Dear, Marketing and Communications Students

If you do not have a blog, START ONE!  I have been searching for students to do some fun, innovative and interesting social media work, but as for students who blog... they are far and inbetween. If I can't find you online, you might as well not even exist. Cruel maybe, but today marketing and communications exists online, so if your not playing, you can't be on the team.

Seriously, in this day of quick and easy self publishing, why wouldn't you jump in? It is simple really. You don't need to be profound (although I am sure it would help if you are), but you do need to take enough initiative to learn and engage with social forms of media - as it is the reality of today's media landscape and will help you understand where we are today and where all this is headed in the future.

Sign up for del.icio.us, to tag and share articles you find interesting.  Sign up for flickr and post pictures of your small dorm room, your campus, your marketing class, your cat... whatever.  Sign up for twitter, make and effort to post a few times a day and follow other people you find interesting, engage and link to sites or news. Sign up for digg and start digging new you like and bury news you think sucks.

Then go to Wordpress and sign up for a free blog. Talk about your experiences in these social communities, link to these profiles you created in your sidebar with widgets and blog posts with outgoing links. Make yourself searchable. When you type your name into Google, what comes up? Nothing? Then you've got some work to do.

Comments

[Sameer Vasta]

I'm surprised schools and programs actually admit students that don't blog or use social media. Shouldn't it be a prerequisite for the industry these days?

[Pamela Seiple]

I think students also don't understand you don't necessarily have to be blogging about social media to engage in and learn from it. In fact, blogging about a different topic will teach ou a lot about the different industries using new media to get ahead.

Since many students will be dealing with many, diverse industries in their first PR and marketing jobs, it's particulary important to understand this. While I already blog about social media, I'm starting a new blog about health and fitness and am learning so much about the vastness of social media communities - there's a community for everyone out there!

[McLarty]

Did you ever try that blog post - for a job posting?

One thing to add to your readers. Comment on blogs you read! You'll be amazed at the friends you make.

Also, It's not JUST for Marketing & Communication Students...it works in every field. I have COUNTLESS stories on how my past 9 months of blogging at http://blog.bluemoat.com and my personal blog too, have launched my endeavors in life FORWARD. I'm an Engineer, fanatical about stocks!

[Kelli Matthews]

This is great, Julia. (And other "I told you so" post to pull out in class.)

I require my students to blog in my Advanced PR Writing class at Univ. of Oregon. I know Georgia, Auburn and several other schools do the same.

Bunches of my students are on Twitter, participating in LinkedIn and Facebook as well as Del.icio.us and so on. Check out Winter term's students: http://prosintraining.blogspot.com/2008/02/new-voices-join-conversation-winter.html

Best bloggers of the group: Eileen, Emily, Lisa, Staci S., Megan, Jackie and Lee. I'd bet they'd love to chat with you about projects, too. :)

[Rayanne Langdon]

Hi Julia:

I'm a PR student and I blog. And, I twitter. And, I tag articles on del.icio.us. I'm pretty engaged. But, I don't completely agree with your stance that every student should be that involved.

I agree that students (especially in this field) should learn and know about as many social media tools as possible. I also think they should experiment in many of these just to see what does and doesn't work for them.

But, that's just it--not everything is going to float every person's boat. My classmates and I were instructed to blog as part of a course in online PR. There's a pretty even split between those who have embraced being part of the conversation and those who almost want to retaliate.

Being told to get involved to such an extent is a huge turn off. And, frankly, I wouldn't want to work with or for anyone who was only participating because they think it's some kind of requirement.

To me, social media is a space for people to meet and interact with others who are involved for similar purposes. It takes time to build relationships. And, I don't think enough people are looking at it this way.

That being said, I do blog (and blah, blah, blah... everything else), and I love it. I'm getting great feedback from friends, teachers and professionals who could employ me someday.

So, I understand the value in blogging. And, trust me, I've preached this message to my classmates many times. But, if you don't want to be there, deal with not being noticed as much as those that are. And, find another way to build your personal brand.

