My new URL!!

This blog has now been moved to my newly purchased URL:

www.prgirl.co.uk

I hope those of you that have been following will continue to do so by visiting the new address!

Thanks,

Natalie (AKA PRgirl!)

What should we be taught about social media?

I was recently asked by Richard Bailey what I think first year students studying PR at Leeds Met should be taught about social media.  Well to be honest at the time of the question I didn’t really have enough knowledge of the area to answer sufficiently. 

After spending more time with Wolfstar I’ve begun to understand how important social media has become within the PR industry.

I’ve devised a quick list of questions/topics I think should be taught within lectures and tutor sessions for first year students… 

• What is social media?
• What technologies are involved? (many students presume Facebook and Myspace are the extent of social media sites)
• Social media used to a clients advantage
• What is a blog and should I have one? What are the advantages?
• How do I work my blog? (including posts, hyperlinks, trackbacks, commenting, blogroll etc.)
• What is an RSS feed? What are the benefits of subscribing to feeds?
• Old media vs New media
• Why is social media important for PR practitioners?

Guest lecturers from PR companies that currently use social media would also be of a huge advantage to students, giving them a first hand insight into the world of social media networking. 

I must admit I’ve become a bit of a social media monkey since beginning my placement with Wolfstar and now I love it (my laptop however is finding it a little more stressful..) With technology moving forward at such a pace, PR practitioners must embrace it and get social media savvy.  Teaching undergraduate students from the first year would enable them to get their names out there for people to see, increasing their chances of employment on completion of the degree. 

What has happened to ethical blogging?

Well here I am at Wolfstar again, and today’s been very interesting so far!

After reading BBC News article “The power of female blogging”, I feel a little uneasy about just why more women are choosing to blog.  I personally decided to start up my own blog to help get my name out there and improve my PR portfolio. 

Blogging is a way of expressing your thoughts and opinions on any subject you want; it gives people the ability to read these views at the click of a button, but according to BBC News this is no longer the only incentive to start a blog. 

Blogher.com, an online community for women who blog, encourages it’s users to accept the request to display adverts on their pages. But just how ethical is this, and since when did blogging become the latest opportunity to get quick and easy cash?

People love blogging because it gives them the opportunity to shout to the world about anything that takes their fancy, with little or no censoring. But if advertising on blogs became the norm, just think what the result could be. What’s to say that the blogger wouldn’t accept a little more money to write whatever the advertiser wants them to? Products could be plugged and companies promoted, all under the veil of the bloggers views. The reader, none the wiser, could believe the subtle advertisements within the blog are genuine opinions and buy the product based on recommendation. Great news for the advertiser, awful news for genuine bloggers.

So just what are these women writing about that sparks the advertiser’s interest in the first place? Well, after checking out Blogher.com, I’ve got to say I’m not overly impressed. Most of the featured blogs are about fashion, TV or household chores (I kid you not, there’s a post about how to clean grout), surely female bloggers could be portrayed in a better way!

It’s about time female bloggers put their name on the map for the right reasons; scrap the ads and let’s have some straight talking, honest blogging!

Placements

Having recently started a placement at the Leeds based social media company Wolfstar, I’ve been inspired to continue my blog! The placement is ongoing, and so far I’ve loved it, everyone is friendly and fun and the company has some great ideas! They’ve welcomed me into the team with open arms and I’m incredibly grateful for that (some placements can seem a little daunting to say the least!) Although I’m not yet completely social media savvy, I’m starting to get to grips with it, and hoping to learn more about the benefits of web 2.0 and WOM as my time at Wolfstar continues! 

This past week has been a bit hectic for me, I’ve been up to Newcastle, back to Leeds then straight down to London! I headed “daaaarrn Saaaf” (my attempt at putting “down south” in a southern accent…) on Thursday to meet Michael Sandler of financial PR company Hudson Sandler.  After a brief meeting, I had set up a two week placement for August which I think will give me a good insight into the world of financial PR.  Who knows, it might be the one for me!

The Perfect CV

After putting it off for god knows how long I’ve decided it’s about time I sit down and finish updating my CV.  In the first few months lectures and tutorials emphasised the importance of your CV for promoting yourself and what you can do. But how can you try to prove yourself with a few sheets of paper? I’m finding it hard to grasp the concept that somebody has to judge your work and what you could do for their company on this document. So how do I make it good enough? Answers on a postcard…

Looking back

Now that I’m back up North facing the overpowering winds that Leeds unfortunately delivers, I’ve got a little bit of time to reflect on my week on placement!

