Special note: This term, I had the pleasure of team teaching this class with Mandy Drakeford, our newest adjunct instructor. So the list is a bit longer than normal (we had 32 students between the two of us). But I hope you’ll take the time to check some of them out.

• Ross Acord – How Should Video Game Developers Respond to Ratings?
• Megan Clarey – The University of Oregon Athletic’s Successful Use of Social Media
• Sam Drake – Creating a Social Media Presence
• Caitlin Estes – Pinning is ‘Nothing but Good’
• Erin Eways – Help Me, Help You
• Marcie Giovannoni – PR: Slowly Shifting From Strategic to Creative?
• Ayni Hailicka – Nonprofits Find Value in New Site
• Joel Keylon –  National Lacrosse League Philadelphia Wings Puts Twitter Handle on Jerseys
• Katie Kis – Behavior Change Made Easy
• Jimmy Kutzer – A Look at Ryan Braun’s Future in Sports Marketing
• Molly Maguire – Facebook – Taking Over the Business World One “Like” at a Time
• Tom Malone – NBA Fit Campaign Proves Successful for League’s Image Boost
• Alejandro Mendoza-Graves – Was Patricia Heaton Really Sorry For Her Offensive Tweet?
• Natalie Nassau – Twitter and PR Similarities
• Danica Nelson – YouTube Political Campaigns
• Jennifer O’Brien – Internships and Nonprofits – The Perfect Couple
• Kelsey Printz – Super Bowl Sunday Creates More Facebook ‘Likes’
• Sarah Raniele – Any Press Is Good Press….Or Is It?
• Chris Ross – Top 5 Reasons to Blog
• Julianne Rowe - What not to do on Twitter
• Nicholas Stevens – Journalism and Social Media Marketing
• Pat Terwilliger – Should Colleges/Employers have access to your facebook account?
• Julia Thompson - How to use social media as a student to boost your career
• Lauren Thompson - How athletes can improve poor social media skills
• Karly Topkis - Make Sure Your CEO Isn’t Digging a Hole
• Cara Tucker – This Social Media Might Be a Little Too Social…
• Rachael Urrutia - Inside the World of Fashion PR
• Jonathan Weiss – Did I Ever Agree To That? 
• Scott Wooley - Gatorade Sponsorship Carries Calculated Risk
• Kristin Zimber - When Not to “Check in” 

Photo via flickr by /dam

Mandy & I have pulled some great links together this week to finish off the blogging assignment with a bang. As always, you can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here.

Govt. agencies, colleges demand applicants’ Facebook passwords (The Red Tape Chronicles) – If you post status updates to “friends only”, you may be asked to reveal them for certain jobs. Do you think this is going too far?

Facebook’s U.S. Growth Slowing, But Twitter’s on a Tear (Mashable) – By 2014, eMarketer predicts Twitter will double in size. Why do you think Twitter is growing and Facebook has hits a plateau?

Managing the Information Avalanche (Harvard Business Review) – We may have unlimited access to tons of information, but that doesn’t mean we can understand all of it. Here’s 5 tips to help you avoid information overload.

Want more respect? Money? Don’t talk content (Ragan) If you’re interested in managing web content in your future career, talk strategy with leaders of an organization, not content.

A Modern Definition of Public Relations (PRSA) The winning PR definition has been chosen. Thoughts?

Dear PR People: Please Stop Letting Celebrities Tweet (Crushable) Are celebrities the only ones who need to be careful what they tweet?

Activists Take Apple Workers’-rights campaign to Facebook (CNN) – With rumors of an iPad 3 launch, activists demand Apple to treat their workers better.

The Skill of the Follow up (Brad Lomenick) –  This post has some great advice. Remember to take initiative and not take lack of response personally. Anything here that resonates with you?

8 Old-School Rules for Gen Y (Inc.com) – Real world tips for working in multi-generational offices. What do you think?

7 Ways to Totally Destroy Your Reputation on Twitter  (AllTwitter) – It’s relatively easy to do. Some advice for avoiding reputation meltdown.

