The End

This is end. Well, sort of. This is the end of my time at Centennial College studying corporate communications and public relations. I spent a lot of time this year thinking about this moment, even looking forward to it, but now that it has arrived I feel like it has come too soon.

Since September I have learned a lot about a variety of topics important to public relations, such as writing, presentation skills, event management and media relations. I also had to opportunity to learn about these important subjects with a great group of people. It seems strange that after tomorrow I won’t be seeing these people more than my own family anymore. There are probably some people that I will never see again. On the other hand, there are a few people in my class that I plan on seeing regularly. I made a few great friends this year. I wasn’t sure it was possible to meet people so similar to me that it borders on eerie. I’m also relieved we are friends, because if we hadn’t become friends we might have become enemies.

I also learned some important things about myself during the school year. Turns out I can come really close to having a panic attack at a charity event I’ve helped organize! But I also learned a few difficult lessons. I now know I need to be quicker at cutting my losses. It became painfully obvious this year that I am too willing to let negative relationships drag on, whether it is with boyfriends, friends or jobs. Luckily some of my CCPR friends were there to listen and support my decisions.

Now that the academic part of this program is over, I get to start my internship. I am both excited and nervous.  I’m excited to put all the skills I’ve learned to use. I want to see what a PR job really entails. I’m just nervous that I won’t do as well as I expect. 

To wrap it up, I can honestly say I want to keep in touch with almost everyone, but more importantly I want to stay friends with a few “bugs” I met this year.

I made it to 40!

Dear 40-year-old Sandy,

Your husband is sleeping with the receptionist.  Just kidding. You’re sleeping with the receptionist. I’m done now that I’ve got that out of my system.

I don’t know how much I actually have to say to you right now, so I would like to share some of my 25-year-old hopes with you. You came to Centennial College to study corporate communications and public relations because you were tired of working jobs that you didn’t care about. Please don’t settle and end up doing something you hate. Or settle and end up with someone you hate. Just don’t settle, ever.

I also hope that keep learning even though you are finished school. When you began school this year you were very active on Facebook and somewhat active on Twitter, and you knew nothing about social bookmarking sites. Throughout the program I have learned a lot about social media and changed how I use social media. I have signed up for Stumbledupon and Pinterest, and done a complete U-turn on standard social media sites. I don’t like Facebook as much as I use too, and I am now addicted to Twitter. I will admit that I can be a bit of a technophobe, and sometimes new things scare me. I hope that I am over this by 40, and that someday I can be someone who is ahead of the social media trend, rather than following the trend.

I also hope you dress better than you do right now. While I have enjoyed being back in school and not having to worry about how I look all the time, I have gotten a bit too comfortable dressing like a slob. Sometimes I look homeless. I know this is not behavior will be able to get away with in the future. I hope that I have a job that allows me to dress nicely for work. On the other hand, by the time I’m 40 I hope that I have been able to curb some of my bad spending habits, particularly where clothes are concerned. It’s going to be tricky. 

Lastly, I’d like to congratulate you for making it to 40. A friend and I have big, exciting plans for this summer and like M.I.A sings, “live fast, die young, bad girls do it well.” It’s going to be a good summer, I just hope we both escape unscathed.

Tweeting for attention

This is an issue I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, responsible tweeting. In this program we have spent some time discussing image, and how our conduct and what we post online could potentially haunt us in the future. But does this apply to celebrities? I know that many celebrities seek attention, sometimes through negative behaviour. One example of this would be Whitney Cummings (most recently in TV series Whitney) who tweeted during the Oscars, “If Christian Bale murdered me I would have an orgasm right before I died.”  I know there is a high chance she is referring to his role in American Psycho and his reputation for having anger management issues. Is this okay to be tweeting though?

I have two issues with this. The first is that Cummings is supposed to be a role model for other people. I know that celebrities don’t always choose to be role models, but it goes with the territory. If you don’t want people to look up to you, or at least judge you based on your tweets, don’t tweet things for attention. Many celebrities don’t have official twitter accounts and manage to maintain a low profile. The bigger issue I have with this is that it makes a joke about violence against women. Is that really funny? I don’t know how responsible it is for anyone, famous or not, to be tweeting about that. This is an issue that still affects far too many women. Some of these women are celebrities like Cummings. One of the most infamous and recent examples is the relationship between Rihanna and Chris Brown.  

As we all know, Chris Brown beat Rihanna up a few years ago. Badly. It was during the Grammy weekend and he was banned from attending the Grammys. Well this year he was allowed to not only attend, but perform. Then Brown won a Grammy and tweeted, “HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That’s the ultimate F***** OFF!” He deleted that tweet shortly afterwards possibly because of all the spelling and grammatical errors? A little while later he tweeted, “IM BACK SO WATCH MY BaCK as I walk away from all this negativity #teambreezygrammy.” Not only did this prove he can’t spell but it also spoke to his character in ways he probably didn’t imagine.

