Death is dead, you’re all wrong, and everybody’s lying
Recipe for getting traffic to your blog while alienating your readers:
STEP 1: Start with catchy title that relies on overgeneralization & exaggeration to make a sweeping statement:
Options:
a) ________________ is dead
b) ________________ (famous, respected person) is wrong
c) ________________ (profession or large category of people) is/are: unethical, lying, etc.
STEP 2: Write pseudo-argumentation supporting a much weaker version of your title, one that actually specifies the conditions, contexts, and audiences for which the statement in the title might sometimes apply
STEP 3: Publicize on twitter. Sit back & enjoy counting number of RTs
STEP 4: Watch comments coming in. Sit back & enjoy spike in blog traffic.
STEP 5: Respond to comments. If they disagree with you, act all offended that they didn’t read the small print buried halfway through the 4th paragraph of your post.
If you know me, you know I’m no big fan of the academic writing style. But, while we make fun of the long 2-part titles, we have to give them this: They’re specific. Precise, specific, accurate language is -even if not practiced much- valued in academia. Try it when you can.
People -and pets!- do a lot of crazy things to try to get attention. Before you use this recipe, consider:
- am I doing my readers a service?
- is this post helping me build long-term relationships with people I care about?
- do I really need this?
- do I really believe this?
Leaving Clemson
I broke the news on Twitter last week, but here is a more detailed account of the events in my life. In the past 10 days, I:
- accepted a job offer at Purdue University
- resigned from my position at Clemson University
- looked for a house in West Lafayette, Indiana
- found a house in West Lafayette, Indiana
- put an offer, negotiated, etc., etc. – and now my husband and I are this < > close to being home owners.
It’s been a whirlwind: Things are happening much faster than my bewildered mind can process. So maybe writing will help.
As I write this, I think of my Clemson PR students, who I will miss dearly. They’ve been the best students I’ve ever worked with, and my heart is breaking knowing I’m leaving them. They’re bright, quick learners, amazing writers. If you haven’t hired them already, there might be a couple left. 
So, why am I leaving? (actually, both my husband and I are leaving).
Many of you know that during the past 3 years it has become clear to both Krishna and me that Clemson (and Seneca), South Carolina cannot ever feel like home for us. We both come from large, crowded cities, and the quiet, rural lifestyle is … killing us (softly).
We’ll both be tenure-track faculty at Purdue, Krishna in Engineering Education, and I have a joint appointment in the College of Technology, shared between two departments: Computer Graphics Technology and Organizational Leadership & Supervision.
There will be some changes in my research and teaching focus: less PR (possibly no PR), a lot more technology – and its impact on culture, society, and communication. I will be teaching mostly graduate courses, at the Master’s and Ph.D. level.
This move is a bit sideways and up, and although I am very sad to step away from teaching PR (it will still be part of my research agenda), I am excited to tackle some research projects I’ve had in mind for a while now, that didn’t quite fit in with my PR-oriented research agenda.
I’ve done my best to make sure my PR students at Clemson are well taken care of. Dr. Denham has agreed to take over as PRSSA adviser, and I am so grateful and relieved that he’s stepping in!
Next semester, two wonderful instructors will be teaching a section each of the PR Principles class – and one of them might already be your twitter friend!
Dr. Hawkins, the CU Communication Studies Department Chair, has expressed a strong commitment in maintaining the momentum we have built here in PR @ CU, and I will do whatever I can to help her – and you.
If you were my student, I want you to know that I will always think of you as my student – and possibly friend. I will always be happy to hear from you and to be in touch. Follow me on twitter (@prprof_mv – should I change my user name?), friend me on LinkedIn – stay in touch.
To all of my wonderful PR friends from Greenville (you know who you are) – with twitter, facebook, linkedin, and whatever comes up next, we have no excuse for not keeping in touch! So, let’s.
To all my blog readers (both of you – I don’t know which way this blog will go, but it’ll keep going, with some break while my life settles down into a routine after the move.
Like all big life changes, this one is bitter-sweet, exciting, exhausting, exhilarating… send me good thoughts, and you know you’ll get them back
How Twitter can make history
Here’s a talk by Clay Shirky about how the changing media landscape is changing the world.
A few takeaways from this talk:
* technology starts making a difference in society when it’s not shiny anymore, when it’s mainstream
* before the Internet, communication media that were good at conversation were not good at creating groups, and media that were good at creating groups were not good at conversation
* the Internet is still changing as it becomes more social
* May 2008 China earthquake: reported on Twitter several minutes before U.S. Geological Survey had any information online; BBC got the news from Twitter. Previous major earthquake in China: took China 3 months to admit it even happened. This is no longer a choice.
* the major change is that media consumers are also media producers. Not only can they talk back to organizations (”a bit freaky, but organizations can get used to it”, but they can talk to each other, building huge, powerful networks)
* mature use of social media: to convene supporters/people, not to control them
* “professionals broadcast messages to amateurs” – this model is over; social media is an environment for convening and supporting groups. It might not be the media model we want, but it is the media model we’ve got.
Sphere: Related ContentShould I Tweet?
It was a great pleasure to be invited to speak at the AAF Greenville meeting today. Below are some further resources related to the presentation I gave:
These are the slides I used for the presentation, but scroll down for a more basic introduction to Twitter and tips for getting started.
This brief video is a basic and simple explanation of twitter:
This is another explanation of Twitter.
See also a collection of links that should help you get started on Twitter, from Pistachio consulting.
Once you understand how to use the tool, here are some blog posts I wrote with more tips to get you started:
Step 1 – Beginners’ guide
Step 2 – Advice on how to Twitter: Good tweets are…
Step 3 – How to find people to follow on Twitter
Last but not least, I mentioned at least one blog you should be reading: Chris Brogan’s.
Should you need step-by-step instructions on setting up Google Reader to keep track of RSS feeds, and an explanation of RSS feeds, you can find a screencast tutorial here.
If you need explanations of terms such as blog, blog roll, permalink, etc., they are explained here.
I hope you find these resources helpful,
Sphere: Related ContentMantras for Strategic Public Relations
Stimulated by Shel Holtz’ post about the 4-step strategic planning process, I want to share with you some “mantras” (PR principles) about strategic public relations that I (try to) drill into my students:
- Strategic PR begins and ends with research (from Dr. Carl Botan, George Mason University)
- Strategic PR is goal-oriented
- Strategic PR has data or theory-based reasons for all decisions (decisions are never random)
- Good research takes the guesswork out of PR
Do you practice these? What do they mean to you? Do you have your own mantras to add?
Sphere: Related Content