PROpenMic.org Traffic :: One Year Anniversary

Our PR social network has been in action for one year, as of April 1st.  I thought you might like to know how we’re doing.  I’d also appreciate your feedback on the network.  We can’t get better without hearing from your members (and those that haven’t joined, yet, too).

Here’s an update on PROpenMic’s traffic over the first year. Only April ‘08 through February ‘09 (11 months) are available.

I’ve used publicly available information from Compete.com and Alexa.com.  They are services used by media buyers to determine rates for ad buys, for instance. Read more

Recruiting & Promotion: What Colleges & Universities Should Be Doing Online

Today, I responded to a CASE listserv request about recruiting blogs being launched by colleges. I have a lot of ideas about this kind of campaign. I’m sharing here in hopes you’ll offer some feedback, too. Thanks.

Here’s what I shared on the list…

You’ve likely already thought of these, but FWIW - here goes …

Short story? Video. RSS. Re-purpose the content in other sites - off-campus. Build a team of student influentials.

Ideas? Use video … video is the most popular draw and it can serve to tell the story in a way that really “shows your school” to the potential students. Keep ‘em short - under 2 minutes. Video is fun. Video is real people (peers) sharing the school’s identity. They own it (the identity) and create it / morph it every day. Not the school. Allow them to put your view of the identity into their words. (Caveat: set guidelines for your students … what can and cannot be shown.)

Students at campus and off-campus events showing it happening and also interviewing students & others. For the off-campus life stories, see the caveat above. Students interviewing students and faculty about classes / campus environment …. staff interviewing each other, various student services people on campus and more.

Again, keep the videos short. It really is important.

Examples of research? Just days old, Generations online:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1093/generations-online

A year old, but good:
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Social_Media_Final.pdf

Invest in Flip cams or whatever kind of inexpensive, yet good quality, video camera and “give them” to a select group of students. Seven students? Ask them for one video a week. Stagger them out. Get students that are truly bought into the school and program. Even better? Pay them.

For the videos, don’t just put them in the blogs … use TubeMogul.com to post them to 15 or more video sharing networks at once. Maximize the possibilities of organic search to help people find your blogs & videos. Upload the videos to Facebook & MySpace, too. Place links back to your blog landing page in every description of every video on every site … along with your key terms & phrases as tags. Be consistent.

Create a landing page with RSS headlines of all the blogs. Editorial can create a top link set of the best blogs.

Setup a Facebook fan page and MySpace page and any use other useful social networks … RSS the posts into those pages. Re-purpose the content so that it is seen elsewhere, too.

Set a key string of keywords/phrases that get posted in each and every article. (WordPress Tags)

Give the site a prominent front page placement on your school’s gateway … a 150×150px icon, for instance. Yes, I know how difficult that can be to gain acceptance for, but without that buy-in, do any of us really expect success? That’s where many of your potentials will first land in most instances.

Bring the key students together periodically with soda & pizza to get them thinking as a team. Create a team of ambassadors. Give them t-shirts. Build a tight community of believers.

Why more schools don’t do this, I just really don’t understand. Colleges have built in influentials … your students. Is it risky? Sure. Can you monitor and guide it along? Yes, but with a light hand.

Honestly, I don’t understand why all colleges/schools/departments within a university don’t do this in coordination with Admissions. Think of the search possibilities all of that combined constantly new content can drive toward your Web site.

I share all the above at the risk of sounding too “online slap happy.” Still, I really do believe that these tactics can help your strategy of attracting viewers. I’m not drunk on social media koolaid. I recognize the risks. But, with a good relationship with the students you choose, and giving them freedom (feeling empowered to help the school), I believe you can be successful.

On top of all that, this really is an inexpensive way to boost your recruiting program. It isn’t a panacea, but it is the way to go, IMO.

OK, that’s what I shared. There is so much more to it, but I’m truly sold on the possibilities of these types of programs. The one thing that is still missing today? Buy-in from the higher ups. One of the greatest frustrations.

One would think, in a time requiring inexpensive yet worthwhile initiatives, this would be adopted with glee. Still waiting.

Fall 2008 Student Digital Portfolios and Resumes

I’ve been slow in sharing last semester’s student projects. My apologies.

Below, you will see links to all of the digital portfolio and resume projects from my students last semester, Fall 2008.

You may also find them at PR Prospects, the site I created to promote our wonderful Auburn students. Read more

Mr. Tweet Enables Spam on Twitter

Jeremy Pepper shared the following on Twitter, @jspepper.

@jspepper: I’m beginning to hate @mrtweet.

