New-ish, new and student PR faces to watch out for

I have had a bit of a re-shuffle here are 'wages' towers. As you can now see from the right hand side of the page I have re-jigged my links to add more new / student bloggers. I think that reading other PR students and new starters often will provide the freshest look into an issue, as well as providing an insight as to who could be the big hitters of the future. There are some new faces in the link list and in the spirit of all the PR love and blogtipping going around, I'll go through some of them for you now.

All things PR was set up last month by Sam Oakley, who is based in the North of England. He describes his blog as 'forum for UK PR professionals of all stripes to contribute towards a better understanding of how new phenomena like social networking sites etc.. are impacting on PR here in the UK'. Sam has interests in Political PR and Public Affairs and already has a loyal following. Check out his 5 myths of the public sector.

Ashley's Blog is from another of Robert French's students. Double majoring in Spanish and PR would be a lot for most people but Ashley writes a wide range of thoughtful, insightful and sometimes funny posts. His insight into the differences between his Spanish and American experiences are fascinating.

At D-Ring PR the US army, Chipotle Mexican Grill Recipes and Public Relations are all addressed by Steve, a 24-year-old graduate of American University, working in the Office of the Chief of Army Public Affairs. Great inspiration for his Monday fun posts!

Chris Clark at Student PR already has a huge following, and it is well deserved. Although now an ex-student and working at Thornley Fallis Group as an account coordinator Chris has appeared in the FIR podcast and says 'As long as we want to work, we need to be willing to learn.' Recently he has been waging war on fake 'PR' advertisements and providing us with one of the funniest promo videos I have seen in so long.

Jeffrey Treem, of Inside the Cubicle, is an Account Executive with Edelman's Employee Engagement Practice with a 'quasi-obsession with new media'. He has his own podcast and posts about the PR working environment.

Jill Pyle has one of the coolest blog pages I have seen for quite a while. She is a fourth year public relations student at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, NS. Like me she enjoys discovering new social media and often writes insightful posts about her course and what she has recently learned. I particularly like her recent posts about her job in September.

I love Laterstudy! Heather Smith's often hilarious look at being a 'mature' student on a Public Relations course is 'about Flash and semiology and narrative and ucas forms and writing and mise en scene and spaniels and lectures and lecturers and camper vans and photography and finding the right bank account and books and other things' and very definitely doesn't disappoint or hold back! She also has one of the most comprehensive list of links for everything that a sensible UK student could ever need, and much more.

I realise that some of the people on my New / Student list have bigger and better known blogs than I, the term 'New' is for 'New to the industry' or sometimes 'New to me'. So, if you are on the list and are not mentioned I apologise and will endeavour to do you a write up in the future. You are probably just so well known that there is no point in introducing you (Stephen, Paull, Owen, Ed, Marie, Richard, I could go on...) . Like-wise if you have a new blog and want to have some link love leave your address in the comment section and I'll pop you on.

Get the Forward Podcast! Now!!

As brand new PR people, we should all be regularly checking in at Forward, not to mention downloading their wonderful Podcast. Although Forward is meant for PR students, I can't help but think that there must be some old school PROs listening in and learning as well. And as regular readers of 'Wages' will know; in my book, anything that can help stimulate continued learning, has to be pretty cool.

Especially this fortnight, where Richard Bailey (of Leeds Metropolitan University) along with Robert French (of Auburn University in Alabama) and Luke Armour ( the author of Observations of Public Relations) impart some of their pearls of wisdom to Paull Young. You can get the podcast from here.

This is absolutely essential listening to anyone hoping to have a career in PR. Especially anyone who is thinking of taking a PR degree and wants to see what they are letting themselves in for! Although in some places Forward can offer us a rather 'American' view of PR student life, it is all still massively helpful and regular contributions by some of the best PR Academics (like our Richard) help to keep it relevant no matter where you are listening.

Speading some Monday Cheer

Seriously very very funny. Perfect for the Monday Blues!

Now after me: Hamster! Dentist!...

Too Dull to Blog? Not likely!

Chris Lewis (he of Lewis PR) has decided to quit blogging, citing his reasons as

I’m way too dull to have my own blog

But all is not lost as Chris promises to continue contributing to the official Lewis blog (Lewis 360). However his words interest me - is he implying that all bloggers are fascinating? I'm sure this can't be right (but I suppose that is rather flattering).

Springboarding from this train of thought I began to think how on earth Chris can imagine that he is 'too dull' to blog. Let's have a look at his history. He has achieved so much with his Public Relations career, and I do find it a shame that he thinks that we would not be interested in learning from his experiences.

But you cannot force someone to blog (no matter how much you want them to). I must remember it is not the end of Chris blogging, merely a move. I hope that he realises that we are interested in what he says, and I look forward to hearing from him at Lewis 360.

Some new social media

Following on from my previous post on social media I have a couple of new ones I have been playing with:

If you scroll down you will see that I am playing with Flickr. I am quite sheepish that it has taken me a while to come around to Flickr. I have Bebo and Ringo accounts but Flickr seems better. I can also post on my blog from my account at Flickr which is very clever! I really like the idea that members of my family around the world can also see my pictures too, as well as having a portfolio group of pictures for potential employers.

Another social media is LinkedIn. I was actually signed up to this back in May, but had completely forgotten (it was a hectic time). This is rather like the 'old boys network' online. I currently have 10 'connections' (a bit like MySpace 'friends'), and through these ten connections I am connected, by various degrees, to virtually everyone else on LinkedIn. The programme will tell you who connects you to your ideal network person, so you know who you can ask for introductions. For example I am connected to Paull Young and he is connected to Constantin Basturea. If I wanted to talk to Constantin I could ask Paull to introduce us.

Whether LinkedIn will be used as anything other than a popularity test remains to be seen but it is quite fun, so sign me up! Who knows it may help with the job hunting too?

Seriously though - how wonderful is the Hoff?

'The Hoff' has just been signed up with pipex as the face of their new campaign. You have to love their tongue in cheek website in homage to all things Hoff.

I am loving all the retro endorsements like the Happy days theme of Citroen C3 and the 118 188 guys in their eighties sportsman glory!

Anyway it is definitely keeping me amused!

I am a Graduate!

Outside the Uni
Originally uploaded by alexpullin.

Yes I have photographic proof that I have graduated!

(This is really a test of Flickr)