Beijing Duck is more personal than this one. The reason for this is not because I’m extremely self-centered but because I know:

1. Some people will like reading about my experiences.
2. You can’t read my perspectives on living and working in the Chinese contemporary art world anywhere else, and uniqueness is my number one news value in deciding what to blog about.

I’ve already begun posting, so check it out.

I’d heard of Google Translate, but didn’t start using it until a couple of weeks ago. It’s amazing. I use it all the time both to translate e-mails from my boss and to translate entire Web sites. You can choose between Simplified and Traditional Chinese when translating from English. Google Translate includes 22 languages, and a “detect language” option. You might miss main points in lengthy e-mails, either composing or reading, but it’s great for quick messages and the site translate feature.

Nciku is my favorite online dictionary. You can draw characters into a form on the home page, translate them, and hear them pronounced. If you create a personal account, Nciku automatically saves all the characters you look up into a vocabulary list. I’m currently trying to figure out if I can use Nciku on my phone, which would save me a lot of money in buying an electronic dictionary with character drawing capability.

Soufun has the best rental listings I’ve found so far. I’ve only used it to look for apartments, but you can also look for office space. You can search by district, neighborhood, price range, number of bedrooms, and other criteria. As far as I can tell, it’s only for Beijing. You need Chinese language skills to use it; Google Translate is pretty effective, but doesn’t translate all the characters.

A word of warning about Firefox: I recently downloaded it and it works fine for just about everything but composing e-mails in Chinese. It enters characters out of order. I don’t know if this is also specific to Gmail or my computer, but Safari is flawless at composing e-mails in Chinese. I haven’t checked other browsers.

I hope somebody finds this useful. I’m pretty much a novice at this, so I welcome other suggestions or corrections.

Simple: The show’s core idea is obvious and can be expressed within a sentence fragment: A modeling competition documented in a reality television show. It also contains a consistent format characteristic of other documented competitions that makes it easy to follow.

Unexpected: I think ANTM does this best out of all of the SUCCESs qualities. My favorite unexpected moment, which you can watch here is the show host and head judge Tyra Branks’ line in Cycle 5 during an elimination, “…tonight, both of you must pack your bags – because we’re all going to London!” Within the span of that line, fans go from thinking the judges will eliminate one woman, as usual; then two, unprecedented at the time; then none, also unprecedented. Confetti and London flags flood the set; traditionally dressed guards march into the room; all the model-wannabes cry with relief.

Concrete: ANTM’s personalization of modeling through documenting individual women is public relations for the modeling industry. It gives us people behind the photographs. Some of the show’s language is purposefully vague, for example, “Nigel Barker, noted fashion photographer,” and “Elite Model Management, one of the top modeling agencies in the world.” However, aspects of the show are very concrete, for example, how one of the consistent prizes is “a cover and six-page spread in Seventeen Magazine.” This show also contains easy references, also an aspect of simple, such as “Top Model Prep School” as Cycle 10’s casting setting.

Credible: I’ll summarize this section in two words: Tyra Banks. The first cycle of this show relied on Tyra Banks’ heavy involvement for success. Tyra’s connections legitimize not only the entire show, but decisions for locations, photographers, and other professionals the contestants meet, for example, “[This photographer] has even shot Tyra.”

Emotion: Isn’t this what reality television is all about? In addition to the inherent emotional difficulties of roughly a dozen young female competitors sharing a house on camera, Tyra Banks encourages emotion by asking the contestants probing questions during casting and in sessions similar to therapy, both individually and in groups. Most documented emotion includes crying, screaming with joy, and the women yelling at each other. One the most dramatic emotional moments is a huge fight in Cycle 10 between Whitney and Dominique, which culminates with Dominique calling Whitney a racist.

Stories: Each cycle is a story in itself, of all the contestants. Additionally, I’m pretty sure that Tyra chooses at least a couple contestants with compelling life stories for every cycle. Some of these include Fatima from Cycle 10, a refugee who experienced female circumcision in her home country; Shandi of Cycle 2, the cinderella story if you will; and Amanda of Cycle 3, who is legally blind and will be completely blind by her thirtieth birthday.

So what does all of this have to do with public relations? ANTM maintains excellent public relations and marketing partnerships. Tyra Banks’ weekly reminder of the grand prizes serves as an approximately one-minute commercial for the partners. The show regularly incorporates the partners into challenges and photo shoots: contestants must put Covergirl‘s newest line of makeup on each other, then the winner gets to shoot a spread for Seventeen Magazine. Elite Model Management supervises the go-see challenge. ANTM and its partners share target audiences.

