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Topics of the Week :: COMM 4633 Social Media for PR, Spring 2012

Image Credit: "Tow Truck" by Jzee

In COMM 4633 (Social Media for PR), we’ll all blog about the same topic each week during the semester. Your TOWs should be posted by Sunday midnight at the end of each week.

Some weeks have more than one topic listed; choose one of the available topics on those weeks.

If you have a topic to suggest, please add it as a comment to this blog post.

If you are unsure how to get started writing these TOWs, many times you can use this three-pronged approach:

  1. What did you learn?
  2. What surprised you?
  3. What do you want to know more about?

WEEK ONE

Which types of social media you currently participate in (such as blogging, podcasting, social networking, etc.), which platforms you use, and why? Which platforms have you considered, but haven’t yet tried?

WEEK TWO

Why is it important to include images in blog posts? What are some approaches to choosing effective images and ensuring that you have the right to use them in a post?

WEEK THREE

Is social media monitoring ethical? Provide commentary and discussion on both sides of the issue, and offer your personal viewpoint.

WEEK FOUR

Write a post related to your assigned chapter in Groundswell. Provide links to several of the examples mentioned in your chapter, or to new sites that relate to the chapter. See if you can find a YouTube video or SlideShare presentation and embed it in your post. (Remember to link to the book, either at Amazon.com or at the publisher’s website/blog.)

WEEK FIVE

Which Super Bowl ad was either your favorite OR least favorite? Embed the ad in your blog. And in your discussion of the ad, be sure to discuss the publics that were targeted in the ad. (Be sure your readers can tell if you liked or disliked the ad.)

OR

Adam Vincenzini asked on Twitter and on his blog for people to share their definitions of “social media” with him, in 140 characters or fewer. Read through the list of definitions that were shared with Adam. Pick a few that resonate with you and discuss why these definitions “work” for you. Develop your OWN 140-character definition of social media. Tweet your definition, and embed the tweet in your blog.

WEEK SIX

“Social Media: Friend or Foe?” :: Listen to Shel Holtz, Mark Ragan and others discuss “concerns and objections around the adoption of social media communication channel.” React to it using the three-pronged approach, discussed earlier in this blog post. (NOTE: Mark Ragan is playing the role of an executive who is unsure if social media is right for his organization.)

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, which meets on January 18 and February 15, 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

Since our focus for this week is podcasting, write this week’s TOW on something related to podcasting. Potential areas for discussion include: what would drive an organization to choose a podcast as a way of connecting with its internal or external publics, the importance of shownotes, technology you can use for podcasting or how PR majors can benefit from listening to PR podcasts.

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 . . . 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

What is this Foursquare thing that we keep seeing in our Twitterstreams? How can companies benefit from it? And what are some of the potential dangers of using Foursquare (and other location-based services) for individual participants?

OR

Pinterest has taken the Internet by storm in the past few months. What is it, and how can (some) companies or organizations benefit from using Pinterest?

WEEK ELEVEN

Set up an account at Diigo, a social bookmarking site. Create social bookmarks to at least 20 sites; these could include classmates’ blogs, PR blogs, your university, your favorite musical artist or actor, etc. In your Topic of the Week, share a link to your Diigo account. Discuss how college students (especially those working in groups) could benefit from social bookmarks. Be sure to include a link to your Diigo bookmarks in your blog post. Optional: how could an association, like the Florida Public Relations Association or the International Listening Association, use social bookmarks to benefit its members?

WEEK 12

One of this week’s readings concerned widgets and badges. After briefly describing the difference between a widget and a badge, offer suggestions on how one specific organization you are a part of (or wish to become a part of) could benefit from using widgets or badges.

WEEK 13

Just what is it that makes a simple little video like “David After Dentist” become a Viral Video? Also, embed at least two of your favorite videos that went viral and explain why you chose them.

WEEK 14

Of all the professional and peer blogs you read (and commented on) this semester, which ones are your favorites? Pick at least one from each category (professional and peer), and explain why you chose them.

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Arrive, Survive and Thrive in Prof. Nixon’s Classes, Spring 2012 Edition

"Tilework at Florida Botanical Gardens" by Barbara B. Nixon

An Open Note to All of Prof. Nixon’s Students:

Welcome back to our Communication Department at Southeastern University; I hope your Christmas break was a blessed one. I spent a lot of much-needed time with family.

Syllabi for my two Spring 2012 on-campus classes are available at my Scribd site. If a syllabus is updated during the semester, you’ll find out in class, and the current version will always be available at Scribd.

