Stephanie’s Blog

Today was voting day.  I went to my designated poll and entered the building.  I had never voted at this particular place before so I wasn’t absolutely positive where to go.  I walked down the hall and ventured into the room it seemed I was supposed to be in.  No one was there to direct me or help me find my way.  I entered the room and went to the line designated for the letter of the alphabet that fit my last name.  I waited in line for about five minutes and then moved up to the table where I handed two nice women my drivers license.  They flipped through the numerous pages of names to make sure mine was listed.  They found my name and allowed me to sign in.  I watched one of the women as she proceeded to highlight my name.  The only problem was that she highlighted the name directly below mine, and failed to highlight the name correctly identifying me.  At first, I thought maybe I saw it wrong so I didn’t say anything.  After further glancing at the yellow name highlighted, I realized that the woman had in fact highlighted the name directly below me and that my name had not been accounted for.  I’m sure the woman made an honest mistake and before I was able to say anything I was handed my ballot and told to go to the next room to make my selections.

Here in lies the problem…..the person whose name was highlighted directly under mine may decide to go and vote today.  When they get there to cast their ballot, there will most definitely be a discrepancy as it will appear that they have already voted.

The lack of consistency and the presence of mishaps such as these lead me to doubt the system we currently have in place.  Mistakes like these should not be taken lightly and I hope that more were not made.  No wonder there is such controversy following major elections like the one today.  When things like this happen people lose faith in our democratic system and fear that their vote is not really counting.

Recently posted in Auburn University’s Campus Connection (a student communications tool):

KPMG LLP AND COLLEGE OF BUSINESS TEAM UP TO DEVELOP ACADEMIC PROGRAM
The Department of Management and the School of Accountancy have partnered with KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, to develop an interdepartmental, interdisciplinary, academic program in information assurance. The program, a 15 credit-hour academic minor, is designed to prepare students to assume the technology- and information-intensive roles of the post-Sarbanes-Oxley business environment.

I think that this is a step in the right direction for our business program at Auburn.  Having learned about the current Sarbanes-Oxley business world from a PR perspective, I was surprised to find out that many business students do not even know what the term Sarbanes-Oxley means.  In order to produce accountable and transparent business professionals, it is imperative to provide educational resources that will equip our students with the skills and knowledge necessary to perform at the highest standards in the business world.

Through my on-campus job with Auburn University, I have been exposed to the internal communication tactics that the university uses to communicate between departments and offices.  I work for the student employment office, which works very closely with human resources in order to get new student employees processed and entered into the system.

I have also been exposed to the many new ways in which communication is being achieved these days, and the technology that can allow for easy and efficient communication.  Auburn has not caught on to any of these new improvements in technology.  I assumed that much of what my job would involve would be completely on the computer, but much of the work is still paper being delivered from one office to another, to another.  Mistakes are frequent, and things are often lost.  It is probably the most inefficient system I have ever seen.

When I question why things are done the way they are, or why they can’t be changed, the problems are blamed on another department.  No one knows why things can’t be changed and no one even knows who to talk to in order to get a more efficient system in place.

Internal communication and relations are extremely important to an organization, especially one as large as Auburn University.   Currently, I am not impressed with the communication efforts at work within the Auburn University system.

This past Thursday, October 12, 2006, I became engaged!  This whole experience has taught me a lesson about how things spread by word of mouth.  Although the proposal was kept a secret from me, it seems that everyone else in the WORLD already knew about it.  Following the proposal, I quickly realized how fast things could really spread through a network of people.  One person calls another, someone bumps into someone else, they call their friends, and the news continues down the grape vine.

I have been given a new perspective on how effective word of mouth marketing can be when it applies to a brand or a company.  People will always talk and now that we tend to put the most trust in “someone like ourselves” this chatter that is taking place is the key to propelling brands and companies into positions of success.

Today, Rick Murray of Edelman Worldwide PR, visited my Style and Design for PR messages class. Rick focused on the emerging future of communications and the implications it holds for the marketing and PR professions.

Although our teacher, Robert French, has been preaching this to us since the first day of class, it finally set in for me today. Rick put things into a perspective that was more of a “big picture” point of view. Instead of focusing on blogs, social networking, wikis, etc., Rick basically concentrated on the fact that communications as we know it is forever changed.

