Boo

I’m still here.

It’s been almost a month since my last blog entry – apologies for the absence. It’s been a funny time – since completing the CIPR Diploma I needed to give my brain a bit of a rest (i’m not sure it is fully recovered yet!)

The trouble with not blogging for a while is that it’s hard to know what to blog about to break the drought so I thought I might just start with a round-up of what I have been upto whilst I have been ‘away’ .

• Went to the CIPR PRide Awards where the University won a gold award in the Public Affairs category for the Warwick Commission (read the press release)
• Went to see Blood Brothers at the Birmingham Hippodrome (tweet)
• Went to the inaugral Birmingham Social Media Cafe
• Went to London for Halloween/my mates birthday (tweet)
• Went to Chatsworth in the Peak Ditrict for a week with my parents
• Went out in Birmingham for cousins birthday (tweet)
• Went to London for another mates birthday – Slim Jims in Islington followed by Lucky Voice karaoke

So, that kind of brings me up to date…

Now that I have broken the drought, I will try to think of something more interesting for next time.

A change of outfit

Regular visitors to my blog (if there are any) will notice that i’ve had a slight change of outfit and got a new header image.

I just fancied a change and felt like i had been neglecting my blog lately whilst I have been writing 6000 words about the relationship between marketing and public relations in higher education so I thought I would make up for a lack of blogging with a quick makeover instead.

And when my project is done I will be giving myself a bit of a makeover – I believe the pyjamas and hoodie look doesn’t really work in real life outside my four walls!

Gone til November

I know I go on about it all the time but I am doing the final project of my CIPR Diploma at the moment and it’s not due until 24th October so the next month is going to be a hard slog writing a 6000 word report (3000 word literature review and 3000 words of primary research). Will try and blog more about the topic soon…

In the meantime, I had a funny conversation with my colleague and friend who is also studying the diploma. We have a funny game (I say funny, I probably mean geeky) where we find songs on YouTube to convey what we think/feel about things. Today I sent her this….

(EDIT: I sent her the actual music video, not this rubbish version but embedding has been removed by request – don’t you hate when people do that)

This is the conversation we had…

Ellie Lovell: ha ha http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UBHHtpTwJeM
(4:32:18 PM) Julia: is this us?
(4:32:21 PM) Julia: gone til november?
(4:32:26 PM) Julia: 23 oct to be exact
(4:32:28 PM) Ellie Lovell: i know
(4:32:34 PM) Ellie Lovell: altho there wasn’t a song about 23rd oct
(4:32:42 PM) Julia: a good point
(4:32:48 PM) Julia: well made
(4:32:55 PM) Ellie Lovell: i will look for one
(4:33:01 PM) Julia: lol
(4:33:09 PM) Julia: will laugh if you find one

(This isn’t the exact conversation – I amended the typos)

I will let you know if I find a song about 23rd October.

Always time for Twitter

One of the drawbacks of Twitter is that when you are used to microblogging updates of 140 characters or less, anything more than that seems a bit too much effort (apart from when it’s actual work or study which i’m doing a lot of at the moment) hence my lack of blogging…

…but on the glass-half-full side, if you do visit this blog and wonder if I have disappeared off the face of the earth, just pop over to Twitter and you should find me there – I always have time for Twitter.

In the mean time I will try to find time to write more than 140 characters to update this blog (oh, I just have) and leave you with a nice song about Twitter from ihatemornings… Enjoy…

I haven’t blogged for ages…

I hate when blog posts start with “I haven’t blogged for ages” but I feel I need to say it! It’s been almost a month but I have been pretty busy! Very poor – especially since I was given a plug on Matthew Watson’s blog – I now have something to live up to!

So the month of July mostly consisted of my CIPR Planning Assignment but it was a massive relief to finally submit it and have it out of my life (unless of course I fail and have to re-submit!). Generally in life, I like situations when you know what the right answer or direction is – but this assignment was like feeling my way in the dark. There were so many options or possibilities that the ‘right’ answer was hard to find so who knows how I got on! Well, I guess I find out in mid-September! I am already thinking about the final project for the CIPR diploma – a 6000 word research project on a topic of our choice – but I will blog more about that another time!

Apart from that I have been enjoying having my social life back and have been to a few parties including Pickle Jar Communications 1st Birthday party and the University of Warwick’s Staff Summer Party. I have also celebrated Mom’s birthday and waved goodbye to my cousin Maria who was home for the Summer after three years living in Jakarta, and has now moved on to Singapore for two years! Plus it’s my own birthday tomorrow and on Sunday I am going to London for my friends daughters 3rd birthday. Then a week today (next Friday) my cousin is having a baby! There really is no rest for the wicked!

