to leave comments on other
people's blogs works. Although the example is
from politics, a similar strategy to comment on
and therefore influence the thinking of bloggers
should work for most any organization. But it
takes an understanding of blogs and blogging
etiquette to pull it off without sounding like a
corporate shill.
Do you allow employers to
send e-mail? How about letting them blog?
You need to decide what to
blog about and how to find your voice. The
legal eagles are worried about secrets, she
revealed by their employees well creating
content or commenting on blogs. Some
organizations take a creative approach to
blogging it by saying that all blogs are
personal and the opinions expressed are of the
blogger, not the organization that seems like a
good attitude. Freely published blogs are an
important part of business and should be
encouraged by foreword thinking organizations.
Case study on page 57,
McDonald's. McDonald's has jumped into blogging
by launching open for discussion, a blog that
focuses on social responsibility at the company.
The power of blogs: It
is remarkable what a smart individual with
passion can do with a blog.
You are what you publish.
It is better to have a reputation than no
reputation.
Publishers and Goldstein uses
the blog to tell his constituents things really
quickly and informally. It's fascinating that
there are so few bloggers in the publishing
industry, perhaps because publishers are
cautious about giving content away for free, or
maybe because large publishers feel threatened
by blogs.
There is no doubt that every
organization should be monitoring blogs to find
out what people are saying about them. I find it
fascinating that most of the time when I mention
a company or product on my blog, I do not get
any sort of response from that organization.
However, about 20% of the time, I will get a
comment on my blog from someone at that company
or a personal e-mail. These are the 20% of
companies monitor the blogs, and we to what is
being said.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from David Meerman
Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 17: |
Chapter
17. Blogging to reach your buyers.
Audiences consume advertising
with skepticism and consider pronouncements by
CEOs to be out of touch with reality.
most first time bloggers try
to cover too much.
You need to be very targeted.
Some organizations have
created formal guidelines for employee loggers.
Here are issues you need to
pay attention to.
-
Transparency.
-
Privacy.
-
Disclosure.
-
Truthfulness.
-
Credit.
What you need to get started.
-
Think carefully about the
name of your blog and its tagline, which
will be indexed by search engines.
-
Easy to use blogging
software is available from blogger, type
pad, word press, and others.
-
You will need to be
choose by URL for your blog.
-
Logging software makes it
easy to choose color, design, and font, and
to create a simple text based mast head.
-
As you begin your blog,
consider your art and design, and
tentatively try a few posts.
-
The look and feel of the
blog could be complementary to your
corporate design guidelines.
Blogging software
usually allows you to turn on comments feature. So your visitors can respond to your posts.
Most blogs also have a
feature to allow trackbacks, which our message
is that another blogger sense to you when she
has posted something on her blog that references
the post you wrote first.
Pay close attention to the
categories you choose for your blog, and add
social media tags for services like Technorati,
Digg, Delicious to each post.
RSS also called us really
simple syndication is a standard delivery format
many of your readers. Make certain that
your new blog has RSS capability.
Banks in a include an about
page that includes your photo, biography,
affiliations, and information about your blog.
Encourage people to contact
you, make it easy for them to reach you online
and be sure to follow up personally on your fan
mail.
Create an interesting
looking blog.
Show the bloggers
personality.
On the right and left columns
of Scott's blog, he links to Amazon from the
cover images of his books.
One of the downsides of a
blog
is that the reverse chronological aspect, most
recent post at the top, means that much of your
blog stuff, which may have been written last
month or last year, is hidden away. Thus,
Scott also includes easy navigation links on the
blog so people can quickly find the good stuff.
It takes time to build an
audience for your blog.
Logs that are regularly
updated generate high search engine rankings,
but the algorithms that are used by Google,
Yahoo, Angie other search engines reward sites,
and blogs, that update frequently. It is
likely that you will get significant search
engine traffic once you've been consistently
blogging for a while.
Commenting on other
people's blogs, and including a link to your
blog, is a good way to build an audience.
If you comment, and TrackBack Tzu, blogs in the
same space is yours, and you might be surprised
at how quickly you will get visitors to your new
blog. A curious thing about blogging
etiquette is that bloggers who are competitive
for business off-line are usually very
cooperative online, with links back and forth
from their blogs. It is a bit like all the
auto dealers in town congregating on the same
street, proximity is good for everyone, so
people work together.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from David Meerman
Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 5: |
Chapter
5: Press releases.
Press releases have never
been exclusively for the press.
Newswire outlets include
Reuters and
Dow Jones. Press releases have also been
available to professionals working within
corporations, government agencies, and law
firms, all of which have had access to raw press
releases through services like
NewsEdge,
Factiva, and
LexisNexis.
According to the Public Relations Society of
America (PRSA), public relations is the
professional discipline that ethically
fosters mutually beneficial relationships
among social entities. Public relations
helps an organization and its publics adapt
mutually to each other.
There is a widely held
view about the purity of the press release as a
tool for the press. PR professionals do not
want to know that tens of millions people have
the power to read releases directly. It is
easier to imagine a close audience of eight
dozen reporters.
