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Student Blogs from the University of Oregon Strategic PR Communication Course

Now that spring quarter at the University of Oregon has come to a close, I want to share with you a term-long project my students worked on: their blogs. For most of them, this was the first time they blogged at all, so I was especially impressed with the quality of their work.

I gave them some latitude to discuss passion projects of theirs in their blogs, so you will find topics ranging from sustainability to travel to the Kardashians!

Rather than just sharing with you a bullet point list of hyperlinked blogs, I thought you’d enjoy reading some of my favorite posts of theirs. Each blog has at least ten posts, so please take some time to scroll and click through their work.

They did a nice job of asking thought-provoking questions at the end of each of their blog posts. So if you have a few moments, it would be WONDERFUL if you’d comment on some of their posts.

If you’re a PR professor who has students blogging, what are your thoughts on ending posts with “thought-provoking questions,” those designed to promote interactivity with readers?

Image Credit: Image created by Barbara Nixon using Adobe Firefly.

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7 Things PR Professors Wish Their Students Would Do Over the Summer

This year, I’ve had the opportunity to teach public relations for both Auburn University and the University of Oregon. I’ve met some fantastic students.

Summer is a time for relaxing. For some folks. But if you’re a public relations student, you’ll want to keep these suggestions in mind for how to keep current in the ever-changing world of public relations over the summer. When you go back to class in the fall, you’ll be refreshed and knowledgeable.

Here are seven suggestions:

  1. Listen to For Immediate Release and/or Spin Sucks podcasts every week.
  2. If you’ve been blogging throughout the school year, blog at least every other week during the summer. You don’t want to lose readers who are not students or faculty
  3. Read at least one public relations trade book AND write a review of the book on Amazon and your blog. My recommendation? The second edition of Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content.
  4. Update your LinkedIn profile. See Are These Common Resume and LinkedIn Mistakes Holding You Back from Your Dream Job? for tips on brushing up your profile.
  5. Stay current with changes in Associated Press style.
  6. Write thank you notes to people who have made a positive impact on your life.
  7. Have some fun! Relish this time without homework with deadlines.

What are some other recommendations YOU have for how public relations students should stay engaged in PR over the summer?

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Overcoming Writer’s Block: Generating Ideas for Blog Post Topics

Image Credit: Barbara B. Nixon & DALL·E

As I was about to write a blog post from scratch for my college public relations students on how to come up with ideas for topics for their blogs, I thought to myself, “Self, is there a quicker way to get started than staring at my monitor?” After a moment or two of staring at my computer monitor, Self said to me, “why not try generative AI?”

ChatGPT

In ChatGPT, I provided the prompt “Helpful Tips To Come Up With Topic Ideas For Blog Posts,” and here’s what it generated:

  1. Consider your audience: Think about who you’re writing for and what topics would interest them. What are their needs, pain points, and questions? What are they passionate about?
  2. Research keywords: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify popular and relevant keywords in your niche. Look for long-tail keywords that are specific and have low competition.
  3. Look for inspiration in your daily life: Pay attention to your experiences, conversations, and observations. What topics have come up in your recent conversations with friends and family? What problems have you encountered and solved recently?
  4. Explore social media: Check out popular hashtags in your niche on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Look for trending topics, discussions, and questions people are asking. Join relevant Facebook groups and follow industry leaders on LinkedIn to get more insights and ideas.
  5. Analyze your competitors: Take a look at what your competitors are writing about. Identify gaps in their content and come up with unique angles to cover the same topics. Don’t copy their ideas but use them as a source of inspiration.
  6. Use brainstorming techniques: Write down as many topic ideas as possible without editing or judging them. Use mind maps, lists, or random word generators to spark your creativity.
  7. Repurpose your old content: Look at your previous blog posts and see if you can update or expand on them. Turn a blog post into a video, podcast, or infographic. Use feedback from your readers to come up with new ideas for your content.

Remember, the key is to be creative, relevant, and engaging. Keep your audience in mind, use data-driven insights, and have fun with your content.

Bard

Then in Bard, I asked provided a similar prompt: “5 unique ways to generate blog post topics.”

