Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Emerging Communication Technology

This week we're exploring new communication technology that is changing public relations and business communication. What are the latest technological trends impacting corporate communicators? What are the implications for the future of PR? Students and Professionals are invited to post your insights on the subject here. Thanks!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Burson's Mike Lake Rocks

Our thanks to Mike Lake, chairman of Burson-Marsteller's Southwest division, for bringing the benefit of his more than 25 years of public and private sector PR experience to the students in our Advanced Communication Skills class last Friday. Mike managed to cover a wide range of information, from an excellent overview of local and global PR operations today, to concrete tips for graduating seniors looking for jobs and/or internships in the field. He even brought handouts of Burson's writing test given to job applicants. All much appreciated.

Students are asked to respond to Mike's lecture with comments and questions posted here. I've asked Mike to read your blog comments, so heed his advice and polish your basic writing skills. (Good advice, Mike!)

Note to students: Ordinarily I would have advised you to refer him as Mr. Lake, but in class he asked students to call him Mike, so feel free to address him as Mike when you're blogging.

Getting Ink for Clients

Students in SMU's Advanced Communication Skills class were asked to research professional PR websites and blogs for expert tips on creative ways to get ink, or media attention for clients. To read their papers on this topic, scroll down the right side of the screen and click on the links to their individual blog sites. Visitors, we invite you to add your own comments, tips and insights to the topic here, as well as on the student blogs. Thanks.

Note to students: You don't need to provide a synopsis of your paper on the main class site as was required with the first paper. Just post your completed paper on your blog Monday before class.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Let's Get This Party Started

Did you ever throw a party and were afraid nobody would show up? Me neither. But when we started this blog last month, I was concerned our invitations for communication professionals to join our online conversation might result in a no-show. Hardly. Folks are poking into our blog both by invitation and by chance. We've had positive responses and tips from a handful of "real world" pros who salute what our class is doing this semester.

Check out the resounding support we're getting at wetfeetpr.blogspot.com in the February 08, 2006 post entitled: "Mentors move in; SMU opens up a can of new student bloggers."

In addition to comments and tips posted on the main class site, several of the individual student blogs have received blog comments from professional observers. This is testimony to the great work these CCPA students are doing.

Keep up the good work, CCPA students. And keep blogging us, PR Pros. Your input is invaluable and much appreciated.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Effective ways communication professionals use blogs:

For this first formal paper topic, students should post brief overviews of their papers here and post their complete paper on this topic on their individual blogsite.

Visitors and students are invited to browse the comments posted on this blog topic to get a glimpse of some of the students' work, then go to the students' individual blogsites to read their papers in full. The student blog links are listed at the lower right of this page.