I gave my PR Comm Methods students a pretty lengthy assignment. It will be turned in in small bits so I hope they don’t notice that it is only worth 50 points. Honestly, the assignment’s value is truly much greater than the points awarded. I know it has already had an impact on one individual – isn’t that what PR is all about?
The assignment is an easy one. Create a blog. No cost, takes less than a few minutes to create. Had them personalize it, add a widget or two (or three… class, take a lesson from Stacey – unless you are baking it is always okay to add more than asked for) and post something, anything.
I wasn’t prepared for what I got. Some of the most articulate, in-depth, insightful, truthful, humorous, inspiring blogging I have seen. All of it was expert opinion (an expert is the person in a room that knows more about a subject than most everyone else) about what was going on in their lives, not a play by play but more of an evaluation, and their feelings, attitudes, etc. about those happenings. Some was political, social, emotional,
I mentioned value – here it is: First, they are communicating (what do PR people do?) in public, not behind the curtains of facebook or myspace, for all the world to see. They are communicating to the 1.133 billion people who use the Internet (233 M in North America – Internet World Stats) and there is huge value to having that experience.
Second, they have a following. I personally can’t wait for the next assignment. I want to see what they have to say. How many college students can say their blog has a following. Even if it is one person, it’s an audience. And one person becomes two, then four, then eight, sixteen…
Second.5, they are building relations, public ones (lot’s of talk these days about PR going back to its roots of relationship building – blogging is a first step). And those relations will have value today, tomorrow and for as long as they nurture them.
Finally, they swayed opinion – mine, on a lot of different topics. Isn’t that what PR is all about? Building relations, communicating and swaying opinion? My hats off to my students. The brightness of PR’s future that the world sees (or maybe just a few of us at this point) this morning is emanating from Stillwater, Okla.!