I find myself in no man’s land, approaching the end of my long hall at Uni. The end is near, the end of an era. Fun times, reckless times, one might say insane times were had. But alas those times will soon be but a distant memory. However,. I shall return to this memory from time to time I hope. I hope meaning most weekends.

I’m looking to the future, time to decide upon what path to take. Time. To. Get. A. Job.  Time also to categorize this new section of my life. A lot of time being used up.Time to motor on!

Category title?! Title: ” Job hunt the experiences of a PR student looking for work”. The title questionable, but I feel good old self-explanatory is the best way forward. Bit of a derail there.Back to business!

This journey will be enlightening for many I hope. I’m actually sceptical at the moment, will it, but I shall give it a go. I’m going to be as honest as possible throughout this journey, the main aim being, to help those PR practitioners who follow in my footsteps. Who are clueless in the ways of approaching PR job hunt! To learn from the mistakes I shall make and gain information from people I encounter along my merry way. I will be  a Yoda but instead of wise and all knowing a bit of the opposite.Yup, perfect description!

The beginning, no better way to start off than an insight into what an employer is looking for and what will help you to stand out from the crowd.

Recently I sat in on a talk from Colette Brown – head of Prospect Resourcing in London. She looks at thousands of CV’s each week and an expert in separating the good from the bad from the ugly. Admirable skill and she decided to bestow this information upon us. Quite an entertaining women and attractive to the eye, perfect guest speaker all round. Anytime boredom kicked in I just had a glance up and full attention was restored. Yup perfect guest speaker indeed!

The talk went somewhat like this.

Employers want:

• Demonstrate communication skills.
• Demonstrate writing skills.
• A “Can do” attitude. #winning #tigerblood. Charlie Sheening it, so to speak.
• Proven commitment to PR. For example if in an interviewer asks you the question; where do you see yourself in ten years’ time? Do not say anywhere other than in PR land.
• Sector interest. For example if you’re going for a PR job in fashion, Fashion Blog would be handy out.
• Social media skills/awareness – the way of the future, be actively involved. Have active twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook accounts. A blog, use these tools to communicate with the PR world.
• Media savvy – understand the news and what is going on in the world.
• A Winning Personality.

Covering letters:

• Tone can be lightly informal, use it as a chance for you to shine.
• Specific per job – make sure your application is tailored to the job you are going for, last year I remember not really doing this for work experience, few dodgy responses or no responses.
• Research relevant to person/title. Try not to say Dear sir/madam. Do that bit of research and find out who the letter/mail will be sent to.
• Keep it neat, brief, easy points. Why you good? Why you interested?
• Highlight your creativity and writing.
• Flatter them.

Successful CV

• Make it personal, easy to read and no more than two pages long.
• Personal details – self-explanatory. Name, address and telephone number. No need for e-mail if you are sending it as an email.
• Education – University results are optional most employers in the PR world  want to know if you have a degree. Try and show the skills you picked up along the way such as writing press releases, presentation skills etc.  Listing subjects is optional but is space wasting.
• Career history – work experience and volunteer work, as relevant as possible, what job’s you have done and demonstrate skills.
• Show Social media
• Engage online
• Relevance to PR is important.
• Uni experience
• Interests are very important. Things they would not know about you make it quirky i.e. stand out from the crowd!

There you have it the beginning has begun so to speak. I hope this helps you, CV and covering letters should not be taken for granted, it’s the employer’s first chance to look at you and you can be easily passed by. So happy hunting!

Seeing as this is my last blog post of the year I said to myself  why not try and help? Help those who can’t help themselves. Those who are not wise in the ways of the social media. How one can save themselves from looking like a bafoon. I know a lot of folk who when I talk to them in real life are nice genuine people. Then I get a friend request some days later and boom. What have I done?! It baffles me the number of people who posses the same skill. The skill of absolutely ruining oneself on Facebook, Twitter etc. By making a number of cardinal errors. Brand management is essential. The most important brand of them all being yourself. Here is a list I have devised to ensure you will not acquire such a skill.

Important note: These are just my thoughts and hope nobody is offended.

1. The affectionate message aimed at males.

This is possibly the biggest no no. Please if you are a male refrain from using any icons of affection. The smiley face is possibly exempt. It wouldn’t be my cup of tea but can see that its not that bad. Luv hearts, x’s etc forget about it. In text messages this may just and I emphasize the just be except-able. lmao and lol don’t even get me started on. These words should not even enter into your head . If they do. I am no use to you and simply call a psychiatrist now. Theres no need to use these icons  for the whole world to see, as you  may be happily involved now, in the future it may come back to haunt you. When you are pursuing some girl down the line that you think may like you. Only to find out “aren’t you the cringe artist on facebook”. You have a much higher chance of not being befriended or blocked if you are able to refrain from the affectionate message.

Ask yourself: Do I really need to do this? then give yourself a minute to think and ask your self again do I really need to do this?

2. Banality

These comments literally couldn’t be worse there are so many “banality banes” out there it’s not even funny.  It’s okay to share some trivial details of your life but, alerting the world you’re at a restaurant, or saying “Good morning, Facebook Friends!” increases your bane factor and doesn’t interest people,  especially those who don’t know you in “real life”. Social suicide to be fair. If one uses these comments sarcastically they are highly enjoyable and certainly can add me as a friend any day. Sarcasm the key to humor!

Ask yourself before sharing: Who will be interested? What entertainment or value will people get if I broadcast this?

3.Lack of Reciprocity

This is a rule I like to stick by with regards twitter and probably only applies to those who use twitter as a source of contact to those in their profession. As one does not want to look like a loner or “unpopular” as it may affect ones perception of you. Essentially, brand management. The rule is simple never have less than half the number of followers in comparison to who you follow. Doesn’t look particularly good.

