All right, So welcome everyone to inside the industry. I am your host, sterile and Smith, and we really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. For those of you who are with us last month, welcome back. And for anybody who is here for the first time, we are so glad you could make it, especially because we have a blue hand along with us today. So that makes it extra special. So we're going to kick things off with a quick overview about our graduate program and the speaker series. Though, the University of Delaware Department of Communication offers a Master of Arts in strategic communication. It's our professional graduate degree program. This is offered fully online so that students get flexibility to earn eight and advanced degree on the schedule that suits your needs. And we're continuing today with a program we host called inside the industry, which is our monthly speaker series. This is open to anyone currently enrolled in our strat comm program, as well as students in the UT community, our undergraduate students, as well as faculty and prospective students. So this series has been designed to connect you with practitioners from a variety of communication functions and organizations. So you can learn more about different career paths. Industry trends are best practices you can use in your current job. Or maybe the one you're hoping to chat to transition to one day each month during the academic year, we stream these online so you can participate remotely or watch the recording at a later time. And as we announced last month beginning in spring 2020 to knock on wood, we will also be hosting some of these sessions on Canvas in a hybrid format to give you a chance to connect offline and meet and network with other students, faculty, and our guest speakers. We actually just hosted our first hybrid professional development workshop last week on campus. So that's a program that's again, exclusively offered for our enrolled students and alumni in strat comm program. But keep an eye out if you are a student or a LAN joining today are watching this recording. Keep an eye out for information on our spring workshop, which will also be another in-person and virtual opportunity. So on a final note, if you're not currently enrolled and you want to learn more about the strat comm program, I encourage you to check out the website at the bottom of your screen. When it comes to Zoom today, we love to see your faces and have a lively and engaging conversation. We all know Zoom is better when we can actually see each other instead of the little squares on the screen. So we encourage you to turn on your cameras if you haven't done so already. And if you've got questions today or want to participate and ask a question or have some feedback this rate, use the little Raise Hand button on zoo. It's in the bottom right side of your screen and the reactions area. So let's move right along and it gets an introductions out of the way so we can get started. So as you all know, my name is Tara Lynn Smith. I'm a member of the faculty in the communication department and I'm the Director for the MA in Strategic Communication Program here at UT. Before transitioning to academia, I spent most of my career in New York City, working in corporate communication roles for global media conglomerates. In addition to working at a global PR agency. Our guest speaker today is Laura ever hard, and she has a public relations communications specialist at Blue Cross, North Carolina. She's been with the company for 10 years and is proud of the work it's been doing to make healthcare better for all North Carolinians. Before joining Blue Cross, she was a television reporter and anchor exploring stories all around the country. So we are really excited that we get to have someone who brings both sides of the table to us today. She's also originally from Malvern, pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Delaware in 2003 with her Bachelor of Arts in mass communication than a minor in French. Laura is married with two children and lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today, Lara, we're excited to have you Chair. Thank you for the kind introduction and hello everybody. Thanks so much for joining today. Yes. You do get to hear a little bit about my journey with with both sides of the communications world today. And I hope you walk away knowing that journalists and PR folks don't have to be enemies. We can be friends and we kind of need each other. So that's part of what I want to talk about today. But one of the biggest things in strategic communications is understanding your audience. So I would love to just take a few quick minutes and just everybody tell me your name and what you're studying. You're working right now and what you hope to do. I see I see Grace on the screen. That's my daughter's names. I love that one, but I'll start with you. Okay. I'll start. I'm Grace. I'm a junior fashion merchandising major with a minor in advertising and business administration. And I want to end up hopefully in New York City doing something with the luxury industry. Nice. Come on. I'll just call on people as you pop up. Samantha. Hi. I'm also a junior. I'm a communications major with a focus in PR and a minor and Disability Studies. And I'm very excited to hear about your journey today. Awesome. Melanie. Hi, I'm Melanie. I'm a junior media communications major with minors in advertising and psychology. And yeah, it makes me sad for you to speak today and hear what you have to say and that gives us advice. Cool. Jillian. Hi. I'm a communications major with a concentration in PR and a minor in advertising. And like everyone said, I'm really excited to hear it. That's cool. I don't see anybody else popping up. So I can say I see Tommy here. I went neck. