Tricia’s blog

Well the end of the semester is almost here and you know what that means, projects are due. Our survey research projects that we have all been so diligently working on this semester have finally ended. And I have to say, I am glad. Taking this class has made me realize that survey research is not the area I want to be in.

All in all, the project wasn’t that bad. We had a good group who were all willing to work and do their part. We were able to get respondents and our client was very helpful. The worst part of the project by far was writing the survey response paper. It is so long and detailed. You have to repeat everything twice and make sure you don’t leave anything out. It also required me to spend three hours of my Sunday night at the library, a place I don’t like to be anyway. But we got it done. The client seemed happy and we got them some useful information. It was a learning experience, but I am glad it’s over. I have a new found respect for professional researchers.

I found this story while glancing through the headlines on cnn.com this morning. Basically a guy in Colorado bought a device that allowed him to change traffic signals from red to green. He had the thing for two years before he was caught. The best part? He bought it on ebay for $100. I can never find stuff like that on ebay. I must be looking at the wrong stuff.

He finally got caught though, and police confiscated the device and he recieved a $50 ticket. I know that it would be chaos if we all had one, but I give the guy props for trying. Who hasn’t sat at a red light and wished they had the power to change it? Most people would if they could. What I want to know is, who would sell it? He bought it from somebody, why didn’t they want it?

The other day in class someone brought in a tub of licorice for everyone to try. I am normally not a very big fan of licorice, but I do love candy so I tried it. It was free, what can I say. This particular licorice was Red Vines, and it wasn’t bad. It was better than twizzlers atleast. But like I said earlier, I am not a fan of licorice so I don’t have very much knowledge of what is really good licorice.

I think as a class we decided that it tasted red. We couldn’t really decide anything other than that. (It was red licorice.) Is licorice supposed to have a flavor? Does it come in cherry? I don’t know. Overall, it was pretty good. I would recommend it to anyone who likes licorice. For me, I think I’ll stick with Now and Laters.

In my earlier post, I talked about the initial results of my group’s research project. Well, the final count is in: 1982 responses in three days and that’s still minus the ones that got kicked back. As exciting as our response rate was, we were then left with the task of sorting and coding all the answers. Fortunately, we only had two open-ended questions.

I was responsible for coding one of the questions and while a few had to be thrown out because of the “your momma” response, most of the answers seemed legit. This impressed me about the survey. It made me feel like the majority of the students who took the survey really took it seriously. There is always room for error on any survey, and that room is probably a little wider in a student project survey. So I am glad that the respondents seemed to take the survey seriously and answer honestly.

Of course I am sure that it helped that the email came from the Dean of Students Office. If students had known that it was a group of them administering the survey, the results probably would have been different. I am not sure it that counts as deceiving the respondent pool or not. Or does it matter if it makes the results more honest?

So we finally sent out our survey for my class. My group was surveying Auburn students to determine their radio listening habits. Thanks to one of the girls in my group, we were able to send out a mass email to the entire student body population. There are roughly 23,000 students at Auburn. Based on this, Robert said that 400 would be a good sample size to get.

We sent the survey out on Tuesday afternoon at about 3:30. Four hours later we had overloaded the survey site used to host the survey. Robert had to go in and up our capacity. We ended up getting almost 1500 responses the first night. This is not counting the 400 or so that got kicked back due to the site problems.

As of Wednesday at 2:00, we had over 1700 responses. The survey ended on Thursday, but I haven’t heard the final count. Either way, we surpassed our goal, three times over. Turns out that was the highest number of responses Robert has ever gotten in a research class, before this it was a little over 800.

Even though we were able to get access to the entire student population, there were still people who were skeptical about whether or not we would even get 400. But the Auburn students really came through for us. I guess this shows why people like to use college students for survey research. They respond.

Of course, I think that a large part of our success is because of the method we chose to deliver our survey. Email is a required form of communication on our campus so students have to check their email. Then, the survey was short and dealt with listening to the radio, which most students like or at least don’t hate. I think that if we had conducted the survey in another way, we would not have gotten nearly as many responses. I think this shows how technology is changing research. Years ago, the phone would have been the best way to reach people. Now it is through email, atleast for Auburn students.

Bad times have fallen on Duke University. Because of the actions of a few students, the entire university is involved in a crisis. For those who are not familiar with the story, some members of the lacross team have been accused of sexually abusing two erotic dancers at an off-campus party.

While the investigation is still underway, the university has been doing some damage control. Thus far, the head coach of the team has resigned and their season has been cancelled.

Will these things really help? And how much will this affect the university? Yes, it is getting buried by negative publicity, but it is still one of the top universities in the country. Will their actions help put out the fire? I don’t think that this would stop me from going to Duke. Will it anyone else? And how responsible is the university? I mean, the party was off-campus. Will this be a saving factor for Duke? I am very interested to see where this goes. More to come on this topic later.

This past week was spring break for those of us here in Auburn. A time we all look forward to: rest, relaxing and no school. But then reality sets back in and we have to come back for the home stretch. Yesterday was our first day back and for those of us in Robert’s class, we came back to find that there had been drama in the blogosphere world. The strumpy blog.

I spent some time yesterday catching up on my blog reading and trying to find out what all the fuss was about. After all, I found something about the site on almost every blog I read. Then I went to the actual site in question. Wow. That’s all I can say. I have to admit, I was surprised by this. I happen to think that I have a pretty good sense of humor. I can take a joke, even enjoy a good one. But then there are those that just cross a line. Being a girl in the south, where there are still people who hold the image of the “southern belle”, I know that sexism still exists. I come into contact with it. More times than I should. But never anything like this. it was just so obvious. i think even Samantha would have been a little offended.