Also, I think it's very obvious when someone blogs for reasons other than personal interest. So, I'm not worried.

[David Fisher]

I simply don't get students and recent grads sometimes. The economy sucks kinda and you'd think that people would want to do whatever it takes to get a job. I know a ton of people that ideally want to be in advertising, marketing, business, pr, whatever you'll call it... and yet they aren't doing the little things like this that make them stand out.

They claim to all want creative and flexible jobs, but yet when it comes down to it they want the cookie cutter jobs.

McLarty is right, this isn't just pr/advertising/marketing, this is for ALL fields. Just having a myspace/facebook isn't good enough. It's not like this stuff costs any more over a year than a single night drinking does (domain, hosting, etc). It's so worth it and works for all fields. Establish yourself as being someone, knowing things, having value and opinion.

The resume is dead. The blog is the new resume. Your twitter contacts are your new resume. I'm actually kinda shocked that twitter wants people's resumes for jobs. I don't want to see resumes. They are all fluff. You can't totally bullshit a year's knowledge on a blog.

[Danielle Katz]

Hi Julia,

I really love this post.

As a soon to be graduate from BU who has recently been bitten by the social media bug, I am blogging and loving it.

However, hardly any of my friends or peers blog. To be honest with you right now it seems that students aren't even reading blogs, let alone writing them. Many of my peers have never even heard of twitter. I think having a blog is such a valuable tool for young PR enthusiasts, but the people I talk to don't really understand this. I think that they are afraid to jump into this world because it seems so daunting.

[Michelle/chelpixie]

And please, for heaven's sake, put your email in a fairly obvious place on your website. I've got mine on the front page of my blog yet, I get NO spam in gmail.

I want to email you without having to track you down the hard way!

[Elizabeth Albrycht]

Found you via Spaulding's blog. You should check out the list of courses and students'blogs at the New PR Wiki (www.thenewpr.com) under Teaching Social Media. Profs and students welcome!

[Rob Williams]

Julia, I want to agree with you on this but I'm not sure I can to the same degree. From what I can tell, students are moving away from the "more content" social media applications like blogs. They seem to be trending more towards "less content" such as twitter and SMS. However, they don't seem interested in twitter as much because they already have everything they'd want all in one place: Facebook.

In Facebook, they have "twitter" by changing status. They can blog (notes), share photos (flickr), and share items (delicious). And since all their friends are there, they don't see the need to go back outside their walled garden for interaction.

So on the one hand, they have all the stuff you're looking for already. On the other, it's more closed, not as much in-depth communications (most are short blasts like SMS), and closed.

But your point in that they should open it up more, share more thoughts, develop and open their communications is important. It's a better long-term path. Facebook is best suited for the immediate -- and that's where they seem to be living.

[Chris Parandian]

Julia,

Fantastic post... Not sure why many folks interested in marketing today are not utilizing social technologies.

Best, Chris

[Daan Jansonius]

Hey Julia, interesting post! I pretty much agree with Kelli.

I'm a Marketing student and from my year I think I am the only one who blogs and uses social media in a professional context. A large part of the reason is because I work at an online marketing agency, which has been an eye opener for me.

Whilst I agree students should at least be aware of what is out there, I dont expect blogging to be for everyone.

Following the online conversation has taught me a lot about marketing though, especially the direction its moving in. And for that reason alone all students should at least keep an eye on what's happening online.

[Daan Jansonius]

Meant to say Rayanne there, not Kelly.

[Vinny]

This is probably some of the best advice you can give to any student (even in high school).

Hey, you have your MySpace and Facebook - but there's more to it than that. And I know you want a place to put those photos of you wearing a t-shirt that says "sometimes I feel like a slut".

But you should also have a somewhat professional blog also where you don't talk about getting drunk/high/laid.

And make sure the professional one is at the top of the SERPs for your name!