As we prepare to celebrate the accomplishments of our fellow communications professionals at the PRism Banquet later this month, I can't help but be inspired by our community's creativity. We have a truly remarkable collection of innovative and resourceful individuals.

Each day, we are challenged to develop creative solutions that address the opportunities our organizations face, as our award winning entrants demonstrate. Filling up the creative well within each of us is critical to continue the flow of fresh ideas. What are best practices for filling that well? Undoubtedly, they vary based on our responsibilities.

For my role - consumer products marketing - a choice resource for inspiration is design blogs (favorites are Decor8 and Oh, Joy!). For others, well replenishment may come from participating in a writing club, researching media campaign case studies, attending conferences, or simply having lunch with a mentor or respected peer.

However you are inspired, I encourage you to read the award-winning entries that we will post on our website throughout the year following the PRism Banquet as an additional source for creative spark.

I look forward to seeing each of you April 27 at the PRism Banquet to recognize the outstanding strategic and creative achievements of our friends and colleagues.

Sincerely,

Sarah Hibner, president

Resume Tips: Five Ways to Grab Employers' Attention

 With today's level of competition for good jobs your resume has got only one chance to make a great first impression. To be considered for interviews your resume must have that special something that grabs the reader's attention and motivates them to call you. Here are five strategies for transforming a blah document into a WOW resume that will get employers calling you.

1. Keep your focus clear and to the point.

 The first thing potential employers need to know is what you do and the position you are interested in. In the past job seekers have used an objective statement at the top of their resume to indicate their employment interest. With the lightning speed scanning approach that recruiters take in viewing resumes, a wordy, vague objective statement taking up three or more lines of text just doesn't get the job done. In most cases they don't get read.

Instead, write a short, direct professional summery that clearly illustrates your career focus. Your statement should include your profession, how long you've done it and your particular areas of expertise. Something to the effect of:

Senior purchasing professions with 10 years' procurement expertise in: strategic sourcing, contract negotiation, financial analysis, strategic planning, leadership, contract law and process improvement.

Remember, your resume is not an historical tell-all. To keep your focus clear make sure that everything following in your resume relates to your focus. Leave off extraneous details. 

2. Stuff your resume with key words. 

The more key words you use the more frequently your resume will show up in online searches like LinkedIn, TheLadders and CareerBuilder, etc.. Additionally, employer resume data bases also use key words to query for qualifying candidates. Without appropriate key words your resume will be electronically ignored. Without key words, your resume is being shot off into a black void each time you submit it.

A good way to make sure your resume is full of key words is to check it against job postings. Use as many of the key words found in the responsibilities and qualifications sections of job postings. As much as you can, match up your terminology with what you find in job postings.

3. Keep your resume reader-friendly. 

Nothing gets ignored like a resume full of lengthy blocks of text. No one has time to read through that much information. Resume screeners need to be able to absorb your information quickly. Leave out extraneous details so that key facts show up easily. Separate blocks of text into smaller easy-to-digest snippets of information. Use white space to separate bullet points so that each stand out. Be sure that your font size is readable: nothing smaller than 11 point.

4. Include plenty of accomplishments. 

If you want to stand out from the crowd you must include accomplishments throughout your resume. Write accomplishments that show how you solve universal problems such as saving time, cutting costs, improving performance and increasing customer satisfaction. Your accomplishments should stand out on your resume in bullets separate from your responsibilities. Don't make the common mistake of combining responsibilities and accomplishments in a long list of bullets. List your responsibilities in a small block of text and your accomplishments in bullet form following.

5. Get your best information on page one. 

It's true, if you can't grab their attention on page one they won't stick it out to find out the wonderful things you've got on page two or three. This presents a problem for those who experienced their most productive work five or more years back. The solution is to use the hybrid resume format that allows you to create a highlight of accomplishments section at the top of page one of your resume. This area of your resume is reserved for the best examples of your work. The accomplishments you include should illustrate the key transferable skills needed for the position you are interested in.

Don't delay in implementing these resume changes. Employers are waiting for you with opportunities for a better career and a better life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Deborah Walker, CCMC is a career coach helping job seekers nationwide. Her clients gain skills in resume writing, interviewing and salary negotiation. See her sample resumes and read more job search tips at:

http://www.AlphaAdvantage.com

Copyedit like a pro: Online resources for writers

By Joseph Priest

This article ran in the February 2010 issue of Tactics. For a full text of the article, please go to www.prsa.org.

Is the correct spelling "embarrass" or "embarrass"? With the rapid evolution of language, PR pros are generating more questions about understanding and spelling of unfamiliar terms.

