BUSINESS REALITY

PUBLIC RELATIONS IS NOT MARKETING: DO NOT GET IT TWISTED

Marketing and public relations sometimes get people to be confused, are you in the same situation? You are about to find out what makes them differ. Even though both work to promote but there are significant differences between the two.

Marketing
Marketing deals mainly with product awareness and promotion. Those involved with marketing work to promote a specific product or service a company or organization offers. Marketing professionals will concern themselves with the products the company provides, the customers and their needs, and are working to look forward to what the next product will be or how to promote it. A marketing approach will work to sell a product rather than an organization by taking into consideration demand, competition, and how to get more people to purchase services or products.(http://sunheecho.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-is-difference-between-advertising.html)

An effective marketing plan will accomplish the following:

·         Define a target market in order to know who to promote the products towards.

·         Identify the customers and competitors. Knowing competitors and their strategies will help a company to stay ahead by remaining competitive.

·         Outline a strategy for attracting and keeping customers as well as identifying change

Public Relations

Public relations deals more with the company itself. A public relations professional is more concerned with the public's view of the company and the company's reputation rather than trying to get the public to purchase the products (although the two often go hand in hand).

A public relations campaign will work to do the following:

• Increase and maintain visibility and public awareness of an organization, company, or event
• Help the public to see the organization as an industry leader
• Increase awareness of the organization's programs, products, and services throughout the community, state, country, or world
• Help enhance and maintain the organization's image
• Support and organize efforts with regards to fundraising
• Act as liaison and support in the event the organization experiences any negative publicity(http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/marketing/the_difference_between_marketing_and_public_relations_026011.html)

EVENTS

WRITING SKILLS: Plan before you start writing

 

What happens if a colleague has just sent you an email relating to a meeting you're having in one hour's time. The email is supposed to contain key information that you need to present, as part of the business case for an important project. But there's a problem: The email is so badly written that you can't find the data you need. There are misspellings and incomplete sentences, and the paragraphs are so long and confusing that it takes you three times more than it should to find the information you want.(www.learninggroup.com)

 

Use these top eight points for your writing and you will never be the same old boring writer again.

·         Identify your main theme – If you're having trouble defining the main theme of your message, pretend that you have 15 seconds to explain your position. What do you say? This is likely to be your main theme.

·         Use simple language – Unless you're writing a scholarly article, it's usually best to use simple, direct language. Don't use long words just to impress people.

·         Structure -Your document should be as "reader friendly" as possible. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and numbering whenever possible to break up the text.

·         Proof your headings and subheadings – People often skip these and focus on the text alone. Just because headers are big and bold doesn't mean they're error free.

·         Read the document out loud – This forces you to go more slowly, so that you're more likely to catch mistakes.

·         Use your finger or the mouse point to follow text as you read – This is another trick that helps you slow down.

·         Start at the end of your document – Proofread one sentence at a time, working your way from the end to the beginning. This helps you focus on errors, not on content.

·         Kiss (keep it short and simple)  -Avoid long sentences or paragraphs because  u end up loosing the whole content , meaning or sense.  

·         Check out the correct words that you want to use- do not get confused. For example: Company's/companies (and other possessives versus plurals)(www.academicladder.com/toolkit)

 The greater your writing skills are, the better the impression you'll make on the people around you , including your boss, your colleagues, and your clients. You never know how far these good impressions will take you.

You see? That is why we are blogging to keep us on track to avoid issues like getting fired in a corporate world.

EVENTS

PHOTOGRAPHY: IMPORTANCE OF THE BACKGROUND

When taking pictures, we concentrate intently on our subjects  but what about the background? Not taking consideration of the background of the photo, we often find the picture changing a subject or telling another story line not even consistent with the main content of the story. Taking control of the background can help turn a photograph into a beautiful photo.

The first step to improving the backgrounds in our photos is to be conscious of the background's importance to our photos. We must know that the right backgrounds can make our reports stand out. This often means simply paying attention to what is behind out subjects during our photography sessions. (http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Photography-Tips/Backgrounds.aspx).

Figure 1:Oh? So you have three arms?

Beyonce



 This lady looks like she has three arms and whereas there is another lady behind her .If these was an article about how talented the lady is, in singing, it would had introduced another story line of  “ a three arm talented lady”.

Figure 1:what are you? a male in a female's body? This lady looks like she is has male reproductive organ, Whereas there is a stem of a tree behind her and these makes it look like she is a man in a woman's body.

We need to understand and know that, what you capture behind your subject can often make or break your photographs.

  

POLITICS

COSATU STRIKE: Affecting everyone , whether a member or not

On Wednesday, 7 March 2012 Johannesburg streets



COSATU protests looking like sea red

 

Considering the nature of the protest march one always expect some angry faces and disobedient behaviour, but the crowd was well behaved.   Since there were marshals, they divided themselves into smaller groups to control the march and things become very easy without incidents. Even though the crowd well-behaved, but  the COSATU strike still affects every body, whether you are a member or not.

 Many businesses were forced to close their doors before the protesters arrived. It was also reported that four Shoprite super markets where forced by police to close down. “The stores were closed to ensure customer safety because they were in the vicinity of marches and demonstrations” said Shoprite holdings ltd. Accessed from: Moneyweb daily news   by Mike Cohen

The pace was kept intentionally slow, and disrupted the traffic. These means that people who are going to work, schools, interviews, or  having appointments and any other important place, will be late or might even not arrive to that place.“ In the University of Johannesburg, Public Relations students together with their lecture Ms Vanwyk, had to postpone the test that they were supposed to write on the day of the COSATU strike due to some students who may not be able to come and write because of the traffic” said Magagula pebetse, Public Relations student .Although one may ask that why setting an important interview or appointment on the day of strike, this means these people are ignorant to news, but the other one may argue and ask why are pausing our future, our businesses, our time when some organisations are striking but the point is strikes affects everyone

Metrobus in Johannesburg asked that commuters make alternative transport arrangements on Wednesday because it seemed some drivers had joined the strike. “ Fezile Dabi district, with towns like Parys, Sasolburg and Kroonstad experienced major disruptions in schools with more than 90 % of schools shutting down”, said Ndaba.  Johannesburg - The Airports Company of SA (Acsa) asked travellers to arrive early for their flights on Wednesday as the effect of COSATU's nationwide anti-toll and labour broking protests took hold with flight delays in Durban.

Now the question is why do we have to strike when we want or need an increase in salaries, why striking when we don’t like or want something in the parliament? Why don’t we sit down with whoever in charge of our issues and negotiate the problems? This shows us that we do not have good communication skills.