My general rule in all walks of life:  Do onto others as you would like them to do onto you this applies to those who use twitter socially. Although many people staunchly reserve their right to follow only people they know or find interesting, I think it’s only polite to follow those who follow you. As I think its important not to take the celeb mentality. All though if I was a celeb I would probably also be selective. It is easy to be perceived as a snub is what I’m saying. There are now enough tools to filter ones Twitter & Facebook updates + Digg submissions that allow one to follow a lot of people without losing your closest friends’ content in the midst of it all. That is if you choose the ‘follow everyone’ route. I might just be saying this because I have not reached the 1,000 followers mark yet, when I do, I possibly most definitly will change my point of view and hit cutsville.

Reciprocity also means conversing with your followers, rather than just collecting them like pokemon cards.

Ask yourself: How’s my social media karma? Am I  missing by not following people back?

4.Recycling

It’s okay to re-tweet interesting stuff  and to post old links occasionally. But word travels fast online… plus, some people are snobs about smoking nothing but the latest and greatest digital info-crack(terrible joke). And if you retweet heavily or blog “I read this great article“ type of posts too much, you become seen as an echo that’s safe to ignore. Note to self never be an echo always try to be someway original.

Fresh links and original perspectives will get you bonus points and followers.

Ask yourself: Do most people already know about this? What value or perspective will I add by sharing it again?

5.Overloading

Some people will drop 50 interesting links a day, 7 or 8 of them in a row. Do not do this.  Look at littleninaa shooting herself in the foot, both feet, you do not want to be like footless littleninaa…I’m on a role today with the terrible jokes.Sinking like a ship. If someone is new to a social site and doesn’t have hundreds of friends, then your information updates make you look like a bit of a loser or a more articulated way of putting it. One may seem disproportionate. No need to dominate the data-stream or conversation especially when starting out!

Ask yourself: Have I talked / tagged / tweeted / text’ed too much, today? Should I spend more time listening what other people have to say?

Sylvia Plath has kicked in…mental block! What to do?!What to write on that will capture the attention of an audience…hmmm. Creativity has hit the wall, black wall. Want to do something different out of the ordinary, break down boundaries.

I’m thinking of experimenting, writing everything that comes to mind, real life blogging on the spot. Break through within the blogging world, the future of blogging. No pre rehearsed script. Just go for it, not caring about what or who. I think I’ll go for it, after all it’s only one blog post.

Here it goes the process of the blog without the pre-thinking of each sentence that is written. Just write as I think. Let the experiment begin. What name to give to this experiment? Olan the guinea pig bit of a ring to that or maybe The mind and work process of a social media blogger while blogging.

Experiment begins 07/05/2011: 15:30pm.

15:32. First thing that comes to mind Sylvia Plath. Just read about Sylvia after writing opening line about mental block. Very interesting life bit depressing but can see how it can happen. This is sparking a response that makes me reflect on sad times past in my life. How life has gotten me down from time to time, poor Sylvia had it tough, I’m thinking of how lucky I am, how poetry is such a huge call and about the banter I had in 6th year where I came across Sylvia first. Right back to blog need to get an idea for this blog. Distraction has caused me to re- read back over my work. Break through. Just read the line the future of blogging.Gets me thinking what about the future of social media what to expect and what do others think on this matter. Topic is found. Research hat on. It’s time to search the net for new ideas, opinion polls, other blogs etc. As this is not a regular blog I am going to copy and paste as I go. I will not summarise the ideas that I find.

15:35. Found a great sight www.Ted.com. Good opinion poll with a lot of ideas on what people expect from social media in the future. I decide to myself to take the 3 best ideas. I find my first idea. Read through half and like it. I click copy.

15:36. Social media idea 1. Name: April Foreman. I click Paste.

I am a psychologist. Back in January I began using an SMS based mood monitoring tool with my patients/clients. This has been an amazing experience that transformed my clinical practice. Patients text a 1-10 mood rating, and an optional short message about their mood, which uploads to a web account that they give me consent to view. I can know how these patients are doing on a daily basis, quickly review functioning if they leave me a message indicating distress, and check it at the beginning of my clinical interactions to get a quick read on how they are doing. Patients overwhelmingly like this tool, have strong engagement with it, and over 90% maintain that engagement with the tool over time. It has improved my diagnostic insight, given my patients the sense that I am engaged with them between sessions, and allowed them to review their patterns of mood over time in insightful ways. Many patients have shown strong improvements after years of poor mood regulation. This has been especially useful with my patients that have Borderline Personality Disorder. It has been free, save me time, improved treatment compliance/adherence, contributed to my alliance with patients, and has been, above all, *cool*. If this is what can be done with a web service and a lower tech flip phone, imagine what can happen in the future as my poorest clients have access to even better technology…PS: I work at a rural community mental health center. If we can do this in rural Kansas, imagine the generalizability of these benefits.

15:38. I think the idea is a very good one but worry that the reader might find it too long and I start to think about  Kansas. I then reflect and ask myself should I summarise each idea? Decide not to. Stick to the original plan.  I also think maybe it would have benefited Sylvia. Really strange coincidence. I then think this is a really strange blog. Mind goes to never never land. The screen breaks my day dreaming and I read about more ideas for the “future of social media”. I find social media Idea 2. I Click copy.

15:41. Social media idea 2. Name: Sky Fenton. Laughing to myself I think what a name “Sky”. Potentially use that name for the banter some time when cracking on and think this guy is definitely a character in home and away. I think people will definitely think I’m a gimp for even thinking this. Laughing to myself I click. Paste.

