Blog Reviews

As a blogger, it is always good to read and observation other individual’s blogs. I took the intuitive to watch the PR communications blog and culpwrit guiding the career in public relations.

The PR communication blog is maintained by John Cass, a marketer, who writes about corporate blogging, PR, marketing, social media, and the internet. On one of John’s post he talks about E-learning and soft ware release. He talks about ways to navigate messages within the forum Lotus e-learning. This forum had three navigation tabs which are views, search, and forum news. It enables users to view threads through the following: Date (threated), with excerpt, cateory, release, data (flat), author, platform. Search tab gives the user the ability to conduct a search using author, date release platform, short by, word variants, fuzzy search.

Another post talks about observing other forums for ideas for features and communication building. Dell Communication Forums caught the eye of Cass. The forum had potential, but it was over powered by stickies. “Make sure there is a distinction between threads and a sticky is something to think about when selecting messages in your top threads,” Cass said.

Culpwrit guiding the career in public relations talks about Jack O’Dwyer’s Directory of PR Firms.Jack O’Dwyer is extending his offer to send free copies of  “O’Dwyer’s Directory of PR Firms” to the next 50 college seniors and recent graduates who email him.  You MUST  provide a complete address (no post office boxes).  This offer ends Friday, Nov. 14.

This blog also talks about finding jobs in Washington D.C.Individuals interested in a job on Capitol Hill, should start with there own member of Congress.  Find him or her at www.congress.org.  Or contact the Member-elect at his or her district campaign office which will be setting up the transition team.  Check with someone in your network who might have contacts in the political party of the winning candidate. 

Culpwrit suggests several Washington-specific job sites that are worth checking out, including Job-Hunt.com.  This free site is one of the richest job search tools, covering openings in Washington, D.C. as well as nationally.  One could find more than 21,000 PR job listings.  Moreover, check out the PR listings at DC Job Site.   Opportunities in Public Affairs is an superb site for those looking for more politically oriented positions, it also includes other PR positions. Check the Washington Post classifieds as well. According to this blog one should focus on the free jobs searches.  “There is no need to buy your way into a job–unless you’re running for office,” Ron Culp

I have learned a great deal while observing the blogs. The PR communication blog informs the audience of the latest technology that practitioners can use to enhance their craft. He does a great job informing others how to maintain their social networks. Culpwrit blog gives college students like me advice about finding jobs and information about what we should know before stepping out into the field.

 

 

I Miss Those Summer Days

On your mark! Get ready! Set! Go! Running past the swing, fence, porch, along with the blue ribbon rose bush, the three of us run to the tallest tree in the yard. For Krystle, Adrian, and I, the tree hide us from the rest of the adult world. We could come to this place and drift to our make believe land. Travel to far off lands or go on treasure hunts. Maybe even nail a few robbers while we’re at it. This is what we did every summer over our grandparent’s house.

           

My grandparents have a huge front and back yard where we would play all day. Sometimes we would even venture out into the woods. Luckily, none of us were ever bitten by snake, spiders, or any other creatures. Every now and then our friend Calvin aka Smokey would come over and play with us. He was so much fun to play with and Adrian enjoyed having another boy around. It seemed like when Smokey came over, we played even harder. My mom would always get so mad with me because I would sweat my freshly premed hair style out.

           

 Then around mid June early July when it started to get really hot all of my grandfather’s pear trees and plum trees started to bear fruit. Grandfather had the best juiciest pears in the neighborhood. But the plums were taste bud tingeing. They were so mouth watering juicy and sweet. It was like the epiphany of fruit. Even the green ones taste good. My cousins and I had a field day picking all the plums our little hands could carry. But grandpa warned us not to eat or pick any of the green plums because they would make us sick. Being the children we were, we said ok and promised not to pick the plums. But every now and then one of us would sneak a plum if no one was looking.

 

Those are the summer day I miss! I never really believed my older sister and cousins when they said this. But now I truly understand what it means to miss those tender years of innocence.

PR New Zealand Upon Review

Greame D. Sterne recently wrote an article based on public relation in New Zealand. The article entailed the different aspects of PR and the variety of hats professionals wear as well as the problems that practitioners face within a company.  I learned the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship with senior partners along with a good reputation for the department as well as ones self.

