Strategically Communicating

I wish you a happy New Year, even as the first month of 2011 is half way over!  Time does fly.  Welcome to the new students in Strategic Public Relations Communications at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you  and reading the insightful things you stumble upon throughout the term.   Cheers and happy blogging!

Last night I watched 60 Minutes with the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. It was really interesting to see what he thought about the privacy settings that his website offers and the newest editions him and his team have made to increase the social networking experience for Facebook users. I never even realized that Facebook might be in competition with Google for being the top website on the internet. But in my experience with Facebook, I use Facebook as a social networking tool not a resource for factual information. To find information on anything I use Google and I don’t see myself turning to Facebook when I am researching for a paper for information. But that is just me and many other people may have different thoughts on the matter.

Here is the link to the 60 Minutes feature on Facebook – http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7120522n check it out and see what you think about it.

With the holidays fast approaching, there are a million seasonal treats that are cooked in our homes and restaurants that are deliciously tempting. I found this article from Glamour magazine that talks about the “Three Big D’s of Holiday Food” and how to avoid the worst health offenders:http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2010/11/healthy-eating-the-three-big-ds-of-holiday-food?mbid=twitter_glamourdotcom#slide=1. Note that you can follow Glamour’s health and fitness blog on Twitter and  also “like” articles on Facebook. I’ve found some great health advice just from reading their weekly tweets!

Also check out my blog for more healthy eating tips and advice: http://ryebur.wordpress.com/.

Checkout my newest blog post!

I interviewed my friend and member of Supwitchugirl, Jamie Slade, on some of his favorite aspects of tailgating. He confides his favorite tailgating moment and how he gears up for games.

http://getemgrace.wordpress.com/

As an individual who is star-struck by the sight of anyone even semi-famous, I have always been interested in entertainment public relations. You may or may not have heard of him, but Micheal Levine is one of the top public relations specialists in Hollywood, having represented many A-list celebrities such as Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz and Micheal Jackson. He also began one of the country’s most prominent entertainment P.R. firms in 1983, LCO-Levine Communications Office. This is an article with an interview I found on him, pretty interesting check it out!

http://alturl.com/ay6wz          

This is a fun article from CNN Tech about which profile pictures to avoid on Facebook. We have to be careful to choose the right picture because we’re being judged on our picture not only by potential employers but also by friends and acquaintances.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/11/24/facebook.profile.shots.netiquette/

I use Facebook as a social tool for keeping in touch with friends and family. I have a private profile and I don’t befriend people I don’t know and I remove friends if I feel like I wouldn’t talk to them if I met them on the street. So I think that I can keep my profile pretty personal, upload pictures and write almost whatever I want.  A month ago I posted a picture of me holding a gun (Pernille and I went shooting with some American friends) but then I removed it again even though a lot of people said that it was nice. I suddenly feared that people I don’t even know would be looking at my profile and judging me by it… But I kinda want to put it back on. Do you think I should or keep my profile “professional” even though I don’t use it like that?

I posted this on my personal blog but I thought it was too good to not share with the class. It is a video about people who overuse social media, acted out in the form of a parody on drug addiction (much like anti-drug commercials from the ’80s). It was created by a love and relationship website called YourTango in effort to show how important it is to take a break from Tweeting every now and then and focus on your relationships and family. I think we all probably know a person or two who is a little too obsessed with their social media. Check out the video and let me know what you think!

Check out this Ted Talks video about funky designs using sustainable housing construction by Dan Phillips. 17 minutes long but well worth it. Very interesting and funny.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_phillips_creative_houses_from_reclaimed_stuff.html

-Drew

Hello my fellow bloggers!

So I had a little blogging break through today, ten weeks in and I FINALLY figured out how to post video content onto my blog! Sure, wordpress gives explicit instructions on how to do this, but for a tech-tard like me this task was easier said than done. Looking to add an interesting element to your blog? You can find the simple steps here,  http://en.support.wordpress.com/videos/youtube/

Hooray for technical support!

I was looking at different American newspapers at the internet when I found this article in the New York Times.

The article discusses companies’ unwanted side effects of social media – how to keep track of what is said about the company on the internet. It is a delicate and sensitive topic since many companies need social media to promote themselves but at the same time they will need to “control” what their employees put on the cyberspace about the company. New technologies/businesses have been invented to store social media activities of a company but is this really how it should be done?

It seems complicated and costly to have all social media activities of a company and its employees stored. However, on the other hand I understand why this is necessary. I just thought there must be an easier way to control social media activity….

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/business/media/15social.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=social%20media&st=cse