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Just pop in if you haven't. Hello yet. I am Tommie Moore assignment and the actual strategic communication graduate program. About a 150 years ago, my first degree was in public relations. I write I represent the old guard here. Yeah, that was dyed graduated in 1983 before strategic commute, not strategic before social media existed. So that's what we're doing here. So I'm always interested to hear what's going on out in the real world these days other than what I'm doing right now, Association work and meeting planning. That's awesome. Yeah. A lot has changed even since when I got into the business. And I think I see Nick next on my screen. Hi. My name is Nick. I am a media communication major with minors in advertising and journalism. I'm really interested that you went from a journalism field, the PR, because I'm also interested in public relations and journalism. And I can't wait to see what you have to say. Great things that are right next to me. I see Stephanie. You're on your own. These little signs at work that you're already about that right now. My name is Stephanie I I'm in the strategic communication program. I work at the University of Delaware and I get a lot of value out of coming to these events. And I also look forward to hearing what you have to say. And I think we have just a few left. Again, some more of our undergraduates, it looks like Emma. Hi, Sorry, I'm working on brand bath, but a much better again. I'm a communications major with an entrance and P, r, and then double minors and add a guy named Paul. Go find. Then I'm off for screening. And I see Shawn and Caitlin, I think are the last to go on. Sean, I'm a junior communications major with a concentration of public relations as well as in advertising minor. And I'm just excited to learn about the industry a little bit. It's always good to talk to someone who has some experience. Great. I'm glad to hear it. And Caitlin, I think your last person, Mulan. Hi, I'm Kayla and sorry, my camera's not working, so I didn't want to like have a quick screen but I'm a yoga mat. You are comm major with minors in advertising, journalism and bashing management. I just loved hearing about every aspect of the industry that are so many that I I'm so excited to hear what you have to say. Great. Thanks, Caitlin. That's everybody, Tara? I think so. And I know we had quite a few folks who signed up who sometimes are meeting conflicts that were probably hurting. So hello to everyone watching the recording. Now, and this is great. We can hopefully have some good conversation a little bit later. And Tara, truly, it's awesome that you offer this because when I was back in school, I didn't really know what kind of options I had in the real world. You know, my my parents were not in that field and I I just I didn't know what I could do, so I kinda had to figure it out as I went along. So the more you can learn about what options there are for you, the better. Please. Let me share my screen. I'm a Microsoft Teams person because we don't use Zoom and Blue Cross and see, so just bear with me in case I mess this up. So hang tight. You're all good. My my students in strat comm program and my undergrad students know I still struggle with Zoom and I've been using it for two years straight. Oh gosh. Anywhere Is that me? Okay. Oh gosh. There. And now it's not showing up at work and let me see if I can. Yep. It says you should be able to. Okay. All right. Okay. Here does I think I got it. Yay. We can see your screen. Wander hall, and I will put it in presentation mode here. Ray. If it will go. No, maybe try that. Here we go. It looks good now. Wonderful. Okay. So I will try not PowerPoint you to death here today, so I'll be in and out of this. But just so you know what I would like to talk with you about today, a little bit about my career path, which isn't it wasn't in such a straight line, took a little bit of zigzags and changes than would like to talk to you about what it's like to work in strategic communications in corporate America. And then something that I think is really important. We think about strategy and we think about plans, and we think about being very organized. But I think it's really important to not lose sight of storytelling and the human element in communication. And so would like to talk to you a little bit about that as well. So as Tara told you earlier, I graduated from Delaware in 2003. I was a mass communications major, French minor. And I thought at this point, I was going to try and get into to broadcast television journalism. And my senior year, a really cool opportunity came up at the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia and VC 10. And it was called the best summer gig ever. And they were trying to find their next traffic reporter. So I ended up making the, the top 10. So that's, that's me. And this is from the actual Delaware site back in 2003, there were trying to get all the students to vote for me. So ended up making the top ten, then the top five, and then I didn't get it. Which is okay because I started sending out all of my tapes of all of my work I did in college. And it held true when you're trying to get a job in broadcast TV or any job, it's the old sales outage. It takes 30 tries to get a yes. Well, I sent out 60 tapes and 60 resumes and only got two calls. So one from Binghamton, New York and one from Greenville, North Carolina. I had only ever grown up in the Philadelphia area. We did not know anything about Greenville, North Carolina, but that's where I ended up taking my first job. So that's some good reporter here for you right there. That was my first headshot. This is my husband Dan. He was actually the sport Sky at that station and we ended up getting married and still are to this day. And then that next picture is me flying in an F 15 e strike eagle. When I was in Greenville, it was just one of the many cool opportunities that I had when I was a TV reporter. So I got to do all of these cool things. But as I was a young reporter in this small market, I quickly realized that the crux of my storytelling really relied on the people I was talking to every day and the emotion that they were feeling like, yes, there's a headline, house fire in whatever town. But the story or the people who were living in that house and what life is like for them in that small town. And that was something I