Overcoming E-mail Mishaps

January 28, 2011

When I was in the ninth grade, I took keyboarding. At the time, I needed an elective among the standard English, geometry, gym, world history, genetics, etc. Keyboarding was my freebie.  Little did I know this class would be a staple for my future career in PR! 

Papers. Hundreds of papers. LOTS of typing. Research papers, campaigns, book reports, biographies, case studies, theses, news stories, applications, chapter summaries, e-mails, you name it. Maybe it hasn’t been hundreds of papers, but it sure feels like it. How would I have been able to complete them all if I had to look down at my keyboard the whole time? In ninth grade it was a big deal if you graduated from “FF HH AA LL GG KK JJ” to “CAT JOG APPLE PEN.” I’m a very fast typer now. My keyboarding teacher would be so proud.   

But, what happens when you type hundreds of characters a minute? Errors. Working in public relations, my primary channel of communication with co-workers, clients and vendors is e-mail. I’ve definitely had my fair share of misspellings. Typing so fast, you are trying to complete your train-of-thought and are typing a mile-a-minute. Thank goodness for spellcheck. 

Earlier this week, a Borshoff co-worker of mine shared this great article with the account staff called “18 Common Work E-mail Mistakes.” It was excellent! Reading through, I had a great laugh because I could totally relate. I’ve made the same e-mail mistakes that were on the list! It was comforting to know that I was not alone (but that does not mean it’s okay). The article was a great reminder for me to remember to breathe, take it slow and to always re-read my e-mails before sending. The article also provides some great tips to prevent an e-mail mishap from occurring! 

Remember, e-mail is as much a part of your professional image as the clothes you wear, the resume you send, the handshake you offer and the greeting on your voicemail. Have you made an error that is on the list? Check out the worst e-mail mistakes employees make and how to avoid them.

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Posted by Jackie

BranchOut – the next LinkedIn?

January 10, 2011

Did you know…. 80% of new jobs come through direct networking?

Now, you can use Facebook to see who your most connected friends are.

Just when you thought Facebook would stop changing for like two seconds, Zuckerberg comes out with something new. I think we all saw this coming — LinkedIn on Facebook, or as Facebook calls it, BranchOut. 

BranchOut is a new application on Facebook that helps you expand your career network. But this network can include everyone you possibly know on Facebook; everyone. Just like LinkedIn, on BranchOut you can search for jobs and connect with your friends (who also have the BranchOut app). You can send messages, upload your resume, and even endorse others. 

According to the BranchOut folks, “every time a Facebook friend joins BranchOut, you see where they used to work, where they work now, and where their friends work.”  This may sound great, but to be honest, I’m not sure if I want everyone and their mother’s nephew’s cousin knowing my career business. I would rather have the ‘say’ on who views my profile and who doesn’t. Yes, this may limit my networking span, but when I’m ready to search for a job, then I will be more open.

Though I am a part of the BranchOut community, I think I will leave my professional networking to LinkedIn where there is a more secure profile and I get to decide who views my profile and who does not.  Don’t get me wrong, I applaud Facebook for trying to do, well…everything. But, there is a place for fun and a place for business. LinkedIn is all business.  

What do you think?

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Posted by Jackie

“Back to school…back to school…”

August 27, 2010

(said in Billy Madison voice) 

Tuesday marked the first day of the fall semester at IUPUI. The course: PR Planning,  another class I need to obtain my Masters in PR Healthcare and Life Sciences. For the longest time, probably kindergarten through my last years at Butler, I was always really excited for the first day of school. I picked out my outfit…gathered all my books and supplies…made sure I knew where I was going; you know—the nerdy/girly thing to do before the big day. And I was a nerd. I admit it.

Grad school is different.

Tuesday morning, I threw on what was suitable for a normal day at Borshoff; no client meetings, but still business casual. I ran back into my house, after I started my car, because I fortunately remembered that I had class that night and would probably need a notepad, folder, or something. I didn’t have my textbook because I ordered it too late from Amazon. Finally, I scrambled through my planner to check what classroom I was in as I walked into the communications building on campus.

Funny how things change.

It’s not that I wasn’t excited for class to begin—it’s just a different time in my life. Juggling one class is tough with a full-time job (I tried two and said goodbye to my social life). Not to mention I am starting to travel a lot more for work.  I also enjoy that thing called ‘free time’ (shocking, I know). The only way I manage to have a social life is getting a little bit of homework done every night of the week so I can have fun and relax on the weekends. It’s only healthy!

So, with that said, welcome to PR Planning. The best part about walking into class on Tuesday was seeing all the sweet, familiar faces. We all gave each other that look that said, “Welp … here we go again!” Or “ Thank God you’re enduring this with me.” It’s nice to have a cohort of friends that travel together from one class to another.

