Real World PR!

I would definitely say that my experience last Friday at Real World PR was very beneficial. I had a really great time, but felt like I really learned a lot at the same time. 

The day started early when we all met over at Lauren's at 5:15. We piled into her car and headed to the conference center in Atlanta. Two short hours later we arrived to Real World. I really did not know what to expect, but I was pretty excited to get the day started. 

We began with breakfast and a question and answer session with three experts from CNN. It was awesome to see these three people who were extremely knowledgeable on the subject of social media and the evolving state of media in general. It was really neat to see these people so well educated on the things we learn about everyday in class. 

Next we moved into our first session. I picked a session on internships since I am currently in the process of looking for one. It was great to hear from people actually doing the interviews on the things that they find important. They gave some really helpful advice on interviews, resumes, portfolios and networking. I felt like they were very open and honest and really wanted to help us find an internship that was beneficial to us. 

The next session was on Non-Profit PR. Non-Profit PR is something I am considering so it was good to hear the pros and cons of the field. One of the women worked for Cox Communication, one for a children's museum and one for YMCA. All of these are very different branches of Non-Profit so we got to hear a lot of diverse information. 

I found the session after lunch to most beneficial for me personally. We got to sit down with a PR professional one on one and they helped to critique our resume. The lady that helped me actually was the CEO of a small PR firm and she really helped me change some things around on my resume. She told me the things I needed to focus on and some other things that could be left off. After we went over the resumes she just gave me a little advice about networking and applying to internships in general. I really enjoyed the little bit of time I got to spend with her. 

Finally I went to a session on event planning. I was really excited to go to this session because event planning is something I am definitely interested in right now. All three event coordinators stressed the importance of staying organized at all times and paying very close attention to all the details. I loved hearing them talk about their budgets of thousands of dollars that they have to work with for events. It was cool to see the similarities that their job has with what we do in class planning the Mass Comm mixer and the athletic auction. 

I would say the main thing that I took away from real World was to NETWORK. Every person I talked to emphasized the importance of making connections with others. When the day began I was not so sure about talking to strangers, but as the day progressed I slowly became much more conformable. I hope to soon be a pro networker! 

Kids and the Internet

I don't think I realized that kids on the Internet was becoming such a big deal. I can remember when we first got a computer I really had no interest in it until the say we got a game called "Rollar Coaster Tycoon" Has anyone ever played that? My sisters and I would race to the computer room to see who would be able to get on the computer first. About the time the newness of this incredible game started wearing off the days of AOL instant messenger began. I remember spending as much time as my parents would let me chatting online with my friends on AIM...

Tonight I was reading this article about kids and the Internet. It pointed out how the Internet is used much more for entertainment for kids than actually communicating which seems to change as we get older. According to the article, 71.1% of kids between the ages of 6-12 used the Internet within the last 30 days.  Most of these kids accessed the Internet from their home computer, followed by their school computers and then computers in bookstores and libraries. 

Most of these kids (81.2%)  said they used the Internet to play games. However this number did decrease with age as kids began using it for things like watching videos, homework and listening to music. 

Interestingly enough, the most popular sites for kids were television sites like Disneychannel.com, nick.com and cartoonnetwork.com. This shows how much kids are influenced by what they see on television. Most of these kids were driven by some sort of ad on television to go check out their favorite station's website. 

All of this really makes me more aware of the younger generation becoming even more technological than my generation. As PR people we need to be aware of this and how it effects our target audience. The younger generation is contributing to the evolvement of media as we know it today. More and more people are using the internet as their primary source of information, entertainment and communication. 

Another new social network!?!

As I was looking at PR Week online I noticed an article about another new social network. I think I am becoming more aware of all the social networks out there since I have been joining so many. The site is called the Daylight Network.

PR Week explained that the new network is political in nature. It allows users to follow governmental money, make predictions on the administration and suggest non-government responses to the economy. The creator of the site, Aaron Day, says his goal for the site is to help figure out a way to get out of economic crisis using a wide range of solutions. Day wants to attract people to his site who have been impacted by what's happening with the economy. He said,“People are turning to the Webs and blogs [in response to the failing economy]. There is this large mass of untapped energy with ideas for debate.” 

I support Day's new idea for a political blog about the economy. I think it is important for all of us to feel informed about what is going on with our government. I think sometimes the media tends to hype the problems of the economy which creates even more problems. It is vital for us to be accurately informed about what is going on in our economy so we can make wise decisions for ourselves. I think this website is a great tool for everyday people to network with other everyday people within our economy. This website could really be a great tool in helping the US get out of the economic crisis.