It’s been almost two and a half years since I heard these horrific words from my husband.
“It’s about Kyle. He had a seizure. He didn’t make it.”
Even typing those words brings tears to my eyes. (It’s hard to type now.)
How on earth can a perfectly healthy 22-year-old graduating senior just collapse and die? (Medically speaking, we found out that he had acute heart failure, which basically tells us nothing.)
So many of my friends tell me that I am strong, or that they can’t imagine how to go on after something like this. Well, I go on because I must. I have a loving husband and three other children that mean the world to me.
But some days — actually, nights — I totally melt down. I had one of those nights this week. It started with seeing something adorable and (usually) innocuous: a photo of the toddler child of a friend of Kyle’s asleep on his dad on the sofa. I smiled at the sweet photo, and then . . .
One tear slipped down my cheek.
One turned to ten, then to thousands.
I posted a short update on Facebook.
Damn I Miss Kyle
Immediately, friends started supporting me. I can’t tell you how much this helps. It’s a ginormous amount. (Some have asked why I don’t call someone when I feel like this. Simple answer: When I cry, I cannot speak. At all.)
I escaped to my bedroom and didn’t even make it the whole way onto my bed. I looked like this angel statue.
Photo Credit: “Angel in Grief” by Kenneth Minyard
And this time, my tears weren’t silent. They were LOUD and searing on my cheeks. They felt like acid. I couldn’t stop them, and I really didn’t even want to. I emptied the rest of my tissue box and a whole travel pack of tissues. I have no idea how long I was in this state, but I guess it was as long as I needed to be. I slept hard that night, thank goodness.
The next morning? I had seriously puffy eyelids (I’ll spare you that picture), and I went on.
First of all, there’s no such thing as “making viral content.” There’s only “making content that goes viral.” That said, here’s the secret: as PR pro Shel Holtz often says, “it depends.” In general, if your content has more than a few of the following, it’s more likely to go viral.
It’s been promoted by you in multiple places online.
It’s been promoted by you many times, and at different times of the day.
It has relevant keywords in the headline/title/filename/tags that people may be searching for at a certain point in time.
You’ve directly asked others to share it, and they have.
You’ve linked from other popular content of yours to the new content.
It’s funny.
Someone famous (or at least “Internet famous”) shares your content.
UPDATE from Eden Spodek: “Okay, so maybe I got lucky and there were several other videos of the same thing that may have had better production quality but I did use tips 3, 6 and 7. I suspect tip 3 was most important in helping Andy Greene from Rolling Stone find my video. He was nice enough to let me Twitter interview him about it and I share it on a subsequent blog post. Thanks for sharing it some more and best of luck with your Genghis Grill YouTube challenge.” My apologies to Eden for making it look like luck was the only thing that made her video go viral; that wasn’t my intent.
And here’s what typically doesn’t work:
Tagging your content with irrelevant (but popular) keywords. You may get some traction this way, but it’s unlikely that people will share it. In fact, they will likely be irritated.
Posting once, hoping for immediate pick up.
Irritating your followers/friends by incessantly promoting your content. People will tire of you, and stop “listening” to what you have to say.
When I made my video commercial for Genghis Grill, I aimed to do what works and avoid what doesn’t (see above). Within a day, I had 500 views on my video. Because I used Bitly to create a custom URL for the video, I can see that a great majority of the clicks on the link come from Twitter, a bunch from Facebook, and virtually none come from the QR code I created. No surprises there. My next job: create Upworthy-style headlines/links that will drive traffic from Twitter and Facebook (primarily) to my video. Watch the 44-second video, and let me know: what headline would you write for it that might make you and your friends want to watch it AND share it? And if you like the video, please share it.
UPDATE 3-31-2014: I have withdrawn from the Genghis Grill’s 2014 Health Kwest, and I have made all posts about that contest private on my blog for the time being.
As someone who had taught public relations for more than two decades, I should have known better. But I got caught up in the excitement of being part of a contest, and I have neglected to provide full disclosure with every post/photo/video I have I uploaded as a constant in Genghis Grill’s 2014 Health Kwest that the restaurant chain is providing me one free meal a day. And not making this disclosure goes against recent FTC guidelines. (There is wording about this in FanCorps, where we accept our daily “orders,” but like many, I just clicked right past it without reading carefully.)
NOTE: I am not a lawyer, nor am I giving legal advice. I am just sharing my understanding of the guidelines.