By the end of the week I really felt like part of the team, I was able to use my own initiative to complete tasks and help out on other projects too.  Lucy Mayo (Head of Consumer PR) asked the consumer team to write an evaluation of my skills, thought I’d share this with whoever might fancy reading it! It’s a little bit of an ego boost to be honest but it’s not that often that you get to read a review of how you work!

• Great on the phone and really confident at selling in and speaking to journalists in general
• Extremely efficient and a fast worker
• Not afraid to ask questions if she is unsure of something, which is a good thing!
• Proactive and happy to take responsibility on tasks. Has taken ownership of the Warner titles product loan system since she has been here, and picked this up where necessary throughout the week
• Confident, keen to learn and takes in information well
• Good at spotting PR opportunities and industry news in the papers
• Good writing style
• Generally she is chatty and personable and shows an avid interest in PR. She’s integrated well into the team and it would be great to have her back if she has more placement opportunities!

London!

I’m in London for my placement this week at Nelson Bostock! I was initially a bit apprehensive about how things were going to turn out, but it’s okay so far! My ability to find my way around London has suprised me, I’m not the best at finding my way! Getting to Bayswater tube station and seeing a sign saying “circle line disabled” provided me with a momentary feeling of panic but luckily I quickly found an alternative route. 

It’s a bit mental here, I think I forgot how laid back student life was until I was woken harshly by my alarm at ten to seven on monday morning; I can’t even remember the last time I was up that early! It’s day two working here at the office with the consumer lifestyle team and I’m already feeling tired, hope I can make it to the end of the week!!

I’ve been keeping a note of what I’ve been doing during the day to help me in writing my reflective learning log when I get back, I’ve been fairly busy (not quite as busy as everyone else), with the scariest moment yet being ringing lots of journalists to chase up some product samples. 

I’ve just got back from a meeting with the b2b team, trying to brainstorm new ideas for a campaign/stunt to raise awareness of new mobile technology which was v. interesting! Some great ideas were raised and I even managed to come up with a few ideas and questions myself!

Anyway time to join the mad swarm of Londoners rushing to get home and put their feet up!

Detox

After a few hectic weeks of going out more than I should, I’ve decided it’s about time to detox! Hopefully my body will forgive me for what I’ve put it through after a week or so of early nights and no alcohol!

I’ve just recovered from being ill the past few days and it makes me wonder what effect the typical student lifestyle has on our lives.  Long days at Uni followed by big nights out for birthdays, end of exams and whatever else we can use as an excuse to celebrate leaves us run down and inevitably ill.  So is there a happy medium, a balance between work and play that we can stick to?

Being a first year again leaves me with the issue of whether to be a “true” fresher all over again, or settle down a little, as second years should. 

To be honest I’m actually quite enjoying staying in every night, going to bed at a reasonable hour so I don’t have too much of a problem dragging myself out of bed for those early 9am starts, but will it last? Only time will see I guess!

PR students are known for being outgoing extroverts, always ready to party; hopefully this reputation won’t affect our work in the long run! So far it’s apparantly not been a problem, we’ve just recieved our results for the writing for PR exam and I achieved a considerably high mark, despite my earlier worries.  I won’t get too cocky yet though, the rest of our marks are due next week…

Back to reality!

I’ve decided I need to sort myself out and actually write on this blog more often!

Me and the family got back from two weeks in the boiling hot sun of Fremantle, Australia and it was snowing here at home! The family went “down under” because my dad is part of the Hull and Humber crew for the Clipper round the world sailing race.  Whilst I was there I had plenty of time to think (whilst I sunbathed, of course!) and decided that I really need to get a placement sorted!

Luckily at the new years celebrations the race held at the sailing club I was introduced to the Hull and Humber boat’s skipper Danny, whose girlfriend is the head of PR for a leading UK PR agency Nelson Bostock. After speaking to her about what the company does and who the clients are, I brought up whether she would be willing to take me on for a few weeks and she seemed keen to help me!

The exams have been and gone, thank god! Our house was a bit mental for the few weeks of exams; red bull and pro plus were our main diet (never mix the two!!) and late nights learning theories became the norm in the days running up to the PR theory exam! Honestly not sure how the two exams went, fingers crossed I won’t have to re-sit any later in the year!

Back to lectures and seminars tomorrow, bright and early!

Stressing out!

After today at Uni I’ve started to stress out a bit about how little time we have left before the exams! This semester has flown by, I can’t believe it’s nearly over already! The last few weeks will hopefully make me feel a bit more prepared, we’ve got a few mock exams and past papers to give us an idea of how well we might do in January, hopefully they’ll go okay!