Right, this is my first blog and I have attempted to write this about 1,000 times. Seriously, I am not even exaggerating. Most people that know me will know I am not normally one to mince my words, but because I want to create the right impression, I am struggling.
In PR and life in general for that matter, you are constantly told first impressions count and as this is my first blog, I want people to get the right first impression of me. Do I start by writing about something highly intellectual that even I don't really know what I am waffling on about... people will think I am highly intelligent, praise me for my innovation and will never know I didn’t really have a clue what I was writing about, or do I write about something obscure and interesting and think ‘outside the box’ (like we are constantly told to do in PR) ... people will then think I am destined to be in the PR industry and will be talking about ‘that blog’ for years to come.
Surely, this is just PR gone mad. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought a blog was supposed to be something that was written relatively quickly just to gain a reaction and provoke discussion. I am sure that I am not alone in this either, most of my other friends at university have had to write a blog and I am sure they have also sat there for hours deliberating about what to say and how to say it.
What I am trying to say is as PR people, are we so aware how important it is to manage reputation that we are becoming too obsessed by it? Is it infiltrating into our own lives?
Join me on my travelling adventure! I have recently completed a degree in Public Relations and Communications and I am soon off traveling for six months. I want to see if travelling the world can enhance my PR career!
Maybe the problem is thinking of a blog as a way of managing your reputation, rather than as a tool of two-way communication about issues that people care about. Really good bloggers just ditch the self consciousness and get stuck in... But practice does make perfect, so I recommend making comments on other people's blogs is the equivalent of bicylce training wheels. So, get into the saddle and start peddling!
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