Guest Post by Ben Holbrook

1.       You Can Be Picky

Working in a traditional job role, often means you work with the same people day-in day-out.  This often makes people feel stagnant and bored. Working freelance allows you to pick and choose who you work with, meaning you can work with people that inspire you and help you develop. Freelancing allows you to work with a diverse set of people who will also appreciate working with a fresh face.

2.       Diversity

People working in steady jobs often get bored of doing the same things day in day out and often end up working on long, dull projects. Working as a freelancer means you get to be involved in lots of different projects in lots of different places. This keeps freelancers feeling fresh and excited about their work as they rarely work on something long enough to get sick of it.

3.       Work More. Earn More.

Anybody with a regular job knows how it feels when, no matter how hard you work, you still earn the same amount of money. This often discourages people and they stop pushing themselves. Working freelance means that the more you work, the more you earn. Surely this makes more sense!

 4.       You Decide When You Need  A Break

When you work for a company, they decide when you can and can’t take a holiday or a day off. It often means you end up paying more for travelling at “peak” travel times and staying in overcrowded locations. Working as a freelancer means you can decide when to take your holidays and days off. If you see a great deal, you can make the most of it. If your friend is getting married, you don’t have to worry about asking for time off.

It also means you can work at the times that suit you best. If you feel most creative at 2 o’clock in the morning why shouldn’t you be able to work then? Freelancing offers the greatest flexibility.

5.       Freelancing Is Easier Than It’s Ever Been

Years ago, freelancing was considered difficult because it was so hard to build networks and find work. It often meant hitting the road and trying drum up business, which was incredibly time consuming. Nowadays things are very different. The internet allows you to connect and work with people all over the world. If you can’t find work in your city, try the next city. If you can’t find work in your country, try the next country – all from the comfort of your home office!

There are so many websites and contracting agencies out there, all you have to do is set up your account and let them do the searching.  Not only has it become easier for freelancers to find work, but also for companies to find freelancers. Freelancing has never looked so attractive!

 Ben Holbrook is a writer for Red Commerce, who specialise in contract and permanent SAP jobs.

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Guest post by Andrej Hendelja

Social news sites are an excellent way for users to chime in and contribute on a particular story. Many social news sites feature rating and ranking system that allow items that interest the user base to filter up through the rankings. Digg was a forerunner of this model and helped pave the way for social news sites to bring the public information the mainstream media did not. In recent years, Digg has experienced a slow down and backslide in interest from the community. Reddit provides many of the same great benefits with a number of features. At present, Reddit averages approximately 35 million visitors per month.

Ask Me Anything (AMA)

A web user looking to build familiarity and their expertise should take a moment to start a thread in the Ask Me Anything (AMA) section of Reddit. Ask Me Anything provides a platform for a person to take their individual experience and expose it to a greater audience. It provides an excellent opportunity to help a person demonstrate their expertise and knowledge in a very meaningful way that could potentially build new business contacts.

Just how popular is the Ask Me Anything section of Reddit? Celebrity appearances from such people as Stephen Colbert, R.A. Salvatore, Bear Grylls, Louis C.K, Zach Braff, and many others have generated tens of thousands of replies in their respective discussions. A great opportunity exists for anyone with quality information to provide and a thick enough skin to deal with the Internet going public in that arena. The AMA section gives you the ability to reach out directly to build rapport and better relations with those people.

Making The Most Of Reddit’s Ask Me Anything

It is far too easy to incorrectly use a piece of technology if a person does not have a solid understanding of the impact. Woody Harrelson is one such example. A significant following of people posted an AMA request for Harrelson to chime in and interact on Reddit. He failed to show to answer any questions or interact at all. The result was a significant backlash against him for ignoring a vocal portion of his fan base that may have helped him reach different people. The mistake generated plenty of negative publicity around the incident due simply to Harrelson not responding to or understanding the ramifications thereof.

Moderation And The Community

The community at Reddit is self-policed in general. Quality information can be up voted while bad information can be down voted. Several different types of people and users come together to exchange information on Reddit, thus it is easy to find those passionate about some very obscure celebrities or topics. Junk content filters to the bottom of the pile efficiently as Redditors explore what is being offered.

The AMA section and community offer an interesting pairing of public relation building tools. On one hand, there are the positive interactions. On the other, you have trolls. It is not uncommon for disruptive people, known as trolls, to ask pointless questions or attempt to pick fights for the sake of causing chaos. Interacting with the public on Reddit guarantees a person’s path will eventually cross with trolls. All online communities have them.

Learning to ignore the trolls or counter their behavior with humor of your own are the only effective ways to handle them. Responding in anger or posting threats will just have them coming back for more entertainment. Be prepared to contain these negative interactions to keep the experience positive and potential damage to a minimum. “Don’t feed the trolls!”

  Andrej is a longtime Redditor and PR student doing marketing research for a Long Island elevator company.

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Guest post by Paul Alfred

If you are looking into different companies and get fascinated by the public relations they have with investors, government, media parties, trade unions etc, you may look into making a career in the field of a PR consultancy. This field is a high paying job and area of expertise. It requires the capabilities of being creative, innovative and show skills in the field of new approach towards marketing tactics. These consultancies help define and maintain relationships with all the public related to an organization. Whether it is internal customers or external, the relationship building is quite important.

