Friday Marks First Ever HAPPO Day

The rise of social media and slowly recovering economy have contributed to a five percent rise in PR spending over the last two years to $3.7 billion. Help A PR Pro Out, or HAPPO, is a recently created online network of PR pros dedicated to helping their unemployed colleagues and recent grads connect with newly hiring employers. The ingenious idea was created by pros Arik Hanson and Valerie Simon who were seeking a solution to unemployment for their seasoned, talented and worthwhile freeagent PR friends.

The first ever HAPPO day will take place this Friday, February 19, 2010 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET on Twitter. Any communicators seeking employment are urged to participant by writing a creative and informative blog post explaining to prospective employers why you deserve a job. Post the blog link in a Tweet indentifying yourself as a PR job seeker and reach hiring managers by using the hash tag #HAPPO. Prospective employers will also be using #HAPPO to post job opportunities.

PR pros are also hoping to build a huge online network by using the #HAPPO hash tag when talking about anything PR related on Twitter. Finally we're using our own social media skills to help out our PR community! As soon as I got wind of #HAPPO I was excited of the possibilities it offers to grads seeking entry level employment.

I've already reached out to the #HAPPO community for tips on creating a blog post and I'm amazed at the overwhelmingly warm and helpful responses I've gotten within minutes of my Tweets. The #HAPPO community has given me the following tips to keep in mind when writing my blog post for Friday:

• Make the post both informative and catchy - as always, BE CREATIVE!
• Include information about why you want to enter the PR field, what internship/ job experience you have and how you already use PR in everyday life.
  
• Find a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd.
  

One of the Tweeps who responded to my query directed me to a fellow PR blogger's site where his #HAPPO blog had already been posted. Wanting to do her part for the #HAPPO effort, blogger Lauren Novo interviewed five PR hopefuls and posted their responses to her blog for Friday's tweeting. The questions that she posed to the PR employment seekers included 'What is your background in PR?, 'What are your PR passions?' and 'Where can employers find a copy of your resume'? Click here to read all five blog posts.

I will be posting my own #HAPPO blog here for Friday's session in addition to Jaime Scofield's weekly post in hopes of at least building my own PR network, if not finding job opportunities! Keep up with all of the excitement on Twitter by following @Helpaprproout, @arikhanson and @valeriesimon. Good luck, and Happy HAPPO-ing!