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PR News in Brief

Save the Children Aid Flight Heads to South Sudan

WESTPORT, Conn., Dec. 23, 2013 -- A special Save the Children flight will arrive in South Sudan on Tuesday, Dec. 24, carrying supplies for families who have fled their homes due to fighting.These supplies will be used to help alleviate the conditions of those families seeking safety in United Nations compounds in Juba and include: 150 jerry cans, kitchen sets for 140 families, 140 waterproof sheets, and two large water bladders that each hold 5,000 liters.

  Deadline Nears for Health Care Signups

HARLESTON, W.Va., Dec. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In the holiday season rush, folks should be aware of a deadline for health insurance. Under the new federal health care reform law, people have until Dec. 23 to apply for insurance if they want it to be effective at the start of 2014.

  Colombia hopes to welcome more U.S. and Canadian visitors than ever in 2014

MIAMI, Dec. 23, 2013 -- Seasonal increases in the number of flights between North America and Colombia will allow more visitors than ever to experience that Colombia Is Magical Realism, Proexport Colombia announced today. Proexport, the government agency charged with promoting tourism, foreign investment and trade with Colombia, is eager to share its exciting calendar of events with international travelers and to welcome visitors to the country by air and sea.

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Facebook Announces Proposed Follow-On Offering

MENLO PARK, Calif., Dec. 19, 2013 -- Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) today announced that it is commencing an underwritten registered public offering of 70,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock. A total of 27,004,761 shares are being offered by Facebook, and a total of 42,995,239 shares are being offered by certain selling stockholders, including 41,350,000 shares offered by Mark Zuckerberg. ​​

With 45 Days to Go Until Game Day, AccuWeather is Tracking Winter Conditions

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Dec. 18, 2013 -- With 45 days to go until game day at MetLife Stadium, AccuWeather's www.WillitSnow.com predicts wintery conditions may take the field February 2. Since the weather plays a pivotal role in outdoor sports, AccuWeather today announced that it has launched www.WillitSnow.com, providing the most accurate forecasts for the game day and all days leading up to it.

  Delta CEO Affirms No Voice Calls During Flight for Customers

​ATLANTA, Dec. 18, 2013 -- Last week the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to seek public comment in consideration of lifting its ban on in-flight cell phone use. Delta will not allow cellular calls or internet-based voice communications onboard Delta or Delta Connection flights.

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IBM Reveals Five Innovations That Will Change Our Lives within Five Years

ARMONK, N.Y., Dec. 17, 2013 -- Today IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled the eighth annual  "IBM 5 in 5" (#ibm5in5) – a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and interact during the next five years.

  - The classroom will learn you

- Buying local will beat online

- Doctors will routinely use your DNA to keep you well

- A digital guardian will protect you online

- The city will help you live in it

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PR News in Brief

Despite Sandy's Damage, U.S. Coastal Residents Still Unprepared for Next Big Storm

​​WASHINGTON, May 31, 2013 -- Less than a year after Superstorm Sandy, a new survey shows that few Americans living in coastal counties have taken necessary action to prepare for severe storms even as forecasters are predicting a busy 2013 hurricane seasons.

​Arvind Mahankali Wins 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., May 31, 2013 -- Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old speller from Bayside Hills, N.Y., won the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night.​

McDonald's® Gives Quarter® Pounder Burgers A Flavorful New Twist

PHILADELPHIA, May 30, 2013 -- Beginning in June, McDonald's invites burger lovers in the Greater Philadelphia Region to experience three new flavors of the iconic Quarter Pounder Burger. Made with 100% beef, the burgers feature a variety of new toppings like bacon habanero ranch sauce, thick-cut Applewood smoked bacon, and colorful veggies, all on a bakery style bun.

Nickelodeon Opens First-Ever Branded Retail Destination; Launches 1,000 Square Foot 'Nick Shop' In Toys"R"Us Times Square

​NEW YORK, May 29, 2013 -- Nickelodeon announced today the launch of its 'Nick Shop' in Toys"R"Us Times Square, the company's international flagship store. The 1,000 square foot Nick Shop is an immersive Nickelodeon retail experience jam-packed with fun and adventure around every corner.