Working in the area of a PR consultancy is a good job, when you know you will get plenty of opportunities meeting people, celebrities; work with different companies, renowned and influential people. There is a huge personal satisfaction level when you know you have been able to satisfy your customers with the help of your PR services. So many steps have to be taken while bringing you with neck to neck of the competitor, quality providing PR consultancies.

• Build your portfolio by trying to acquire worthy companies and fulfilling the requirement of building your reputation.

• You have to acquire some experience so try to work with another PR consultancy to know what you can do.

• The education matter a lot. It has to be related to the PR building and the skills required building PR through different strategies and skills.

• Develop the skills required to do successful PR ship.

• The most important thing to do while starting your career in the PR consultancy field is to know the job and the requirements of the field. This helps in identifying what to do and what to plan.

• The clients you have are from the government, the trade sector, the investors and the media. One has to have the potential to acquire the cliental base with intriguing services.

• Self-promotion is also one of the major aspects to consider. This can be done by banner ads on different websites, opening your own websites, word of mouth and attaching yourself with any good company you acquire as a client.

PR consultancy is a good field to work and to let the others know at what you are good. While the trend of acquiring consumers has changed from bulk audience to one on one relationship, PR consultancies are now blossoming and flourishing in this field.

Paul Alfred is a professional writer and has experience in writing articles on PR consultancy and online media domains.

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GUEST POST by Carlo Pandian

Almost every day, the News is full of woeful stories of redundancies and long-term unemployment, especially amongst the young. Inevitably, those stories are typically sidelined with tales of hundreds of people applying for a small number of jobs. However, the statistics don’t stop young adults from striving to find a job in their dream career.

PR jobs are rapidly becoming one of the most popular career choices amongst University leavers, alongside Publishing, the Media and Marketing. As a result, PR recruitment is big business, as the industry moves to change with the times.

Back in the “good old days” as your Nan would probably call them, the words “Public Relations” and “PR” were synonymous with newspapers, magazines, television and radio, however, moving forward eleven/twelve years, and the world of PR is a completely different place.

What Has Changed?

The answer to this question is fairly simple, as it is of course all down to the Internet. Ten years ago, the Internet was sparkly and new for the majority of the population. Move forward to today, and interestingly, many Internet-based activities that were popular ten years ago, including perhaps even email, have been swiftly bashed into near obscurity by something called Social Media. Chances are that you’ve heard of it, and are probably a part of it, no matter whether you are a job seeker or a company looking to hire.

What Effect Has Social Media had on the PR industry?

Interestingly, the PR industry has probably experienced one of the biggest changes thanks to Social Media.

Firstly with the way PR works, because whilst in the past, companies could just advertise a product and completely control what information is given about a product to the audience, the rise of Social Media has pulled a lot of that control more in the direction of the consumer, with people sharing their real experiences and sometimes even grievances, regarding products.

As a result, PR has taken on a new genre of handling all feedback, in a very public forum.

In the sense of PR jobs, whether you are thinking of applying through PR Recruitment Agencies, or perhaps you are the PR Recruitment Agency yourself and you are looking to hire everyone from PR freelancers to the Project Managers, then Social Media has had huge ramifications for you too.

Barely a few years ago, before the Facebook and Twitter boom, PR Recruitment would have been managed solely from an office or the PR Agencies websites. However, today, many PR freelancers are looking for work in Social Media, meaning that this is where the PR Recruitment companies need to be, and they need to be highly visible and approachable.

Any company, not just PR-related, would lose a large amount of business if they are not happy to make the transition into the hands of the Internet.

Carlo Pandian works in London for a PR recruiter, drop him a tweet @Mediarecruit to talk about PR

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A few of the questions that we’ll be asking our panel of professors and our community members will be:

Q1. What are the most effective learning tools used in the classroom today?

Q2. What are your favorite books and why?

Q3. How do you collaborate on group projects (social groups vs. physical setting)?

Q4. How do you integrate internships into the academic setting?

Q5. PRStudChat PSA – What hashtag or social media effort would you like to share with the community?

Q6. What are you learning inside of the classroom that you can’t learn anywhere else?

Q7. What’s your favorite assignment?

Q8.  What professor(s) have influenced you the most and why?

Q9. What sort of technology would you like to see professors using in the classroom?

See you on twitter 8:30pm EST #PRSTUDCHAT.

Find details on Deirdre’s blog:  PRSTUDCHAT Back to School Night

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We’re kicking off September with another edition of the #PRStudCast! Hope you enjoy it and please forgive my rust… It’s tough getting started up again! Luckily, Jess Ostroff was here to give us all some awesome advice.

Follow Jess on Twitter: @jessostroff

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Its my 21st Birthday and the Fall semester is just about to start up for many members of our community! What better way to celebrate than by bringing back the #PRStudCast?

My special guests were PR Rockstar Shonali Burke and one of the top young PR professionals Rachael Seda. In this episode we discussed social good causes, the Blue Key Campaign, and the importance of getting involved for a young PR professional.

