Why is it important for today’s public relations students to be involved in social media and have a strong online life? Edelman Digital’s Phil Gomes shares his thoughts:
Groundswell: Will It Blend?
In my Corporate Public Relations class this fall, we’re reading Groundswell. Teams of students will present the five objectives of the groundswell: listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing. But for a little fun before we dive into the book, I thought it might be good to share this YouTube clip. What happens when you try to blend all the technologies together? Check it out on Will It Blend.
Interested in the story behind the Will It Blend video? Josh Bernoff shares the details at Forrester Research’s Groundswell minisite.
Google Reader in Plain English
Lee and Sachi Lefever, otherwise known as the fine folks from Common Craft, have produced yet another in their “In Plain English” series. In this latest installation, they explain Google Reader, in plain English, of course.
I’ve been a user of Google Reader for about a year now. It helps me by consolidating all the RSS feeds of blogs that I like to keep up with. Here’s a very short list of some of my favorite blogs:
- Neville Hobson
- Client Service Insights…(CSI/Season 2)
- PR Squared
- The Clever Sheep
- Ask-Dr-*Kirk*
- Presbyterian News Service
- The Loveliest Village
And for some background, you may also want to watch one of Common Craft’s first paperworks explanations: RSS in Plain English.
How to Find Cheap College Textbooks
[Cross-posted from Making Connections: Facebook & Beyond :: a blog for my First Year Experience students at Georgia Southern University]
With the cost of college textbooks spiraling upward, it’s good to know that there are still some good sources of (relatively) inexpensive textbooks. Christopher S. Penn, host of the Financial Aid Podcast, shares his best tips for finding these books in the appropriately titled “How to Find Cheap College Textbooks.”
Thanks, Christopher S. Penn and Edvisors, for providing these ideas for students — and their parents!
Ethics and Communication in PR
As I promised my students in my Corporate PR class at Georgia Southern University, here are the slides that I’m using in class for August 25, along with two YouTube clips we’ll view.
FEMA “Press Conference”
Cell Phones Can Pop Popcorn?
PR Profs Who Tweet
If you teach Public Relations at a college or university and are also a user of Twitter, I’d like to hear from you. Let’s collect the addresses of the Twitter home pages for all the PR profs who use Twitter. I’ve found it incredibly helpful and interesting to follow other people who are teaching the same subjects I am. It’s great reading their different perspectives.
Please respond with your Twitter home page address (to make it easy for others to follow you), where you teach, and what classes you teach.
I’ll get us started:
Name: Barbara Nixon
Twitter Home Page: http://twitter.com/BarbaraNixon
College/University: Georgia Southern University
Courses: PR Writing, PR Publications, Corporate PR
Thanks!
(Image Credit: http://www.culturefeast.com/graduating-from-myspace-to-twitter/)
The Conversation Prism
Many thanks to Brian Solis & Jesse Thomas for creating The Conversation Prism, a wonderfully visual way to think about how we communicate using social media. According to Brian:
[The Conversation Prism] is a living, breathing representation of Social Media and will evolve as services and conversation channels emerge, fuse, and dissipate.
If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?
Indeed. Conversations are taking place with or without you and this map will help you visualize the potential extent and pervasiveness of the online conversations that can impact and influence your business and brand.
I encourage you to read the complete article at the PR 2.0 blog.
Photo Credit: To see the full version of The Conversation Prism image, visit Flickr.
Chris Brogan Shares Links to 20 Free e-Books on Social Media
Earlier this month, Chris Brogan, VP Strategy & Technology at CrossTech Media, shared 20 links to free e-books on social media. With Chris’ permission, I’ve reprinted his list below. Thanks Chris, and thanks to all the authors, for sharing this content with us.
- The New Rules of Viral Marketing – David Meerman Scott
- Marketing Apple – MarketingApple.com
- Masters of Marketing – Startup Internet Marketing
- Podcast Marketing eBook – Christopher S. Penn
- Google Adwords Secrets – SEOBook
- Get Viral Get Visitors – Stacie Mahoe
- Marketing With Case Studies – Dynamic Copywriting
- How to Write a Marketing Plan – Geisheker Group
- SEO for WordPress blogs – Blizzard Internet
- Social Web Analytics – Social Web Analytics
- Geeks Guide to Promoting Yourself With Twitter – Geekpreneur
- The Zen of Blogging – Hunter Nutall
- What is Social Media – iCrossing
- A Primer in Social Media – SmashLab
- Effective Internet Presence – Effective Internet Presence
- Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel
- Increasing the Response to Your Email Marketing Program – CRM Transformation
- We Have a Website. Now What? – Craig Rentmeester
- Blogs & Social Media – PRSA
- The Podcast Customer Revealed – Edison Media Research
Photo credit: “30 Free e-Books to Learn Everything About Personal Finance,” originally uploaded to Flickr by Mint Software
Jumpstart on Fall Classes: Textbooks
If you’re looking to get a jumpstart on my classes at Georgia Southern University this fall, here are the books that I 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.
For All of My Classes
A USB drive, at least 1G
Corporate Public Relations (PRCA 3331)
Doorley, J., & Garcia, H. F. (2007). Reputation management: The key to successful public relations and corporate communications. New York: Routledge.
Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies
Boston, MA: Forrester Research, Inc.
Public Relations Publications (PRCA 3339)
Morton, L. P. (2006). Strategic publications: Designing for target publics. Greenwood, AR: Best Books Plus.
Recommended but not required: Botello, C., & Reding, E. E. (2007). Design collection revealed: Adobe InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 & Illustrator CS3
Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
Public Speaking (COMM 1110)
German, K. M., Gronbeck, B. E., Ehninger, D., & Monroe, A. H. (2007). Principles of public speaking (16th ed.). New York: Allyn & Bacon.
Making Connections: Facebook & Beyond (FYE 1220)
No textbook required, but occasional access to a digital camera needed
Photo Credit: bookshelf, originally uploaded to Flickr by chotda
Grammar Girl: My Superhero
“Grammar Girl? She must be a superhero!” exclaimed my daughter Katey last week when she was peeking over my shoulder as I read some of my tweets.
After I finished laughing, I stopped to think about what Katey said. I guess Katey’s right: Grammar Girl is my superhero. Anyone who can take a subject that could be dry (at best) and turn it into an intriguing, humorous and award-winning podcast and then a book has done something amazing, something that most humans cannot do. That sounds like superhero work to me!
I’ve been a listener of Mignon Fogarty’s Grammar Girl podcast for about six months now. My favorite episode of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips is the one on when to use lay and when to use lie. My tendency had been to substitute a word rather than figure out the rule. Now I think I may understand it! (The true test of this will occur when I explain to my public relations students when to use which word.)
Wednesday evening, Katey and I are making a girls-only road trip to the Atlanta area to meet Mignon in person and have our copy of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing signed.
To subscribe to the Grammar Girl podcast, visit the Quick and Dirty Tips website. You’ll be glad you did.
Take the Grammar Girl Challenge; it’s on the right sidebar of Public Relations Matters. Let me know how you did!
And finally, if you know what the punctuation mark is right under the letter G in “girl” in Katey’s poster, drop me a comment here. Hint: Look close; it’s not a question mark.
