In praise of student bloggers

Come and guest blog was my call to action to students as a start point for building an online profile. Almost a month later half-a-dozen people have taken up the opportunity. The project has brought fresh voices and new visitors to my blog and I’ve had the chance to meet some interesting people online at the start of their careers.

Here’s what they’ve learnt.

"The chance to guest blog was not only a great experience of how to write a blog but the feedback from friends and future employers was great. It is such a great way to get interesting ideas out there and develop a new skill."

Amy Williams - Landing your first public relations job

"This opportunity has made me realise that social media is very powerful. Everyone says it constantly, but you don't truly believe until you experience it yourself. A single tweet escalated to a guest post on the blog of one of the industry’s most influential professionals, generating great feedback and discussion. Public relations is all about joining the right conversations."

Nawal Leon Kurson - Time to challenge Grunig

"It's a great project that has helped to connect me with other practitioners and PR students. The most enjoyable part has been reading the other guest posts, taking in their stories. I now feel quite strongly connected to these people despite having never met.

Stephen Johnson - Starting out in a regional agency

"Writing a guest has reinforced just how important the power of digital word-of-mouth is to the PR industry. Within just a few days of posting this I had already received comments from prominent PR practitioners and had it picked up by the CIPR Conversation blog."

Nicholas Horbowyj - Studying public relations as a mature student

"Since writing my guest post about how I blogged my way into a job in PR, I’ve been tweeted by academics, professionals and students alike to say they thought my Raising the Profile project was a really good idea.  So much so, one lecturer used me as a case study following on from his digital PR lesson."

Ann-Marie Bailey - How I got my first job in public relations

Old hands have also got involved. Thank-you Rachel and Howard.

It’s an initiative that I’m going to continue. If you fancy having a go please drop me an email with a suggested topic and I’ll help you figure out how to present your ideas. Each post consists of a headline, 400 to 500 word post, a short bio and photo.

As I said in my original post, get cracking. You’ve no time to lose.

Photo by Maria Reyes-McDavis via Flickr with thanks.