Archive for May, 2007
3
Guest post from Sally Garner. Undergraduate academic adviser at the School of Journalism and Communication, newly designated Master and grad student in my J454: PR Campaigns class. Marilyn Hawkins of Hawkins & Company PR, LLC handed out some great tips onjob interviewing last week. “Be pumped for every interview,” she writes. “Get a good night’s sleep before and consume a limited amount of coffee, soda or other stimulants.” Great advice but I’d go one step further: Have a good solid breakfast.Whether or not you believe it’s the most important meal of the day, eat something hearty before your interview, especially if you’re in for one of those hours-long marathon interviews that are becoming more and more popular. Trust me: it takes fuel to remain “on” for hours on end. You’ve got enough to worry about that day; you don’t need hunger pangs or a growling stomach to distract you. Bonus... Continue Reading
3
Recent grads are eagerly anticipating the first day on the job. And my students are no exception. I want to offer a few first-days-on-the-job tips. I’ll preface this by saying that your first job will not make or break you. You can take a risk, follow your heart (or your wallet) and you’ll be just fine. So, say you’ve landed that first great job. You’re eager to make a good impression, to make your mark on the industry and to move up the agency or corporate ladder. But what can you expect? Your education is only the beginning. I see three parts to this piece of advice – the logistics of work, the tasks and the personalities. Education doesn’t prepare you for a 8 – 5 schedule. And believe it or not, it’s hard. It’s hard to be at work by 8 am and stay active and engaged for 8... Continue Reading
0
A few posts for your blogging pleasure: Gerald Baron, a.k.a. Crisisblogger, posted this week about reputation and how much reputation really matters. And asks how companies like Dell overcome headlines like “Dell Hell.” The post is interesting in and of itself, but also interesting is that Dell responds! Jason at Dell leaves a very thoughtful comment (take note, my students for your blogging strategy assignment). Is this dialogue? Or marketing speak? Over at Media Orchard, guest blogger Joy Jennings lists 10 dumb things smart communicators do. My favorite (because I saw this all over the place on the last assignment) is number 3 – capitalizing the name of your industry or other non-proper names. (excerpt:) Do you promote your company’s role in the Fitness market or the Mainframe Maintenance space? Do your press releases quote the Vice President of System Push – CRM Resource Adjunct? Just stop. The names of... Continue Reading
0
As part of their blogging assignment, students are required to respond to a prompt that I send. This week, I sent this post about the PR fallout around the “energy drink” called Cocaine. Lindsay says that Cocaine has more problems than just its name.Jessica chimes in and says she’d be embarrassed to be seen drinking it.Finally, Chelsea suggests that any company inclined to name its product “cocaine” is not likely to bow out gracefully of any fight, despite the recommendations of PR Week. What do you think?... Permalink
2
We’ve started our blogging project in Advanced PR Writing. The students are tasked with writing two posts per week – on based on a prompt from me and one of their choosing. Here are some of the highlights from the first couple of weeks. Megan talks about what she’s learning at her internship with a real estate software developer in Eugene. Sounds like she’s getting a good foundation in the basics of communication. You know, try as we might to “teach” this kind of thing, it’s really the on-the-job work that helps connect the dots between class and the real world. Kudos to Megan for taking the time to process what she’s learning and making these meaningful connections. Jessica’s post about wanting more up-to-date news strikes me as interesting commentary on how the public’s demand for information has changed. I find myself expecting more and different news on a story,... Continue Reading
1
I rarely read for pleasure. And by rarely, I mean r-a-r-e-l-y. Between prepping for class (I enjoy the material, but it’s not for “pleasure”), client work (research! research! research!) and raising a happy, healthy, if not a little goofy, 14 month old, it’s all I can do not to drop into a coma at the end of the day. However, I broke this trend recently when I kept hearing so much great stuff about the Heath Brothers’ book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. A little click-click here and a click-click there and Amazon delivered in just a couple of days. It took me longer than it should to get through the book (review paragraph 2), but let me tell you… I loved it! The Heaths break the concepts of “stickiness” into six major criteria. They give lots of great examples and make it easy to... Continue Reading
1
My advanced PR writing students are blogging (watch out!). Part of the requirement is that they respond to a “prompt” post from me. I often send them via email, but thought I’d share some linky love here. These may feel random and that’s intentional – I’m assuming one will strike a chord with every student and they’ll be able to respond with more than, “that was a really good/bad/stupid idea…” PR:Blog-a-JobDo You Have Digital Dirt?Gartner Predicts 80% Active Internet Users Will Live In Virtual Worlds by 2011 Advertising:Powerful without turning your stomachXtremely Annoying AdvertisingAnother Quality MySpace Ad Marketing: Embracing Trends: Barbie Lures Multimedia Shoppers with New Doll-Shaped MP3 Player, Interactive Play in Virtual Web WorldWhat’s in a Name? Misc:Communications 101: How to Communicate BetterDVR Enhanced Ratings are in... Permalink
1
Comments