Buyers to read your news
releases to me, and you need to be speaking
their language. When on the web.
Today, smart marketing and
PR professionals use the news releases to reach
publics directly.
The new rules of news
releases:
Don't just send news
releases when the big news is happening;
find good reasons to send them all the time.
Instead of just targeting
a handful of journalists, create news
releases that appealed directly to your
publics.
Right releases that are
full, all of key word rich copy.
Include offers that
compel consumers to respond to your release
in some way.
Police links in releases
to do that for potential customers to
landing on pages on your website.
Optimize news release
delivery for reaching and browsing.
Add social media tags for
Technorati, DIGG, and del.icio.us so your
release will be found.
Drive people into the
sales process with news releases.
People are saying that press
releases are dead. But that's not true for
direct to consumers news releases. Scott learned
the very structured AP style guide way, but in
fact, it has changed as key words and phrases
have suddenly become important. He and the scale
and reach of the Internet has have opened up end
users as a channel. Try to be very aware of key
words and phrases and to insert key phrases,
especially, into releases whenever possible.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from David Meerman
Scott's
The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Chapter 14: |
Chapter
14. Blogs.
See information about what's
under discussion on blogs:
Technorati
In the most markets,
mainstream media and the trade press remain
vital.
Everything is content driven
in public relations.
Write about pretty much
anything that your organization is doing in a
press release:
-
Have a new take on an old
problem? Write a release.
-
Surf a unique market
place? Write a release.
-
Have interesting
information to share? Write a release.
-
CEO speaking at a
conference? Write a release.
-
Win an award? Write
a release.
-
Add a product feature? Write a release.
-
When a new customer? Write a release.
-
Published a white paper? Write a release.
Here are some of the larger
US news release distribution services:
-
Business wire.
-
Market wire.
-
Prime newswire.
-
PR newswire.
-
PR Web.
In order to get your news
releases to appear on the online news services,
including Google news, you just have to
purchase a basic news release coverage area
offered by a news release distribution service.
Many news release
distribution services also offer really simple
syndication feeds of their news releases, which
they make available to other sites, blogs,
journalists, and individuals. Each time
you publish a news release with the service, the
news release is seen by thousands of people who
have subscribed to the really simple syndication
content feeds in your market category.
Post your news releases to
an appropriate sources and a findable section of
your web site (media room). Consider sites
like
www.prweb.com -
www.click2newsites.com/press.asp -
http://www.ideasiteforbusiness.com/clickpressfree.cfm
Many
organizations have the media room or press
section of their website, which is ideal you
should he keep the news release live for as long
as the content is appropriate, perhaps for
years.
Creating links from your
news releases to content on your website is very
important. These links, which might point
to a specific offer or to a landing page with
more information, allow your publics to move
from the news release to specific content on
your website that will then drive them into the
sales process,.
Each time your news release
is posted on another site, such as an online
news site, the inbound link from the online news
site to your website helps to increase the
search engine rankings of your site, because the
search engines use inbound links as one of the
important criteria for their page ranking
algorithms.
Understand the audience
first and then set about to satisfy their
informational needs. A great way to
start thinking like a publisher and to create
news releases that drive action is to focus on
your customer's problems and then create and
deliver news releases accordingly.
Include
appropriate social media.
Many news release
distribution services provide a way to include
social media tags to make the news releases easy
to find and services. Use them.
Shift communications has a
social media news release template. All
news release content will ultimately wind up on
the web. So why not put it out in such a
way that makes it accessible to anybody who can
use that comment? Both traditional and
news media journalists are use to working in a
hyperlinked environment and are used to people
providing context to social bookmarking sites
such as delicious and buttons to add to Digg.
|
Quoted from or closely
adapted from David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Chapter 6: |
Chapter 6: Audio Content.
Until recently, audio files were not used much
because they were difficult to locate and
impossible to browse on the web, and there was
no easy way to get regular updates. The
transformation from static audio downloads to
radio station like podcasts, which are much more
valuable to listeners and also more valuable as
PR vehicles for organizations, because of two
developments.
1. The first development was the ability
to add audio feeds and notification to RDF Site
Summary AKA
RSS. This enables listeners who subscribe to
an audio feed to download new updates soon after
they are released.
2. The second major development was the
ability of those podcasts feeds through iTunes.
Now all iPod users can simply subscribe to a
feed usually at no cost. Then every time they
plug your iPod into their computer, the new
shows from the feeds they subscribe to
automatically download and are copied to the
iPod.
Music is a classic example of a long tail
business. A long tail business is a business
like
Amazon.com with distribution ability to
locate hard to find items.
Now, anybody with some simple and easy to use
equipment can set up a radio station and get
instant global distribution via iTunes and other
distribution services.
-
Podcasting has changed the face of music.
-
Podcasting has allowed people to hear the
music of groups that are good, but perhaps
do not have a big label behind them.
-
Podcasting has become a real part of the
social networking process.