Today, the traditional advertising model is broken as well as the traditional PR model. We are in a time of “conversation.” Right now, conversation is being achieved through blogs, social networking, and other forms of social media. Tomorrow and in the future, these forms of conversation will be surpassed by bigger and better things. According to Rick, MySpace will be replaced by something new and blogs will eventually evolve into something new and improved. But the bottom line we must face as hopeful PR practitioners is that the changes are here to stay and by embracing them and learning them now, we will be a far greater asset to our future employers.

Recently, I came across the link to one of the newest social media resources. Avalaible in the form of an e-book, “What is Social Media?” is an excellent resource for anyone interested in becoming more familiar with the growing phenomenon.

Published on September 25, 2006, the new resource addresses topics such as defining social media, how social media works, blogs, podcasts, social networks, and so on.  Produced by Spannerworks, the guide says “Social Computing is not a fad. Nor is it something that will pass you or your company by. Gradually, Social Computing will impact almost every role, at every kind of company, in all parts of the world.”

This statement, appearing directly after the table of contents of “What is Social Media?,” clearly demonstrates that social media is not something that can be overlooked.  Those weary of the growing phenomenon would be well-advised to go ahead and embrace the up and coming technology.  “What is Social Media?” is the perfect tool for anyone who is ready to become a part of the growing reality of social media.

I recently read a post that described a new social networking site that is geared towards people of older generations, specifically 50 and older.  I found myself wondering if this were a worthwhile tactic to reach the older audiences.  I know that as time passes and generations mature into those that we refer to as the older crowd, more and more individuals will be utilizing computers and social media as a way to gain information and stay in touch.  However, I feel that in the current day and age, the tactic of trying to reach the 50-plus crowd with social media networking may be slightly premature.  I understand that the social media industry is booming everywhere else, but I feel that it will be slow to catch on with this older demographic of potential users.

Computers are still a very intimidating form of technology to many in the older generations.  Although more and more are starting to catch on and are becoming more comfortable with the technology, I believe that there is a long way to go until social media can have a significant impact on these individuals.

I recently came across the link to a video known as EPIC 2014.  This video is a prediction of how our culture will be shaped by social media and where it will take us by the year 2014.  Although it is based on hypothetical assumptions, in my opinion the video presented a very plausible prediction of how things might be changing in the years to come.  This video emphasized the aspect of social media that takes news reporting out of the hands of journalists and gives the power to any individual that is willing to seek the facts and report on them through some internet or social media outlet.  It forecasts the New York Times going offline and becoming avalaible only to the elite and elderly.

EPIC 2014 is a fictional representation of what might happen in the upcoming years, but it is also not something to be easily dismissed.  If you are interested in what the future could possibly hold for our world and our lives, take a look at EPIC 2014.

A recent post by Kami Huyse shared some information that I found to be especially helpful to me as a student.  The post, titled 5 tips to get the Media to Love You shared some very insightful information about how PR practitioners can take a few easy steps to gain the respect and maybe even “love” of the media.  With no real world PR experience under my belt, I was not aware that the media might be predisposed to “hate” me because of my involvement in the field of PR.  After reading the post by Kami Huyse I now understand that a tension does sometimes exist between PR practitioners and the media, and several things can be done in order to gain the respect of those in the media profession.  As a student, I am so thankful for this kind of real world advice and I look forward to learning about more of the situations that will be facing me when I begin my career in PR.

A recent statistic indicates that MySpace leads the pack in social networking sites.  Thefacebook comes in second.  As a facebook account holder, I felt that it was not necessary to create a profile on another social networking site.  I know many people that have a profile on each site, but they tend to utilize the MySpace site more frequently because of the greater options that it provides. 

As a student at Auburn University, I saw first-hand the effects that facebook could have on college students.  I can only imagine the distraction that two different social networking sites would provide.  For me and many of my friends, facebook was a short-lived fad.  We wasted enormous amounts of time on it at first, but then the appeal quickly faded.

It leads me to wonder if MySpace will continue to hold its members attention, or if they, like myself, will soon lose interest.