COMM 2322 Spring 2011 › Public Relations Matters

April 21, 2011

Wrapping Up #COMM2322 with WKRP’s Turkey’s Away

"Les Nessman" with my infant son James and me (1990)

[Updated from a similar post in June 2010.]

As we start wrapping up our spring semester in Public Relations Applications class, it’s time to end the semester in my traditional way: by watching a classic episode of the classic late ’70s / early ’80s TV show “WKRP in Cincinnati” :: “Turkeys Away.”

According to the Internet Movie Database:

“[Station manager] Mr. Carlson is beginning to feel useless at the new formatted rock station so he decides to create a big Thanksgiving Day promotion. His idea? Get a helicopter, with a banner attached to it saying “Happy Thanksgiving From WKRP…” Then, based on a botched promotion from a radio station in Arkansas, live turkeys are dropped from a helicopter. Chaos ensues.”

Take 20 or so minutes to watch the episode below, keeping in mind what you’ve learned in COMM 2322 during the semester.

So what can public relations students learn about how NOT to do a promotion from Mr. Carlson’s fiasco? I’ll get the list started:

Communicate with your entire team before launching a promotional campaign (or a turkey).
Do your research! It’s best to learn ahead of time that turkeys don’t fly.
Get permission before doing a stunt.

What would you add to this list? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

April 14, 2011

Seeking Feedback: Best Blogs & Podcasts for Spring 2011

Though I love getting feedback from all sorts of people, this short survey is designed specifically for students in my public relations courses this spring. I will share the results on my blog by the end of April.
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April 7, 2011

Public Relations During Times of Crisis

Public Relations During Times Of Crisis

View more presentations from Barbara Nixon

Based on the presentation Crisis Management: The Savvy Communicator by Kami Huyse. Used with permission.

February 17, 2011January 13, 2012

A College Student’s Guide to Getting Started with Twitter

Image Credit: "Montreal Twestival 2009 Cupcakes" by Clever Cupcakes

During Week Seven of our Spring Semester, I have the opportunity to attend the Social Fresh Conference in Tampa. (Thank you, HubSpot, for the free ticket that I won!)

So instead of class on Monday/Tuesday, spend some time learning on your own about using Twitter. Here are a few ways to learn. We’ll talk more about Twitter either right before or right after Spring Break (depending on which class you are in). Be sure to follow the directions in Step 4 so you “take attendance” for the class; you can send the required tweet/message anytime before midnight on Tuesday.

Step 1: Watch

If you haven’t seen it already, watch Twitter in Plain English, made by the folks at Common Craft:

Step 2: Watch

Then watch the Inbound Marketing University webinar titled “Twitter for Business,” led by Laura Fitton (@pistachio on Twitter) OR “Twitter for Business” led by Paul Gillin (@pgillin on Twitter). You don’t have to watch both, unless you’d really like to see two different perspectives on using Twitter.

Twitter for Business from Paul Gillin on Vimeo.

Step 3: Read

Read my post 10.5 Ways for PR Students to Get the Most Out of Twitter.

Step 4: Subscribe

Set Up Your Twitter Account

Go to Twitter. Click Get Started, and sign up. I prefer it if you use some version of your first and last name as your Twitter ID. (Avoid putting numbers in your Twitter ID, or you may appear like a spammer.)
Upload a photo or avatar.
Write a brief (160-character or fewer) bio. It’s good to mention that you’re a PR student. Consider mentioning your university.
Send a tweet saying “I’m a student in @barbaranixon’s #COMM2322 /#COMM4333 / #COMM4633 /#SPC4350 class”. (Use the correct number for your class.) Be sure to include the #xxx1234 indicator, with no spaces between the hashtag (#), letters and numbers. It is by you sending this tweet that I will “take attendance” on Monday/Tuesday.

Step 5: Follow

Follow the people I recommend in my Starter Pack for PR Students list: — at least for the duration of this semester. I will also create lists for students in each of my classes (but I cannot do this until I have all your Twitter IDs.)

Additional Information

If you already have a Twitter account that you use primarily for social (not educational or professional) reasons, you may wish to create a fresh, new account for this class and professional reasons.
Review my tips on Choosing Whom to Follow on Twitter: My Strategy.
Review Prof. Sam Bradley’s College Student’s Guide: Twitter 101.
Review The Anatomy of a Tweet: What Do All Those Symbols Mean?
I find using the web interface for Twitter to be clunky. I prefer using TweetDeck, a free Adobe Air app that works great on PCs and Macs. TweetDeck makes it really easy to send URLs via Twitter, as it automatically shortens them for you.
I’ll occasionally post information on Twitter and use the hashtag for your class (#COMM2322, #COMM4333, #COMM4633 or #SPC4350).By using this hashtag, I’m indicating that I want students in this class to pay special attention to the tweet.
If you’d like to publicize your blog posts via Twitter, you can it automatically in WordPress.

