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.
If you want to share a presentation you’ve created and uploaded to SlideShare (or one that you found on SlideShare), it’s surprisingly simple to embed the presentation into your WordPress blog. Here are the four steps:
Copy the code for WordPress.com hosted blogs. It will look something like this:
Paste the SlideShare code into your blog post; use the Visual Editor, not the HTML Editor.
Save your blog post draft, then preview it. The presentation should appear like the one created by my COMM 4333 class below. If it looks like you expected to, publish your post.
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.
A special installment of our monthly #ConnectChat will take place Tuesday, March 15, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. EST.
“Beyond the Basics: How to Make Social Media Really Work for You” will feature two special guests: Ellyn Angelotti, faculty member, digital trends and social media, The Poynter Institute, Poynter Online; and Barbara Nixon, professor of journalism and public relations, Southeastern University.
This is not your basic “Social Media 101” discussion. Ellyn and Barbara will share specific techniques on how to increase your audience and get real, measurable results.
Topics of Discussion:
Choosing what social media tools to use for your particular needs
Developing content
Using social media platforms to increase brand awareness
Getting more comments on your website or social media page
Getting existing followers or friends to interact with you and each other
Ellyn and Barbara will also discuss your particular challenges and guide you on how to find a resolution.
We’ll try to get to as many questions as we can. Of course, you can also ask your question live during the chat.
To help you keep track of the conversation, we will use the #connectchat hashtag. Please use that hashtag if you are tweeting a question to Ellyn or Barbara, or participating in the chat.
If you can’t make it to the chat, don’t worry — a transcript will be provided on ProfNet Connect by the end of the week.
About Ellyn Angelotti
Since joining The Poynter Institute in 2007, Ellyn Angelotti has helped Poynter explore the journalistic values and the legal challenges related to new technologies, especially social media. She also has helped create and develop Poynter’s use of interactive teaching tools like online chats and podcasts.
Angelotti regularly teaches journalists how to effectively use interactive tools as storytelling vehicles, and how using these tools changes the media landscape. In the summer of 2009 she traveled to South Africa to teach and research mobile storytelling. As a judge for national multimedia journalism contests, including the National Press Photographers Association Awards and E.W. Scripps National Journalism Awards, she has studied and taught about best practices in innovative storytelling.
Her current work is focused on the intersection of journalism, technology and the law. She is attending law school part-time at Stetson University College of Law.
Before coming to Poynter, Angelotti directed award-winning, nontraditional multimedia sports content at the Naples Daily News in Florida. There she created and produced two interactive vodcasts, “PrepZone” and “Blades Playbook,” which won the Newspaper Association of America’s Digital Edge Award for Most Innovative Multimedia Storytelling. While attending the University of Kansas, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and journalism, she worked at the Lawrence Journal-World as multimedia journalist. There she helped launch two award-winning websites and weekly print products, “Game” and “The Lansing Current.”
About Barbara Nixon
Barbara Nixon teaches journalism and public relations at Southeastern University (both face-to-face and online). She also worked for several years in human resources for a Fortune 500 corporation. A Life Member and Past President of the International Listening Association, Barbara served in ILA board roles for more than a decade. She is completing her dissertation at Capella University, focusing on leadership development in volunteer organizations. Fascinated by social media, Barbara blogs at publicrelationsmatters.com and tweets as @BarbaraNixon.
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:
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.
Image Credit: "Happy Valentine's Day" by Barbara B. Nixon
In honor of Valentine’s Day, my public relations classes spent some time looking through conversation hearts and discussing how PR is similar to some of the messages on the hearts. Here are a few things they came up with:
YOU RULE: We are the brave front for well-known people who want to be represented well. These people want others to think they rule. (Laurie Cobb)
YOU RULE: No matter what you want, it’s my job to deliver. (Laurie Cobb)
SEE YA!: We’re watching you! Actually, {social media monitoring] agencies are. But the bottom line is, whatever information you put out online, especially on social networking sites, is usually free game. (Chelsey Lynn)
MY HERO: You can follow your “idols” on Twitter. (Andrew Potter)
CUPCAKE: Because sometimes we need to sugar-coat things. (Rachel LaFlam)
HEY YOU!: Because we try to get the attention from reporters and the media. (Taylor Flumerfelt and Emily Meade)
HEY YOU!: You can meet new people online with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. (Melanie Shoults)
FIRST KISS: Because sometimes…it’s a little awkward.
BE MINE: When we put out a press release we want to have the media come to our event, party, show… etc. (Taylor Flumerfelt and Emily Meade)
DON’T TELL: PR sometimes covers up “dirty” details from the public’s eye.
DON’T TELL: Not telling is the opposite of a PR worker’s job. They are supposed to expose everything in the open. (Kyle Ashcraft, Matthew Weaver and Iva Pittman)
BE TRUE: It’s always better to be truthful about something, than to fabricate to promote your company.
BE TRUE: Public relations practitioners must be truthful in their work in order to be trusted in the business world as well as to make people respect their company. (Cody Marlow)
SOUL MATE: PR, the matchmaker between individuals and companies. Making the world a better place by connecting soul mates. (Sarah Allen)
HELLO: Because it is about making connections! (Rachel LaFlam)
NO WAY!: Each day is unpredictable and some days are simply unbelievable! (Whitney Gonzalez)
GET REAL: It’s always best to be honest, to uphold a reputation that people can trust. There is no better way to do that than to be real, or “Get Real.” (Mike Trivett)
GET REAL: Because being fake is unattractive. (Cress Bost)
U GO GIRL: Because in public relations the majority of public relation practitioners are of the female dominated group. Most of the people that are associated with public relations are females.
AWESOME: PR tends to spotlight sensational news type stories, or get people involved and engaged in a certain topic as to make it interesting to the reader, deeming it AWESOME! (Tara Schwartz)
Are there other conversation hearts you received today that have some sort of loose connection to the field of public relations? I’d love to see what you can come up with.
SPC 4350 & COMM 4633