So I am making that right now. I will go back and edit as much as I can to include a disclosure I created at the cmp.ly website.
Here’s how to create a disclosure of your own:
Go to http://cmp.ly and sign up for an account as an Individual Advocate.
Choose which type of compliance you need. For my participation in this contest, it’s #3.
Add specific language for your circumstances. For me, I added “The author of the message that directed you to this page has the following material connection: the author was compensated (via a giftcard worth one meal a day) to promote Genghis Grill as part of its Health Kwest 2014 contest.”
Then use the unique URL that Cmp.ly provides in everything you post that is based on being compensated. Mine is http://my-disclosur.es/HVNLJa .
For those of you who can’t join us in person on Tuesday, September 16, or those who would just like to see the them, I have posted my slides for my breakout session at the Northwest Arkansas Business Women’s Conference. If you view the presentation at SlideShare, you can see notes for each slide, too.
For my COMM 4633 Social Media for PR Spring 2013 class at Southeastern University
For those students in Social Media for PR who choose not to complete a Personal Learning Network Project, there is another option. You can write a short paper on an aspect of social media in public relations. Topics for your paper could include virtually anything we’ve read about as part of our course. Consider what’s most interesting to you or what you are most passionate about. Even consider what’s most confusing about social media. You could write a case study or a literature review, if you wish, as your paper.
Five to seven pages, not including Title Page, Abstract & Works Cited
Eight to ten sources, including at least two peer-reviewed sources. Peer-reviewed sources include: Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Journal, Public Relations Quarterly, Public Relations Review.
PART 1 – TOPIC CHOICE (25 POINTS OF FINAL GRADE)
DUE: End of Week 3, in MyFire
What topic have you chosen for your term paper? Why do you think this will be a beneficial topic for you to research?
PART 2 – ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (50 POINTS OF FINAL GRADE)
DUE: End of Week 5, in MyFire
Using the guidelines provided by Purdue’s OWL, submit your APA-formatted annotated bibliography of eight to ten sources, including at least two peer-reviewed sources. Peer-reviewed sources include: Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Journal, Public Relations Quarterly, Public Relations Review. For each source, do at least one of the following, in a well-developed paragraph: summarize, assess and/or reflect. (See a sample annotated bibliography.)
PART 3 – COMPLETED PAPER (175 POINTS OF FINAL GRADE)
DUE: End of Week 6, in MyFire
A rubric for evaluation will be available by the end of Week 4.
Image Credit: The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and JESS3
For my COMM 4633 Social Media for PR Spring 2013 class at Southeastern University
Students can choose to complete this Personal Learning Network Project or a traditional term paper.
This project is designed to provide you with an opportunity to tailor an assignment to your own learning needs and course-related interests. For this assignment, you will identify an area of social media/PR you want to learn more about, outline a plan of study, and decide on appropriate learning deliverables to demonstrate your mastery of the material. You will then submit this plan to me for approval. Once your study plan has been approved, you will create a personal learning network to guide you in your learning. You may utilize any content you wish including books, web pages, video tutorials, library resources, open educational material, etc. to help you complete your deliverables by the deadline specified in your learning plan. In other words, you will be able to learn the material in the manner, and with the resources of your own choice.
My goal for this assignment is to prepare you for today’s highly competitive and rapidly changing workplace by allowing you to develop experience in directing your own learning. Today, knowledge has a very short shelf life, which means that one of the most important skills you can learn while in college is to become an independent learner. It is my hope that you take this project as an opportunity to help you enhance those skills. It should therefore go without saying that you shouldn’t pick a topic/area you already master for this assignment. Although it would be a way to an easy project and grade, you would simply be cheating yourself and your education.
Though you are welcome (even encouraged) to post any portion of your Personal Learning Project on your own blog, to earn credit for each part, please use MyFire to submit your work.
PART 1 – THE LEARNING PLAN (50 POINTS OF FINAL GRADE)
DUE: End of Week 3, in MyFire
For this part of the assignment, you will identify an area of social media/PR you want to learn more about, outline a plan of study, and decide on appropriate learning deliverables to demonstrate your mastery of the material. Please use this template when designing your learning plan. You’ll be evaluated based on the thoroughness of your plan. To help you get started, I’ve listed a few examples of possible project ideas below.
Researching social media applications for nonprofits and designing a social media training session (the deliverable) for a local nonprofit interested in learning how to engage its stakeholders via social media. This would more than likely be a group project.
