Life and Work after College:

1
Life and Work after College

• What I Didnt Learn In School
• Sandy DElosua
• National Director of Public Relations and Social
  Media

2
Overview

• A bit about me
• How I got here
• Gems from college
• What I didnt learn in the classroom
• State of PR
• Social media
• Challenge

3
The Melting Pot Restaurants

• Largest national/international fondue franchise
• 145 locations in 37 states and Washington, D.C.
  13 in development
• Special occasion dining

4
My Joy

• Responsible for development and execution of
  viral marketing, monitoring and participation in
  social community
• Direct, manage and execute PR and media relations
  programs/campaigns
• Generate publicity restaurant openings, driving
  sales, events, etc.
• Crisis communications

5
What are you learning?
PR as Your Major

• Media list
• Social media campaign
• Advertising equivalency

• Press release
• Pitch
• Advisory
• Clipping
• Bylined articles

6
My Focus (1997-2000)
7
My Focus (1997-2002)
8
Declared Majors

• Political Science
• Music Education/Performance on Sax
• Public Relations

9
Then What?

• Graduated in May 2002
• Trip to the Bahamas
• Forced to move home Washington, D.C.
• Choice to make Fellowship with small agency vs.
  internship with large firm

10
Work History

• STRIKE Campaign PR specialist (school)
• The Childrens Table PR specialist (school)

University of Florida Athletic Association
Sports Information
11
Work History
12
College Gems

• Your degree
• Staff and experience Ferguson, Chance, Foley,
  Terhune, etc.
• AP Stylebook
• Writing
• Campaigns
• Reporting

13
College Gems

• Creativity Strategies class
• Computer programs Photoshop, PageMaker, etc.
• Multi-tasking
• Ethics

14
Workforce Reality

• Managing expectations 40-50K job
• The importance of marketing yourself
  freewebs.com create Web and social sites
• How to find the right job for you know your
  skill set and qualifications

15
Workforce Reality

• Job options Big vs. small agencies corporate
  vs. agency environment integrated vs. true PR
  firm
• Tailoring resume to be results driven, not just
  tactics

16
Snippet from My Resume

• Created and executed a national resurgence of
  fondue campaign for The Melting Pot Restaurants
  to increase awareness of current fondue trend by
  highlighting popularity of fondue sets, fondue
  parties, quick meal ideas, etc. and offering
  fon-dos and fon-donts to teach proper fondue
  etiquette.

17
Snippet cont.

• Landed placements in national and local market
  publications including Entrepreneur magazine,
  BusinessWeek, SmartBusiness magazine, Nations
  Restaurant News, Chain Leader, Restaurant
  Hospitality, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Las Vegas
  Review-Journal, The Tampa Tribune, Sacramento
  Bee, etc. Measureable results include 17 percent
  increase in sales for the Sacramento location and
  27 percent increase for TMP Sarasota.

18
Another Resume Snippet

• Orchestrated a media interview and tour event
  for the grand opening of the Charlotte County
  Emergency Operations Center designed by Harvard
  Jolly Architects (originally destroyed by
  Hurricane Charley). Secured media including CNN,
  The Weather Channel, Good Morning America, the
  Charlotte Sun, WBBH-TV (NBC), WFTX-TV (FOX),
  WINK-TV (CBS), WZVN-TV (ABC) and Bay News 9
  (Cable) reaching more than 150 million
  impressions and secured 35 new projects.

19
Workforce Reality

• The stigma of PR people why we get such a bad
  rap disconnect with media
• School vs. industry ALL about the pitch Think
  about WHY you do something

20
Workforce Reality

• We are all salesmen
• Tactics drive publicity, sales, brand
  recognition, etc.
• Justifying your existence Prove our worth
• More important now to know advertising and
  marketing functions

21
Public Relations Right Now

• Writing and creative thinking/strategy make up 95
  percent of the job
• Social media Wave of now and the future
• Video Impact of social media right now

22
TMP Social Media Assessment

• No blog
• Responded sporadically to blog entries
• No Twitter account
• Facebook fan page last updated June 2009
• YouTube channel last updated two years ago

23
TMP in Social Media Now
24
Our Social Sites

• FB facebook.com/themeltingpotrestaurants
• Twitter _at_SocialDipper and _at_TheMeltingPot
• Flickr flickr.com/photos/themeltingpotrestaurants
  
• YouTube youtube.com/user/TheMeltingPotTV
• Blog www.socialdipper.blogspot.com
• Ning fonduefanatics.ning.com
• Yelp socialdipper.yelp.com
• Delicious delicious.com/themeltingpotrestaurants

25
Our Social Sites

• Wiki the-melting-pot-restaurants.wikispaces.com
• LinkedIn linkedin.com/companies/the-melting-pot-r
  estaurants

26
Social Media Campaign Examples

• Fondue Fanatic Friday Face Off Challenge
  Facebook and Twitter
• Cooking class with Chef Shane
• Viral Video Fon-Dont! Campaign

27
Challenge for YOU

• Come up with a social media campaign for TMP to
  execute in 2010
• The key NO COST except time invested
• Due Dec. 11 to me by email day before finals
  sdelosua_at_meltingpot.com

28
How you can benefit

• Promotion in all of the restaurant trades,
  national and local media as a partnership with UF
  students
• Highlight on your resume
• You may use me as a reference to verify your
  conception and participation in this project

29
My contact information

• Sandy DElosua
• National Director of Public Relations and Social
  Media
• The Melting Pot Restaurants
• 8810 Twin Lakes Blvd. Tampa, FL Office
  813-425-6217Cell 813-846-0937
• sdelosua_at_meltingpot.com