If you’re a college student, especially a college student majoring in public relations, I’d love to hear how you have benefitted by using Twitter.

January 28, 2011January 13, 2012

Using Compfight to Find Images for Your Blog

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to find images to use in your blog posts (using Compfight and Flickr), insert the images, and — most importantly — give proper credit to the creator of the image.

January 27, 2011

COMM 2322 Student Blogs, Spring 2011

Students in my COMM 2322 PR Applications class have started blogging. They will be adding to their blogs weekly throughout the Spring semester.

If you are a student in this class and your name does not show up on this list, please be sure you have at least one post on your blog, then complete this Google Form; it’s a manual process to build the blogroll, so your name will not show up immediately.

January 27, 2011January 17, 2012

A Dozen FAQs About Blog Assignment, Spring 2011

Image Credit: "street art vienna" by a_kep

Students have been asking lots and lots of questions this spring as they get started with their blogs. Virtually all of their questions are answered here in my Public Relations Matters blog.

How do I know what I am supposed to blog about?

See the Blog Guidelines for your class.

How long are my blog posts supposed to be?

See the Blog Guidelines for your class. And for a graphic example of this, see Everything I Need to Know About Blog Post Length I Learned at Starbucks.

Where are we supposed to find lists of other blogs to comment on?

See the top menu bar on my blog for lists of other student bloggers this semester.
See my Diigo social bookmarks for a list of my recommended PR blogs.

I still don’t understand what to do to track the comments I write on other people’s blogs.

See Tracking Your Blog Comments.

I don’t know how to do something in WordPress. Where should I look to find the answer?

See WordPress 101: Getting Started with Your Blog. You’ll see the PowerPoint presentation I shared when I helped you get your blogs set up, along with LOTS of other helpful information.

I created all the categories you told me to, and they still don’t show up on my blog. Why?

The categories will show up in your category widget once you have at least one post written in the category.

So I just have to have all the right amount of posts and comments before the end of the semester, right?

That’s part of it, but there are also weekly deadlines for the Topics of the Week (that’s why they’re called Topics of the WEEK). And you have interim deadlines as well, so that you can evenly space out your posts throughout the semester. Your Blog Editorial Calendar will help keep you on track. It’s not overwhelming if you keep up with it every week.

What’s this Blog Editorial Calendar that is due, and how to I create one?

See Creating a Blog Editorial Calendar. You will create the Blog Editorial Calendar in Excel, then submit it in BlackBoard by the due date. (NOTE: If you already maintain another calendar to help you keep organized during the semester, you can add in the elements that go in the Blog Editorial Calendar into that. Then photocopy it, highlight the Blog elements and turn it in in class on the day it is due.)

What do I need to have done for the Blog Checkpoints?

See the bottom of the Creating a Blog Editorial Calendar for a file that shows the Blog Checkpoint expectations for each of my classes.

Where am I supposed to get ideas for the PR Connections?

These can be about any aspect of PR that you would like to discuss. Some students like to choose a theme based on their interests: nonprofit, entertainment, sports, fashion, etc. Others read Ragan’s PR Daily and find ideas in there. If you’re stuck for an idea, ask a classmate, then ask me. (I’d much prefer for you to come up with your own ideas, but I can assign some if necessary.)

How will you evaluate the overall blog at the end of the semester?

See the draft of the rubric. (The points may be different in my different classes, but the categories of what I am evaluating are the same for each class. I will have the proper rubric available for each class by the middle of the semester.)

Can I see some examples of outstanding blogs from your previous semesters?

Everything I Need to Know About Blog Post Length I Learned at Starbucks

Students in my PR classes have been asking the age-old question “How long does my assignment (blog posts, in this case) need to be” in the last few weeks. Though I’ve described it in class orally, and wrote about it here in my blog, it wasn’t until I made a Starbucks analogy that it finally clicked with many of them. I made a low-tech infographic with chalk (remember chalk?), and snapped a picture of it before I left class today.

So here it goes: Everything I Need to Know About Blog Post Length I Learned at Starbucks.

starbucks_and_blog_posts — Image Credit: "Starbucks and Blog Posts" by Barbara Nixon

Trenta-Size

The Trenta is Starbucks’ newest cup size, designed for iced drinks only. It’s huge. (Well, not really. It’s 31 ounces. It’s slightly smaller than the size of a Big Gulp.) For my students’ blogs, their Topics of the Week should be the longest posts in their blogs. They need to be 300 words minimum.

Venti- or Grande-Size

Venti and Grande are Starbucks’ medium sized cups. (But don’t order a “medium” at Starbucks. The baristas will look down on you if you do. Trust me.) The PR Connections (commentary about of PR-related topic of their choosing) don’t have a specific length, but somewhere between the 300-word minimum of the Topics of the Week and the 50-word minumum of the Blog Comments is a good place to aim.

