As most of us have learned in our public relations educations, and our subsequent careers, public relations is a strategic marketing discipline, and one of the four components of the promotional mix, along with advertising, promotions, and personal selling (i.e., sales force). Furthermore, marketing is a core business function. So why, pray tell, is public relations still primarily taught at the university level as a major within communications or journalism schools, and not as a business school major, a la marketing? This, my friends, remains one of the biggest disconnects between academia and Corporate America when it comes to our esteemed profession, and it is adversely impacting the prospects of recent graduates when they enter the workforce to embark on their respective PR careers.

Now, to be clear, I am not criticizing any of the fine undergraduate or graduate public relations programs which exist today, including the excellent curriculum taught at Auburn University. However, I am stating that that these programs often fall short in completely preparing their students for the real world because there is typically insufficient emphasis on additional marketing courses, as well as classes covering other core business functions, such as accounting, finance, organizational management, economics, business law, supply chain management and logistics, and strategy. This could be for any number of reasons, including poor curriculum design, lack of cohesion with the business school, or simply a failure to recognize the need.

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Janet Johnson has posted on a very interesting topic over at Marqui. It’s about the dangers that face naive kids (early and mid-teens) as they venture into the world of blogging and social networks. She’s has also asked Forward to shed some light on this subject.

Many parents have very real fears about the new forms of social media that are becoming a force in today’s world. Their children spend hours online; chatting on AIM, building profiles on MySpace and Facebook, and blogging. The biggest concern for parents is online predators who have access to a wealth of information that is being posted by kids. They post pictures of themselves, fill out an “about me” section, list their interests, favorite movies, TV shows, music and more.

So what kind of advice can we offer parents as people who know our way around blogs and social networks? What should these parents tell their kids about posting personal information? What experiences have we had, that will shed light on how to handle unwanted contact from strangers? How can we help parents have peace-of-mind about blogging and social networks, so their kids can learn how to utilize these new tools?

I’ll kick this off with a few things that I would tell my children:

• Do not post cell phone numbers, street address, screenames or anything else that could be used as method for contacting you.
• (This one is mostly for girls) DO NOT post pictures of yourself from the beach, the pool or any other place wearing a bikini or bathing suit!
• If someone contacts you that you don’t know in real life, do not respond, and come tell me.
• Do not post anything sexual on your profile. And don’t fill out any sexually suggestive surveys on MySpace.
• Be careful about posting personal thoughts or feelings in a blog post.
• I would look at my kids profile with them. I would look at their “friends list” and make sure I knew who they were talking to. I would also check their “comments wall” and messages to see what they were talking about. Again, I would do all of these things with my child.

That was a start, but I’m sure there are many more…

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A lot of college students go on trips for Spring Break.  Some of those will come back with tattoos.  Will that hurt them when it comes time to apply for a job?  I wrote a little bit about it at my own blog:

I raise the question, should an organization penalize (not hire) someone for something they did when they were 18 or 19 years old?… I think it depends on the situation.  …

…All I am saying is BE CAREFUL. The decisions we make today may have a great impact later in life.

(You can read all my thoughts here.)

I am curious what everyone else thinks about the issue.

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Last Thursday I sat in on an audio conference hosted by Bulldog Reporter in which an esteemed panel of bloggers discussed: “Blogger PR: The New Rules for Pitching, Tracking & Leveraging Your Relationships with Nontraditional Online Journalists.” Amongst the panel attendees were the following: Shel Israel, Alice Marie Marshall, Tom Foremski, and Jeremy Pepper.

One of the biggest takeaways from the audio conference that all of the panelists seemed to agree on was the fact that you’ve got to read and understand the blog you’re interested in before you pitch it. When you do send a pitch – keep it short, sweet, and to-the-point. Amongst an additional variety of tips discussed were, don’t include a blogger in an email blast, don’t email them over and over, and by all means necessary – don’t call them to make sure they received your email. With that said, be sure to check out this resource from Jeremy Pepper discussing how PR people can better work with bloggers, titled; Blogging Relations Case Study: Nokia Gets It Right.

Before I jumped on the Bulldog conference call I was brainstorming a number of different ways to help PR people with tips on how to approach a blogger, as opposed to a traditional online journalist. At first I couldn’t find too many differences between the two - approaching them both is very similar in strategy. Whether you’re dealing with a blogger or a journalist you still need to consistently read their articles, you still need to keep your pitches on topic, and you still need to act as an informational resource. Then it simply occurred to me, one of the biggest differences I see between a blogger and a journalist is the fact that bloggers open up their personality much more in their content. For example, Tom has blogged about taking some time off and relaxing with his kids, Jeremy has talked about his favorite movies and food, and Shel has discussed the excitement he has in releasing his new book. When I come across an article from a traditional online journalist, I see much less of the personality side of the person and more so the facts and story at hand.

