Extra Extra!

Thursday afternoon I was updating my status on Twitter when I came across a tweet by @TVAmy that there was a bank robbery in Greenville! With hostages! Now before my Twittering days I definitely would have turned on the TV to follow this story or Googled the crisis to see if a story had been uploaded. Not this time. I watched the Food Network and followed the story unfolding on Twitter. I was updated when authorities arrived, when the situation had been controlled, and when the suspect was arrested. It was fascinating but it made me think about the fact that had I not been tweeting, I would have followed this story on television, if at all. Does this mean that Twitter has the potential to lure users away from watching late breaking news on TV? I think yes. If Twitter had been more than an idea on April 17, 2007, when the shooting tragedy occurred at Virginia Tech people at the scene could have updated from their phones onto Twitter that they were fine but scared, or what was going on minute by minute inside Norris Hall. I think we would have gotten updates much more quickly from people living the tragedy than hearing the same thing over and over which is what we heard on the news. For someone like me who had close friends at Virginia Tech, I was glued to the television for the entire day trying to gain some sort of semblance that my friends were ok. Had we all been on Twitter, they could have tweeted about their experience and updates would have come much more quickly thus easing the minds of many. But, in the same vein would that have caused information overload? Granted, the crisis I was following on Twitter on Thursday was extremely minor in comparison to a crisis of Virginia Tech’s magnitude, but it is something interesting to think about. Does Twitter have the potential to provide all of our breaking news and lead us to watch coverage on TV? Thoughts?

How did this Happen?

Like every other senior in college this year, I am having a very hard time finding that dream job. I know what I want to do (Agency PR), and I suppose it is partially my fault  that  I have not landed anywhere close to that dream job. I am being kind of picky about the location in which pursue my  career goals (between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA) which seems to sort of limit my options. I have been told by those wise ones who have gone before me that I shouldn’t expect my first job to be THE job. While I have applied for many THE jobs, I have also applied for many plain old pay the bills jobs. I have heard back from a few plain old pay the bills jobs and have been unpleasantly surprised with what I have discovered during my interviews with these companies: direct sales and public relations/marketing have become synonyms.

How in the world did direct sales and public relations become one and the same? After my third “public relations/marketing” interview in a row yesterday I got to thinking about the similarities between direct sales and what I have been taught PR and marketing are.

I can see how direct sales and cold-calling to pitch to someone can be considered the same thing because theoretically, they are. When a PR pro calls to pitch to a newspaper a story about the benefit of pop-up campers to budget-savvy travelers, they are essentially asking for the journalist to take time (which equals money) to write about something that they may not have necessarily written about. When a direct salesperson knocks on a business’s door and asks if they would like to upgrade their telephone plan they are asking directly for the business to spend money in a way that they may not have necessarily considered. Both direct sales and PR require an individual to pitch an idea or product to someone else who is not going to be sympathetic to what you have to say. I think the difference that I am having a hard time  with is the fact that in PR your livelihood depends on how well you can be an expert on what your client has to offer while in sales your livelihood depends on how much of what your client has to offer you can sell to other people. I am not a shy person, I have no problem talking your ear off about a great idea you might want to buy into, but I am absolutely terrible at asking for money (surprisingly)!  I was that Girl Scout who only sold cookies to people she knew would buy them so inevitably the only people I ever sold to were my family members.

I suppose in this economy, commissioned sales need and can take all the help they can get and I may just happen to find that I am great at selling to complete strangers and it may become my dream job. But for now I will just have to be patient and let everything play out: I think I am worse a being patient than I am at asking strangers for money. Que sera sera.

Real World PR Re-cap

This past Friday I attended the Real World PR conference, hosted by the Georgia chapter of PRSA. I attended some very interesting breakout sessions about Agency v. Corporate PR and Seal the Deal. I attended a resume review during the third breakout session and it ran a little long and unfortunately by the time I got out of the review, the final session had started and the room was full. Sadness. Luckily, during the final breakout session I got the opportunity to talk with representatives from Atlanta-area companies that were seeking PR interns which gave me a new outlook on my career path- it is OK to accept an internship so long as it furthers your experience. Below I have highlighted some of the main points of the day:

• Opening Session: Social Media & Politics

• Panelists from CNN: Victor Hernandez, Lila King, Jennifer Martin
• The most significant difference in political communication that has occurred in the past four years is the advent of citizen journalism which gives a view into the crowd. CNN iReport has capitalized on citizen journalism by allowing users to post video and commentary in the 1st person regarding breaking news
• Social media is enabling people to connect at a “virtual water cooler”
• User generated content is helpful to news because it can cover every corner of the world.

• Agency or Corporate

• Panelists from both Agency and Corporate PR: Renee Kopkowski, Don Roundtree, Hilary McKean
• Inevitably you will work in both Agency and Corporate PR in some way or another
• It is more valuable to take a job that gets you experience than anything else
• The first 5 years are a huge learning opportunity and it is important to take every opportunity afforded to you.
• Be persistant, trust the big picture. In times like this, it may be helpful to offer services pro-bono in order to get experience

• Seal the Deal-What you Need to Know to Land the Job
• Be able to pipe right up and shake people’s hands
• Be aware of your presence online (NO ONE looks cute being sloppy drunk on Facebook)
• Make sure you don’t have typos ANYWHERE in your resume or cover letter
• Research as much as possible before you interview with a company and come prepared with questions
• Be resourceful and step up once you are hired. People are always watching to see how you are doing!

I am really bummed that I did not get to attend the last two sessions, but I got some great pointers on my resume and I did get some serious face-time with some Atlanta firms that I would really love to work for.

All in all a good day! I hope it helps!

Now, its back to RealWorld Clemson, aka finishing senior year without a hitch

I could be studying…

I have always heard that senioritis hits MUCH harder in college than it does in high school. I never really agreed to that until this week. I have always been able to at least push through and get whatever it is I needed to get done finished at least by the time I went to bed the night before. Not so much the case anymore. I think I have developed a serious physical aversion to studying and I will find every excuse not to study! It doesn’t help that the next two weeks I have midterms and the weather happens to wonderfully gorgeous! I have contemplated residing my house over studying for the test I have today. I suppose that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I did happen to wind up taking a nap while studying and then going to bed at my usual prompt 11pm bedtime. I am not sure if I am prepared for the test that I am taking at 11am, but I do know that I am not going to get any more prepared because just looking at the notes makes me cringe!

I know for a fact I am not the only one with this serious aversion to studying, and from this fact I wonder if there is a market in offering a senioritis support group.  The group could meet and motivate one another to make to-do lists (my fave) and prioritize what needs to be studied and maybe even keep one another on track by studying together….or they could talk about how much studying they have and motivate one another to actually study and then meet Downtown for drinks, which can lead to the need for another support group. Phew! I can see how this can easily turn into a vicious cycle.

On a completely unrelated note, spring break is almost 1 month away!!!!

Brr!!

I woke up this morning to find that there is no hot water in my house. It is 32 degrees outside. BRRRR!!! I almost wish I hadn’t bathed this morning, I think I could have gotten hypothermia.

Today I am meeting with my Capstone advisor to go over my lit review for my senior thesis. I wrote the lit review a year ago so luckily I only had to go back and tweak it, but I did find that I will have to conduct a whole new study than the ony I proposed because my proposed study will take far too long to complete-maybe if I decide to go for my Masters I will do the study… Either way, tweaking my lit review was like pulling teeth!! I have been having a difficult time getting myself into gear this semester, maybe its senioritis, maybe its me secretly trying to prolong my final semester by not doing work, whatever it is, I need to step it up. Any ideas on how to motivate myself?