15:48: I work in a pharmacy and I’ve always had the idea that there should be essentially a ‘facebook-for-healthcare’ type system out there that has a ‘news feed’ that talks about when they got what type of care, when they got a prescription written and what for, where and when they filled it, diagnoses, etc.
Too much energy goes towards phone calling all over the place for data that could be easily shared with everyone who is a health care provider.
At the VERY least, my system I run at my pharmacy looks like it was built-in 1993. At the very least a software company should create a closed network face book type system that graphically displays patients information and activity at MY LOCATION ONLY in our closed network. There would also be a page for drug information updating, easy emailing to patients/doctors, etc. It would clean up the disgusting user interface significantly.

15:52. I’m thinking that Sky is fairly aggressive something must be going on with him. A  Lot of capital’s used, pent-up anger. This gets me thinking will I go on to Fb for a quick check of the goings on in the world. I think why Sky did you have to mention Fb. I think I deserve a break. Best not I’m breaking down barriers here. I laugh to myself. Now I’m cringing for myself but must leave it up. I check on my grammar and read back on the post. Thinking motor on!

16:03: Click off blog and read next idea. Really makes me feel good about what social media has done. I think to myself what a really good idea to get a hearing and deaf social networking site up and running. Don’t even know if one exists but I think it has to. Check Google. Yup, Hearing Exchange Kids.  Read up some on the project. Looks good. Best move on though. I click Copy.

Social media Idea 3. Name: Gail Wright. Paste.

16:09: I come from the education side. Kids (hearing and Deaf) are using social media as their mode of communication. The development of this barrier free communication/ connection is powerful for children with hearing loss. The connections with hearing peers are now seamless and easy. The ability for children with hearing loss who feel isolated and alone as they may be the only child in their school/ town with hearing loss is also a reality.

16:10:I think to myself Gail there is a hearing and deaf social networking site already up and running while also thinking she seems like a really nice woman.I also think do I know any Gail’s don’t really know why though. I wonder what she looks like?  This gets me thinking why does it even matter what she looks like you goon. Then I think its human nature not your fault. This idea makes me think of my time working in LOTA. I think this definitely looks like I planned this so I can mention I worked with special need children. I then look to the summer and of working there. I than think yes this experiment is almost complete.

16:15. I read back over blog post and make grammar changes and think that  this blog is very questionable.

16:22. Experiment finished.

Conclusion: 08/05/2011. After reading back over yesterdays “experiment” I realise that this experiment is possibly more suited to a psychology blog and am I insane for doing it.

Interestingly enough this image was created by NASA and Facebook. Indicating the main areas of internet usage through out the world.

Recently due to assignments I’ve been reading quite the number of books with regards social media. By reading I mean going to the back of the book looking at the index for all the keywords that I think relate to the topic of choice. Painting by numbers technique as I like to call it. However, still with this full proof plan, I tend to end up reading everything unrelated to the actual original topic intended. I believe they call it procrastinating.

Procrastination Process:  Open book. Flick back to the index. Index found. Find the word. Look for it in the book. Start flicking back. Find far more interesting topic on my travels to find this page. Start reading about this topic. Find I enjoy this topic so look for more information on this topic. All in all a good 40–60 mins completely wasted or is it!! Difficult task to manage yet I’ve mastered it.

I think some people have the knack for assignments, study etc. Applying yourself as my mother would say. I find it interesting how many hobbies I’ve managed to pick up in my time rather than “applying myself”.  Picking up new hobbies around study time certainly goes down as number one in the doing anything bar studying bracket. Latest hobby hitting golf balls down my back garden, very enjoyable to be fair. Last week was sunbathing in UCC while checking out the latest talent UCC has to offer…disappointing. Sunbathing was enjoyable though. Most enjoyable day was feeding the ducks in Fitzgerald’s Park.

Point being while procrastinating one can still be productive. My latest blog was found during one of my procrastination process sessions. While trying to reference from a book I found myself in deep procrastination, I stumbled upon the “Key milestones of the internet”. Some may find this completely irrelevant and boring.  Some might like to read it for a chance to get away from what their supposed to be doing for a while and increase ones general knowledge. And I’m sure there will be some who read two or three points and get fed up. But most importantly I hope you get one thing from this blog. Don’t get down on yourself, if you find you are getting nowhere and you find yourself doing nothing that you should be doing. Procrastinating can be used to productive effect as you are always learning something along the way.

Key milestones of the internet:

• 1969

Generally recognized as the year the internet was born…wooohooo. It was known back then as the ARPANET sounds a bit alien/x-files but named after the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network responsible for its beginnings. The first of its kind or in the “network” as they like to call It. Was first put in place by UCLA (Los Angeles) followed by a number of other well-known Uni’s staggered around the US of A which included Stanford and UCSB(Santa Barbara)…where I spent a number of months in my youth, South California glorious spot!!

• 1973

The first international connections were made to the ARPANET at the University of London and the Royal Radar Establishment in Norway. Boring enough point.

• 1979

New groups were created with the arrival of Usenet, a collection of discussion groups. This signalled the arrival of user-generated content a quarter of a century before the web 2.0 concept came into being. Also kinda boring bare with me.

• 1991

The World Wide Web came into being, having been developed by Tim Berners- Lee to provide easy access to any form of information anywhere in the world. This was closely followed by the launch of Mosaic, the first graphic web browse. Ha, I actually remember using Mosaic when I was in primary school. One of those one hour sessions down the back of the class room as one computer occupied all.

• 1997

John Barger, who runs a site called Robot Wisdom, coined the term “weblogs” to describe the phenomenon, then it’s very early days, which we have come to know in the shortened form “blogs”. Back to boring.

