Interns at ASCCA Begin Their Summer Social Media Campaigns

Each summer, interns from around the country visit Camp ASCCA.

This summer, we’ll be doing podcasts using Utterz. I’ll give them a prepaid phone they can carry with them to the activity areas. While taking photos and videos, they can also grab a quick audio interview easily embedded in the camp blog as well as the camp’s social network, ASCCA Friends.

It struck me that this is a very inexpensive way to add one more multimedia layer with fun interviews to the camp’s efforts. For instance, below you’ll see one of their first video offerings.

The idea behind the Utterz podcasts comes from a realization that the students have to manage their time. We’ve found that the time spent editing video, and creation of their converged news packages for media relations offerings to newspapers, limits the amount of time they have to do audio editing, too. I missed the podcasts and they had a pretty strong download history. So, using Utterz allows us to keep audio in the mix. We’ll give it a try and see how it goes. Maybe it will also drive some new traffic to the site.

Find more videos like this on ASCCA Friends

Spring 2008 Student Digital Resumes and Portfolios

As we enter Summer 2008, I realized I forgot to post the resumes & portfolios from my most recent classes. So, here they are.

They’ve been cross-posted at PR Prospects, the site I started to promote our wonderful Auburn University PR majors.

Please check out the most recent group from Spring semester. They are a fun group and quite bright. OK, I’m biased.

Below you’ll find a group of students with a wide variety of PR interests. Some of them have graduated, or will soon, and you may be able to grab them for a job. So, please check out their offerings.

This semester, we’re stepping up the digital resume/portfolio project. More on that, later.

Read more

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.