So, You’re New to Blogging?

"10" by Leo Reynolds

This post is dedicated to any new bloggers out there. I do not in any way consider myself an expert on blogging, but I have picked up a few nuggets of knowledge this semester that will help new bloggers. I have compiled these tips in to my own top ten list.

How to be successful as a new blogger

1. Be consistent. From format to content, it is important to provide a blog that does not deviate from its original purpose. 

2. Keep a schedule. Make a schedule and stick to it. Keep your blog current because no one wants to read old posts. People will not return to your blog if there is not fresh content.

3. Be visual. Be sure to include photos and videos in your posts. Plain text alone will not draw in readers.

4. Mix it up. While keeping your main theme consistent, it is important to provide a variety of posts for your readers. Post about different subjects relating to a common theme.

5. Proof. Check your work before posting. Blogs with grammatical and spelling errors are annoying.

6. Organize. Keep your posts organized in to categories. This will make it easier for new readers to check out your blog.

7. Promote. Promote your blog on your other social networking sites. Post on Twitter when you have a new post. Link to your blog from your Facebook page.

8. Comment.  Another great way to bulid readership is through comments. Build relationships with other bloggers by commenting on their posts, you will surely see some comments come your way.

9. Be conversational. Frame your posts as discussions. Encourage people to respond to your topic by posing a question at the end.

10. Be yourself. People want to read your writing, do not be mechanical when crafting posts. Bring your voice to the posts, it will help people connect to your writing.

If you are new to blogging, was this helpful? If you are an experienced blogger, what other tips would you add to this list?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon

Public Speaking: Introductions

"Microphones" by Håkan Dahlström

The most important part of a speech: the introduction. While this can be argued, I believe the first impression you make on your audience will determine if they listen to the rest of your speech. Since you will not always have an experienced person to introduce you, it is important to have an introduction written for yourself to have someone read before you speak. You are the most qualified person to write an introduction for yourself. I will go over some important tips to follow when writing introductions. I have adapted these tips from Lisa B. Marshall at her blog.

Time

Do not over sell yourself. People want to hear you speak, not to hear someone else speak about you. An introduction should be short and sweet and not over a minute in length. In some cases, as Marshall suggests, it might be necessary to stretch the time a little in order to get important biographical information in.

Content

Only include information that explains why you are qualified to speak and specifically why you are qualified to speak on the given topic. It would also be beneficial to tell people a little bit about yourself so they can connect with you. However, save the most significant connections for the actual body of your speech.

For the Person Giving Your Intro

Make sure the person giving your introduction knows what you expect. Have multiple copies of your introduction for them. It is helpful to have complete and bulleted versions of your introduction. The introduction will not sound as mechanical if you let your speaker go through the talking points in their own voice. However, for less experienced speakers, it might be helpful to have the entire introduction written out so they know exactly what to say.

The three tips given in this blog can be combined to deliver an engaging introduction. The two crucial aspects are content and delivery. If you write an interesting introduction and explain how to deliver it to your introduction speaker, the audience will be excited to hear you speak.

Do you have any additional tips for writing and delivering introductions to speeches?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon

Who wins the Final Four social battle?

"big 'Hawk" by Brent Flanders

As a Kansas native, I am a huge Kansas Jayhawk fan. Since Kansas basketball has performed so well this year, I dedicate this post to them for a great season (even thought Kentucky won the title). To end March Madness, I decided to look into the final four teams in the tournament. Jackson Wightman offers some statistics on which Final Four team has the most social media influence in his blog. Social media influence among universities is crucial to keeping their name out there virally.

At the peak of Final Four weekend, Ohio State had the highest social media influence with a Klout score of 62. Kansas and Kentucky tied for second with a score of 60. Louisville trailed the top three with a score of 55.  The success of all four schools sent social media managers into hyper promotion mode.

The social media manager of each school is responsible to providing fresh content for social media users. During big sports weekends like the Final Four, it is important to be building community around your universities brand. The way you promote your school during high exposure times can bring in new students, faculty and revenue streams.

Overall, each school was able to use the Final Four to gain influence across various social platforms. As PR student, it is important to recognize how to promote brands and maintain a favorable presence online. As more people begin to depend on social media for their daily news, organizations need to keep their social sites current and fresh. This will enable them to expand their virtual influence.

