Happy Social Media Day!

Mashable, the number one social media blog in the world, has declared today as Social Media Day- a day dedicated to celebrate the revolution of media becoming social, honoring the advancement in technology that has allowed us to connect with and engage people all over the world.

So how are we all celebrating this new holiday? By being social! There are more than 600+ meet ups in 93 countries today with thousands of attendees and people all over the world are making status updates in honor of this much deserved day of recognition.

Here is message from Mashable's Founder and CEO, Pete Cashmore to explain the reasons, ideals and goals behind Social Media Day:




And also thanks to Mashable, here are some great ways to get involved today:

• Watch the live streams worldwide.
• Tweet: Use the #smday hashtag on Twitter. With so many participating, we should be a trending topic on Twitter on June 30. Also, we’ll soon be announcing a prize for those that tweet or post to Facebook.
• Comment via Facebook: Go to Smday.com and leave a comment either promoting your meetup or tell us what you’re doing for your event.
• Meetup everywhere Mashable. Sign up to attend an event!

So how are you going to celebrate the first ever Social Media Day? Let us know!

Major Flop for the New Apple iPhone? Don't Believe the Hype.

With an average four hour wait in line and an estimated $1.5 million in sales, it appears as though Apple has another success on its hands with the new iPhone 4.

However, rumors have been circulating across the web about a massive recall due to signal issues when the iPhone 4 is held a certain way. Many of these rumors were sparked from tweets that were being broadcast from @ceoSteveJobs, an obvious parody account that states so in the bio. However a tweet from the fake account stating, "We may have to recall the new iPhone. This, I did not expect," was enough to convince the UK publication The Daily Mail to write an article that resulted in the spread of a world wide rumor.

As the Mashable article goes on to state, it is hard to imagine that Apple was not aware of the signal issue and that ultimately, the engineers decided it was a worthwhile trade-off for improved reception.

Although it may be hard to believe that such a fake Twitter account could result in hundreds of articles, this is not the first time a parody account on Twitter has received large amounts of attention. This is why Twitter has taken the necessary precautions into verifying the accounts of important people and publications as an attempt to prevent occurrences such as this one.

What NOT to Do During an Interview

If your behavior during your job interviews is making your interviewers wonder if Ashton Kutcher is going to pop up to tell them they have been "Punk'd," then you probably are not going to land any jobs.

Believe it or not, some hiring managers claim they have wondered this while conducting some interviews. Luckily, the Wall Street Journal has provided a list of "Eight Mistakes Job Hunters Make" to help you avoid becoming an interview to remember- for the wrong reasons.

1. Entitlement Syndrome: Asking your interviewers to take you out to lunch or to correct mistakes on your résumé is not going to impress them.

2. Behaving Rudely: Bringing along your child or eating a sandwich during an interview would not only be distracting, but also very rude. Other examples of rude behavior reported by hiring managers include showing up more than an hour early for interviews, interrupting interviewers in mid-sentence, refusing to fill out a job application and referring hiring managers to their résumés instead.

3. Acting Arrogantly: Having your phone ring during an interview AND taking the call gives the impression that you think you are a shoo-in for the job or are not interested. Other candidates have shown arrogance by demanding to bypass human resources, inquiring about salary and job benefits at the start of an interview and insulting former employers.

4. Lies, Lies, Lies: Telling lies about previous experience, taking credit for work you didn't do and inflating your salary will not make you look good once your interviewer catches on.

5. Dressing Down: Some interviews may be less formal than others, but it is never appropriate to dress down. Jeans, flip-flops, and tight or revealing clothing are never appropriate for a job interview.

6. Oversharing: Your interviewers are not interested in your personal issues such as your health problems, your love life or your financial hardships. This information can-and most likely will-be used against you.

7. Saying Thanks with Gifts: Sending a thank you note is a definite do after an interview, but sending a thank you gift says you are trying to buy yourself the job and will most likely knock you out of the running.

8. Sporting a Mom-and-Dad Complex: Having your mom or dad accompany you to an interview or email the company to ask why they haven't extended an interview to you does not send the message that you can handle matters maturely and independently.

While some of these may sound far-fetched, they are based on real experiences reported by hiring managers! To read some of the actual stories they told the Wall Street Journal, click here.

Figure it out!

Are you a PR student? If so, like many of us, you are probably using the summer months off from school to develop more experience in the industry as a PR intern. Lauren Novo recently posted a blog post about achieving success as a PR intern.

Please make sure you read her post, as I found it very insightful. In it, she offers six tips for getting the most out of your internship while giving the most to the company for which you are interning.

The tip that struck me the most was the third tip on her list, "don't ask what you can figure out for yourself." At first I thought this tip sounded rather harsh. After thinking about it more though, I came to see it as very wise.