Work has also been pretty busy lately. People think that it’s quiet at a University during the summer months when there are no students around but they are quite wrong. There are lots of preparations to be made for new students especially with A-level results, clearing, confirmation, enrolment, preparations for induction etc. The University has also taken on a new enquiry management system to assist communications with prospective students and applicants so there is a lot of planning going in to that as well as the usual ‘comms’ stuff.

So after that re-cap, I think I need to change my approach to blogging and try a more little-but-often approach as this entry is far too long and boring…!

PR and the ‘Blogosphere’

Today I found out the results of my CIPR Diploma CRT (Critical Reasoning Test) and was delighted to find out I passed with a distinction.

I was a bit hesitant to post my assignment on my blog before receiving the results for fear that it wasn’t any good but now I can share my work without worrying so much. I am sure that there are many people who have an opinion on the role of PR in the blogosphere and may disagree with some of the viewpoints in my assignment so feel free to share…

There is an increasing number of individuals and organisations entering the “blogosphere”, where reputations are played with by almost everyone, from anonymous mischief makers to the openly concerned. Your CEO has heard that her name has been mentioned in an anonymous blog and she wants to retaliate.

Before you advise her as to what is best to do, write yourself a reflective paper about public relations and the “blogosphere”.

The 21st century has seen the development of many new communications tools on the internet, and a massive rise in the number of people publishing content online. Web applications such as blogs, wikis and social networking sites have become increasingly popular, and faster broadband connections have made access to these tools more widely available. These advances in digital technology, and the new audiences they bring present fresh challenges for public relations and prompt us to reconsider more traditional theories of public relations as well as assessing the challenges and opportunities that these tools present. This paper is designed to reflect on some of these existing theories and their application to the blogosphere, consider possible applications of the tool in PR, and analyse case studies demonstrating good and bad practice. In order to give a broad consideration of PR and the blogosphere, it may not be possible for a thorough analysis of all aspects of theory relating to blogging, but the flowing discussion should provide greater understanding of the blogosphere and it’s relevance to public relations.

A Week On…

So a week has passed since the deadline for my CIPR Diploma CRT and I have been too busy enjoying having my life back to find time to blog. It’s one excuse after another with blogging – too busy working to blog then too busy having fun to blog.

I actually completed my CRT a few days before the due date as I had a busy weekend planned and did not want the CRT hanging over me. Last weekend I went to see Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong at Warwick University Students’ Union, the Kooks at Birmingham Academy and a friends new apartment and this weekend I went to a friends pre-wedding meal at the Mailbox and another friends engagement party! The social calendar is full to make up for the hermit I became for the month of April.

The Kooks, Naive, Live at Birmingham Academy

Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong (live but not at Warwick SU) - definitely worth catching live if you get the opportunity!

On Saturday I will be heading to Nottingham for the fourth of my CIPR Dimploma taught sessions and it will be the first session of the second module which focuses on planning and management in preparation for our second assessment in August. I was planning to publish my first assignment online here but I thought I should wait to see how good/bad it was before sharing! If the two essays (one on PR and Blogging and the second on PR and Ethical Propaganda) are any good then expect to see them here in June! Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, here’s a preview of my PR and Blogging essay:

Expectations from media, clients and audiences about new technologies are placing increasing pressure on public relations practitioners to increase their use of new technologies (Lordan, 2001). Whilst new technologies won’t replace traditional tools used in public relations the cost to PR practitioners in not using these tools will be in losing their competitive edge to those who have mastered new technology (Anderson and Reagan, 1992 cited in Lordan 2001). As advice to PR practitioners considering entering the blogosphere, Porter et al (2007) suggest an evolutionary approach in which “Practitioners begin using blogs routinely for informational purposes – seeking out alternative viewpoints, the latest news and experimenting with blogs for research purposes. Then use shifts to a more professional – albeit passive – orientation. This issues identification factor allows practitioners to continue to use blogs for information but in a more strategic and professional manner. The final step in the evolution of blog use is to begin engaging in two-way communication.” Whilst this model will not apply to all PR practitioners who use blogs, it does emphasise the importance of a familiarity with and a knowledge of blogs and the blogosphere before being able to use the tool for strategic and purposeful two-way communications.

References

Lordan, E. J. (2001) Cyberspin: The Use of New Technologies in Public Relations, in Heath, R. (2001) ed. Handbook of Public Relations, Sage, London

Porter, L. V. et al (2007) Blog power: Examining the effects of practitioner blog use on power in public relations, Public Relations Review 22 (2007) 92-95

Nothing to say?

So true for so many people…

I should say something more here about companies or professionals using Web 2.0 technologies just to demonstrate that they can, even when it’s not credible, appropriate or effective communication but I need to go and study stakeholder theories for my CIPR diploma…

Maybe another time…

Too many ‘logs’

I am just reading about the use of blogs in public relations and there are references to ‘clogs‘ (corporate blogs) and ‘flogs‘ (fake blogs).

No one really uses these terms do they?