For your final assignment in Writing for Public Relations, you have a choice between two projects. You can either prepare a Social Media News Release OR write a detailed blog post about Social Media News Releases.
This assignment is due in BlackBoard on April 29, 2012.
Option #1: Prepare a Social Media News Release
Using either PitchEngine, PRXbuilder or your WordPress blog create a Social Media News Release for your client.
Feel free to adapt a news release or personality profile that you have already written this semester to this new format.
Photo Credit: "letters from captivity VII: illiterate" by sternenrauschen
The Writing Assignments portion of Writing for PR and Advertising has some static components that all students will complete, as well as several that you can choose among. To earn credit for the assignments, they must be submitted in BlackBoard by their due dates.
With your client in mind, make your choices from among the available options; be sure to complete assignments totaling 250 points from this section. See your syllabus for specific due dates for each assignment:
As the Social Fresh East conference proceeds on February 6 & 7, I will be curating the best content below using Storify.
There will be a lag from the time of the sessions that I attend to the time the information shows up here on Public Relations Matters. I want to use my time there to connect face-to-face with many of the participants and speakers that I have “known” via social media over the years, rather than being tied to a computer/tablet screen.
Image Credit: "Keep up and blog on" by Alexander Baxevanis
Students in my Writing for PR and Advertising class at Southeastern University have started adding content to their blogs for the semester. Please take a look and see what they’re up to. And drop a comment or two! They’d love to hear from you.
Image Credit: "Scania R500 Wrecker" by RiceCracker
In our PR Writing class, we’ll all blog about the same topic each week during the semester. Your TOWs of 300 words or longer should be posted by Sunday at midnight at the end of each week, unless otherwise notified in class. (Posts that appear past the deadline may not earn any credit, so be sure to stay on top of your blogging deadlines.)
Be sure to check to see if you receive any comments on your posts, and respond to your commenters as appropriate.
If you are unsure how to get started writing these TOWs, many times you can use this three-pronged approach:
What did you learn?
What surprised you?
What do you want to know more about?
WEEK ONE
Which types of social media do you currently participate in (such as blogging, podcasting, social networking, etc.), which platforms you use, and why/what for? [NOTE: Since you are creating your blog after after Week One, you will go back and add this post in.]
WEEK TWO
Why are comments such an integral part of blogs? What advice would you offer on writing effective blog comments? Be sure to link to at least three sources.
WEEK THREE
Visit Mignon Fogarty’s Grammar Girl’s website. Either read three of her blog posts or listen to three of her podcasts on areas of grammar that are troublesome to you. Write about what you learned (using the three-pronged approach above.) Remember to link back to Grammar Girl’s site.
WEEK FOUR
What is Associated Press Style and why is it so important for public relations writers? Also, what are some of the trickier parts of using AP Style for you?
WEEK FIVE
Imagine you are working in public relations for an organization, and you discover that someone has scraped/copied content from your organization’s blog. What approach would you take to remedy this situation?
WEEK SIX
In our class, we use News University courses from Poynter quite frequently. But NewsU is not all that the Poynter Institute has to offer public relations practitioners and journalists. How can Poynter’s resources aid you as you begin your career? Describe and link to at least three beneficial areas in the Poynter website.
WEEK SEVEN
Participate in a public relations or social media Twitter chat. Petya Georgieva provides a list of 13 possibilities at her Higher & Higher blog. (I highly recommend #PRStudChat, but you are free to chose from any of the 13 options.) Before you participate in the chat, be sure to read Shonali Burke’s tips for how to make the most of a Twitter chat. After the chat, briefly describe the purpose and intended audience of your chosen chat. React to your own participation in the chat using the three-pronged approach (discussed earlier in this blog post).
WEEK EIGHT
Using the three-pronged approach described above, describe your reactions to one of the News University courses you have completed. Remember to include a hyperlink to the course, too.