• 1999

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds were first introduced – the basis for allowing people to receive blogs and podcasts. Blogger, the simple-to-use system for creating and uploading blogs also comes into being. Killing me boring.

• 2001

Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia that can be edited by anyone, was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger initially as a feeder providing an additional source of draft articles and ideas to the expert-written project “Nupedia”. It quickly eclipsed Nupedia…where do they get the names from. Point could definitely come in handy for a quiz. Gets interesting from here on I found.

• 2003

MySpace was founded allowing users to build networks of friends and incorporate personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos.

• 2004

Caterina Fake and programmer Stewart Butterfield created Flickr, the photo-sharing site that they later sold to Yahoo!. It became one of the web’s fastest-growing properties. Caterina and Stewart were a husband and wife team like Micheal and Xochi Birch who created Bebo.

- Facebook launched initially for founder Mark Zuckerberg’s fellow students at Harvard University.

- In the same year US publishing company O’Reilly Media coined the term Web 2.0 at the seminal Web 2.0 conference.

- Two months later Digg launched. Digg is a site that allows users to discover and share content from anywhere on the web – users collectively determine the value of content and it is ranked accordingly, there after impacting traffic across the web.

• 2005

YouTube, the video website where users can upload, view and share video clips, was created in mid February 2005 by three former PayPal employees, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim.

• 2006

Twitter was launched as a free social networking and microblogging service that allows users to send “updates” of up to 140 characters to the Twitter website.

-Google Inc. announced that it had reached a deal to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion.

-Facebook became open to the general public.

• 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 was launched with the ability to create blogs “built-in” to the software.

• 2008

Bebo is sold by its founders to AOL for $850 million.

-Candidates in the US presidential race use Facebook and YouTube as an integral part of their campaigns.

• 2010

Bebo sold to Criteria Capital Partners for $10 million. Crash is due to Facebook’s domination of social networking. All other sites are seriously losing their value.

-With total UK advertising spend in 2010 valued at £16.6 billion, this takes the Internet’s market share to a record high of 25 percent (23 percent in 2009), meaning that £1 in every £4 invested by advertisers is spent online.

Successful productive procrastination blogging process complete. Knowledge stored.Mission complete.

Rule of thumb: Never text ex’s or send messages when under the influence of alcohol…we have all done it. I’ve done a few beauts in my time. Cringe city!!

This approach also applies to social media updates whether that be on Facebook, Twitter or MySpace where the activity can be done quickly and spontaneously with potentially disastrous results or hilarious results depending on what way you look at it. I would be of the hilarious outlook.

I think this shall become a more popular venture in the future. Imagine it though, after clubing hit private chat on FB. Everybody online demented. The truth would be revealed. Possibly shouldn’t have shared that idea I could make millions yet.

So don’t or do hit drunken FB or Twitter like my feathered friend Feargal “Monse” O’Reilly who has used this many a night…a modern day legend to be fair.

Here is the top ten list of all those who have suffered the wrath of social media.

1. King Nerd

Second Life is a virtual world where users can play out real-life fantasies. Amy Taylor in Newquay, England, found this out. Taylor told the Western Morning News that she filed for divorce after walking in on her husband having a virtual affair on the service…she must be horrific enough to be two timed virtually. The two met in a chat room and had held a marriage ceremony in Second Life. A modern day Cinderella story.

Virtual over reality bad call out of Amy’s ex. Better off with out him girl. 1 – 0 females.

2.  Facebook Strkes Again

The draw of social media is compelling…even when you’re burglarizing a home. The Journal, a West Virginia newspaper, tells the story of how Jonathan Parker, a 19-year-old, was busted for felony daytime burglary after leaving his FB account logged into his victim’s computer. He had apparently used the computer to check his FB status. Good man bud hawking at every opportunity.

Burgular FB definitly takes a point. 1 – 1

3. Indecent Proposal

Cheryl Smith’s husband found a “hot singles” ad on his FB page that he’ll never forget… the “hot single” was Smith herself. Facebook rushed to note the ad was from an outside advertiser, not the company, but the incident underscored what could happen if you keep loose privacy settings around the net.

Nobody deserving of a point due to false pretences. 1 – 1

Note: Facebook settings can allow you to be placed without you knowledge or consent into an ad.. to fix this setting and read instructions on how to prevent this happening click here

4. Twittering Goon

President Obama knows first hand the consequences of loose lips and social media. In an off-the-record chat with the press, he told reporters that rapper Kanye West’s stunt on Taylor Swift at the  ’09 VMA’s was “inappropriate” and made him look like a “jackass.” It did to be fair I had one of those look away from  TV moments. Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran tweeted the comment, then deleted the comment, but the presidential gossip spread like wildfire.

Lose a point for us males. All Terry’s seem to slip up and leave us down…har har. 1  - 0 females.

5.  Relationship Status: Public

Neil Brady made his relationship frustration public…very public…after he asked his wife for a divorce on FB and the U.K.’s Daily Mail got wind of it. “Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady,” the status update read.What a man. I was always with Neil… add insult to injury. Although the publication called the incident the world’s first divorce by Facebook, it hopefully won’t be the last.

Two points for that move utilising social media to the fore. 2 – 1 males.

6. The Twitt

Graduate student Connor Riley was pondering whether to take a high-paying internship at networking giant Cisco and tweeted herself out of a job opportunity: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Joseand hating the work.” A Cisco employee spotted the post and informed Riley that she’d pass it along to her hiring manager. Riley told MSNBC that she had already turned down the opportunity.

Undecided whether to award or deduct. Bragging boast nullified by being a  dumb dumb/loser no points given either way. Still 2 – 1 males.