Celebrate National Doughnut Day! Stop In For A Free Sweet Treat

​WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., May 28, 2013 -- Commemorate the sweetest day of the year with a complimentary one-of-a-kind treat from Krispy Kreme®. In honor of National Doughnut Day, on Friday, June 7, stop in to any Krispy Kreme US or Canadian location for a FREE doughnut of any variety--including its world famous Original Glazed®.

Summer Travel Season: 2013 Vacationers Are Already Spending

BURLINGTON, Mass., May 30, 2013 -- Burst Media, a leading online media company and wholly owned subsidiary of blinkx PLC, today released the results of a survey covering summer vacation plans. Conducted in mid-May, the survey of more than 670 online U.S. adults aged 18 or older revealed that more than one-half of all respondents plan to take a vacation this summer; one-sixth do not plan to vacation, and nearly one-third are still unsure of their summer vacation plans.

FEMA and Ad Council Help Americans Prepare for Severe Weather with Wireless Emergency Alerts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Recent severe weather and the start of the Atlantic hurricane season reinforce the need for Americans to familiarize themselves with the look, sound and authenticity of real-time Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs).

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Have You Heard of Vine Yet??

  The newest craze in mobile apps is Vine. Vine is a video-sharing social media app started by Twitter.  Vine lets you take short pieces of video and put it together to create a longer video with short, different parts. You can take as many short videos, up to six seconds, and they are put into one big loop. Because Twitter started it, the videos are viewable through your Twitter timeline. Vine also provides you with a profile page and feed. Unfortunately, the app is only available on iPhones, but hopefully android users will have a chance to use it soon!

  Tried Vine yet? What do you think? Let us know @DREAM_PR!

*picture from Google Image

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Are You Ethical in the Workplace?

By Nicole Salerno

  Ethics is an important issue, especially in public relations. It is important to always be honest and to never infringe on a copyright or plagiarize when writing. Dishonesty and copyright infringement can lead to a tarnished image for the entire company, making clients and others in the small public relations distrust you and your work leading to a bad reputation. PRSA provides an ethics quiz on their website to make sure you’re taking all the necessary steps to avoid any ethical dilemmas. This quiz is a great tool to learn about the different types of ethical practices in the industry. After taking the quiz, here are a few things that stuck in my head:

  1.     It’s so tempting and so easy, but never take a picture from the Internet without providing the source.

It is important to always provide a source when using a picture in a presentation, article or etc. This can easily be done by putting the location that you found the picture underneath the picture, at the end of a presentation or at the bottom of an article. This makes sure that you aren’t plagiarizing and if you plan to publish your work. Just to be safe – you might want to contact the photographer.

   2.     It is unethical to record a presentation or conversation without the subject knowing.

If you are plan to record a speech or presentation, make sure you inform the person speaking or company presenting that you are recording prior to the start. If you record and publish it without them knowing, you may run into some very serious legal problems.

  3.     It may be obvious but don’t plagiarize!

Plagiarizing doesn’t necessarily mean copy and pasting. It can also mean stealing someone else’s idea, improperly paraphrasing, and even coping your own work. Make sure you refer back to a person or group if you take information that someone said in a lecture or presentation.

  4.     What is copyright infringement?

 Things can only be copyrighted if they were written down and then someone else used the written down ideas in a published piece of work. If a person says ideas out loud and someone else decides to use these ideas in a published piece of work, it is not considered copyright. But, it can be considered plagiarism.

  5.     The PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards is there to educate members or public relations professionals.

 The PRSA website is a great way to refer back to more information if you are ever confused and don’t know if you are being ethical in your job. Make sure to always be ethical and honest because it will form a good reputation for your company and clients will respect you.

  To take the quiz yourself go here: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=eq-prsa-ethics-quotient-quiz-2011

 Let us know your ethical tip and tweet them @DREAM_PR!

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Take  a look at our awesome interns!

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The Battle Between the Two Social Media Giants

By Nicole Walsh

Let’s take a closer look in to the two social media giants and how they are changing within the PR realm. Twitter is considered a more public medium sharing immediate updates while Facebook is the realm for sharing daily life adventures with family and friends. Increasingly, the dividing line between the two social media giants is beginning to blur.

