Twitter as a tool for college public relations students

Last week we discussed Twitter a bit more in class.

As we talked about it, I went online and asked those on Twitter at that time to chime in with their reasons why they used Twitter.

Hey, I’m in class … the students need to know … why do you use Twitter? is it a useful tool? convince them, please! :o) 04:44 PM September 23, 2008

I was amazed at the number of people that so kindly responded. Thank you all very much!

Here are their tweets. You can actually click on their photos and find their Twitter accounts to follow them, too. It really is a great list to start with as it contains journalists, PR students, faculty and practitioners all in one string of about 60 to 70 Twitter users. There are some multiple responses from a few people, so it looks like about 60+ people for you to follow. That’s a great starting point. Read more

Jeremy Pepper :: Telling It Like It Is

I’ll preface this with a language warning, should you follow the link. Sometimes strong language makes a point.

I am compelled to share a great post with you.

Jeremy Pepper has, once again, said what needs to be said. Oh, he may say it in a form that some find distasteful, but don’t many social critics do that?

Check his post. I initially commented, and want to share this follow up. Read more

Edelman Studios :: CGM as Classroom Project and more

A recent video post to PROpenMic drew my interest.

Luke Walker shared a video he created for submission to the Edelman Studios project.

Read more

Alabama democrat candidate for U.S. House reaches out to bloggers

The political season offers many opportunities for exploring how candidates are using social media in their campaigns. I didn’t think I’d find many (if any) examples in the Alabama races this year. Then, a Google ad popped up in my mail reader: “Turning Alabama Blue - Segall2008.com - Viable democrat running in Alabama. Watch his intro-video and join us!” Read more

Mary Metcalf, Edelman and Auburn Alumnae :: Video Interview from Edelman/PRWeek Academic Summit

Mary Metcalf, or MK to her fans, was live blogging the Edelman / PRWeek New Media Academic Summit as part of her AAE duties for Edelman in Chicago. An Auburn alumnae, and a favorite grad, I wanted to interview her for all the folks back home.

Yes, I’ll be pointing the students here and saying, “Hey, now there’s a success story. Admit it! You want to be like MK.”  Read more

Neville Hobson, For Immediate Release :: Video Interview from Edelman/PRWeek Academic Summit

Neville Hobson has been following our class digital/social media activities since, well - really the beginning. It was nice to see him again at the Edelman / PRWeek New Media Academic Summit in Chicago.

Neville recently wrote about his Summit experiences in What academics think about social media. Read more

Alexandra Wheeler, Starbucks :: Video Interview from Edelman/PRWeek Academic Summit

Alexandra Wheeler, Director of Digital at Starbucks, kindly agreed to an interview at the Edelman/PRWeek New Media Academic Summit in Chicago, a few weeks back.

Starbucks recently launched (March ‘08?) their site - my Starbucks Idea. This BusinessWeek article explains more.  Read more

Another PROpenMic Success :: Maria Garcia and Lindsey George at Converseon

The PROpenMic social network for PR students, faculty and practitioners continues to prove successful.

Paull Young, of Young PR and Converseon emailed me the other day with news. He reminded me of the two people at Converseon that found their way to the firm through social media, and PROpenMic, in particular.  Read more

Rick Murray :: President, Edelman Digital at the New Media Academic Summit ‘08

Rick Murray kindly agreed to an interview at the recent New Media Academic Summit in Chicago.

Rick Murray shares why Edelman Public Relations has taken a leadership role in helping academia better prepare students for the future of public relations.

This conference is an excellent model for others to follow. We need all the help we can get, folks. I appreciate Edelman’s leadership in this area. The Summit, along with their Bootcamps, shows that Edelman is clearly in the lead. I wish more of these types of opportunities were taking place now. We don’t want to have to catch up, do we?

Video from the Edelman/PRWeek New Media Academic Summit held on June 26-27, 2008.

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

Keith O’Brien :: Editor-In-Chief, PRWeek Magazine at the New Media Academic Summit ‘08

At the Edelman/PRWeek New Media Academic Summit, I had the pleasure of interviewing Keith O’Brien, Editor-In-Chief of PRWeek.

Keith shares, what I believe to be, a great overview of why PR agencies should seek to work with academia and why experimenting with emerging digital media is so important for both students and educators.

This video is from June 26-27, 2008, in Chicago.

Find more videos like this on PROpenMic

Social Network for College & University PR Students and Faculty :: PROpenMic.org

One place for all PR students and faculty to meetup and mashup ideas about emerging digital media. That’s been my dream.

Sure, we’ve been creating our blogs and podcasts. We’ve been following each others writings and media. All fun. All good. But, there really hasn’t been one place for everyone to do a meet and greet … until now.

PROpenMic.org is the place.

PROpenMic? A metaphor. Step up and speak your mind. Our goal is to be the social network for PR students and faculty worldwide. We have common interests, goals and certainly can learn from one another.

The site is open to practitioners, too. So, if you’re interested, please come and join in the discussion.

We can share documents, audio, video … a music / podcast player, forums, blogs & photo albums for each member … RSS feeds, photo albums, and more. Already people are blogging and four forums have begun - PR Syllabi & Resources, PR / Marcom Pros, Faculty and Students. We can start more, too.

Connect & Collaborate

I love sharing and learning. No better way to do that than to interact with your peer groups, right? So, my hope is that we can all come together - from around the world - and connect in this community.

The site is built upon the Ning.com platform, so it has a sort of Facebook-like appeal. The difference? No ads. No apps sending you numerous emails. Just PR people. Hey, I like Facebook for connections, but to do what we wanted to do … a mashup of content in one place … we had to have our own platform, in my opinion.

Meetup, Mashup & Share

Already, in one day, we have people signing up. Blogs, forums & video sharing are already seeing a bit of activity. We want more, though. Interest has come in from Asia, Europe, North America & Australia. How about you? and your students?

I realize that starting this at the end of a semester isn’t the ideal time. But, I had an epiphany on Sunday night and just started building the site. By Monday morning it was essentially ready to go, so I shared PROpenMic.org in Twitter and through an email to about two dozen people.

Please Join

I’m seeking your support, please. Share PROpenMic.org with your students, fellow faculty, PR/Marcom colleagues and more. Sign up yourself and there is a very easy “invite” process for you to use. Thank you.

Note: PROpenMic.org will never sell or share your email address or personal information with anyone else. You choose what to share on the site. This is a nonprofit academic project, primarily for the benefit of our students. No cost. No ads.

And, just so you’ll know … This is for real, too. No April Fool’s silliness, here … unlike this one from Google. Hat tip to Brett Pohlman for that one.

Next Page »