How big of a factor is social media influence for universities in your eyes? Should they not capitalize on the promotion opportunities?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon

Podcasts: Listen and Learn

"Coffee" by Martin Gommel

This week, I listened to two podcasts from the Marketing Over Coffee website. These podcasts gave me some great information to apply to my future marketing and PR techniques. The first one was headed up by John Wall and dealt with eBooks, office technology and office communication. The second podcast, also headed by Wall, had to do with social monitoring and various social media topics.

The first podcast posted by John Wall is entitled Worst Edited Show Ever. This podcast started out with a discussion about how to post eBooks online and the most profitable medium. There was also some discussion about converting eBooks into various formats. Next, there was discussion about HR departments demanding employees Facebook credentials. There was a consensus that as long as work is satisfactory, personal life is irrelevant. They closed the show by taking audience questions and feedback.

The second podcast, also posted by Wall, was entitled New Study!. Google was a big topic in this podcast. Since Google has announced a new monitoring system for social networks, there is buzz as to how this will effect internet traffic monitoring. Then there was discussion about how to market your products virally. Creating interesting content is all trial and error. They closed the show by asking listeners how they would use Google’s new social monitoring system.

Listening to these podcasts can be beneficial to PR students. It gives students a chance to listen to experienced professionals that can provide knowledge they would not otherwise recieve. Since students can not study everywhere, all the time, listening to podcasts enable them to gain information from sources typically out of their reach. It is also beneficial to listen to other opinions on issues related to your field. If you find a relevant podcast, you can engage in discussions with the people providing the podcast and listening to it. This makes it a great connection tool.

What do you like the most about podcasts?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon

Infographics

"Animal Experiments in the UK" by GDS Infographics

Infographics are excellent tools to represent information, graphically (ironic?). It is an artistic way to show data without simply putting it into a graph. Graphs are boring, but infographics are more gripping visually. I read an informative blog from Sneh of Spyre Studios about infographics.

Sneh says that an infographic is composed of 3 parts:

1. Visual (graphics)

2. Content (statistics)

3. Knowledge (facts)

When creating an infographic, it is important to provide accurate information and represent it in a unique way. The graphics you use will dictate the layout you put them on. You must me mindful of color scheme and placement.

Sneh also provides steps to creating an infographic:

1. Brainstorm (rough sketch)

2. Devise color scheme

3. Obtain graphics

4. Research and apply data

5. Add facts

The process is not unlike any other writing endeavor. You have to have a plan and then execute it. Your overall visual idea is what will make your infographic useful or not. Representing the information properly is what will make the viewers interested. The infographic displayed above is a graph depicting animal experiments in the UK. Instead of using bars on a graph, the designer used the shapes of each animal and gave them relative sizes (depending on the amount experimented on). They also color coded the animals to represent different years of data. This is a much more interesting way to view the data.

Using inforgraphics in a public relations setting can be very useful. When you are presenting stories to clients, they are not going to want to see graphs. The stories you write for your client need to have great text content, but the visual is just as important. Consumers will not read a graph, but they will almost always try to decipher an infographic. Putting inforgraphics in your stories will provide visual interest and make more people pay attention to your subject matter.

What are your thoughts on inforgraphics?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon

How to Deal with Disaster

"About brand management from @bpglobalpr" by aulia.m

When public controversy strikes an organization, public relations representatives jump into action. How a company responds to controversy will determine their future success. Dorothy Crenshaw discusses some recent PR disasters that were handled appropriately on her blog. These organizations avoided serious consumer backlash through clever PR strategy. Some key organizations involved include Taco Bell, JC Penny and The Red Cross.

How do you handle public relations disasters? Successful organizations do so by responding quickly and tactfully. The strategy that firms use is the most important part to keeping their image intact. It is typically helpful to launch a advertising campaign to deal with PR problems. The message you send to consumers after an issue arises well dictate if you keep them as a customer or not.

Taco Bell was criticized for the total beef content of their meat last year. They were able to avoid a PR disaster by launching a full scale attack on their accusers. Their ad campaign read “Thank you for suing us and allowing us to show you what’s in our meat.” Taco Bell showed consumers the content of their meat and it eased peoples minds. The lawsuit was dropped shortly after.