-
Podcasting is also an increasingly important
part of the PR mix. For example, customers
serviced apartments increasingly deliver how
to podcast series to keep users on their
products informed. Companies that market to
people who are on the road often such as
traveling salespeople and therefore have
down time in their cars or on airplanes have
had success reaching people with interesting
podcasts.
Digg, a technology news web site that
combines social bookmarking, blogging,
RSS, and nonhierarchical editorial control,
uses a podcasts to deliver technology news,
commentary, and information in its constituents.
The
Diggnation podcast, which generates more
than 100,000 downloads per episode, is classic
is thought leadership content.
|
Quoted from or closely
adapted from David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Chapter 7: |
Chapter 7: Forums, Wikis, and
Your Targeted Audience
Chat rooms and message
boards are places where people meet and
discuss topics online. List serves are similar
to a chat room, but with messages going out my
e-mail to members who had registered.
Wikis
are a website that anybody can update.
Wikis are websites that
permit users to update, delete, or edit the
content on this site. The most famous wiki is a
Wikipedia.
Blogs
are an active community of people who provide
comments to blog posts written by the blog
author.
Malware is a malicious
software.
It is critical to respond
quickly to situations as they unfold on the
web. Reacting quickly and honestly in the
same forums where the discussions are taking
place is essential.
On the Web, customers,
stakeholders, and the media can see what's on
people's minds.
Using this resource is
simple: you have got to monitor what is being
said. And when an organization is the subject of
heated discussions, particularly negative ones,
it just feels weird if a representative of that
organization fails to jump in with a response.
When you find an entry
about your company or brand, you should check it
for accuracy.
To be successful at blogging,
you need to have something to say. You need to
have some communications skills to be
successful. Over on the wiki size, you need to
be an expert in something to get it populated to
begin with, and then you need the resources to
keep it up.
|
Quoted from or closely
adapted from David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Chapter 8: |
Chapter 8. Going Viral: The Web Helps Audiences
Catch the Fever
For PR professionals, one of the coolest
things about the Web is that when an idea takes
off, it can propel a brand or company to fame
and fortune for free. Whatever you call it,
whether viral or buzz is having other people
tell your story, which drives action.
Alexa is a service that measures the reach
and popularity of websites. Marketers use this
website to figure out what sites are hot and use
that information to make their own sites better.
It is difficult to purposefully create viral
marketing buzz, but it is certainly possible. Think about a virus. Viral marketing is
similar. With a little effort. The
information transfers from person to person,
blog to blog, e-mail to e-mail. you can
contact reporters, bloggers, and analysts, about
the content you hope to advance.
A typical venture capitalist has a formula that
states that most ventures will fail, a few might
do okay, and one out of 20 or so would take off
and become a large enterprise that will pay back
investors, many times the initial investment.
Some news sites:
NPR,
MSNBC,
Barron's,
ZDNet, and
Business Week Online, and
TheStreet.com.
Viral marketing--having others tell your
story for you-- is one of the most exciting and
powerful ways to reach audiences. It is not easy
to harness the power, but with careful
preparation and when you are sitting unused and
with clever ideas for what has the potential to
create interest, and he organization has the
power to become famous on the Web.
|
Quoted from or closely
adapted from David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Chapter 9: |
Chapter 9. The Content-Rich Web Site
Design, color, navigation, and appropriate
technology are all important aspects to a good
website. Often the only person allowed to work
on the website is your organization's webmaster.
The best sites focus primarily on content to
pull together their various publics, markets,
media, and products in 1 Comprehensive Place
where content is not only team, but the
president and pope as well's.
Widgets are small applications found on websites
and blogs.
The focus of successful websites is content.
What really matters is content, how the content
is organized, and how it drives action from
publics.
"We work with the businesses to showcase
interesting things, and we try to have fresh
content on this site and updated with new weekly
stories."
I realize that many important factors usually
come together when creator of the site cares a
great deal and wants her passion to shine
through. I'm convinced that the key is to
understand publics--or those who may donate,
subscribe, joining, or vote--and build content
especially for them.
Online Networking :
Bebo -
Digg
-
eHarmony
-
Facebook
-
Match.com -
Meez
-
MySpace -
Secondlife -
Squidoo
Online Money-Making
Opportunities:
AllPosters -
Amazon Associates -
Blingo -
eBay -
Surveys
Services:
Delicious -
StumbleUpon
-
Google API Number -
Google Maps Feature -
Ping
-
Sitemap -
Online Business Networking -
Internet Marketing
Online Thought Leadership
Home (Scott)
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/
SQUIDOO (Social networking.
141,033
members.
Everyone is an expert
about something.)
http://www.squidoo.com/
GOOGLE ADDITIONS
Add your site to Google:
http://www.google.com/addurl/
Google business solutions:
http://bizsolutions.google.com/services/
Email alerts to add content and links to
your blog:
http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en
Create a blog:
http://www.blogger.com/
AMAZON.COM ADDITIONS
Add a custom search to your website:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
To get started quickly, visit Associates
Central at
http://affiliate-program.amazon.com . You
will find a number of useful tools there
including: Product Links (
http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/build-links/individual/main.html )- Link directly to a specific product on Amazon
using the product image or text. Widgets (
http://widgets.amazon.com ) - Build a
Slideshow, My Favorites, or Wishlist widget to
showcase your favorite products on your site.
