A sticky situation

In one of my favorite classes, Public Relations Methods, with Dr. Larae Donnellan, every class we would start the lecture with a discussion of current news and the Public Relations issues that are involved with them. I'll continue that tradition here on the blog (it was one of my favorite blogs).

Today, as I was reading associated press stories (a daily habit), i read an update about the case of the Salmonella found in the peanut butter. I'm sure most of you are familiar with this case, but just in case i'll bring you up to speed. A peanut butter plant in Georgia had substandard facilities with roaches crawling around, among other things.

Anyway, in the U.S. there have been eight deaths and one of the largest recalls by the FDA in national history. Now, as more facts come out, more issues arise. New info surfaced showing that there was repeated testing by Diebel Labs employees who tested and found the salmonella present in small quantities at the plant but tested again until they found a negative, failing to instruct the plant to throw all the peanut butter out. Now, as this unfolds, i'd like to give a idea on what i think the government and the factory should do to restore public confidence and fix this mess.

First, the plant needs to be closed. After eight deaths and such poor conditions, the plant must be closed. That's the first step. Second, there needs to be tighter government regulation, because a failure of this stature is absolutely unexceptable. I mean, just a short time ago, we were balking a China for having lead in toys and tainted infant formula, and now, on our soil, this?

Now, i beleive that an announcement of new, tighter regulation by the federal government and closure oif the plant are the only way we can get out of this mess? A future PR practioners, what do you think will and should be done?

Social Media Tools YOU Need to Know

Being a senior PR student, I personally love to know all the ways I can become more competitive as a PR practitioner. I want a good job with a good salary, as I’m sure you do too. In order to be competitive, we all need to be up to date with the different types of media that are evolving every day. With the world moving into an era where I believe traditional media will be obsolete, I looked up social media tools that PR graduates should be experts in before graduation.

Take a look…

• Blogging-This isn’t as simple was one would think. It does take some time to get a grasp on what you would talk about. First, you need research other blogs and observe them for a little bit. Secondly, you need to participate in someone else’s blog and then you should be good to start your own blog. A great place to check out some blogs is www.technorati.com.

• LinkedIn-Did you know over 30 millions professionals use this to exchange information, ideas and opportunities? Yeah, I didn’t either until I just visited the site. But I will tell you, I’m signing up on this as soon as I’m done blogging! (I will update you how I feel about it.)• Twitter-So…What are you doing? Well that’s what Twitter wants to know. Twitter is another social-networking site that allows users to send and receive user’s updates. Did you know that Obama allegedly Tweets? Hmm…

• YouTube-Now everyone knows how to view YouTube but did you know this is actually a great researching site and is not only a place to look up goofy videos or view our favorite music videos. I know when I interned last summer in New York City, I was assigned to do a project where I had to research companies and see what YouTube videos were posted on them and present them to a future client.

• Podcasting-This is a form of audio broadcasting on the Internet. For example, let’s say you live in New Jersey (like me!) and you really miss that morning show that you used to listen to all the time before you came to FAMU. Well great news! You can actually get the podcast of that station and put it on your I-pod. How exciting!

• Flickr-This is an online photo and video management site. I personally am not too familiar with Flickr but you can check it out at www.flickr.com.

• Facebook, MySpace (social networks) – Do I really need to go into explanation about these? Oh, and a little advice, you should invest in deleting all of those pictures you don’t want future employers to see.

• Wikipedia- An online encyclopedia. And guess what, you can create your own wiki. Go crazy kids!

• Google docs, chat, groups, etc.-These are just chat rooms and groups that you can participate in.

• RSS feeds and aggregators- If you’re in Dr. D’s class know that RSS means really simple syndication. (hint hint)

• Social bookmarking (del.icio.us) – “del.icio.us is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source.”- www.delicious.com Another site I’m not too familiar with.

• Search engines including blog searches

• VoIP, such as Skype-This allows you to make calls from your computer to other people on Skype, landlines and cell phones.

Well if you made it all the way to the bottom, I appreciate you taking the time to learn how you can become more competitive as a PR practitioner.

Talk to you later!

Kiah

Welcome to our blog!

We are Kiah, Mandla and Nicole, senior public relations students at Florida A&M University. Kiah is from New Jersey, Mandla is from Oakland, Calif. and Nicole is from Kalamazoo, Mich.

As a team, we will regularly be posting our ideas, thoughts and research about the effects of social media on FAMU pr students. You will be able to find new posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Talk to you soon!


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." -Aristotle