I think the important thing to take away from dealing with public relations disasters is adaptability. Every situation is going to be different. While all situations will require a response, almost all will require a unique response. As a PR representative, it is crucial to be mindful of what response will help consumers trust your organization again.

What advice would you give for dealing with PR disasters?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon

Someone Help Me!

"Help" by Eva Ekeblad

Peter Shankman has created at unique website that gives reporters useful tools. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) was founded in 2008 and has been a enormous success. The site sees thousands of visits from reporters and bloggers everyday. It is a great avenue for reporters to gain resources and get second opinions on their work.

HARO offers a service where reporters can submit their topics for assistance. If a reporter does not have time to find sources for their stories, they can let HARO help them. HARO will find sources that you request and deliver them to you directly. This saves reporters time.

In addition to the source assistance, HARO also allows people to get feedback on their news. You can give constructive feedback to your peers to improve their stories and your own. This is a great way to get second opinions on your work. It will only make you a better news writer.

As a PR writer, I can benefit from HARO. The site can help me find sources for potential story ideas. It can also allow me to get constructive feedback on my work. The site will allow me to submit better work for my clients. I will be able to save time and submit work that has been well thought through.

I want to know more about the feedback loop on HARO. People can post ideas they have about your topic, but it might be nice to have more in depth conversations. I think it is also crucial to bounce ideas off of your coworkers and the client you are writing for. While HARO is an amazing resource, it is important to use your in house talent as well.

Have you used HARO? What are your favorite parts?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon

Keeping Your News Releases Fresh

"Happy banana, sad banana" by Svein Halvor Halvorsen

People like to read fresh content online everyday, not the posts they read yesterday. Organizations are always looking for ways to keep exposure in the media. Creating press releases is a great way to do this. However, it is sometimes difficult to always have something newsworthy to write about. How can you avoid running out of things to say? Jacqui Mackenzie offers some ways to keep your releases fresh without running out of topics on her blog.

Keeping your content current is crucial to its effectiveness. Any new news to the organization can be used in a news release for the company. How you shape the information is what will keep readers intrigued. In addition, always be mindful of how you can reshape stories that you might have already published before. This will enable you to feature older products or services that consumers may have forgotten. You can also get the staff involved in coming up with new ideas.

My favorite suggestion from Mackenzie is this: “make news happen.” If there is nothing newsworthy going on in your organization, create some news. There should always be things going on to write about. Sponsor a community outreach, push a new product or offer incentives to buying. Consumers that are involved and aware are loyal to the organization. Keep that content fresh!

Do you have any tips for maintaining fresh content in news releases?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon

 

Guest Blogger Richard: New York Millings

This week, I am publishing a post written by my friend and classmate, Richard. Richard recently took a trip to New York for an audition to attend a perspective school. This post reflects on that trip. Richard blogs on WordPress.

Enjoy,

Mylon

New York Millings

Good day wonderful people!

I recently had the opportunity to travel to a great place called New York…maybe you’ve heard of it? Well, it’s about time that I told you that I’m probably transferring schools next fall–my current school just isn’t cutting it. Anyway! I had to fly up to Long Island to audition for a prospective school. Before I get to how great the school is I must tell you…my hopes and dreams were broken that day. It is a passion of mine to always sit next to a little old lady on airplanes: they always have candy, you must take it, and you must listen to their life story. Sounds great right?! Yes, I’m sorry, neither this nor the previous statements have been laced with sarcasm (apologies, but I really do like sitting next to little old ladies on planes!). Regrettably, I did not have the privilege to maintain this aspiration; however, I did sit next to a couple of interesting people.

When entering the plane I have a moment of sheer panic–I forgot to see what seat number I had and the guy did not tear off the “keep this portion” of my boarding pass so I was stumped. As I’m treading lightly, looking at all the faces, surprised by how many disgruntled people can manage to get his or herself on a plane at 7:30 a.m, I simply smile and nod to questioning faces as if I just confirmed that they are once again saved by the grace of everything that is air traffic holy–my 6’3″ self with a big bag just keeps moseying along down the aisle. Little do these civilians know that doom actually rests with me. In an instant, my non-existent photographic memory kicks in and I see the seat number B 63. I instantly have a slight pop in my step and I proudly march on. The fleeting image is quickly destroyed as I’ve arrived at the back of the plane at seat number 32. With a swift mind, keen to all observers (especially the awkwardly smiling flight attendant with a strange mustache, who appears to be helpful but is really only standing there because of the 16 cups of coffee recently downed…which explains the mustache…hopefully) I sit down at the nearest available seat. Once the head stewardess comes on the speaker and confirms the flight (which suggests that some people make it past the check-in desk, security, and the gate keeper with the wrong information), she continues on to announce the open-seating policy on this airline. What do I do? What any self-respecting man would do: act natural and pray that nobody noticed.