Omakase (
http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/build-links/optimized/main.html
)- Leave it up to us! Omakase links show your
site visitors what they're most likely to buy
based on Amazon's unique understanding of your
site, the visitor, and the page itself. aStore (
http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/astore/main.html
) - Build your own online store featuring
products from Amazon, and organize them into
your own categories or use Amazon's categories.
|
Quoted from or closely
adapted from David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Chapter 10: |
Chapter 10: The PR Plan.
The most important thing to remember as you
develop a marketing and PR plan is to put your
products and services to the side for just a
little while and focus your complete attention
on the buyers of your products or those who will
donate, subscribe, join, or apply.
Case study: What is Starbucks really about? (p.
113).
|
Standard
public-relations education is still
about the four Ps--
-
product,
-
place,
-
price, and
-
promotion.
|
In
ordered to succeed on the web under the new
rules of marketing and PR, you need to
consider your organizational goals and then
focus on your publics first.
What we need to do is
lineup PR objectives with those of the
organization.
-
The first step is to determine your business
goals.
-
The next step is to learn as much as you can
about your publics and to segment them into
groups so you can reach them through your
web publishing efforts.
Buyer persona is a representative type of buyer
that you have identified as having a specific
interest in your organization or product or
having a market problem that your product or
service solves. A buyer persona is a micro
target.
BUYER PERSONAS
Build a
persona profile, essentially a kind
of biography for each group you will target to
achieve your goals.
the best way to learn about publics and develop
fire persona profiles is to interview people.
A persona file is a short biography of the
typical customer, not just the job description,
but a person description. The buyer
persona profile gives you a chance to turn
truly empathize with target buyers, to step out
of your role as someone who wants to promote a
product and see, through your buyers prize, the
circumstances that drive their decision process. The persona file includes information on the
typical buyer's background, daily activities,
and current solutions for their problems. Name your persona. Consider the
demographics.
One of the simplest ways to build an
effective website is to create great public
relations programs using online content to
target a specific personas that you have
created. The typical website is one
size fits all, with the content organized by the
company's products or services, not by
categories corresponding to personas and their
associated problems.
Identify the best ways to reach publics and
develop compelling messages that you will use in
your web public relations programs.
-
Do they go first to a search engine?
-
If so, what words and phrases to the answer?
-
Which blogs, chat rooms, forums, and online
news sites do they read?
-
By the open to audio or video?
Use
the actual words buyers use. Read the publications that publics read. Learn the phrases that buyers use.
An important component of the website based on
persona research is thought leadership based
content.
Webinars can be valuable.
Think about what you want each of your
personas to believe about your organization.
-
What messages would you use to reach them on
the web?
-
What is each of buyer persona really buying
from you?
-
Is it a great customer service?
-
The safe choice?
-
Luxury?
-
And don't forget that different buyer
personas by a different things from your
organization.
Think like a publisher.
Develop an editorial plan to reach your
publics with focused content in the media that
they prefer.
Interesting case study: launching a baby
dinosaur. Page 128.
Many people who adhere to the old rules will
fight you on this strategy. Millions of
people are online right now looking for answers
to their problems. When they find your
organization? And if so, what will they
find? Remember, on the web, you are what
you publish.
|
Quoted from or closely
adapted from David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Chapter 11: |
Chapter 11. Online Thought Leadership to
Brand Your Organization as a Trusted Resource.
An effective online and content strategy,
artfully executed, drives action. Organizations
that use online content well have a clearly
defined goal, sell products, generate leads,
secure contributions, get people to join, or
deploy a content strategy that directly
contributes to reaching that goal.
When using a blog, podcast, white paper,
e-book, e-mail newsletter, webinar, your
organization can exercise thought leadership
rather than simple advertising and product
promotion.
A well-crafted
white paper, e-book, or webinar
contributes to an organization's positive
reputation by setting it apart in the
marketplace of ideas.
The first thing you need to do is put away your
company hat for a moment and think like one of
your buyer personas.
Thought leadership content is crucial.
For purposes of public-relations, provide Web
content. An
e-book
is a PDF, formatted document that
identifies a problem and supplies an answer to
the problem. Scott recommends that e-books
be presented in a landscape format, rather than
the white papers portrait format. Well
executed e-books have lots of white space,
interesting graphics and images, and copy that
is typically written in a lighter style than the
denser white paper. In Scott's view
e-books as marketing tools should be free, and
Scott strongly suggests that there be no
registration requirement.
E-mail newsletters
are way to deliver a regular series of thought
leadership content.
Webinars
are online seminars that may include audio,
video, or graphic images, typically in the form
of PowerPoint slides, and are often used by
technology companies as a tool about a specific
problem that technology can solve.
