Hi! I’m Carolyn and this is the Fashion Connection. I am creating this blog for my strategic public relations writing class at the University of Oregon, where I’m currently a senior. I’m excited to get to work and further explore my passions for public relations and fashion. Some of the topics I’ll be diving into are: when campaigns go wrong, viral fashion moments, the pop-up shop phenomenon, the importance of event planning, and more!
My interest in public relations began at a young age- even if I didn’t know the name of it. When I was younger I would create power points to persuade my parents to do certain activities or buy me different things. When I arrived at the University of Oregon, I realized that I could combine my skills of persuasion, creativity, and love of connecting with people into a career that I'm excited about!
Over the years, I have become an avid social media user and have gained experience in managing profiles from many different perspectives. I started to learn more about professional social media when I was elected as my sorority’s Director of Public Relations. It was my job to manage a team, build connections within the community, with other Greek organizations, and with potential new members both in person and through our social media channels.
I was also able to work on my public relations skills when I interned for an online therapy start-up last summer. During my time as an intern, I worked to make connections with influencers, bloggers and healthcare professionals, created and ran the organization’s social media profiles, and analyzed our success. I enjoyed engaging with others online and being able to communicate the organization’s goals with the public.
Because of what I have learned in my classes, I have started to see the world, especially media, in a new way. When I was younger, I didn’t understand that the content I was seeing on TV, on social media, and on other online sites was most likely being used to get me to buy something. Now, I see things much more clearly and notice product placement in almost every type of media I consume. As a public relations professional, I have learned the clever ways that brands get their name and products into our view and it made me curious about how the fashion industry does it.
As a way to combine my two interests, I decided to start this blog about public relations and fashion. I’ve always found fashion campaigns fascinating and I want to uncover how brands use the media to capture consumers attention. I’m excited to explore different tactics that brands use to make themselves stand out in a time when it is especially hard to do so.