7. You Are Who Your Friends Are

People looking at your social network accounts can surmise a lot about you. A pair of male MIT students showed that it’s possible to guess sexual orientation based on their online friends. They call the project “MIT Gaydar”.

Innovation props to ye two, very true. Equals 3 – 1 males.

8. Lady’s Take A Bow

Cody Redenius’ ex-girlfriend saw him posing with a shotgun in a Facebook profile and reported it to local police in Dane County. Wis. Redenius (haha best name ever) was under a domestic abuse injunction that prohibited him from being in possession of a firearm. The photo was enough to get him arrested.

Absolutely phenomenal play out of her. Well done lady’s 3 points for that ingenious move. 4 – 3 females.

9. Halloween H20 Fairy

Banking intern Kevin Colvin told his bosses at Anglo Irish Bank that “something came up at home” and that he had to immediately return to New York. Major family emergency, right? Nope. Someone had tagged a Facebook photo of Colvin at a Halloween party wearing a fairy outfit and holding a can of beer.

Yes lik… if he didn’t get caught out it was a guaranteed 3 pointer however we will deduct two for stupidity reasons. 4 – 4 draw

10. Root Beer Bust

Police officers find out about under-age drinking parties from kids’ event postings on Facebook. Dustin Zebro, an 18-year-old Wisconsin high school student, decided two can play that game: He threw a root beer ‘keggar’, and cops took the bait…what a move. Ninety breath tests later, all the party goers were cleared, but the “bust” was videotaped and uploaded to YouTube.

90 points rewarded. 94 – 4 males.

Hard luck lases better luck next year. Dustin you saved us big style.

This week our Social Media class had a guest speaker pop by, by the name of Stephen Waddington of Speed Communications. Nice chap, very good presenter and he made some very interesting points…got the old brain thinking. Worth looking up if you’re interested in PR on Wadds PR and Media Blog,if not a PR head not really worth your while. The main point that I gathered from the lecture is that if you’re not using social media to your advantage in this day and age you’re lagging behind.

Gone are the days of simply posting your résumé on CareerBuilder, e-mailing former colleagues and trolling company websites for open slots. These days, if you’re serious about being hired, you really need to put your computer to work. That means getting word out on social sites like Facebook and MySpace, sending instant job-search updates via messaging feeds like Twitter, and meeting new people who might be able to lend a hand through Web-networking outfits like LinkedIn and Ryze. Being pro active is key really. A recent quality I’ve  picked up on my travels…go me!!

Life lesson of the day sponsored by @OleyH twitter.com: Be proactive, eager and interested and magical things may happen!!

Stephen discussed that the rise of Social Media is changing the world of PR. I think it’s affecting all the other worlds as well. Marketing world, business world you get the gist I’m sure. All worlds affected by social media. Could have got that point across a lot easier…not my style!!

One of the most important points he made was to be authentic when communicating and that content is key to engagement. He discussed how communicating authentically can get you noticed in the PR world. However I disagree, I think communicating authentically can get you noticed in any world(getting a little bit obsessed with war of the worlds) and can give you a very good edge when applying for a job.

Some top examples of recruitment via Social networking and ways to get noticed:

• Laura Tosney YouTube video helped her land a job at 33 digital by creating a video using flicker stating reasons to employ her. Quite an ingenious move well worth a watch got a lot of publicity in the PR world.

• Matt Watson used Twitter to make contact with Rainer PR at speedcommunications.com and caught their attention via his blog. Bit of a revolutionary one of the first to successfully land a job using  just social media.

• Create your own content like Josh Halliday’s SR2 Blog at JoshHalliday.netor Social web thing.com helped them both land jobs due to their impressive content. This is an excellent opportunity to show off what you know by creating your own blog or web site…pretty easy to create but hard to make it worth reading, takes a lot of time and effort.

• Tesco created their own micro site to create their own form of media. Individuals can do this so others can see who you are and what your about(possibly need to be a bit of a wizard at computers to do this effectively).

• Use Facebook to promote urself…in fairness I never would tell someone to do this. I think Facebook is only good for advertising companies and a bit of a loserish move for a lone ranger. Just take a look at this character Chris Waggoner at facebook.com. But there are always two sides to each story, a very limited number have used it extremely effectively. Look at Wolfstar & Jed Hallam: Ten reasons why! Who have proved me wrong at facebook.com.

• Comment on suitable trade magazines for the industry you are involved in for example PRweek.com for the PR cats.

The main point being you don’t need to be a multi billion dollar company to get noticed and succeed in the Social Media world and every time you create something authentic via social media you are giving yourself an edge over a person who may have the exact same qualification’s as you when going for a job.

Useful sites are quora.com and about.com to start you off on your online presence journey(cheese burger central).

Social Media for entrepreneurs & small businesses

This maybe some helpful info to those of you starting off as a small business or looking to venture out on your own and give you some insight into how using social media can benefit you. Hopefully the aim is one day to go out on my own, when that day comes god help us all..ha! Anyway found this info interesting/beneficial and a bit inspiring.

A feel good real life short story…

@mmm twitter.com is a small artisan foods store in Newcastle that specialise in jams, honey, chutney…etc.  With a small budget they are able to communicate with their customers via twitter on a daily basis. They used a marketing ploy that each follower will get a discount in their store and now have close to 4,000 followers. This simple strategic use of social media has increased their business ten fold. They all lived happily ever after.

The end.

Hope you all got something worthwhile from all that and may have inspired you in some way to become social media active. Till next time kids same bat time same bat channel…

Site of the week : Any body who knows me will say I’m extremely forgetful.Evernote.com is a very useful site to remember and organize your daily thoughts. It will help you capture it, then organize it and help you find it as quick as possible…I sound like a walking advert!!

