Deirdre Breakenridge

I’ve been following @adamvincenzini’s experiment, a year without newspapers, for several weeks. With a strong interest in media and the changing PR landscape, I decided to interview Adam to learn more about his motivation behind this project.

It wasn’t so long ago that I was sitting on a Brand Hackers panel in New York City debating who owns social media. It was the public relations professionals vs. the digital creatives. Unfortunately, the conversation was off to an ugly start and the debate became heated. Now, for those who know me, you must have heard me say on Twitter, Facebook, on my blog or at one of my speaking events that “no one really owns social media, but we all play an extremely important role.”

As you may know, I love spending time on Twitter. I’m meeting new people every day who share similar interests. Most of the people I follow contribute to the community with information on PR, PR 2.0, Social Media, technology, marketing, branding and business. When someone requests to be my friend, I still take the time to review his/her profile and I check out any links to websites, if they are provided. I also review their tweet stream to see if they share a passion and enthusiasm for the subjects that I like and see if they discuss articles or topics that have retweet potential. It’s really important that when you make a connection with someone on Twitter, from that point forward the communication is meaningful and you’re finding value from your new friendship. After all, social networking takes time and energy. From experience, I can say that it’s worth the commitment it, if you can grow your network, learn from others and create some mutually beneficial relationships.

The blog post “Is PR Right for Me?” generated a lot of interest this past week. I thought it would be great to do a reverse interview with a PR student. I wanted to get a future professional’s perspective on the public relations industry, focusing on the excitement and challenges that a student experiences today. Angela Hernandez, who is the president of PRSSA at CMU, participated in the interview. She is pursuing her degree in integrative public relations and will be graduating from CMU in May 2010. You can also check out Angela’s blog, In The Lede, where she discusses her journey as a PR student.

I just finished an interview with Angela Hernandez, the President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). I was very happy to interview with Angela because the topic, “Is PR Right for me?” is important for the growth of the public relations industry. We need to attract future PR leaders who are the best and the brightest. Garnering the experience of industry professionals and having them share perspective is a great way to motivate PR’s next generation of experts.

I’ve written a couple of posts recently that focus on the importance of technology and how it’s critical for PR people to explore and get up to speed with the latest applications and resources not only for their own agencies but also for their clients. That’s why I thought it would be a good idea to do an update on the new developments at TEKgroup International.

There’s always a tremendous amount of discussion around the Social Media Release (SMR). I still have executives asking me about its value, whether is it necessary to use, if it the SMR should replace a traditional release and the list goes on. I remember in 2007 when I first interviewed Phil Gomes, SVP of Edelman Digital, in my book PR 2.0, New Media, New Tools, New Audiences, he knew that the SMR was a useful tool for all companies, not just technology firms. I agree with Phil and have been using the SMR with great results.

I met Lee Miller, an expert on influencing, social networking on Facebook. Lee teaches Influencing and Negotiating at Columbia University and Seton Hall Business School. He is also the author of UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective – The Art of Getting What You Want featured on Fox and Friends and the co-author of A Woman’s Guide To Successful Negotiating (McGraw Hill) selected by Atlanta Woman magazine as one of the fifty best books for professional women and a featured book on The Early Show and Good Morning America. As a principal in NegotiationPlus.com, Lee advises, trains and coaches in the area of influencing and has developed critically acclaimed training programs on influencing for leaders, and virtual influencing and multi-cultural influencing.