Our office has been buzzing about “The Hunger Games” for months. Between chatting nonstop about the books, to getting hyped up for the movie premiere, we were ready to be among the millions watching Katniss Everdeen fight for her life.

“The Hunger Games,” by best-selling author Suzanne Collins, follows Katniss as she defies the odds and stands her ground against an oppressive government in the post-apocalyptic world of Panem. While the young-adult trilogy proved to be extremely popular on their own, the movie promised to be even more.  From a marketing perspective, it became clear that this movie was going to be big. Tactics leading up to the movie premiere included an online community modeled after Panem, a magazine and OPI nail color based on Capitol fashion, and more. Far in advance of the movie, many Hunters joined these communities and entered the world Collins created. We were excited to receive email updates from President Snow and a continuous wave of new movie trailers that showed just a little piece of what we were going to see in the big screen adaptation.

These far-reaching efforts allowed fans to actively participate in the movie as a full-scale event rather than just a standard movie premiere. The New York Times reported that “Lionsgate has generated this high level of interest with a marketing staff of 21 people working with a relatively tiny budget of about $45 million. Bigger studios routinely spend $100 million marketing major releases, and have worldwide marketing and publicity staffs of over 100 people.” It’s clear that they made all the right decisions, as “The Hunger Games” raked in more than $152 million domestically in its opening weekend, ranking third in all-time opening weekends.

If the characteristics of all social media tools were combined into the characteristics of a human – constantly changing, hard to navigate, frustrating, always on the go – then I would NEVER want to date that person. It seems like everyday there is a new social media tool or a new interface that we need to relearn and become “masters” of.

When I started at Hunter Public Relations early this summer, I was very excited to learn that I would be a part of the LinkedIn Task Force, a social media tool that I feel has been relatively consistent since its start. Social Media Task Forces are very important at Hunter PR as they allow people with similar social media interests in the office to work together and share their knowledge. I recently participated in a webinar titled “Effectively Leveraging LinkedIn – How to Use LinkedIn as a Powerful PR Tool” with PR News. The webinar featured three speakers who discussed being digital leaders in your organization, how to engage communities on your personal and professional LinkedIn pages, and the best ways to be seen and stay connected.

I never knew how important personal profile optimization was on LinkedIn. For example, the headline on my personal LinkedIn profile says that I am a Junior Account Executive at Hunter PR. However, people are searching for specifics, and if I include words like “public relations,” “consumer,” or “food” in the headline then my profile would be more likely to show up in searches and therefore drive more people to click on “Hunter PR” from my page.

I think it’s very important to stay on top of social media trends because (like that person you’d never want to date) they really are changing every day!

-Lisa

When I graduated from college two months ago and started my career as a young public relations professional at Hunter Public Relations, I had no idea how much fun my new job was really going to be. Between impromptu after work outings to planning high profile events all across the country, my first two months in the “real world” have been more than exciting.

Last night’s PRSA-NY Bowling Social was an event that will definitely go down in Hunter PR history. More than 30 Hunter PR staff members, all dressed in matching branded t-shirts, rolled into Bowlmor Lanes on 44^th Street and lived up to our team name Thunder from Down Hunter.  Taking up over half of the alley for the PRSA event, we arrived with fire in our eyes and ready to win the coveted Bowling Pin Trophy.

From what I heard, Hunter PR has a history of taking down the competition in sporting events, but when the bowling alley erupted with enthusiastic and positive Hunter PR staff bellowing chants and cheers to our squad of determined “athletes,” I couldn’t help but feel proud and grateful that I had the opportunity to join such a dynamic agency.

Though we did not take home the trophy last night, our team did have the highest score with a monstrous 179 from our fearless Co-Captain Trisha.  Fellow Hunter PR bowlers Sakura and Michael also won digital cameras, and the night came to a close with a fitting Hunter PR rendition of Katy Perry’s “Firework.” PRSA-NY put on a great event that brought the Hunter PR staff together not only as co-workers, but also as a team!

- Lisa