Point is, with bloggers sharing so much personal information on their blog (I do it too) – the window for relating to them on a more personal level is much bigger than that of an online traditional journalist. Whether you want to use this personal information to break the ice and leverage a relationship with the blogger is up to you, but the fact is that it’s there. If you’re looking to build a relationship with a blogger for the long haul than this information may be useful to you to help break the ice with them, but if you’re looking for a quick blog hit for a client – forgetaboutit. All I ask is that if you are going to use a bloggers personal information to reach out to them – do so because you sincerely want to build a relationship with this person, not because you have an upcoming launch you want them to cover (for example). While blogger engagement is a tough one to figure out, a few things I have come to realize is that you need to be honest and genuine, or better yet – just be you.

Blake Barbera is an Assistant Account Executive with the Horn Group, Inc. in San Francisco, California, and is the author of Wet Feet PR – a blog discussing public relations from an entry level standpoint.

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Former head of FEMA Michael Brown just finished up his interview with Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. The question is, did he gain any ground in rebuilding his reputation by going on the show? The answer is probably not.

At the beginning of the interview, Colbert asked Brown, if he wasn’t to blame, who was? Brown responded by basically throwing his hands in the air as if to say, “anybody but me!” Brown also said he decided to stop taking the blame for FEMA’s criticized response because he wanted to “tell the truth”, and subsequently said he had been complaining for two years about things that needed to be changed, and nobody did anything. Brown did not take any responsibility tonight, which is crucial to rebuilding trust.

In addition, I believe he failed at getting across some key messages when asked about his qualifications for the top job at FEMA. In a roundabout way, he discussed his previous emergency management experience, but it should have been a major crutch of his answer as soon as Colbert brought it up. Brown also went right along with Colbert when asked about his questionable e-mails, describing what kind of martini he wanted when he said he’d rather be golfing and drinking a martini than handling the recovery efforts. Brown spent way too much time describing the drink, giving the savvy Colbert more than enough ammunition to keep the punches coming.

Brown seemed unprepared for Colbert’s questions, and seemed to stumble a few times with his answers. I am not attempting to take this show too seriously, but when you’re in the position that Michael Brown is in, and you’re trying to repair a damaged reputation, this is not the way to do it. I personally found him less likeable after the interview than I did earlier. There is a way to play along with the humor of the Colbert Report and still get your message across. Brown did not do either of those two things very well tonight.

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The story of the sports world is George Mason University’s run to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament. Mason, an 11 seed, defeated 1 seed UCONN in what some are calling the greatest upset in NCAA Tournament history. The Patriots have become the darlings of the sports media and the biggest Cinderella story in years. So how can the university capitalize on its basketball team’s “15 minutes” of fame?

What does Mason need to do to utilize its new found notoriety to raise attendance, bring in new boosters and get out its message about the quality of its school? What type of campaign can it put together to reach out to potential students and draw them to Mason? Should it create commercials, put up billboards, take out ad space in the Washington Post, create a MySpace page, start a blog or use some other form of new media…? As always, these are just a few of the things that you could think about.

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It’s only been a short while since I’ve left University, and I’m already missing it.

I’ve recently been considering what it would be like to be back in my first lecture, knowing everything I do know.

I thought I’d share some of my thoughts here. If you’re a current (or prospective) PR student, hopefully it will help you out. If you’ve left Uni recently, or a while ago, I’m sure there will be a bunch of tips you can add.

Here’s a short list of things I’d do if I was back at Uni.

• Read a quality newspaper every day.

Reading a good newspaper each day increases your knowledge of news writing/editing and broadens your general knowledge. Reading regularly will allow you to become familiar with news writing style, and increase your ‘news sense’ - it’ll give you an idea of what is newsworthy. As Harold Burson has pointed out – it’s important for PR professionals to be ‘in the know’. The best way to do this is by reading widely. If you read a paper every day you’ll be exposed to a wide variety of ideas, information and opinions.

• Get involved in the blogosphere

PR Students have never before had the opportunity to learn so much from industry professionals. For example, last year while researching my dissertation I found Shel Holtz’s textbook to be a key resource. Now, in the blogosphere, I can read Shel’s work every day, engage him via comments, and listen to him for an hour twice a week. This opportunity to learn from the ’stars’ of the profession is unique and remarkable.

The best way to get involved is to start reading the feeds from a variety of blogs. Once you’re familiar with the style, start commenting. I can also point you in the direction of a great site where you may be able to contribute articles .

• Undertake a variety of work experience

As a student you have an opportunity to undertake work experience with a wide variety of PR departments and agencies. I did a fair bit of work experience, but I would have liked to have done more. I’m glad that I experienced a number of different organizational cultures before starting full-time work. You’ll find that your network of contacts will grow rapidly by doing work experience. It will also help you work out what you want to do – something I know (from experience!) young PR’s agonize over.

• Get involved on campus

The experiences you can have in student organizations will enrich your time at uni and can teach you valuable skills for the workforce. You’ll learn how to work in teams, you may get some experience managing a group of people, and it’ll do wonders for the development of your communication skills.

