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Student Blogs from the University of Oregon Strategic PR Communication Course

Now that spring quarter at the University of Oregon has come to a close, I want to share with you a term-long project my students worked on: their blogs. For most of them, this was the first time they blogged at all, so I was especially impressed with the quality of their work.

I gave them some latitude to discuss passion projects of theirs in their blogs, so you will find topics ranging from sustainability to travel to the Kardashians!

Rather than just sharing with you a bullet point list of hyperlinked blogs, I thought you’d enjoy reading some of my favorite posts of theirs. Each blog has at least ten posts, so please take some time to scroll and click through their work.

They did a nice job of asking thought-provoking questions at the end of each of their blog posts. So if you have a few moments, it would be WONDERFUL if you’d comment on some of their posts.

If you’re a PR professor who has students blogging, what are your thoughts on ending posts with “thought-provoking questions,” those designed to promote interactivity with readers?

Image Credit: Image created by Barbara Nixon using Adobe Firefly.

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The Hidden Gems of Blog Organization: Why Categories and Tags are Vital for Engaging Your Readers

In the context of blogging, categories and tags are organizational tools used to structure and classify blog content. They serve different purposes and play important roles in enhancing user experience and optimizing blog navigation.

Here’s a breakdown of what they are and why they are important:

Blog Categories

Blog categories are broad topics or themes that group together related content. They provide a high-level organization and help readers easily locate and browse specific topics of interest. For example, a travel blog may have categories like “Destinations,” “Travel Tips,” “Budget Travel,” and “Adventure Activities.” Categories are usually displayed on a blog’s main menu or sidebar, allowing visitors to explore content based on their preferences.

Importance of Categories

  • User-Friendly Navigation: Categories offer a structured hierarchy, making it easier for visitors to find content relevant to their interests. They save time and effort by narrowing down the scope of information.
  • Enhanced User Experience: Proper categorization enhances user experience by presenting information in a logical and intuitive manner. Visitors can quickly identify and access the content they desire, increasing engagement and satisfaction.
  • SEO Benefits: Categories can contribute to search engine optimization (SEO) efforts by providing clear topical signals to search engines. Well-organized categories with relevant keywords can improve the discoverability and visibility of a blog’s content in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Blog Tags

Blog tags are specific keywords or phrases assigned to individual blog posts to describe their content in more detail. Unlike categories, tags are more granular and focus on specific aspects or topics within a post. For instance, a blog post about “10 Essential Packing Tips for Backpacking” may have tags like “packing tips,” “backpacking,” “travel essentials,” and “travel gear.”

Importance of Tags

  • Content Organization: Tags allow for precise content labeling and enable visitors to explore related posts across different categories. Clicking on a tag filters the blog to display all posts associated with that particular tag, creating connections between similar content pieces.
  • Content Discovery: Tags facilitate content discovery by offering alternative paths to related posts beyond the main categories. Visitors interested in a specific topic can click on a relevant tag to find additional posts on the same subject matter.
  • SEO Benefits: Similar to categories, tags can contribute to SEO efforts by adding relevant keywords to individual posts. They help search engines understand the context and topic of the content, potentially improving its visibility in search results.

Both categories and tags contribute to a well-organized and user-friendly blog structure. They improve navigation, enhance user experience, and assist in content discovery, ultimately leading to higher reader engagement and improved search engine visibility.

When you see a blog with posts that show as “Uncategorized,” what is your reaction? When I see “Uncategorized,” my first reaction is “Junk Drawer.”

Image Credit: Image created by Barbara Nixon using Adobe Firefly.

Disclaimer: This blog post was generated with the assistance of an AI language model, ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI. While the content was composed by ChatGPT, it is important to note that the ideas and information provided are based on its training on a diverse range of data. The post was reviewed and edited by Barbara Nixon for clarity and coherence.

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7 Things PR Professors Wish Their Students Would Do Over the Summer

This year, I’ve had the opportunity to teach public relations for both Auburn University and the University of Oregon. I’ve met some fantastic students.

