Katie Boland

My blog has been sitting static for almost a year.  Pretty sad, right?  I can’t believe I let it get this bad. I still read a lot blogs, attend local events and remain very active on my twitter account, but I have kinda lost my way.

I am been dreading writing this post, so much that I wrote it in July, but never actually posted it.

The original point of my blog was to write about my journey to becoming a  public relations professional and once I achieved what I  set out to do, I stopped writing. There were multiple reasons why this happened… I was scared, didn’t want to get criticized for my opinion. I thought it was better to not say anything at all, rather than argue over what I believed was true or not.  But also, I have been dealing with a clash of how to behave in this online transparent, should I be completely professional (but not a true reflection of myself) or competing uncensored.  I think I might find my place half way in between both.

I’m an not the only PR Student blogger that has lost their way while transitioning from a PR Student to a PR Professional (granted these references were from when I originally wrote this post..but these were student bloggers who started writing at the same time as me), such as  Meg Roberts at PR Interactive and Nick Lucido at PR Start have who expressed their own difficulties about making this change.

But here I am. I am ready to start writing again… going forward my blog will discuss being a young PR professional, social media, communication theory, exploring my love of film, or whatever direction I decide to take.

New Year, New Direction.

This weekend, Kelly Rusk and I ventured up to Toronto for the third annual Podcamp Toronto. Overall, it was a blastly blast.  Even though I am not a podcaster currently, I am still a podcast listener and potential podcaster (if I get over my fear of it.)

If you are unfamiliar with the “camp” concept, it is 100% free, volunteer, sponsor-supported “unconference” where many of the presenters are attendees of the various sessions.  I believe the camp concept started with Barcamp and has now spread for multiple other interests even Cupcakecamp.

I think it is very important for students to take advantage of events like this either attending or volunteering.

Why?

• It is a free way to take advantage of our amazing Canadian talent and learn from these individuals.

• All attendees of these events are very open to meeting new people and learning from each other (meaning – they aren’t scary).

• Lastly, you are the only one  not benefiting from not attending.

So what did I learn? What value did I get?

• I got to see a presentation from Chris Brogan, a speaker, blogger, president of New Marketing Labs, whose humourous casual presentation was straight-forward and honest about how to use social media for yourself, your company or your client.

• I got to meet handfuls of podcasters and bloggers who I have now become even more jealous of their talent and expertise that I am thinking about what I could bring or what I could share. Some of these people were, Dave Fleet, Sean Power, Eden Spodek, Jay Moonah, David Jones and Amber Naslund.

• I met many other students who shared similar interests and professional drive as me. We got to know each other either at the podcamplunch or podcamp after party.

All and all I had an amazing time at podcamp toronto. Thank you for all you that make that possible, you have inspired me to continue pursuing my personal goals!

This past week, Bob Ledrew, Cait Lafleche and I spoke at an IABC Senior Communicator’s dinner to discuss youth and social media. Many issues arose during our discussions, but one in particular has stuck with me. With our current media landscape, people are always under surveillance from pictures at a party to a comment on a Myspace page and all of it being documented. I understand this now as I begin my journey as a public relations practitioner on how important my activities can be for my own personal brand and the company I work for in the future.

However, I still have a hard time with this because I grew up using different types of social media and it shaped part of my identity especially when I was young girl confused and unsure of my future. I remember using ICQ when I was in high school and pretending to be the other Katie Boland, the actress from Zack Files, because at that time I wanted to be an actress and I didn’t understand what I was doing could be wrong. Or the personal entries I wrote in my livejournal for over six years and how it kept me close with my best friends despite being in different cities.

All these things are true and they shaped the person I am today, and I have a hard time if an employer would judge me on my behaviour when I was nineteen and the person I loved broke my heart. I have grown a lot in the last few years, and I know that how you handle things can be a true reflection of who you are, but I think judging people solely on things that may have happened a few years ago is not fair, especially for someone my age. When you are young, a lot changes in a year.

Many people have their opinions about this, what do you think? What is fair game for employers to judge recruits on?

Today LinkedIn announced the use of applications on the social networking tool for business practitioners allowing them to further engage their growing audience. Right now there is only nine applications, but remember how fast facebook applications grew, it shouldn’t be long before new applications pop up.

The nine applications are:

- Amazon Book Lists – share your book lists with your colleagues

- SlideShare Presentations/Google Presentations – share presentations from trade shows and conferences

- Blog Link/Wordpress – connect your blog to your LinkedIn profile

- Huddle Workspaces - Collaboration and sharing tools to share with your connections

- Box. net files - manages files through your LinkedIn profile

- TripIt - see where your LinkedIn network is traveling

- Company Buzz Application that collates all twitter feeds on your company name into the LinkedIn application

Short informative post. Here are two things you should do this week.