• Take some time to party

Uni should be the time of your life. You can make some friendships that will last a lifetime, and that will no doubt help you out later in life. Heck, you’re even likely to meet your future life-partner. (I hope that’s not completely true – because I didn’t have much luck!)

I’m extremely interested to see what everyone can add to this list. I’m particularly keen to see what people who’ve been out of Uni for a while think. If you’re still a student now – let us know what you’re enjoying at the moment.

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One of the great things about Forward is that it connects people from around the globe — so we’ve created a Frappr map just for the sheer fun of visually illustrating where all of our contributors and readers are located. I encourage you to add yourself to our map. We’d love to know where you’re coming from!

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I came across an incoming link to Forward today that I thought I’d highlight. It came from a post at Andrea Weckerle’s blog, New Millennium PR. Andrea put together a post that intriguingly eluded giving link love (loosely defined: the sharing of links to up a site’s popularity), and offered a witty write-up on a new blog that is creating a lot of recent buzz in the blogosphere.

Because I know a lot of our readers are new to this medium, I’m afraid I can’t successfully be as sly as Andrea, so I’ll spell it out: it’s a new blog called Strumpette that seems to be flirting its way to fame.

Robert French has a good, comprehensive post about it here. In it, he notes

The worst aspects of PR and Word-of-mouth (WOM) were laid bare in one pitiful post this weekend. Filled with stereotypes and void of character (while masquerading as one), Strumpette busts on the scene and is quickly exposed by - a student.

That “student” would be Stephen Davies from the UK, who smartly made a reference to Spin Bunny, the first PR gossip blog, in a comment on Strumpette’s first post. For some really interesting commentary, read all the comments to that post.

This whole episode just makes me roll my eyes and cry out, “UGH!” This is precisely what we’re trying to combat at Forward. People who belittle and diminish the profession are (obviously) my pet peeve.

“Amanda Chapel” is the supposed author of Strumpette, and her bio? Well.

Bottom line professionally speaking, I am 5’ 4” tall, athletic, Pantene shoulder-length black hair, perfect perky boobs. I present well and am most accomodating. I’ve slept with clients. I sleep with my boss. I am the consummate PR strumpette.

I’m sorry. What profession?

For our younger readers, I encourage you to follow the links in this article and read all the perspectives on it. (Especially read Robert’s post and the ensuing comments to make sure you catch what’s really important here.) What you should glean from this latest drama is this: take your career seriously. This Strumpette mess is not what the industry is about. I highlighted this particular case study because it’s an interesting example of the dynamics of the blogosphere, and a good example of “how NOT to be.” Paraphrasing Phil Gomes, here’s what you need to focus on: PR is not just about “party planning” or at all about “cleavage-for-coverage,” but rather a “real communications discipline.” Let’s take it seriously and treat it that way.

(For those interested, I used Robert’s “nofollow” trick for the links to Strumpette, so no link love from me!)

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I was having lunch on Sunday with a classmate (he’s a few years younger than me and hasn’t really been exposed to blogs yet) and he was asking a lot of really good questions in an effort to understand this new medium and figure out a way he can embrace it. (We all know, it’s intimidating at first!) He asked one question that really stands out in my mind that I wanted to address here: “Isn’t it possible to blog/write under a pen name?”

My eyes got big and I immediately started shaking my head. Sure, it’s possible. Do you want to do that? In my opinion, NO. I understand the thinking behind it. If you’re new to the blogosphere, and you’re sharp enough to realize that yeah — you’re putting your thoughts and your writings out there to the WHOLE world, it might make sense to want to venture out under a pseudonym, just to test the waters. You know you’ll make mistakes at first, and you’d rather those mistakes not be tied with your name your whole life.

Still. NO. (More adamant head-shaking.) Buzz word for the day: transparency! I strongly believe that you need to be out there, writing as yourself, making those mistakes as yourself — and don’t worry, it’s understood. You’ll make some mistakes. The more you engage your brain, the fewer you’ll make. The more that’s riding on it, the more you’ll engage your brain. If you’re blogging under a pen name, where’s the motivation to do well and challenge yourself? Because like the mistakes, any successes you have will be tied to that false identity, too. What good does that do?!

Back to transparency. We’re seeing a lot in the PR blogosphere these days regarding this hot topic. If it’s important that companies be open and transparent (a fact that I’m drawing from all the people talking about it, plus my own intuition), isn’t it just as important for individuals who someday hope to work in PR to start embracing those good practices for themselves now? I strongly recommend that you begin upholding this standard by being open, in a professional sense, about yourself.

And according to Jeremy Pepper:  “Yes, you want to blog on a certain topic - and it should be blogging with passion, and wanting to blog - and using your own name is going to keep it honest. Honesty, trans­par­ency, passion - these are what makes blogs in­ter­est­ing and readable, and draw readers. One caveat: if you are beginning a job, find out if the firm­/­com­pany has a blogging policy. It’s just a good way to protect yourself.”

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