Summer is a time for relaxing. For some folks. But if you’re a public relations student, you’ll want to keep these suggestions in mind for how to keep current in the ever-changing world of public relations over the summer. When you go back to class in the fall, you’ll be refreshed and knowledgeable.

Here are seven suggestions:

  1. Listen to For Immediate Release and/or Spin Sucks podcasts every week.
  2. If you’ve been blogging throughout the school year, blog at least every other week during the summer. You don’t want to lose readers who are not students or faculty
  3. Read at least one public relations trade book AND write a review of the book on Amazon and your blog. My recommendation? The second edition of Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content.
  4. Update your LinkedIn profile. See Are These Common Resume and LinkedIn Mistakes Holding You Back from Your Dream Job? for tips on brushing up your profile.
  5. Stay current with changes in Associated Press style.
  6. Write thank you notes to people who have made a positive impact on your life.
  7. Have some fun! Relish this time without homework with deadlines.

What are some other recommendations YOU have for how public relations students should stay engaged in PR over the summer?

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Are These Common Resume and LinkedIn Mistakes Holding You Back from Your Dream Job?

yelling formal man watching news on laptop
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

In several of my classes this term, public relations students are writing resumes and creating/updating their LinkedIn profiles as one of their assignments. I tend to see the same errors over and over again.

Here are some of the common errors I find:

Appearance / Overall

  • Having any typos, misspelled words or grammatical errors (some employers will swipe left if any mistakes are apparent)
  • Not using same header for all cover letter, resume & reference page
  • Using different fonts for no apparent reason
  • Failing to include your custom LinkedIn URL

Resumes

  • Longer than one page (it’s possible to “earn” more pages once you’re established in your career)
  • Not including strong action-verbs (too many “to be” verbs)
  • Providing too few keywords related to the PR field
  • Including “responsibilites/duties included”
  • Writing in first person (“I”)
  • Writing in complete sentences, rather than powerful, short phrases
  • Burying your education at the end of the resume
  • Not mentioning your education at your current university
  • Not describing your major and anticipated graduation date
  • Including high school, even though there are no relevant honors/awards/achievements
  • A low (below 3.0) GPA is listed
  • Extremely short (you can list relevant coursework if you have little related work experience)
  • Leaving unclear to the potential employer exactly what you accomplished in your work history
  • Including too much information about the employer (all you need is company name, city & state — no need for full address, supervisor name, etc.)
  • Dates listed in chronological, not reverse chronological, order (you should list the most recent information first in each section)
  • References listed directly on resume itself (they should be on a separate page)

LinkedIn Profile

NOTE: Use all the advice in the Resume section above, plus . . .

  • Not including a professional-looking photo of you
  • Not including a header image
  • Failing to create your custom LinkedIn URL
  • Lack of a dynamic headline that describes the candidate (you) in no more than 220 characters (about 50 words)
  • Not including at least 10 skills

Cover Letters

  • Focusing on yourself, not the needs of the potential employer
  • Too many self-focused statements; starting too many sentences with “I”
  • Forgetting to sign letter (scan your signature to place into electronic cover letters)
  • Not stating what you can do for the employer in clear terms.
  • Not including an enclosure line (such as: Enclosures: Resume & Reference Page)

Reference Page

  • Not using same header as resume & cover letter
  • Not including all necessary information (name, company name, title, full mailing address, phone number & e-mail address)
  • Fewer than three references listed

What additional mistakes do you commonly see?

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Pompous Pronouncements: Who Talks Like This?

Mr. & Mrs. Thurston Howell, III https://gilligan.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Howell


Below is a list of simple, everyday adages, bromides and proverbs that have been rewritten in inflated, jargonized English.

Your task is to translate each pompous pronouncement back to its original form. For example, “The policy of being sapient is injudicious where the opposite condition confers felicity” becomes “When ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.”

