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Gracy Wilkins
12/7/09
Introduction to Public Relations: Mini Campaign
The OC Gazette is a small business located in Orange County, California. The company
publishes a free, monthly direct mail magazine that reaches more than 100,000 affluent owneroccupied homes. They are dedicated to promoting businesses in local communities while
providing interesting articles that highlight local heroes, history and culture. Despite being only a
few years old, this publication has grown from a small, community newsletter-style magazine,
with a distribution of roughly 50,000 to what it is today. I personally have watched its progress
and am extremely excited to help them expand even more in the future, especially because my
older sister, Sara Wilkins, has been working as part of the creative team for over a year now.
After consulting with the Creative Director, Jennifer Hood, along with my sister, Sara, we
came to the conclusion that their web content was an area in need of some improvement. My
main goal is to help The OC Gazette increase their online presence by introducing them to
numerous forms of social media and by refining existing content to generate more appeal among
target audiences. We agreed that I would evaluate their current Web site, blog, and other social
networking mediums that they are using such as Facebook and Twitter and help them build upon
it as well as offer new ideas.
According to our textbook, New communication technologies have always influenced
public relations practice, but perhaps none so profoundly as the Internet...Because of the fast,
direct, and consistent contact with key constituencies, Internet technology advances almost every
facet of public relations practice. With nearly 15% of the worlds population surfing the web, it

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is no wonder that companies are re-thinking their image, the way the public perceives this image,
and the way they do business in general (Lattimore,368).
I plan to incorporate many alternative media and story forms, ways of publishing
information in untraditional formats, in order to quickly engage readers. Sophisticated
techniques must be applied to understand the needs of consumers, solicit their comments, and
attract their attention (Lattimore, 372). While The OC Gazette is definitely on the right track
and pretty up-to-date with advancing technology, I plan to refine their existing content from a
public relations perspective, using my web education as its foundation, and work directly with
image management. I hope to increase their reader participation as well as enhance their online
identity.
I am speaking in present tense because this is still an on-going process. In fact, it has
hardly just begun. When I asked about a timeframe, I was surprised to learn that my plans would
not actually be implemented until January 2010. The magazine is swamped with deadlines
throughout the duration of the holiday season and they are currently in the process of re-locating
their office. With little time to dedicate to web content, we decided that my plan could become a
part of their 2010 New Years Resolution. This means that over the past several months, I have
been working hard to give them as many ideas as I can, so that when the new year arrives, the
execution portion can begin immediately.
The OC Gazette team is compiled of a small, but extremely talented and creative group of
people. Unfortunately, within this team they do not have a formal web designer who is solely
dedicated to this outlets upkeep. Currently, many of the employees who have graphic design and
art backgrounds are expected to take on a variety of other tasks in the magazines production

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such as writing, photography, editing, etc. due to lack of staff. Amidst their hard-hitting print
deadlines, their online image has not been much of a priority. However, after speaking with
them, it appears that they are recognizing the role it can play in expanding their reader
participation and interaction and they are eager to revamp their efforts in more user friendly
ways. I am currently enrolled in J285, Introduction to Web-based Journalism, and decided there
is no better way to learn by doing than to apply what I have learned in the classroom to this
real world setting.
After consulting with the Creative Director, we concluded that the next best move would
be to make the blog their first priority. This is the easiest way to start a conversation between The
OC Gazette and the surrounding community because it has the capacity to become a daily
exchange and is not restricted by the monthly timeframe of the print publication. Right now, their
blog only has four listed followers, but an average daily readership of more than 30 people.
Some of my simple suggestions would be to list other blogs that they follow on their page to
generate more traffic and change their links on their blogs to the color orange because as of now,
they are invisible and hard to find.
After looking at their blog analytics, it shows that 45% of visitors come from referring
sites, 42.63% come from search engines and 11.95% come from direct traffic. Blogs in general
and the generation of online buzz have grown dramatically. In just a little over a year, the
number of Internet users who read blogs has risen from 11 percent to more than 27 percent,
according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Lattimore, 174).
Many of the things I suggested may be leaning more towards the marketing aspect of
public relations, however, marketing communications and consumer relations are deeply

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integrated with public relations practice (Lattimore, 249). Both marketing and PR have
fundamental differences, yet they each attempt to help an organization to respond to a specific
public: the consumers. That is why promotion makes up such a large part of public relations.
The following is a list of many of the ideas I proposed that will be further discussed in
more detail:
-Flickr account/Vuvox for photo slideshows
-Links to Twitter accounts
-Create interactive blog posts/tweets/questions/polls to involve audience
-Use Mystudyio to create interactive quizzes
-Invite feedback regarding most recent issue of magazine
-Include enhanced Google maps
-Use Dipity.com to make a timeline relevant to an article topic or to outline their growth
-Wordle.net
-Keep it consistent: create tabs on blog to mirror Web site layout
When looking at their blog and Web site, I realized that they had limited space to post
pictures and hadnt been utilizing any free photo sharing technology to upload more photos for
their audience to see. First I suggested for them to create a Flickr account and then to have it
streaming live from their blog or article post. This way, whenever they add new photos to their
account, it will automatically update and post it to their site. Another great way to view photo
slideshows is by using Vuvox.com. This site allows you to stream live as well through your
Flickr account or RSS feed. In addition, they offer many creative design templates to post the
pictures in a more creative way. I made them a sample slideshow presentation using photos from

