Graduation Time

Graduation is in about 2 weeks for most college students. I cam across this post on the Creative Career titled: Graduation is approaching – Still looking for a job? I found this post very useful not only for graduates, but for all college students.

One thing that the post talks about is the power of networking. The post says to give the online job sites a rest and get to know real professionals. Get on twitter, comment on other blogs, go out to coffee, go to networking opportunities and set up informational interviews. This advice is useful for all students and is something that Clemson PRSSA and Dr. V have stressed here at Clemson University. Myles Golden, a career strategist, was a guest speaker in my negotiation class and he said that 85% of jobs are found through networking. This is so true. you need to be more than just a piece of paper. Meet professionals and give them a face to put with a name.

Another useful tip for all students, not just graduates is to pump up your digital knowledge. Many employees expect younger generations to know the latest technologies and want us to teach them. Sharpen your skills and familiarize yourself with a variety of online sites like blogs, microblogging sites, and other social media sites. Delve into it and teach yourself.

I definitely recommend this post to anyone wanting to know how to better market themselves in today’s job market.

Good luck to all the 2009 graduates!

Feature Writing 101

In earlier post I introduced feature writing as a beneficial skill for PR practitioners to know. Often the news about clients can be considered as feature, therefore it is essential to know how to write one. This week in Dr. V’s class (@prprof_mv) we will be editing features and putting together the Clemson Communication Studies Department Newsletter.

I interviewed Stephanie Harvin, features editor of The Post and Courier, to get some tips on writing features. The interview is as follows:

Q: What makes a good feature story?

A: A good feature story is just like a news story, it contains elements of news, but is generally an expanded version giving more about what the news means. For instance, a news story about recycling will tell you the hottest tip on recycling, but a feature story will incorporate more people, more facts, and more context for the story. It will also have more photos and graphics attached to it to give it a reader-friendly approach.

Q: What is the most important thing that all feature stories should have?

A: An element of surprise. Features don’t have to be read by anybody, so the language and the idea should engage the reader’s emotions or interests quickly and reward them for reading.

Q: How do you come up for ideas for stories?

A: They come from all kinds of sources, but they should be about something that is happening in your community. They should go from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Q: Some people say that you should never put yourself in your stories. Is this always true? What is your policy at The Post and Courier on first person features?

A: No. With the impact of social media on print, we are relaxing some of the first-person rules to be more reader-friendly. More readers want to engage with a person they recognize rather than an impersonal and remote reporter. But you still have to tell the story from a balanced perspective.

Q: What is the best way to structure a feature?

A: The structure comes from the way you decide to tell the story. Some stories are narratives, some straight news structure, some intros plus bullets or Q&A’s. There are also good charticles – articles done in a chart – that make good features. There is no one structure that fits feature stories so you have to master a number of them.

Q: Do you believe subheadings make for a good feature structure?

A: Subheadings are just one of the tools we use to break up masses of gray type. They should add to the value of the story, though. Again, these should follow the structure, and not be a worry by themselves.

Q: Some people like to insert bullets and other punctuation devices to make their stories “scannable” at times? What is your policy on this?

A: The more you break up a long story into boxes, briefs, bullet points and easy to scan points, the better it will be. The main thing is to have different information in all these various forms, and not repeat the main story in them. You should choose one of these devices per story, though, so you don’t confuse the reader.

Q: What makes or breaks a feature story?

A: A good feature story should engage the reader from the first word, and a good one uses a strong theme and clean writing to make its point. It should never vary from its task, although the path can meander a bit. What breaks a feature story is a lack of clarity on the writer’s part. If the writer doesn’t really know why they are writing the story, it doesn’t matter how much they write or interview, it will still be a mess.

Are these tips useful? Why do you think feature writing is an important skill for PR practitioners to have?

Applying for PR Jobs and Internships out of College

Recently I have been applying to a lot of internships. I came across a post from CareeRealism about what not to do when writing cover letters and resumes and think that it is very helpful.

Cover letters and resumes are the most important thing when applying for jobs or internships. They help you get your foot in the door. If you don’t have a well written cover letter or resume, you may not even have the chance to meet the internship coordinator or job seeker in person. CareeRealism discuses 3 don’ts when it comes to cover letters and resumes.

1. Don’t send out cover letters or resumes with typos or formatting errors. Have someone else proofread for you.
2. Don’t be self-absorbed or pretentious in your cover letter. The cover letter should be about the company. Show how your experience relates to them.
3. Don’t use a multi-page resume right out of college. You just don’t have that much experience. Keep it short and simple and only put the relevant experiences on it.

I think these tips are very useful and will help when applying for jobs and internships. Remember that your cover letter and resume are your foot in the door. They are the first step.

From my personal experience with resumes and cover letters and speaking with PR professionals I have added a few Do’s to CareeRealism’s list of Don’ts.

