SC Issues In Communication

The next PR Student Chat  (#PRStudChat) is set for Tuesday, November 17th from 12-1pm.   #PRStudChat is an open Twitter forum for students, faculty and public relations practitioners to share ideas and information on the public relations industry today.  Rider University participated during last month’s session which had over 1900 tweets during the one hour time period.  This session’s topic focuses on careers in public relations and is duly titled “Career Day”.  Guest host PRSSA of Michigan President Angela Hernandez @angelahernandez will moderate the event which is open to all students.  Hernandez was also featured in the five-part blog series Is PR Right For Me.  According to Deirdre Breakenridge, author of the blog PR 2.0 Strategies, the following questions will be addressed:

• Prior to hiring, do companies search candidates on Google and Facebook?  Where else do they look?
• Should college graduates take unpaid internships?
• How do you leave an internship or job without burning any bridges?
• When starting a community blog, what guidelines would you recommend having in place?
• What predictions do you have for 2010?
• If you had a PR wish list for future social media trends, what would be on your list?

If you want to participate in #PRStudChat, please contact me at scarbonaro@rider.edu and I would be happy to assist you.  If you are a Rider student, please log onto Twitter and search #PRStudChat and add some value and input to the tweets.  Please tag all of your tweets #RID!  Hope to see you on the forum!

Teaching public relations to thirty-five sophomores and juniors at Rider University has been very rewarding, particularly this semester. This week I led my students in our first participation of a Twitter dialogue entitled #PRStudChat- see link of transcript. This student driven, practitioner guided event had more than 1800 tweets in a one hour block. The tweets centered on our Public Relations industry today and the driving force behind the massive use of social media for publicity. Students from universities all over the country, notably University of Maryland, New York University, Florida State University and my own Rider University showed their presence by adding valuable input and raising relevant questions on industry tactics, evaluations and objectives of public relations. Being present, in the present was a underlying theme: you have to learn the new media or get left behind. Ideas for learning the technology included actively pursuing courses that train individuals how to properly use the social media networks and getting involved with internships to take your new skills out for a spin. The next #PRStudEvent will take place next month; date and time will be determined. Please see our article in the Rider News!