I was incredibly impressed with Washington State fans this past weekend. I knew Auburn had a huge fan following, but I had not expected Washington State to bring so many fans to Auburn. It was great to see them walking around soaking up the southern tradition of football.
But something that troubled me was that they all bought Auburn merchandise. I didn’t understand this, so I asked a lady about it. The answer was simple, “I’ve never done this before.” I haven’t either and don’t ever plan on it, but we appreciated her money at the store.
I hope all the fans enjoyed being in Auburn as much as we enjoyed them being there. But our friendly days are few and far between. Next week when LSU comes to town, there will be little friendly conversation.
The Columbus Northern All-Stars won the Little League World Series today. As a former little leaguer myself, I am incredibly excited for them! It was the first time in many years that the U.S. had won back to back Little League World Series by different teams. Does that mean that the U.S. will begin to dominate the Little League World Series? I doubt it. But I am excited for the team out of Columbus that is only 35 minutes up the road.
I am impressed with these kids. They make plays that those playing college ball don’t even make. I am not sure how many of these kids will turn into professional baseball players, but I know this for sure: They will NEVER forget winning the Little League World Series!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations!!
Believe it or not, I have not fallen off the face of the earth….just my personal blog. I have not had as much time as I would have liked to do everything this summer. So I had to make some sacrifices. One of my sacrifices was my personal blog. I completely abandoned it for the summer, but I hope to have a new post for you in a couple of weeks. Until then I bid you adieu!
P.S. If you just love my writing, which I doubt anyone does, you can see some of my summer stuff at Forward.
I was a little behind on my RSS feeds, but I came across and interesting one today by John Wagner. The post was about having to have balance between social media and the “real†world. He has come to the conclusion that he should live a little and blog a little. And I agree with him that you need to do both, but to what extent should you do both. It was at this point I started to think about what blogging has done for me this semester, and what I am going to do with blogging in the future.
It seems to me that it would be hard to keep it 50-50. I keep a balance of about 90 percent living in the real world and 10 percent living in the blogosphere. I won’t lie I would rather live in the real world than sit and read blogs, but at the same time I enjoy reading blogs because it is very good for me.
So here is my dilemma…how involved is involved? I personally only post once a week or so. So can I honestly say I am involved in the blogosphere? I am not sure that I can, but yet I feel like I am part of it because I am posting in the blogosphere. So that brings me to the next question… is my blogging doing any good?
Right now it is because I am getting class credit for it. But what about next week when I am not getting class credit for it? Will my posting once a week do me any good? I tend to think it won’t because people aren’t reading my blog daily if I only post once a week. But at the same time it is helping because I am reading and writing about issues in PR and making contacts. Thus, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.
So I guess I have a choice to make; am I am going to be a more involved in the blogosphere or more involved in the real world? I wish I could answer that question right now, but I just don’t know.
I am a little nervous right now. Not only do I have a HUGE project due tomorrow (thanks Robert), but I just read that Steve McNair may be released by the Tennessee Titans.
I know that football is a business, but there is absolutely no loyalty anymore in professional sports. There have been numerous examples of athletes playing with a team for his or her entire career and then being released or traded in the 15th season or so.
A couple examples:
• Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz. I don’t know the stats, but he had been there his entire career. I am pretty sure he was the all-time leading scorer in Jazz history and they traded him to the Lakers.
• Frank Thomas and the Chicago White Sox. He had been with the White Sox for around 15 years and the year after they win the World Series he is dealt to the Oakland A’s.
It just bothers me to see that organizations are soooooo worried about money that they forget what that athlete has done for the organization. In the case of Steve McNair, he led the Titans to the Super Bowl and AFC Championships. In the case of Karl Malone led them to the NBA Finals only to lose to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
I am not saying that they should always keep veteran players because sometimes veterans can’t play very well anymore. But to kick a player out of town that can still play just because he costs to much money is absurd. If he can’t win games then yeah depart ways. But if he can win games show him some loyalty.
By the way, Steve McNair can still win games!
I was shocked to read the headline “PR Needs More Men-Proctor-Rogers†It was a headline at O’dwyerspr.com. (Thanks Jack for letting us use your site to our advantage.)
Proctor-Rogers is the PRSA president and she wants more men in the industry. Everyone in the PR industry knows that there are more women than men. But usually no one is calling for more men in the field.
Usually women are calling for more women to be allowed in more leadership roles. By the way, I would like to see more women in leadership roles, but that discussion is for another day.