I quickly realized as I started working in broadcast TV. So I went to Greenville, North Carolina. That was my first stop. And then after two years, I decided it was time to move on to the next market. That's how it works in television news. You start in small markets and kind of work your way up. So took a job in Louisville, Kentucky as my next position. And then finally ended up here in Raleigh, North Carolina and worked here for four years. So I got to experience tons of great things and all of these three markets, sad things, happy things really getting to be a part of people's families and daily life. Let me go to the next slide here. K. Then in 2011, this happened. That's my son Graham, and that is my last day on the anchor desk here in Raleigh. When I decided that the TV news world was just not going to work for me anymore. I was working weekends. I was anchoring the weekend news and then during the week when I was reporting, wasn't getting home until about seven or eight at night and I quickly realized it just wasn't going to work for me. In family life, a lot of people figure it out, so I'm not trying to discourage anybody who wants to do it, but it was just the decision I made at that time. So Graham, who you see there wasn't the only reason. Life in TV news is super chaotic. There are super tight deadlines. You have a deadline every day, sometimes multiple deadlines every day that you need to meet. So, you know, going back to strategy, you, you think you have a strategy set in the morning and you have about ten minutes to set that strategy. And it can change ten times throughout the day. So you really don't have time to come up with a solid plan. You're just kind of feeling your way through the day, going on facts and emotion and deadline. And that can wear on you. When Graham was, I don't know. I guess however old he was when I went back to work, 12 weeks old. One of my first stories back in TV news was talking to a family in Johnson County, which is next to wake county where I live. And there had been incident after incident over the last couple are over those few weeks of teenagers driving their cars too fast around these country roads and getting in these terrible accidents. And this is another one which I was covering. And it's not like TV news, you wouldn't cover every accident. But what made this significant was it was like the fifth teenager to die within a few weeks because of reckless driving. So I went there and when you work in TV news, you have you have a tendency to be able to kind of shut off your emotions a little bit. And I kinda went in with that kind of attitude like R and I'm going to get the facts like we're going to do the story or we're gonna meet our deadline. We're going to do all the things we normally do. And I was sitting down with the father of the son who had just been killed the day before, why he decided to talk to me. I still don't know because as a parent, I can't imagine being able to talk to someone in the media after something like that. But he sat down and talked to me and we were just talking about his family and his life. And he started crying. And then all of a sudden, it was just this surge of emotion. And I couldn't keep up that wall anymore and I just started crying with him. And that's when I knew that I couldn't do the job in TV anymore. I just couldn't handle that amount of emotion and stress every day. But at the same time, it also secured in my mind that telling people stories and saying connected to how people are feeling was why I liked being in communications. So I decided that I was going to get out of td and that's when I use some of that connections and some and applied for a few different jobs and eventually ended up landing at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, which I was really excited to do at the time. Because if you remember, the Affordable Care Act had just been put into place back in 2011. So there was a lot of change going on in the healthcare industry. And it was a really exciting time to be a part of all of that change, hoping that it would help people and be for the better. So I'm going to stop sharing for a minute here. Can everybody see me? Okay. So I ended up at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and that's where I still am today. When I went there, I started off in internal communications because that's the job that was open at the time and that was a good fit for me at the time. Because when you work in internal communications, you really have a great opportunity to more learn the business, learn the organization. So it was a great way to make that shift to corporate America. And I'll never forget my, my bosses. So my boss to this day was happy to give me the job. But you have one concern. And his concern was, can you make that shift from journalism to corporate America? And I thought, yeah, this is what I want to do. I didn't get what he meant and what he meant. What I think to this day he was getting at was, can you handle the strategy? Can you handle the amount of strategic communication it takes when you go from something chaotic and busy and creative every day to something that is very structured and regulated and takes a ton of planning. So I want to add a little naively to the honest add that first year I was put in charge of our big corporate town hall meetings. And I was asked to kind of revamp them and make them a little more exciting and produce it like you would a new show. So I jumped in, I did it. I did a good job, help jazz them up a little bit. And then my manager said, okay, this is, this is December right before Christmas. So great. You did that. Now, I would like to see next week a strategy for the whole next year. And I went why? Like I was so scared of the word strategy and I resisted. And I was like, No, I can just wing it and we just do a show BY show and I don't need a plan B. We got this. That's not how I work. That's what I thought I was super naive. And it took, it took a little bit, a little bit of like a come to Jesus moment with him. And he really helped explain to me the importance of having