Young PR

PR Students and Faculty: Join PR Open Mic

Written on May 13, 2008 – 3:01 am | by Paull Young

My good friend Robert French has done the PR world yet another service, this time starting up PR Open Mic a social network for PR students and faculty to get together alongside practitioners and move our profession forward.

If you’re a student you’re an imbecile if you don’t join up. It’s easy, it’s free and it’ll help you get ahead. There’s an impressive faculty line up already headlined by the one and only James Grunig and supported by some of my favorite educators like Karen Russell & Kaye Sweetser from UGA, the smartest man in the world Richard Bailey and even my old mentor from CSU Bathurst Donald Alexander.

Others have said it better than me, so let me share some endorsements:

Robert French is very passionate about this community, and you can’t help but get caught up by his enthusiasm:

One place for all PR students and faculty to meetup and mashup ideas about emerging digital media. That’s been my dream.

Sure, we’ve been creating our blogs and podcasts. We’ve been following each others writings and media. All fun. All good. But, there really hasn’t been one place for everyone to do a meet and greet … until now.

PROpenMic.org is the place.

I’m seeking your support, please. Share PROpenMic.org with your students, fellow faculty, PR/Marcom colleagues and more. Sign up yourself and there is a very easy “invite” process for you to use. Thank you.

Phil Gomes is right amongst it and even though he sits towards the top of the industry he is still the most active practitioner at the site (check out his ‘Ask Phil‘ series of short videos):

Bravo to Robert French, who launched PROpenMic — a Ning-based network for students and educators.

I’m very much looking forward to participating here, focusing most of my contributions in the “Ask Phil” group that I’ve started and, of course, chiming in wherever and whenever I can.

Shel Holtz, who’s one of the leading thinkers in online PR and a very strong influence on yours truly had this to say:

Students ask good questions, as evidenced by the discussion forum, which is host to queries like, “What do PR writers REALLY have to know about AP Style?” and “Maximizing PR when there really is no budget.” The events section is getting loaded up with conference and podcamp info, and nobody seems shy about uploading photos and videos.

I know that I’ve been blessed to have been able to learn from the likes of Robert, Phil and Shel through actively getting involved in the PR blogosphere. However, I know the blogging route is not for everybody. PR Open Mic offers an easy access point for any PR Student, along with the opportunity for active learning alongside peers, educators and potential mentors around the world.

Get into it! And once you’re there, add me as a friend

PS: I’m not posting much these days so I’ll throw in a couple of extra tidbits while I’ve got your attention.

If you’re under 26 years of age and work in a PR agency, please take a minute to complete this survey (a study from Oregon educators and PR Open Mic members Kelli Matthews and Tiffany Derville). The survey touches on some really important issues for the industry as a whole, but especially our generation of millenials.

Also, I’m proud to be a member of the new Brazen Careerist Network, set up by Penelope Trunk and a number of young entrepreneurs, it’s a great collection of content produced by and for young people across a range of industries. Take a look!

Posted in Blogging, Networking, New Practitioners, Online PR, Students, Workplace Issues, word of mouth | 2 Comments »

The Universe is Made of Stories, Not Atoms

Written on April 18, 2008 – 2:13 pm | by Paull Young

I was walking back to the office past the New York Library on one of New York’s first lovely April days when I spotted this on the sidewalk footpath.

Love it! I think I’ll print this photo and sit it on my desk. A mission statement of sorts for the new generation of PR professionals.

Posted in Blogging, New Practitioners, Online PR, Students, word of mouth, writing | 6 Comments »

Hi From BlogHer Business with Windows Live Writer

Written on April 3, 2008 – 8:57 pm | by Paull Young

At the BlogHer Business conference today with my client Graco. Hell of a crowd, testing out the funky new Microsoft Live Writer program - Frank Arr and Nick Hodge would be proud…

UPDATE: Here’s a quick video the BlogHer team took with my ugly melon and Microsoft’s Sara Ford straight after I wrote the demo post above:

Posted in Blogging, Event Management | 2 Comments »

Young PR in the News

Written on March 21, 2008 – 3:04 am | by Paull Young

***WANKER ALERT***

This week I’ve been lucky to be able to share some opinion about my online work and play in the mainstream media, and I’m left feeling damn lucky I work at Converseon because these opportunities wouldn’t exist in many other places.

Yesterday afternoon I was a guest on FOX Business ‘Happy Hour‘, and here is the clip:

(RSS Readers, please click through to the blog for the full video of my interview)

My CEO Rob Key was speaking at SES New York, so I had the good fortune of being able to stand in and share some thoughts on social media and small business. I doubt there could be a better venue for me than a TV show filmed in a bar, even though it was more than a little odd to be at a pub wearing make up and drinking water.

