The blog must go on...

Saying good bye is funny thing, it's the end of something and the promise of new adventures. PR graduates understand that feeling, a mixture of sadness and excitement when you walk onto that stage and collect your diploma or degree. I said good bye to CPUT a few months ago but did not want to make an official “adios” on the blog until I handed it over to someone as passionate about PR Chatbox I as am.

I am delighted to hand the blog over to Deirdre Porthen, PR lecturer and soon-to-be social media guru, and her assistant for 2010, Graye Morkel. I am excited to watch as they build this blog as resource for PR students, staff and alumni.

When I started PR Chatbox I was a B Tech PR student working as an assistant to Prof. Johann van der Merwe with an interest in social media. I heard student complaints and witnessed the pressures that lecturers face as day-to-day admin form mountains on their desks, but what bothered me the most that there was the lack of student pride in the department. PR students and graduates do the one thing we would never do to our clients; we badmouth our course and department. Ironically we all carry the qualification, name of the department and institution on our CVs so instead of complaining we should building the department and profession. I believe that as PR students and professionals we need to ‘do PR for PR.'

Utilising social media for our department seemed like an obvious choice to boost two-way communication, encourage knowledge sharing, build pride and keep up-to-date with communication trends. In other words, social media has become a good way to do some PR!

The issue of pride was a massive drive from the very first blog post which introduced you to our head of department, Prof van der Merwe, the talented actor. We have such talent and the blog is a perfect platform to celebrate it. Since that first post there have been numerous articles about successful PR students, graduates, events, useful PR tools and contributions from PR students, staff and graduates.

I believe that what was started in 2008 was the only the tip of the iceberg! PR Chatbox is going to evolve into a resource more and more PR students and professionals will use. I am thrilled that Deidre Porthen will be overseeing the project and as a proud PR graduate I will continue to support the departmental blog. I wish you all a successful and happy last few months of 2009 and all the best for 2010!

Cheers,

Monique

Monique Boucher (PR Chatbox founder and CPUT PR alumni) If you would like to know more about social media and how it could be used to build and manage brands, follow my blog posts at Powerof9 or follow me on Twitter.