Here are five unique ways to generate blog post topics:

  1. Write about your own experiences. What are you passionate about? What do you know a lot about? What have you experienced that you think others would find interesting? Sharing your own stories and experiences is a great way to connect with your readers and make your blog more personal.
  2. Interview experts. If you’re writing about a topic that you don’t have a lot of personal experience with, consider interviewing an expert on the subject. This can be a great way to get new insights and perspectives, and it can also help you build relationships with other people in your industry.
  3. Write about current events. If you want to keep your blog fresh and relevant, write about current events that are related to your niche. This is a great way to stay top-of-mind with your readers and show them that you’re up-to-date on the latest trends.
  4. Write about controversial topics. If you want to generate some buzz around your blog, write about controversial topics. This can be a great way to get people talking and sharing your content. Just be sure to do your research and present both sides of the argument fairly.
  5. Write about things that make you laugh. If you want to lighten the mood and make your readers smile, write about things that make you laugh. This can be a great way to connect with your readers on a personal level and make your blog more memorable.

So . . .

You may be wondering if it’s ethical to use generative AI to help you come up with ideas for posts. Yes, it’s perfectly fine for inspiration for posts — however, your posts in your blog need to be written by YOU, not AI. Your readers will appreciate it, I promise you.

I'm Listening
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T.O.W. :: Topics of the Week for #PRCA2330

In our Introduction to Public Relations class (PRCA 2330 at Georgia Southern University), we’ll all blog about the same general topic each week during the summer semester. Your TOWs of 300 words or more should be posted by Saturday at noon at the end of each week (except for Week Two, which is due Friday by 4:45 pm for your first Blog Checkpoint).

Some weeks have more than one topic listed; choose one of the available topics on those weeks.

If you mention a website or another blog, be sure to hyperlink to the post. And consider inserting graphics to add visual interest for your readers.

If you are unsure how to get started writing these TOWs, many times you can use this three-pronged approach:

  1. What did you learn?
  2. What surprised you?
  3. What do you want to know more about?

WEEK ONE

  • No TOW required. But if you would like to go back and write one, what is a “public”? Which publics are you a member of? How did you choose to become a member of those publics? (Choose and discuss at least three.)

WEEK TWO

  • Why are comments such an integral part of blogs? What advice would you offer on writing effective blog comments? (Be sure to link to at least two sources for your information.)

WEEK THREE

  • Based on what you read in Chapter 4 of your Public Relations Strategies & Tactics book, do you think it’s more beneficial for a new PR practitioner to begin his/her career in a PR department or in a PR firm? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? (Be sure to link to at least two sources for your information.)

WEEK FOUR

  • Watch my interview with Martin Waxman. Use the three-pronged approach (described toward the top of this blog post) to react to the interview. (And consider visiting Martin’s blog and leaving a comment there for him on one of his posts.)
  • Watch my interview with Kneale Mann. Use the three-pronged approach (described toward the top of this blog post) to react to the interview. (And consider visiting Kneale’s blog and leaving a comment there for him on one of his posts.)

WEEK FIVE

  • One Week of Twitter (complete your One Week of Twitter assignment during Week Four, then write about it during Week Five).

WEEK SIX

WEEK SEVEN

WEEK EIGHT

  • Public relations practitioners often use news releases to get their clients into the news. Provide 10 tips for writing an effective news release. (Be sure to link to at least two sources for your information.)

WEEK NINE

  • What advice would you offer PR students who are new to blogging? Come up with your own Top 10 list. [NOTE: This blog post is due on the MONDAY of the last week of class, July 12.]
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Blog Checklist :: February 2010

Wondering if you are on the right track with what I am expecting from your blogs? Here’s a checklist for you based on what should be at your blog by the end of February. I will be evaluating your blogs again (for a grade) at some point in early March. It’s likely that I will not announce the specific date ahead of time. I will go back and look at previous posts again.

Georgia Southern classes:

Southeastern University classes:

As I’ve reminded you in class frequently, it’s critical to keep up with your blogs. If you haven’t already done so, you may want to create an Editorial Calendar for yourself to help schedule your required posts.

Finally, in some informal checks I’ve done recently, here are a few things that I’ve noticed:

  • When you put in a hyperlink, don’t let the reader see the URL. Ever. Simply hyperlink from a few relevant words.
  • Blog comments (the ones you write on others’ blogs) need to be added to ONE post of yours, not as individual posts in your blog.
  • Proofread. Any errors diminish your credibility as a future PR practitioner.
  • See the Improving Your Blog video I created for you in January after the last blog check.
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Blogging Guidelines :: PRCA 3030 :: Social Media for PR

Since our course is called Social Media for PR, it’s only natural that writing and maintaining your own blog is a vital part of the course; your blog will be 25% of your grade in the class. Feel free to continue to use an existing blog of yours, unless you feel compelled to start fresh with a new blog for this course.

