Do people care what you have to say?

Do you have anything to say?

You’re on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You read blogs at least once every couple days and think you know a little something about social media.

But are you adding anything to the conversation?

Many students create accounts online and then end up using them to contact friends or let them die out.

What college students need to remember (and I am as guilty as anyone) is that companies want people who are active. Those who take the information out there in the socialsphere and do something in response. Post a comment on a blog. Have a conversation on Twitter, reactivate that old LinkedIn account that you haven’t touched in three months (uh…that one’s for me). Our generation is expected to know social media and be able to teach our supervisors/colleagues and others about it.

If a job description mentions social media, they want to talk about interaction, measurement and what original content you’ve created.

Challenge of the day. Go read two blogs, seriously think about the material, and post comments. You’re an overachiever? Good. Write a blog in response to one of those blogs, or a recent article you read.

Send it to me. I’d love to add it to our PRSSA blog.

Rachel McNeal
rachellmcneal@gmail.com

Branding Yourself

I learned a very important tip @PRSSA National conference in November, and that is to know who you are. You can’t be confident in what you do unless you know who you are and where you have been. Confidence is a vital necessity on your resume, in interviews and in person as it aids in landing that first job. Going into the marketing and public relations field you need to know how to sell yourself.

As I listened to the keynote speaker, Mona Pasquil, she mentioned that you need to know your story and know what defines you as a person. Asking yourself questions such as, “where do you want to be in x years? What do you want to give back? And what do you stand for?” help in aiding oneself to figure out who they are and what their stories are. Other questions such as “what do you represent?” would be good to ask yourself. You need to know where you have gone to know where you want to go. Don’t ever sell yourself short. Be confident and sell yourself because you are your own personal brand.

Natalie Stezovsky