As an Idealist user, I got the email about Idealist’s recruitment drive, and was planning on forwarding it to my non-profit contacts. I went on Idealist nearly every day while looking for a job, and I highly recommend it to friends looking for internships and jobs in the non-profit field. I’ve never held an internship or job that I found on an online job board, though; I get the sense that many people apply for these postings. I got a good lead for an Americorps position I found on Idealist, though.

Other online job resources for arts and communications:
Online Public Relations, Council of Public Relations Firms, PROpenMic, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Job Classifieds [not just New York], Opportunity Knocks, Playbill, ArtsLynx, Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia

Online and in-person (as in you should go to their meetings and conferences, too):
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), American Marketing Association (AMA), International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), Southern Arts Federation, service organizations such as Americorps

Facebook groups I’m in with public relations job listings:
PR Job Watch, The PR and Communications Network, The Official Facebook Public Relations Group, Graduate Job Watch, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), PR Jobs, PRSSA, CPRS – The Canadian Public Relations Society

Some other tips:
It’s all about networking, and you probably aren’t doing enough. I know I’m not. At the 2008 Portland Communicators Conference, Joel Stein brought up that an employer will always pick an applicant who knows a current employee over someone with a stronger application who doesn’t. When it came down to it, I got my job because my randomly assigned roommate has a friend who works at Beijing’s largest art gallery. However, he had to know that I wanted to work in the arts in Beijing, and my resume had to be good.

Also, if you’re a graduating PRSSA member, pay the $60 to join PRSA and receive access to the membership directory. One afternoon a few weeks ago, I mined the directory with my friend Anna Osgoodby. That night, after just one email, she secured her top choice of summer internship – her first internship.

Lastly, try not to let the stress get to you. It’s easy for graduating seniors to base all of their self worth on their perceived job search successes; I know that my classmates positively peer pressure each other. I suggest whining to friends and family who don’t share your career goals.

Any other suggestions? I’d love to hear them.

Raychel emphasized that when branding, an organization should ask, “Who are we?” and “Who do we want to be?” Eugene Symphony likes to create the appearance of success, such as by pricing the seats so that the concert hall looks sold out even if it isn’t. The rows fill from front-to-back, and patrons can’t see the empty seats in front of them. This helps with development goals by showing sponsors they get the most bang for their bucks.

The symphony organizes its patron database by Recency, Frequency, and Monetary (RFM), with the patrons with the highest RFM at the top. Long-term subscribers receive recognition, but nowhere near as much marketing as non-subscribers with the highest RFM. Eugene Symphony occasionally partners with other local arts organizations and use their RFM interchangeably with partners. All the Hult Center for the Performing Arts resident companies, including Eugene Symphony, already have access to each others’ databases.

Lastly, Eugene Symphony switched from starting its subscription campaign in July to the February before.

These are some of the strategies that over a three-season period, increased revenue by 79 percent, subscriptions by 65 percent, and corporate giving by 53 percent.  

He argues that most nonprofits shouldn’t need to pay more than six to twenty dollars a month for Web hosting. Some good resources for Web hosting are DreamHost, Siteground and ICDSoft. You can read about DreamHost Nonprofit Hosting here.

He also suggests that nonprofits, especially small ones, use content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress to build and maintain their Web sites. These greatly improve efficiency because they don’t require HTML or other Web design knowledge. CMS are slightly harder to use than Microsoft Word. CMS options Ash suggested are Joomla, Drupal, and Plone, which are free; Expression Engine, which uses a subscription model; and Synergy Platform, which you need to purchase.

Note the difference between a CMS and Web host: CMS is the software you use to build and maintain your site, whereas your Web host enables others to see it. You can compare your Web host to your cell phone provider, for example, AT&T; and your software like your specific cell phone, for example, BlackBerry Curve.

You should also build Web statistics into your site because measurement is what public relations and marketing is all about, right? Through my Bateman Case Study Competition team’s use of Google Analytics, we could pinpoint the exact cities users accessed our site from, how long they spent, which pages they visited, and so on. Other Web statistics sources that Ash recommended were WebTrends, Woopra and Going Up.

All 501(c)(3) nonprofits can accept donations through their Web sites. The presentation audience seemed to prefer using Network for Good, a third-party site where about three-fourths of donors opt to pay transaction fees. Ash also recommends Oregon Involved and GuideStar.

The extra up-front work to start an effective Web site is worth it. “Having an effective website today requires a steady, ongoing commitment,” wrote Russ Jackman with Internet Advisor. “The cost to move beyond the ‘online brochure’ that is commonplace…is not as big a leap as it was even two years ago.”