Here are several resources to help you:

Dictionary.com - A reputable site that licenses Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary and The American Heritage Dictionary.

Definr-the incredibly fast dictionary - You can also add the Definr search extension to your Firefox browser for easy dictionary access and subscribe to the Definr Word of the Day RSS feed with your newsreader to expand your English vocabulary.

OneLook-a reverse dictionary - This site searches hundreds of online dictionaries, encyclopedias and other references to find the word you are looking for. Type a concept, phrase or question into the search box and OneLook will return a list of words and phrases related to that concept. You can also find a specific word if you know its definition.

Grammarphobia blog - Written by renowned authors and former New York Times editors, Grammarphobia is one of the best language blogs available.

@JohnEMcIntyre Twitter feed - A Baltimore Sun copyeditor for more than 23 years, John McIntyre is the dean of copyeditors.

@Copyediting Twitter feed - A must for in-depth insights on the latest language issues.

Joseph Priest is editor of online communications at Ketchum's New York office and co-writes a monthly style-and-usage newsletter. He can be reached at joseph.priest@ketchum.com.

Member Profile: Bill Wharton

As a long time member of PRSA, Bill Wharton has used his membership to network and gain skills and contacts that help him in his current position in Public Information Public Health-Dayton and Montgomery County.

Wharton has worked for Public Health for 39 years, but he hasn't always been in Public Information.  Wharton received his degree in chemistry from Miami University, and started out at as a sanitarian, or someone who does environmental inspections, at Public Health. He gradually moved up in the organization to reach his current position.

Although Wharton has not always been an active member in PRSA, he encourages people to really get involved professional organizations and not just be a member. "There are tremendous amounts of talent in professional organizations. If you don't know who they are or what they do it's difficult to tap that talent when you need it," Wharton said.

Wharton utilized his own advice this past year in his efforts to communicate information about the H1N1 virus.  Since H1N1 affected the whole community, Public Health had to work with all different kinds of organizations, such as schools, hospitals and police, to inform the whole community. "We literally worked with all parts of the community about what we were doing in the community and when," Wharton said.

Outside of PRSA and his career, Wharton enjoys traveling, especially to Yosemite, British Columbia and Southeast Asia.

PRSA Membership Promotion

Get a free one-year membership to the Dayton Area PRSA chapter when you join PRSA national in March and April. This $55 value provides access to member benefits, such as discounted tickets to luncheons and other locally sponsored events.

Join today online by visiting prsa.com. Enter discount code SPRING2010 to receive free local chapter membership.

This is one of the best membership promotions PRSA national gives each year. If you've been thinking about joining, now is the time.

Additional details on the promotion can be found by clicking the link below.

Promotional Details!

Questions about membership can be directed to Sarah Hibner at sarah.hibner@mwv.com or 937-495-5018.

February Luncheon Recap: Social Media

Our luncheon speakers for February were Matt Massie, manager of Career Services at Sinclair Community College, and Ed VanderBush, manager of e-marketing at Sinclair. They spoke to our group about social media. Suffice it to say, a few mouths dropped open when attendees realized they didn't know as much about the subject as they thought.

If you just returned from a job interview, there's a good chance your potential employer is already googling your name. Are you ready to be transparent to people beyond your friends and family? Just how much can a 'harmless' post damage your good name?

 The answer is plenty. Maybe you've been known to rant about your current boss a bit to let off steam. A future employer might consider that a red flag. Maybe you'd trash them online too. Consider this: 35 percent of employers who conducted social media research declined to hire someone because of what turned up.

 That can't happen! I have my security turned on! If so, that's good news. But, if you think what you post is the only way someone learns about you in cyberspace, that's bad news because it isn't true. What about what your friends post about you? Once 'harmless' information leaks out, it's tough to erase. Just a few keystrokes can ruin your reputation. Also, security measures you take on Facebook aren't foolproof.

 Massie and VanderBush covered a variety of social media topics and answered questions. There is more good news: when used responsibly social media works. It allows your company or organization to get the word out faster than you can work the phone, and offers a quick way to manage bad press or answer the concerns of your audience.

Remember, there are 400 million active users of social media. If you're one of them, do your due diligence before you click.

 PRSSA Update

The University of Dayton's PRSSA chapter had quite a busy year. The group hosted speakers for sessions about the RPIE process, portfolio creation and media training, in addition to participating in campus activities and events. In November, PRSSA held a social media panel featuring several local PR professionals, and they plan to wrap up the year with a trip to Chicago to visit public relations practitioners at Weber Shandwick, PCI and Shedd Aquarium.