1. Make your resume scanable. Use headings to divide your resume into sections. Companies will get thousands of resumes for job and internship postings. Most likely they will only spend a few seconds reading your resume. Therefore, make sure it is easy to read.
2. Don’t use fancy fonts or formats when writing cover letters and resumes. Make them as easy to read as possible. The more professional they look the better.
3. Before writing your cover letter, research the company you are applying to. In your letter comment on their clients or perhaps a campaign they worked on and comment on this. As CareeRealism stated relate yourself to THEM.
4. If you are submitting a paper copy of your resume or cover letter, print it on a quality paper. Some people recommend an off-white paper, but as long as its a resume paper you should be fine.

I hope these hints help you when applying for jobs and internships. Good luck!

A Really Bad Pitch!

While catching up on my Google Reader I came across a post on the Bad Pitch Blog. The blog post described the worst pitch I have ever read in my life. I couldn’t believe this really happened. Basically the NY Post newspaper received an email promoting a particular dermatologist and their news peg was the death of a real estate reporter at the NY Post. The email even stated that the reporter ignored signs of melanoma and could have prevented his death if he would have seen a dermatologist! I couldn’t believe that this particular PR person used DEATH AS A NEWS PEG! As if this wasn’t bad enough, the pitch email was sent only a few hours after the news paper staff returned from their colleague’s funeral. This was a huge PR mistake and the pitch obviously failed miserably. Note to PR practitioners: Death is too risky of a subject to use as a news peg. I encourage you all to read the post and the pitch letter.

Comment on Social Media: Time-Wasted or Time- Saver

One of my classmates, Brittany Beran, wrote a post that I found very interesting about social media saving or wasting time. After reflecting on my own social media experience, I came to the conclusion that social media is definitely not a waste of time. If used correctly social media is a way to build lasting relationships with people. Personally, I use social media as a learning tool. I use social media to build connections and relationships with PR students, professors and professionals.

I have learned a lot from social media and I believe that anything you can learn from is not a waste of time. However, I do think that social media can consume a lot of time. I have to be very conscious of the time I spend reading blogs and surfing various social media sites. Social media is just like any other relationship in this sense. Relationships take time to form and maintain.

There are many sites that can help you manage social media. I personally love Google Reader. Google Reader saves me a lot of time and effort. What are your favorite bookmarking or time-saving sites?

Comment on “Skittles…This is what I want you to do!”

After talking in class about the skittles social media buzz, I cam across this blog post by Geno Church on the Brains on Fire blog.  Geno talks about the skittles stunt being an example of Buzz marketing.  However he poses the question, do buzz only tactics defeat the ability to build conversations that will create loyalty?  I think that people need more than buzz tactics to create loyalty and trust.  I encourage you to read this posts and the comments posted on it, including mine.

Pitch Letters

In our PR class we discussed pitch letters and how to pitch to journalists and bloggers. I came across a post on the Bad Pitch Blog called Five Crucial Tips for the Perfect Pitch Letter. This blog post refers to pitch letters as the holy grail. They are the one of the best tools that PR practitioners have in their tool box, but most often, they are used ineffectively. The following 5 tips were given:

1. Hit it with your best shot: have a very good angle for your story and say something to get the reader’s interest.
2. Make it personal: make sure it relates to the journalist’s beat.
3. It’s all about the method: email pitch letters and snail mail pitch letters are very different. Email pitch letters have less space; make it quick and to the point. Snail mail pitches give you a whole page if you can keep the journalist interested enough to make it to the end of your letter.
4. Don’t rush the letter: make all your points clearly and keep it interesting.
5. Proofread! This is the most important tip. Don’t make yourself look like an idiot. Get someone to edit your letter critically.

I really encourage my classmates and other PR professionals to read this post. It is very helpful!

Tips for Writing Good Blog Posts

I came across this post by David Caolo about writing good blogs. His post contains 6 tips which are very helpful. My favorite tip was “be prepared.” Caolo mentions that great ideas can come to you at anytime and you have to be prepared to notice them and make a note of them. This is something that I really need to work on. I will think of something to write about and never write it down. When I go to actually sit down to write the post, my idea is lost in space. I really recommend reading this post. I found it very helpful. You can also see my comment on it.

Another Reason Why Blogging is a Must!

I came across this post  on PR Week while reading my RSS feeds and I thought it would really put some fire under some people who are still sceptical about blogging and why it is important.  According to the article, more and more consumers are relying on blogs and on-line conversations to help them in making purchases.  The article goes on to say that PR professionals are having to adapt rapidly to this growing trend.  One VP at Ketchum said that: PR isn’t only about talking to editors anymore.  We need to get into this powerful and influential conversations.  Blogger relations could mean the success or failure of future companies.  Read the article for yourself, it is very interesting.

Data on the Motrin Mom Crisis

In Dr. V’s PR class we discussed the Motrin Mom crisis and how twitter and blogging escalated the crisis.   The following blog post analyzes data and provides graphs about the disscussion of the crisis on Diggs and Google.  Two pieces of advice that the post gives  that I found correlated with our principles of crisis communication are as follows:

• Apologies are cheap and can diffuse a crisis if caught soon enough

• People go to search engines when a crisis breaks out so monitor these sites as well as other online discussions

Data is a way to show that your PR efforts work and these graphs show that Motrin’s PR efforts diffused the discussion the crisis in a matter of a few hours.