Nice to be niche

I have been steadily reading textbooks for the upcoming finals and one, The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, has really captured my interest. The premise is that the value of hits (mainstream offerings, such as blockbuster films) is diminishing and being overtaken by niche and targeted products or services (the many genres of music, documentary films that never make it to the cinema). This encapsulates how the world and society is developing, with more and more people blogging, myspacing and facebooking. Choice is now neverending and we, as consumers, thrive off this. Hits are still big, but the aggregation of all of these niches, is becoming steadily more powerful than the hits. Cool hey?

This concept bypasses traditional marketing segmentation, because we can't be segmented into perfect groups. We have many interests. Me, as a vegetarian, am interested in vegetarian restaurants but at the same time, I enjoy writing comedy scripts about two carnivores. Where do I fit?

This fuels the online debate too. The PR concept of publics does not translate well on the internet. Users are so fragmented and demonstrate extremes and diversity of interests that we cannot groups publics into 'consumers' and 'politicians' anymore. Instead, we have to think about what issues are surrounding our organisation and who are involved in those issues. Activists are pretty important, but then those who may stumble across us when googling a random subject, should still be considered. Grunig will live on forever.

The choice available to us is immense and the Internet fuels this further. It is affecting our lives to no ends. My other half recently joined up to Facebook and we haven't had a conversation where it isn't mentioned (geeks to the core, I know!). I am now pleasantly surprised when my mobile phone beeps with a text message, as I currently do the majority of my socialising via social networking sites.

A very interesting and exciting development. Embrace it fellow geeks.

Futurama

Sorry for not having posted for a few weeks, but my dissertation is now bound and I can post again without feeling guilty! It was an amazing feeling when it was all bound and resembling the others in the library, made even more memorable as my other housemates, one-by-one, got theirs bound too. I was so pleased for everyone and that we'd all finished and achieved such a height.

Over Easter, I worked at a PR agency in Bloomsbury for a few days. Compared to when I last worked at an agency (during my placement year), I was amazed by how my confidence levels were much higher. Doing sell-ins, which I thought I hated, I found quite exhilirating, and talking to the team, when I would have been slightly shy, I was chatting, asking questions and being myself. It was great fun and gave me a look into how the next few years will plan out.

I know I'm organised and like to know what I'm doing pretty much everyday, so in my mind I have a mini plan for the next few years. However, I'm now trying to delete it from my memory and just go with the flow. However, I know I want a few things - living in London, still in contact with uni friends and working in PR. The rest - futurama can decide!

Anyway, back to the present. I have a weekend planned of sun, boyfriend and finishing my LAST ever essay!

Interview individuality

Having hada lull in job interviews and job enquiries recently, I have jumped back onboard the job wagon and had two interviews this weekend. It is encouraging to hear positive feedback about my one-year placement and discover knowledge of my degree. Louise Orr's post reaffirms this, suggesting that I am not the only one who is on the hunt for her perfect, first job and that I am also not the only one to have received positive feedback about her experience and degree.

I remember the day I learned of my new status as a BAPR-ite. The overwhelming excitement and pride I felt at hearing I had gained a place on my first-choice course was an amazing experience. I am so glad I came to this university and studied this course, as having done various pr work experience, I am thoroughly convinced it is the industry I want to work in. Knowing this and the respected status of my course and placement, I can only hope that my enthusiasm and personality (which I think is great!) shines through in interviews. I'm sure this is the stumbling point for not only me. On one hand you want to appear the 'perfect candidate', but on the other you want to show your individuality. This is difficult to achieve, but my personal philisophy is that if YOU will shine through however hard you try to mould yourself for the role. But, this is a positive thing. You want to ensure you are working for a company that is right for you and that you are right for. By showing your true colours, I think this can be achieved.

Pick up your litter you slobs

I read an interesting article in yesterday's Guardian, about the shear amount of litter the 10 billion plastic carrier bags given to shoppers create. Unlike the Irish Government who introduced a tax for every un-recycleable bag purchased, our Government does seem to recognise the threat litter presents. There is a disappointingly unpopular petition on the 10 Downing Street website encouraging a plastic bag tax, but this is not enough. People's whole value systems and beliefs need to change and doing this is a major challenge for the those whose job it is to do this.

Look at Keep Britain Tidy, who have been rebranded ENCAMS. Not the best of campaigning charities and obviously not doing a brilliant job, as I increasingly see people dropping litter out of their cars (their personal space) onto the road (not my space), fags nonchanontly being stamped on on pavements and permanently white streets from the never-ending amounts of chewing gum being dropped casually. People must understand that public space is their space and it should be respected. ENCAMS have a tough challenge ahead of them, but I think that with some hard-hitting campaigns and education, us Brits can show others that we really do care about the way our country looks.