Wiki's are started by an organization
as thought leadership content because it wants
to be seen as an important player in a distinct
new marketplace.
You can use a wiki to allow your users to add
their own frequently asked questions, and other
people can supply answers, which helps everyone. People love being a part of the community, and
they really like that a wiki gives them a way to
discuss their interests.
Research and survey reports are used
by many companies that conduct research projects
or surveys and publish the results for free. This can be an effective approach if the
research or survey is real and statistically
significant and the results are interesting to
your publics.
A
blog is a personal website written by
someone who is passionate about his subject and
wants the world to know about it. Writing
a blog is the easiest and simplest way to get
your thought leadership ideas out and into the
market.
Podcasts
are an ongoing series of audio downloads
available by subscription that are very popular
as thought leadership content.
Video content, podcasts, and vlogs are regularly
updated the videos that offer a powerful
opportunity to demonstrate your thought
leadership.
What should you write? Do not write
about your company and your products. Thought leadership content is designed to solve
by your problems or answer questions and to show
that you and your organization are smart and
worth doing business with. This PR
technique is not a brochure or sales pitch. Thought leadership is not advertising.
Define your organizational goals first.
Based on your goals, decide whether you want
to provide the content for free and without any
registration. Without registration,
you will get many more people to use the
content, but you won't know who they are--or you
want to include some kind of registration
mechanism. This will cause much lower
response rates, but you build the contact list.
Think like a publisher by understanding your
audience.
Consider what market problems your personas are
faced with and develop topics that appealed to
them.
Write for your audience. It used examples
and stories. Make it interesting.
Choose a great title that grabs attention use
subtitles to describe what the content will
deliver.
Promote the efforts like crazy. Offer the content on your site with easy to find
links. Add a link to the employees e-mail
signatures, and get partners to offer links as
well.
To drive the
viral marketing effects, alert
appropriate reporters, bloggers, and analysts
that the content is available and send them a
doubt the download link.
The Web and the
blogosphere requires a different kind of
thinking on the part of marketers. It is
about being insightful. Participate
in the discussions going on, not just try to
shout your message over everyone else. Done well, Web content that delivers authentic
thought leadership also brands and organization
as one to do business with.
|
Quoted from or closely
adapted from David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Chapter 12: |
Chapter 12: Write for your buyers!
Your clients or buyers, and the media that cover
your company, want to know what specific
problems your product or services solves. They want proof that it works, in plain
language. Your publics want to hear this
in their own words. Every time you write,
even in news releases, you have an opportunity
to communicate.
See information top of page 145.
Sometimes PR professionals do not understand
their publics, their problems, or how their
services or product help solve these problems.
That's where the gobbledygook happens.
Your
PR is meant to be the beginning of a
relationship with publics, buyers, and
journalists.
be careful to avoid corporate jargon, but you
don't want to sound like you're trying too hard
either,. That always comes across as
phony. Talk to your audience as you might
talk to her relative you do not see too often. Be friendly and familiar, but also respectful.
Avoid
overused words.
Readers of Scott's blog and others suggested
some gobbledygook words and phrases to be
avoided, such as best practices, proactive,
synergy, starting a dialogue, thinking outside
the box, revolutionary, situational fluency,
paradigm shift.
Additional overused words include the
following:
-
Leading.
-
We are excited about.
-
Solutions.
-
A wide range of.
-
Unparalleled.
-
Unsurpassed.
Your publics want information in their own
words, and that they want proof. Every
time you write, you have an opportunity to
communicate and to convince.
1.
Know Your Brochure's Function in the Buying
Process Your product, the market, even
your approach to how you want to make the sale
are all major factors in how you write your
brochure. Determine where your brochure
functions in the buying process:
Point-of-sale - The type of brochure you may
pick up while waiting in line at the bank.
Respond to Inquiries - Someone asks about a
specific product and you drop a brochure in
the mail to them to follow up.
Direct Mail - Your sales letter sells but
you can also include your brochure into your
direct mail package.
Sales Support Tool - Similar to
leave-behinds but you use this type as a
selling aid through a sales pitch.
2.
Know If Your Brochure Stands Alone Some
companies have one brochure for one product and
that's it. Others use their brochure in
combination with other advertising mediums
(commercials, print ads, direct mail, etc.). If
you're writing a brochure to be used with other
forms of advertising, your content will be
determined by the ad campaign.
For
example, you've written the perfect direct mail
package. Your sales letter covers the reasons
your prospect has to buy your product now.
Don't
follow up your direct mail masterpiece with a
repetitious brochure. You've already convinced
your potential customer that you have a great
product. Now show them the benefits and features
your product offers.
3.
Know Your Audience You've already
determined where your brochure fits into the
buying process. Don't forget to target that
particular audience.
Decide what type of information this audience
needs and write your brochure accordingly. You
wouldn't want to write a respond to inquiry
brochure the same way you'd write a sales
support
brochure.