I felt compelled to respond with the following:

RT @jspepper: I’m beginning to hate @mrtweet. :o) Agreed. Relationships should grow organically, not en masse via flawed search algorithms.

@MrTweet ’s use of the word “influencers” is a misnomer. They have vetted nothing more than keywords. Sigh.

By definition, algorithms solve problems. Mr. Tweet creates problems via enabling Twitter spam. @MrTweet

To expand upon that, I’m wondering who among us would choose an opt-out of Mr. Tweet search, if Mr. Tweet offered one? @MrTweet are you listening?

I wonder if Twitter is listening? Would they block access by one of their, I’m guessing, prized *46K plus followers* popular 3rd party apps? The number of ridiculous requests to follow has exponentially increased since Mr. Tweet came on the scene. Mr. Tweet, it seems, is more than happy to enable others to ping dozens, even hundreds or thousands, of users - as long as it broadens Mr. Tweet’s base.

I’m doubting Twitter would block @MrTweet as the app enables Twitter’s growth. Is @MrTweet a sign of a shark jump on the horizon?

This raises a question. Are third party applications actually detrimental to applications? We’ve seen 3rd party apps cause great unhappiness on Facebook. Now, as Twitter gains prominence, 3rd party apps are making people very unhappy, too.

Sites like Twitter find themselves in a quandry. They want to encourage 3rd pary applications as they help lead to greater numbers of users. The desire for growth, it seems, outweighs caring about spam and the opinions of current adopters.

I haven’t seen a lot of discussion about these quandries, so I’m wondering what you think?

When a Southern University Tries to do The Right Thing

See the lates updates: When (Fans Hope) A Southern University Will Do The Right Thing :: And They Don’t

Auburn Pursues Turner Gill
University of Buffalo Coach Sought by Auburn Tigers

Image from the Turner Gill Facebook group, Turner Gill for the Auburn Tigers Head Football Coach

Auburn University, one of the traditional powers in NCAA college football, is pursuing a new coach. Auburn is often considered one of the top 25 college coaching jobs. So, what makes this news?

Race. Ethnicity. PR.

Auburn is also the land grant institution for the State of Alabama. Land grant colleges were created, in part, to provide education for minorities - primarily blacks. (Source)

According to Auburn, the university’s Fall 2008 black / african-american enrollment is 1,642 students. Given that the school’s caucasian / white enrollment is 17,225, black students represent 0.087 of that enrollment, less than nine percent. (Source) The total caucasian & african-american enrollment for Fall 2008 at Auburn is 18,867. This is in a state where over 26% of the population is black / african-american. (Source)

Mississippi State won the honor of breaking the diversity / race barrier by hiring Sylvester Croom, five years ago. Croom recently resigned. There are some, perhaps many, that wish Auburn had been the leader in this regard.

The number of black coaches in the major NCAA programs is still lacking. The number dropped from six to three this year.

Already, two Facebook groups have sprung up calling on Auburn to hire Turner Gill. See Turner Gill for the Auburn Tigers Head Football Coach and Turner Gill to Auburn

An Auburn favorite son, Robert Gibbs, helped send Barack Obama to The White House this year. (Note: Gibbs grew up in Auburn. His parents worked in the Auburn University Library for over two decades. Robert chose to attend school at NC State. Still, he holds a fondness for Auburn and has spoken about Auburn many times on national television.)

Another Auburn favorite son, Charles Barkley recently said Auburn should hire Turner Gill. Perhaps Barkley can do for Gill what Gibbs did for Obama.

Gill is reportedly meeting with Auburn today. Read Gill’s appeal heating up, Auburn is latest to come calling.

There are many people in sports forums expressing concerns about taking a chance on such an unproven coach.

It will be interesting to see if Auburn will do the right thing and hire Turner Gill.

Seeking Advice Online :: What’s the best advice for PR students?

Brad J. Ward (Squared Peg and on Twitter) asked a question on Twitter about two weeks ago.

“bradjward: HEY!!!! If you had 133 characters to tell a class of PR college students something, what would it be? Tag it #jr342. Thanks!! And retweet.”

The responses started rolling in. Five pages. Over 60 responses.

The Tweets actually were quite good.

Update: In fact, they were so good - here is the presentation he worked up for the presentation.

Kevin Dugan, Strategic Public Relations, on @prblog, and in PROpenMic, posted about it on PROpenMic last night. Twitter Creativity, Beauty, GOLD MINE.

Kevin’s post reminded me of that experience and started my brain to spinning again. You know that’s always a scary thing. So, I thought … with people seeking advice on Twitter, what if they searched Google? So, I did.

