Teaching PR

What Abigail said to John, 232 years ago today

"...and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation."

--31 March 1776

Labels: women

The Week's Best, 31 March 2008

New Skills for Young PR Pros, Mike Manuel

20Types of Pages that Every Blogger Should Consider, Darren Rowse

How to: Identify Keywords, Brendan Cooper

The Care and Feeding of Your References, Karen Burns

Making a Splash with Social Media Measurement (video on Sea World's Journey to Atlantis campaign), Shel Israel with Kami Huyse

Oddcast is Pretty Cool (and Just a Wee Bit Creepy), Melanie Seasons

Labels: public relations, students, week's best

The Week's Best for PR Students, 24 March 2008

I confess my list is short this week because I've been so busy, not because the social media sphere is lacking in good reads. Feel free to add a comment with something great I've missed. :-(

How I Use Twitter to Promote My Blog, Darren Rowse

Video: How to Use Facebook Privacy Features, Jeremiah Owyang

The Top 5 Films About PR, Richard Millington

How to Edit Your Resume Like a Professional Resume Writer, Penelope Trunk

On the Record... Online with Business Week Columnist Jon Fine, Eric Schwartzman (podcast)

Marketing with Social Media, Shelly Banjo (Wall Street Journal)

Labels: public relations, students, week's best

Paull Young, Rockstar

My class wanted to see Paull Young get some link love. (Well, actually they want to know how to embed a video in Blogger.)

Here he is.

Labels: paull young, WOM class

The Week's Best, 17 March 2008

Customer Service Is the Conduit Through Which Direct Brand Conversations Happen (with lots of Starbucks links), Valeria Maltoni

5 Easy Ways to Make Your Comments Section a Conversation, Tiffany Monhollon

State of the News Media 2008, Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism (via Peter Himler)

A Groundswell at SXSW: How the Audience Revolted and Asserted Control, Jeremiah Owyang

Announcing (Formally) Alltop (top 40 news aggregation site), Guy Kawasaki

10 Questions Every Blogger Should Ask Themselves Before Posting, Damien Van Vroenhoven

We're All on Drugs: This Explains Everything!, Bill Sledzik

Harness the Energy of Your Team, Ben Matthews

Blog Resources for English Language and Blog Writing, Lorelle VanFossen (via Joseph Thornley)

Pitching Fits: Why News Releases Might Die, Rich

The Secret Underground Guide to Social Media for Organizations, Colin McKay

Labels: public relations, students, week's best

Tools, skills and characteristics for college students to cultivate

My Word-of-Mouth Communication class's last project before spring break consisted of brainstorming about the social media tools that ad/PR students should know how to use, as well as the skills and characteristics that they should cultivate, in order to be prepared for 21st-century jobs.

Do you like what they came up with?

Social Media Tools (for themselves or their employers/clients)

• Blogging
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Podcasting
• Flickr
• Facebook, MySpace (social networks)
• Wikipedia
• Google docs, chat, groups, etc.
• RSS feeds and aggregators
• Social bookmarking (del.icio.us)
• Search engines including blog searches
• Second Life
• LinkedIn
• VoIP, such as Skype
• Mobile media
• Interactive gaming

Skills/characteristics to cultivate

• Ability to pitch effectively (mainstream and social media)
• Online research skills
• Use of appropriate language and etiquette
• Knowledge of ethics, law
• Technological understanding, comfortable with both Mac and PC
• Online identity management and networking skills
• Online security
• Adventurousness, learning agility
• Knowledge of branding
• Keeping up with current events
• Understanding word of mouth -- filters, why some things go viral
• Interaction between online and mainstream media
• Ability to learn on the job
• SEO
• Being personable in person, not just online
• Transparency, authenticity
• Writing ability
• Knowledge of measurement tools and ability to apply them (Feedburner, Google Analytics, etc.)

Now there's no excuse for them not to get out and learn what they need to know! As soon as spring break ends, that is.

Labels: education, social media, students

The Week's Best, 10 March 2008

Most of my students are off galavanting in some warm and sunny place this week, but I'm still here at my desk rounding up interesting reading for PR students/newbies (written in a tone of abject sorrow). Here you have it:

Getting to Know Gen Why, BusinessWeek and Generation Y Doesn't Buy the Hype about Generation Y, Kelli Matthews

Where My News At?, Michael Allison

Recommendation Letters and References, Mihaela Vorvoreanu

Where Are All the Student PR Bloggers?, Stephen Davies and Student PR Blogs, At Least Give It a Try, Richard Millington

45 Essential PR Links, My Creative Team

10 Tips for Encouraging Blog Comments, Neville Hobson

Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog, New York Times

Labels: public relations, students, week's best

Save-the-Date: Connect '08

It's official: UGA's second Connect conference will be held the weekend of September 20, 2008, here in Athens.

Lots of details to follow. For now, just mark your calendars. In ink.