a strategy and a plan and making sure that what you're putting into place and what you're communicating is leveling up to the company's goals. And that's a connection that I just hadn't realized in my first year in corporate America. It was, Oh, okay, this big company has these big goals and I need to make sure whatever I'm communicating are working on is supporting those goals. So that was a really big shift for me. And then, and after a few years and internal communications started and getting better and better at strategy and started getting the hang of it. My kids were getting older and I decided, okay, now is a good time. I have two kids in elementary school. I have more time. I have the time and the will and the knowledge to go back to the PR team, which I think was probably a more natural fit for me anyway. But I had to learn that that corporate world first. So went to the PR team and that's where I've been cents and love the work that we do. It's busy, it's exciting. Things are always changing. But at the same time, the beauty in appreciating strategic communications is that usually you have a plan. So I do all the normal things a public relations person would do. I write press releases about new initiatives or press releases about a new company that we're collaborating with to help people manage diabetes, all that kinda stuff. But the main function of my job, what I spend probably 80 percent of my time on is reputation management. So this was a part of communications. Again, that was a challenge to me because it wasn't something I'd spent a lot of time doing. So what I mean when I say reputation management is taking account of all of the environmental threats that could be out there. What's going on in the legislature? What do we have coming up? That's positive news. What's out there that could be negative for us. Taking that all into account with of course, the company's goals and minds. And then planning out campaigns. And planning out what we're going to do to mitigate that threat. And that can be everything from TV ads to social media, to print, to radio, to LinkedIn posts. You know, it varies on what you're needing to communicate, but campaigns can be that big. And I'd like to give you a quick example of one that we recently did during the pandemic. Just to give you a little bit of an idea of what some of those big reputation campaigns can look like. So I'm going to share my screen again. I think it just takes a minute to warm up, is what we have going on here. And while you're getting ready to share that up, just to remind folks, if you have questions as we're talking or near the, near the end here, the second half of this, feel free to just click the little Raise Hand button in Zoom and we will call on you. Yeah, please. I don't need to hear my voice the whole time. If you have a question, just pop in. I have one quick question while you're transitioning. I'm just curious how because I think for a lot of our both of our graduate students who were here today and watching the recording, but also our undergrads. I think everyone struggles with the transition of maybe wanting to try something different, maybe trying a new career. And you have this very cute picture of you with baby gram making that big decision. How long did it take for you to feel comfortable with the idea of leaving behind this journalism career that you've had started to grow so, so successfully? That's a loaded question. Because I'm working in TV news was a huge part of my identity at this point, who I was and I didn't quite know who I was without that. Yes, I was a new mom and that was obviously a huge, big part of my life. But the question was, what next, can I still be successful? Can I still have a great career? Because I was, I was on a track as an anchor to keep doing that and I'm sure my career would have kept progressing, so I gave up a large part of my dream for that. But I think when you realize something isn't working and you realize that you have a bigger dream out there, which was for me to be there for my family. It made the decision a little bit easier. So yeah, but it was scary. It was scary. And in the back of my mind, I kept telling myself, okay, if this doesn't work, I can always go back. I can go back. So I guess that would be some advice to like. Don't think that whatever you end up trying, you're you're married to read they can, right? Yeah. Yeah. You can always keep growing and shifting and trying new things are going back to something that you weren't sure that you loved and maybe realize that you didn't love it. I think this is kind of cliche ish, talk about work-life balance. But you really, you really have to, you have to do what you're passionate about and that you like because you're going to be doing it every day. So whatever that is, just be okay with it. And I stole a phrase from my best friend back in college. Actually, she would always say just make it happen, make it happen. And I still say that to myself today. I'm doing something and I'm unsure about it. I just say make it happen. And I just keep going forward and do it. Well, that is actually great feedback and great advice and thank you for sharing with us that experience because it's not always easy to talk about those transitions you make. It, it seems like it obviously worked out really nicely because you ended up landing somewhere that you were excited to work and lots of opportunities with better you're going to share more with us now, but thanks for sharing that I think it's helpful for people to hear. Sugar is high. This can happen. Yeah, and, and luckily that's kind of how corporate America is set up. Now people don't stay in the same job for 40 years now people try different things and that's great. So next, in case you were thinking about, you know, whenever we have a lot of folks on the call interested in public relations, advertising, to give you a little glimpse of what it's like to work in the healthcare industry, which is gigantic. And we all know that there are a ton of jobs they are right now is that industry continues to grow. What you should know