But I found her argument for wanting more men to be a very interesting argument. She was saying that clients sometimes only hear female sides of an idea or issue. It isn’t because they are more dominant with a client, but that there just aren’t enough men to go around. So the advice that is given has not always been tested by every perspective.
I am not saying that women don’t give good advice or perform good work. I am saying that the more perspectives the better. It is too easy to get comfortable if everyone agrees on the same thing. It might even lead to poor work because people aren’t examining the entire situation.
I am currently working on a MOCK press kit for my PR writing class. My organization organizes a music festival in Tennessee. My big selling point for my music festival is that Pink Floyd will be performing. Pink Floyd kept touring until about 1995, but without Roger Waters. Waters left the band in 1985 and that was the last time I consider Pink Floyd playing together besides last July.
Well, my wish is almost my command: Roger Waters, the bassist for Pink Floyd, has scheduled a North American tour. It will be starting in September and ending in October.
This absolutely makes my day. I want to see the band as a whole, but as a fan I am realist and know it will most likely never happen. So as a fan I must go see Roger. But the problem is none of the shows are anywhere close to me. So I have decisions to make. Will I drop everything to go see Roger?
There is only one band that I would drop everything to go see and that is Pink Floyd. I don’t think I will drop everything just for Roger. As of right now I may have to miss Roger. I hate to admit that, but it may be the reality of the situation…I’ll keep you posted on my decision.
I am not exactly sure how this fits into PR, but it was an interesting headline. The headline was “Calif. Students Forced to Use Buckets as Toiltets.”
Apparently, the principal at Worthington Elementary School can’t read very well. She was going to put the school on lock down to keep students from going to protests. So she implemented the nuclear attack lock down. Where students are to use buckets instead of toilets.
This may be a very competent woman who made an honest mistake. So I’ll allow her to make an honest mistake, but FOX News has done something that I don’t agree with.
It framed the headline to sound like that students were being treated cruelly. On normal circumstances I would not agree with what the principal did, but she misread the guidelines. She implemented the guidelines she read, but they were wrong. And she made a mistake. But she was trying to keep order in her school and I can’t blame her for that.
But to frame the headline to make the story sound worse than it is wrong.
So here is my point: headlines can be very deceiving. I know the purpose of the headline is to get people to read the story. But making something sound worse than what it is, is a very questionable practice.
I wear glasses/contacts ALL the time because if I don’t wear them I can’t see ANYTHING. My sister works at an eye doctor and gives me the extra contact solution. So I haven’t bought contact solution in about 2 years, which is fantastic.
But she sent me an e-mail the other day telling me to go buy some contact solution because Bausch and Lomb was temporarily stopping shipments of the contact solution that I use because of some recent fungus that may be associated with the contact solution..
I read the press release and I thought to myself,†How would I handle this situation?â€
Contact solution is used everyday. That aspect speeds up the crisis management plan because the consumer has to go and purchase a brand new bottle of contact solution immediately. So how do you not lose previous consumers to another brand of contact solution?
I would agree with the CEO and say that the consumer’s safety is the number one priority of the company. Bausch and Lomb did this and proved that desire by pulling the questionable contact solution off the shelf. But will that alone keep consumers? I don’t think so.
Unfortunately, I think consumers are going to be lost. But I think the previous steps above will help in limiting the number of consumers that are lost.
I have already switched companies, but only for a temporary time. I am going to give Bausch and Lomb a chance to improve its product. But if it doesn’t then I am gone to Alcon.
Bausch and Lomb has a sticky situation now, but will have an even stickier situation if it is proven that the contact solution causes the fungus.
Erin Caldwell wrote a post at Forward about blogging about job and internship interviews. I think she is right on the money. I personally want to use my blog to help me get a job not hinder me.
I feel that if I write specifics about companies and interviews it could hinder my chances at the internship or job. It is hard not to have a favorite, but what if my favorite isn’t even thinking about hiring me?
All I have blogged about is how great it would be to work for such and such a company and they aren’t even considering hiring me. But this other company who I haven’t even blogged about is actually thinking of hiring me. But that company willl read my blog and think I have a chance with the other company or have no desire to work for it. Thus I don’t get either job or internship.
That is not how I want my hunting experiences to go.
I would rather stay away from blogging about my hunting experiences and blog about the job or internship I got. It is a lot more fun to announce you got a job or internship than to say you interviewed for one. Don’t you think?
I have yet to get an internship or a job. But I guarantee that the day I get one you will know about it.