Inviting (Style Bubble) – Paris fashion week designers are sending out some pretty gorgeous invites. Do you think these are worth the time/effort/money? Or just hype?

Here’s our best of’s for the week. As always, you can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here.

NBA Fans to Decide Dunk Contest via Twitter in Most Connected All-Star Weekend Yet (Mashable) — A creative way to engage fans via Twitter and social apps.

The social media measurement smackdown (Ragan) –  “As a social marketer, I can’t measure what I do. I just do it.” Really!? You can, and should, measure social media.

Judge: Jail or Facebook apology (Cincinnati Enquirer) — Do you think this violates free speech rights?

CEO Communications: Five Phrases That Signal “BS” (MarketingProfs) –Phrases you should avoid using.

Lay off the Social Media Experts (BetaBeat) — Interesting commentary on the social media profession.

Burberry to Debut Catwalk Collections via Animated GIFs on Twitter (Mashable) — Burberry gets more creative with second Tweetwalk.

Addicted to a Website Called Pinterest: Digital Crack for Women (The Washington Post) — Can’t stay off Pinterest? You aren’t the only one.

Avoid Social Media Overload: 4 Steps to Take Today (Ragan) — Having trouble executing your social media plan? Use these suggestions.

How Political Campaigns Should Be Using Video in 2012 (AdAge) — What are your thoughts?

9 Ways Students Can Use Social Media to Boost Their Careers (Mashable) — Some useful tips to think about using social media to network and build your career.

Clever or crazy: College student blogs for social media agency to hire him (Ragan) — I say pretty smart. What do you think and why?

Five insanely simple ideas to make your next presentation sizzle (Grow) — These might come in handy in the very near future. What do you think?

photo of Mount Shasta, which was in view as I put this post together, via Flickr from James the photographer

As always, you can learn more info about these “linky loves” and the background on the students’ assignment here.

Desire to tweet stronger than the urge to smoke, drink (Ragan)

Ad Meter: Score one for the baby (USATODAY.com)

Diversity in the PR field: Some progress, though challenges persist (Ragan)

PR Doesn’t Need To Be Objective – Just Ethical (Doug Haslam)

The Fatal Backward Step: Penn State’s Public Relations Catastrophe (American Thinker)

P&G Layoffs Signal Focus on Digital Industry (Jeremiah Owyang)

Airline allows passengers to pick seatmates based on social profiles (Ragan)

5 ways you are sabotaging your PR efforts (Ragan)

Infographic: Internal social media boosts the bottom line (Ragan)

McDonald’s Yanks Radio Ad After Angering Pit Bulls (AdAge)

How can social software get you fired? [infographic] (Tribe HR)

The big PR news in the last week was the Komen crisis:

Karen Handel resignation from Komen prompts social media reaction – latimes.com

In wake of VP resignation, what’s next for Komen? (Ragan)

Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation (Ruder Finn Ethics Blog)

Who really owns the Komen Brand? (PRSA)

Join us as a portfolio reviewer for our Winter term portfolio reviews, scheduled at the Turnbull Center on Friday, March 9th from 9am-5pm.

We need reviewers who can commit to either a morning shift (9-noon), and afternoon shift (1-5) or the whole live long day. Lunch will be provided.

If you’re not familiar with the reviews, here’s the scoop:

The PR Portfolio Reviews are designed to serve as a trial for about-to-graduate Public Relations Majors from the University of Oregon embarking on the search for their first professional job. These students have the opportunity to present key projects and receive valuable feedback from PR professionals on their class work, capstone course client work, internships and professional projects. Reviewers provide an evaluation on individual presentation styles, comments on the portfolio and offer ideas for improvement.

Each reviewer will participate on a panel with two or three professional peers. Each panel will, in turn, see one student per hour over the course of the review process.

Review appointments are 50 minutes long (with 10 minutes of flex time between each appointment). Students provide their panel with a 5 to 10 minute opportunity to review the portfolio, then students will present their portfolio for about 20 minutes. Following the presentation, students leave the room and the reviewers have an opportunity to discuss feedback they would like to give. Students return to the conference room and have the chance to engage with reviewers to learn how they can improve the presentation, the portfolio or both. Reviewers complete an evaluation form during the course of the review.

