Craigslist!

Craigslist is one of the most helpful tools on the internet for finding anything that you could possibly be looking for. For example, Craigslist is a classifieds website with listings for housing, pets, furniture, cars, jobs, classes, events, etc. People can post whatever they want on this website and have people look at it for about 30 days for free. You can post as much as you would like . People can look at the posts and respond if they want to or maybe even call if the person lists a phone number. Not only are there places for people to post items for sale, but they can also write and post on the Craigslist blog. Writing on the blog allows for people to not only make PR and advertise for themselves, but they can also open up the floor for discussion. People on Craigslist can write about many different topics such as dating, hobbies, or something that they want to sell. No matter what/who you are trying to sell, I recommend using Craigslist as a way of PR and blogging.

The "Anonymous" Internship

Since last Thursday we were talking about how we should not write about a bad internship, because the company can get upset, I decided to write about my internship, but leave the name of the company anonymous. Leaving the name of the company that I worked for to the imagination, allows for me to freely write about how awful my summer internship was, and also the PR skills that they lacked. I find it interesting that a European day spa could be one of the most hostile places that I have ever worked. Day spas are supposed to be relaxing, but the spa that I worked for proved my assumptions wrong. I was the assistant to the marketing director. She obviously had some kind of personal problem with me, because she was rude from day one although I was doing her job for her and not being payed a dime (or even receiving a "thank you").

Why is this relevant to a public relations class? For example, I had to create an event that would promote the spa. To do so, I created an event that shall remain nameless, in which I brought all of my friends to. If my 15 friends had not showed up, there would not have been many people there. Since my boss was so rude/evil to me the whole three months that I worked for her, that event is no longer taking place because the boss cannot find anyone else to work for her. She also has made my friends and I no longer want to give the spa any buisness, and lastly, the PR that they are getting from me is not exactly positive. To prove my point, when you have someone working under you and having them do your job for free (because it is an internship) for three months over the summer, you may want to consider being nice to him/her because you never know what kind of PR you are getting from your employees.

Google search engine?

What happens if you want to start a buisness website but you cannot get the website to be on the first page of Google? This is a problem that I ran into during my Public Relations for Nonprofits class. When I was typing in the name of the company, it would not come up at all and other companies with the same name would. The difference was that the company that I was trying to google was a .com, and the company with the same name was a .org. It is interesting how much two of the same name websites can be confused with each other.

When starting a website I found that it is necessary to get on the internet and make sure that those confusions are not going to be made with your company. To put all of that work into a name and then realizing that it is the same name of another company would be a disappointment. Although you can use the same name and change it to a .com or a .org, Professor Weisgerber said that you can make sure it coming up on the first page of Google by creating a page. By creating a page and sending it to google, they can look at it and see if it is "first page" worthy. If it is then you are all set but I would make sure you take those precautions before your website ends up on page 15 of Google search.

Facebook-ing

I would like to go ahead and say that I am so jealous of the guy that invented Facebook. He is now a millionaire AND got to drop out of college. He created something that will be around probably for a very very long time. Facebook connects people together in the easiest way possible. People that I have not seen since pre-school are on Facebook and can find me through simply searching my name or looking at another friends profile. I stay connected with people I grew up with, went to camp with, and people who I still see everyday. I think that we are lucky to have such a system. I think that it is stereotyped as being a college student program but in all actuality, people of all ages can utilize it. People can post what they are doing at that minute through a status application. People can now write under other people's status's making it somewhat of a blog. People can write and comment under pictured and that is also like an on going blog. I think/ hope that Facebook is around for a very long time, keeping people connected like they should.

www.facebook.com

Mac v. PC

Since the recent commercials that both Mac and PC are airing, I think that PC's really need to think of something more interesting than putting Jerry Seinfeld in theirs. The new Mac iPod Nano color commercial is fun to watch, and it made me want to go buy one even though I already have an iPod. Their commercials are made for people of all ages and would make even little kids want to go get a Nano. PC on the other hand make their commercials for a more mature audience. The commercial with Sienfeld made absolutely no sense to me what so ever and was not a good advertisement. It definitly did not make me want to buy a PC. I think that it was a good try at being "creative" but I think that they could have better PR with a different stratedgy. Maybe they could add more color or perhaps a fun song to reach some people that are younger and more "hip", which Mac reaches out to everyday. I know that i am just partial to Mac in general, because I am an avid Mac user but I think that PC could have better commercials for their own sake.

Celebrity Blogs

When Professor Weisgerber asked our class if anyone looked at blogs, I did not realize it at the time but I look at a couple everyday. I am not proud of the fact that I look at celebrity gossip almost everyday on the internet, but unfortunately it is a guilty pleasure that I have. There are two celebrity blogs that I look at all the time: The Superficial and Perez Hilton. I chose to write about these two blogs because I do not think that people normally would look at them as being blogs.

People have become obsessed with looking at Perez Hilton's blog everyday. He is practically a PR blog for celebrities, bringing them into the spotlight and showing pictures of their everyday life on his website. He usually makes an obscene remark about the celebrities and their lives but he is famous for that exactly.

I always wonder though if the celebrities get mad about what he is saying about them or if they do not care because he is giving them another oppurtunity to be in the news. Whether it is good PR or not, they are in the spotlight none the less.

http://www.thesuperficial.com/

http://www.perezhilton.com/

It is interesting how many blogs The Superficial has to itself. They pretty much have blogs about everything including the stars make-up, clothing, gossip, couples, sightings and all kinds of other stuff. I think what Perez HIlton does is very hilarious because he is not afraid to say things that other people would be scared to say. So I guess after all this time, my pre-judgements about blogging are now over.