Speak now, write later

I jist niver did thunk I kid fale a interview b-kause I could’na talk raight.

That is probably the most confusing sentence you have read in a while. But it’s true. Just last week I had a job interview with Progressive Insurance. On monday someone called to give me my results.

“Your interviewers didn’t think you would be right for the job,” the lady on the phone told me. “They said you had some problems with your ‘diction’.” Of course I properly thanked her while I was on the phone, and told her I appreciated being considered for the job even though I wasn’t hired. Then I hung up the phone, completely dazed and confused. The longer I thought about it, the more it surprised me that it had never crossed my mind before.

Here in the Journalism School at the University of Oregon, students are taught to write. We practice and practice until our fingers fall off and our brains go numb. But when do we practice how to speak? Well, I naturally assumed that because I can write, that I can also speak. Not true! According to my interviewers, I “have problems with my diction.”

What should I do? I am afraid to open my mouth to speak anymore, lest I display my ignorance of the spoken word. Of all the reasons not to be hired, this was the one I least expected. In fact, I didn’t expect it at all. Are there any professionals, or students, out there with advice for me?

How Much is Too Much?

Do you ever feel that as the world invents more and more ways to “stay in-touch” virtually that you are spending less and less time with people literally?

I asked myself this question after reading a blog post by Ben Benson. In his post Benson shared his experience using Twitter – yet another virtual network. After reading his blog post I counted all the ways that I “stay connected”: PR Open Mic, Facebook, MySpace, e-mail, blogging, text messaging. And now that almost everyone today owns a cell phone, never a second goes by that I don’t stay “connected”.

Stephanie McCulley made a great point in a recent blog about the addictive properties of virtual social networks. Not only do they allow us to keep up-to-the-second on gossip and social circles, but they provide us with a way to escape from our daily lives.

At what point does “staying connected” in a virtual sense detract from our ability, or desire, to stay connected in “real” life? Are we trying to avoid actual physical interaction with others, or do we truly prefer to use technology which may be pushing us further apart?

Forty-eight Hours of Twitter

In my Advanced PR Writing class, my teacher, Tiffany Derville, assigned a unique task: forty-eight hours of Twitter.

Twitter, for those of you new to the concept of social networking sites, is a way for professionals, or friends, to keep in touch in real-time. It is a micro-blog, meaning that all posts are limited to 140 characters or less. You can even set up your mobile phone to send and receive “tweets” when you’re away from your computer.

Professionals are using Twitter to network, build a group of “followers”, and to stay in touch with their customers or colleagues at all times. It is a great way to create an interactive social network, and can be used for much more than just business connections.

Our assignment in Advanced PR Writing was to set up a brand new Twitter account, build a group of “followers”, and “tweet” for a period of forty-eight hours. It was a fun and exciting experience. In my class everyone linked to each other and we “twittered” about everything from what we were thinking about to things that we were doing. This network felt very connected, and even though we were all in different places doing different things, we all knew what each other was up to.

I think Twitter could be a great tool for professionals by keeping them up to date and interactive with their “tweets”.