WEEK NINE
This week’s topic was inspired by Adam Vincenzini’s Be My Guest month: post something by a guest blogger. Connect with another blogger (it can, but doesn’t have to, be someone in your class) and exchange blog posts for the week. (You don’t have to write something new for the other blogger . . . share your favorite post you’ve written this semester.) In your own blog, make it really clear that the post is written by another person, and link to your guest’s blog.
WEEK TEN
Peter Shankman started a service called HARO: Help A Reporter Out. Briefly describe (and link) to this service. As a PR practitioner, how can you and your client(s) benefit from HARO?
WEEK ELEVEN
Address several of the following questions about infographics. What are they? How could one be useful in a story for your client? How do you go about creating one? Create one if you can, and embed it in your blog post this week.
When individuals are asked to be guest speakers, they often must provide their own introductions, written so that someone else can introduce them to the audience. So how do you write an engaging introduction? (TIP: Lisa B. Marshall, The Public Speaker, may have some advice for you on her website.)
WEEK 14
What advice would you offer PR students who are new to blogging? Come up with your own Top 10 list.
Public relations practitioners are increasingly called upon to be well-versed in social media. This semester, you will blog as about one-third of your grade in our class. You will add content to your blog weekly throughout the semester. Feel free to continue to use an existing blog of yours, unless you feel compelled to start fresh with a new blog for this course.
My WordPress 101 post will help you get started with your blog.
To make it easier for your readers to find what they are seeking at your blog, it’s important to use Categories. Please add a category for each type (listed below), and make sure each post is categorized appropriately. Each post for this class must have the category of “COMM 4333” along with at least one additional category.
1. TOW: Topic of the Week – Each week this semester, we will have a specific topic that all students will blog about. You should have at least 13 of these before the end of the semester. At times, you will watch a video, listen to a podcast, or read a specific blog post, and provide your thoughtful reactions. These posts must be a minimum of 300 words. We’ll keep our running list of TOWs for your class here at my blog.
2. PR Connections – Provide commentary, reflections and opinions about PR issues/examples that were not addressed in class. These can be responses to other PR blogs you read, links to interesting posts or articles, embedded YouTube videos, etc. Some students like to choose a theme (such as entertainment or sports PR) and have each PR Connection be related to the theme. Though these don’t have a minimum word length, you will need to adequately discuss your subject in the post, rather than simply embedding a video with no commentary of your own. You should write at least 10 of these during the semester.
3. Blog comments – whenever you comment on someone’s PR blog (whether it’s a PR professional or a PR student), add the comment to a blog post (that you have created for this purpose) that you update throughout the semester so I can assess your online participation. Do this only for PR-related blogs. You should have a minimum of 12 comments by your Blog Checkpoint #2 and at least 20 (total) before the end of the semester. See Tracking Your Blog Comments for Nixon’s Classes for more information.
You may add other categories and sub-categories of your choice. Please keep in mind that when I evaluate your blog I will pay special attention to the categories listed above, but I will not ignore other posts. I will perform a holistic evaluation of your blog, looking for:
frequency: Sufficient posts in categories 1-3, posted throughout the semester. There will be at least two graded blog checkpoints during the semester. (See your syllabus for the specific Blog Checkpoint dates.)
linking: Identify other PR blogs (use PR Open Mic or my blogroll in my Diigo bookmarks as starting points) and link to them. Respond to others’ posts. Become a part of the blogosphere. Blogging should not be lonely.
readability: brief & concise writing style, use of white space, bold characters, images, bullet points
proper credit and use of images in all Topics of the Week and PR Connections. (Use Compfight to find your images; be sure they are licensed for Creative Commons use. I’ll show you how to do this in class.)
SUPER-IMPORTANT: In order for you to get credit for your blog, I need to know where it is. Tell me your blog address by completing this Google Form; I will provide time in class during Week 3 for you to do this.
Questions? Just let me know.
NOTE: Many thanks to Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu at Purdue University, who allowed me to use her blogging guidelines from her PRinciples class; Dr. V knows that Blogs Matter.