Labels: conference, Grady College

Wikipedia editing assignment

At last weekend's Edelman Digital Bootcamp, I presented several assignments that educators can use to integrate social media into PR classes. Here's one:

Wikipedia editing assignment

Objectives: Get students to experiment with using a wiki; encourage discussion about the credibility of the information and what it means to have ordinary people generating media content. This assignment was created for a PR writing course.

Assignment

• Select any current entry
• Ideas: your high school, hometown, university page, your hobby or favorite TV show or movie, current events
• Print it out as it looked before you edit it
• Edit it: Not just a word or two; add a section, paragraph, etc.
• Print it out as it looks after you edited it
• For the truly brave: submit a proposed new entry

Grading criteria Substantial edit made or proposal submitted Verifiable references provided

Background on Wikipedia for public relations students

• Adding an entry: it should be an item worthy of inclusion in an encyclopedia
• Information should be independently verifiable from external sources
• It should be presented from a neutral point of view ("fairly and without bias")
• Autobiographical entries: Wikipedia discourages writing about yourself or subjects in which you are personally involved (including your employer)
• However, it is appropriate to correct any obvious inaccuracies about your organization; be sure to provide a verifiable reference to the new information
• You can also add your organization’s Web site to the "external links" section when appropriate
• Use the "watchlist" function so you know when someone has updated the pages you’re interested in

Resources for lecture/discussion

Wikis in Plain English (Common Craft video)
Wikipedia Policies and Guidelines
Wikipedia Help: watchlists

My downloadable slideshow from class-- I deleted the section on forums so that the Slideshare version concentrates on wikis.

Labels: assignment, classes, education, public relations, social media

The Week's Best, 3 March 2008

Facebook 101: Ten Things You Need to Know About Facebook, Thomas Krivak (via Michael Seaton)

BrazenCareerist.com, via Penelope Trunk

The Press Release Page: A NewApproach to an Old Problem, Mike Manuel

An Introduction to Twitter for Marketers, Tessa Horehled

Grad School Decision Time, Les Potter

Gawker Reporter-in-Training, Peter Himler

Should PR Agencies Blog?, Brian Solis

Jobs in Social Media, Corinne Weisgerber

And two great examples of writing by college bloggers:
Twitter-provements, Ashley B. (Georgia)

Tips for the PRos, Lisa Poplawski (Oregon)

Labels: public relations, students, week's best

UGAEDB08: Edelman Digital Bootcamp

Kaye Sweetser took an idea from Connect '07 and made it happen. Working with Erin Caldwell of Edelman (their team on left), Kaye and a team of Campaigns students put on the inaugural Edelman Digital Bootcamp at UGA on Saturday.

My WOM class students (led by grad student Sue Burgett, pictured with Stephanie Gilmore on the left) were tasked with social media coverage of the events. I divided them into four teams of 2-2.5 hour shifts, and they decided who would do what: photo coverage on Flickr, blogging and tweeting for the EDB website, and creating and posting short video and audio interviews with participants (there are others-- you'll find links to them on the blog). I encouraged them to take on the tasks that they were least comfortable with, so in many cases you're looking at or listening to their first attempt with the technology or platform. I've gotten great feedback from the students on how much they learned by doing (Josh Hallett's quote that I'm always throwing at them). Prior to the event we reviewed conference blogging tips and Edelman's Online Behavior Policies and Procedures.

In the meantime, I participated in the educators' workshop (center photo), led by Phil Gomes and Kaye Sweeter. Kaye's already begun posting assignments that we presented, and I'll follow with mine soon.

To get a feel for the day, check out this fun video by Phil Gomes.

WOM class student posts on EDB:

Edelman Digital Bootcamp: The Ultimate PR Campaigns Client, Lizzie Azzolino

Edelman Digital Bootcamp Morning Interviews, Sue Burgett

Edelman Digital Bootcamp: Making a Video, Ally W

Edelman Digital Bootcamp @ Grady @ UGA, William Wickey

Edelman Digital Bootcamp, LadyCoastie

Addition: Bootcamp Was Enlightening, sngilmore

Labels: blogging, conference, podcasting, social media, students, WOM

Adventures in podcasting: Grady D.C. alumni luncheon

On Friday I attended a Grady alumni luncheon, hosted by Carolyn Tieger, at Porter Novelli. About 20 alumni attended, and Paul Vogelzand (Porter Novelli), Melissa Libby (she learned it all at Connect '07), and I spoke about public relations and social media.

At the beginning of the semester, I assured my WOM class students that we, including me, would all learn to podcast by the end of the semester. I made the alumni lunch my trial run. So here it is: my first podcast. :-)

Thanks to all the alums who attended, but especially my former students: Kristin (Hackler) Rosengren, Amy (Aarons) Rosen, Sheridan (Georges) Watson, and Clam Lorenz, not to mention Jeff Clark, James Rada, Meg Manthey and all the rest. They're all doing such interesting things now, and are all interested in social media-- it was definitely worth the trip.

Labels: Grady College, podcasting