Researching how journalism has changed with the advent of social media, and offering suggestions / a workshop to the campus newspaper for how to benefit from social media.
Researching QR (quick response) applications for small businesses, offering your services to a local business and designing a concept for QR campaign tailored to their needs.
PART 2 – THE PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK (75 POINTS OF FINAL GRADE)
DUE: End of Week 5, in MyFire
Your personal learning network (PLN) needs to include a Twitter, blog and social bookmarking component. We will discuss how to create a PLN in much more detail in class. You also need to identify blogs, web sites, and social bookmarks that are relevant to your project and subscribe to them. You may even want to subscribe to a Google Alert on your topic (optional). At the end of Week 6, you will need submit in a UPDATED description of your personal learning network along with your deliverables. You’ll be evaluated based on the depth and breadth of the personal learning network you built. In order to hand this in, create a list of people you follow on various platforms, along with a one- or two-sentence description of why you chose them:
Twitter: list the people in your Twitter PLN with their Twitter UserId. Only list people that pertain to your project (i.e. don’t list your buddies here)
Blogs: list the bloggers you followed for this project. Identify them by a) name, b) blog URL, and c) blog name.
Social bookmarking sites: list the people you follow on Delicious, Diigo, Pinterest or any other social bookmarking site. Again, only list people you followed for this particular project. List them with their social bookmarking URL.
Any other social media sites/platforms
PART 3 –PROJECT DELIVERABLES (125 POINTS OF FINAL GRADE)
DUE: End of Week 6, in MyFire
Your project deliverables are identified in your personal learning plan and approved in consultation with me. Remember to include an UPDATED version of your PLN that you submitted in Part 2; identify which people you have added to your network. If all of your deliverables are in digital form, simply submit (in MyFire) the URL(s) to those deliverables. Be sure to indicate what each URL refers to. You’ll be evaluated based on the quality of your final product.
(NOTE: Many thanks to Dr. Corinne Weisgerber for permitting me to use, with very slight adaptation, the Personal Learning Project from her Spring 2012 Social Media for PR class at another SEU: St. Edwards University.)
For my COMM 4633 Social Media for PR Spring 2013 class at Southeastern University
For this assignment, you will choose and interview a social media professional (someone who works for an organization or an agency doing primarily social media work), and then write about this interview.
In the Week 4 section in MyFire, post your 500-word (minimum) recap of the interview in the Discussion Forum.
Due Date: See our course in MyFire
Though a face-to-face interview is preferred, a phone or webcam interview is acceptable. An interview that is e-mail or text-based only isnot acceptable.
Schedule your interview at least a week before this assignment is due, preferably two. PR professionals sometimes have unpredictable schedules, and it’s possible that you may need to reschedule.
Include an introductory paragraph that introduces the professional, including title and company, educational background, etc. Mention your connection to the professional (how you found him/her) and how you conducted the interview (face-to-face, phone or webcam).
Questions/Topics you need to include:
What’s a typical week like? (If no week is typical, then what was last week like?)
Tell me about a project you worked on that you are especially proud of.
What do you do to keep current in the PR industry?
What do you wish you would have known before starting your career in PR?
How important is writing in your career?
In your experience, is a social media professional ever “off the clock”?
What three tips would you offer someone just starting out in PR?
After interviewing this person, are you (the student, not the practitioner) more or less likely to want to have a career in PR? Why?
Some questions you may wish to ask:
Did your education prepare you for working in social media? How?
What has surprised you the most about working in this field?
How has social media changed since you entered the field?
When your company is hiring for an entry-level social media position, what makes a candidate stand out?
What professional organizations are you involved in? (For example, PRSA, IABC, etc.)
Include a photo of your interviewee. (This can be a photo he or she provides or one that you take yourself.)
Link to your interviewee’s LinkedIn profile and/or blog.
Conduct the interview using Skype and two webcams. Record the interview with Vodburner, and post the interview at your blog.
Questions?
[NOTE: This must be an informational interview that you conduct this semester. Do not “recycle” an interview that you conducted during a previous semester.]
Though the tips in this post are aimed primarily at those who are participating in on-demand learning (AKA elearning) in the workplace, many of these suggestions also apply in for-credit online college courses.
Get into a proper mindset. Remember that on-demand learning is NOT a poor replacement for instructor-led, classroom training. In fact, according to a US Department of Education study, elearning has been found to be more efficient and have better retention in many cases.
Schedule time on your calendar for the course, just like you would for any classroom training.
