This past week in my PR tactics 2 class we had the pleasure of being introduced to yet another PR and B2B (business to business) pro, Steve Staedler. Senior account executive and PR pro, Steve, came to us from Milwaukee to teach us a little bit about what he does and what B2B PR is all about. I had learned a little bit about business to business public relations in some of my previous classes before, but I never really knew what it was all about. This left me feeling anxious and excited to learn more from Steve and his presentation.
Steve works at a B2B company called LePoidevin Marketing. His duties as senior account executive include writing fact sheets, news releases, speeches, guest columns, social media, and more. Steve discussed how much he writes during his days at LePoidevin and how important it is in today's world to be a good writer and to have good writing skills. To many, a job filled with writing all day may sound exhausting and uneventful, but for those with a love for writing like Steve and I, it sounds nothing short of exciting! Some of Steve's clients that he writes for include those from the animal health industry and industrial industry such as Snap On Tools.
Despite telling us a lot about his background and how he got to where he is today, Steve also shared with us some very valuable information about a website called Cision Point. Cision Point is a useful tool, one that Steve uses frequently, that allows you to do quick searches fast saving you and your client time and money. Cision, as Steve explained, is essentially an "online newsroom" for clients where companies can put out press releases, photos, and more. According to Steve, LePoidevin has 120 media outlets on Cision that can view press releases and more right from the website. Learning about Cision was both interesting and helpful as I am about to go into the working world and will take all the information about what PR pros are using that I can get! Another tool Steve uses is google alerts. Google alerts allows Steve to keep tabs on his clients and alerts him anytime his client comes up in the news or on google.
Steve closed out his presentation with a case study in which we all got to participate and learn more about real life situations that PR pros, like Steve, deal with everyday. I found the exercise to be a great learning experience along with Steve's entire presentation. I learned a lot from Steve and his presentation and am now more knowledgeable about the PR world and how a B2B company works.
Lauren, I also thought learning about CisionPoint was very interesting! I think it was great to hear from Steve, someone that uses this datebase often. He could really give us a glimpse into the life of a PR professional. He also gave us real life experiences in which he had to use CisionPoint, which was helpful. I thought that the case study was also fun and educational! It was cool that he gave us a case that he is currently working on. Great real life experiences that our class got to see.
ReplyDeleteThis was an excellent summation of the class. I had to miss that day, so getting to read this was very helpful.Your blog posting had some more statistics than others, so that really helped me catch up on some of the facts! I also really appreciated the background on Steve Staedler. And, completely unrelated, I love the background on your blog!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog! i thought you did a great job summarizing Steve's objections that he made during his presentation. I know that he did not give us much backround information, but I thought that he did a good job explaining the many jobs that he has to do in a day. I did not know too much about B2B before the class, so I learned a lot from Steve, I have never heard of Snap On before either, and I thought he did a great job demonstrating the work that he does for that company.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a well written blog! I was impressed and glad he gave us information on Cision Point. It will be nice to have a knowledge of that in interviews later on in life if it comes up.
ReplyDeleteLauren - I agree with the above comments, excellent summarization! I also thought Steve's working knowledge of Cision Point was helpful. I am looking forward to hopefully, one day, getting some experience using the database! I enjoyed listening to him talk about social media and Google's relevance to PR and how important both are to PR.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLauren,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I found the case study exercise to be a really great learning experience. Much like the PRSA Young Pros Crisis Communication event we attended, this offered students another chance to brainstorm and learn from professionals in the field. I thought the way Steve Staedler set up the case study was great; we began with our ideas, shared them with the class, and then had the opportunity to learn about what Steve and his team actually did in this particular case. It was awesome to contrast his ideas with ours.