Introduction

Falling asleep mid-way through second year History class whilst probably making smart remarks about the brilliance of Hitler and his right hand man Joseph Goebbels (Reich minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany, helped Hitler achieve the holocaust). You get the gist rebelling against the irish education system while trying to act mad in front of my class…class clowning. Little did I know it was my introduction to PR and a tool that may be quite beneficial to me later on in life: Propaganda.

This leads to life lesson of the day sponsored by @OleyH twitter.com Redfords Auctioneering: Always pay attention, you never know how it may come in handy later on in life.

Propaganda is probably the main communication tool used throughout the history of PR. I’m sure we are all familiar with super powers such as Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler who all exploited this tool to the max. This is even more so the case nowadays, just look around at any advertising campaign on the TV, radio or newspaper or any election campiagn. Manipulation and brainwashing is the key to successful communication and PR’s best friend in todays world…what a profession to get into!!

Propaganda the History

The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he called “engineering of consent.” During World War I, he was an integral part—along with Walter Lippmann—of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda machine that advertised and sold the war to the American people as one that would “Make the World Safe for Democracy”….how many makey uppies can use in one campaign. However, the marketing strategies for all future wars would be based on the CPI model. Making all my teachers wrong, it is in fact essential to lie, manipulate the truth and if that doesn’t work good old brain washing may save the day.

Over the next half century, Bernays, combining the techniques he had learned in the CPI with the ideas of Lippmann and Freud, fashioned a career as an outspoken proponent of propaganda for political and corporate manipulation of the population, earning the title “father of public relations”…poor enough climax there I would have jazzed up his name a bit but didn’t want to disrespect old Bernie bit of a king really the brainwash guru like.

Among his powerful clients were President Calvin Coolidge, Procter & Gamble, CBS, the American Tobacco Company and General Electric. In addition, his propaganda campaign for the United Fruit Company in the early 1950s led directly to the ClA’s overthrow of the elected government of Guatemala. Yes like overthrow them all when in doubt look to Bernie Mac and friends no barrier too great, no obstacle too high…manipulate them all!!

Psychological blabberists believe: “Only through the active energy of the intelligent few can the public at large become aware of and act upon new ideas.” If that’s true then fair play to McDonald’s, Adidas, L’oreal and another couple of million companies throughout the world who use propaganda as one of their main tools to communicate there messages…”intelligent few” my ass!

The misuse of propaganda

Propaganda bears the same relation to education as to business or politics. It may be abused. It may be used to over-advertise an institution and to create in the public mind artificial values.
There can be no absolute guarantee against its misuse.

Joey Goebbels is the main man at this, he played safe and used it only to manipulate the media and brainwash the public into believing that Jews were the “devil” so to speak. Which resulted in the death of over six million Jew’s during the Nazi period. Just imagine what he could have done with a Nike campaign!

Governments, whether they are constitutional, democratic or communist, depend upon public opinion for the success of their efforts and, in fact, government is government only by virtue of public acceptance. Nowadays the successors of the rulers, those whose position or ability gives them power, can no longer do what they want without the approval of the masses, they find in propaganda a tool which is increasingly powerful in gaining that approval.

Hence the reasoning possibly behind the election of George “the uni bomber” Bush and Bertie “ jump ship” Ahern…who used propaganda rather sublimely throughout their campaigns. On the other hand, fair play they played the system, fooled the public and made a pretty penny along the way before departure time…personally I think they are both gimp’s.

Some people consider propaganda neither good nor bad. For example,many favor the use of  propaganda to raise money for charity. Trocaire and friends add to the list of manipulators, also ahead of the game definitely pocketing half the profits id say. Other individuals argue that the public needs reliable information to make wise decisions, and that propaganda blocks the spreading of such information. They also fear that propaganda deadens people’s power of reasoning.

The results of some propaganda may be short-term and relatively insignificant, such as the purchase of a product.Other types of propaganda can have more serious results…like what you ask Jeff?!

Well Andy, Possibly killing off half a population due to their religious beliefs…propaganda you are an animal!!

The personality of Propaganda

Simplicity and repetition. Propaganda must be easy to understand and to remember: Easy going.

The use of symbols. Involves words and illustrations that bring strong responses from people: Creative.

Distortion and concealment. Propagandists deliberately exaggerate the importance of some facts and twist the meaning of others: Over exaggerater.

Lying. Deliberate  lying is relatively rare as a propaganda technique because propagandists fear their lies might be discovered and they might lose their audience’s trust. Propaganda usually includes some accurate information. But some propagandists readily lie if they think they can deceive their audience: Cunning and deceiving bit of a fox.

Censorship. This is most common where the government controls the newspapers,television and other means of communication. It increases the effectiveness of propaganda because the government can silence people who contradict its official views : Compassionate and caring.

Safe to say propaganda you’re a bit of a schizo.

Conclusion

Basically the more your up for breaking laws and going against all biblical/moralistic beliefs…propaganda is the game for you. If you are get in contact with me on twitter @Olan Ahern..ha!!

In conclusion,with regards this bundle of information propaganda is a beautiful weapon to have, but can be deadly in the wrong hands!!

Propaganda poll time

Recently after watching the Social Network it got me thinking. Good film. Good acting. Slightly depressing, but most importantly got me to think about the manner in which the world communicates today. The film is the story of Facebook more or less.Fb turns out to be a bit of an ass really. Even though Mark Zuckerberg(main character) co-creator of Fb becomes a billionaire, he loses most things worthwhile having along the way: girlfriend, friends, college education, self-respect, integrity the list goes on… starting to sound like me…haha!!  Point being it shows the magnitude of how big the social network has become and how much it can affect those involved in it. On a side note, Fb was also the inspiration behind an Oscar winning film…pats on the back for Fb.