Please add a category for each type (listed below), and make sure each post is categorized appropriately. Each post for this class must have the category of “PRCA 3030” along with at least one additional category. (If you do not categorize your posts with the name of the class, it will be much more difficult for me to find them.)

1. TOW: Topic of the Week – Together as a class, we will come up with a topic (or topics) each week for you to write about. You should have at least 13 of these before the end of the semester. At times, you will watch a video, listen to a podcast, or read a specific blog post, and provide your thoughtful reactions. These posts must be a minimum of 300 words. We’ll keep our running list of TOWs on a PRCA 3030 Blog Topic of the Week post here at my blog. If you miss writing a TOW for one week, you can make it up with two the next week.

2. PR Connections – commentary, reflections and opinions about PR issues/examples that were not addressed in class. These can be responses to other PR blogs you read, links to interesting posts or articles, embedded YouTube videos, etc. You should write at least 10 of these during the semester.

3. Reading Notes – brief notes or key ideas from the reading assigned for that week’s class. Jot down 3-5 ideas that you believe are the most important & wish to remember. Be very brief, but write enough so someone who can’t read your mind understands what you mean and I am convinced that you actually did the readings. Remember to cite your source(s) when you paraphrase or quote materials from the readings; use a hyperlink to the book (either at the publisher’s site or at a bookseller like Amazon.com).

4. Blog comments – whenever you comment on someone’s PR blog (whether it’s a PR professional or a PR student), add the comment to ONE post that you update throughout the semester so I can assess your online participation. Do this only for PR-related blogs. You should have a minimum of 15 comments by mid-semester and at least 30 (total) before the end of the semester. See Tracking Your Blog Comments for Nixon’s Classes for more information.

5. Personal – optional category. Use it for any posts not related to public relations.

You may add other categories and sub-categories of your choice. Please keep in mind that when I evaluate your blog I will pay special attention to the categories listed above, but I will not ignore other posts. I will perform a wholistic evaluation of your blog, looking for:

  • professionalism: Clear, correct, thoughtful writing
  • frequency: Sufficient posts in categories 1-3, posted throughout the semester. There will be at least four blog checkpoints during the semester, including a graded checkpoint at mid-semester.
  • linking: Identify other PR blogs (use PR Open Mic or my blogroll in my Delicious bookmarks as starting points) and link to them. Respond to others’ posts. Become a part of the blogosphere. Blogging should not be lonely.
  • readability: brief & concise writing style, use of white space, bold characters, images, bullet points

SUPER-IMPORTANT: In order for you to get credit for your blog, I need to know where it is. Tell me your blog address by completing this Google Form; do this no later than the end of January.

Questions? Just let me know.

barbara_is_listening

NOTE: Many thanks to Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu at Purdue University, who allowed me to use her blogging guidelines from her PRinciples class. They were so well-written that I made just a few tweaks for my own class. Dr. V knows that Blogs Matter.

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Blogging Guidelines :: PRCA 3330 and COMM 4333

“You only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.” Doris Lessing

In addition to traditional writing assignments (news releases, feature stories, etc.) in our PR Writing course, all students in my PRCA 3330 classes at Georgia Southern University and COMM 4333 class at Southeastern University will also create and maintain a blog as part of the course. This post explains the types of content I expect you to write about in your blog for PRCA 3330 or COMM 4333.

Please add a category for each type (listed below), and make sure each post is categorized appropriately. Each post for this class must have the category of “PRCA 3330” or “COMM 4333” along with at least one additional category. (If you do not categorize your posts with the name of the class, it will be much more difficult for me to find them.)

1. Reading notes – brief notes or key ideas from the reading assigned for that week’s class. Jot down 3-5 ideas that you believe are the most important & wish to remember. Be very brief, but write enough so someone who can’t read your mind understands what you mean and I am convinced that you actually did the readings. Remember to cite your source(s) when you paraphrase or quote materials from the readings; use a hyperlink to the book (either at the publisher’s site or at a bookseller like Amazon.com).

2. Topic of the Week – Together as a class, we will come up with a topic (or topics) each week for you to write about. You should have 15 of these before the end of the semester. See our TOW list (which will be updated weekly).

