Karen’s PR & Social Media Blog

I have had several conversations with students this year on the growing importance of gaining experience in the workplce as well as learning the latest tools, trends, and skills associated with the field.

No, I am not talking about the new movie with Vince Vaughn or Owen Wilson titled “The Internship.” We have seen the term “internship” has also evolved, as well as the growing expectations students are asked to do and how many internships they need to do before they graduate. When I was in school, I was told you would only need to do at least one or even two if you were super ambitious. Now, the number has grown to as many as four to five. WOW!

So, what are some elements you need to know about internships today?

• Know how to present yourself in the interview: Whether it is face-to-face or even a Skype interview, you need to be aware of how to present yourself and how to manage your reputation with your potential boss and maybe even future employer.
• Internships are what employers expect to see from future job candidates:  Experience matters for employers, so if you know what you want to do after college, it is best to start early and get involved in internships as soon as possible. Also, definitely note some of the essentials when it comes to internships.
• Understand what “experience” you want to get out of an internship: All internships are not created equally, and you really have to be aware of the culture and environment you are in and what your duties will be. Some interns get coffee, and others get to do actual hands on work and gain new skills in the process. For me, I had this chance when I was in South Africa working for Total Media. I got the chance to chat with the Fashion Director for Prada in Milan on my second day of the internship. Doesn’t get better than that!
• Be aware of the great resources out there: There are many great resources out there for you to check out, and one is InternQueen, which I had the chance to listen to Lauren speak a while ago on campus at UofL.  She provides great tips for internships, resources for latest openings, and opportunities to work with her as well.

In summary, professors and scholars who are at universities have to be on the forefront not only for research and teaching opportunities, but have to also keep their eyes open for internship and networking possibilities for their students.

Engaging with professionals in the community in person and virtually is key. Being aware of what are the expectations from the profession for students is also important so we can make sure we are giving our students to experience and expertise in using various tools that will make them marketable.

This is actually one of the things I explored this year with two of my colleagues in PR (Tiffany and Gee) when we explored infographics. We did some research and wrote a paper, which has won the top teaching paper for the PR Division of AEJMC. We will be presenting our research in August. If you are interested in the actual infographic assignment, please contact me and I would be more than happy to send it to you.

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,

Karen

Just some of the statistics related to cyberbullying are pretty amazing – however, this issue has been around for years before the age of social media.  It seems these numbers are growing each day as the technology and platforms evolve.  First there were discussion boards and websites, then it was Facebook and Twitter, and now we are seeing cases involving Instagram and Snapchat.

Melissa Agnes has a great list of resources and best practices on how to deal with cyberbullying and social media. This past week, I was invited to do an interview with WAVE3 News here in Louisville on the subject of cyberbullying. I think this is a very important issue to discuss since social media continues to evolve and change every day.

Interview w/ WAVE 3 News on cyberbullying & social media

I sat down with Scott Adkins of WAVE 3 News for the interview where I showed him various resources like Samepoint, Social Mention, and Statigram for parents to use to track hashtags, monitor usernames, and document conversations that could be considered to be inappropriate. In case you want to see the interview, here’s a Ptch of the interview I had with Scott. Thanks again to WAVE3 News for inviting me to be part of their story related to this important issue.

With cyberbullying, not only was I talking about this issue from a professional researcher/professor perspective, but I have been on the other side as well. I have experienced cyberbullying first hand as a student-athlete in track and field.  My first lesson came actually when I was first starting out in track and field when I was 14 years old on a discussion board dedicated to the throwing events.  What was amazing was to see who these individuals were – some were athletes, but there were coaches and parents as well who were involved.

There were many lessons I learned through this experience, which helped me become the person I am today.  I had an ongoing conversation with my parents growing up on this very issue – and I think this is key for parents and children to realize today.  I’ve shared my experiences not only with others, but also with my students who are taking my social media classes.

In summary, bullies are out there – one of the lessons I learned early on is that not everyone is going to like you. However, what we need to do is to know what steps to take to protect yourself and those you care about online and what tools and resources we have at our disposal to help handle the situation accordingly. Taking action proactively in this situation is key.

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,

Karen

Kristin and I had the opportunity to do a webinar on our research study and presentation from ICRC this past March on Social Media Command Centers in Crisis.  We first met Karen and Jim at the ICRC Conference, and they expressed an interest in hosting a webinar with us for their company, Firestorm Solutions, on this particular topic. Both Kristin and I were very honored and excited about this wonderful opportunity.

Presenting research at ICRC 2013

How did we come up with this research study in the first place? Both Kristin and I have done previous collaborations in the area of social media, but we were discussing one day how so many brands, organizations, and agencies are all focused on getting a social media command center up and running. This was interesting for us to see since we were like – well, what are they actually measuring and monitoring? After looking at both the crisis academic and practitioner literature, we realized that this is something that needed to be explored further.

So, we went ahead and came up with this research idea – combining both of our perspectives together – into a comprehensive view of social media command centers in crisis. What is great about this is the fact we are coming from two different disciplines – I am coming in from PR and Kristin is from Systems Engineering. This is where the field is going and more companies and brands need to realize – welcome to the 21st century of professional and academic collaboration!