We now live in a world where we spend a lot of our time online at work, college, panning out at home etc. For many of the laze bags out there without realizing its one of your main pass times. However, it’s also a multi-billion dollar industry. On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion.

Comparing people to animals(anamorphing) has been an old hobby of mine for quite sometime…bear with me there’s method to my madness. I think everybody bares some resemblance to some kind of animal, I do it not in a bad mocking way or tribal Indian ritual way, but in a discovery channel analytical manner(good save). So I said to myself do the same with Facebook and co…weird/loserish or ingenious?!

Facebook is a Lion (yup defo loserish), in many people’s eyes the king of social networking sites. I’m sure most people who read this blog have an Fb account. Fb is for many a good way of passing away time when board or just hawking about. Talking to friends while hawking about. Doing assignments while hawking about. Safe to say most people use it for hawking about. I hope you coped to what I tried to do there. Fb is a hawking about site. Prime example, if I go online there are usually 50ish friends online, if I was to take a guess there’s another 200 in stealth mode(offline). Hence primary use of Fb is not to chat but simply to hawk…hawking point hopefully accomplished.

Yet this hawking about site has turned into a multibillion dollar company, while also being a major source of communication for millions of people throughout the world, even if they comment in a “har har” manner for the most part to one another. But to be fair there are those who use it to good effect, for serious communication purposes also.

Enough blabbering on for a bit, here’s some interesting/informative information on Fb:

It has over 600 million active users… popular enough cat, it’s used by 1 in every 13 people on the earth, with over 250 million of them (over 50%) using old Fb every day, all takers with the odd donation by those who advertise (Fb does make a nice profit and it’s believed to have made $1.1 billion in total revenue in 2010).The average user has about 130 friends, but should expand in 2011.

Fb has over 1,700 employees, and offices in 12 countries. Regarding Fb ownership, Mark Zuckerberg owns 24% of the company, Accel Partners owns 10%, Digital Sky Technologies owns 10%,Dustin Moskovitz owns 6%, Eduardo Saverin owns 5%, Sean Parker owns 4%, Peter Thiel owns 3%, Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital Partners own between 1 to 2% each, Microsoft owns 1.3%, Li Ka-shing owns 0.75%, the Interpublic Group owns less than 0.5%, a small group of current and former employees and celebrities own less than 1% each, including Matt Cohler, Jeff Rothschild, Adam D’Angelo, Chris Hughes, and Owen Van Natta, while Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus have sizable holdings of the company, and the remaining 30% or so are owned by employees, an undisclosed number of celebrities, and outside investors. Adam D’Angelo, chief technology officer and friend of Zuck, resigned in May 2008. Reports claimed that he and Zuck began quarreling, and that he was no longer interested in partial ownership of the company…business before friends for good old Zuck have to remember that one…every friend you cut you make a billion…cut on!!

Back to blabbering, there are other obvious social networking sites who are used for communication purposes, none more so than Twitter probably second most popular behind Fb. Bit of a bumblebee really buzzing/twitering here and there  kind of annoying, usually dies out for those in the real world after a short while. Celebs tend to luv it though, extremely useful for Perez Hilton, E news and friends to get their fill of gossip. On a side note, I found it good for making contacts with those top professionals in the PR world, by connections I mean successfully adding…the beauty of twitter they can’t decline you…ingenious move out of the twit.

We have Linked in (business), My Space (social entertainment), Friendster (social gaming destination), Travellerspoint (Traveling and tourism), Lookbook.nu (Fashion) the list goes on and on and way too much effort to anamorph each of them. I know your probably gutted. I’m sure you’ve all encountered these sites from time to time and possibly used them to communicate in some form. The diversity of each site  boasting 100′s of millions of users shows how popular social networking now is.

To finish,  just think in your average day, how many times do you get the urge (subconsciously) or want to use a social networking site, this is the best way I can possibly explain how big the social network has become.

Personal note: Wish it crashed and burned, I miss the outdoors and face to face conversation…start the boycott today!!

PR has a way of making or breaking the career of anybody in the public eye. I’m sure you’ve all seen the Kerry Katona/Peter Andre’s of the world, how thanks to PR mogels such as Clare Powell  and the likes who have manipulated the media and in turn given these celebs career’s a new lease of life…so to speak. On the other hand, I have decided to tell a story about a man by the name of Carlos Irwin Estevez aka Charlie “crazy town” Sheen which shows how PR can’t save everybody!!

Charlie Sheen I think couldn’t be better really drugs/hookers/porn-stars/booze…to name but a few. The kamikaze king. He has it all and the kicker is the more damage he does the better he gets, the more money he makes and for onlooker’s watching pure gold. Everybody wins except for poor old PR team but really though who cares great entertainment.

Good old Charles started off small like his film career…a line here and a line there (coke). Then around 1986 after the release of Wallstreet and Platoon (only two credible films Charles starred in).He kicked into overdrive heroine,ecstasy the works! Good man Charles, wait till u hit the top to get into class A hard-core drugs this also was the start of porn-star-island!!

Films such as Young Guns, Major League and Hot Shots followed. Charles sold out and jumped on the money train aka easy roles/high pay checks…massive call . He decided to spice things up by shooting his then fiancée Kelly Preston never liked her too much either…well played Charles. After getting the axe by Kelly, he moved onto Pornland in the mid 90’s. Ginger Lynn and Heather Hunter but to name but a few, terrible names also girls, creativity clearly wasn’t your strongest points. As a pass time he still acted and along the way he picked up his star on the walk of fame in 1998(won’t bore you with cinematic details). Sheen then married a lady by the name of Donna Peel,model, supposedly “it” girl at the time. Things were going well so good old Charles hit the brothels along with ACCIDENTLY overdosing on cocaine…yes like… plead the 5^th…never your fault…have to remember that one.