Facebook users can now tag other users or pages in posts just like ‘@’ on Twitter. Facebook users can also form a "subscriber" list of people or companies to follow on Facebook, which symbolizes just how alike these two mediums are becoming.

One thing Twitter posses that Facebook doesn’t have at this time are hashtags – but that may be changing soon. In a recent report from The Wallstreet Journal, hashtags will soon be coming to Facebook. There is no information about when Facebook's hashtags will be unveiled or how they will work within the Facebook system.

On Twitter, hashtags are a way of grouping tweets together into a focused conversation, and they connect Twitter users with others who have posted about a similar topic. However, hashtags are slowing moving to other social media websites like Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and soon Facebook. An important question being raised by the introduction of hashtags is: how will they working with Facebook's current privacy features?

The incorporation of hashtags into Facebook introduces a new frontier for users, public relations specialists and advertisers. It is speculated that Facebook hashtags could possibly be promoted in a similar way to the current Facebook promoted posts. Hashtags could also possibly help focus campaigns and advertisements on specific groupings of users.

The upcoming hashtags could significantly increase exposure on Facebook if incorporated into a good public relations campaign. However, the potential uses and benefits of hashtags on Facebook is all speculation until they are unveiled.

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Dream Day of Service

On Sunday, April 7th, our State College Dream Team participated in helping the community at Operation Military Kids. It was a fun event for all with games, music, crafts and free giveaways for the kids. Dream got involved and helped the Big Brothers Big Sisters create crafts with the kids and do face paint! Take a look at these pictures of our awesome day with the community!

Let us know how you give back and tweet us @DREAM_PR!

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Getting Creative With April Fools’ Day!

By:  Samantha Gorddard

  Think you got through April Fools’ Day without getting pranked? Well, you may have thought wrong! On Monday, many large companies pranked the public with clever products and announcements. PR Daily posted about the best 12 pranks from large companies. Google released many pranks that day, but the most impressive was the release of a video announcing that at midnight, YouTube was shutting down to select a “winner” of the best video on the site. Millions of YouTube users saw a few changes to their pages and believed that their videos were possible “winners.”

Twitter joined in on the pranking early to get more buzz. On Sunday, they announced a new service for users called “Twttr.” On this free site, only consonants could be tweeted. The original Twitter would be considered the “premium” version and cost users $5 a month. According to PR Daily, to debunk this the blog post directed users to a site that translates tweets into “twts”. This site then announced “Hppy prl fls’ dy,” aka “Happy April fools’ day.”

Some companies announced new products in order to “fool” consumers. Proctor & Gamble’s Scope came out with a bacon mouthwash, “for breath that sizzles.” A promotion video from Scope was shared on twitter and facebook that received over 750,000 likes. Also, American Eagle unveiled a new product via a YouTube advertisement last Thursday. They announced their new “skinny skinny jeans” for when “skinny jeans aren’t enough.” These jeans are shown on models doing various activities and are literally painted on with spray paint.

Some companies, such as Sony took April Fools’ Day quite seriously. They announced headphones for cats in a blog post with a YouTube video and a press release. Many different photos of cats were shown in advertisements wearing these Sony headphones made specifically for felines. In the spoof press release, they even had a quote from Tom Barret, Lead Engineer, for their new “Animalia line.”

Whether or not you got fooled by any of these pranks, all of these produced buzz and attention for each company.

  Did you pull any pranks on April Fools’ Day? Tweet us what you did @DREAM_PR!

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PR News

Top Islands Worldwide Recognized Based on Opinions of Millions of Travelers Across the Globe

​​NEWTON, Mass.(March 26, 2013) - TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel site*, today announced the winners of its inaugural Travelers’ Choice Islands awards. Based on millions of valuable traveler reviews and opinions on the site, the awards recognize more than 100 islands across the globe, including dedicated lists for Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, South America, the South Pacific, and the U.S.​

​OpenTable Diner Reviews Reveal the Top 100 Dining Hot Spots in the U.S.​​

SAN FRANCISCO, (March 27, 2013) - As we anticipate the warm days and cool spring nights, OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN), the world's leading provider of online restaurant reservations, is pleased to announce the 2013 Diners' Choice Award winners for Top 100 Hot Spot Restaurants in the United States. These awards reflect the combined opinions of more than 5 million reviews submitted by verified OpenTable diners for more than 15,000 restaurants in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.​