Related Articles
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Five Essentials for Planning an
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Lesson 2 Create a brochure
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|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from
David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 13: |
Chapter 13. Web content.
B2B = Business to Business
Content drives action on websites,
but unfortunately, the content
aspect is often overlooked.
Consider these questions your
publics have:
-
Does this is organization care
about me?
-
Does it focus on the problems I
face?
-
Does this site only include
information describing what the
company has to offer from its
own narrow perspective?
You need to start with the site
navigation that is designed and
organized with your public in mind. Don't simply mimic the way your
company or group is organized. You should learn as much as possible
about the buying process, focusing
on issues such as how people find
your site or the length of a typical
purchase cycle.
One way many organizations approach
navigation is to
link to landing pages based on
the problems your product or
services solve.
It's not an either or decision. It's worth having your message in
different formats.
Not only do people like different
formats, but psychologists have
shown that people learn better with
different media.
PR professionals should have
messages in as many formats as
practical. Even though the
messages are the same, they will
appeal to different groups of
people.
It is important to create a
distinct, consistent, and memorable
sight, and an important component of
that goal is the tone or voice of
the content.
I'm feeling lucky, which is a
fun and playful way to get you
directly to the top listing in the
search results, is a strategy Google
uses.
Be wary of very different large
image sizes and of using distracting
multimedia content like flash video. Visitors want to access content
quickly, they want sites that load
fast, and they don't want to be
distracted.
A good site provides a great way to
engage visitors, build their
interests, and move them through
your sales cycle. You might
consider stockbroker, charting
applications, e-mail your
Congressman tools, for example. Make sure you have an easy to find
contact us link. Continue page
158.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from
David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 15: |
Chapter 15. Media room.
The online at media room, sometimes
called a
press room
or press page, is that part
of your organization's website that
you create specifically for the
media. In some organizations
to his page is simply a list of news
releases with contact information
for the organization's PR person. But many companies and nonprofits
have the elaborate online media
rooms with a great deal of
information available in many
different formats: audio, video,
photos, news releases, background
information, financial data, and
much more.
All kinds of people will visit your
online media room, not just
journalists.
Your publics, your current
customers, partners, investors,
suppliers, and employees all visit
those pages.
When people want to know what's
current about an organization, they
go to an online media room.
Visitors expect that the main
pages of the media site are
basically static. That
means they do not update often. But they also expect that the news
releases and media targeted pages on
a site will be fueled the very
latest about a company.
Design your online media room for
your buyers. By building a
media room that targets publics, you
will not only enhance your pages as
a powerful marketing tool, you will
also make a better media site for
journalists.
When news releases are posted on
your site, search engine crawlers
will find the content, index it, and
rank it based on words, phrases, and
other factors.
When designing a new online media
room, or planning an extensive
redesign, starts with a needs
analysis.
When you have collected some
information, build publics and
journalists needs into your online
media room.
The best online media rooms are
built with the understanding that
some visitors need to search for
content and others are browsing. Many people already know what they
are looking for, the latest release,
perhaps, or the name of the CEO. The second way that people use
content is to be told something that
they do not already know and
therefore couldn't think to ask.
You should publish a set of
background materials about your
organization, sometimes called an
online media kit or press kit, in an
easy to find place in your online
media room.
Innovative communicators make use of
non-text content, such as
photos, charts, graphs, audio feeds,
and video clips, to inform site
visitors and the media.
Communicators who use online media
rooms to offer valuable content are
more likely to succeed. Organizations often shy away from
posting much of their content
because they deem it proprietary. On many sites, even information like
detailed product or services
specifications and price lists are
available only through a direct
connection with the PR contact or a
lengthy registration form with
approval mechanisms. Yet this
is exactly the sort of content that,
if freely available, would help
convince journalists to write a
story.
The more valuable. Your media
groups content looks to reporters
and buyers, the more attractive your
company will look to them as well.
The effort to create an offer or
give local content customers
worldwide can help an organization
better serve both local and global
journalists.
Don't forget that the rest of the
world uses different paper size, so
having fact sheets and other
materials that print properly on
both formats is useful to users
outside the United States. Providing content in local languages
can also help show the global
aspects of your business, though
this need not mean a wholesale
translation of your entire online
media room. A simple web
landing page with basic information
in the local language, a few news
releases, a case study or two, and
appropriate local contact
information will often suffice.
Some journalists may never have
written about your company before;
they need the basics spelled out in
easy to understand language.
The best way to get your
organization journalists calendars
is to make certain that they know
where your executives will be
appearing.
It is a great idea to include
special offers for the media. Perhaps the simplest thing to offer
is an executive interview.
Embrace bloggers as you do
traditional journalists.
Avoid jargon, acronyms, and industry
speak.
Many organizations have the RSS
subscription page as part of the
online media room and use it as a
primary way to does it hurt news
release content.
The online media room is one place
on your organization's website that
you can control, without
interference, approval processes, so
it presents a terrific opportunity
for marketing and PR people to get
content out into the marketplace.
On the web, success equals content.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from
David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 16: |
Chapter 16. The new rules
for reaching the media.