He then met beloved Denise Richards in 2002 who became his second wife. Only thing she ever did worth mentioning was Wild Things suburb swimming pool scene as I recall. No doubt Charles saw it and hunted her down, how good can one guy get.

Charles then decided to head back to Tony Montana land (cokeville for those non Scarface fans). He had too long a vacation in reality so played safe and went back to Narnia for over 18’s. Denise gave him the boot after he threatened her with ‘violence’ aka beating her to a pulp!!

Charles then went the full hog with his next wife (Brooke Muller, real estate agent, de-grading big style from Denise…first poor call). He was arrested for second degree assault in 2008 when threatening her with a knife on Christmas day. You can imagine him memo to self, hold off till the most joyous day of the year then strike! He was charged with 30 hours community service and 30 hours anger management…ah yes…this will certainly cure him. Well played justice system another OJ Simpson call when in doubt take the bribe.

Then he searched for god in a rehab centre. His prayers were answered when Two And A Half Men decided to bump up his salary to 1.8 million dollars an episode and in 2010 started filming. He celebrated by having a coke party with a pornstar/escort Capri Anderson and decided to smash-up a hotel room(Brooke obviously had given him bullets at this point). He played safe and waited for his buddies the NYPD to escort him out of the hotel and take him to hospital…haha…what a man…unfortunately for Charles he is still pending a law suit.

Later on in the year Charles decided to visit the hospital again suffering from “severe abdominal pains”. After his stay he decided to take rehab to his own home as he calls it “sober-valley lodge”…best call ever…why come to them instead let them come to you. Love to go on the pull with you Charles.

Charles then decided to pull a me with the well-known over consumption of alcohol and make offensive comments trick. Only difference he decided to attack the lead writer and co-creator of Two And A Half Men,hence show gets pulled…but wait! They come running back as they realise the show is the pits without him. Poor Alan and Ralphy or whatever the young fellows name is couldn’t cut the mustard. Charles plays safe and asks for almost a 50% raise to 3 million dollars an episode.What a man!

On a side note Charles is currently dating porn star Bree Olson and former nanny/model Natalie Kennly. It’s a polygamy story so I believe. Kill two birds with the one stone so to speak and on the side is in “talks” with CBS…take a bow Charles!!

Moral of the story: PR can’t save everybody. Just look at the dream world the media have each day of picking a part poor Charles life. To be fair it hasn’t really affected his career or his popularity (he recently set the world record on twitter for the fastest person to reach over a million followers).However, his five kids must be finding it tough along with those closest too him.

Hence, Charles fired his head PR man recently quoting: “You can’t quit, you’re fired”. It’s official Charlie Sheen is a king among men.

The end.

Song of the week

“Welcome to the Kodak theatre my name is Ryan Seacrest and this is the 83^rd-annual Oscars”…(gimp).

As my blog is based on PR and all it has to offer no better way to kick it off than the Oscars…perfect timing well done Oscar. PR heaven one might say every year we see top A-listers gather at this prestigious event. We start off with the pre show aka the red carpet basically hawk central for anybody watching. Hot and “sound” celebrities gather to show off their Vera Wang’s/John Galliano’s/Tom Ford’s etc…epicentre of style club.How mint were Mila Kunas and Jennifer Laurence huge call out of low-cut dresses. So that Joan Rivers and the likes can have material to propel their shows for a couple of days. Anybody in the PR/ media world will have a representative their taking pics/interviews/vox pops and so on and so forth. The PR circle begins.

We then move onto the show itself, I will put my hand up and say always luved watching the Oscars. I’m a film fanatic and hawker, I have become more so since moving to “Funderland”. Anyone who knows this place I speak of is aware that after the first week bar booze there isn’t too much to do. Hence laptop over use which leads to film watching after Facebook and friends are used up.Derailing.. back to Oscars.

Main event.PR and media frenzy(circle continues) this year we watched James Franco and Anne Hathaway  host. Two moderately attractive people doing a horrific job. But to be fair, play safe Oscar and let Ricki Gervais host everything. What you say? Yes everything that includes cutting Seacrest  and co who should be shot to be fair.“This is American idol banner could be buried with him!!”. Hopefully not too harsh!! Ricky for everything in my opinion!!

Back to the main event, I don’t think there was any upset of note in any of the major categories last night. Oscar usually throws one Seacrest in the works..har har developing an unplanned infatuation with Seacrest! Not this year. Left us down.Happy enough though for Melissa Leo as she previously had gotten screwed over pity about the f***ing speech and Christian Bale who was class to be fair in the Fighter all though I think the role he was given was designed to win an Oscar. Back to PR(land) at this stage they are eagerly awaiting each speech hoping for some cringe worthy material to put in their papers, magz, TV shows etc. Those PR heads who are representing the “celebs” praying they don’t do anything toooo cringeworthy that they have to fix aka Melissa Leo.Max Clifford or Shauna from Entourage prime examples. All in all mighty banter for all involved I would think!

After Party(damage control) aka everybody heads to demented valley. Don’t really know too much about this area but i’m sure an excuse for Puff diddy puffer to show how rich his ego really is. I think Elton John was actually hosting one this year, also congratulations on the baby,touchy subject il leave it go!

PR circle recap:

Mission 1)Red carpet: take pictures/interviews.

Mission 2)Main show: hope someone screws up enough to make a good story.

Mission 3) After party: report back to chief editor/ producer what ever the case maybe….followed by Letterman and friends going to town on the event.

Job done. Oscar you did me proud!!!