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California Economy Drops In January​​

DALLAS, (March 28, 2013) - Comerica Bank's California Economic Activity Index dropped in January, falling 2.2 points to a level of 98.6. January's reading is 25 points, or 35 percent, above the index cyclical low of 73.2. The index averaged a revised 103 points for all of 2012, four points above the average for all of 2011. December's index reading was revised to 100.8 ​​

Traffic Congestion Jumps as U.S. Economy Rebounds

​KIRKLAND, Wash., (March 29, 2013) - Gridlock in the U.S. has staged a dramatic comeback after two years of post-recession lows. Data from the most recent INRIX Gridlock Index (IGI) shows that traffic jumped by almost 10 percent during February – the largest year-over-year increase recorded by IGI in two years, and a healthy sign of rising economic activity across 100 metro areas.

March Madness - Should College Athletes Get Paid?

​NAPLES, Fla., (March 26, 2013) - The NCAA Basketball March Madness tournament is now in full swing. The games are filled with upsets, fans young and old cheering for their team, bracket challenges are everywhere. America loves this tournament.​

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Need More Time to File Your Taxes? An Extension May Be Right for You, But If You Owe - You Pay

RIVERWOODS, Ill., (March 28, 2013) - With the April 15 filing date looming, taxpayers who haven't started working on their taxes could be in a race against the clock and may be interested in filing for an extension. An automatic six-month extension for federal taxes is available, if you follow the right steps. What's very important to know, however, is that an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay taxes that are due. CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business and a leading global provider of tax, accounting and audit information, software and services (CCHGroup.com), takes a look at what taxpayers need to know when filing for a deadline extension.​

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Writing and Public Relations

By Nicole Salerno

  The first thing a future prospective public relations professional learns is that you have to be able to write. If you aren’t a good writer or don’t like to write, public relations may be the wrong field of work for you. According to a PR Daily article, “A recent analysis of LinkedIn profiles found that people with fewer language errors on profiles reached higher positions .” PR professionals use writing in press releases, guest articles and so much more every single day. It is important that everything PR pros write be spot on in terms of grammar, punctuation and most importantly – factually, because many reporters rely on our writing as a reference for their articles.  

  Here are some tips on how to be a successful writer in the PR world:

  1.     Use transition words to move from different ideas and to connect paragraphs.  Some words to consider using are: therefore, meanwhile, to conclude, whereas and accordingly.

  2.     Remember to use the latest edition of the AP Stylebook to refer to specific grammar that is used only in press releases and news articles. For example, when writing out an address remember this tip:

·      Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue. Lowercase and spell out when used alone or with more than one street name: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues.

  3.     Apostrophes are used to show the possessive case of nouns. Don’t use apostrophes to indicate the plural of a name or number. When a word ends in an apostrophe, don’t put the apostrophe after the period. Also, if a singular or plural word doesn’t end in s, add ‘s to form the possessive. Here are some examples: the child’s toy and mom’s book.

  4.     Commas are important and many people question the use of them everyday. There are many comma rules, but here a few that should be remembered everyday.

·      Use commas to separate words in a series. He went to the store, picked up food and came home. Make sure to not use a comma before the word and!

·      Use a comma to connect two independent clauses. He bought dinner, but forgot to get coffee.

·      Use commas to set of quotes in sentences. He said, “ I like to go to the beach.”

·      Use commas in the middle of a sentence to set off phrases that aren’t essential to the meaning of the sentence. Jane, who is Bob’s friend, is in charge of the party.

  5.     Hyphens can be really confusing, especially when writing ages. But, when the age is an adjective that comes before the noun, or is the noun, use a hyphen. The 20-year-old man was on the bus. He is 20 years old.

  For more grammar and writing tip, take a look at Grammar Girl for help. Tweet us @DREAM_PR with more of your favorite writing tips!

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Four Social Media Musts for Every Business

  By: Nicole Salerno

Social Media is the best way to stay connected to anyone these days. Sometimes it’s the only way we stay connected. Interacting with one another via social internet platforms has become the number one activity on the Web. Social Media has even become mandatory in the business world for every business from start-ups to the financial industry. Ninety-three percent of marketers use social media for business according to RICG.  YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world. Lady Gaga has more twitter followers than the populations of Germany, Egypt, and other small countries. Some of the most popular forms of social media are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr. All forms of these social media get a company’s information out to the public.

