Archive for April, 2007
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Do Well on Assignments: Five Tips
I’m in grading mode this weekend. My “grading” includes two categories. My classes: the assignments I’m grading on one’s that I’ve required. Often I kick myself in the butt for having complicated assignments of multiple pages, rather than making it easy on myself. But then I remember how ill-prepared I felt at my first job (or three) and how I wished for more exposure to more types of things while in school. So… tonight I grade! Work from AHPR: Allen Hall PR is the student-run PR firm at the University of Oregon. The firm has seven to ten clients, all of which has various projects in the hopper. I’m the last link in the “editing chain.” When things get to me, they should be client ready. They often aren’t. With both of these types of “assignments” in mind, I offer these tips for students. Be clear on the directions and... Continue Reading
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Label it!
I love labels. I dig categories. Classifications? Groupings? You bet. This is why I was so interested in Kami’s post about the seven categories of social media today on Communication Overtones. She has created seven neat categories to encompass everything from publishing platforms (Blogger, etc.) and social networks (MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn) to those with more “academic sounding” labels like democratized content networks (think Digg) and content distribution sites (like De.licio.us). Head over to Kami’s blog to check out the list. So I got to thinking about what tools I use and yep, most would cleanly fit in the categories that Kami has defined. The only thing that doesn’t fit is Stikkit. Stikkit is definitely social – although it’s by invite only. It’s just as “media” as Twitter. So I’m not sure where I’d fit it in. Maybe it needs a new category like Social Collaboration Tools?... Permalink
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Guest Post: What Virginia Tech is Doing Right (and Wrong)
This post is a letter from my mentor, Leslie Habetler, to some of her crisis planning and management clients. With her permission, I’m reposting it here. As I watch this unfold, I thought it might be helpful to point some things out that would be helpful if you ever face such a situation (in any scale). First it is obvious they have a crisis response plan and they are doing a lot right. For those of you whom I have helped in this way, you can see what they are doing right in handling the media. The President has obviously had good media coaching and they are keeping a careful log of everything they are doing so the media knows they are acting in anaggressively appropriate manner. The university media person is cranking out updates for him at a rapid pace and they are posting them on the website and... Continue Reading
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Early Adopters are Not the Majority
The Dells, the GMs and even the Marriotts are not the norm when it comes to corporate blogging. In fact, a small percentage of Fortune 500 companies have an external blog. Todd Defren at PR Squared posted recently about his chat with Fortune 500 marketers asking very basic questions about blogging. The good news, he says, is that they are interested and engaged… even cautiously experimental. Over at MicroPersuasion, Steve Rubel talks about the new Forester Research report from Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff called Social Technographics. Their research uses the analogy of the participation ladder that looks a little something like this: The majority of people are “inactives” (52%). This group does not read blogs, watch peer-generated video (YouTube, Google Video), listen to podcasts, use social networks (MySpace, Facebook), use RSS, tag Web pages, comment on blogs, publish or maintain a blog, upload video or publish a Web page.... Continue Reading
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Who Do You Trust?
Edelman released its annual Trust Barometer survey results in early February. I’m always fond of nicely defined and clearly labeled categories. Categories provide a nice heuristic for linking new information with what we already know. Based on seven years of research, the agency is able to draw some conclusions and segment influencers into categories. Trust Holders provides an overall umbrella term under which several categories fall. Each category has a distinct way in which they “form or share opinions and how they act on trust in brands.” From Richard Edelman’s 6 a.m. blog: There are Public Activists who engage in outspoken public actions, Social Connectors who share, seek and value public opinions, Solo Actors who take personal action and the Uninvolved whose opinion of brands is not driven by trust reputation. We see that different spokespeople and media will reach these segments; for example, a Social Connector responds best to... Continue Reading
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Potential Client Googled Me
It finally happened… in a new client meet and greet the executive director of a local nonprofit came to the meeting having done a Google search on me. Not the first time people have done this. I Google myself on a fairly regular basis to make sure some random weirdness hasn’t shown up in the online universe. A sales rep I work with at the very cool University Readers Googled me and brought up this piece of evidence to my past. Fortunately, something I’m pretty proud of. However, it was in this meeting that the advice and the “warnings” to my students that you’d be Googled prior to a job interview came to pass. And it was a good thing. I blog, I have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile, I’ve been mentioned in others blogs… I also have a 2000 resume that floats to the top 10 results that I can’t... Continue Reading
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Blogtipping: The Job Hunt
Came across several posts tonight dealing with job searches, applications and interviews. Happy reading! The Search:Eight Tips for Landing Your Dream Job in a Web 2.0 World Apply and Conquer:A Glimpse & a HookHow to Easily Create Professional Video Resume in 5 StepsEverything You Wanted to Know About Getting a Job in Silicon Valley, But Were Afraid to Ask Impress:Nine Steps to Acing the Job InterviewHow to Ace Your Job Interview: 88 Sure-Fire Tips... Permalink
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OOPS! US News Ranking Mistake Puts PSU at the Top 10
The annual U.S. News & World Report College Ranking Guide always seems to create controversy. This year is no exception. In the version sent to bookstores, Portland State University’s electrical engineering program was ranked #9 in the guide with such heavies as M.I.T., Stanford and UC-Berkley. In press release: “We are proud that PSU represents Oregon in this prestigious national ranking,” said President Daniel O. Bernstine. “It illustrates how state investments in higher education can increase programmatic capacity and excellence.” “It is very exciting to have our Electrical Engineering program and faculty recognized by national engineering peers,” said Robert Dryden, dean of the college. “This acknowledges the fundamental transformation of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science into a national and international academic and research institution.” Malgorzata Chrzanowska-Jeske, department chair, leads the Electrical and Computer Engineering program. It turns out Portland State didn’t make the top 10, or even... Continue Reading
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Tips for Your First Agency Job
Paull Young of Forward Podcast spends about 10 minutes chatting with a two men – one a Sr. VP and the other at an entry-level position in an agency about skills, tips and advice for your first agency job. Some great tips! David Jones is a Senior Vice President at Fleishman Hillard, Toronto, and one half of the excellent Inside PR podcast. Ed Lee is a senior consultant at iStudio and the author of Blogging Me, Blogging You. Between the two of them they have 19 years of experience in PR agencies. David Young (the Sr. VP): A good understanding of media, being well-read and following different media. Being interested in media. Strong foundation in writing skills are also important. He says these are the two core factors. At a personality level, he’s looking for someone who can add to the team. He may be hiring a jr. level person,... Continue Reading
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Barack has more friends than me
According to TechPresident, Barack Obama is outpacing Hillary Clinton in the number of MySpace friends that each has. Barak: 87,000+Hill: 33,000+ Lowest number on the scale, Christopher Dodd (at just over 500). Shocking. This guy looks like he’d be hip to the MySpace groove: On the Republican side, Ron Paul (load his page and get a clip from Fox News…) has the most MySpace friends at a whopping 5,000 (give or take a few). Brownback has just 285. What will this all mean? Hard to say… but I’m sure we’ll all be tracking it. note: Barack Obama has 1500 times the number of friends I do…... Permalink
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