Online shopping- the devil in disguise

Contrary to the title of this blog post, I don’t in any way dislike online shopping- unfortunately, the opposite is true. After dragging myself away from yet another website I’ve got to wondering, has online shopping made things TOO simple?

Within five minutes of logging on to an online store you can be inserting your card details and HOORAY, you’re the owner of yet another brand new item of clothing that, realistically, you DON’T need! Now where is this clever, logical side of me when I’m browsing and buying?

You may think I’m being a bit OTT but it really does worry me how easy it is to rack up a serious bill for things that I could do without. But when I get countless newsletters and emails showing me “the very latest” and “this seasons best”, I just can’t help myself- I have to just have a little look. BE WARNED! There doesn’t seem to be any such thing as “a little look”, at least not if you’re me anyway..

Recently I have been quite good, and I’m managing to restrain my silly spending urges, but how long can this last when sites such as ASOS now lurk on Twitter, popping up to let me know about their “great new range”?

I think it’s great that more sites are embracing social media and using it to their advantage, I just ask that they don’t make that dress look TOO appealing…please?

Frankly I’m concerned, and I think it’s only fair that online sites reward my truly faithful service with some freebies- any chance of that? Bit optimistic maybe.

The ethics of blogging

Over the Christmas holidays I have been bombarded with essays, assignments, group work, application forms and exams, so it is somewhat obvious that I have not had a lot of time on my hands to blog.  Bizarrely this has left me feeling guilty, like I am somehow depriving my (albeit few) readers of my views and opinions.  But this is surely not the case; there are so many blogs out there that it has become very difficult to keep up with them all (just try working your way through feed demon having left it for a week) and therefore blogs who don’t have frequent posts can just fall behind. This doesn’t seem to be a major problem, all blogs can be picked up again when time allows, so where is this feeling of guilt coming from?

After thinking this over whilst not being able to sleep last night (insomnia is a wonderful thing isn’t it?) I realised the pressure I appear to be feeling about my lack of posting comes from the overwhelming amount of posts written by others.  There are blogs I visit that have up to eight posts a day and I’m aware other blogs have even more; but what is the reason for this? 

Personally I blog when there is a reason to, when I want to have a little rant about something or offer helpful tips to other students for example.  I never blog for the simple sake of blogging.  I can’t help but wonder if others do? 

 In my opinion blogging should serve the purpose of an online diary, personal to you whilst providing interesting and insightful reading for others.  It should not be “oh crap I haven’t written one in a while”, “”what will people think of me if I don’t?” or ”I don’t want to lose subscribers” posts.  These tend to be rather obvious, dull and frankly pointless.  Bloggers need to stop worrying about their number of subscribers and Technorati rankings and just write what they think- it really will be a lot more enjoyable to read than the “oops, sorry I haven’t written in a while” post.

It’s decision time!

The time has come for 2nd year PR students to take a step back from all the work and socialising and think about where we’ll be next year.  The first major decision is upon us; do we do a placement year or not?

Since the beginning of my university life I have always wanted to complete the placement year, and nothing has changed there.  Even thinking of entering my final year without having that year under my belt makes me nervous and I cannot understand why someone would actively choose to opt out. 

Having spoken to a few final year students (Hannah Tylee in particular) I have been told that it is noticeable which students have that years experience, and which clearly don’t.  I believe that until we have spent that year within the industry, we will still have a certain naivety about us.  Now people may argue that having various short term placements gives you the same experience, but I really have to disagree.  Although useful, short term placements can only give us an insight into the world of PR, and we can never get completely stuck in. 

Companies are less inclined to give an intern a great deal of responsibility if they know they are leaving within the next week.  Of course they could if they wanted to, but then what happens when something goes wrong or key information cannot be found? Many employers will play it safe and give the work experience student something with less importance, and thus the student gains less experience than they could have done had they been there longer. 

In order to fully understand and be a part of an agency or consultancy, I think the individual needs to become comfortable in their surroundings, know their colleagues well, and deal with accounts on their own initiative.  Working full time at a company allows the student to see everything that is going on; the ups and downs, the stressful days and the (albeit less likely) slow days. 

Completing a placement year can hugely increase the individuals confidence, as skills are increased and contacts made.  For any Leeds Met students who might be considering a placement year, either for the coming year or even first years who are curious, check out the placements office-they’re very helpful people!

Now comes the fun part- fighting it out with fellow students for the best possible placement!! (I’m kidding of course, I’m sure it’ll all be very friendly…hmm)

Guest Blog Post

After seeing Karen Russell’s blog post offering students the opportunity to write a guest post, I immediately emailed her asking if there was still a space free; luckily there was!

