The evolution of my addiction

I remember my first time using it. It was 2006 and I went to visit my friend Vincent, who had recently moved from Luther, Mich. to the fast life in Chicago. Everyone in Chicago was using it – it was full of color, memories, friends and expression. Vincent called it a “revolution,” and I was yearning to be a part of it. He warned me it would become addictive; I told him I don’t have an addictive personality and not to worry. I was wrong.

I’m Jamie and I’m a socialholic.

Since my exposure to MySpace during my trip to Chicago, I’ve grown to crave more social media stimuli. MySpace was the gateway to Facebook, which became my site of choice for the majority of my college years. I heard some people were experimenting with Twitter at the time, but I thought of it as a downgraded Facebook status update.

When I was on Facebook, it was like I was a different person. I was free to write whatever I felt. Everyone was using it, but some people, including me, used it too often. I began to notice changes in my life due to my obsession. My relationship ended, my grades began slipping and the happiest part of my day was seeing how many notifications I received.

Since then, my social media addiction has intensified. At Eisbrenner Public Relations, I met Holly, the social media rock star. She told me about all sorts of sites like Linkedin, Flickr, foursquare and Twitter. Turns out, the reason Twitter wasn’t fulfilling my cravings back in college was because I wasn’t using it properly. It’s more than a status update, Twitter’s about engaging with people and now it’s the place I go for news, job opportunities and entertainment.

Usually, I anticipate using Twitter for a few minutes. The next thing I know, two hours have gone by and I’m compulsively retweeting, making new connections and engaging in all sorts of conversations. I can’t go without using social media for too long. If I do, I feel disconnected from the world. Thankfully, I can tweet, update my location on foursquare and change my Facebook status from my phone.

Social media truly is a revolution, especially for public relations professionals. It’s a way to get our ideas into the world, free of cost. What started as a means for personal expression developed into a new realm of communication where people share their stories and promote interaction. Social media has already made a dramatic transformation in the last five years and I can’t wait to see where it will be in the next five.

Are you as infatuated with social media as I am? Follow my Twitter handle @JamieLMaynard. I can’t wait to get some conversation flowing!

A sight for four eyes

Today Mr. Potato Head and I dove right into work. I was given a variety of projects, each with a different scope and deadline. As I worked on each project, I kept a detailed record of where I spent my time to be sure I’m as productive as possible. Not a simple task if you’ve never done it before, but I managed to get the hang of it eventually.

Though each project was a learning experience, the review process is where I learned the most. Nothing was more important than having two sets of eyes look over my work. At Eisbrenner Public Relations it’s not just my work that gets looked over, but the entire office’s. Each piece is scanned carefully to ensure the work is accurate, because having accurate work is just as important as timely work.

I read and reread, but still made mistakes. I’m happy to have a “buddy” to ask questions and get suggestions. Holly has been terrific at helping me shape my ideas and refine my work.

Many of the edits to my work could have been easily fixed by looking closely at The Associated Press Stylebook. I now have my copy sitting within reach in my cube. As I begin to learn more about AP Style, I hope to post a few of those insights here. I’m now following the AP Stylebook on twitter, if you aren’t you should add @APStylebook for tips and advice.

I expect with time the edits will be less, and the time keeping process will become easier, but for now the Potato Head and I will be paying close attention to dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s, but most especially to only having one space between our sentences.

If you’re interested in what an intern does here at Eisbrenner leave a question in the comments section, and I will do my best to address them in my posts.

Work, Work, Work!

On my official second day as an intern at Eisbrenner, we had a staff meeting in the morning where we discussed company priorities and current statuses with clients. I learned a lot, especially that the staff here has a great sense of humor!

Following the staff meeting, I received my very first assignments. My first task was to research potential article topics for a newsletter the company would be creating. The difficult thing about this was that the newsletter would be released in September. A lot can happen in two months. I searched countless sites for interesting information on new and developing products. Finally, when I came across a few articles that I knew could be potential candidates, I submitted my topics to my mentor and she approved. I felt a wave of satisfaction fall over me. Little did I know, this assignment was not over yet.

After I finished my first assignment, it was lunchtime. Regardless of what anyone thinks, I still believe lunch is the best part of the day!

As the day carried on I received another assignment and continued to learn more about the company and public relations. Social media is a progressively expanding aspect of public relations. My job was to find local journalists on twitter that Eisbrenner could follow. I’d never used Twitter before so this was a great opportunity to become familiar with the site.

As I neared the end of the day, I was informed that tomorrow I’d be writing a small article on one of the topics I researched today for the newsletter. All that work in college was going to pay off and I couldn’t wait to start writing!

Inauguration 2009: Communication Galore

Yesterday was incredible. Not because of politics or the number of people who peacefully gathered in one place to be part of a moment in history. It was incredible because of the sheer volume of people who used new forms of communication outlets to watch the inauguration events and to interact with each other.

Long gone are the days of families sitting by the radio or the TV and simply talking about programs with their families and friends. From now on people will turn to the internet and social media sites, as well as radio and TV. There will be more two-way communication between people from across the globe and yesterday proved it.

People viewed the inauguration festivities from their TV and computer screens and listened to it on the radio. People tweeted about it, blogged about it and changed their Facebook and MySpace statuses to reveal their feelings or to describe what they were doing to celebrate the moment. These responses were in real time and allowed for communication between people from all over the world. To me, that is incredible!

The historic moment opened my eyes and revealed to me that new communication outlets will be introduced all the time and they not only influence how we communicate with each other, but it changes the way we do business and how we handle various situations. We are more interconnected than we’ve ever been and in the PR realm it’s so important for us to stay current with these changes because it will help us do what we do best – communicate and build relationships!