Deirdre Breakenridge

I recently participated in a webinar for the Ocala Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association. My topic was building social media into your business plan. Social media is a game changer for business and as a result companies are rethinking resources (people), process and technology .

Today is the PRSA T3PR Pre-Conference chat session. We have several of the program’s speakers joining to participate in our session. If you don’t know @prsarahevans, @missusp, @jacobm, @sandrafathi and @eschipul, you can get to know them a little better and learn more about what they will be discussing at T3 on June 11th. At 3:00 p.m. EDT, these experts will give you a prelude to the T3PR Conference by answering the following questions:

Today, conferences and events take on a PR 2.0 approach by promoting engagement long before the conference begins. Participants are encouraged to get to know the speakers and form relationships with other attendees prior to registration in the physical setting. Rich Teplitsky and I are the co-chairs of the PRSA T3PR Strategic Views on Technology and the Changing PR Landscape Conference in New York City on June 11th. Our approach and goal for this conference is to let everyone engage through social media before the event, and get the conversations going so that we’re all comfortable IRL (in real life). We want this program to be more intimate; when everyone meets in person, it should feel as if we’re old friends.

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff was an excellent book and I felt that the book deserved a two-part review. I mentioned in my last review that I found so much helpful information in Part I. Well, Part II was no different. The second part of the book actually went deeper into how to energize and embrace the Groundswell and how to create an organizational environment where your employees can accept the change as well. Organizational behavior and cultural shift is an area of great interest for me, and a favorite topic to discuss in my own presentations.

I thought one of the most important questions during the Wednesday night #PRStudchat Celebration of the Class of 2010 was, “What is your advice to the Class of 2010.” The response was overwhelming and advice was offered that touched on everything from how to network and excel in your career to PR accountability and ethics.

As this year comes to a close for the students of the Class of 2010, I wanted to take the time to highlight a few of the seniors who went above and beyond in the #PRStudChat community. Although there are so many bright and talented students in the class, I’d like to share my feelings about working firsthand with Angela Hernandez (@angelahernandez), Mikinzie Stuart (@mikinzie), Brittany James (@bitty_boop) and Lauren Novo (@lmnovo).

On Wednesday, May 12th at 9:00 p.m. EST, #PRStudChat is celebrating the Class of 2010, with a special Twitter chat session that focuses on our graduating seniors, their college experience and what they learned about the field of public relations. Both Valerie Simon (@valeriesimon) and I are very proud of our graduates. We feel especially close to this class because we’ve all learned so much from each other this past year, in our #PRStudChat community.

I spoke at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference (#PRSA_DI) yesterday in NYC. Because I ran short on time, I was only able to answer one question. The question related to the media in the social landscape, and what was the best way to reach out to contacts about your news. I said it varies depending on the relationship whether it’s a journalist or a blogger, you have to know how people want to be contacted and you must build a relationship with them.