Materials for COMM 3333 Journalism (Online Class)

Materials for COMM 4333 Writing for Public Relations and Advertising

Materials for COMM 4633 Social Media for Public Relations and Journalism

Getting Inside My Head

So that we can make the most of this semester, please (Please, PLEASE) take some time to read through the blog posts I’ve included here. I promise you, it will be well worth your time. (How often do professors let you get inside their heads, letting you know their tips for success and their pet peeves?)

Additionally, here are a few more tips:

  • When communicating with me via e-mail (or Facebook), always put your course number (such as COMM 4333) in the subject line to help me immediately identify who you are and frame your questions or comments. Do your best to write in full sentences, paying attention to standard English grammar and spelling. Always sign your e-mails with your first and last name, as your e-mail address will not make that readily apparent to me.
  • When submitting an assignment in BlackBoard, always put your last name as part of the file name, and also include your name in the document itself. Papers submitted without your last name as part of the file name cannot earn full credit.
  • If an assignment is due in BlackBoard, the only way to get full credit for the assignment is to submit it in BlackBoard. (E-mailing an assignment to me can be risky; I receive 250+ e-mails a day, and there’s a chance I will not even see it in my inbox.)
  • Follow me on Twitter, if you really want to get inside my head. (What’s Twitter?)

Let’s make this a great semester together!

(PS: If you’re one of my Spring 2012 students reading this post, please leave a reply to this post so that I can know you have read it. If your reply doesn’t show up immediately, no worries — I may need to approve it before it appears, if you’ve never commented on my blog before.)

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Soon-To-Be PR Grads Get LinkedIn

[Updated from a blog post from February 2010]

As PR students are nearing the end of their college careers and beginning their job searches, one of the most powerful online tools for them is the business networking site LinkedIn. Creating a profile in LinkedIn is a requirement in my Communication Seminar class and is recommended for ALL my PR students.

What’s LinkedIn? In the site’s own words,

“Your professional network of trusted contacts gives you an advantage in your career, and is one of your most valuable assets. LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return. Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. We believe that in a global connected economy, your success as a professional and your competitiveness as a company depends upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.”

So far, I’ve used LinkedIn to:

  • research companies we are discussing in class
  • ask questions of other public relations professionals
  • connect with colleagues from previous jobs
  • write recommendations for current and former colleagues
  • find guest speakers for classes
  • share my professional background with students who only know me as a professor

LinkedIn provides some helpful advice for college students.  In summary, the advice is:

  1. Get Started
  2. Go Pro
  3. Be Passionate
  4. Grow Your Network
  5. Find Opportunities
  6. Nail the Interview

I’ve embedded the Get Started video below. You can find the rest of them via the links above.

Also, soon-to-be grads should take a look at the following:

  • Chris Brogan’s 19-page eBook “Using the Social Web to Find Work.” (Though it was written more than a year ago, much of the advice still holds true.) Visit Chris’ site and scroll down to his fifth paragraph for the PDF. (I chose not to link to it directly because I want you to visit his site first. ) Chris includes many, many tips on using LinkedIn and other sites.
  • Gini Dietrich’s blog post “Using Social Media to Find a Job.” Be sure to read the comments in addition to the post itself.

When you set up your profile in LinkedIn, consider also doing the following:

  • Create a custom URL for your profile to make it easier for people to find you (and because it will look nicer on your resume)
  • Include a good headshot photo of yourself, looking as professional as possible. No pictures where you can see that you cropped out (most of) the person next to you.
  • Add Applications to LinkedIn, such as a feed from your blog or SlideShare. Only add Twitter if 100% of your tweets are ones that you’d want a potential employer to read.

How do YOU use LinkedIn? How have you benefitted from it? Please share your thoughts as a comment below.

barbara_is_listening

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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

  1. 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.)
  2. Upload a photo or avatar.
  3. Write a brief (160-character or fewer) bio. It’s good to mention that you’re a PR student. Consider mentioning your university.
  4. 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

  1. 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.
  2. Review my tips on Choosing Whom to Follow on Twitter: My Strategy.
  3. Review Prof. Sam Bradley’s College Student’s Guide: Twitter 101.
  4. Review The Anatomy of a Tweet: What Do All Those Symbols Mean?
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

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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.

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.)