  Facebook

Through Facebook, companies can post statuses about new information about a company. Facebook is a great tool to use because it allows you to link it to many other forms of social media. Once you are on Facebook, it should be easy to get access to email information or other areas of social media for a company. Also, Facebook offers ways to advertise for a small price. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, Facebook has a high ROI.

Twitter

Twitter is useful because it is the quickest way to post information for a company.   According to Business Insider, there are nearly 175 million users today. The only disadvantage is that while it is good to get a small piece of information out fast, it leaves a lot of room for error. Companies and public figures must be careful when tweeting and make sure they don’t cause any controversy with what they say. Those 140 characters can stir quite an uproar. Twitter is also great for keeping followers and fans updated with immediate company news through live tweeting. This allows a large audience to be updated with information at once in real time.

Google+

Google+ is a relatively new but not as widely used feature of Google that includes a profile page like Facebook, but companies have access to do so much more. Google now has other apps, like the Drive, Groups, Voice, and Docs. The Drive allows you to save documents in an organized way so you have access to documents from anywhere where you can get on your email, similarly to Dropbox.  In Google Groups, it allows a group of people to communicate through one email in a conversation form (great for conference calls when traveling). Google Voice is also very convenient, especially for small businesses. It allows someone to create a new business phone number that links to a separate voicemail without displaying your personal number or voicemail. And it can be on the same phone, so essentially it’s two phones in one! Another cool feature - Once someone leave’s a voicemail, you’ll receive a transcription of the voicemail in Gmail. This is easy to set up and free!

Tumblr

Tumblr is one of the most unique forms of social media. Anyone or any company can find any type of information on Tumblr: written blogs, pictures, videos, info graphs and etc. Tumblr is an easy way to get a blog started, just ask Beyonce. Tumblr also lets you become connected with others when you write a blog with the tagging feature that allows people only interested in a specific subject to find companies or blogs that relate to that specific subject. Another great tool on Tumblr is the queue, which allows bloggers to set up times for posting in advance so a whole week can be set up to go in an hour!

Be sure to visit all our social media sites and follow, comment, and connect with us!

Facebook: The Dream Agency

Twitter @dream_pr

Google+: Dream Public Relations

Tumblr: dreampr.tumblr.com

  Image from Google Images

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Nestle Horse Meat, DKNY Photo Scandal & Burger King Hacked? Here a Summary of PR Issues for The Week

DKNY photo controversy

This week a DKNY store in Bangkok, Thailand displayed 300 pictures from the widely popular blog, Humans of New York, in their display window. But, the writer/owner of the blog, photographer Brandon Stanton, didn’t give consent and was not paid for the use of these images. This became a major issue on social media when Stanton released a picture and a statement explaining the situation from his point of view. Stanton was supposedly approached by DKNY in the past to use his pictures, but he refused only to find out they’d used his photos anyway.

DKNY released a statement saying, "For the Spring 2013 windows program, we licensed and paid for photos from established photography service providers. However, it appears that inadvertently the store in Bangkok used an internal mock up containing some of Mr. Stanton's images that was intended to merely show the direction of the spring visual program. We apologize for this error and are working to ensure that only the approved artwork is used."

How do you think DKNY handled the situation? Tweet us your thoughts to @DREAM_PR

  Burger King Twitter hacked, what would you do

Imagine if your twitter was hacked and another person claimed to be you and started posting on your behalf. Now imagine if this happened to a huge company.  This would cause many problems as you can imagine. Well, last week it happened to Burger King as well as a few other large companies.

Someone hacked into Burger King’s twitter and changed the name of the page and logo to McDonalds but the twitter handle @BurgerKing stayed. Tweets were written that said, “This is why we were sold to @McDonalds. All our employees crush and sniff percocets in the bathrooms.”

Burger King put out a statement saying, “We have worked directly with administrators to suspend the account until we are able to re-establish our legitimate site and authentic postings.”

McDonald’s also had to make it clear that they weren’t involved and that it was an anonymous hacker. After the incident they tweeted, “Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking.”