For more Web resources, check out Fundraising123.

I’ve pulled out a couple links that I think are worth sharing about government relationship to art:

“Much Ado About W: Art Wars of Santa Barbara” – a hilarious condensed version of a documentary on a controversy over public art

“Director Accused at Russian Museum” – a New York Times article on a director who the government sues for housing shocking exhibits

“HBO Film About 2000 Recount Draws Protests from Democrats” – another New York Times article, with a pretty self-explanatory title

“‘The Magic Flute’ as Underground Opera” – an opera production updated for and performed at a new subway station in Berlin

He mentioned a couple of key differences between public and private sector public relations. The first is that in the private sector, it’s much faster to implement a public relations plan, especially one involving asking your supervisors for resources. He illustrated this point by explaining that he’s overseeing a new visitors center for EWEB and it’s taken three years to begin construction. The other key difference is he works shorter, more predictable hours at EWEB than he ever did at the hospital. He worked 60 to 80 hours a week at the hospital, whereas he’s almost always out of his office by 5 p.m. at EWEB.

It seemed that in John’s case the reason for extended hours is that hospital public relations involves crisis communications almost every day. Near the beginning of that particular job, Diane Downs showed up at his hospital with her three young children wounded by gunshots. Six months of her visiting the hospital and calling a press conference every day ensued, which concluded with her arrest and conviction for murder and attempted murder of the children. She then escaped from prison. Imagine dealing with this toward the beginning of your public relations career! This story is apparently so interesting that it inspired a novel and a movie based on the same novel titled “Small Sacrifices.” Sadly, John was not mentioned in either.

My observations of internship supervisors doesn’t necessarily reflect John’s view on work and life balance between public and private sector. This could be because I’ve only interned for one corporation and as he highlighted, public relations is such a diverse field. I got the impression that Weber Shandwick‘s Washington, D.C. office’s director worked long hours; I occasionally received e-mails from her after 11 p.m., once on Sunday. However, my supervisor at the City of Eugene City Manager’s Office attended all City Council meetings, which sometimes went late into the evening. I’ve observed that the workload was about the same for public relations and marketing managers in both the publicly and privately owned arts centers I’ve interned at; however, The Hult Center for the Performing Arts, a city-owned organization, has a visibly more conservative work culture than either Seattle Theatre Group or the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts.

This company is the definition of green. Just some of its dozens of green practices are: a strong bike culture that includes bike racks inside the store for customers, a green roof on one of their stores, and recycle bins outside the stores for items not collected at curbside.

Helen brought up a great point about the company’s definition of sustainability. One of her supervisors answered the question at a presentation, “What is sustainability?” with, “I’ll tell you what sustainability is not. Sustainability is not people in Oregon going hungry.” New Seasons Markets provides excellent health benefits, which include mental health and dental, to all employees who work at least one shift a week. This draws a lot of artists and other community members who would otherwise go uninsured as employees, which New Seasons Market appreciates.

Something that goes hand-in-hand with its sustainability is its commitment to help Oregonians. They have a communications initiative to encourage customers to shop at a farmers market one weekend instead of at a grocery store. This hurts business in the short-term but proves New Seasons’ values. It also donate 10 percent of its post-tax profits to charities in Oregon.

Its transparency is remarkable. She said at least twice that New Seasons encourages customers to “vote with their dollars.” It includes colored labels on most of their produce indicating levels of “green,” such as organic or local. It carries food available at most grocery stores, such as mainstream cereal in an attempt to serve all customers in each neighborhood store. This makes sense when you realize it’s more green to walk to get Frosted Flakes than to drive across town.

So how do they communicate all these great practices to its customers? The main vehicle is through employees, who are obviously pretty loyal based on the way they’re treated. Some employees even respond to customer questions in extensive, researched emails on topics such as how to buy locally. (I think this is similar to blogging about topic’s related to your client’s industry that doesn’t directly plug it.) It also has a good Web site and use store signage. It uses primarily earned media as opposed to advertising.

Helen addressed some of New Seasons Market’s challenges with being green. One was switching its delivery vehicles’ bags from paper to plastic. This was after extensive research that proved producing plastic bags emits 40 percent less carbon pollution than producing paper ones, but you can see how some customers would object to this. It conducted excellent crisis communication when they discovered that gift cards made of corn actually were not compostable as the vendor had promised. New Seasons alerted all customers that it was sorry, but the customers would need to throw their gift cards away.

Whether you share the same values of New Seasons Market, this is an excellent lesson to all communicators that your policies’ effects on your brand and credibility needs to be taken seriously. I hope some of you are as inspired by this post as I was by her presentation.