Thank you to all the friends who sent me some love on Twitter, Facebook and email - it means more to me than you know :). The intelligent and entertaining gentlemen over at PR Newser (a blog I’m growing to love on the NYC PR scene) picked it up in their usual snappy style, and I haven’t listened yet but I see Donna Papacosta has talked about it on her brilliant podcast (Donna, I hope you were positive! A lot of my interview craft I’ve learned from listening to you ;)).

Earlier in the week I was quoted in an great article in the Christian Science Monitor focusing on online ethics. I was certainly the least intelligent person quoted (some genius in Doc Searls & Dan Gillmor) but I’ve long been passionate about trust and transparency online and the WOMMA Code of Ethics gives some great structure to lean on.

Sorry for the tossing, we’ll return to normal service (well, the same inane drivel) immediately.

Posted in Blogging, Converseon, Marketing, Media Ethics, Media Relations, Online PR, Workplace Issues, word of mouth | 8 Comments »

Social Media: Does Your Brand Have Substance or Spin?

Written on March 19, 2008 – 11:47 pm | by Paull Young

I took this snapshot with my phone at the only Aussie pie shop in NYC and it immediately reminded me of many of the big brands I talk to about social media.

Many giant corporations look at social media as a means to build buzz and appear innovative (read: look hip and cool), but there isn’t always substance and commitment behind them. In reality, the best possible gains will occur with a complete cultural shift leading to deeper relationships with your stakeholders.

Does your brand have the balls for this? Or, like the “suggestion” box above, is it just lip service?

Posted in Blogging, Marketing, Online PR, word of mouth | 3 Comments »

Moniker Maladies - Myth or Method?

Written on March 12, 2008 – 3:27 am | by Paull Young

How much does your name influence who you are? I’d have thought bugger all, until The Atlantic pointed me to Moniker Maladies: When Names Sabotage Success by Leif Nelson and Joseph Simmons.

From The Atlantic:

The authors argue that our preference for our names is so strong that we unconsciously gravitate towards people, places, objects and outcomes that begin with the same letter as our moniker. Mary is more likely to marry Mark, drive a Mazda and move to Maryland than is Virginia, who is more likely to marry Virgil, drive a Volvo and move to Virginia.

The study found that professional baseball players whose first or last name started with the letter K, which apparently is the symbol for a strikeout (???), struck out 18.8 percent of the time, while other players only struck out 17.2 percent of times they headed out to the plate.

Sounds like BS? Yeah, but also consider some other research that shows MBA students with a name led with a C or a D tended to end up with lower grade point averages.

At first I smirked at this… than I remembered that my blog Young PR is not named for my career choice, but for my name - Paull Richard Young. Hmmm…. maybe if I get bored of this communication stuff I’ll try psychiatry, paleontology or perhaps something else starting with P.

Does this mirror your life? Leave a comment (but please, only if your name starts with P, R or Y).

Posted in Blogging, Humour, New Practitioners, Students | 10 Comments »

The Great Digital Opportunity: Build Yourself a Knowledge Network

Written on February 26, 2008 – 5:08 am | by Paull Young

My Yank readers will no doubt be familiar with the painful Verizon ad campaign ‘It’s the Network’. Essentially, the campaign features an army of helpers backing the lucky Verizon customers. Despite the fact the commercials shit me to tears, they provide a good metaphor for the greatest opportunity for individuals in a social media world: the ability to build yourself a knowledge network.

I speak here from personal experience. I’m relatively new to the agency game, heck I look like a 16 year old if I don’t put a collar on. However, my clients and other contacts often comment that I’m wise beyond my years (I’m not trying to toot my own horn here, because you’ll see very soon this isn’t based on me being particularly smart or talented: It’s the network.)

Working in a social media space that is so new, different and down right scary for traditional marketers means that I’m educating clients and pushing prospects towards new ways of thinking on a daily basis. It’s a lot easier than it sounds though, because in every new business pitch, big client meeting or training session I walk into, I’m not alone. I’m backed by a network comprising some of the best and brightest in the business, and I’m also lucky enough to count most of them as mates.

Notice the Network backing the Verizon customer in the above vid. I’ve got a similar crowd standing behind me on a daily basis. Except they’re not a faceless mass, they’re Trevor and Peter, Shel and Neville, Richard and Robert, Todd and Kevin and countless more brilliant communicators who’ve been teaching me on a daily basis for the past couple of years. Not a day goes past that I don’t draw on knowledge I’ve gleaned from my many social media mentors.

