Monica Lynn is a senior public relations student at the USF School of Mass Communications. She is currently an intern at French West Vaughan in Tampa. She is a member of USF PRSSA and is the marketing chair for the non profit organization, Hooked on Hope.

Learning about public relations inside and outside the classroom has been a winding river full of lots and lots of rapids this semester. I felt like I was up a stream without a paddle most of the way.

I am a first semester senior studying mass communications at the University of South Florida. I began taking mass communications classes a year ago, yet I feel like it has been a thousand light years since then. I have come full circle from thinking I picked a sort of easy major because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, to wanting to be the head of a PR agency in t-minus 10 years. Whoa, how did that happen?

If I have ever had a moment where I felt like I was the most ill-prepared person on the face of the Earth for a specific task or goal, it was the first day of this semester. I can not even recall the amount of times I heard the three terms ‘social media’, ‘Twitter’ and ‘blog’ that first day and every day after for that matter. Before this semester I thought Twitter was a complete joke and basically for people that had nothing better to do than to tell all of their followers when they were going to the gym. Blogs, I figured, were for people that had way too much to say and just wanted an outlet to vent. I considered social media in general to be a fairly big deal, but I didn’t see why that mattered in public relations.

Needless to say, my thinking was quite flawed. Literally, the first night of this semester, I was completely overwhelmed. I went home dazed and confused, but I still created a blog, Twitter and LinkedIn account. My professors kept reiterating the fact that students are the young ones and majority of the time they are the ones who are expected to know how to do social media for whatever agency or company they work for. So, basically if we weren’t already engaged in social media, as in more than just having a Facebook account, we needed to quickly do just that. Over the course of this semester I have come to the realization that social media isn’t kind of a big deal, it is THE deal in a lot of instances. It has, and still is, single-handedly changing the way businesses do business. It is as simple as that.

Today, I can’t be more grateful that even though USF doesn’t offer any social media classes, my professors still gave us a huge dose of social media every day in class. This braced me for my internship experiences.

A few weeks into my internship, my company started moving forward with an aggressive social media strategy to build the agency’s presence on the Web. I have had the opportunity to be a part of it, and make suggestions a long the way. It has been an enlightening semester, and has opened my eyes to the opportunities social media presents within public relations.

At my office, I was actually called the “social media guru” the other day. I truly had a moment when I read those words in an e-mail sent by one of the account coordinators. I think I realized more quickly that social media was the “it” topic right now, and I seized the occasion. Now, social media has, in a way, set me apart from all the other interns.

I fully plan on continuing my knowledge of the “groundswell” that social media has been termed. It needs to be an integral part of pr campaigns from here on out, and I want to be ahead of that curve and not trying to paddle up stream again with no paddle

I have started to write this blog a million times. The word focus has become part of my everyday vocabulary. "Focus, Cherisse, Focus."

Over the summer I started a new ritual. At the beginning of each week I set goals for what I want to accomplish by the end of the week. The start of a new semester has made me realize how thankful I am that I started setting weekly goals for myself in the summer. The thing is I don't always accomplish the goals I set. Often I find myself being thankful for what I did accomplish throughout the week. The revelation for me is that instead of being hard on myself for not accomplishing my goals, I have to think about it as redefining my goals. Be flexible!

How true is this when we are trying to be innovative and implement social media into our public relations practices? Social media can be a great tool, but only when you focus on bits of it at a time. So many times, I start in one page and wonder off to another page.

Effective social media begins with a goal and then requires perseverance. Here is what I have done to stay on track.

1) Focus on two or three platforms. I am currently focusing on blogging, Twitter, and Linkedin.
2) Set a schedule.
3) Set a number of how many blog post do you want to write in a week, how many tweets do you want to send out in a day, how many followers to I want to get, how many connections do I want to make.
4) Get involved! Join chats, discussions, and leave comments on other blogs.
5) Always leave time to learn new things.

In the end, you will know if you persevered if at least one social media tool is working for you.

Bonus: Evaluate your social media practices? What are your goals? Is perseverance bringing you effective results?

Yesterday, while making a loaf of Hungry Girl Top Banana Bread, I started thinking about all the things I want to do. Let me tell you, great communicators will often get lost in thought. Knowing myself, I know I need direction to get to what I want to do. Sometimes the direction we need is right in front of us, but we are so busy looking for it all around us that we just can’t see it. Kind of like knowing you need vanilla extract and looking for it in the cabinet when it is already sitting right in front of you. That happens often too!

Last night talking with my wonderful friend (and new client, Yippee!!!), Carolyn, I realized that knowing what you want to do does not always provide the direction that you need. She has great inspiration, and knows what she wants to do, but I am not sure she clearly knows what her message is.
Direction comes when we know what message we are trying to communicate. Carolyn knows that she wants to coach, do public speaking, and offer retreats, but what does she want people to know. Knowing your message provides a road map to get you to what you want to do. I think this goes far in all aspects of our lives!

Think about this:
1) Know what you want to communicate. (your message)
2) Know how you want to communicate it. (strategy)
3) Write it down. (plan-clear road map)

Bonus: Hungry Girl Top Banana Bread Recipe