For years, PR people have been shot
gun blasting news releases and blind
pitches to hundreds, or even
thousands, of journalists at a time. They failed to give any thought to
what each release actually covers,
just because the media databases we
subscribed to make it so simple to
do.
The PR spam approach simply
doesn't work.
What's worse spam brands our
organization as one of the bad guys.
Pay attention
to what individual reporters write
about by reading their stories. Better yet, read their blogs. And write specific and targeted
pitches crafted especially for
them. Or start a real
relationship with reporters, by
commenting on their blogs or sending
them information that is not just a
blatant pitch for your company.
The new rules of media relations:
-
Nontargeted, broadcast pitches
are spam.
-
News releases sent to reporters
in subject areas they do not
cover are spam.
-
Reporters who'd do not know you,
yet are looking for
organizations like yours and
product or services like yours,
make sure they will find you on
sites such as Google and
Technorati.
-
If you blog, reporters who
covered the space will find you.
-
Pitch bloggers, because being
covered in important blogs will
get you noticed by mainstream
media.
-
When was the last news release
you since? Make sure your
organization is busy.
-
Journalists want a great online
media room.
-
Some, but not all, reporters
love RSS feeds.
-
Personal relationships with
reporters are important.
-
Do not tell journalists what
your product or service does. Tell them how you solve customer
problems.
-
Does the reporter have a blog,? Read it.
-
Before you pitch, read, or
listen to, or watch, the
publication, or radio program,
or TV show, you will be pitching
too.
-
Once you go, what a reporter is
interested in, sent her an
individualized pitch crafted
especially for her needs.
Blogging is a terrific way to get
exposure, because the rate of
pickup and amplification is
remarkable.
Sometimes you really want to
target a specific publication:
-
Target one reporter at a time.
-
Help the journalists to
understand the big picture.
-
Explain how customers use your
product or services or work with
your organization.
-
Don't send e-mail attachments
unless asked.
-
Follow up promptly with
potential context.
-
Don't forget, it is a two-way
street, journalists need your
pitch.
As one journalist says, "The
single most effective thing PR
people do is read what I write and
send me personalized, smart pitches
for stories that I actually like to
write."
If you have a small thing to pitch,
pitch it. But try also to
think of the bigger story that it
can fit into, such as a page 1 or
Sunday section front story. That could even wind up meaning your
company is mentioned alongside three
or four other competitors, but
wouldn't you rather be mentioned in
a page 1 story than in a 120 word
News brief?
There is no doubt that mainstream
media are still vital as a channel
for your publics to learn about your
product or services.
Reporters have a job to do, and they
need the help that PR people can
provide to them. To get
noticed, you need to be smart about
how you'd tell your story on the
web, and about how you tell your
story to journalists.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from
David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 18: |
Chapter 18. Podcasting and
video.
Creating audio and video content for
marketing and PR purposes requires
the same attention to appropriate
topics. It requires targeting
individual buyer personas with a
thoughtful message that addresses
some aspect of their life or a
problem they face. By doing
so, EU brand your organization is
smart and worthy of doing business
with.
Podcasting.
A podcast is a piece of audio
content tied to a subscription
component so people can receive
regular updates.
The most important thing is show
preparation.
You will want to have a script laid
out ahead of time.
Show preparation and includes
gathering ideas for the show and
creating a script.
Recording when you are near your
computer is done with a microphone,
many options to choose from, that
delivers the audio into your
computer.
Mobile recording gear is
required if you are going to do the
roving reporter thing and interview
people at events or perhaps your
employees around the world.
Phone interviews require a
single recording switch device, such
as those built by
Telos systems, that connects to
your telephone.
Editing your audio files is
optional; you can always just upload
the files as you recorded them.
Postproduction editing sometimes
includes running a noise reduction
program to get rid of that annoying
air conditioner noise in the
background. And sound
compression, to even out volume of
sections that have been recorded at
different times and places.
Tagging the audio is an important
step that some people overlook. This step involves adding text based
information about the audio to make
it easier for people to find. This information is what appears in
the search engines and audio
distribution sites such as iTunes. Your tags also display on listeners
iPod displays, so don't ignore or
gloss over this step.
Hosting and distribution is
necessary to ensure that people can
easily obtain your podcasts.
Promotion is essential to
make sure that people find out about
your podcasts.
A companion blog is a key
component used by nearly all
broadcasters to discuss the content
of each show.
Case Study: Note student loan
network case study, page 221.
Podcasting is great public
relations because, like
blogging, it is a human voice. Most podcasts don't have a PR stamp
on them, so the shows come across as
being human. The reason why
this is interesting is that there is
a big marketing shift going on right
now. The older, traditional
advertising model, like 1950s TV, is
that we publish and you consume. However, today's marketing model is
that we publish any respond. It provides real feedback from real
people, so there are real
conversations and it is interactive.
Customer service is no longer about
spin, but instead becoming a part of
the conversation.
24 minutes is the average commute,
which makes a good length for a
podcast.