Resumes for several of PRSSA members are now available on the PRSA Dayton Web site for PRSA members interested in hiring new professionals or summer interns. Have questions about PRSSA? Visit our Web site at http://campus.udayton.edu/~prssa/events.htm or e-mail PRSSA president Meghann Heft at meghann.heft@gmail.com.

 APRil is APR Month!

The Accredited in Public Relations (APR) credential is valuable to those practitioners who earn it; to the agencies, clients and organizations they represent; and, perhaps most importantly, to the public relations profession itself. PRSA is proud to announce that APRil is APR Month! Be on the lookout for information about a free webinar about 'Accelerating Your PR Career' on April 13^th and the new 'Invite a Peer' link on the national PRSA site that encourages current APRs to invite their peers to get accredited.  

The Dayton Area PRSA chapter will conduct our annual APR Study Course this fall. Interested members should contact APR Chair Natasha Baker at 937/512-2221 or natasha.baker@sinclair.edu for more information to pre-register for the nine week course.

Masters Breakfast is April 8

If you have more than 10 years experience or are an accredited member of PRSA, plan now to join us for a fun networking event at the Dayton Area PRSA Masters Breakfast on Thursday, April 8, from 7:30-9 am at the Dayton Racquet Club. We will be meeting in the Executive East room and will have access to the Club's wonderful breakfast buffet. The cost is $15 per member. Contact Natasha Baker at 937-512-2221 or natasha.baker@sinclair.edu for more information.

Join Us for the PRism Awards Banquet!

The annual PRism Awards honor the achievements of PR professionals in Dayton and the Miami Valley. We will be recognizing those professionals who developed a campaign or project that "made a big splash" with their intended audiences.

We will also honor the recipient of the Communicator of the Year - The Smitty Award.

The banquet will be held on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at the Sinclair Conference Center.

Networking/Cash Bar - 5:30 p.m.

Dinner - 6:15 p.m.

RSVP online at http://www.prsadayton.org by April 20, 2010.

(Please indicate if you require a vegetarian meal)

Questions? Contact Liz Long at mailto: elong@ball.com

Are you a public relations student living in Cleveland or Dayton this summer? Consider spending your summer with Fahlgren Mortine. We are looking for two outstanding PR students - one to support our team in Dayton and one to assist the Edward Howard group in Cleveland.

If you are a rising public relations student and are at least a sophomore in college looking to learn more about life at an agency, send your resume and cover letter to careers@fahlgren.com. The deadline for submitting your information is Friday, April 30. We look forward to hearing from you and hope to work with you this summer.

Interested in getting a sneak peek at what it's like to be an intern at Fahlgren Mortine? Join the Fahlgren Mortine PR Interns Alumni group on Facebook.

http://ow.ly/1AeSQ

COMMUNITY BLOOD CENTER

Responsibilities may vary depending upon the goals, skills and interests

of the intern as well as current priorities and projects of Community Blood

Center/Community Tissue Services Human Resources team. These may include:

1. Works with the Communications Group to determine different mediums to be used to

communicate effectively with all CBC/CTS® employees

2. Works with the Communications Group to determine appropriate content. Interact with

departments to receive newsworthy information that should be communicated and

distributed.

3. Determines what departments and people need to be contacted and work with them to

receive their input

4. Writes, edits and proofs to insure all communication standards are met: professional

style, accuracy, completeness, proper grammar, appropriate level of detail, etc.

5. Insures deadlines are met and communications materials are sent to printer and

distributed

6. Seeks employee feedback and input about the preferred methods of communication and

topics

7. Evaluates quality dimensions of each communication

8. Maintains high standards of confidentiality.

9. Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

1. Strong writing, proofreading, and research skills

2. Ability to meet deadlines and work independently as well as part of team

3. Proficient at Microsoft Office skills; primarily Word and Publisher

TRAINING:   On-site training and support as needed

HOURS:       8 - 12 hours per week

BENEFITS:  Free parking, background check, training, opportunity for references or a letter of

recommendation if needed after completion of 30 hours of volunteer time, a copy

of all work product produced for your portfolio, and the personal satisfaction of

knowing you assisted in the process to save a life through a blood or tissue

donation.

CONTACT: Cissy Hansen, Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services, 349 S. Main St., Dayton, Ohio 45402. You must attach a resume and completed externship application. Email to chansen@cbccts.org. No phone calls please. You will be contacted by email for an interview.

Externship Application Page 1

Externship Application Page 2