            Senior managers of New Zealand define public relations as ‘gaining media publicity’ and believed that good coverage is good PR. Sterne finds this kind of ideology associated with event management, launches, marketing PR, promotion of personalities and media management in times of crisis. Consultants should work to reinforce advocacy of their role and delivery value to managers and other departments of the company who may not understand what public relations practitioners do. “A local model of PR should be articulated.” (Sterne, 12, 2008) Another interesting fact I learned is that New Zealand public relations is characterized by five ‘I’s: integrative, integrity based, interactive, incorporative, and interpretive.

To my surprise, I discovered that 57 percent of participants in the study reported that PR reports to marketing. (Sterne, 4, 2008) Not only was I shocked with that notion but I became rather flustered and agitated that some of the participants said that their CEO does not believe in PR. This nation suffers from the influences of spin doctoring and negative media coverage of high profile practitioners. Senior mangers consider that it is the responsibility of practitioners themselves to change the image of the profession by better practice and marketing.

After reading the journal, I would like to study other public relation systems on an international level such as the African, Asian, or European sectors. It would be interesting to research the successes and problems that many practitioners face in other parts of the globe. I believe we can learn from each others victories and misfortunes and use the knowledge to teach future generations, who will come to embrace this unique field.

This article identifies the impact that public relation consultants have on their company. Over the last couple of week, I have researched CVS/Caremark pharmacy. The company takes pride in helping their clients as well as each other through team work. In the article it expresses the importance of work as a team with the marketing department for those companies who comprise both PR and marketing. If members of the round table of management that includes a PR set or simply all employee that make up the corporation are unable to work with each other the customers and clients are the one who have the most to lose. The article indicates to corporations that good PR use listening, understanding issues, distilling key points as well as having a good understanding of business or have a background history in business. It also shows that if CVS decides to branch out into the international waters of Asia, the problems that they face in the states will not be the same there. Not only is the culture different, but so is the target market. The company will have to research the demographic in order to be successful.

 

 

 

Sterne G. 2008. Public Relations Among the Functions of Management A New

            Zealand Perspective, Public Relations Journal., 2(3),. 1-14.

Tweeting Through Twitter

For the past few days, I have followed and participated in a social network called Twitter. It’s a site for individuals to communicate with family and friends, as well as networking and exchange ideas. If you have a question then someone out there will answer.

 

At first I was clueless about how to work the site. People are followers and followed. So what does that mean exactly? Following individuals mean that you receive his or her updates as they post them and the same goes for when people are being followed.  Searching for people became a task in it self, but responding directly to a persons post without letting the entire twitter world known was down right frustrating. This definitely was not my typical facebooking on social network site Facebook.

 

After cruising through the site for a couple of hours, I begin to follow five people from a list my professor suggested. Among this list was GM blogs (General Motors blogs). GM posts information about the company, ask questions, and answer any questions individuals may have. GM also provides links to vehicles they are working on, videos, etc. It was quite interesting to see how they have revolutionized over the years.

 

As days went by, I begin to learn more about the network each time I logged on. Many of my peers and I would ask our professor, an avid tweeter, about how to use the site. Before I knew it I was mastering every aspect of the network. Twitter is a great way to get to know other people in your field of expertise and those who share common interests.

Time is Dwindling Down

Senior year has arrived! My peers and I are adding the finishing touches on the last three years. We are truly excited to reach the final stretch of one of the most important moments of our lives, graduation. People dream of that day when the announcer calls their name to receive a diploma in which he or she has been working diligently to obtain. But to survive it all through the difficult nights of staying up late, the countless hours of frustration, yet still having the time of your life with those individuals who uplift you the most to stay focused is the cherry on top. It makes me value this accomplishment even more.

 

 

However, it has come to my attention in the last few days that there are some things I need to under take. Saving money is at the top of the list of things I should begin doing. Everyone dreams of finding the perfect job right out of graduation. But if you do not have the funds to sustain life until you get your first check, things could go sour quick. Things could really get ugly if you are miles away form home. For some of us, mom and dad can help us out but for others that’s not possible when you are living on your own. In the words of my mother, “The moment you decided to move out on your own it’s up to you to handle your responsibilities.”