1. Attend Ottawa’s Third Tuesday event, where Niall Cook, author of Enterprise 2.0 will be discussing how social media will change the way we work. This Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008 @ Fresco Cielo,  354 Elgin Street, 2nd floor @ 7pm

2. Register for Canada’s Do Not Call list from the CRTC to stop telemarketers from calling!

One thing neat about social media is all services and applications growing everyday. One that I am completely jealous of is mint.com. It is a personal free money management service, however it is only available for Americans, or anyone with an American bank account. Maybe it is because I need something like this right now because I am a poor student, but I think it is truly a great service that many of the banks should be taking advantage of.  It does really neat things like making charts of where you spend your money. You can make budgets and it can alert you if you are getting close to your budget. As well as many other neat things. Maybe if I had something like this early in my education, I might not be so poor.

Over a week ago, CPRS Ottawa-Gatineau held their conference “Take a leap from good to great.” Many Ottawa public relations practitioners took the time off work to learn from the experiences of their peers about the ongoing changes within their profession.  Having worked on the planning committee since November, it felt good to see all our hard work so well received. Everyone was very impressed by the speakers, the atmosphere, the volunteers, and the overall day.

Given the responsibility of volunteer coordinator excited me, but also scared me.  I knew I could handle it, but my work was still dependent on others. I was very happy that my volunteers pull through and were completely on point. I believe I have told them over and over, but they really made me proud.  I was very happy to see volunteers from all three academic institutions, Carleton University, University of Ottawa and Algonquin College.

Although I was running around a lot, I did get to enjoy some sessions. Many speakers were dealing with the devil that is social media and how they as PR practitioners handled it and what worked. But also, many speakers emphasized that other media should not be ignored, given that the average Canadian is not using these tools as much as TV, or the newspaper.  I think before investigating social media, you need to really understand if you target audience is using it, and what is the best way to reach them. Also, what are you trying to gain out of it.

Moreover, this conference helped me realized my potential. Getting told by senior level practitioners that I am awesome and driven, really meant a lot. It shows me that the messages I am trying to communicate to them are being received.

If you are a student wanting to get involved, try to discover what you would like to do in public relations, then try your best to show potential employers that you are capable of doing it. Never take no for an answer, just find another way to get where you want to be.

All and All, it was time well spent.

Social media tools are becoming an every day aspect for some public relations pratitioners. Becoming familiar with these tools could set you apart from the large amount of graduates that Ontario colleges are pumping out yearly.

Joseph Thornley and Chris Clarke have both wrote about the importance of these tools for PR students.

Every week I plan on introducing various social media tools for my fellow students to encourage more students to get informed.

Tool # 1 Canuck PR Toolbar

The toolbar includes a directory and an RSS reader with newsfeeds from many Canadian PR and marcom blogs and it’s free. This is a easy way to start reading PR blogs because they are right at the top of your browser. Also, the toolbar has resources for PR professionals

PR professionals are requesting new PR students to be aware of the social media tools available that they utilize on a daily basis. Therefore, it wont hurt to play around with it. Reading the blogs of the employers you want to work for can give you an idea what they are looking forward and build up a relationship until you are ready to look for a job. Plus, most bloggers will post job opportunities on thier blogs before sending out job ads.

Check it out, tell me what you think.

As announced on Bob LeDrew’s flacklife early this morning, I won a copy of Joe Jaffe’s book Join the Conversation from my comment about students and social media on Bob’s blog.

I am very excited about this. Not only do I visit Chapters monthly to look over the various public relations and cultural studies books, but I really enjoy reading them in my spare time. Over the recent months I have been looking for a book to explain more about this blog-o-sphere… but haven’t found much other then how to blog for business.

Ever since my Carleton University Mass Communication days have been trying to get students involved in various areas. I look as this as a challenge to continue to making blogging and social media a daily habit and to encourage my fellow students to as well. I am sure Rayanne can remember me nagging her to start a blog and to pursue public relations in our last year at Carleton.  I hope I can fulfill Bob’s objectives when creating this challenge in the first place. I give you all the power to nag me if I do not succeed in this. That being said, I will be trying my best to impress him!

In other news, I have been thinking about topics to write on this blog to make it more appealing that random rantings from a student.  I have decided to introduce small social media tools that I have come to use and rely on over the last year and hopefully some students will be able to read this and learn from it.

I am not considering myself a pro-star in any way.  But I think it is the little things you learn along the way that can help you get really far. You never know if you attend that event who you are going to meet and where that is going to take you. If I can get you to the event, that would make me happy to know that there is a greater possibility for you to reach your goal.