Twittering About Life

 My Advanced PR Writing class was assigned to use Twitter.com for 48 hours. We had to post at least five times during that period. We modeled the assignment after a similar assignment from a University of Georgia PR class.

Twitter.com describes its self as “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” It is a free social networking site that allows its members it post updates whenever and about whatever they want.

My experience with Twitter.com was an interesting one. I found myself updating continuously, when I thought that I would have trouble remembering to do it.

I can see a great value in Twitter.com as a PR professional. It could be used as a way of brainstorming ideas with fellow colleagues across the nation. It could also be use for promotional uses or could even just be used to keep in touch. You could even use Twitter.com to discover what interests you share with other professionals in the field. It is a great networking tool for anyone in PR or other media professions.

Now that I have discovered the wonders of Twitter.com, I can’t imagine life without it. I find myself on the site constantly.

Great Professionals, Right in Our Own Backyard

The University of Oregon has numerous professionals that continue to excel in their respective fields. Julie Brown is one of those great professionals you see walking around campus.

Julie Brown works for Public and Media Relations at the University of Oregon. On Tuesday Jan. 21, Brown came into my Advanced PR writing class to discuss a campaign she worked on with Columbia Sportswear Company.

She discussed the campaign of the Titanium brand. Columbia Sportswear was looking to market its Titanium brand to a younger audience. It was such a cool campaign. It involved a video-submission contest where the winner attended an intense heli-ski trip to Alaska! It was interesting to hear what it was like working for a huge corporation like Columbia Sportswear. Julie gave and awesome presentation that explained how she and her team members were able to bring to life the campaign that helped bring the Titanium brand, of Columbia Sportswear, to the attention of elite snowboarders. 

This is the kind of work that I would love to end up doing for the rest of my life. I want to work with big retail corporations and help run campaigns for them. I sat there literally fascinated by what Brown had to say.

After she concluded the presentation I had to ask her some questions that I have been dying to ask. I ended up asking almost all of the questions in the class. She explained what it was really like working with a agency and with a retail corporation like Columbia Sportswear.

She explained to us that corporations, like Columbia Sportswear, often hire PR agencies to come in and help their internal PR people run a campaign. She explained that in most cases, the internal PR people are a small group of professionals handling the media relations and often need the extra help and expertise of an agency when they want to orchestrate an elaborate campaign like the “Titanium Challenge.” When the larger agencies come in they help to elaborate and make the campaigns run more smoothly. It was really a great chance to get feedback from a professional.

She was so nice and it was awesome that she was actually able to come in and visit us. It really was an awesome experience. It just goes to show what great resources that we have at the University of Oregon.

My Passion for PR

Writing has always been a passion of mine: Ask anyone. My interests outside of school are what drive me to excel in my academics. I am a public relations major at the University of Oregon. I would love to attain a job in PR that I can completely absorb myself in.  I have thought that Corporate PR, Technology PR, Sports PR, Fashion PR , Celebrity PR or Travel/Leisure PR are the areas that I see myself working in. However, I am still undecided. That is what this blog is for. I am trying to decide were my interests lie in public relations.