Forward Podcast 31 responds to some recent hot debate in the PR blogging space about just how vocal young PR professionals should be, both in the office and offline.

This episode is an interview with Edelman’s Phil Gomes in response to his post about the importance of young PR professionals ‘managing up‘ - talking up to their boss or colleagues when they feel they have a deeper understanding of an issue. Paull and Phil also discuss the debate that has recently sprung up about whether inexperienced communicators could be doing their reputations harm by speaking up online.

The podcast ends with some brilliant thoughts from young PR professional and blogger Kait Swanson. Her thoughts really put Phil’s theory into practice from the point of view of a young communicator. She’s clearly a fair bit smarter than Paull and Luke, so hopefully she’ll start commenting regularly. Of course, you can join the conversation at any time by leaving a comment or sending us an audio file to include.

This episode is the second time Phil has appeared on the Forward Podcast, he was previously the subject of episode #6 on the dark art of podcasting. Paull has a post at his personal blog summarizing the numerous mentions of this debate so far, there are some excellent thoughts across the blogosphere that can teach a lot to young professionals.

In other housekeeping news, Forward will be the subject of a case study at the Connect: PR and Social Media Conference at the University of Georgia, Athens, on October 19-20. The conference is intended to educate public relations professionals and educators on social media and Paull Young will be presenting on the mission and history of Forward as an example of how social media can be used to attempt to help both young communicators and the industry as a whole move Forward.

We strongly suggest you take the time to read through the entire debate - there’s a post covering the conversation from start to finish at Paull’s blog. The discussion to date on this topic, from both experienced and inexperienced viewpoints alike, is really a case study of the power of social media to move our industry forward.

Technorati Tags: Phil Gomes, managing up, decision support, reputation management, pr blogging, young pr blogging, marketing blogging

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Forward Podcast 30 tackles the topic of interviewing with special guest Nettie Hartsock. Nettie wears many hats. She is a book publicist, a freelance journalist, a PR professional and a blogger. She authors the Professional PR and Must Read Business Books for Allbusiness.com as well as her own blog. To fully appreciate what you hear in Forward 30, read about her extensive and incredibly impressive career.

Nettie and Luke talk about both sides of interviewing: being the interviewee (think: job interview) as well as the interviewer (think: what does my client actually do and how do I tell other people). Nettie shares her experiences and advice on everything. As PR professionals, I think it’s important to remember there are more chances you’ll be interviewing someone else rather than being interviewed. It’s more than setting yourself apart in that first job interview, but also dragging information out of that CEO or engineer who hired you to communicate what they do to people who don’t understand what they do. Whether it’s a white paper, brochure, press release, media advisory, speech or doctor’s excuse (alright, I made that one up) you need to know how to get that information.

As always, leave your comments or questions here for Nettie, Paull or Luke. As an added bonus, Paull will now be making rash, inflammatory statements at the beginning of each Forward Podcast. Tune in twice a month to hear the irrational ramblings of an Aussie in NYC (and the dulcet tones of a guy in rural Ohio).

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