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.
As a public relations writer, one of the collateral pieces you are likely to be writing is a media advisory. A media advisory (or media alert) is designed to encourage a reporter to come and cover an event.
That said, with your client in mind, create a media advisory for an upcoming event. Though it’s ideal if this is for a real event, if your client does not have one planned in the near future, you can use your creativity to write about an imaginary event. (Be sure to let me know if it is not a real event.)
When structuring your media advisory, make it as simple as possible for the reporter to find the details. Keep these things in mind:
Use letterhead from your client for the media advisory (just like you would for a news release)
Include pertinent contact information (just like you would for a news release)
Write a catchy headline (just like you would for a news release)
Provide a brief opening paragraph with your story idea
Create headings including the 5 W’s & a P:
Who
What
Where
When
Photo Ops
Why (Tip: this one is perhaps the most important. This is where you will use your persuasive writing abilities to convince the reporter that the story is newsworthy. It should explain why the reporter should come, not why someone in the community should come, to the event.)
REMEMBER: This Media Advisory is written for a reporter, not a community member.
Check your syllabus for the due date for this assignment.
(NOTE: You can see many, many sample media advisories online by Googling “media advisory sample” or “media alert sample.” I cannot vouch for the content of all of them, but it would be good for you to see them to get a feel for how they look and read.)
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:
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.
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.
Three work samples (such as PDFs of news releases, brochures, newsletters, ads, etc.) — NOTE: If you have no client work yet, then substitute in at least two items from the Optional list below
Optional items to enhance your social media resume include:
A selection of photos you have taken, to show your photography skills. (You may wish to put these in a slideshow format using Picasa or PPT/ SlideShare.)