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. For your Blog Comments, put in reminders to yourself to include a certain number of comments by specific dates.
  3. 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.
  4. Include the due date for your entire blog.
  5. If it helps you, feel free to color-code this editorial calendar. Put TOWs in one color, PR Connections in another, etc.
  6. See 5 Benefits of an Editorial Calendar for additional tips.
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Tracking Your Blog Comments

Image Credit: "Rome visit, June 2008 - 79" by Ed Yourdon

In addition to writing your own blog posts, you will also comment on others’ blogs; these comments will count as 25% of your grade on your blog. Aim to comment on two blog posts each week; you will need 20 comments before the end of the semester .

We’ll discuss writing effective blog comments in class. Kipp Bodnar provides tips for How to Be an Awesome Blog Commenter; read these.

Aim to include a variety of blogs that you comment on, ranging from your classmates’ blogs to those of PR professionals. (For a great way to find new and interesting PR blog posts to comment on, subscribe to Ragan’s PR Daily. Or, visit my social bookmarks for PR blogs.)

To track your comments so that I can easily find them, create (and keep adding to) two blog posts that you will title “Blog Comments: Peer” and “Blog Comments: Professional.” In each post you will include:

  • Comment # (keep a running list)
  • Title of blog post you commented on, followed by the author’s name
  • Hyperlink to the blog post
  • Date of your comment
  • Your complete comment (copy and paste)

See Amber Sakis’ blog and Rachel LaFlam’s blog for some great examples of how to track your comments. (NOTE: For this semester, it’s important to divide up the peer and professional comments for easy tracking; in previous semesters, comments were blended.)

NOTE 1: In order for the comment to “count” as part of your grade for this course, it needs to be a minimum of 50 words long — a few sentences. Comments such as “I totally agree” or “Thank you for sharing your thoughts” are nice, but they do not count for credit in this class. You are welcome (and even encouraged) to write comments of varying lengths, but for class credit, 50 words is the shortest I’ll accept.

NOTE 2: Do not post each of your blog comments as separate blog entries; make two pages and keep editing/adding to them.

And whatever you do, make sure your blog comments aren’t whack.

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10 Blogging Tips That Will Change Your Life (or Grade, at least)

Originally published on 9 December 2009 & featured in Ragan’s PR Daily. Updated on 20 May 2010. Updates are in italics.

Over the past few semesters, I had nearly 450 of my students blogging as part of their grades in public relations courses. And this semester, I have more than 75 more. Based on their experiences and mine, here are some tips for maintaining your blog (especially when it’s graded as an assignment):

  1. Your professor may require a certain amount of posts on specific topics and perhaps even a specific length. Follow these guidelines to a T. Refer to the assignment sheet/post often to be sure you’re doing what’s needed.
  2. There may be interim deadlines for your blog posts. Keep up. Even if there aren’t interim deadlines, blog throughout the semester. If you do all your posts toward the end (or even the day they’re due), it’s not to your advantage. It will appear as though you procrastinated. Your readers will likely not read more than a post or so a day, so piling a bunch into one day actually hurts your readership.
  3. Make an editorial calendar for yourself based on the blog requirements. Consider using Google Calendar to keep track of posts you intend to write and when they should be written. (Google Calendar can even send you text message reminders.)
  4. Stuck for topics? Ask your readers at your blog what they’d like to see, or ask your followers on Twitter for help. Read Ragan’s PR Daily and listen to PR podcasts for additional ideas.
  5. Proofread. This should go without saying, but since I’m saying it, it apparently doesn’t. Misspelled words and poor grammar significantly detract from your credibility. If you know you’re not a great speller, then write your posts first in Word, where SOME misspelled words and grammar errors show up more easily. Partner with a friend and proof each others’ posts, too. (NOTE: If you write in Word first, be sure to use WordPress’ “Paste from Word” feature, or else you will end up with some really ugly formatting.)
  6. Write in short paragraphs. Long paragraphs are really grey and hard on the reader’s eyes.
  7. Use photos licensed by Creative Commons to add visual impact to your blog. I recommend Compfight for finding images.
  8. One of the best ways to become a better blogger is to read & comment on others’ blogs, too. It’s not all about you. Once you start commenting on others’ blogs, you may notice that your readership will increase (because of people clicking on your name in the comment and finding your blog.)
  9. Change the name of your blog from whatever WordPress “gave” you as the default (which may be something like Bnixon13’s Blog) to something more professional and interesting. Though you cannot change the URL for your blog, you can easily change the name. And definitely change or get rid of the default tagline “Just another WordPress weblog,” which screams N00b.

Yikes! I promised you 10 tips, and I only gave you 9! I need your help. What’s one more tip you’d provide to round out this top ten list?

barbara_is_listening

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