Find a quiet, distraction-free environment for the course, if possible. Perhaps you could use an available conference room if you don’t have a private office.
Let your co-workers know that you will be unavailable for the time that you are completing the class. Forward your calls to voicemail, if that’s acceptable in your workplace.
Consider even posting a sign outside your office or cube letting others know that your learning is in progress.
If there is audio for the course, and you do not have a private room in which to take the training, wear your most comfortable headphones. (For me personally, if the course will take more than an hour, I’d prefer to wear over-the-ear headphones rather than earbuds.)
Limit your own multi-tasking during the course, no matter how tempting it might be.
Before the course begins, think “How might what I will learn help my ability to succeed at work?”
As you’re going through the scenarios in the training, jot down how you will apply the concepts on the job in your specific work environment.
Unlike in a classroom setting, go at your own pace. Start and stop the training as needed. Replay or repeat sections when you need to, without the nagging worry that you’re holding others back.
Take lots of notes. Don’t rely on your memory.
After you’ve completed the course, have a discussion with co-workers about what you learned. (This will increase your own retention of the information.)
And for environmentally conscious learners, knowing that on-demand learning uses a significantly smaller carbon footprint is a welcome benefit.
What other suggestions do you have for getting the most from an on-demand learning course?
Final exams are approaching on college campuses around the world. Finals can be stressful, even for the most prepared students. Here are some tips to help you succeed:
Preparing for the Final
Find out what your entire final exam schedule is so that you’ll know how many finals you will have on each day.
Prepare a written schedule for yourself indicating when you will study for each test. Leave some time in your schedule for exercise and relaxation, too.
If the professor offers a study guide, use it.
If the professor offers a review session for the exam, go to it.
If you study well in groups, form a study group.
Know if the final is comprehensive (covering everything since the beginning of the semester or quarter).
If the final will be taken online, find out if you have to go to a specific computer lab on campus at a specific time, or if you’ll be allowed to take the final on your own computer. Also find out how many chances you will have to take the final. Assume it’s just one chance unless you hear differently from the professor.
If you have your previous exams available, scour the exams for things that you think will be on the final.
Flag your notes by highlighting or using Post-It notes.
Don’t pull an all-nighter. (Though some people are successful with studying all night and then taking a test with no sleep, I wouldn’t recommend you try it for the first time on a final exam.)
Calculate your grades in the class. Determine what score you will need to get the grade you’re hoping for in the class. You may discover that you can’t possibly get an A, no matter how well you do on the final, but to get a B, you only need to get a few questions right.
If you’re an auditory learner, record yourself reading your notes aloud, then play the recording back several times.
If the exam is an open-book exam, this does not mean that you don’t have to study at all. In fact, one of the most challenging exams I ever took as an undergrad was an open-book essay exam. Flag your textbook based on where you believe the questions will come from.
Feed your brain. Eat a meal and drink at least two bottles of water.
Don’t overdo it with the caffeine. You want to be alert but not jittery. If you’ve never tried an energy drink before, the day of an important final is not a good first time.
Are food and drinks allowed in the classroom where your final will be? Sometimes, the rules are different for exam days than other days. If you can have food with you, choose things that will not disrupt other students.
Know what to bring with you to the final. Do you need a blue book? A Scantron? (And if you need a Scantron, which specific type do you need?) A pencil? A pen? When in doubt, overpack.
Even if you don’t usually wear a watch, take one with you to the final. It’s unlikely you will be able to look at your cell phone to check the time during the final.
During the Final
For a paper-based exam, read through the entire final exam before you start answering any questions at all. This way, you will know what you’re facing.
If the final is an online exam, find out if you can revisit questions, or if after you click past a question you cannot go back to it again.
If you’re using a Scantron and you skip a question to finish later, make sure you’re answering your questions next to the correct answers. (When I took my GRE to get into grad school, I skipped a question on the first page of the booklet, but never skipped a number on the Scantron. When I realized it, I only had 10 minutes to go back and put the answers with the correct questions. Talk about stress!)
Keep a close eye on the time you have allotted.
Some students benefit from answering the most difficult questions first, while others do better completing all the easier ones. Do what works for you.
After the Final
Do not share with other students what was on the final exam. In most universities, this is a violation of the honor code.
Take a breath, relax, then forge ahead to the next final.
Now it’s your turn: What final exam tips do you have to share? Please let us know through your comments below.
It’s been almost two and a half years since I heard these horrific words from my husband.
