Yes, you read right, I am courageously stepping up to the plate and publishing a post on what I think the experts should be doing and why the non-experts appreciate it. Brazen? Yes. Harmless? I hope. As bold as it sounds, I am posting on behalf of many new blogging students—both timid and tense, myself included—who have been required to break into this blogosphere and Web 2.0, and who find it both exhilarating and terrifying to not only try and sound like we have something worth saying, but also to try and get the PRos out there to listen. Myself? I have enjoyed this experience more than I could have ever imagined. I have a large sticky note (the lined, rectangle shaped kind, which, just happens to be my must-have for every-day functioning) in my planner with scribbled post ideas that I frantically add to in class, walking on campus or sitting in my room when a “brilliant” (yes, in my mind =)) idea comes to mind. Blogging has forced me to find a voice that I am unable to utilize in most of my academic writing. I love writing in a conversational tone and in one that, should you one day meet me, you could perfectly equate with my speaking style. Yes, I have taken to social media through blogging, a podcast (which, again, I actually enjoyed!!) and even a profile on Twitter. Now, having made my way into the bubble, I want to RESPECTFULLY draw attention to what some wonderful PRos have done for me, and use them as suggestions for all the experts to welcome the new generation of PR bloggers into your coveted world.

1. Read our blogs.

You may not like us, in fact, you may have read one too many poor posts that has turned you off of young PR bloggers forever. However, what we do best as students is learn. The first way to find out if we have something worth reading is to take a chance and glance over a couple posts. Most of the PRos blogosphere is connected enough for PR professors to get the word out that their students are blogging so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a new voice. One visit may be enough to decide we aren’t the “project” to sweep under your wing, but lord knows we would love our blog stat to tick up once more.

2. Comment on our blogs.

Liked what you read? Think we had an ok idea worthy of your time? Tell us!! I still remember the grin slicked across my face for a good twenty minutes after reading the first comment on my blog. Didn’t like what you read or think we should have approached/discussed the topic differently? Tell us!! Again, I am a professional student and I have spent the last 16 years listening to instruction and criticism. A suggestion or constructive criticism for a comment will elicit that same silly smile as mentioned before. One apprehension in student blogging is we feel no one is listening. Who cares what we write? No one is going to read this and moreover, no one is going to care. At worse this sentiment will start reflecting in our posts. At best this sentiment should drive PRos to let us know we have a potential audience and it’s our job to earn it. After my first comment I wanted to write better than ever. At least ONE person is listening, I thought, and I wanted my post to seem worthy of a second view.

3. Respond to our comments.

In my PR class, commenting on posts is a requirement, and again, a task approached with nervousness for fear of “sounding stupid,” only this time it will show up for tons of other people to read, including the author!! Contributing to the conversation with comments is something I have struggled with. Agreement is easy. Adding something new is much more difficult. Some of my comments I feel are stronger than others, and only one comment have I found a response to when I re-visited the PRos website. The response to my comment not only validated what I believed to be a new thread in the dialogue, but it gave me a glimpse of what an appropriate and useful comment is, and helped direct me toward a format for commenting in the future. Again, someone was actually listening to what I had to say and it was not only appreciated, but also useful for helping me understand how a successful dialogue is formed over the blogosphere.

4. Link to our posts.

While this one may be stretching it here, if you like what you’ve read enough and it’s relevant to something you’ve been posting about, link back to our blog and help us increase our readership! I may be dreaming big, but I have truly set this as a goal for my blogging experience. As my professor appropriately calls it, Linky Love is something I hold as the ultimate test of one’s worth in the blogosphere, and I can only hope that my contributions will be relevant and useful enough to be carried on in someone else’s conversation. A great goal to work toward, every student should strive for a link, forcing their posts to be meaningful and worthy of not just their small audience, but also the audience of the PRos.

And, if you really, reeaaallly want to make us feel welcome:

5. Follow us on Twitter.

Again, stretching it a little here, but that same familiar grin crept onto my face when I saw I had some well named PRos following me on Twitter. Not only that, but many have offered up suggestions and links to helpful websites when my updates read something like “Trying to find a podcast topic.”

Reaching out to the new bloggers does take up some of your busy time, I know. But the experience and exhilaration I have gotten from interacting with professionals who run the industry is absolutely invaluable. I so appreciate those who have reached out to my classmates and student bloggers and want to say thank you. We are here to learn and believe me, we want to learn from the best. We want to learn from the PRos.

Photo courtesy of ChampionshipChess.net at http://www.championshipchess.net/research.html.