Articles by KamiHuyse

Undergrads will need more than a fluent understanding of public relations theories to land a good job after they graduate. Most students don’t realize that half of the battle to getting a good job and finding success in the workplace requires a lot more than just attending and passing the required classes.

Unfortunately, newly minted professionals don’t have a very good reputation with hiring managers, as you can see from this post, Labor Pains in Public Relations, written by Marcel Goldstein, senior vice president in Ogilvy PR Worldwide’s Washington, D.C. office. Goldstein is looking to hire tech public relations professionals right now, but hasn’t found many “early-careerâ€? applicants with what he calls the “starter gateâ€? skills of writing, studiousness and agility.

You may have the history of communication down cold, but your ability to quickly get up to speed in the workplace is a key consideration. So, how do you prepare for this challenge now?

Three Employable Skills

Writing: It seems pedestrian, but being able to clearly express yourself in writing is absolutely critical. When I supervised employees, I often gave them work based on their ability to write, letting some move ahead and keeping others clerical. I also had a bad experience with a big agency we hired to get through a very busy legislative season. I ended up re-writing several press releases that were riddled with grammatical and spelling errors.

Critical Thinking: Valuable employees know how to dissect and solve problems without step-by-step instructions. After writing, this skill is the one I have seen as most lacking in employees. Reading a lot, asking questions, adopting a lifelong learning philosophy and being curious about everything will go a long way toward development of this skill. This skill will help you become a trusted advisor to your boss and hopefully in time, his or her boss too.

Knowing PR Tools and Techniques: Basic public relations reference tools (Bacon’s, Lexis-Nexis, etc.) are sometimes hard to get your hands on, but if you can get an internship or two utilizing these tools will go a long way toward making you a valuable employee once you graduate. Additionally, hands-on experience writing and delivering a full public relations campaign, maybe as a service for another department at school, for a non-profit or during an internship, make all the difference.

Auburn students are fortunate to have Robert French to teach them how to utilize social media tools. Plus, posting to your blog regularly is a great way to practice your writing skills. Additionally, debate in the comments of online posts will hone your critical thinking skills.

Todd Defren, a principal with Shift Communications, which is also currently hiring at all levels (including interns) in San Francisco and Boston area (US), wrote a series of posts a few months ago about reforming undergraduate programs:

• The Trouble with PR Undergraduate Programs
• Fixing PR Undergraduate Programs

Be sure to read these posts and make comments. Your future employers are talking, so be sure to listen.

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As a student and user of social media, and the power of the networks one can forge with it, I am constantly asking, how can I use this power to get something done?

We have an excellent example right here in the public relations community. In my post today at Communications Overtones, I mentioned that we now have 446 feeds in public relations social media community.

Moving Away from Early Adopters

It seems to me that the use of social media by public relations and communications professionals is just past the early adopter stage and quickly moving toward the early majority stage, as explained in Everett Rogers’ theory of diffusion.

Part of the problem is simple information overload.

Rule of 150
According to another interesting theory, called the “Rule of 150,� social networks are usually an average of 124 people and a maximum of around 150.

Breaking Into Smaller Groups

According to another interesting theory, called the “Rule of 150,� social networks are usually an average of 124 people and a maximum of around 150.

Just last year, the PR feed community was only 160 strong, a perfect size for the community to feed on each other and “know� each other. However, with the explosive growth, things are shifting.

It is the problem of scale that many A-listers have complained about and drawn scorn for mentioning. The problem is that once an “audience� for a blog exceeds about 150, it seems the person writing the blog becomes more of a broadcaster and less of a conversationalist. You simply can’t “know� more than that number of readers and excessive communication starts to feel like noise instead of constructive ideas and recommendations.

I suspect if we analyzed the public relations network of social media feeds, we would probably track three or more loosely associated, but distinct, groups that consume each other’s material and comment on each other’s sites regularly. Steve Rubel recently called the groups in which we read and travel the blogosphere, blog ghettos. A negative take on the concept, perhaps, but an apt one nonetheless.
The issue would make a fantastic graduate-level study, for someone willing to undertake it.

Examples of Spontaneous Groupings

One example of these social networks forming is when groups suddenly and unexpectedly form a coherent group. We have just such an example in the formation of the International Association of Nobodies (IAN) over the past several days.

With 20-plus members and growing, this group has done amazing things in five short days. Including starting a Website, Wiki page at NewPR, a squidoo lens, creating a membership badge, a logo, merchandise and a shared blogroll (see RSS) that members can add to their sites directly.
(Full Disclosure: I am a nobody too)

And Allen Jenkins, who was the inspiration for IAN, posts today about another organization, the the SEA-EAT blog, that formed spontaneously to help tsunami and earthquake victims. That network grew quickly to encompass 200 volunteers, with a core group of 50.

As people try to make sense of the social media network and how it can assist them in daily tasks, I expect more (instead of less) of this activity.

What do you think?

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