Ihave not asked this one of the PR blogging community in awhile. So, here is my appeal for suggestions, criticism and any input about our blogging exercises. Gee, how transparent of me.

Yes, I realize this could open a can of worms. But, why not live on the edge. You PR bloggers have never been shy about sharing ideas and I’d like to hear them. I bet the students will, too.

Post a comment here, or – even better – write a post in your blog and trackback to this one. More people will read it in your blogs and we’ll probably get a better pool of suggestions.

So, here is my question for the day. This is for my students, PR practitioners, educators or random passers-by. Let us hear from you. Check the pullquote.

A quick synopsis of what we are doing here.

I require my students to blog twice a week about PR. They must also post one comment on a Marcomblog post and one other comment in another PR blog of their choice. I start them out pointing them to the Marcomblog contributor’s blogs, Jeremy Pepper and some others. Then I steer them to an even larger list of really good blogs. Finally, I let them loose on the entire PR blogging community.

I’ve noted along the way that some students just do what they have to in order to get by. A few don’t even do that. But then there are the real go-getters. The ones you always love to see. They go beyond that minimal level and really take the exercise to heart. I, of course, wish that all of them would take this path. If nothing else, they are going to benefit from the increased exposure to PR practitioners and their views. There is so much to learn and I really only get students when they are seniors. Sure, there are a few exceptions, but mostly seniors. So, a future goal would be to see if I can encourage others to include this in the junior classes. Hey, why not get an early jump on it.

Still, baby steps is the way we’ve proceeded over the past two years. Overall, I still think that is the best idea. Just like learning about blogs, developing an idea of what you want to write about, and then developing a voice – each blogger should take at least a few months to truly become immersed in the practice.

My goals are to first send them out reading other blogs. Then, make them write about PR issues/trends. Along the way, they should begin to make contacts with other bloggers. Get to know the wide variety of PR bloggers out there and understand their interests, see how they post about issues and how they analyze them, too. My student’s posts should, in a perfect world, show that they can dissect PR issues, analyze them, apply them to real world examples they may experience later on, and to make a good impression that they have actually thought about PR beyond the classroom.

I hope that by the end of the semester the students will have a collection of about 30 posts. They will have read numerous blog posts from a variety of PR angles. At the end of the semester I suggest that they go back through their blog (if they didn’t do it along the way) and re-read their posts. Check for grammar and typos. If a post just doesn’t seem to be the best, take it down or re-write it. This is, after all, a possible online resume item and I want them to put their best foot forward.

What do you other PR bloggers think about these ideas? Critique them and make suggestions for other things they should be pursuing.

infOpinions? del.icio.us link for 2006-01-17

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