Yesterday in PR Tactics II, Steve Staedler of LePoidevin Marketing talked to our class about B2B PR, Cision, and life as a PR professional. Steve works as a Senior Account Executive/Public Relations at LePoideven in Brookfield, Wisconsin. LePoideven is known for their work in the B2B marketing field. They to a lot of work with conveyor systems and animal health care. One of their top clients is Snap-On Tools.
Steve started off the presentation telling us about Cision: a software platform that, in summary, makes a PR professional's job a whole lot easier. CisionPoint finds Facebook outlets, magazines, and news outlets to help build media lists (like an online news room). You can also track the coverage of your stories using this software-- how cool!
Another tool useful in the PR world that he informed us of was Google Alerts. Google Alerts allow you to set up a profile on topics you want to be alerted of when there is activity. Steve sets up alerts for his clients, allowing him to monitor them.
One thing that I took away from Steve's presentation is the importance of being a good writer in the field of PR. With news releases, fact sheets, social media, white papers, speeches and copywriting being ever present, writing is a skill that will always be needed. He encouraged us to go out and get real world experience as a writer as a freelance writer, intern, or even volunteer to write an article at our school newspaper(The Royal Purple).
Altogether, Steve's presentation was very informational and personable. He truly was interested in our success and even offered us to connect with him for advice whenever we needed it. Thank you, Steve! I look forward to your help and advice in the future.
Every time a speaker comes to class, we hear about the importance of the internships for our future. I think that it was reassuring that Steve talked about getting experience in any capacity we are able to. I like that you explained his statement about the importance of being a good writer and how a student could do so.
ReplyDeleteListening to Steve talk about B2B was very interesting to me. I knew what B2B stood for but other than that, I didn't know much about it. I was glad he joined our class for the day and spoke to us about his job and things he does on a day to day basis.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Steve was an especially personable presenter! Instead of just bragging about everything he has accomplished thus far, he was very relatable and genuinely did seem interested in what we have experience in and where we want to end up. I think we all took a lot out of his presentation!
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was great that he actually pulled up Cision! I had learned about it last Research Literacy last spring but because Whitewater doesn't have an account with Cision we had to us the 'Bacons' Books (pretty sure that what they were called). Also he introduced me to Google Alerts which I had no clue excited... needless to say I looked into it right after class!
ReplyDeleteI agree i though his presentation was very personable and that he seemed very approachable. He did make a very good point that being a good writer is crucial in the PR field.
ReplyDeleteIt seems time after time, we hear about the importance of getting experience before graduation through internships and volunteer work. Steve offered similar advice, yet he heavily concentrated on the importance of having strong writing skills. Being that Staedler went to school for journalism, it’s obvious he has a strong passion for writing and that has helped pay off in his career. I knew writing skills were crucial, but Steve’s presentation really helped put in perspective just how important it really is.
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