SoMe PR PLN

Confused by the title? Well it means Social Media, Public Relations Personal Learning Network. Crazy I know.

I have just finished a class at Belmont University about social media in pr, and one of the things we were required to do was establish a personal learning network (PLN).

Throughout the semester, we learned about:

• Facebook and Facebook pages
• Pinterest
• Foursquare
• Tumblr
• Klout
• Crowdbooster and Hootsuite
• Social Mention
• Google Analytics
• Google Trends
• Google+
• Storify
• Help a Reporter Out
• Slideshare
• Youtube
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• AND OF COURSE…blogging.

We were required to select a few of these social media platforms to use for our PLN and then GO DO IT!  I chose to use Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress as my primary PLN builders and I’ve been astounded at the amount I’ve learned from being thrust into the creative field of blogging and micro-blogging. While twitter is great for on-the-go news, entertainment, and updates, I found that my Wordpress became an outlet for a creative corner in my brain. I divided this blog into two sections: THE BERESFORD BLOG, and THE MUSIC FEEL GOOD. THE BERESFORD BLOG is my way of connecting with other professionals in the field of public relations.  I’ve been able to share meaningful presentations that I’ve used in school and in my internship. The second section (the music feel good) is a blog that is currently being developed. It is directed to music lovers of every kind. There is no genre-specific music listener that can be turned away. It is simply a canvas for creative ideas and feelings.

Since I began this journey of building my PLN, I’ve discovered that the meaningful content I post, is the content that gets noticed. I began to stray away from simply updating my Facebook friends about my day, and I’ve discovered that one can represent themselves in a professional manner if one puts in the necessary research. Since then, I’ve been listening closely to NPR, and watching news channels more religiously. If I want to keep up this professional PLN it requires planning and exercising of creative skills.

It all started as simple posts about a new product, or a news article, but it lead to executive summaries, upcoming local opportunities and  papers about the ethics of a pr professional.  While it is a slow learning curve, I’ve been able to watch which kind of content gains my blog interest.

I also found ways to link this content to all of my different social media platforms, which really helped raise the awareness of the content I was providing for a public audience. All in all, I’m excited to see where all of this takes me. I hope that I get better at social media practices with time, and I hope that bloggers can benefit from my content as I have from countless others.

I haven’t gain many followers, but the one’s that I do have usually give me a “like” or two if they enjoyed it. This has become addictive in a way. I love knowing that others have found my blog and read it.  I’ve seen my Klout score go from 28 all the way to 56! Which is a HUGE improvement. The most exciting thing however, is the people who find you on twitter and begin following you. More than any other platform, I found that industry professionals are on the lookout for meaningful information, and I gained MANY followers this past semester from people I was surprised found me.

As always, I encourage my readers to leave meaningful feedback about what they think, to ask questions if they don’t understand, and to share anything they would like on my page.  I can learn from you, and I hope you can learn from me.

Meaningful relationships come from meaningful content.