But, thankfully for Burger King they didn’t lose many followers and everything is now running smoothly.

  Nestle and Horse meat

Last week, Nestle had to remove beef pasta products off the shelves in Italy, Spain, and France after finding horse DNA in the meat.  Tests were done that concluded that more than 1% of horse DNA was found in its products.

Nestle put out a statement saying, "There is no food safety issue, but the mislabeling of products means they fail to meet the very high standards consumers expect from us.” Other than removing the items from being sold Nestle also said they would be "enhancing our existing comprehensive quality assurance programs by adding new tests on beef for horse DNA prior to production in Europe.”

Do you like the way Nestle is handling the situation? More recently, what are your thoughts on IKEA’s crisis communications?

Tweet us @DREAM_PR

  -By Nicole Salerno

  Image from Google Images

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Industry News

American Greetings Launches Taylor Swift Greeting Card Mobile App

​Cleveland, Ohio (February 7, 2013) — The people in your life are amazing and it’s fun to remind them of that. Send good wishes and glittery gorgeousness with the new Taylor Swift Greeting Card Mobile App by American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM) available today in the iTunes store and on Google Play. Pick a card, personalize and send some love, love, love. Building on the success of its other mobile app platforms, American Greetings has created a free mobile app that allows the user to select, customize and send digital versions of popular Taylor Swift paper greeting cards from their mobile phone or tablet to a recipient via text message, email, Facebook and Twitter.

​BMW Group Starts the Year With Record Sales

​The BMW Group continued its positive momentum into the new year with sales increasing by 9.9% in January. A total of 123,276 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles were delivered to customers (prev. yr. 112,164).

Source of Super Bowl Power Outage Traced to Relay Device

​NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 8, 2013 -- Entergy New Orleans, Inc. announced today that it has traced the cause of Sunday's outage to an electrical relay device. The device was specifically installed to protect the Mercedes-Benz Superdome equipment in the event of a cable failure between the switchgear and the stadium.​

Sean "Diddy" Combs and Sean John Make Social Media History with the First Instagram Fashion Show

​NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2013 -- Fashion maven and Social media innovator Sean Combs creates another first with the launch of the Sean John Instagram fashion show.  The viral event will take place today, Friday February 8 at 10:00AM ET.  Combs will be posting new looks every 30 minutes from 10:00AM – 5:00PM ET.  Viewers will be invited to check out images from the latest collection only available at Macy's.​

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Meet the State College DREAM Team

Meet the State College DREAM Team

As February kicks in, the new State College Executive Board is already in full effect and they encapsulate everything a true #DREAMTEAM embodies. We want everyone to be apart of our family, not only our client, our staff, but everyone who believes in what we believe in – an important and vital role in our communities, our client’s businesses and also having a fresh perspective on both the PR field and the world that we live in. With that being said, let’s take a look at the heart of our company, our State College Dream Team!

This spring we add three new exceptional executive directors: Zach, Alyssa, and Delilah.  

Zach Gorddard also known as ‘The Man’. We all know PR is a female dominated field. Luckily we have this strapping young gentleman to balance out all the women in our firm!

So, what has been your favorite college memory so far?

ZACH: I was extremely happy when I finally got into my fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon. The fraternity is important to me because my father was in the same one while he was in school.  SigEp has given me the opportunity to hold numerous leadership positions, travel the country, and make dozens of life long friends.

Wow that’s amazing! You’re a legacy! What’s another interesting fact about yourself?

ZACH: While in school, I was lucky enough to complete a co-op in Walt Disney World and study abroad in Seville, Spain.  Both were amazing experiences that helped me grow as a student and a professional.

Usted es tan afortunado! What are some of your favorite things?

ZACH: Traveling, fishing, snowboarding, sports, and peanut butter and honey sandwiches are some of my favorites.

  Alyssa Matangos aka ‘The Scholar’, She made Dean’s list 5 out of 6 semesters. Wow, that’s pretty impressive.

Alyssa, what’s your favorite college memory?

ALYSSA: One of my favorite college memories was when I was a freshman at PSU Altoona. It was one of the first times it snowed and my friends and I went outside to have a snowball fight. It quickly grew into the largest snowball fight I have ever seen. Everyone from our hall and the three other halls came out and joined. It was so much fun and something I will always remember.