You can purchase your own Blue Key here!

Before you go; in the comments below, please let us know what social good means to you. We will select our favorite answer and purchase a USA for UNCHR Blue Key on your behalf!

Hope you enjoy the episode,
Harrison

Also, if you want to check out the cool stuff I’m doing at my new gig, visit the MBA@UNC site for their Online MBA program!

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Guest post by Chloe Trogden

The spectrum of public relations goes far beyond just writing press releases. There are a variety of other aspects students must learn during their studies that are not only essential to the public relations business, but fun and interesting as well.

Whether you’re a public relations professor and you’re hoping to integrate new activities to the students in your classroom, or you’re a public relations student and you need to think of a good team project for an assignment, here are three activities you could try in a public relations classroom:

1. Promote a fashion show

Contact a local clothing store and see if the owner would be interested in putting some of their clothing and products in a fashion show for the university or classroom. Ask the students to find out various information about the different items of clothing as well as pricing information, and then put together a media kit to give out to the attendants of the fashion show.

You could even go as far as contacting other students who would be interested in modelling for the show, (if the owner doesn’t already have someone in mind already), and then include biographical information about the models as well as photographs of each item of clothing in the media kit as well.

You could ask your university student organization if they would help organize the show by hosting it in a classroom or a lounge area in the school, or ask the business owner if they would be interested in having the fashion show in their store as well.

1. Conduct a survey

Ask a group of students to write up their own survey on any topic of their choice, and then ask them to write up a series of questions to ask other students or even professors on campus.

Once the answers are complete, tell the students to put their results in a power point presentation with graphics, percentages, etc. and then do a presentation for the classroom once they are finished.

You could even ask students to record a podcast discussing the findings of the survey, or write a post about it on a blog as well.

1. Promote a campus talent competition

Ask your students to venture out on the campus and see if any music or theatre students would be interested in participating in an upcoming talent competition. In order to promote the competition, the students will need to write up a media kit which includes all the biographical information of the competitors, and also write up a press release to submit to the university or college newspaper as well.

You could even go as far as asking the students to record the competition with a video camera, and then post the video files on a website or blog as well.

Bio:

Chloe Trogden specializes in research involving all forms of college grants. She has compiled thousands of resources including teaching grants and Minnesota college grants along with many others. She is currently attending UNC Chapel Hill and is entering her Junior year in the fall.

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Meg & I were college roommates back at American University many years ago. We were both in the School of Public Affairs and Delta Gamma sisters. We got in trouble once at the campus store for not wearing shoes and managed to survive for the first week of our sophomore year on a diet of bagels and beer ( the campus bank had switched over the summer and we couldn’t access our accounts for several days… bagels were only 45 cents and we made do!)

We learned to deal with “roommate issues”; she’d set her alarm a half hour early so that she could snooze for 30 minutes… to country music. My Great Aunt Lenore would call and talk her ear off. I actually grew to appreciate country music. She grew to love Aunt Lenore. And somewhere amidst the fraternity formals, late night study sessions and weekends exploring DC, we became friends. Lifelong friends who know how to make each other laugh and will always be there for each other. Think of a very special college friend and you’ll no doubt understand.

Years passed and though we were still roommates our first year out of college, we went different ways. She got married and moved to Denver, and then back to her home state of Kansas. I moved to New York City, got married and moved out to NJ. But it turns out that time and geography simply do not matter. I can still make her laugh. She still has my back

Just over a week ago, as I was waiting for the train after a dinner in the city with some out of town friends who were visiting NYC for BlogWorld, I saw I had received a message on Facebook from Megan. I laughed, thinking that after all these years she and I still had this weird connection. She must have somehow known I was talking about her at dinner that night. (I had been telling Justin Goldsborough and Arik Hanson about her antics as a Jayhawks fan). Then I read the note. Standing in Penn Station I learned that this dear friend, sorority sister and mother of 2 beautiful young girls has been diagnosed with Cancer. It has spread to her liver as well as 2 places in her bones. She asked me to share the news with our friends, because she did not have the strength to do so.

The next week was a blur. Sharing the news I could not quite grasp with friends I had not spoken with in (far too many) years. Holding virtual hands as we united to try and figure out how we could make this all better.  I spoke with Meg’s husband, the head Tennis Coach at Washburn who was busy pulling together a team of doctors, specialists and supporters that could help. Like any great coach, Dave is doing everything he can to keep spirits up and beat the odds. The odds are not good. Every moment has become a precious gift for Dave, Meg and their daughters Alexa (8) and Nadia (5). Meg is not ready to say goodbye. We are not ready to say goodbye. Friendship is forever.  And I want Meg to know that she, and her family, will ALWAYS have our love and support.

So I’d like to ask you to be a part of #TeamMeg. Here is her CaringBridge site which includes a link to a paypal account. I know that everyone has a good cause, but I hope you will consider adding $2 to the account. Why $2? Well, I seem to remember a local $2 beer night when we were in college. And we always seemed to find $2 to buy a beer. So tonight, I thought, perhaps you would buy this incredible girl a drink, and toast to #TeamMeg.

Valerie Merahn Simon

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