Punctuation is just good manners

I made my monthly pilgrimage into Bournemouth town centre and ended up in a large high-street chain of bookshop (I think I was shielding myself from the obsessive wind and rain). I had wanted a particular book for quite a while, having had many friends raving about it, so took this opportunity to buy it. Low and behold it is rave-worthy!

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss should be an imperative read for all PR practitioners. If you don't know your apostrophes from your semi-colons you are a disgrace to the profession. A bit strong I know, but everyone should at least attempt to understand this mythical land of squiggles and dashes. Consider this; a press release that you have spent hours researching, drafting, re-drafting, finalising, authorising and then sending, and there is a grammatical error in it. Now I have had this experience while on placement and I have learnt from this intensely terrifying mistake. The message you wanted to send out to that comprehensive list of media is in tatters. Everyone is staring at your big, fat mistake. Nothing can be done about it.

Now, nobody wants to be in that position more than once and most certainly only ever in your first few months of PR working life. If it does happen, learn from it and learn grammar. I think every school should make it compulsory and especially on a PR degree. Writing is so very important to PR and constitutes a large part of a practitioner's job. So please, do it for your future. For your family. For your life. For poor, misused apostrophes who are crying at being left out or for being added on to words. Do it for them all (and don't focus on my mistakes, focus on your own)!

Young professional

With my dissertation draft due in on Monday, I find myself digressing occassionally and thinking about, god forbid, post uni! We have a few months left of a year that has literally flown by, and then what? We're on our own. No one telling us how to live our lives and what choices to make. Jobs, living arrangements, marital status; it's all up to us. A scary thought, but I find this liberating. For the first time in our life, bar those who carry on in education, we are on our own. What an amazing position to be in. Having to push ourselves to think, innovate, mke decisions.

I know of quite a few people who are already looking for jobs straight after uni. I know what they're going through. The coffee next to the offices. The hope and nervousness before the interview. The enthusiastic smile. The excitement straight after it when you phone your entire address book. It's a hard thing to do, but it's great to be in thick of it isn't it? Knowing we're interviewing to be the practitioners of the future is, at some times, incomprehensible. But it's true.

I can't wait to start my career as a young professional and I wish everyone else who is applying for jobs well (But not if I see you at an assessment day!).

A happy happy happy birthday

Well everyone you'll never be able to guess what the content of this post is. Yes it's true; it's this blogger's birthday on Monday! It's a very exciting time for me. Not only were my expectations for this year fairly low, they have been quietly heightened which is a nice surprise. I have my lovely family treating me on Saturday and Sunday, and then my man spoiling me Sunday and Monday morning, and then my gorgeous mates dousing me with alcohol Monday night. All very exciting, which I'm pleased about. Twenty two years is a difficult age to come to turns with; your youthful unresponsible days of 21 are a memory, but your life on your own terms is beginning.

With this in mind I have been ferociously commuting to London practically every week for various jobs in the glamorous world of PR. Cross your fingers for me, as I am determined to get my 'young professional' status imminently.

It's all go my end. Hope everyone else is OK.

Totally addicted to Net?

Happy New Year everyone, sorry for the belated first 2007 post!

I have been merrily doing the most tedious task I have done in quite a while. I have been writing down every 20th entry in the Hollis 2007 Directory of PR Practitioners. Amazing to think that EVERY organisation you could think has a PR team - supermarkets, government agencies, associations...Good for job-hunting though!

I had a thought about online PR. Obviously it's a growing industry and something that practitioners need to embrace and learn about, but surely one of the main limitations to the practice is getting practitioners to accept it. When our uni course commenced, our lecturer was greeted by the majority with moans and groans. As future practitioners in the industry this is not very encouraging.

However, there is a growing number of online/technology-specific agencies. I know, as I went to initerviews with two of them. They seem to be enthusiastic and contradicted the stereotypical view that everything online is 'geeky' and only for 'geeks'.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I had a great one and was extremely busy doing productive activities. My internet at home is dial-up and I was surprised by my level of frustration and helplessness with the situation. I'm obviously pretty dependant on the Internet, and I hated the fact that each web page took minutes to upload and forget the complicated pages on Myspace. Eventually I trekked to my local library to use its broadband. Thank you Surrey Libraries!