Image Credit: "Maple Leaf Structure" by Steve Jurvetson
If you’re looking to get a jumpstart on my classes this fall, here are the books and other required resources that we will be using. I’ve linked to many of them at Amazon.com, but of course you can purchase them from anywhere you like. I recommend you try the Facebook Marketplace first, so you can get a good deal AND help a fellow student.
Public Relations Applications (COMM 2322)
Syllabus (will be posted by mid-August)
Wilcox, D.L., Cameron, G.T., Reber, B.H., & Shin, J. (2010). THINK public relations. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Like all semesters, Spring 2011 had its ups and downs. Here are a few things I learned, in no particular order:
I was impressed with the writing and design skills of many of my students with their blog assignments. Some of them went far above and beyond my expectations, notably Cindy Cromeans, Amber Sakis, Sarah Allen, Kyle Ashcraft and Megan Getter. I must remember to share these outstanding examples with students in the fall.
I should not bother to hold any office hours for the first 3/4 of the semester, and pack them all into the last 1/4 — as this is when most of my students decide to stop by. (Okay, I probably won’t do that. But I am tempted.)
I may need to be more specific in my assignment directions. For example, even though we had multiple discussions in class about the assignments, some of them still had a hard time understanding that the “Topic of the Week” for their blogs was due during a specific week. (Any idea how I could be clearer in writing about this one?)
I was beyond delighted when students would share links via Twitter or bring up current events or PR news in class. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, I was thrilled.
I need to reinforce our department’s attendance policy several times, especially early in the semester, even though it’s plainly stated in the syllabus. Some students were “surprised” when their grades were lower than they had anticipated. Since so much of what we cover in my classes is based on class discussions, being physically (and mentally!) present is critical. It’s also good practice to show up to class just like they will have to show up to work once they graduate.
I will need to be clearer that when I put a hyperlink in a blog post, it’s for a reason. That reason is to provide amplification or examples about the points I was writing about. I fielded many questions about information that I’d linked to.
I need to remember that not all students in my PR classes are as passionate about public relations and social media as I am. (We have a combined PR/journalism major at my university, and many students are much more interested in the journalism side of the major than the PR side.)
I should continue to attend students’ outside activities often. It was great seeing them notice when I showed up (often unannounced) for campus and non-campus events, including one wedding proposal!
And here’s one final thing I learned that I definitely need some help with.
9. I may need to lower my expectations that students will be fully prepared for class by reading the assigned materials, listening to the assigned podcast or writing the assigned blog post. I need to come up with an alternate plan (other than dismissing the unprepared students or the entire class) when they are unprepared for the discussion I had expected to have.
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.”
“[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.
It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over, but it most certainly is — at least if we can trust our calendars.
As a way of reviewing what we covered and learned in COMM 4333 (Writing for PR and Advertising), each student will:
Choose a toy animal from a basket in class.
Name the animal.
Write the letters of the animal’s name down the left margin of a paper.
Come up with something we discussed in COMM 4333 that starts with each letter.
Reply to this blog post with a comment including the animal’s name & what they learned. Put a star/asterisk in front of the most important thing learned. (NOTE: Copy the comment before you submit it, and save it in a Word doc.)
Send a tweet with the most important thing learned and the class hashtag (#COMM4333)
After each student is done with this, we’ll go around the room and each student will share his/her starred item — the key learning.
Any why is “New Zoo Revue” in the title of this post? It was among my favorite childhood TV shows. (It’s a little painful watching the production values in the show now, but I loved it as a child.)
It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over, but it most certainly is — at least if we can trust our calendars.
As a way of reviewing what we covered and learned in SPC 4350 (Social Media for PR and Advertising), each student will:
Choose a toy animal from a basket in class.
Name the animal.
Write the letters of the animal’s name down the left margin of a paper.
Come up with something we discussed in SPC 4350 that starts with each letter.
Reply to this blog post with a comment including the animal’s name & what they learned. Put a star/asterisk in front of the most important thing learned.
After each student is done with this, we’ll go around the room and each student will share his/her starred item — the key learning.
Any why is “New Zoo Revue” in the title of this post? It was among my favorite childhood TV shows. (It’s a little painful watching the production values in the show now, but I loved it as a child.)
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.
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
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.
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.
If you chose to have a client in this class, for your final project, you will analyze your client’s organization from a social media perspective and create a mini-campaign for it.
This project is worth a total of 500 points of the 1000 available; the written portion is worth 400, and the class presentation is worth 100.
Social Media Strategy: Use the POST process from Groundswellto guide you as you create a social media strategy for your organization. This should be a general strategy that will carry your organization through several campaigns or projects over the course of the next year. Part of this strategy will also include creating a social media policy for the employees of your organization, or critiquing the existing policy if there is one in place.
Background
An overview of your organization and what it does
A brief history or timeline of your organization
Based on Grunig & Hunt’s models of PR, which model is your organization using? Provide examples.
People
Assess the social activities of your client’s customers. (What sites do they currently use? Why do they choose these sites?)
Objectives
Decide what you want to accomplish via social media
Be specific. Use SMART objectives, ones that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.
Strategy
Plan for how relationships with your customers will change
Technology
Decide which social tools you will use (a Facebook page, a Groupon coupon, specials for FourSquare mayors, etc.). Explain why you chose each tool. (For this portion of the project, you do not need to provide samples.)
Social Media Policy
If the client already has a social media policy, critique it and make recommendations for changes. (If you have no changes recommended, explain why you believe the policy is a good one as is.)
If the client does not already have a social media policy, use the Policy Tool for Social Media, create a draft of one to review with your client. (For the purposes of this class project, you do not have to review the draft with the client.)
Mini-Campaign:
Develop & conduct a mini-campaign (using social media) for your organization. For this mini-campaign, use the standard RACE model:
Research
Action
Communication
Evaluation
Include a budget.
Include samples of all the types of social media that you plan to use. For example, if you are recommending that your client has a podcast, provide at least one complete episode, along with a description of upcoming episodes. If you recommend a Groupon coupon, provide the image(s) and text make up the coupon. If you recommend a Facebook page, mock up a page.
Some of the information in your mini-campaign may overlap with your Social Media Strategy. This is to be expected, as you will create the campaign based on the strategy.
One way that nonprofit and government associations get the word out is through public service announcements.
For our PR Writing class, create a 30-second public service announcement or radio news release for your client. (If you have a nonprofit or gov’t client, write a PSA. If you have a for-profit client, write a radio news release.) Review the information in Chapter 9, especially pages 208-222 for tips on how to write.
Things to keep in mind:
Thirty seconds is not very long, approximately 75 words. You’ll need to get to the point quickly.
You’re writing information that will be spoken, not read silently. There’s a BIG difference between the two. Ask a friend or two to read your PSA or radio news release aloud. Edit and adjust as needed.
Write conversationally.
Use the same standard header that you have used on previous news release assignments (for contact information, etc.)
Feel free to write on the same topic as you have in previous releases, as long as the topic can fit this assignment.
SPC 4350 & COMM 4633