The idea of companies using video
for Web PR is still new.
Methods of video distribution
include the following:
-
Posting to video sharing sites.
-
Developing an online video
channel.
-
Insertions into YouTube.
-
Vlogging is short for
video blogging.
Vodcasting. A vodcast is like
a podcast but with video, a video
series tied to a syndication
component with itunes and RSS feeds.
Inciting your customer communities
to submit video.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from
David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 19: |
Chapter 19. Social
networking sites and PR.
My space has 55 million unique
visitors as they spoke 14 million
unique visitors in August 2006.
PR on these sites can be tricky
because the online community at
social networking sites hates overt
commercial messages.
Case study: See the Volkswagen
Helge case study page 230.
Squidoo is based on people's
expertise in a niche subject.
Squiddoo is another way for
marketers to build an online
presence easily and for free.
See the auto repair a case study,
page 232.
To get the most out of us using
social networking sites for PR,
consider the following:
-
Target a specific audience.
-
Be a thought leader.
-
Be authentic and transparent.
-
Creates lots of links.
-
In courage people to contact
you.
-
Participate.
-
Make it easy to find you.
-
Experiment.
In the Web PR, the tools,
techniques, and content are
constantly evolving. This
approach is more art than science,
and your publics reward creativity
by responding to your online
efforts. But the Web moves very
quickly.
See the case study about
Second Life.
Try to imagine second life as a
three-dimensional webpage.
Text100 is a public-relations
firm serving technology companies
which has a PR office in Second
Life.
PR on the Web will continue to
evolve quickly. Success comes
from experimentation.
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from
David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 20: |
Chapter 20. Search engine
PR and marketing.
This entire book is about search
engine marketing and PR.
Let's start with a few basic
definitions:
Search engine PR means using search
engines to reach your publics
directly.
Search engine optimization, SEO,
is the art and science of ensuring
that the words and phrases on your
site, blog, and other online content
are found by the search engines and
that, once found, your site is given
the highest ranking possible in the
natural search results. That
means, what the search engine
algorithm deems important for the
phrase entered.
Search engine advertising is when a
marketer pays to have advertising at
pier in search engines when a user
types in a particular phrase that
the marketer has purchased.
Many SEO firms are a bit on the
shady side, promising stellar
results from simply manipulating
keywords on your site.
Specific content to enlighten and
inform the people who just clicked
over to your site from the search
engine.
A landing page is simply a place to
publish a targeted message for a
particular demographic that you are
trying to market to.
Effective landing page copy is
written from the publics
perspective.
Keep the following landing page
guidelines in mind:
-
Make a landing page copy short
and the graphics simple.
-
Create a page with your
companies look, feel, and tone.
-
Right from the prospects point
of view.
-
A landing page is communication,
not advertising.
-
Provide a quote from a happy
customer.
-
Make a landing page as
self-contained unit.
-
Make the call to action clear
and easy to respond to.
-
Use multiple calls to action.
-
Only ask for necessary
information.
-
Don't forget to follow up!
|
Quoted from
or closely adapted from
David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing
and PR.
Chapter 21: |
Chapter 21. Make it happen.
There is no doubt that your
organization will benefit from your
getting out there and creating Web
content in whatever form you are
most comfortable with. But
Scott is also convinced that no
matter who you are or what you do,
your professional and personal life
will improve to. If you are an
innovator with the ideas in this
book, it may lead to greater
recognition in the office. And
if you are like many bloggers and
podcast or is Scott knows, you will
derive a therapeutic benefit as
well. It is fun to blog and
podcast and it makes you feel good
to get your ideas out into the
world.
|
TRAINING
PRESENTATION
 |
Do you need to train a
group at work? Do you have an idea for
conducting a Leadership Practices
Inventory presentation at your place of
worship? |
LPI Training Workshop
-
The
Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)-Deluxe
Facilitator's Guide Package
(Loose-leaf, with CD-ROM Scoring Software,
Self/Observer, Workbook, Planner & copy of
The Leadership Challenge book ) (3rd ed.) by
Kouzes and Posner.
Jossey-Bass,
2003.
LPI PRESENTATION. Use your facilitator's guide to actually conduct
a Leadership Practices Inventory workshop. You are welcome to use any of my Measuring
Leadership course materials and powerpoints you
find helpful
http://onlineacademics.org/CA670/
.
OTHER TOPICS. You may need to provide a workshop or training
presentation at work. You will need to
conduct research and make an actual
presentation, then document the presentation. Be sure you have discussion questions, an
outline, PowerPoint, or some other
documentation. Documentation might be in the
form of a letter from your supervisor or someone
who attended the training, a videotape, or
photographs.
|
Directly
quoted or closely adapted from Kouzes &
Posner. Unit 1
PREFACE
AND PART ONE: WHAT LEADERS DO AND
WHAT CONSTITUENTS EXPECT |
In this course,
we seek to study
EXEMPLARY LEADERSHIP as defined by
Kouzes and Posner. You will need to take the | |