Teaching PR

I've been tagged by Lauren Vargas to participate in the crazy 8 for 2008 meme. As she points out, a similar meme made the rounds last summer, so I've decided to take the Gary Schlee route, although I'm sure my list won't sound as mysterious as did his. (And Gary, can I point out that this one is also going around at the start of a semester? Don't worry, I'll leave you alone this time.)

1. Munising, Michigan
2. kiddie lit
3. 1996 women's Olympic soccer (football) gold medal match
4. Buckeyes
5. Edinburgh and Honolulu
6. American Camping Association
7. McDonald's
8. Queen

My tags go to my Word-of-Mouth Communication class, meeting for the first time tomorrow... even though they don't have blogs yet.

Labels: meme

Both Lauren Vargas and Kevin Dugan tagged me for this latest meme on media snacking-- you may recall the first time I got tagged, I was so excited I actually used an exclamation point (!), so you can imagine how being tagged twice went over-- but I'm sorry to report that snackers won't get much help here.

As several others have mentioned, I do include my Twitter feed on my blog, and I suppose the Week's Best for PR Students could be considered an aid to snackers, but for the most part I make my readers read. Guess it's the teacher in me. ;-)

Kaye Sweetser, Gary Schlee, Christine Smith, Bob Batchelor, Greg Smith, and Kelli Matthews, you've been tagged.

Labels: blogging, meme

I noticed in the last few days that the Friendly Ghost and Gerry McCusker both posted about dropping blogs from their blogrolls, FG because he thought it was a cheap way to get included in other peoples' statistics and Gerry, if I understood him right, because other people hadn't linked to his blog. This got me to thinking about why I spent so much time working on my blogroll last summer (beyond pure procrastination).

Last year Mike Sansone described a number of purposes for a blogroll: listing others who are part of your community, indicating commonality, extending your conversation outward. "Let your blogroll be a benefit to your audience," he suggests. I do recall when I first started reading blogs, whenever I found one I liked I always clicked through the blogroll in hopes of finding others I liked. Certainly a benefit.

On reflection, I'd say my blogroll has a number of different purposes, but it's mostly geared toward students (mine and others, maybe those at schools where social media isn't being taught yet). The PR pros section highlights blogs I think students can especially benefit from reading. The New Voices section introduces them to blogs written by students and other young PRs--but I also want to promote the ones who aren't well-known in the blogosphere (yet). The educators section is more for the community-building side of things... there aren't very many of us. And the Grady Blog Dawgs section highlights other Grady faculty who are blogging -- some of the alumni who read my blog might be interested in these as well.

The problem is in keeping it updated -- so many times I've added a blog's RSS feed to my aggregator but forgotten to add it to my blogroll; Constantin's failure to update the PR list that I depend on to find new blogs; not deleting a link to someone who's not posting anymore. (You notice how I slipped in that it's really all Constantin's fault.) But it doesn't "benefit my readers" if it's not up-to-date. Maybe Friendly and Gerry will ignite a "weeding out my blogroll" meme!

Labels: blogging, meme, students

Josh Hallett has posted on "That Blogging Less Meme," when it seemed like everyone was posting about how they weren't going to be posting or explaining why they hadn't been posting at all lately. I didn't keep track of them, but I recall that Robert Scoble, John Wagner, and just today Joe Thornley posted about it -- in addition to Josh.

Our Spanish-speaking PR friends have been talking about maintaining the motivation to keep a blog. Octavio Rojas, of Weber Shandwick in Madrid, says that maintaining a blog is like writing a love letter: you have to be truly passionate for it to work. And Fernanda Grimaldi, a PR instructor in Argentina, has offered one solution: she's committing to 10 minutes a day.

As for me, I just keep plugging away. :-)

Labels: blogging, meme

I've been blogging for 16 months now, and for the first time, I'VE BEEN TAGGED! Most everyone else, as far as I can tell, considers it a burden to take part in these silly memes. Me, I'm thrilled. I'm off the bench and in the game. Thanks, Kelli and Nedra. :-P

8 Random Facts

1. I own a baseball signed by Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Steve Avery, and Kent Mercker -- the starting pitchers of the 1995 World Champion Atlanta Braves. And I still have the ticket stubs to games 1 and 2. (I also saw Bob Horner hit 4 homers in a game in 1986).
2. I adore Audrey Hepburn and watched all but two of her movies in one summer (couldn't find 'em).
3. I used to be a foster parent for dogs and still support Athens Canine Rescue.
4. I love R.E.M. and once "accidently" touched Michael Stipe's back at a film festival here in Athens. I've seen them all in person around town and in concert in 3 states.
5. I have a ticket to the NCAA gymnastics championships next year (how 'bout them Gymdogs!?!).
6. I own a single share in the Green Bay Packers. I have attended shareholder meetings on the glorious (not frozen) tundra of Lambeau Field. But I've never seen a game there.
7. I was president of my sorority and had big '80s hair.
8. I will read anything.

Now I get to tag a few people. No surprise, they're other PR educators: Kaye Sweetser, Tim Penning, Bill Sledzik, Les Potter, Gary Schlee, Ross Monaghan, Fernanda Grimaldi, and Lauren Vargas.

Labels: meme