Done Vida

Join AJF PRSSA for their 17th annual Organ Donor Day TODAY on the Student Center Patio from 10:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Organ Donor Day promotes organ donation awareness throughout the Rowan University campus and Glassboro community. This year’s event will include live music from Lady Radiator, Ocean the Legend, Genna Kline, LP Stiles and Dan Wythoff.

Speakers from the South Jersey Coalition for the Gift of Life Donor Program will recount their personal life-saving stories.

It's a beautiful day so come rock out with us and learn how you can save lives.

Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN

The news today has reported that actor Ashton Kutcher has challenged news station CNN to a popularity contest via Twitter. Both are racing to gain one million followers on their respective Twitter sites. Kutcher explained, "I found it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter. So I just thought that was just kind of an amazing comment on the state of our media, and I said that, if I beat CNN to 1 million viewers, then I would ding-dong ditch Ted Turner -- because I don't think it's gonna happen."

Is Kutcher making a valid point through his “contest” or is this just another ridiculous use of an online form of communication? Does this “contest” validate Twitter as a useful site or prove, to the opinion of many, that Twitter is an infantile waste of time?

Many readers might breath a sigh a relief- According to the article, “As of Wednesday afternoon, Kutcher's Twitter account had 896,947 followers, putting him in third place in the number of followers. Britney Spears was in second with about 905,640 followers, and CNN's breaking news account was watched by 937,787 people on the site.”
So maybe some of us don’t want to see Britney Spears’ Twitter as the second most popular, but at least CNN reigns number one. Let’s make sure it stays that way- Start clicking.

Introducing the Wisdom-of-the-crowd Publishing

Publisher of Wikipedia speaks about using a Wiki Successfully: Jimmy Wales

View his interview on not only succesfull Wikis, but the future of Wikia.com

-Reach out to the community
-Find avid users
- Authentic: Don't go at it as a "PR Puff Piece"
-Engage in dialog.
-Let go of the control "Bare to be Hands off"
- You can't delete bad reviews or else fans view the site as illegitimate and will leave.
-Except that the community is not always going to go your way.
-If they are fans don't like it, you probably did something wrong.

Car Advertising gets a Makeover

With our current economic state it is no surprise that car sales are down. In efforts to appeal to young drivers, the new Nissan Cube has partnered with TBWA\Chiat\Day ad agency to position the Cube as the latest "Mobile Device."

TBWA\Chiat\Day is responsible for creative work behind the iPhone as well. Read this New York Times article to learn about the new campaign targeted at young drivers.

What do you think of this approach to advertising cars? Is it strong enough to battle the economy?

Your Friendly Neighborhood Facebook

Browsing CNN.com proved to be pretty interesting over the weekend. A video has been posted about a man, Al Chapman, who had both of his trucks broken into. Chapman’s GPS, XM radio, and radar scanner were stolen from the two vehicles.

His wife was able to network with neighbors on Facebook to catch the thief and alert police who were gathering finger prints from the scene at the time. The 18-year-old suspect lives only a few houses down from Chapman.

“Catching criminals on Facebook” could be the new thing. Anyone out there interested in doing some private investigating? Facebook could be your personal outlet for your CSI addiction. Oh, and let us know if you catch anyone.

Obama Ignorers Tradional Press

Professors have ingrained the traditional communications model into our heads throughout all of college telling us that the sender sends the message through a channel---where it hits heavy turbulence due to noise—then it is decoded for the audience.

For President Obama and his communication team, the noise and decoding is critically damaging their message. The Washington news corps and news commentators everywhere deconstruct and put their own perspective on the message before it even gets to the target audience. By this time, the audience forms an opinion based on what the decoders say, rather than forming their own opinions based on the original message.

For President Obama, the traditional model is not working. Politico signals the end of the honeymoon phase between the press and White House and the beginning of “hazing.”

To fight against the press, Obama and his team have a new strategy: to go beyond traditional news sources and address more liberal and local news sources. This will hopefully ease the commentary and allow an environment where audiences are directly listening to the White House message before hearing the analyzed and sometimes interrupted version of a message.

Through addressing sources like the Huffington Post, Obama hopes to avoid skeptic journalists putting their own spin on the White House Message.

A Rowan Alum's Journey: What's this Cover letter you speak of?

By: Dan Linn

You know

It’s Funny

About 300 PR students,

And over 700 Advertising and Communication students

Attend Rowan University,

Every semester with the sole purpose of attaining a job and start their career. But a simple yet all important aspect of attaining said job is rarely ever discussed. A cover letter provides a potential employer valuable insight into your writing skills and personality traits. The body you can highlight any skills or accomplishments that separate you from other applicants.

However it can be a double edged sword. An employer may find a glaring spelling misteak or even a misplaced comma, or colon. It’s important to go over your cover letter with a fine tooth comb, because first impressions can be hard to shake.

I thank you for your time, and hope someone actually reads this thing.

Respectfully,

Daniel Linn