Posts Tagged with Tips
1
This post can also be found at the Lunar Logic blog. Lunar Logic is a web development firm in Eugene, Oregon. I’m working on a series of posts for my friends there and this it the first. *** If you’ve been pondering a social media strategy, it’s likely you’ve heard the advice to “listen first.” Lots of super smart people have talked about how to listen and monitor with blog post upon post that provides reviews of tools and links to resources. In fact, I’ll share some of my favorites with you. 13 Essential Social Media “Listening Tools” from Marketing Profs (free registration required) 25 Ways to Listen to Customers on Social Media from Social Media Today Wiki of Social Media Monitoring Tools What you don’t find written about much is what you should be listening for. Maybe it’s intuitive to some, but in my experience, once you set up... Continue Reading
5
We’re kicking off another year at the University of Oregon. I’m not teaching social media-focused classes this term, but I always encourage my students to tweet and use a hashtag for the course. This term you’ll likely see #J350 and #J453 tags from students. Because the classes aren’t social media oriented (although certainly infused), I don’t take time to “teach” Twitter. But I’m not under the illusion that it’s intuitive and doesn’t need to be demonstrated. It’s been awhile since a did a post with resources and tips for those new to the microblogging platform, so here you go! Some of my favorite resources on Twitter basics Twitter 101 for Business: Written by the folks at Twitter, this guide is a terrific how to on using Twitter professionally. For journalism students, you really do have to think about all social media in that way. You’re a professional communicator and all... Continue Reading
1
This is the next-to-the-last linky love of the term. It really has been a fun term, but let’s just say senior-itis isn’t just for seniors… Counting down! That said, apparently there are other people who still have working brains and have created some food for your thoughts, too. I’m more and more fascinated with the Facebook privacy brou-haha and several great posts last week illuminated the discussion for me (for purposes of your linky love post, dear J452 students, you can take all these together or look at them individually). darah boyd had a terrific post about radical transparency and informed choice. Jeff Jarvis also talked about *the* public vs *a* public when it comes to the way people participate in Facebook and other outlets. Campbell Brown (who I love) is leaving CNN. That’s not terribly newsworthy, but the statement she issued was really terrific. What’s your reaction to her statement? What... Continue Reading
1
I am week 10 tired on a week 7 Thursday. Not a good sign. However, it turns out not everyone feels that way, so I was able to find some great content to share with you this week. For students, you’re going to pick one to respond to on your own blog and for my regular visitors, these are definitely worth a read. Enjoy! “It’s OK to be imperfect”: One School’s Quest for Social Media Success: Oregon State is doing some great stuff with social media. This article talks about the ups and downs, ins and outs and lessons learned along the way. Five Steps to Social Currency: This post from one of the students in my Strategic Social Media class discusses a recent report that focused on the “social currency” of brands. Interesting concept and really interesting data. PR Customer Service Merger Accelerating: This process is fascinating to me... Continue Reading
2
After a three term hiatus, I’m again teaching the advanced writing class – now call Strategic PR Communication. As part of that class, I publish a list of my favorite posts from the week for students to choose from and respond to on their own blogs. While the list is specifically for the class, I hope that other visitors will enjoy, too. Why Should I Work for You, Dude? (Council of PR Firms): In a tight job market, it’s important to hire good talented. How do you as soon-to-be grads look at your opportunities and how can organizations retain you for the long term. Interesting article on a really interesting topic (and one I study, for what it’s worth). The Community Manager Role Unplugged (Buzz Canuck): Our class is doing a little community management this term with PROpenMic during the first week of May, so I found this post interesting.... Continue Reading
1
I’ve noticed a new tactic with spammers lately… they are awfully complimentary of your content, your blog and your writing style. Flattery is hard to resist, I know. So here are some tips for keeping the spam out of your comments section. If the comment seems to be over thesaurus-ized – common words turned into $5 words that aren’t quite used right – you’re probably looking at spam. If the comment could be related to any blog, any post, anytime? It could be spam. If the commenter asks about your fabulous layout and how you did it – yup, spam. (I fell for this one, hard!) If you’re not sure, check the possible inputs on the comment form for consistency and legitimacy. Individually, they might not raise any red flags, but combined can tip you off: Name: By itself this might not be a problem one way or another, unless... Continue Reading
1
At the end of each term, the students in PR Campaigns, our capstone PR course, present their portfolio of work to a panel of professionals. It’s an exciting day, with lots of great energy and terrific feedback from our talented professionals who give anywhere from 2 hours to 8 hours to share their expertise with our students. I had a chance to speak at some length with several reviewers this term at the end of the process and at the top of that feedback was that the students need to focus on the results of their work. This is often hard to do for students (it’s often hard to do for anyone, let’s be honest). If you’re dropped into the middle of a campaign at an internship, for example, your work is often task-oriented – write this release, compile this clip report. But having a results-oriented brain will help tremendously... Continue Reading
3
Creating a blog post is really more than just writing good content. The following checklist can help you ensure that your post is readable, findable and shareable. Do you have a compelling headline? There’s some dos and don’ts. Does your post have good structure & provide useful information? Plenty of folks have written posts on how to write posts. Take a look around. Does your post invite feedback or ideas? Did you provide at least one in-text hyperlink? Don’t include links as text, hyperlink them using the “link” button. Did you include an image? (or other multimedia)
Some blog templates require an image, but even if it’s not required, an image helps to make your post more visually attractive.
Try istockphoto.com, sxc.hu, or flickr (creative commons licensed) for images. Or check out some of these sites for free or cheap images. Did you assign a category or categories? Categories help to organize your content. When your... Continue Reading
21
Recently, I was (very!) honored to be included on Valerie Maltoni’s list of 100 PR People Worth Following. Because Valerie is so widely read and clearly well-respected, my Twitter follower count jumped by about 350 – 400 people in the course of three days. I enjoy meeting new people through Twitter and I genuinely try to follow back people who look like they would add value to my experience there. It took several days for me to go through the profiles of each new follow (the only ones I skipped were brands I was not interested in, spambots, etc.). I didn’t necessarily learn anything “new,” but going through so many profiles, there were a few lessons that were really highlighted by this experience. So you want a follow back? Here are my tips: Include your location: I am much more likely to follow you back if you’re in my neck... Continue Reading
12
Ises and ares and to bes. Blech. Weak verbs can make your writing boring and wordy. In one of my first agency positions after I graduated from college, my manager went so far as to call them “lazy.” This same manager and her (sometimes) harsh feedback drove me to make changes in my writing style. But catching weak verbs before they come off the end of your fingers onto the screen or paper challenges even experienced writers. I developed a trick that I used until I’d retrained my writing brain. My only tool? A highlighter. Take a printed copy of the assignment (work or school) and a highligher in your choice of color. Start at the top of the page and highlight every form of the verb “to be”: am, are, is, was, were, will be, has been, have been, had been, etc. Focus primarily on is, are, were. Work... Continue Reading
1
Comments