There’s probably a lot of snow in PA during the winter, what is something else that we should know about you?

ALYSSA: I am from Hershey, PA (aka the Sweetest Place on Earth) and I secretly miss the smell of chocolate when I am walking around State College.

Didn’t you ever get tired of Chocolate? We would! What are your future plans?

ALYSSA: In the future, I would love to work as special events coordinator for a hotel or convention center. I have worked at the Hershey Hotel for years and just this past summer worked at the Hershey Lodge & Convention Center. I love the atmosphere and everything that occurs there – weddings, parties and banquets, seminars, competitions, and many other events – and I would love to be a part of it. Ultimately, my goal is to end up at a job that I love waking up and going to everyday.

  Delilah Cruz is ‘The Ambitious One’. When she’s not doing work for DREAM, she’s running her own talk show. No big deal though, she might just become the next Oprah Winfrey!

Other than becoming a household name, what are your future plans?

DELILAH:  I always get hesitant when people ask me what I want my future to be like, simply because I want it all. I want to build an empire and not only make a name for myself business wise but always want to dedicate my life to changing people's lives. 

Well that’s impressive. What’s your favorite college memory?

DELILAH : My favorite college memory thus far has been being a part of THON. Although I haven't ever had the pleasure to be a dancer in it, I always do behind the scenes work just as various fundraising events to lead up to this inspirational weekend. The moment when the total is revealed all the way at the end (which is always millions of dollars) and knowing that I had taken part in helping raise that money - the BEST feeling ever!

When you’re done conquering the world, where do you see yourself in 70 years?

DELILAH: In 70 years, I see myself to be retried but still doing work towards helping youth empowerment and hopefully soon leaving a legacy behind.

  Our new executive assistant is Halie Greening, ‘The Helper’. Although Halie is relatively new to the field, she is eager to help in anyway that she can. She’s the first to finish her tasks, first to respond to e-mails and can complete any task at hand with efficiency and accuracy.

We don’t want to think about you eventually leaving us but what are your future plans?

HALIE: Five years from now, I hope to be living down south working as an event planner.

Love it! What’s something we don’t know about you?

HALIE: I own a horse and her name is Annie and I am the only female commercial boat captain on Lake George.

Take us some time. What inspired you to want to get involved with Public Relations?

HALIE: Samantha Jones from Sex & the City inspired me to major in PR, however I've learned there's a lot more to it, which I enjoy.

  Another new addition is our social media director, Nicole Salerno aka ‘The Social Media Expert’. When Nicole isn’t on our Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pintrest sites… well she’s always on our social sites. She’s a whiz at engaging with our audience.

What’s your favorite college memory?

NICOLE: My favorite college memory has to be when I first walked into the Bryce Jordan Center on my first THON weekend. I was amazed and couldn’t believe the huge production that was put together and organized by just students. The atmosphere was amazing and I will never forget it!

What is something we should know about you?

NICOLE: I’m planning on studying abroad in Italy in the fall and I can’t wait to learn everything about Europe!

  Our new client relations director is Kimberly Schmohl, ‘The Experienced’  Originally from Long Island, New York, Kim has previously interned with Bononbos, ParentGuide News and Publishers Clearing.

Kim, what’s your favorite college memory?

KIM: Sophomore year I was on the floor with the dancers and families for the last four hours of THON with my committee.  The energy in the BJC was incredible!

Everyone loves THON, what are your future plans?

KIM: I hope to have an opportunity to work abroad at some point.

Work on a tropical island! What’s an interesting fact about you?

KIM: I'm very passionate about dance. I attended a performing arts high school as a dance major for two years.  