Tall-Size

This is the Starbucks’ size that has always baffled me. In whose measuring cup is the smallest size made the “Tall”? Anyhow . . . Students will be writing comments on a variety of blogs (from their peers and from PR pros) throughout the semester. In previous classes, they didn’t like that I told them that the comments needed to be substantive. They wanted a number. So here it is: For Blog Comments to “count” for a grade in their classes, the comments need to be 50 words minimum.

So in a nutshell, or a Starbucks cup, there should be a variety of lengths of posts in my students blogs, ranging from the Trenta (Topics of the Week) to the Tall (Blog Comments), with Venti or Grande (PR Connections) snuggled nicely inbetween.

Hope this helps!

(PS — This is a Trenta-sized post, for what it’s worth.)

January 24, 2011January 13, 2012

Creating a Blog Editorial Calendar

Image Credit: "Fondo de escritorio. Calendario del mes de abril" by Trinamita

Just like with most publications, blogs should have Editorial Calendars. Why? Editorial calendars will do the following:

Fulfill a requirement for the Blog assignment in my classes 🙂
Help you realize the scope of your work on the Blog
Keep you on track for deadlines
(And once this class is over), Editorial Calendars help ensure that your readers are receiving fresh and relevant content on a regular basis.

To create your calendar, use the template provided: Blog Editorial Calendar Spring 2012. Be sure to see the second tab of the calendar for an example of a few weeks of what your calendar might look like. The more detail you include in your calendar, the better. Submit the calendar using BlackBoard.

Some tips:

Be as specific as you possibly can in your descriptions for the posts. For example, rather than just saying TOW #1, type in the actual topic after you type TOW #1. With PR Connections, you can be general for now by indicating when you need to post them, but update the calendar for yourself when you choose the specific topics.
For your Blog Comments, put in reminders to yourself to include a certain number of comments by specific dates.
Though your blog has specific due dates for most posts, you can post them before they are due. Take a look at your OWN calendar, and schedule your blog writing so that it fits around other assignments and commitments.
Include the due date for your entire blog.
If it helps you, feel free to color-code this editorial calendar. Put TOWs in one color, PR Connections in another, etc.
See 5 Benefits of an Editorial Calendar for additional tips.

January 20, 2011May 4, 2011

News University: A Rich & Cost-Effective Resource for Journalists & PR Writers

News University

For this semester’s public relations and journalism courses that I’m teaching for Southeastern University, I am again augmenting my own content and our textbooks with several courses offered by Poynter’s NewsU.

First, create a free account at NewsU. (NOTE: When you enroll in NewsU, the form will ask you for a course code. We do not have a code for your course, so just leave it blank.) Then come back to this blog post.

Next, it’s smart to enroll in all the courses you will need for the semester. It will make your life easier later on. To enroll, first click on the name of the course(s) below, then click on Enroll Now under Course Overview.

When you have finished with each course, you will need to do two things to earn credit for finishing the course:

Complete the NewsU Course Completion Form.
Send me your Course Report to my Southeastern University e-mail address. The short screencast below shows you now. Have the report come to my university e-mail address. (NOTE: This screencast was recorded earlier this year, so some of the dates are old, though the process remains the same.)

I’ve created this short screencast to walk you through the process.

For some courses, you’ll blog about what you learned as a Topic of the Week. For the ones that are not required as TOWs, you can choose to have them be PR Connections, if you wish.

[NOTE: In order to get credit for completing the a NewsU Course, you need to complete the course, fill out the form & send me the course report — by Saturday midnight during the week it’s assigned.]

Questions?

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Step 1: Watch

Step 2: Watch

Step 3: Read

Step 4: Subscribe

Step 5: Follow

Additional Information

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How do I know what I am supposed to blog about?

How long are my blog posts supposed to be?

Where are we supposed to find lists of other blogs to comment on?

I still don’t understand what to do to track the comments I write on other people’s blogs.

I don’t know how to do something in WordPress. Where should I look to find the answer?

I created all the categories you told me to, and they still don’t show up on my blog. Why?

So I just have to have all the right amount of posts and comments before the end of the semester, right?

What’s this Blog Editorial Calendar that is due, and how to I create one?

What do I need to have done for the Blog Checkpoints?

Where am I supposed to get ideas for the PR Connections?

How will you evaluate the overall blog at the end of the semester?

Can I see some examples of outstanding blogs from your previous semesters?

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Trenta-Size

Venti- or Grande-Size

Tall-Size

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Some tips:

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COMM 2322: Public Relations Applications

COMM 4333: Writing for Public Relations & Advertising

COMM 3333: Journalism

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