Although I do not remember them all, I promise you I had plenty of interesting conversations with the two guys that I sat next to. If this is any indication you can have it–they were already friends–one was an editor for a Long Island branch of an internet news company while the other was a voice actor…who can do a beastly Christopher Walken impersonation!

Overall the flight was not that bad…even though we had pilot number 3. To briefly explain:

1. Amazing pilot who takes off, executes flight maneuvers, and lands with perfection
2. The horrible pilot who does everything wrong (the entire time)
3. The pilot who thinks he’s amazing but is quite the opposite and does that little accelerate, fall, accelerate, fall, etc. crap)

The landing was perhaps the worse that I’ve ever experienced and I was actually afraid for my life…no exaggeration. It was extremely windy on Long Island and apparently that’s something that planes hate!  It was bad enough that all the passengers abruptly stopped chatting and held on…the babies even stopped crying (for a little while). When the plane landed there were actually a few boos instead of the common applause.

During my stay, I actually did not really get to do anything. But that’s all there’s time for when you are there to audition and you only have about a day and a half to do it. My time was filled with practicing, avoiding the beast they call Maggie (I stayed with a friend’s parents so I could save money!), and of course auditioning. I honestly wanted to pet Maggie, but the owners refused, saying that I actually DID need my fingers. Maybe one day I will get a chance (I told them that I will sign a release form).  The monster is actually merely in disguise as a rottweiler-lab mix. (I’m still debating that one).

The audition, to me, went horrible; however, I guess it’s a good thing if the judges smile. Of all the things, I can’t really tell you much about the audition because it was just like any other one…except the fact that I was told that I would audition in a small classroom or lab or something but in reality I walk through the door and am on a full recital hall stage!! Standing next to the full-size grand Steinway piano, I must crane my neck up to see the ten judges positioned at astoundingly precise, random intervals in the seats. One thing that I can say about that day is that I felt at home. The people aren’t that friendly, they cuss way too much, it was cold, etc…but something about it just felt right. Not just because I could finally walk at my normal (fast, full 6’3″ stride) pace, but it has to be God when the cold even feels right…this Alabama boy don’t play like that. I will keep you updated on the results–they are scheduled to start notifying fall transfer students in April.

On my early way back to the airport I had the pleasure of being accompanied by my hostess’s granddaughter (4 years old). We played an magnificently terrifying and challenging game of Eye-Spy. You think I’m joking about the difficulty…you try to play this game with someone who neither understands the level of difficulty required to play something like this nor do they have a sense of giving-up or will the fact that they will never tire. I had to pull out the big guns to choose very difficult things for them at the same time playing dumb when they ask me about something blue (while I’m wearing a bright blue plaid shirt).

After these couple of days I believe that I can truly say that I’ve grown up just little bit more.

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again

C.S. Lewis, The World’s Last Night: And Other Essays

Blessings,

Richard

Writing: Being Efficient and Effective

 

"Be seeing you" by Oliver Hammond

I have posted in the past about grammar and editing. This week, I wanted to write about more general writing tips. Mickie Kennedy offers excellent tips on how to write more efficiently and effectively on her blog. In order to save time and valuable brain power, Kennedy has offered five tips.

Tips for Writing Your Best from Mickie Kennedy

1. Plan-  a writing piece without a plan is pointless

2. Keep it simple- do not add worthless jargon

3. Be straightforward- get to the point

4. Be patient with the edit- do not immediately edit the story, “let it sit”

5. Bring your voice- make sure your voice comes through in the piece

These tips will enable you to produce better pieces whether they are professional or amateur. I especially enjoy the simplicity of this list. People that have issues with writers block can now approach writing from a different perspective. I think that people typically try to make writing too difficult. These tips break it down and enable it to be less stressful.

Do you have any tips to make writing less stressful?

I would love to read your thoughts.

Mylon