Thanks for considering! Email me at: kmatthew@uoregon.edu.

Let’s get to the links!

SOPA and PIPA: Let’s Pause and Write Rational Piracy Legislation (Technorati) Think SOPA and PIPA were gone for good? Think again. This is just the start of negotiating rational piracy legislation.

Anonymous Threatens Facebook Shutdown Jan. 28 (Mashable) Could you handle a day without Facebook? Anonymous asks the American people, via YouTube video, to help hack Facebook servers on Jan. 28.

Report: Government officials, CEOs least credible spokespeople to public (PR Daily) Who do you trust to give the most credible information about an organization? Not CEOs or government officials according to the Edelman Trust Barometer.

12 Ads That Changed Super Bowl Marketing (AdAge) What do you think of this list? Are there any ads they left out?

7 Things Nonprofits Should Focus on in 2012 (Razoo) A list of new brand building strategies for nonprofits to explore this year.

Social Media – Part of Your Web Strategy? (SiteProNews) Facebook is “not just teenagers anymore.” How can various industries use Facebook?

Jumping from journalist to social media marketer? 5 things to know (PR Daily) Interesting tips for journalists entering the social media world.

Optimize Your Social Media Schedule. 4 Tips to Avoid the Social Media Time Suck (TopRank Blog) Some advice for you as you’re figuring out how to balance all this SM stuff.

7 Reasons Every Job Seeker Should Blog ({grow}) See? We told you so.

Three Fashion Brands Leveraging Instagram’s API for Marketing Success (Fashionably Marketing Me) I love that fashion brands are often on the forefront of trying new tools. Bergdorf Goodman, ALDO and Levi’s take the leap with Instagram.

Ethical Fashion Show (Europa Regina) Interesting and, apparently, not new. But what does involvement in an ethical fashion show say about your fashion brand? How does it help communicate a company’s values?

Tampa Bay Lightning Fire Mascot Who Was Tackled By Boston Fan (Deadspin) Is the Tampa Bay team taking the right action here?

Listen & Learn: Any social media strategy should begin with listening and learning. It’s very difficult to jump into blogging or tweeting if you don’t know how they work, how other professionals use these tools and what best practices you can take away for our own participation.

Possible strategy/tool: Subscribe to 10 or 15 blogs in your field of interest through a feedreader (ex: Netvibes or Google Reader) and review them daily.

Build Relationships: Your offline networking at industry events or through student associations can, and should, be extended to online. Having a “building relationships” goal in your personal social media strategy can allow you to focus your efforts both in terms of tools (where do those people you want to connect with spend time?) and content (what are those people talking about?).

Possible strategy/tool: Build a Twitter profile, follow at least 30 people in your industry, share related links and news, retweet and mention industry professionals.

Create Great Content: Content comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s not just blog posts or long-ish pieces, but can also be tweets, Facebook updates, video, audio, photography. Focusing on creating great content opens up a great deal of possibility for exploring how various platforms differ in form and function. Every piece of content you create is a potential portfolio piece, after all.

Possible strategy/tool: Establish a blog with an editorial calendar that requires you explore different multimedia formats. Plan on doing a video blog once, or maybe a short podcast with an interview.

Establish Your Reputation: Yes, it is possible to establish your reputation as a young professional, even in a sea of public relations bloggers and twitterers. But your approach to social media needs to be clear (to you) so you can participate with focused intention. This goal may work best if you have some experience in social media and have a sense of what area in PR you’d like to work. It may not be the place to start if you’re just kicking off your social media adventure, but it’s always worth keeping the big picture in mind so you can continue to refine your presence.

Possible strategy/tool: Across your social media profiles, create content and make connections around the topics that you are not only interested in, but have something to contribute. Blog, tweet and post regularly about that content to demonstrate interest and expertise.

Find an Outlet for Self-Expression & Creativity: Social media is fun. It has to be. Why would we all hang out talking about PR all day? I mean, really. Don’t forget to include some “fun” in your social media strategy. Whether it’s music, film, art, photography or fashion, you’ll find niche social networks and social media platforms that allow you to connect with like minds.