This whole situation got me to thinking, what have I gotten myself into? I am almost finished with the classes I need to graduate with a PR degree. Is this what I’ve got to look forward too? I know the stereotypes. The PR bunnies and whatever else. Oddly enough though, the PR practitioners that I know don’t even come close to fitting that description. They are hard-working, smart and productive. They don’t bounce around trying to look cute. So then the question becomes, how do we change these misconceptions? There it is, the million dollar question. Answer: I don’t have it. But as I look around my classes, I think there is hope. My classmates are mostly female, by a large margin. My classes are filled with smart, capable women who are the future of PR. If the PR classes at other universities aer the same way, then I think we are on the right track.

Bottom line: as a future PR practitioner or somebody who hopes to be one anyway, I already have enough to worry about. I’m about to have to find a job and enter the real world. I am already dealing with the “did I make the right decision” and the “am I going to suck at PR?” I don’t need to add to the stress worrying about whether or not the fact that I am a female will have an effect on my success. Plus, I am too close to being finished to turn back now. So here’s to making changes. With alll the women working in PR, we’re bound to make some changes eventually. There are too many of us to be ignored.

I have been hearing about mobile marketing for a while now, but today I actually read an article that talked about its progress and its future. Mobile marketing is basically where companies send out advertisements and coupons via a cell phone. Rather than receiving coupons in the mail or in person, they are being sent to consumers’ cell phones. Pizza parlors are one area that is starting to pick up on the trend. Retail stores in malls are another area that is looking into it. Advertisers see shoppers who come into a mall as prime recipients of these ads because they came to the mall. They most likely have an intent to purchase something or might be enticed by a good deal, so they are a good audience to focus on.

While some companies and marketing agencies think this new technology is the future, others are doubtful. Some people think that consumers will find the ads annoying and they won’t have the desired effect.

From a marketing standpoint, this could potentially be a useful tool. If consumers are going into a store, they are more likely to be interested in the ads. Also, most people have their cell phones on them at all times so they are very likely to see the ads. But it could also have a negative effect. Consumers who do find the ads annoying may develop a bad opinion of the companies sending them and decide to take their business elsewhere.

As a consumer, I have mixed feeling about this. I think that if used properly, it could have benefits. After all, I am a college student, I am not overflowing with cash. I wouldn’t mind getting a coupon or discount offer on my cell phone if it saved me some money. I do think that it could go overboard though. If I started getting too many I would get annoyed. And I am sure that there are people who don’t want to get them at all. It is like salespeople calling in the middle of your favorite TV show. You don’t want to buy what they are selling. You just want them to go away and never call you again. I think that advertisers are walking a thin line on this one. It could go either way, depending on how they handle it. I am very interested to see what happens.

March is always a busy month for sports fans. Basketball season is ending and March Madness is starting, baseball teams are heading off for spring training and the race season is just getting started. But this March, sports fans had something else to look forward to: the World Baseball Classic. For the first time, baseball teams from all over the world came together to compete for the trophy. It’s like a mixture of the all-star game and the Olympics. I think this tournament is a big step for baseball. It gives it a chance to attract new fans and let them see the talent other countries bring to the plate. Sadly, however, there has been a lack of support coming from the baseball community.

I realize that this is the first time this tournament has been played so it will have to build a fan base. I also understand that it has a lot of competition for fans’ attention. But baseball is still America’s favorite pasttime and the signs of spring are starting to shine through (in the south at least). What says spring more than baseball? It’s the World Baseball Classic. It’s baseball mixed with patriotism, USA against the world…sort of. Now, I have to admit, I haven’t been able to watch as many of the games as I would like. I usually have class during the time they are playing, so I am limited as to what I can watch. I do check the Internet to keep up with what’s going on though.

I am just a little disappointed in the support being given to the tournament. Even major league teams haven’t jumped on-board. Yes, even my beloved Yankees. The Yankees hung a sign at their exhibition games apologizing to fans for the absence of their players who were competing in the WBC. Not a nice “our players are representing America” sign, more of a bitter one. I can understand them not being in favor of key players missing spring training, but at least they are still playing. Hopefully the tournament will cintinue to be played in the future and support will grow. I think it could have used a little more publicity. I think a lot of people don’t know about the WBC or what it is. The tournament could have used more promoting I think. Maybe the next one will be better. Of course team USA winning the tournament would probably help, too.

(I wrote the above before the USA team was defeated by Mexico and out of the tournament. I still hope the tournament continues and can get more support. I think it says a lot about the level of baseball being played in other countries. The other teams in the tournament definitely deserve some respect.)

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I signed up to participate in a research project for extra credit. It was a short survey that took me about 20 minutes to complete. I felt like I had a much better understanding of what was happening thanks to my research class. I knew what type of questions they were asking and had a good understanding of what they were trying to find out with the survey, even though only minimal information was provided.

The survey was designed to find out how college students used online websites for news information. They used a variety of questions to find out general online habits. The survey also incorporated brief news articles that were followed by a quiz to gauge understanding. Before the quiz, there was a disclaimer explaining that a deception had occurred and that respondents were free to leave without completing that portion of the survey. I think most people probably continued taking the survey, but it was nice to see that the survey creators were following protocol.

Overall, I didn’t mind participating in the survey. It was quick and harmless. I tried to answer the questions as honestly and as unbiased as possible. But I am sure that my results were probably somewhat skewed because I have been learning about research techniques. This made me wonder how accurately other students answered the questions. Afterall, we were all in there for the same reason (extra credit), some people might have breezed through just to get the points. You can’t know that for sure obviously. All surveys have their problems. I am interested to see the results.