#PRStudChat Halloween Special: Nightmares of a PR professional

Guest Post by #PRStudChat Co-Founder Valerie Merahn Simon

On Tuesday, October 28th at 8:30 p.m. eastern, public relations students, professionals and educators will celebrate Halloween with a Twitter chat focused on the best ways to manage the most terrifying moments faced by those in the PR industry.  Participants will be asked to share their thoughts and advice on a number of scenarios, including:

· The phone rings with a reporter from @NYTimes who shares allegations of insider trading by your company executives.

· You receive an email from the head of IT. It seems private customer data MAY have been compromised. What now?

· You go to the company Facebook page and find an alarming number of posts expressing outrage over a recent price increase.

· The local TV station wants a comment regarding a tip from an irate customer for their “Consumer Fight Back” report.

· You launch your exciting new social media campaign only to hear… crickets…

· Your competitor launches a brilliant new social media campaign.

· Monday morning is a big board meeting. What materials and metrics will you be sharing to demonstrate recent success?

· You are responsible for a large conference with a keynote speaker from out of town. Three days out, a snowstorm looks inevitable.

· Your latest PR campaign receives unprecedented media coverage. The CEO wants to know, “So what?” Your response?

· Your company has invested a lot in a new product and the CEO is expecting headlines. But the product itself is not breaking news.

· Budgets for 2015 are in. How do you plan to do more with less? And do it better of course!

We hope you will join us for lots of treats as we share the tricks for overcoming some of the most “terrifying” moments PR professionals encounter each day.

Valerie Merahn Simon, Co-Founder, #PRStudChat Valerie has been in the communications industry for nearly 20 years. An accomplished senior sales and marketing executive, Valerie is a motivated leader who provides vision, along with strategic and tactical leadership. For more information view Valerie’s LinkedIn profile or connect with Valerie on Twitter @valeriesimon.

A Little More About PRStudChat: It began with a simple question asked by Angela Hernandez, then President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). “Is PR Right for me?” A follow up blog post by PR 2.0 expert Deirdre Breakenridge inspired a series of direct messages on Twitter between Breakenridge and fellow PR industry pro, Valerie Simon. This was an important question and one that should be explored beyond one student or one blog post. Why not build a community to help students across the country, and even the globe, learn from the experience and perspective of industry professionals… A community where everyone can learn and grow together.