is that it's highly regulated. There's a lot of people we answer to and there's a lot of people we have to keep in the loop like the Department of Insurance and the state health plan that we service, and Medicare and Medicaid. There's there's just a lot of people that need to be in the know, including legislators and in some cases the governor. Things we do are very visible and affects the lives of people every day. So everything we do is well thought out. And that leads me to my next point that it's highly strategic. We can't just say Today I want to communicate about this cool partnership we're dealing doesn't work like that. We have to really think about what other news is there right now. And could this be C negatively right now? Should we wait, because there's a better time to do this? And it's not just taking into account what we're doing, but it's taking into account what's, what's going on in the news, What's going on in state government? What's going on at the federal level. So that's when the strategy really comes into play and thinking about campaigns or communications, sometimes months in advance, and making sure that the timing is right. So I told you I wanted to give you a quick example of I'd like to do reputation communications work. And one example that I will share is what happened in 2020 when the pandemic hit. We were getting ready to go out with a reputation campaign that when the pandemic hit just didn't make sense anymore. And we got the directive to try and come up with a campaign or not try but come up with a campaign where branding and marketing and corporate communications, where, where I work, which does reputation stuff, can come together in one cohesive campaign to help inform people about the pandemic and about COVID-19. And also engage them in what we're doing to try and help members and consumers. What are we doing to try and make healthcare better in this awful situation? So that the challenge and this is merging two different types of campaigns really quickly to something that everybody can agree on. But the cool opportunity when we were tasked with this was that if it works, we can create a really cool, new, cohesive way to reach people even beyond the pandemic. If we come up with the right kind of tone that people will resonate with. So we had to do this pretty quickly. We only had about two months to come up with this. So it was a lot of quick research. Who is our audience? What, what's our main goal, which really was at first to be informative and helpful with pandemic COVID information. And what specific audiences are we trying to reach? And what we, we came up with was thinking about what we resolve to do. So again, I know earlier I talked about that human connection and trying to appeal to the emotional side of people. And we wanted consumers and members to know that we were in this with them and we resolve to help North Carolina stay healthy, which you see on this bottom kinda tagline right here. And so this was what we, this is a social media example. There is a lot that went with this, including TV commercials and France, blog posts. And then all of this drove people. When you see this Learn More tab, driving people to a whole big website we created with COVID-19 information. So sorry, I see that my screen just blinked. We didn't see anybody still see the screen. Okay, very good. So hopefully this was the example we came up with at first, which was the most important information to relay. But the cool thing is that add that as this campaign evolved and the pandemic started, two numbers started to go down a little bit. We were still able to use this. We resolve tagline to reach our, our general audience and reach the audience that I was trying to reach two, which was the audience that we call opinion leaders are people who are kind of news attentive and have an impact on our reputation. So you can see how this evolved. So this is an example of a print ad, but we were able to get a lot more specific and targeted in our messaging and talk about drug, drug prices and why they're high and how we're fighting to keep health care more affordable and what we're doing to help transform healthcare. And really get a lot more specific and sharper in our messaging. Still under that same, we resolve tagline that brand and marketing was able to use as well as they use different messaging to try and reach the general consumer audience, African-American audience, Hispanic audience. It kind of works for all of that. So this is an example of a big campaign for reputation management, just in case you were wondering what that meant to me when I was talking about that's mostly what I do now. But it can really, like I, like I mentioned, run the gamut of all different tactics and including TV all the way down to social media. And it's who do you think of it as one big strategic plan, starting with your main goal, and then getting very tactical as you move forward. So before we get to Q and a, which time is that we're getting we're getting close. I wanted to leave you with some of my biggest takeaways from working in corporate communications and TV and what I've learned from both. So as I mentioned before, always, always, always. Start with your audience. Who are you talking to. That will really help you keep your messaging tighter and sharper and more specific. So once you establish who your audiences, then you think about what is your goal, whether that's the departmental goal that you're working towards or your company's goal. Or if you're working for a non-profit, the non-profits goal, but what are you trying to achieve? So you're tailoring your writing for that audience to make sure you can help achieve that goal. That's how you start any strategic plan. And I don't know how far you've gotten into communications planning. But there are lots of templates and different ways to do it. There's, there's lots of people who may say no, you need to follow this formula to do it. But really when you're coming up with your plan, do it your way. Do what makes sense for you so that you can follow that plan. Just always going