  1. Gramineous organisms are perpetually more verdant when located on an adjacent surface.
  2. Surveillance should precede saltation.
  3. Under no circumstances should one compute the quantity of his or her barnyard fowl previous to their incubation.
  4. A feathered biped in the terminal part of the arm equals in value a pair of such creatures in densely branched shrubbery.
  5. Pulchritude reposes within the optic parameters of the perceiver.
  6. Persons deficient in judgment hasten to undertake that for which winged celestials hesitate to assume responsibility.
  7. Individuals who make their abode in vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from catapulting petrous projectiles.
  8. Early entry into a somnolent condition succeeded by rapid entry into a scheduled plan of activities will maximize salubrious conditions, remunerative gains and sapience.
  9. Where there are visible emissions from carbonaceous materials, there exists conflagration.
  10. A plethora of individuals with expertise in culinary techniques vitiates the potable concoction.

The answers to this quiz will be posted later this week, after my J452 class at the University of Oregon has a chance to translate them.

NOTE: My dad typed up this list and mailed it to me in the early 1980s when I was in college at Auburn University. I am unsure of the original source.

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Overcoming Writer’s Block: Generating Ideas for Blog Post Topics

Image Credit: Barbara B. Nixon & DALL·E

As I was about to write a blog post from scratch for my college public relations students on how to come up with ideas for topics for their blogs, I thought to myself, “Self, is there a quicker way to get started than staring at my monitor?” After a moment or two of staring at my computer monitor, Self said to me, “why not try generative AI?”

ChatGPT

In ChatGPT, I provided the prompt “Helpful Tips To Come Up With Topic Ideas For Blog Posts,” and here’s what it generated:

  1. Consider your audience: Think about who you’re writing for and what topics would interest them. What are their needs, pain points, and questions? What are they passionate about?
  2. Research keywords: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify popular and relevant keywords in your niche. Look for long-tail keywords that are specific and have low competition.
  3. Look for inspiration in your daily life: Pay attention to your experiences, conversations, and observations. What topics have come up in your recent conversations with friends and family? What problems have you encountered and solved recently?
  4. Explore social media: Check out popular hashtags in your niche on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Look for trending topics, discussions, and questions people are asking. Join relevant Facebook groups and follow industry leaders on LinkedIn to get more insights and ideas.
  5. Analyze your competitors: Take a look at what your competitors are writing about. Identify gaps in their content and come up with unique angles to cover the same topics. Don’t copy their ideas but use them as a source of inspiration.
  6. Use brainstorming techniques: Write down as many topic ideas as possible without editing or judging them. Use mind maps, lists, or random word generators to spark your creativity.
  7. Repurpose your old content: Look at your previous blog posts and see if you can update or expand on them. Turn a blog post into a video, podcast, or infographic. Use feedback from your readers to come up with new ideas for your content.

Remember, the key is to be creative, relevant, and engaging. Keep your audience in mind, use data-driven insights, and have fun with your content.

Bard

Then in Bard, I asked provided a similar prompt: “5 unique ways to generate blog post topics.”

Here are five unique ways to generate blog post topics:

  1. Write about your own experiences. What are you passionate about? What do you know a lot about? What have you experienced that you think others would find interesting? Sharing your own stories and experiences is a great way to connect with your readers and make your blog more personal.
  2. Interview experts. If you’re writing about a topic that you don’t have a lot of personal experience with, consider interviewing an expert on the subject. This can be a great way to get new insights and perspectives, and it can also help you build relationships with other people in your industry.
  3. Write about current events. If you want to keep your blog fresh and relevant, write about current events that are related to your niche. This is a great way to stay top-of-mind with your readers and show them that you’re up-to-date on the latest trends.
  4. Write about controversial topics. If you want to generate some buzz around your blog, write about controversial topics. This can be a great way to get people talking and sharing your content. Just be sure to do your research and present both sides of the argument fairly.
  5. Write about things that make you laugh. If you want to lighten the mood and make your readers smile, write about things that make you laugh. This can be a great way to connect with your readers on a personal level and make your blog more memorable.