Google is your friend. :o) “best advice” for “PR students” … Yep, I went searching for knowledge from the great wizard behind the curtain.

It begs the question, like in the video below, “Where did we go for these answers BG?”

Well, my guess is … the library, or we asked someone face-to-face. What a concept. :o)

That said, as if it’s news to anyone … people are using online resources more and more every day. As in the case of Brad’s Twitter thread, the advice can be quite good and useful.

Let’s see if Google does a good job. You can be the judge.

Here are the top Google results:

Open the search for “best advice” for “pr students” in another window, if you wish.

I was a bit surprised to find posts from this blog, Marcomblog and Forward Blog all in the top 20 results. Made me wanna do the Snoopy dance a bit, I’ll admit.

But, look deeper and you’ll find that almost all the results are relevant and do provide some good advice.

This further started my mind spinning and it reminded me of another classic I saw the other day. It came from Bob LeDrew, @bobledrew and FlackLife. Here it is, go see Let Me Google That For You, a very funny site. Bob shared that in the PRMindshare listserve, actually. I’m glad he did.

It’s a funny site and fits this discussion. When students ask questions, I often want to say, “You know, (insert name of software here) has this wonderful button in the top menu bar. It’s called “Help” and you’ll learn a lot by exploring there.”

Lessons here? There are a lot of good people online that will help you. Much of the advice you’ll find can actually be quite useful and worthwhile. That said, always be skeptical. Double check. Do your own research. Form your own opinions. The name of the blog, infopinions, comes from the realization that all this social networking and sharing really is (a) a little bit of information mixed with (b) a little bit of opinions. Skepticism can be a good thing. Be skeptical and research for yourself. Then, when you do find good info … thank the good people like Brad Ward, Kevin Dugan, and Bob LeDrew (and all the others) that enrich your life by sharing it with you.

OK, that’s how my mind works. I know. Scary.

Now, on to the video that will definitely make you think. It, too, comes from us via great contacts. Caroline Jones, @carolinejones on Twitter, who kindly shared this cool video posted by Phil Gomes in Edelman Digital’s Authenticities blog.

And, while we’re at it, here’s a presentation about Twitter as a PR tool. Good info! It comes to us from one of our favorite academic bloggers, Corinne Weisgerber, PH.D. at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. You’ll love her blog: Social Media for PR Class. Thanks, Corinne!

And, to top it all off … this presentation was even tweeted last night by @prsarahevans of PRSarahEvans.com. ;o)

Students: The Council of PR Firms asks, “What is the most dangerous idea in PR today?”

Cross-posted from PROpenMic.

Reformed PR practitioner B. L. Ochman writes a review of the recent Council of PR firms (CPR) critical issues forum in her blog, What’s Next.

Read the Council’s take on the event in Dangers Equal Opportunity for Smart Marketers, PR Firms, Lively Annual Public Relations Council Critical Issues Forum Addresses “Most Dangerous Ideas” for Future of PR.

The conversation has actually already become an old one. The paradigm shift caused by the advent of social media software (both free open source and paid platforms) has given voice to the masses in a way never seen before. Word of mouth (WOM) is now digital and spreads like wildfire, or creeps along where no one can see it - then achieves a Groundswell of reach people in PR only dreamed of just 10 years ago.  Read more

American Rhetoric :: Goodness Knows, We’ve Seen a Lot of it Lately :: November 4th Can’t Come Fast Enough

Yesterday’s announcement by Colin Powell got me thinking about rhetoric in America. Certainly, we’ve seen a great deal during this presidential election.

I chose to write about Powell’s announcement because I think this is such a crucial election. It is rare that I choose to write about personal thoughts, especially political thoughts, in this blog. I hope you’ll at least humor me. If we disagree, let’s at least do it politely. I’m not one for political bickering.

My post, The Well Reasoned Clear Thoughts of Colin Powell, puts a little history behind the whole story. Tom Brokaw even brought up Powell’s history on Meet the Press. A full recording is available on iTunes, by the way. You can watch it on your computer. You don’t need an iPod.

After pondering yesterday’s Meet the Press, I began to think of the two videos to your right. Powell’s 2003 speech to the U.N. and Adlai Stevenson’s appearance before the U.N. in 1962. There we have two great examples of rhetoric and its impact on the world.

In turn, this also made me think about how little attention we give rhetoric in school today. Oh, sure, we offer some great speech courses. But, I fear students don’t pay enough attention to the great wealth of resources online dealing with rhetoric. That’s why I’m sharing this post.

One of my favorite sites is American Rhetoric, “Rationalize rhetoric and it speaks to your mind; personify her and she speaks to your soul.” This is one of the greatest collections of terrific speeches you’ll find anywhere.