back to the goal and the audience. And then something that I've carried over from TV news is something I like to call your nugget of information. So what I mean by that is what is most interesting part of what you're trying to communicate. What is the GCS little tidbit, whether it's a stat or some, something really crazy that happened, or a really new, great innovative partnership. What's the most interesting thing? And then use that in your headline and in your lead. Use that to really draw people in and get them interested in what you're trying to say. Does anybody have any questions about this before I move on? No. Okay. And this is I think equally as important as your strategic plan. And that's keeping the creativity in your storytelling. So I still think back to that story about the teenager and his dad. Whenever I sit down to write something, I still think about the human connection in whatever I'm trying to convey. It's, it's the why are people going to resonate with this? What's going to stir up some sort of emotion in them about this? And that doesn't mean it has to be sappy. I'd I don't when I say emotion, I don't mean that what I, what I mean is like what's going to catch their attention and really resonate with them. When you're communicating this next point, you need to stick to the point and, and you can do that eloquently. You can write short sentences, but you can still write them creatively. And the reason you need to do that is because you'd have to remember your task when you're communicating in any strategic plan, you need to remember that whatever you're writing or whatever messaging you're trying to put out there is not journalism. It's not, it's not you trying to entertain people. You are almost like a salesperson for your organization or company you're working for. You're either trying to communicate a call to action, something you want people to do. You're trying to change behavior. So you want people to do things a little bit differently. Or you want to influence how people are thinking. And to do that, you can't waste any space or any sentence in what you're communicating. Everything you need to write needs to go back to that and go back to your audience and go back to your goal. There's really no room for fluff in strategic communications. Biggest takeaway for me. My number one tip piece of advice for what it's worth is what's in it for me. Why do I care? Why does anybody care about what you're writing about or whatever message you're trying to put out there. If you do one thing before you sit down to come up with a plan or right, or come up with social media. Think about what is in it for me. And when I say me, I mean your audience, why should they care? And this was something that every news director I ever worked for would always others fight with you about it in a newsroom as a way to challenge you to make sure that your story made sense and was relevant. And if you can answer that question, then maybe the direction you're going in isn't the right one. So I would always ask yourself that in whatever you're doing. So here we are 10 years later and just wanted to share that even though I don't work in TV news, I still gets it to be on TV every now and then representing the company. So that's me during the pandemic, during an interview with one of our local anchors here. And That's really fun for me because it's like coming full circle. I get to use all of that knowledge and, and I'm sticking to what Blue Cross and C needs to say, but also getting to use some of those old television skills. So for those of you who are thinking about going into broadcasting and don't know if you can pivot. Here's purse that you can. I think I have one more slide up that was that. Okay. Well, so it does really all come full circle your time, the anchor desk and then later on behind your computer screen during the pandemic communicate your company? Yeah. So I definitely wanted to see if I don't want to get too bogged down in the health insurance world or healthcare industry. I really just wanted to share with you kind of how I got to where I am and give you some of the biggest things that I've learned along the way. So if you have questions, I'd love to hear. It can be about anything. All right. So we'll open it up to those of you who are here live. If you've got questions, just click the little Raise Hand button on Zooms that we can call on you because everyone knows it's fun to talk over each other on Zoom and I'd see Stephanie is giving you some virtual applause. Sorry. Thanks. Though it's a raised hand. I hit the wrong button. You can give her applause or raise your hand. How we know we can do this. And I'm currently actually So I just was wondering c. So a lot of your job is reputation management. In your campaign says that ends up dictating what kind of call to action you will most frequently using strategically like, would you do more influencing thinking versus teaching behavior, for example? Yeah, that's, that's a great question. In reputation management. I wouldn't say it's. So much as a call to action, but more trying to change the way people are thinking. So I can give you an example of, of, you know, we're trying to help people understand all of the factors that go into rising premiums and rising drug costs. So what we're trying to do is really be transparent about drug prices or other are really some of the main drivers of cost. So I think in reputation management, it's really trying to get ahead of issues that we can see coming or that are out there right now. And one of the biggest issues for people right now are drug costs. So that's something that we're, I'd say it's more of an education type thing. But I definitely worked on things where it's a call to action. Especially when it's I don't know, maybe it's like community work type press releases or something else where people have more of an opportunity to get involved. Great. Thank you for that question, Stephanie. I see. We have Samantha has her hand raised for a question. I thank you so much for coming and speaking with us today. I learned a lot about you. I