Possible strategy/tool: If you’re interested in fashion, join and use Polyvore to create fashion boards, subsequently sharing them on Pinterest and ensuring they’re appropriately tagged and categorized. Connect with like-minded fashionistas on both platforms to share ideas.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of possible goals for personal social media. What are your ideas?

Dear Jonathan,

As the Firm Director of the School of Journalism and Communication’s student-run public relations firm, Allen Hall PR, I wanted to respond to your editorial in the Daily Emerald from January 9 regarding your thoughts on how the public relations and advertising majors do not belong in the School of Journalism and Communication.

While I respect your opinion (you’re not the first person I’ve encountered who found public relations and advertising an odd fit for a journalism school), and I can’t speak for advertising, I ask that you take time to understand the role of effective, honest public relations before denouncing it as unworthy of a school for critical thinkers.

In my experience, public relations and editorial journalism can have a symbiotic relationship. Last summer, I interned in the communications department at Sports Illustrated, a publication that has long been recognized as a leader in sports journalism. Every day, I attended an editorial meeting with the staff of SI.com. I wasn’t producing any of the content, but was responsible for identifying stories that could be well-positioned for social media engagement. SI’s writers were responsible for crafting the stories; SI’s public relations team helped make sure the right eyeballs found those stories, whether that was through news coverage in a major daily paper or through a tweet that sparked discussion among fans.

The role of a PR professional is not limited to media relations, however. The critical thinking skills we learn in our journalism classes help us understand the clients we work for and the customers (or donors or volunteers) they hope to reach. We provide counsel on how to best manage those relationships. When one of our Allen Hall PR clients came to us last year, hoping to increase student involvement with their organization, our team researched, planned and executed an event that not only allowed the client to meet and exceed their goals, but gave UO students an opportunity to express themselves through using sidewalk chalk to beautify the campus quad for an afternoon.

You said you “see the value of advertising and public relations in general.” If that is true, why create a turf war between the J-school’s various majors? The school is equipping all of us with the skills we need to make an impact through communication – whether we go on to be news reporters, social media managers or creative directors.

Respectfully,

Paige Landsem

Firm Director, Allen Hall Public Relations

Feature photo by Kylie Keppler.

You can see other responses to Bowers’ editorial here and here.

Courtney Parks shares some Words to Live By and discusses a great post on Ragan.com about getting the most from a PR major. She ruminates on her own experience and adds to the original author’s advice.

Shannon Sloan in bound for Portland and the SOJC’s Senior Experience program this spring. She shares her hopes, fears and goals with readers in this post: Portland Experience, Here I Come. (Shannon, you will be GREAT!)

Ashley Aronson is one of two students who blogged about event planning (and did so very well!). Ashley shares some advice on Keeping Your Guests Happy. Good advice on some oft-overlooked details.

Lindsay Lake, the other event planner blogger, shares this post - Time to Re-prioritize Your Plan of Events - noting that the event starts well before the event thanks to social media sharing.

Dawn Noufer blogs about delicious adult beverages from a PR perspective. I liked this post a lot – Hip Hop & Liquor: An Affair to Remember. Product placement in music is such a weird concept.

Aundria Hanset-Clark didn’t focus on the beverage industry, generally, but had this post – How Much Wodka Vodka Did They Drink? – about a marketing misstep by a Vodka company who thought it was being funny.

Students (like the rest of us) have been interested in the Penn State crisis from a communications perspective. Mostly, they had questions (like the rest of us) and, as young professionals, imagined what it would be like to represent the university at such a time.

Austin Clark’s post, Joe’s Woes, asking if it’s possible for Joe Paterno to leave any kind of positive legacy with the way his career ended.

Joe Schiller’s So Long JoePa breaks down Joe Paterno’s apparent role and also wonders about a solution.

Gun Kang offers some pretty solid crisis management advice to Penn State in his post From Linebacker U to Pedophile U.