From their Top 100 Speeches of the 20th century to the greatest movies speeches, you’ll find it all at American Rhetoric. A treasure of great speeches. They break down their database in many sections. Examples are:

• Top 100 speeches by decade
• Top 100 speeches by women
• the American Rhetoric speech data bank

If you’re really into this, consider reading Vital Speeches of the Day. It is available in all good libraries. I subscribed to this years ago. I’d do it again, if I had the money. Love that periodical. Funny, I’m sure to some, but I like reading them. The speeches given around the world really do go so far in shaping public policy and we likely don’t pay enough attention to them.

The speech below is a dramatization from one of my favorite books, All The Kings Men. If you haven’t read it, you’ve missed a life changing event. Seriously, it is considered by many to be one of the great American novels. For me, it ranks right up there with Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. You really need to read them both. Each is filled with great rhetorical examples. Don’t forget Inherit The Wind, too.

Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark. American Rhetoric

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

Don’t guess we’ll see this kind of rhetoric, even in drama, again. We certainly won’t see it from Obama, McCain, Palin or Biden. ;o)

So, what do you say. Let’s spend a little time appreciating great rhetoric. More importantly, let’s pay attention to what people are saying around the world. Also, as in the example of Powell above, let’s pay to all they’ve said over time. Getting the full true picture is always the best practice.

Students :: Networking and Job Fair Tips for Success

Students are heavily involved in job fairs and interviews at this time of the year.

Seeking that internship or job can be an intimidating experience. So, why not study up on those important networking tips.

From a webitpr.com realwire release for forum3, an event on October 10 -11 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, we find 11 great tips. Oh, sure. I won’t get to go, but their pre-conference release helps share tips that can make the conference a successful experience.

This, to me, highlights how releases are not just for traditional publications anymore. Sure, there may be some pickup in some traditional MSM pubs, but this seems primarily targeted to blogs, email newsletters and other niche publications.

Now, the one question I have about the release is why Debbie Hockham’s photo is included.  Perhaps if I were from the UK or involved with forum3, I’d know.  But she is not mentioned anywhere in the release - except for the identifying caption, and there it just says Debbie Hockham … nothing else.  For the record, Debbie Hockham is forum3’s director.  Yep, I looked it up.

So, here’s another tip.  Don’t send out a release that requires the recipient to do their own research.  ;o)  Just a thought.

Oh, and while we’re at it … the title of the email for that release?  ”

LBi Netrank announces new Account Manager

Hmm?  Seems they had a glitch this morning at realwire.

I wish I could attend, actually. It sounds like a great event. “It attracts 15,000 visitors from the full spectrum of the not-for-profit sector including 150 top charities such as Cancer Research UK, Big Issue, NSPCC, National Trust, RSPB, Disability Now, and the RSPCA.”

Hope you folks have fun over there. Now, here are the tips:

A snapshot of the top 11 tips:
1. Be prepared – Ask yourself what you want to get out of the event, who you want to meet and which not-for-profit organisation you’d like to learn more about. Check out that all-important exhibitor list.
2. Plan your intro – Can you introduce yourself in 60 seconds without sounding like you’re reading from a script? The beginning of a conversation is when you make the most important impression but also when you are most nervous. Rehearse this part well.
3. The small print – bring a CV and make sure it’s not last years; but yesterday’s. If you have business cards, bring them – and use them.
4. Bag the information – You will be offered a mountain of information at all the stands and it’s heavy and hard to carry without a bag. Also, bring a pen and notepad so you can write down that vital mobile phone number from a prospect.
5. Dress the part – Know your audience. A suit and tie might be too conservative but it’s unlikely anyone will respect you if you turn up in battered jeans, mucky t-shirt and muddy trainers.
6. Be yourself – real networking is about being genuine and authentic. forum3 is a wide and diverse meeting place and there are opportunities for a great variety of people with a range of skills.
7. Ask questions – this is when you find out information that could help you change your life. It’s an opportunity to make a judgement on the prospective employers and voluntary organisers too.
8. Sing about your achievements – in a crowded venue you need to stand out. When asked about your job or skills talk about what you’ve achieved not just what the tasks were.
9. Who you talk to – it’s not just the people on the stands that have something to teach you: everyone at forum3 has a shared interest in not-for-profit.
10. Cover the ground – make sure you don’t get stuck in one place and miss opportunities around the corner: maximise your time.
11. Follow up – prepare time the next day or week to follow up with the people you met. Exhibitors will talk to hundreds of people during the event, so you may need to remind them how keen you are.