Last summer, I completed my first-ever internship. Perhaps because I was so inexperienced in the industry, I would ask thousands of questions and was almost crippled by my paranoia that I follow every instruction to a "T." While I continue to believe that asking questions is one of the best ways to learn, I saw a lot of value in Novo's suggestion. This is because I would spend a lot of my day walking to and from my boss's office, which took a lot of time away from my projects and also caused many disruptions to her day.

This year, at my new internship, I've learned that it's best to sit down and try to figure things out on your own first. If there seems like there should be a simple answer, most of the time it's because there is. And plus, you were hired for a reason; the company would never have chosen you for an intern if they did not have faith in your abilities and qualifications.

The bottom line is that it is always better to ask a question than to make a huge mistake. At the same time, though, I would agree with Novo in that some of my best learning experiences as an intern occurred in situations in which I prevailed over a problem and completed a task on my own from start to finish. When you do have questions, I am a big fan of Novo's suggestion that it is best to save questions in a list to consolidate interruptions to your supervisor and to save time.

Death of the Business Card

We have written to encourage our student readers to purchase business cards. But wait! Read this post before you purchase any. Business cards may be old news.

According to “Why Your Next Business Card May be Virtual,” an article on mashable.com, people may be forgoing paper business cards for trading numbers. Even though the business card may not be completely dead, its popularity is being threatened by the use of smart phones and their apps.

According to Josh Catone, author of the article, he still collects stacks of business cards at networking events. But once he collects them, they sit on his desk in a pile until he collects others, throwing the old ones away. Catone questions what the point of them is if they sit on a desk in a pile never getting used.

Networkers are using their smart phones more than ever to exchange contact information. There are even apps that allow for the easy exchange of information. With the expansion of what technology can accomplish for us, the business card may not last long.

What do you think? Is the business card dying or will it always be a social ritual?

Read the full article here.

This guest blog was written by staff member Evan Nicholson.

Mexico is Buying U.S. Out

Do you know who owns Thomas’ English Muffins, The New York Times newspaper, and Saks Fifth Avenue? - Mexican corporations. Mexican investors are taking advantage of low interest rates and diminished prices during the economic downturn in the United States. They are buying U.S. brand names, expanding their U.S. operations, and increasing their investments in U.S. firms.

Such companies are going to need good public relations to overcome the animosity that comes with foreigners owning U.S. businesses. There are also many stereotypes to defeat, such as the businesses being bought with drug money or by illegal immigrants (even though what they are doing is not illegal and they are not immigrants).

Some even think Mexican investment in the U.S. will benefit both countries. It could create more jobs in the U.S., while also helping to strengthen Mexico’s economy. Other products currently produced by Mexican owned corporations include: Entenmann’s pastries, Arnold Bread, Boboli Pizza Crust, Dairy Fresh Milk, Net10 cell phone service, Borden dairy products, Flav-O-Rich milk, and Straight Talk cell service.

Do you think Mexican corporations buying U.S. businesses is going to create ill feelings with the U.S. citizens and a need for good PR, or do you think this is merely another facet of globalization?


This guest blog was written by staff member Trish Wyatt.

Introducing our New "Alumni Thursday" Blog Series!

It's official.... after Brianna Fisher's popular "Hello Real World, it's Nice to Meet You" post, we have decided to bring back a few other of the fabulous grads for our new "Alumni Thursday" blog series throughout the summer. We will have three PRowl Public Relations alumni writers: Brianna Fisher, Melissa Marsili and Crystal Wang.

All three graduated in May 2010 and have gone on to pursue various endeavors in the PR/marketing field. I'll let the girls introduce themselves:

Brianna Fisher
"I work for Vault Communications in Plymouth Meeting. Vault provides public relations, social media and marketing services to our clients. I'm assigned to one account - AMResorts. They have more than 20 resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. My account work consists entirely of social media management for these resorts. I also support several of our other clients including the Mark Twain House, Heartland Payment Systems, the National Pest Management Association and Tastykake."

Melissa Marsili
"I work for the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce (GPCC) as a Partnership Marketing Associate. GPCC promotes growth and development in the Philadelphia region as well as advocates for sound public policy. I write sponsorship proposals that are sent to members for our events, sell website advertisements and work to engage high-level members of the Chamber."

Crystal Wang
"I've made the move to the Big Apple, where I'm interning at Bullfrog and Baum, an award-winning agency specializing in hospitality, lifestyle and consumer public relations and marketing. I'm currently working in the hospitality division directly under Kay Lindsay, Vice President of Hospitality and Susan Hosmer, Vice President of the company's West Coast offices. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to combine my interest of public relations, gastronomy, and the restaurant hospitality industries."


The series will begin next Thursday, July 1 with a post by Melissa. Enjoy!