I feel this could be the greatest opportunity social media offers digital natives and the smart companies that employ them. On a personal basis you’ve got an opportunity to extend your ability through your own knowledge networks. The smartest of smart companies out there should also be considering how they can help their employees build knowledge networks inside and outside the corporate firewall to extend their know-how, brainpower and wisdom.

I’ll follow up with a post with some tips on how to go about building your own knowledge network. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think. This is a concept I’m still thinking through, and I hope I don’t come over a tosser using myself as an example - but it’s from personal experience that I know that the main reason I’m good at what I do, is the network I lean on. I should add that each of you who comments here is of course a big part of my knowledge network - especially if you’re someone I’m reading, following on Twitter, connecting with on social networks or contacting personally on a daily basis.

Posted in Blogging, Marketing, Networking, New Practitioners, Online PR, Podcasting, Students, Twitter, Wikis, Workplace Issues, word of mouth | 12 Comments »

Australia Says Sorry

Written on February 12, 2008 – 7:46 pm | by Paull Young

Today every proud Australian will stand a little taller as the Australian Government Parliament formally apologises to our indigenous aboriginal people for wrongs committed since our nation was colonised 200 odd years ago.

This is an important symbolic step for my nation and I’m really disappointed to be removed from it. My Aussie political antennae are out of whack thanks to the distance and I can’t help but wonder if the news I’m reading online and having relayed to me by friends and family is accurate. Are Australians really enthusiastically embracing reconciliation? Or is xenophobia and racism still lurking below the surface, out of view of Parliament house and all the visible statements of support?

And then this morning, Facebook brought me one of the most heart warming surprises I’ve had for a while. As I scrolled down my news feed I noticed that Steven Noble had updated his status to ‘I’m sorry’. Then a mate from uni did the same. followed by a bloke I used to work with. I clicked through to my friends’ statuses and found a grassroot movement underway as Australians from all walks of live change their Facebook status to ‘is sorry’ today as a small gesture of support for reconciliation. It’s so simple, yet so powerful - reconciliation has been a hot issue in Australia for years, but here, hundreds of regular Australians are expressing to their most important constituency (their friends and family) their support for reconciliation, and lending their own voice as a nation says sorry.

Once again, thank you social media - you enrich my life. Thank you to the Australian Government, for doing what is right. And for what it’s worth “Paull Young is sorry” too.

The Australian Government’s Parliament’s official apology (via the SMH):

I give notice that, at the next sitting, I will move:

That

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

Posted in Australian Media | 11 Comments »

It’s a Sign!

Written on February 9, 2008 – 7:34 pm | by Paull Young

This morning I treated myself to a classic diner brekky with my old mate the NY Times. As I knocked back coffee #3, I spotted an obituary paying respects to ‘The Sign Guy’:

Known as the Sign Man of Shea, Mr. Ehrhardt brought his big bag of 20-by-26-inch placards to dozens of games each year, from 1964 through 1981. Like Hilda Chester, the cowbell clanger who roamed the aisles of Ebbets Field in the heyday of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s, Mr. Ehrhardt became a stadium fixture. Cameras zeroed in and fans hooted when he unfolded his signs.

In an interview with The New York Times in 2006, Mr. Ehrhardt said, “I just called them the way I saw them.” In fact, he was well prepared to call them when he saw them. Choosing from the approximately 1,200 signs he had at home, Mr. Ehrhardt would, he said, “crystal ball what might happen that day,” by reading newspapers to learn who was hot and who was not.

Ehrhardt’s passion demonstrates the human desire to have your message heard. And something tells me if The Sign Guy was starting out today, he’d be a blogger. In many ways, the passing of The Sign Guy could be emblematic of the passing of the old media establishment.

Posted in Blogging, Media Ownership, word of mouth | 3 Comments »

A Message to the Yanks

Written on February 8, 2008 – 4:31 am | by Paull Young

My fellow Converseonite, mate and life coach Bryce Tom sent me the following email today - and an as an Aussie living in the US it had me belly laughing.

A Message from John Cleese
To the citizens of the United States of America:

In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy). Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary.

1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix -ize will be replaced by the suffix -ise. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).

3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell- checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of -ize. You will relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.

4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.

6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

7. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

8. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

9. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline)-roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

11. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager.
South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting Nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. [Note from Youngie: The focus on South Africa here is innacurate, I’m sure he meant Australia]

12. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie McDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

13. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don’t try rugby - the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us. [Again - he missed the Aussies]

14. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries. [What is with the obsession with the bloody SaFa’s? They only had any cricketing success by paying off the opposition]

15. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

16. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

17. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; strawberries in season.

God save the Queen.
Only He can.

John Cleese

Posted in Humour | 10 Comments »