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Storify has Become my New Favorite Thing

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This past weekend huge news sent shockwaves throughout social media and the sports world. Los Angeles Clippers owner, Donald Sterling made extremely racist comments to his girlfriend about black people.

Due to the sheer size of this news story. It would be nearly impossible to share all of the insight from different people on it without the help something as cool as Storify. With Storify I was able to include the couthless videos and tweets that encircled this news story without much effort. 

In short Storify ROCKS!

 

 

https://storify.com/RichWill_1/la-clippers-owner-shows-eye-opening-racism-over-th

My Map

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Today in class we have created a map in Google Maps.

In this map I have included the city I grew up in (East Brunswick, NJ), the city I love the most (Philadelphia, PA) and the city I would most love to visit (Madrid, Spain). Check out the map I created below.

A Recap of my Week on Twitter

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This past week as a part of Challenge 5, I took part in a twitter chat, followed a few more twitter users as well as created a few public lists.

This week was quite eventful, especially the twitter chat I participated in, #PRprochat, this twitter chat is run by public relations professional Carrie Morgan. The chat consisted of Morgan posting four questions and participants answering them and giving their own insights.

The chat started with participants introducing themselves:

Topics ranged from measuring metrics and results to the biggest roadblocks in reaching these results. It was very interesting to learn from all of these professionals and hear what fellow students Elisa, Brecken and Chris had to say as well (They participated in the chat as well).

My only issue with the chat was its vagueness. I wish the topics were more current event centralized. Like for example, this week Radio Shack decided to close 1,100 stores, why not ask professionals how they would help deal with this issue. Anything like that would really help drive the conversation as it seemed to run dry over the course of the small chat.

I had a few favorite tweets, both from professionals, one of which came from the chat organizer herself.

I liked this one because it really reigns true, especially in today’s world a professional in this field must be willing to continuously evolve with the times. I showed my support for her tweet by following up with this tweet:

Another highlight of this chat came after this tweet from PR pro David Frerker:

I liked this one because it is one of my favorite things to work on as well. Seeing how a company’s social media outreach is working or not working.

Sadly the chat had to end after about an hour and I made sure to let everyone know how grateful I was to be able to participate:

 

 

An Undergraduates Take on What we should be Taught in School

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=-MFbxoPd5zLG6M&tbnid=NzBluleZRmBCcM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=%2Furl%3Fsa%3Di%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dimages%26cd%3D%26cad%3Drja%26docid%3D-MFbxoPd5zLG6M%26tbnid%3DNzBluleZRmBCcM%3A%26ved%3D0CAUQjRw%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fcommons.wikimedia.org%252Fwiki%252FFile%253ASharpened_pencil_next_to_sheet_paper.jpg%26ei%3DbGsDU57JFIfKsQTwuYKIBg%26bvm%3Dbv.61535280%2Cd.aWc%26psig%3DAFQjCNH7ltx_XaI-1-ofOlWjYJFOx-KoWg%26ust%3D1392819431500073&ei=bGsDU57JFIfKsQTwuYKIBg&bvm=bv.61535280,d.aWc&psig=AFQjCNH7ltx_XaI-1-ofOlWjYJFOx-KoWg&ust=1392819431500073

 

Over the past week I have been looking over various different blogs and their posts. None of these posts however, really impacted me until I came across a blog post from PR in Your Pajamas. In the post (which is linked in the title), blogger Ed Zitron discusses the failures of colleges when teaching undergraduates about a career in PR. Classes, according to Zitron, focus on the skills and tasks professionals will have to take on later on in their careers, or possibly things that a worker will never take on. This list includes items such as:

  • Handling big campaigns
  • Handling press conferences
  • The importance of AP style

According to Zitron all of these things our curriculum centers on are a gross misrepresentation of the career path we have chosen, and I have to agree with his assertions. Zitron goes on to explain that an entry level job in PR is nothing but document writing and package stuffing. This is something I also agree with. Throughout my first two internships I was able to see young workers in the companies I was with. Each employee, while being a part of a different department handled more or less the same things. Creating media kits, reaching out to various writers etc.

The work we are being prepared for in school is currently above our pay grade (about $30-$40 thousand dollars out of college). Here in school we are being prepared for the flashy and glamorous life of public relations, when in fact our future job will be sitting behind a computer for 9 hours a day.

