There will be a lag from the time of the sessions that I attend to the time the information shows up here on Public Relations Matters. I want to use my time there to connect face-to-face with many of the participants and speakers that I have “known” via social media over the years, rather than being tied to a computer/tablet screen.

Image Credit: "Why Aren't You Blogging?" by Mike Licht

Students in my Social Media for PR & Journalism class at Southeastern University have started adding content to their blogs for the semester. Please take a look and see what they’re up to. And drop a comment or two! They’d love to hear from you.

• Colburn, Liz
• Flumerfelt, Taylor
• Garza, Adrian
• Herrman, Ben
• Laflam, Rachel
• Liette, Mikelle
• Meade, Emily
• Olinger, Jenna
• Oliveira, Debbie
• Roe, Jordyn
• Shea, Ryan
• Thevin, Andrew
• White, Kyla
• Winstead, Jessica

Image Credit: "21:365 :: Stack of Social Media Trade Books" by Barbara B. Nixon

One of our assignments in our Social Media for PR & Journalism class this semester is for you to read and review a trade book on social media. In class, you will choose a Social Media Trade Book; it’s first come, first served, so if you know which book you want now, “claim” your book by providing a comment below. If there’s a trade book not on the list that you want to review, just let me know.

Due Week 10 (the week after Spring Break), your book review will take the form of a five-minute presentation in class. For your presentation, create a professional-looking PowerPoint presentation of no more than ten slides. Rely more on images to tell your story than bullet points. (We’ll discuss more in class about how not to create a “Death by PowerPoint” slidedeck.)

Your presentation should include:

• Opening slide should include an image of the book’s cover
• Short bio of the author(s) of the book (perhaps with a photo of the author)
• What did you learn by reading this book?
• What surprised you in this book?
• What do you want to learn more about, now that this book has piqued your interest?
• Would you recommend other students to also read this book? Why or why not?

Optional:

• Consider uploading your book review to SlideShare and embedding the slides in your blog.
• If you’re using Twitter, search for the authors of your book there and connect with them. You may be surprised how willing most of them are to reply to you when you @ them.
• Leave a comment about your thoughts on the book on the author’s blog.
• Post a review of the book on the book’s page at Amazon.com.

(PS: If you prefer to listen to your book, rather than read it, you may be able to choose your title as a free option at the Audible website, thanks to Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty.)

Bookmarks to sites mentioned in the presentation are listed in my Diigo (social bookmarking) account.

Image Credit: "WordPress Swag" by Elea Chang

One form of writing for digital media is blogging. You will add content to your blog weekly throughout the semester. Feel free to continue to use an existing blog of yours, unless you feel compelled to start fresh with a new blog for this course.

My WordPress 101 post will help you get started with your blog.

To make it easier for your readers to find what they are seeking at your blog, it’s important to use Categories. Please add a category for each type (listed below), and make sure each post is categorized appropriately. Each post for this class must have the category of “COMM 2322″ along with at least one additional category.

1. TOW: Topic of the Week – Each week this semester, we will have a specific topic that all students will blog about. You should have at least 13 of these before the end of the semester. At times, you will watch a video, listen to a podcast, or read a specific blog post, and provide your thoughtful reactions. These posts must be a minimum of 300 words. We’ll keep our running list of TOWs for your class here at my blog (TOWs for Writing for Digital Media).

2. Writer’s Choice – Provide commentary, reflections and opinions about issues/examples that were not addressed in class. These can be responses to other blogs you read, links to interesting posts or articles, embedded YouTube videos, etc. Some students like to choose a theme (such as entertainment or sports PR) and have each Writer’s Choice be related to the theme. Though these don’t have a minimum word length, you will need to adequately discuss your subject in the post. You should write at least 10 of these during the semester.

3. Blog comments – whenever you comment on someone’s blog (whether it’s a professional or a fellow student), add the comment to ONE post that you update throughout the semester so I can assess your online participation. Check with me if you unsure if a blog would count as a “professional” blog. You should have a minimum of 10 comments by your Blog Checkpoint #2 and at least 20 (total) before the end of the semester. See Tracking Your Blog Comments for Nixon’s Classes for more information.

You may add other categories and sub-categories of your choice. Please keep in mind that when I evaluate your blog I will pay special attention to the categories listed above, but I will not ignore other posts. I will perform a holistic evaluation of your blog, looking for:

• professionalism: Clear, correct, thoughtful writing
• frequency: Sufficient posts in categories 1-3, posted throughout the semester. There will be at least two graded blog checkpoints during the semester. (See your syllabus for the specific Blog Checkpoint dates.)
• linking: Identify other blogs (use PR Open Mic or my blogroll in my Diigo bookmarks as starting points) and link to them. Respond to others’ posts. Become a part of the blogosphere. Blogging should not be lonely.
• readability: brief & concise writing style, use of white space, bold characters, images, bullet points
• proper credit and use of images in all Topics of the Week and PR Connections. (Use Compfight to find your images; be sure they are licensed for Creative Commons use. I’ll show you how to do this in class.)

SUPER-IMPORTANT: In order for you to get credit for your blog, I need to know where it is. Tell me your blog address by completing this Google Form.

Questions? Just let me know.

NOTE: Many thanks to Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu at Purdue University, who allowed me to use her blogging guidelines from her PRinciples class. They were so well-written that I made just a few tweaks for my own class. Dr. V knows that Blogs Matter.

Bookmarks to sites mentioned in the presentation are listed in my Diigo (social bookmarking) account.

Image Credit: "Round Bales" by Patrick Henson

WHAT: An eight-week series of challenges to help keep PR & social media skills honed over the summer months. Examples of challenges

• Take photos & create an online slide show of your 20 best images
• Read and review a book on social media (perhaps even creating a narrated PPT/prezi)
• Interview one or more PR/social media pros
• Create (or revamp) your LinkedIn profile
• Create a digital portfolio

WHO: Designed for college students interested in the fields of public relations and social media

WHERE: All online, at our Posterous site

WHEN: June 5 – July 30, 2011

HOW: Visit our Posterous site, leave a reply and your Social Media Summer Camp Counselors will get back with you with more details