So . . .

You may be wondering if it’s ethical to use generative AI to help you come up with ideas for posts. Yes, it’s perfectly fine for inspiration for posts — however, your posts in your blog need to be written by YOU, not AI. Your readers will appreciate it, I promise you.

I'm Listening
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Resumes That Resonate . . . Revisited, Part Deux

pexels-photo-5922072.jpeg
Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

One of the most popular posts here at Public Relations Matters is one I wrote years ago on writing resumes. Below, I’ve updated this post for 2023.

What’s the purpose of a resume? It’s not to get you a job. . . instead, it’s to provide a positive first impression that MAY garner an interview for you. The advice below comes from my years of being a hiring leader – and listening to many more. If you’re lucky, hiring leaders may scan your resume for up to 10 seconds (10 seconds!) before they determine if it’s worth pursuing further. The tips below should help you gain their attention in a positive way.

In General

  • Tailor your resume to the specific position that you’re applying for. Use the same phrasing in your resume that you’ve found in the employer’s job posting whenever possible.
  • If you have less than 10 years of experience, it’s best to stick to the traditional one-page resume. Each additional 10 years may help to “earn” you an additional page. (If you want or need to provide more details, offer the URL of your LinkedIn profile. See my profile.) If you are not yet out of college, it’s presumptuous to think you need more than a one-page resume.
  • Corinne Weisgerber reminds us, “Resumes are often read by resume scanners first, so you got to write them to be read by a computer and a human audience. So work those keywords in. Just like SEO.” Pepper your resume with keywords and terms that are relevant to the career field and industry in which you desire employment. Phrase your work experience in terms that are relevant to your career goal.
  • Go easy on the fonts. Simpler is better (but avoid Times New Roman, as that may make your resume look dated.)
  • Even though many of the resume templates you can find in Canva and other sites include them, leave your photo off of your resume unless you’re applying for a job in Europe, says Leah Jones.

Contact Information

  • Your full name should be at the top of your resume, followed by contact information, including email address, cell phone number, city and state.
    • Use a professional-looking email address, not something like fuzzybunnyslippers@hotmail.com. (You’d be surprised.)
    • It’s no longer typical to see a candidate’s complete mailing address on a resume according to Chandler Claxton.
  • Optional: the URLs of your LinkedIn profile and relevant social media accounts. (ONLY include the social media accounts you want a potential employer to look at, of course.)
  • If your blog has content that may interest your potential employer, include its URL or the URL to a specific landing page with links to relevant posts on your resume.
  • Use the same header (contact information) for your resume, cover letter and reference page. Everything should coordinate.

Experience and Education

  • If you’re a soon-to-be or recent college graduate, you may want to highlight your education, followed by your experience. If you’ve had work experience in the field where you are seeking a new role, lead off with your experience.
  • Use reverse chronological order (most recent first) when listing your experience and education.
  • Wherever possible, quantify your achievements in your experience. For example, “Grew 11 channels by 10,000 followers in six months.”
  • Always start every bullet point in your experience section with an action verb. 
  • Chandler Claxton reminds us to use present tense for current jobs and past tense for previous jobs.
  • Never start a bullet point with “responsible for” or “duties included.” (Just because you’re responsible for something doesn’t mean you actually did it.)
  • If you have little paid work experience, provide details on projects done in classes to show that you are prepared to enter the working world.
  • Volunteer experience counts too! Don’t forget to include service projects you’ve been involved with.
  • Explain acronyms and cryptic group names on resumes. A potential employer will not automatically know that SOCS stands for Society of Communication Scholars, ILA stands for International Listening Association, or that The Oaks Agency is a public relations firm made up of college students.
  • Many employers assume that if an organization’s name includes Greek letters, it’s a social fraternity or sorority. If you belong to something Phi Kappa Phi, indicate that this is an honor society.
  • If you are still in college, it’s okay to leave your high school on your resume if you have available space for it, especially if you did something noteworthy during your high school years. After you graduate from college, leave high school off your resume.
  • What to do about that GPA? If it’s above 3.0 (on a 4-point scale), you may want to include it. If it starts with a 2 or lower, definitely leave it off. Or, you can include your GPA just in your major if you’d like, for example “3.4 GPA in Major.”
  • Before you graduate, you can still include your anticipated degree on your resume. For example, “Bachelor of Science in Public Relations expected in May 2023.”