  Look out for some great work from our team in State College and contact us at [email protected] for more information. You can also visit our website to find out more about our State College Team and our other leaders at www.dreampragency.com

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The Ravens Are Not the Only Winners of Super Bowl XLVII

By Alyssa Matangos Oreo’s PR and marketing team has proven to be the big winner of this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, at least in my book. Oreo’s 30-second Super Bowl commercial included people in the library engaging in “whisper fighting” over which part of the Oreo is better, the cookie or the cream. It ended with the librarian whispering, “I’m calling the cops,” and the police car crashing through the library wall. The commercial can be watched here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Oreo?v=6kMWLYYcAYw. Not only did Oreo air an extremely comical commercial with already 431,000 views on YouTube, but they also produced a tweet during the 34-minute blackout. While half of the lights in the stadium were out, people took to Twitter to kill time and to get some answers as to what happened. Oreo saw this as a great opportunity for continued publicity and sent out a tweet with a picture. It read, “Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.” This tweet quickly picked up buzz in the Twitter-sphere and gained almost 14,000 retweets and over 4,500 favorites.

After the game, Oreo posted another tweet as a tribute to the Baltimore Ravens reading, “To the victors- go the dunk!” This tweet did not create as much buzz, however it still gained a little over 200 retweets and almost 80 favorites.

Oreo continues to produce creative and timely commercials, PR campaigns and social media posts. Oreo is easily one of my favorite brands to follow on social media. If you aren’t following @Oreo on Twitter or following their Facebook page, http://facebook.com/Oreo, I highly suggest you do. Tweet @dream_pr and let us know which commercial you liked best!

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What do Public Relations Professionals Actually Do?

By Nicole Salerno

The term Public relations has many definitions. But, the most modern definition is a communication function of management through which organizations adapt to, alter, or maintain their environment for the purpose of achieving organizational goals. The main goal of public relations is to create beneficial relationships between organizations and the public. To be a successful PR professional, one should be able to have good grammar and writing skills, innovative ideas and problem-solving ability, planning and recently expertise in social media.

 Many people think that public relations is a form of spin, or unethical and misleading activities. But the everyday PR professional works on promoting a company or organization through research and planning to inform the public.

Public Relations also provides communication within an organization to help achieve goals and to help improve the way its employees and the public thinks.

There are many different roles within Public Relations. Crisis communications is a type of public relations position in which there is an emergency within a company or for the company you are representing. It is knowing how to handle the situation and knowing what and what not to say. For example, when Boeing’s Dreamliner recently became a fail because of fires and problems with the batteries, someone had to handle the situation and determine how the company would explain what happened to the public. The company’s reaction was to find the root of the problem and figure out what to do when they find answers.

Media Relations is a type of PR that deals with professionals working with journalists and bloggers to achieve publicity for an organization. Government affairs is dealing with legislatures on behalf of an organization. Lobbying and speech writing can also be part of dealing with government affairs in PR. Special Events involves promoting a person, product, or organization through a well-planned event. These events can be used to interact with the public and gives the company a chance to get the publics opinion.

What do you do in the PR field? Tweet @dream_pr and let us know!

  photo from Google Images

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PR News in Brief

Golden Globe Award Nominees Pay it Forward with Hollywood Swag Bag This Weekend; Viewers Can Win

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Jan. 11, 2013 - The Golden Globe nominees will receive tons of SWAG at a top secret location in Los Angeles this weekend. When the celebrities acknowledge the gifts by Tweeting, Hollywood Swag Bag will auction off SWAG and proceeds will benefit the celebrities' charity of choice.

BabyCenter® Announces Favorite Celebrity Baby Names

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11, 2013 - BabyCenter®, the #1 pregnancy and parenting mobile and web destination worldwide, today announced its list of the most and least favorite celebrity baby names of 2012. Based on responses from more than 4,000 moms, BabyCenter found that moms adored Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley 's name choice, Adalaide Marie . Also topping the list is Vivian Lake , daughter of Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady , as well as Olive, daughter of Drew Barrymore and Will Kopelman. http://s.tt/1yiwp

Ton Ends on Positive Note for Retailers

CHICAGO, Jan. 9, 2013 - More shoppers spent more at the cash register during the 2012 holiday season than they did the previous year, according to ShopperTrak, the world's largest counter of retail foot traffic.

Top Ten States with the Most Educated Eligible Bachelors

RENO, Nev., Jan. 8, 2013 - What's an educated, single woman with a college degree supposed to do if she wants to meet someone as educated as her? For the first time in American history, women outpace men in acquiring college and post-graduate degrees. According to the 2010 Census, among adults 25 and older, 10.6 million U.S. women have master's degrees or higher, compared to 10.5 million men.