Since Karen is a a professor at the University of Georgia, I thought it would be particularly appropriate to write a post aimed at students.  I thought about what students worry about, what they want to know and how I might be able to help- internships came to mind.  Personally this is an area I worried about in the past so I thought it’d be the perfect subject to talk about.  I’ve copied the post, as seen on Teaching PR below:

Finding internships in the PR industry

As PR becomes such a popular career path to choose, students must make more effort to improve their skills and gain experience, putting them ahead of others when facing an interview situation. 

Internships can help to develop a CV whilst giving the practical experience necessary for a career in PR. 

 

When I began the Public Relations course at Leeds Metropolitan University I was a little apprehensive when I heard we were expected to find work placements, but once I’d completed my first week long placement I realised how important it was, and what you can gain. 

 

But how exactly do you go about getting an internship? And where should you look?

 

I’ve devised a list of ten tips for students to help find a great placement where you can gain the experience and knowledge needed to excel when looking for a full time job after university.

 

1. Search for any PR agencies in your local area- Check out who they work with and what they do
2. Use your contacts- friends, family and lecturers could all be possible links to a good internship
3. Don’t rely on the PR agencies, they might be inundated with applications from students and unable to offer you work experience
4. Remember to try and look at different sectors, it’ll help you make the decision of which path to take after university
5. Ask other students where they have completed internships- if it was good, try there!
6. Make sure your CV really shows you off before thinking about sending it to any possible employers. Always remember to spell-check and proof read!
7. Write a cover letter/email requesting a placement and attach your CV.  Remember they probably get a lot of similar emails so really sell yourself.  Always tailor the email to the company; never send the exact same email to two companies. 
8. If an application doesn’t result in work experience, don’t be disheartened.  Check over your CV again and keep looking!
9. If you get a placement and find yourself making coffees all day, try discussing it with your tutor, they’ll help you decide what to do!
10. Enjoy yourself! Internships shouldn’t be something you dread, enjoy your time at the company and get as much out of it as you can!

CIPR Guest Lecture

After a long day at Uni (9-6:30pm, I’m not just being dramatic..) I was surprised to find I still had the motivation to go to the CIPR guest lecture being held at the university!  The lecture was being held by previous lecturer Karl Milner, now the Director of Communications for the NHS Yorkshire and the Humber.  I must admit I wasn’t very optimistic about how much I would enjoy the lecture, the public sector and particularly the NHS has just never appealed to me when thinking about the direction I would like to go with my career. 

I had definitely changed my tune by the end of the lecture, and am actually now considering the NHS as a possibility for the future.  Karl paced the lecture well, telling five stories with tips and advice mixed in with his comical method of presenting. I was surprised to hear that NHS Leeds is the biggest single communications employer in Yorkshire and particularly interested to learn of the personal and emotional strength required to be a part of the NHS communications team. 

It seems to be a job with lots of ups and downs; one minute you’re the hero, and the next the latest villain! Working in the public sector had always seemed like the boring route and had never appealed to me before, but now I’ve heard about it first hand, I’ve been swayed!

There was one thing that confused me though.  During the questions at the end one student asked how the NHS was planning to involve social media in new campaigns.  Karl replied that they currently had no definite plans to use social media as they were unsure of the results (based on the older target audience).  Wolfstar are currently running a social marketing team for NHS Kirklees (part of NHS Yorkshire and Humber) which includes lots of social media- are there no more plans for this? And if so, why not? Social media can really help to reach publics that might not respond to traditional advertising.  I really hope NHS Yorkshire and Humber aim to embrace social media, bringing the public service into the modern day and helping give the public a way of communicating with the people behind the service.

A Friday Meme!

Jed Hallam (AKA Jedh) has just passed this fun (and I’ll admit a little pointless) meme on to me so I thought I’d oblige and pass it on!

“Three for Three”, as Jed so cleverly named it, is simply three top three selections made by you, and then passed on to three different individuals of your choice. 

Why not ey? It’s Friday!

Top Three non-work websites

1. Facebook
2. ASOS
3. Perez Hilton  (I’m a little ashamed to admit it..)

Top Three Karaoke Songs (one for Friday night purposes)

1. Kelly Clarkson- Since You’ve Been Gone (because NOBODY can reach those high notes)
2. Mariah Carey- Hero
3. Disney- A Whole New World

Top Three Weekend Cocktails (one to achieve the previous purposes)

1. Woo Woo
2. Blue Lagoon
3. Gin Sling

Best to drink all three before attempting any of the above karaoke songs…

And the three people I will choose to pass this on to are:

1. Natalie Torbett
2. Sam Oakley
3. Adam Lewis

Have fun and pass it on!

Working 9 to 5 (what a way to make a living..)