just have a question. I'm a junior in college right now and obviously, I'm a communications major and it's a very broad fields. But when you are my age, did you feel like a little bit discouraged before going out into the real world and knowing what you actually would want to do in the future. Yeah. Oh gosh, that's such a good question. I don't know that discouraged was the word because is would be the word because I don't think I knew any better. Like I really wasn't willing to let myself think that I could make it. So I just kinda kept pushing forward. And I think if there's something you really want, like just keep trying until you get it. Like that would be my best advice. I know it's a different job market now than it was when? Back in 2003. And obviously the journalism field has changed dramatically. But if there's something you want and then do it, get internships now, especially for engineers out there like in turn now and start networking. Because if I'm being completely honest, a lot of times, lambda in that first job or even second, third job can be influenced by who you know, honestly. So even if it's just someone vouching for you that you're a nice person or that you're collaborative. So start connecting and interning and asking questions. Thank you. Yeah. Good question. And I think I have a question here from direct message. So I know one of the question here is looking back at your career path, especially given the, the change from, you know, from being in journalism to PR. What's basically the biggest lesson you've learned along the way, you've shared a lot of lessons with us. Interesting insights. But I guess the first thing There's just curious kinda what's your what's the biggest aha perhaps that you've had going from one field to another. Yeah. I think it's to not let things scarier. Like I mentioned before, the word strategy scared me so much. I was, and still am, to be honest, like still sometimes get a little scared of strategy. You wanted something as big as planning, like a year-long campaign. But I think you just have to start doing it, like just start. And that would be you just have to start somewhere and just take it from there. Whatever it is you're doing. Any other questions? While we're letting folks think of their question or type it or raise their hand. I actually also have another follow-up question for you. Just out my own personal curiosity. From the beginning of this pandemic to now, what's been the most challenging thing you've had to deal with? Because I think in every industry it's been challenging, but especially if you're working in healthcare right now. So what's been free for you and your team, perhaps the most challenging thing these days. I think we're still not in the office and will never be back in the office the same way that we were. So I think it's just be really intentional about connecting with people. So I mean, even going back to that question right now, I still have to make sure I'm networking with my own co-workers because we don't have the opportunity for all those little side conversations in the office like, Hey, what are you working on? What are you doing? Oh, and you learn about something else going on in the company that can help your work. So I think it's just making sure you take the time to still talk to people. And again, it goes back to that human connection. I'm very much an extrovert and I need, I need to feel that connection with people. So, you know, I was the person in the office distracting everybody because I would just go around talking all day. So. I'm just making sure that we're all still staying connected personally and professionally. That is, I think a challenge we can all relate here, even, even our students and trying to keep connected with each other. And seeking safe say on campus is definitely a challenge was thankfully, they've been doing a great job at and for students in our strategic communication program to your point, laura, they're exclusively online. We have students all over the country in different time zones. And so finding ways for them to stay engaged is definitely something I know. Football still struggling with finding those ways to stay connected. So does anyone else here who's on live? Does anyone else have a question? Oh, I see one in the chat window for Melanie who I know is like traveling and walking around outside. Do you feel that your initial career of broadcasting in journalism prepared you for PR? And did you ever think about getting going to get your master's degree? Great, great, great, great question. Yes and yes. It for those of you in the master's program right now because I wish I had done that. I think I've just kind of trial by fire the last 10 years. Just save it a little bit busy. Because I had I known that was really what I wanted to do, literally would have gotten a master's in strategic communication because it's super-helpful, just understanding the importance of communication and a, and a plan and goal setting. And just being pre-organized about what you're communicating is very important. And that's, that's something I would call a blessing and a curse coming from TV news. I came in and I'm glad you asked this question is I wanted to make this point. I came in very creative, chaotic field and that worked to my advantage because I was able to, to maybe do some things that, you know, we're a little out of the norm at Blue Cross and see that people weren't used to kind of work in my own way a little bit. But at the same time, there are times looking backward were yes, I absolutely could have and should have been more strategic. So it's just been a learning experience for me this whole time. And if I could leave you with anything, it's like yes, like take what you're learning in communications and take all of those great theories and tips. But also don't forget to put your own spin of creativity on it. And when I say that, go back to that human connection, go back to that storytelling. So that's how I'd answer that question. Well, I also wanted to mention before we go for all the ladies on this call, another big