Life as a public relations professional will not be easy, and it may not seem worth it all the time after i graduate, but success in my mind is not an option, as it has to be for all students.

 

Tweet Week!

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This past week has been loads of fun to say the least. Conversing with students across the country has been very enlightening. This tweet week has taught me a lot, from managing to fit a quote in 140 characters, to learning that there are 100 personalized tiger statues around the University of Memphis’ campus. Challenge three has been very challenging, but in the end I feel accomplished. The 10 tweets me and my teammate had to complete were:

 

School Spirit! Sophomore Marisa Kong loves our Pirates regardless of how bad they have been this season, she loves attending the home games.

 

favorite eating spot or watering hole: Sophomore Christina Witmer loves Stony’s burgers and I can’t deny my admiration for them either. Nothing beats the greasy, artery clogging delight that is a bomber burger.

 

Professor on the street: Dr. Nina Capone Singleton of the Department of Speech and Language Pathology holds a belief that many of us in today’s world do.

 

Student on Street: Like most students in this day and age, Sophomore Emily Conti gets all of her news online!

 

Academic excellence: Seton Hall is nationally recognized as one of the most “connected” colleges. This is in no small part due to the Mobile Computing program here at Seton Hall. All students are given a laptop jam packed with software all students need to succeed in college.

 

Scenic spot: Although we haven’t had a day like this yet this semester, Springtime at Seton Hall is great because students crowd the green and have a blast on warm days.

 

Little-known fact: Scrubs star Zach Braff is a graduate of Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ and grew up in South Orange. Even “littler-known” is Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill graduated from Columbia High School as well and was in attendance at his Bar Mitzvah.

 

Fanatic fans: Adam Howard and I hold the same sentiments on the rest of this basketball season. Being 13-10 at this point in the season is an absolute disappointment for the Pirates. Luckily, the Pirates boast a top 10 recruiting class for next year’s basketball season.

 

Extracurricular extravaganza: Seton Hall is home to 22 different Greek Organizations.

 

Freestyle: What Better place to freestyle than Walsh Library. Seton Hall’s library is home to 740,251 different titles.

 

Our top five tweets from other students:

 

https://twitter.com/barry_parks/status/431251374991736832

https://twitter.com/heathbarr27/status/431532943836598272

 

My Replies:

 

 

All in all, this experiment was a success. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with strangers from various colleges. I loved speaking to different people to get quotes. It is a great idea, and it definitely should be continued into the future.

 

 

Social Media is Changing Everything

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After reading the assigned readings for the week I felt stronger in my stance on the new state of the media. The internet and social media is strengthening the reach of companies into the “real world,” News is moving at a faster pace than ever before and all companies need to begin to use these tools before it passes them by.

As seen in the Economist article, “Thanks to the rise of social media, news is no longer gathered exclusively by reporters and turned into a story but emerges from an ecosystem in which journalists, sources, readers and viewers exchange information.”

The writer of this article could not be more correct in his assertion. News is no longer limited to watching an hour long block on television, or reading a paper in the morning. News is happening at all times, and social media connects the world in a way never before seen. As I write this the Grammy’s are on CBS, the NFL Pro Bowl is on NBC taking place and the WWE Royal Rumble is on Pay-Per-View. With the use of Twitter and Facebook I can feel connected with what is happening on all three channels at the same time. I can hear about Macklemore winning the Grammy for new artist while I read that Randy Orton has beaten John Cena. The news cycle never ends, and Social Media is a wonderful tool that can be used to get your news out there quickly and have it gain traction and a following within minutes.

As the Economist also states, sites like the Huffington Post which brings a “ “hybrid” approach that melds old and new, professional and amateur.” are changing the world as well their use of links and social media has paved the way for other news sited to create their own blog sites and utilize amateur bloggers and tweets to accumulate news.

In terms of companies, Meerman Scott put it best, “If you are smaller and less famous but have a story to tell, you need to tell it yourself. Fortunately the web is a terrific place to do so.

He is entirely correct, companies need to use the tools they have at their disposal and use them well. Companies like Old Spice, Dominos, Taco Bell etc. use sites like Twitter in order to create their own news, (like this banter) promote products, and interact with their consumer base extremely well. You often see these companies directly apologizing to their consumers for bad food and late deliveries. This improves consumer trust and increases the probability of a consumer using a product again. Companies that do not use these items to their advantage, or at all are missing out on free and helpful publicity.