Since we won the NHS pitch things have been a little crazy around the Wolfstar office! As a result I’m now a full time worker, working 9 to 5 like a proper grown up (apologies for the post title, I couldn’t resist and now I can’t get the song out my head!)

It’s got me thinking about student life vs working life.  Most of the students I know dread entering the “real world” away from the student bubble and fully intend on staying in education for as long as possible.  But why is this? Is working life really so bad? 

Personally it hasn’t changed my life too dramatically other than that I’m now very aware I can only lie in at weekends.  With the placement year coming up next year this experience has so far led me to believe that I can in fact hack it! Obviously I can’t press snooze on my alarm quite as much as I’d like to, but it actually feels good to know I’ve had a productive day and that I’m gaining the experience (and money!) I need to help me get on.  

However I am actually writing this after only two weeks of full time work, so perhaps I’m being a little hasty? I guess I’ll find out soon but either way, I can now fully appreciate why people look forward to the weekends!

I think students need the opportunity to work full time at some point during their academic life as it’ll give them a taste of life after uni, and hopefully show them it’s not all that bad! The placement year we have the option to do at Leeds Met is a great example of this and I encourage all students who have the opportunity to go for it!

My first pitch!

After two weeks down south I’m back in Leeds and back to work at Wolfstar!

The team offered me the fantastic opportunity of helping them pitch this morning for an NHS account.  I was pretty nervous but thankfully I managed not to mess up or stutter during my part of the presentation!   We came out of the pitch feeling fairly pleased with our performance but very aware of the other companies that were still to pitch after us, we’d have to wait to hear the news!

We’d just got back to the office from lunch when the phone rang- we’d won the pitch! I’m incredibly pleased with such a great result from my first pitch and a huge thanks has to go to Stuart for letting me be a part of it!

Now we just have to start the hard part- turning our ideas into a campaign!

Which sector is right for me?

I’m in London for a fortnight at the moment for a placement with financial and corporate PR company Hudson Sandler.  After being here just over a week I’ve decided it’s probably a good time to reflect on my experience so far and what I’m hoping to achieve by the end of this week. 

I originally found the whole prospect a little daunting- financial PR, what was I getting myself into? I had an image in my head of an office full of maths graduates (obviously from the so called “red brick” Universities)  who’d snigger at my PR degree. 

I was pleasantly surprised that they all seemed normal and that they were actually intrigued by my degree (one of the girls did a PR degree herself!) 

I was set to work with various tasks; newspaper read- throughs, speaker profiles and creating new databases.  It wasn’t until I recieved feedback that I realised how much previous placements had helped me.  They were impressed that I was competent with Gorkana (learnt at Nelson Bostock) and liked the way I laid out profile documents for speakers and companies (thanks to Wolfstar). 

I’m not going to lie there has been a couple of occasions in the last week that I have felt a little out of my depth.  I was invited to attend a results meeting for a client, with analysts, and they could well have been speaking another language at some points.  Although I feel I have a fairly decent grasp of business and economic jargon, I was overwhelmed with financial terms and phrases and the fast paced questions and answers! I stumbled my way through though, and actually came out of it with some relevant notes!

The placement has given me a great insight into what financial and corporate PR is all about and I believe I’ve learnt a lot about what this sector of PR actually involves.  With the wide range of sectors available within the PR industy I’ve been left thinking, which one is right for me? Only time will tell..

What should we be taught about social media?

I was recently asked by Richard Bailey what I think first year students studying PR at Leeds Met should be taught about social media.  Well to be honest at the time of the question I didn’t really have enough knowledge of the area to answer sufficiently. 

After spending more time with Wolfstar I’ve begun to understand how important social media has become within the PR industry.

I’ve devised a quick list of questions/topics I think should be taught within lectures and tutor sessions for first year students… 

• What is social media?
• What technologies are involved? (many students presume Facebook and Myspace are the extent of social media sites)
• Social media used to a clients advantage
• What is a blog and should I have one? What are the advantages?
• How do I work my blog? (including posts, hyperlinks, trackbacks, commenting, blogroll etc.)
• What is an RSS feed? What are the benefits of subscribing to feeds?
• Old media vs New media
• Why is social media important for PR practitioners?

Guest lecturers from PR companies that currently use social media would also be of a huge advantage to students, giving them a first hand insight into the world of social media networking. 

I must admit I’ve become a bit of a social media monkey since beginning my placement with Wolfstar and now I love it (my laptop however is finding it a little more stressful..) With technology moving forward at such a pace, PR practitioners must embrace it and get social media savvy.  Teaching undergraduate students from the first year would enable them to get their names out there for people to see, increasing their chances of employment on completion of the degree.