The “utter bullocks” claim that “93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media”

Mihaela Vorvoreanu, Clemson University PR professor, offers up an excellent review of the Cone “utter bullocks” claim that “93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media” in their survey.

The survey seems to be another example of doing a “survey to market your company’s services” effort. An effort, by the way, that we see all too often.

Frederic Lardinois wrote about the survey in ReadWriteWeb, Study: 93 Percent of Americans Want Companies to Have Presence on Social Media Sites.

Lardinois does a less than deep evaluation of the study. It is almost as if Lardinois is sharing the information as if it is gospel. Now, to his credit, he does ask some the same questions I have:

It would be nice to see Cone break these numbers down a bit more. What types of social media sites, for example, do users prefer? Are there any specific categories of companies and brands that they want to see on these sites? How exactly do they want to be marketed to? What do they think about implications for their privacy?

Unfortunately, he also shares statements like “60% of Americans regularly interact…”

Extracting those types of quotes from the survey’s results are ludicrous. Simply put, at best the results are that 60% of respondents to the survey believe that Americans regularly interact with corporations online, or some such statement.

Without providing a legitimate methodology report, so that we may judge the veracity of the survey, it is irresponsible to make claims such as “…60% of Americans regularly interact…”

What are some of the problems here?

First, we don’t know anything about their respondent pool except that they answered the survey online. Second, was the respondent pool self-selected, or did the Opinion Research Corporation team (ORC) actually develop a legitimate list of potential respondents? Third, if so … how? Fourth, does Cone and ORC just expect us to believe their claims? Sadly, I think they do.

Now, if you look at the Opinion Research Corporation’s corporate history and milestones, one suspects that they have a legitimate strong history of research. Yet, because they are in business and do not control what their clients do with the final report, the results are

Why can’t we tell you exactly how good or bad the survey is? Lack of transparency on Cone’s part. The methodology statement they offer is pretty much void of any information. “The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study presents the findings of an online survey conducted September 11-12, 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation among 1,092 adults comprising 525 men and 567 women 18 years of age and older. The margin of error associated with a sample of this size is ± 3%.”

I am so tired of seeing PR and marketing agencies putting out this type of survey. It devalues legitimate research when they provide no true / realistic / useful methodology report along with their release. Cone doesn’t offer a link to go see the methodology, nor a link to request one. Oh, there is a link to the PR person that wrote the release, but no promise of providing any detailed results if we request them. So, with a hope in my heart, I have now written to Andrea Larrumbide, Cone, alarrumbide@coneinc.com and we’ll see if we can get a true methodology from the survey.

Yes, I’m pretty sure this is another survey designed to market Cone, not designed to truly ascertain social media reach. I’ll let you know if I hear back from Cone.

Update: I did hear back from Andrea. She was kind and provided a PDF breakout of four crosstabs showing male/female responses on some questions. It is so inconsequential, I’ll not share it here. Cone, Andrea writes, has the following policy: “We only share questionnaires and additional results with our clients.” So, there is no way to accurately judge the veracity of this survey’s results or the survey instrument, unless I become a paying client. Let’s see raised hands of all those that think that’s going to happen. Yeah, thought so. After this, I’m convinced … this survey is “utter bullocks” as was suggested by Tim, in the ReadWriteWeb article’s comments.

In the long run, these types of “survey to drive business” efforts do more damage to perceptions of survey research than they do good for the companies that engage in the practice.

Now, the good news is that no traditional news sources have (as of yet) bitten on the release, at least according to Google and Yahoo! searches. Oh, there may be some out there, but I can’t find them. The bad news? Lots of blogs and other sites are spreading the meme with little critique. See Google Web Search, Google News Search, Google Blog Search, Yahoo! Web Search, and Yahoo! News Search

I shared this in SocialMedia, too. Have any of you tried that site?

PROpenMic celebrates six months online :: How are we doing compared to other sites?

If you just want the stats and graphs, follow this to see them below.

Our social network for public relations students, PROpenMic.org will celebrate six months online on October 1st.

Allow me to begin by thanking all of the members. So many people have helped with advice and guidance along the way. I appreciate all of your help. I also appreciate the involvement of our volunteer administrators (in no particular order): Phil Gomes, Edelman; Kelli Matthews, University of Oregon; Tiffany Derville Gallicano, University of Oregon; Mihaela Vorvoreanu, Clemson University; Karen Russell, University of Georgia; Kaye Sweetser, University of Georgia; and, Barbara Nixon, Georgia Southern University. Not only do they help with the site, but they allow me to bother them asking questions all the time. :o) I really do appreciate their contributions. Read more

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