For entry-level public relations positions, Jennifer Abshire of Abshire Public Relations & Marketing offers these additional suggestions:

  • Leave the objective off, or customize it for the specific position you’re applying for. Don’t use a generic one that you found on a template somewhere.
  • Include all your work experience, even if it seems not directly related to the position. (The worst that will happen is that it will show that you are a hard worker.) Abshire holds in high regard people who are well rounded and street smart, rather than with a high GPA and no work experience or community involvement.
  • Send a few samples of your writing or design work along with your resume.
  • If sending your resume (and samples) electronically, make one PDF file that has all the information in it, rather than sending multiple attachments. (For an inexpensive and easy-to-use program for creating PDFs, try CutePDF.)

A Few Common Sense Reminders in Closing

  • Jen Zingsheim Phillips says, “Don’t lie and don’t exaggerate.” It’s far too easy for you to get caught. Jen adds, “Employers will understand starting out — they will not understand lying.”
  • Doublecheck every link you include to ensure they go where you expect them to go.
  • Read your resume backwards, from the bottom up. It might be easier to spot errors this way. Your goal is zero mistakes.

After you’ve created your resume, have several people proofread it for you. Set it aside for a while. Then measure your resume up against this Resume Checklist.

What additional tips would YOU share?

I'm Listening
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Keeping Organized in Online Courses

Several years ago, when I was teaching up to ten online courses at a time, I said this: “If I was paid a dollar this semester for every time I heard/read a student say this, I’d be rich. Well, at least I’d have enough for daily Starbucks.”

It’s so confusing having an online class! I can’t ever remember when things are due…

Online courses have become even more popular in the past few years, for painfully obvious reasons. Even if you are an on-campus student, it’s likely you are taking one or more courses online.

The best advice I have for you is this: create a Google Calendar for yourself. (Here’s how.) Your Google Calendar is available from any computer, and it can automatically synchronize with all popular smartphones — which means that you’ll have the ability to know when things are due no matter where you are, 24/7.

Check your online course(s) to see when you have the following:

  • Synchronous lectures (where you are required to log in at a specific time to participate in class)
  • Asynchronous lectures (where the lecture is recorded, and you need to review it by a specific date)
  • Assignments due
  • Quizzes/exams due
    • Be sure you know if the date and time on the exam are when you must START it or FINISH it.
    • Do you need a proctor? (If so, do you need to schedule one on your own?)

Create a calendar entry in your Google Calendar for each item that is due. Set interim deadlines for yourself for larger projects. TIP: You can tell Google Calendar to send you a reminder about any deadline you choose.

You might even want to set a reminder to touch base with your professor, either by email or phone.

And that’s all there is to it. At least, except for the “completing the assignments” part.

Hope you found this helpful.

(NOTE: If you have another calendar method you prefer, and it already works well for you, USE IT. No need to switch. But if you’re having trouble staying on top of your classes, try this method. It’s how I keep myself organized.)

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Top 100 L&D Professional Nominee: Please Vote by November 1

<Shameless plug> I have been nominated for the TOP 100 LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL AWARD. Please vote at https://www.onconferences.com/vote-ld

The Top 100 Learning & Development Professional Award is a peer-voted award that is determined by peer observation of work. Winners represent some of the top learning & development professionals in the entire world.

Please consider voting for me if you have observed me exhibiting any of the following:

  • Made a considerable impact on their organization and/or previous organizations.
  • Made strong contributions to their professional community through thought leadership.
  • Innovated in their role/career.
  • Exhibited exceptional leadership.

</Shameless plug>

Thank you!