As Alyssa Bootsma has found, working in the Office of Marketing and Communications at Grove City College her work is all about selling. She asks herself things like, “How can I communicate this information about the college in the most effective and beneficial way so my readers receive accurate and attractive information about the college?”
What are the ways in which she has found and learned to do this? Story telling, writing press releases or articles to go appear in the alumni magazine and managing the different social media platforms are a few she mentioned. Alyssa highlights different events and happenings on campus that might be of interest to the surrounding community and shares what individual students are up to at different points in their college career informing readers of the exciting growth and experiential learning that is taking place at Grove City College.
Alyssa noted the voice she seeks to write with when writing for the Office, she describes it as “formal but friendly and positive but professional.” She always writes honestly and interestingly pointed out that as an Office they choose not to write or speak about any negative aspects of the college in their communication because they are in the realm of Public Relations, not journalism. Pieces of journalism will tell it like it is but in Public Relations, things are a bit more filtered.
The art of selling is sometimes hidden in different vocations but is always present in some way shape or form. It is a beautiful thing to be in the way of sharing information to add value to listeners.