We were able to do the webinar yesterday, and we had about 130 people participate from six continents (wow!) – thank you to all who came to the webinar! The webinar was recorded, so if you did not have a chance to watch the webinar and are interested in the subject of social media command centers in crisis, here’s the video:

Overall, it was a fun project to work on not only with a great collaborator and researcher, but also my sister. We are a family of researchers – our next conference will be in Washington D.C. for the APS Conference. As part of the tradition for the last couple of years, we have our t-shirts already designed related to our project, so that is fab!

Both Kristin and I want to thank Firestorm Solutions for giving us the opportunity to be part of this webinar – we had a wonderful time! Special thanks to Karen, Jim, and Bill of Firestorm Solutions for all of your hard work and commitment to making this webinar happen. We really appreciate it!

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,
Karen

We are seeing pictures and articles written about one of the emerging areas to consider in the realm of new technologies – referred to as wearable technologies.

What exactly does it mean when we talk about wearable technologies? These are devices where they are able to sensor, detect, monitor, and push information towards the user in a variety of ways. Here is a great article highlighting this new form of technology more specifically from MIT.

We have seen this occur in pop culture when we look at the role these devices played for movies like James Bond and even in Star Trek (a classic!) – we have been exposed to these forms of technologies through entertainment for years, and some of these advances are being integrated into society as we speak.

Many have stated how certain years are defined for certain platforms or advances, but I think 2013 going into 2014 will be the year of wearable technologies. We will be able to not only receive information directed to us with these devices, but we are able to also share these experiences with our communities as well since these are most likely are going to be connected to various social media platforms.

One type that is generating a lot of buzz of course is Google Glasses. Several influencers in the technology industry have been writing about their experiences and opinions with the new form of technologies and sharing them with the community.  In case you want to learn more about the program, check out their Google+ page.

However, Google has also created a program called Google Glass Explorers, where it asked users to tell them what they would do if they had a pair. I actually participated and said I would show what it was like to be a professor and researcher teaching social media at a university. I got a notice a while ago saying I was part of the program, so I am excited about this opportunity.

So, what does wearable technologies mean for us as PR and strategic communicators?  There are several things we have to be aware of as well as ask ourselves when it comes to this form of technology:

• Increase presence of visual data and information:  We have seen this already with Google Glasses – and how we are getting information directed to us based on visual recognition software components.  More information to consume while performing other tasks can raise both some opportunities and challenges to consider.
• Integrated into persona online and offline: We are basically connected with this form of technology in some fashion, so it is not just something we can put down like a mobile device, but it is going to be part of our identity and how we see the world.
• Transformation of analytics and measurement:  What are going to be some of the new metrics to consider when we are exploring this type of technology and how it impacts society and individual behavior? Are there going to be new metrics or enhanced metrics to consider when looking at wearable technologies – will this be important to consider for PR professionals.
• Having information broadcast for the world to see and issue of privacy:  This raises an interesting issue – what happens if everything you see and say is recorded for the world to see?  What happens when you are conducting an interview and want to rephrase a statement?  What about viewing confidential information for a client and their campaign? As PR professionals, we need to think and discuss all of these possible scenarios and how they will impact the way we are conducting ourselves professionally and personally.
• Enhanced risks and challenges to forecast:  With every new development of technology, we can definitely look at the benefits, but we also have to look at the challenges. What are going to be some of the policies in place to use wearable technologies in certain industries as well as how private/public the data really is going to be? What about the risk of recording all activities 24/7 – how will this be used exactly and how will this amount of storage do we have at our disposal to host all of this information?  What are also the security risks and threats for having people in various industries (ex. health, government, military, bank, etc) wear these devices to broadcast their experiences to the world? These are just a few things to think about and discuss in the community.

In summary, I think wearable technologies will continue to evolve and change over the next couple of months. We will see this part of our daily routines and be integrated possibly in various segments of society.  There are many great opportunities here for communication professionals in social media to take note of, but we have to also consider the risks and challenges that arise with this new type of technology. We have to continue this conversation both in practice and in the academia community.

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,

Karen

Finals are almost over here at the University of Louisville – so another semester has finished and I have completed my second year at UofL as an assistant professor.  Wow!  Amazing how time has flown by – it just seems like yesterday I was graduating from the University of Tennessee with my PhD.

Anyway, one class that has finished is my social media class.  For their final project, they were asked to create social media campaign proposals for real clients this semester.  They had to do primary research, meet with the clients, conduct and brainstorm strategies and tactics together, and formulate a concise presentation to present to the clients.  This is what all of the students did this semester, and I couldn’t have been more proud of all of them. They worked hard, were committed and dedicated to the course materials, and all grew as communication professionals in the area of social media.

Snacks for clients and students for final presentations

Not only did the students have to create a campaign proposal this semester, but they also participated to be certified in Hootsuite University as well as work on additional assignments for class.

I created this video to highlight all of the amazing things we had experienced this semester as a class.  We had a TON of wonderful, insightful, and amazing guest speakers who came to my class both in person as well as virtually via Skype and Google+.  You also get a chance to see some pictures from the final presentations as well in the video.

Thank you Sheryl, Steve, Jeff, Lisa, Kristin, Melissa, Jonathan, Rich, Joey, Robert, Marion, Nick, and Jason – the students all loved your presentations and we really appreciated you sharing your insights and expertise with the students this semester. I really appreciate it!

To all of my social media students – it was a pleasure having you this semester in class. I wish you all the very best for the future and please stay in touch! Go Cards!

Best Wishes,

Karen