Related, but on a much different note, Rachel Gehr looks at Ashton Kutcher’s decision to hand his account over to his social media team after his “mistweet” about Penn State firing Joe Paterno. Rachel’s post, With 8 Million Followers It’s Important to Know the Whole Story, is rightfully critical of Kutcher’s decision.

Darby Rousseau blogged about politics this term and specifically about the GOP nomination horse race. Her post, The Rise of Newt, looks at … well, the rist of Newt Gingrich. Will Newt’s performance in the debates and public appearances help people forgive his political baggage? We shall see.

Antonia Gomez added her perspective to a Ragan.com post on PR lessons learned from cartoon characters. Like me, she’s a fan of How To Train A Dragon and her post What Dragons, Monsters and Dogs All Have in Common shares some lessons learned from that movie and a couple of others.

Kathryn Beck shares her review of Seth Godin’s The Dip by way of a personal “survival” story.

Micaela Sicroff blogged about hospitality PR and her post, The Increasing Importance of Social Media in the Hotel Industry, shares some tips and observations.

A few students posted about a recent study on sarcasm. I was intrigued by Katherine Allred’s title, To Tear Flesh Like Dogs, and her observations.

One of the class’ fashionistas, Allie Hawes shared how first-person perspectives of fashion week events are changing the way brands communicate in Fashion Week from Yours Truly.

I found Tracy Reiss’ perspective on this post, Presentations and Social Media, so interesting and very different than the reaction many of my friends and colleagues had to the original about how social media is changing presentations. Most people said social media made it scarier to present at conferences or events. Tracy, who is, by her own account, a nervous presenter, took the opposite view.

Lots of students blogged about the Kardashians in some form (and many of the posts were very good). I thought Erin Kelley’s post, Petite Fashion, was a nice take on this theme about the work of a fashion publicist to promote the fashion choices of a toddler.

Olivia Johnston opened my eyes to an interesting task and time management system in her post, Food for Thought. As an aside, Olivia also had among the best headlines all term.

Hannah Longo’s posts were about PR from a “newbie” perspective. Her post, A Trip Down Easy Street Provided By Career Centers, is a good reminder to students of all the amazing resources available.

That’s it! If you are a student (or a reader) and had another favorite from the term, I’d love to hear about it.

For JSchool students, dead week is often the most jam packed of the term. Presentations and final projects are often due during the last week of the term. My classes are no different. I don’t often give final exams and my students have presentations, final papers and team projects due… sorry.

It hasn’t been that long since I was a student and certainly I have weeks that require additional focus and fortitude. Here are my five tips for surviving (and maybe even thriving) week’s like this:

1. Organize: For me, it’s a brain dump. Literally getting everything out on paper that’s running around in my head. I like unlined paper and adding in little doodles. I’ve learned I’m not a very linear thinker, so this works for me. But if you’re a list maker, go with that. Note: Don’t try to start a new system in the heat of the battle.
2. Prioritize (a.k.a. Pick Your Battles): Whoa! that’s quite a list you have there, eh? And not enough hours in the day, you say? Figure out what’s most important. You can look at which assignments/projects carry the greatest weight, for example. Or which projects are due first. Estimating the time each will take can help figure out how the puzzle fits together. You have to go back to the list every day. Priorities can change, but keeping your eye on the big picture will help you stay focused through the week.  And at the end of the day, you may have to make choices about what you can and can’t do.
3. Get enough sleep: All nighters are not good for your brain or your overall health. How many people do you know who get the “finals week flu” (that cold/flu feeling exhaustion that comes once your body can let down its defenses)? Try to get 6 – 8 hours of sleep. You’ll find you’re more productive and sharper than if you try to work into the wee hours of every night.
4. Eat a balanced diet: Red bulls and Doritos are are not a balanced diet. Eat enough fruits and veggies, along with enough protein for your brain to function. It’s important! For real.
5. Treat yourself when it’s over: At the end of the week, know that you worked hard. Damn hard. Treat yourself. Whether it’s a spa treatment (pedicures, for the win!), some retail therapy or drinks with friends to celebrate your collective success, don’t forget to celebrate your accomplishments.

What do you do to survive your own dead week? I’d love to hear!

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