The Loveliest Village

Sometimes, it pays to be ahead of the curve. Auburn University students in Robert French’s style and design class found this out the easy way. In the Summer 2006 issue of The Strategist, Sarah L. Knowles, editorial and production assistant for the magazine, wrote an article called “Blog U� on students that write the very same articles you are reading now.

The Strategist is the magazine of the Public Relations Society of America, or commonly referred to as PRSA, and is sent out to its more than 280,000 members. The focus of the Summer 2006 issue was blogs, and with a multitude of articles to choose from, Knowles was assigned a story about how blogs were being used in education.

The article covers exactly what students are doing in French’s classrooms, what programs they are working with, and their various assignments dealing with social media. It also illustrates one of the success stories that has come from a student of French’s style and design class. In particular, Erin Caldwell, who was hired in April by Edelman Worldwide PR’s Washington, D.C., office.

According to the article written by Knowles, students in French’s class “must create their own PR blogs, post new entries two times each week and comment twice or more each week on other PR blogs. The course deals with software, especially content management systems (CMS), wikis, blogs, portals and lead generation tools.�

In the class, “Posts on PR blogs must range from 350 to 500 words and directly relate to public relations, and comments must be a minimum of 250 words in response to entries from French’s list of acceptable PR blogs.�

When asked how she first heard about Robert French’s class and their work with social media Knowles replied, “My editor, John Elsasser, tipped me off to the story and asked if I would be interested in writing about it. He knew of Robert’s own Infopinion blog.�

Knowles believed the story was something the members of PRSA would be interested in reading about because “it is relevant for many of PRSA’s members who work in education, to see how new media can be taught to aspiring PR professionals, as a sort of case study that may inspire further integration of blogs and other media into the classroom.�

With all this attention, are blogs the “next big thing� for PR professionals? Knowles commented, “I don’t feel qualified to make any sweeping predictions, but I do think that blogs and social media in general are certainly making an impact on the communications profession. I don’t think that they’re going anywhere anytime soon, so it’s beneficial to learn all we can about them.�

Students in the class hope that by learning how to use social media and its advantages, they are getting a heads-up on their competition in the future. Dallas Perry, one of French’s students, said, “I have friends that are in public relations programs at different schools, and most of them have never even heard of a blog before. I believe that having experience with the blogosphere and other forms of social media will increase my appeal to future employers.�

Knowles had some advice for students working with blogs and social media. “I think that students should heed the example Erin C. set by using this assignment successfully. Really, you get what you put in to any project, and something that starts off very small can really take off if you take the time and effort to really make a project something you’re proud of.�

The blogosphere can be a confusing place, but hopefully after reading the “Blog U” article, more colleges and universities will follow French’s footsteps and see the long-term benefits of teaching students how to navigate and conquer it.

Photo compliments of Sarah L. Knowles

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