I’m sure on some level both Cummings and Brown knew their tweets would get attention, but does that make it okay? While I believe Cummings tweet was a joke, is it a responsible thing to tweet from your official Twitter account? Obviously what Brown tweeted was not responsible, but does anyone expect him to be? At this point he is a lost cause, wasting of a perfectly good opportunity to rebuild his image by tweeting something appropriate.

While I know the importance of responsible tweeting, and do my best to not tweet things I will be embarrassed by in the future, I think celebrities should be aware of the effect their tweets have on their fan, followers and the people who look up to them. Making jokes about domestic violence, or acting like your abusive actions don’t matter anymore, isn’t good for anyone.

Social media release: a learning experience

For my online PR and social media course I was given the opportunity to work with a team and produce a real social media release for a large organization in Toronto. I decided that I wanted to work on a social media release for the Pan Am Games.

I worked with Chloe, Robyn and Heather on a social media release for the Pan Am Games. I was interested in working on this project because have read a lot about the Pan Am Games. I was also interested in this project because the Pan Am Games will have a large impact on Toronto, and I feel this piece will be a valuable piece in my portfolio.

                Our work first began on this assignment by emailing our contact to set up a meeting to discuss their wants and needs for the social media release. Our meeting with our contact took place Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 at her office. During the course of our meeting our contact explained what she wanted from the social media release, as well as the importance of diversity to the TO2015 games.  The group and I learned a lot. She informed us of the history of the games and how the emphasis on diversity will be a feature of the TO2015 games. While our meeting was very informative, I left feeling like I hadn’t prepared enough. We were asked lots of specific questions regarding our knowledge of diversity in the Pan Am Games, and I felt we didn’t know enough before the meeting.

                After our meeting we realized we would have to take this assignment very seriously. Throughout several group meetings we wrote the basis for our social media release. As a group we divided up aspects of the social media strategy, and edited it together collectively. Our contact mentioned during our meeting that she would like a roster of tweets for the TO2015 Twitter account. As part of the work we split up, I studied the Pan Am Games Twitter account  and evaluated the tweets which were currently being used. After that I wrote a roster of ten tweets which would be used on a regular basis. I also gave recommendations for other possible uses for their Twitter account, such as motivational tweets and re-tweeting major athletes who may be participating in the TO2015 games.

Overall I enjoyed this assignment because it provided an opportunity to work with a real client and create a social media release which could potentially be used by the Pan Am Games.

Why I’m unique

We all know that everyone is unique, that everyone is different and that it’s important to be yourself. We all know and understand this, but defining how you are different and unique is really challenging. I know that I am unique, but how can I convince you of that? Part of me is tempted to just come up with a list of my likes and dislikes, but I don’t think that would prove I’m unique. It might prove that we have some things in common, or I could use it as a rough draft for an online dating site.

I will start by telling you that I have a really short attention span. It has been suggested by a few people that I might have ADD. My doctor recommended getting tested but I’ve heard the test is really boring, at which point the results probably say I have ADD. This means that when sitting in class I have a really hard time focusing or paying attention to what I should be doing. The odds are high I only hear 10 per cent of what someone is saying. Don’t take it personally; I don’t always pay attention when I’m speaking either. I lose my train of thought regularly, and it’s not because I’m boring.

I also like to think I’m unique because I think I’m pretty funny. I know funny is really subjective, and for every person who thinks I’m funny there is at least one who thinks I’m really NOT funny. I would even go as far to say that I might be obnoxious in some people’s eyes. I just like to laugh and I’m not concerned with other people’s opinions. I know I will have to work on this though, especially in the workforce. Being seen as obnoxious doesn’t win respect. Another trait that I would say makes me unique is that I am really impulsive. When I want something, I want it right away. This has made for a lot of great experiences, but it has also created a lot of trouble.

To sum my uniqueness up in three traits I would say that I potentially have ADD, that I am funny (or obnoxious) and that I’m impulsive. At least I’m not boring.

Why a blog?

I have a confession: I did not decide to start the blog on my own. This blog was forced upon me, but rather than complain (which I seriously thought about) I have decided to do something useful with it. See, I am a student at Centennial College and I’m studying corporate communications and public relations.  As part of the program I have to take a course on online public relations and social media, and one assignment from the class is to create a blog. Oh fudge.

“You’re a technological idiot,” said Kim, my sister.  Clearly she had high hopes for me, or maybe she was annoyed because she can sense any problem I have with this blog will become her problem with my blog. Lucky for me, Kim is studying digital media arts, which means she has to know lots about computers, whereas I have remained “lovably” moronic about computers. She is my ultimate crutch.

Getting back to my original point, I have decided to do something useful with this blog. Besides judging stuff (which I am prone to doing) I will use this blog to share my knowledge of online public relations and social media and I will do my best to share relevant information and tips. I will also do my best to share sites that I think are fun, like stumbleupon.com (which I also used for this class). Look, I told you about that website! I am capable of sharing! So please feel free to check back here and see if I have posted anything worthwhile (honestly, it’s a 50/50 chance).

“Umm, I seriously hope that anyone who needs any advice on anything involving the internet doesn’t actually turn to you,” said Kim. I’m sure she meant it with respect and adoration. Oh fudge, again.