Blog Post #2: Albemarle Smart Start Partnership Newsletter

Works Cited

Albemarle Smart Start Partnership. Starting Smart in the Albemarle (2010). Print.

Summary

This week, I decided to pick a workplace document from a nonprofit agency, Albemarle Smart Start Partnership, located in Elizabeth City, NC. Albemarle Smart Start Partnership is a program that helps parents and childcare providers care for children to the best of their abilities by offering information and free community resources. I'm familiar with this organization, because I interned with them last summer, and worked in community outreach.


The purpose of the newsletter is to educate parents and daycare providers about how to take care of the children for whom they are responsible. There is an article about how to be a good father, one about eating healthy, one about the free lending library of educational books and toys for kids, and one about preventing child abuse, just to name a few. The primary and secondary audiences are parents and childcare providers, respectively, but an accidental audience might be children themselves. This newsletter is mailed to parents and daycare providers all over the community, and with its fun layout and colorful pictures of kids having fun, any child might take interest and make their parents do the same.


The newsletter is written by the director of community outreach at Albemarle Smart Start Partnership, and is available online, in print at various locations throughout the community, and by mail if a person wishes to join the mailing list. The main intent of the author is to make parents and teachers aware of important issues in the lives of the children for which they are responsible. The author uses simple, yet non-condescending language to convey that the lives of our children are of the utmost importance, and if we are responsible for children, we should be doing all we can for them. Examples of excellent resources are provided, and parents/providers can glean from it what they will.


The format and visual elements of the newsletter are simple and clean. There is a lot of white space utilized, and it is inviting and not at all daunting to look at. Sections are very separate, and do not directly relate to each other, but similar language is used throughout, and there is a common theme connecting all the articles. The pictures utilized are of children having fun, conveying the message that kids will be happy if providers take this helpful advice.


Check out the newsletter here!

Blog Post #1: Small is Different

Works Cited

"Small is different: Researchers look at Public relations practices for micro-organizations." Communication World 19.2 (2002): 6. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 20 Sept. 2010.

Summary

With my Professional Writing degree, I hope to do some work in the nonprofit sector, specifically within the field of public relations. It is for this reason that I’m really excited about working with my group on the professional-writing/public relations project.

While I have a good feeling about public relations (PR), and would really like to make a career out of it, I don’t really know much about the science behind it—how do public relations specialists know the best ways to reach out to the community, promote events, and reach a large audience? Are all organizations created equally, or do different PR philosophies apply to different outlets?

I found a great article called, “Small is Different: Researchers Look at Public Relations Practices for Micro-Organizations,” which makes a direct argument concerning the problems small businesses face in the PR world. The majority of PR studies and analyses are done with large businesses in mind. This means that assumptions are made concerning hierarchy, business departments, etc. The majority of businesses are too small to be concerned with these types of issues, and clearly this is a problem.

According to the article, businesses that employ 500 people or fewer are considered “small businesses.” Clearly, this means the U.S. has a lot of small businesses. Studies were performed to rectify the situation of these entities being formerly excluded from research, and across four specific types of small businesses—for-profits, nonprofits, government agencies, and trade associations—interesting research was discovered. Not surprisingly, unlike huge corporations, small business directors are concerned with getting more business through public relations without having to take on excessive staff. Small business owners and operators are also worried about the community, and feel civic obligations to their communities in ways larger businesses do not. This is especially true for government and nonprofit agencies. One government agency worker that was quoted in the article said, “I feel like a public servant. I feel that I must try to do the best job for the public.” This makes it clear that people working this kind of angle want to use public relations for the greater good, and not necessarily for their own gain.

Since I want to work in the nonprofit sector, this was a great article for me to read. I want to be able to implement public relations strategies to heighten awareness of community resources, important events, and social issues. This can be done, as the article states, but small and/or nonprofit entities are going to have to use a slightly modified version of public relations—not better or worse than traditional public relations, just decidedly smaller.

This text is undeniably effective. Through the author’s use of direct language, s/he makes it clear that the exclusion of small businesses from the PR world is not only unfair, but unintelligent. The majority of businesses are classified as small ones, so not only should they be included, but they should be thought of as extremely important in our society. All people would benefit if nonprofit businesses and government agencies could do their work to the best of their abilities by spreading their words to the public through the use of PR strategies. The author does a great job of convincing the reader that this is something that should not be put on the back burner any longer.