Til death (or PR) do us part

With Thanksgiving Day quickly approaching, I figured it would be more than appropriate to blog about the time demand that the public relations industry puts on its professional. As I sit here on the greyhound bus making my way down to New York City for Thanksgiving break, I can’t help but think of what my life will be when I graduate from this program and enter the world of public relations. Will it be what I expected? Will I be happy? But most importantly, will I have to give up my personal life to be a success?

I didn’t give any of this much thought until now, because I was so excited to be entering a new industry; One where I can exhibit my skills and talents. However, on Thursday night as I got ready for bed, the program I was watching was interrupted for some breaking news: “SU’s assistant basketball Coach Bernie Fine accused of sexual molestation." I was shocked! I quickly jumped online and started reading up on the story. The story broke so late at night that I was actually surprised. Then, I thought, “OMG his PR team must be going crazy!”

That’s when it hit me. I’m studying to be that PR person!

How many Thanksgivings, Christmas’ and ballet recitals will I miss because I’m busy dealing with a PR crisis? How many family functions, nights with the girls, and date nights with my husband will I have to cancel or run out on because of work? This worries me because I don’t only want to be a PR professional. I also want to be a mother, a wife, an aunt, and a friend, but will I miss out on all of that because I’ve chosen such a fast-paced and highly demanding career?

I’m not going to say that I’m not worried about the demands of the career path I’ve chosen, but I can say that being at Newhouse is preparing me to deal with the rigors of the PR lifestyle. I’m learning to balance school work, volunteerism, social activities, and personal time.

Although this career is very demanding on my personal time, so far I really seem to be enjoying it. I'm starting to think that PR may not be my career for my entire life, but I'm interested to see where it will lead me.

I hope you are enjoying the road that you have chosen. Drive safely my friends!

Do you know your social media?!

Take a look at the image to the right. How many of these social media buttons can you name?

At best I can say that I know 13 of the 30. That's definitely terrible for a someone looking to go specifically into managing social media as a public relations function, but honestly not that bad seeing as though social media has recently gained mainstream popularity within businesses.


So what social networks do these buttons belong to? Looking at them from the top left-to-right, we have:

• Blogger
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• RSS
• Flickr
• Friend Feed
• Friendster
• (I actually couldn't even find the name of this one, so if you know the social media network please comment below.)
• Google
• Last.fm
• Linkedin
• Livejournal
• Ma.gnolia
• Mixx
• Myspace
• Netvibes
• Newsvine
• Picasa
• (Please comment if you know this one too!)
• Reddit
• Stumble Upon
• Technorati
• Twitter
• Vimeo
• (I know this girl, but of course I'm drawing a blank. Please comment if you know her name.)
• Wordpress
• Yahoo!
• Yelp!
• Youtube

So why is this important? Hop in and come for a ride with me across the break and I'll be sure to give you the details of why this applies to us all...