The PR planning course will  explore the advanced management techniques for public relations programs and campaigns focusing on the use of research and evaluation techniques, development of goals and objectives, segmentation of audiences, development of strategies and tactics, and creation of timelines and budgets. The course also uses the case study method to illuminate and illustrate these concepts.

Seems pretty standard. All us PR folks have to know how to plan, right? The class is one of those “core” classes that everyone has to take. I may be one of the youngest in the class, at 22. However, some of my classmates are older than 40 and even have their APR. Yep, they are in the planning class too. Regardless the years of experience, or profession, it’s nice that others value continuing education. This class will benefit me and only make me a better communicator, and that’s exactly why I am here.

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Posted by Jackie

Aggregators: Nothing Aggravating About It

June 9, 2010

OK, so I am a little embarrassed to admit this (judge me, I deserve it), but prior to beginning my current grad class, Managing Online PR, I had no idea what an “Aggregator” was.

<Insert laughter and finger-pointing here>

How could that be? Here I am, a PR professional working at an esteemed and well-known Indianapolis agency and I had never heard of a News Aggregator. Yikes. Let me tell you—when I say I’m learning something new every day, I mean it.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s OK! I was there…a week ago. News Aggregators have become a necessary component for information gathering in the 21st century. A News Aggregator gathers information and data important to you and puts it in one place for easy access on the Web. Originally, I had set up several RSS feeds of my favorite sites. But then I learned that all those feeds could be delivered directly to my News Aggregator; a one-stop-shop!

It was time I became acquainted with this so-called News Aggregator. Several Aggregator applications are available such as Digg, FriendFeed, My Yahoo!, Reddit, Yelp and more. In my case, because I already had a Google account, I decided to use Google Reader. According to my class textbook, The Social Media Bible:

Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator that provides you with the feeds of your favorite updated websites so you don’t have to spend time visiting all the sites you normally visit. It is capable of reading RSS or atom feeds both online and off-line and is a useful tool for reading the latest postings on your topics of interest (p. 604-5).

Once I started really rockin’ and rollin’, I discovered iGoogle.  iGoogle acts as a News Aggregator in itself and users can embed a number of gadgets on the page like a calendar, joke or quote of the day, fun facts, weather application and more.  In essence, it’s a personalized Google home page.

With iGoogle I can share feeds, chat with friends, search in all feeds across all updates and select the RSS subscriptions I want to see. In my Aggregator, I enjoy checking out the latest PR and social media postings from Mashable, entertainment news from People and what my graduate classmates are writing about.

Should you use a News Aggregator? YES! All my favorite site news is delivered directly to me on one web page. This saves me a lot of time, as opposed to going to each site and seeing what new information I missed. Gathering news that benefits my career in PR and social media is critical for me as a professional and enables knowledge sharing to my peers and followers on Twitter. With that said, I salute you News Aggregators. Thanks for making my job a little easier.

Here is my iGoogle home page

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Posted by Jackie

“This is it. Don’t get scared now.”

May 18, 2010

Can you guess the film? Those were the exact words eight-year-old Kevin McCallister said to himself before outsmarting the “wet bandits” with numerous obstacles and traps in the 1990 film, Home Alone. Ironically, I am telling myself those very words right NOW. 

Ever since graduating from Butler University in 2009 with a degree in journalism (concentration: PR and advertising), I’ve wanted to start my own blog. Nothing happened. Then I became a grad student in the IUPUI Masters in PR program. Nope, nothing.  After the summer of 2009, I went from full-time intern to full-time employee at Borshoff, a full-service communications agency in Indianapolis. You’d think that as a PR professional I’d have the courage and knowledge to start a blog…but I didn’t.

All that has changed folks. 

Now, I’m required to start a blog for my Managing Online PR class. At long last…I have no choice—it was just the kick-in-the-rear I needed to get crackin’.

But then…I stopped. What do I call it? So much is in a name. I can’t tell you how long I pondered the name for my blog. I had lots of thumbs-up, some thumbs-down and several in between. The blog name is SO CRUCIAL! On top of that, I ran into several other barriers to consider: finding time to blog, understanding and using WordPress analytics, strategies and tactics on how to get feedback and comments, how to grow and engage visitors so they return, ideas for content…I-yi-yi…

Blogs are about personal expression, branding the professional and carving out my own online brand, demonstrating that I’m an asset in the PR community. I’ve been in the biz for almost a year now and as I continue to grow and develop–my blog will track my journey along the way. I promise to deliver engaging and useful content to advance an issue, cause or brand—and even myself. I will focus a lot on social media, my job, grad school, PR, things I’ve learned, things that frustrate me, things I agree/disagree with and more. I welcome all comments and words of wisdom to help me grow.

With that said….cheers and enjoy!

7 Comments | Communication, Grad School, PR | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jackie

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