thing that I've learned is do not apologize in emails. Don't say sorry, I didn't get back to you. Don't say sorry, this like you have nothing to apologize for it. You do your job and if you're late, getting back to someone than just answer their question in the e-mail. Don't say sorry for it. That is a great tip and I'm glad you brought that up. That was definitely some thinking many of us struggle with myself included. Some catch yourself. Everyone on that note and oppose these Melanie, she's right here. I think I was thinking of whatever our student was earlier who was logging in from, from transporting herself between classes. Here. Sorry about that melody. And actually, it's funny you say too, I think it's important to note that learner, I think you were in such a unique and kind of add it to your advantage. A great situation where it sounds like your manager when you came on board, maybe through trial by fire, gave you the opportunity to kind of learn on the job about the strategic communication, discipline in a way that not everybody unfortunately gets to experience. So for many of the students in our master's program, that's a lot of the reason they're there. They're not necessarily getting that opportunity. And the jobs that they maybe have now more than just coming from a completely different career. So I think that that's helpful for you to kind of share that to that you've got that opportunity that not everybody necessarily gets to learn as you as you change careers, right? Yeah. And if you're not, I mean, sometimes if you're working for a non-profit or a smaller organization that you might not have that resource, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I owe a lot to that manager honestly. For for kind of taking the under his wing. He was also a former journalist. He was a newspaper right there. I think he understood where I was coming from. Okay. There's a lot of people that I probably owe. Thanks for some patients with me. But like I said, just because you don't have the all of the skill sets that the job description might have doesn't mean you can't learn. And it doesn't mean that you don't have other skill sets that are seen as very valuable. I think that's what happened in my case. I had skills that were valuable and ICT skills I needed to learn. And I think just being honest with yourself and knowing, knowing what you know and knowing what you don't know really helps. And I think it's awesome, you know that all of you are here today just wanting to learn more. Absolutely. That's why we're so excited me to get a quite a few you to join live. We do always have one question we ask at the end before we wrap up. That's kind of a fun question we asked all of our speakers and they don't tell you this one, an advanced Cyrus and a quiz at the end, but does anyone have any other questions before we start to wrap up? I want to make sure I don't steal anyone's thunder. Any final questions? Okay. So seeing that I am going to share with you the question we ask all of our guest speakers at inside the industry, and it's if you could pick one song that best represents you to be your theme song. I already see Laughter with that song. Be, Oh my gosh, I currently or in the past. It could be current, it could be pass some of you may be used to represent who you are or maybe it represents you now, but what would your theme song for you to pick one song? Okay, so when I'm just like most of the age of many of you still in college or grad student, it would definitely be the Friends theme song because it was just like just like claw on your way up, like just shared I entered trying to make it work. Well. And now, I don't know. It'll be something much like sassy are now like like don't mess with me now. I don't know. No. Well, yeah, that's fair. That's where you have a before and after. That's now and then That's nice. I like that. So from friends to something sassy, don't mess with me. I like actually, the song that's coming to mind probably isn't appropriate. I'll check. Yeah, absolutely. That's amazing. I think that might have been the best answer we've bad actually logical theories. That that's why I'm glad to hear. But up on that now if any of you like get, get your LinkedIn on like I'm on LinkedIn and connect to. And there is someone early in my career who helped me put my first taped together back in Philadelphia and she was an anchor there and really took me under her wing and I love to pay it forward when I can. So if there's anything I can do to help you as you're getting started in your career or as you're looking to make career moves, please let me know. Well, thank you so much for offering to do that. I'm sure there will be some folk theory will take you up on that. And thank you so much again for spending time in your busy schedule and a busy job. We appreciate you being here and sharing your career path and all of your great advice with us today. This was wonderful. Thank you so much. Thanks for inviting me. Thanks everybody. And if you have follow-up questions, just shoot me an e-mail. We'll do. Thanks everyone for coming. Thank you. Thank you.

Inside the Industry with Blue Cross NC's Public Relations Communications Specialist

From Tara Smith November 17, 2021

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Laura (Barron) Eberhard ('03/AS) is a public relations communications specialist at Blue Cross NC. She’s been with the company for 10 years, and is proud of the work it is doing to make health care better for ALL North Carolinians. Before joining Blue Cross NC, she was a television

reporter and anchor exploring stories all around the country.

In this session, she discussed why it’s important to keep the storytelling in strategy.

Inside the Industry is a monthly speaker series presented by The University of Delaware's M.A. in Strategic Communication program. Learn more at https://stratcomm.online.udel.edu.

Tags: strategic communicationinsidetheindustry

Department Name: Communication
Date Established: November 17, 2021
Appears In: Inside the Industry

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