3. PR Connections – commentary, reflections and opinions about PR issues/examples that were not addressed in class. These can be responses to other PR blogs you read, links to interesting posts or articles, embedded YouTube videos, etc. You should write at least 10 of these during the semester.

4. Blog comments – whenever you comment on someone’s PR blog (whether it’s a PR professional or a PR student), add the comment to ONE post that you update throughout the semester so I can assess your online participation. Do this only for PR-related blogs. See Tracking Your Blog Comments for Nixon’s Classes for more information.

5. Personal – optional category. Use it for any posts not related to public relations.

You may add other categories and sub-categories of your choice. Please keep in mind that when I evaluate your blog I will pay special attention to the categories listed above, but I will not ignore other posts. I will perform a wholistic evaluation of your blog, looking for:

  • professionalism: Clear, correct, thoughtful writing
  • frequency: Sufficient posts in categories 1-3, posted throughout the semester. There will be at least four blog checkpoints during the semester.
  • linking: Identify other PR blogs (use PR Open Mic or my blogroll in my Delicious bookmarks as starting points) and link to them. Respond to others’ posts. Become a part of the blogosphere. Blogging should not be lonely.
  • readability: brief & concise writing style, use of white space, bold characters, images, bullet points

SUPER-IMPORTANT: In order for you to get credit for your blog, I need to know where it is. Tell me your blog address by completing this Google Form; do this no later than the end of January.

Questions? Just let me know.

barbara_is_listening

NOTE: Many thanks to Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu at Purdue University, who allowed me to use her blogging guidelines from her PRinciples class. They were so well-written that I made just a few tweaks for my own class. Dr. V knows that Blogs Matter.

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4 Ways to Keep Current in Public Relations

Let’s face it . . .  whether you’re a PR student, practitioner or faculty member, we’re all busy. So how can you get (and stay) up to speed with the ever-changing world of public relations? Here’s a quick guide to how I stay current in public relations.

One: Listen to PR podcasts.

Some of my favorite podcasts are: For Immediate Release, Inside PR, The Creative Career, Trafcom News, Marketing Over Coffee, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. My favorite time to listen to podcasts is during my daily three-mile walks. I also listen to them when I drive, work out and clean the house. Some people prefer to listen to podcasts on their computers; my preference is listening to them on my Palm Pre or iPod.

Here’s a short video on how to subscribe to and download podcasts using iTunes. If you’re not an iTunes person, you may want to visit Podcast Alley, where you can find thousands more podcasts. You can listen to the podcasts directly from the website.

Two: Read PR blogs.

There are hundreds of blogs about public relations. I’ve bookmarked many of them in Delicious for you. You can subscribe to them using your favorite RSS reader (such as Google Reader), or just read them on the web. Some of the most helpful blogs I’ve discovered recently include The Comms Corner and Karen Russell’s Week’s Best, as they aggregate current posts of interest to PR practitioners.

Three: Follow PR practitioners on Twitter.

Are you a public relations student (or recent grad) just getting started using Twitter? Try following some (or all) of these people or organizations in my Twitter Starter Pack for PR Students. They all have something in common: they tweet useful or interesting information for people involved in public relations.

Four: Subscribe to daily or weekly PR e-mailed newsletters.

My favorite PR newsletter is one that comes into my inbox daily from Ragan Communications: the PR Daily newsfeed. When I want to read the latest on PR, this is the newsletter I turn to first. Another helpful newsletter comes from Chris Brogan; Chris provides different content in the newsletter than he does on his blog, so it’s definitely worth subscribing.

Your suggestions?

What additional resources would you recommend?

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So I Signed Up for WordPress. Now What Do I Do?

So, you signed up for an account at WordPress, and you added an About page. Now what’s next?

FIRST: Let me know your blog address by commenting on PRCA 2330 :: Spring 2009 Student Blogs.

NEXT: How do you go about learning more to create a blog that reflects your personality and style?

Fortunately, WordPress offers many FAQ screencasts to help you with the step-by-step instructions. Here are a few of the best ones to help you get started on the right foot:

And though you may have a good handle on the technical aspects of blogging, remember that the technical side is only part of the blogging equation. Corinne Weisgerber, a professor at St. Edward’s University and fellow PROpenMic member, created this presentation for her Social Media for PR class. The emphasis? How blogging can help you create your personal brand online. Take a look. It’s worth the time.

 

Blogging & Managing your Personal Brand     

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: commenting identity)

 

Photo Credit: “1/365” uploaded to Flickr by PhotoJonny