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a recent event they attended called The Vintage. I selected a template that reflected this
Vintage feel, giving their photos a more appealing nature than a standard slideshow would.
One of the largest growing outlets for social networking right now is Twitter. While The
OC Gazette does have a Twitter account set up and linked to their Facebook page, there is no
indicators anywhere on either their blog or web page that lets their audience know they can
follow. I suggested that they not only link their Twitter account from their main Web site, but
also from their blog. They currently have a Facebook account fan page with about 265 fans.
They have had this up and running for the past six months and initially had a large influx of fans,
but now it seems to have leveled off.
I believe that after making a few changes to their Facebook page and even their Twitter
account, it is realistic to double their fan base in three months time. They can strive to
accomplish this by updating their statuses or tweeting with more interactive and engaging
posts. This can be achieved by using Mystudiyo.com to create interactive quizzes and polls. They
can pose questions to their audience regarding recent issues of the magazine, places for opinions,
questions, comments and concerns. Re-tweeting others opinions and comments can generate
traffic and add many more followers. They can even enlist the help of their readers to propose
future article topics. By tapping into the source itself, they can find out exactly what their
audience wants to read about. Also, they can dramatically enhance the visual aesthetics by
creating a background image for their Twitter and posting pictures and bios of the staff to give a
personalized feel.
Google maps is another great way for The OC Gazette to take pertinent information and
display it in an appealing and inviting format. Their Web site already includes a map as part of a

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widget template which pinpoints their office location, but I have suggested ways to enhance the
current map. First, they can make the map a satellite view which is more appealing than a map
view. Second, they can post a picture of the store front and write a description so that when
someone clicks on their pinpoint on the map, they can get an idea of what it looks like so they
have no trouble finding it. (I have included a sample of this type of map, using their logo as the
location pinpoint). In addition, they can create another map in their Want a Copy tab of their
site. Currently they have listed the locations by city where copies of the magazine can be found
locally. By incorporating a Google map here, they can point out each of these locations, include a
picture of the racks of magazines showing exactly where they can be found and the surrounding
locations, as well as directions to these spots. The easier it is to track down a magazine, the more
likely they can captivate a new reader or a potential advertiser. Curtailing distribution to the
needs of the audience is a sure way of attracting new clients. It is important to remember that in
PR, customers want to be served, not sold.
Dipity.com is a great alternative story form that generates enhanced timelines. The OC
Gazette could utilize this technology to give their audience a look into the creation and formation
of the magazine, or possibly lay out the steps it takes to get from one deadline to the next. The
more transparent and open a business is with the public, the better. The publics perception is key
when it comes to the success or failure of a business and simple, yet personalized actions can
make all the difference. Wordle.net is a fun way of adding visual appeal to a Web site or blog.
Simply paste your blog RSS feed into the generator and it will make a word collage. The words
are sized based on how many times it appears in the text.
Not only did I want to suggest different ways of presenting information, but I also wanted

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to create a strong sense of consistency among their web content. I spent a great deal of time
looking at every link and tab on their Web site and blog and found a few inconsistencies when
comparing it to the publication itself.
First I suggested that they should format their blog in a way that is cohesive with their
main Web site. Including tabs at the top of the page will be more consistent and it will eliminate
the need to have the bios and staff pictures running down the blog roll. They can then create
specific tabs such as The Bloggers, and About Me. Another inconsistency I noticed was the
fact that their publication simply states Gazette at the top of the magazine, but their Web site
and blog are branded as The OC Gazette. It can be very misleading for any one not familiar
with the publication. Due to the nature of the publication and the fact that it is still fairly new, it
is common to run into issues such as these. This is why I suggested that they choose one or the
other and stick with it. In my opinion, I would stick with The OC Gazette because when you
type this into Google, they are the first ones that appear compared to Gazette which generates
a lot of other user results.
Why this may seem like a tremendous undertaking, technology allows us to do so many
creative and interesting things with the click of a mouse. I offered a multitude of ideas because
they are simple tasks that can dramatically improve the overall image of a company or
organization.
Because my plan will not be put into motion until January, I am unable to analyze the
effects of my work. However, if The OC Gazette carries out the ideas that I have explained in
depth to them, along with samples and step by step instructions, I believe it will lead to an
increase in online traffic and reader interaction. Although I can only speculate at this point, I

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hope that after implementing these ideas, the public will have a better sense of who The OC
Gazette is, what they are all about, and recognize the integral role they play as members of the
community.
This mini public relations campaign was more about the introduction of ideas and
knowledge to build upon, rather than precise goals and tactics. It involved constant
communication and feedback between myself and the client. Surprisingly, each of my ideas were
well received by the staff, a rare thing to occur in a normal public relations campaign. In the
future, I will continue to help the magazine with specific goals that come in more tangible and
measurable forms. It is an on-going process that will hopefully lead them to success and keep
them afloat in the midst of print genocide.