Cudos to the TriOut team for joining in. Having a platform perspective on these issues really enhanced the discussion. See the whole #LBSchat transcript here. If you’re interested in more location chatter, check out @waynesutton’s #GEOchat Tuesdays at 2pm EST.

Next Thursday at 9pm EST, we’re talking about gaming elements in location on #LBSchat. Don’t miss out!

Here’s the Tweach Out challenge: Bring a friend who has never been to a Tweet-Up before. Show him/her what these events are all about!

WHO: Tweet-Up veterans and rookies

WHERE: The Lansdowne Pub – 9 Lansdowne St. Boston, MA 02215

WHEN: Tuesday August 31st at 7:00pm

FREE APPETIZERS and LIVE MUSIC

We will be using the hashtag #TweachOut to chronicle the event on Twitter.

Visit http://tweachout.eventbrite.com for details!

Internship employers and colleges have a seriously broken relationship. I’ve been interning unpaid for about two years straight now. If an employer gives college credit, they technically don’t need to pay. But BU only lets you take one internship for credit. So if you want more than one internship before you graduate, you end up working for free because many employers say, “The internship is unpaid, but we’ll give you course credit if you want.” I’ve had to turn that offer down because my school won’t allow me to get credit. Free labor has become an expectation for college students. That’s a shame.

I do think there are ways of navigating around the unpaid issue. My internship at TalentCulture doesn’t pay me cash, but I’m getting career training and development services, and I’m being set up for job interviews in addition to getting college credit.
Employers need to do more to reimburse interns, even if it’s not in cash.

Other feedback (These people are not nerds…) :

The Unpaid Intern, Legal or Not by The New York Times‘ Steven Greenhouse

Unpaid Internships by Rachel Sprung

If You Bill, is it Legal? by Nick Lucido

Internships – To Pay or Not to Pay? by Patrick Wentling

What? Unpaid Internships Could Be Illegal? Ya Think? by Jim On Light

I’m happy to say, I have definitely found value on many social networking sites. I look around campus and I think I’m one of the few. Like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, finding value online takes perseverance. (It’s March, after all. So I needed an Irish/Leprechaun reference.)

After tweeting back and forth a bit with @Jason_J_Davis, he asked me to guest blog on his HR Think Tank. I was thrilled. What a great way to extend my personal brand! I’m definitely looking to do more guest blogging. I’ll just keep plugging away at the social media world and see what happens next.

Here’s a brief snipet from my article “Harnessing the Gen-Y Beast”:

Like it or not, my generation is charging into the workforce. Yep, all 70 million of us. We’re a talented herd, too. HR directors will play Ringling Brothers trying to tame us, hire us, and retain us. Most will fail.

The Gen-Y stampede of talent cannot be stopped and refined. It must be harnessed.

Here’s what some other rising PR stars thought:

“I thought SPINdustry or ‘Command PR’ basically made a mockery out of PR. Like Kell on Earth, it depicts the profession to be run by unassured incompetent people. PR is all about image, it irks me to think that these people don’t see what they are depicting about themselves, and about PR. The ownersor VP’s didn’t lift a finger during that episode. They had the “connections” but that was it.” – Yanique Shaw (@YaniquePR) is the president of Salem State University’s PRSSA Chapter and a good friend of mine from #PRSSANC in San Diego. Read her fashion and PR blog “YaniquePR – Everything.”

“SPINdustry shows PR professionals as materialistic and ditsy. I know I could never trust that staff. They do not seem competent. You would think as PR professionals, they could create an image for themselves that doesn’t promote stereotypes.” – Dan Chizzoniti (@DanChiz) a driven future PR star currently doing a lot of cool social media work at his internship for Schneider Associates. He blogs about all things pop culture, PR and entertainment on DanChiz.com.

Care to share your opinion? Comment below or email your reaction to me at EricLeist@gmail.com and I’ll post it here.

I’ve never been a fan of large organizations, companies and (especially) governments because I frequently see decision makers screw up when they are so far removed from the lower levels of management.

These fault-filled bureaucracies often frustrate employees by making them feel that “the man upstairs doesn’t know what’s going on down here!” Indeed boardrooms, financial statements and policy meetings are extremely different than assembly lines and low-level cubicles, so unless “the man” comes downstairs to have a look around every now and then, how would he know what’s going on?

I’m a student at Boston University, and I’ve been surrounded by uproar this school year from both students and faculty at the budget cuts the university made restricting students’ printing on-campus. The University forced restrictions on the number of pages students are allowed to print free of charge and the number of printing labs for students. These changes have left many members of the BU community wondering if the decision makers upstairs really know what’s going on down here.

Internal communications snafus are everywhere. So when I saw previews for CBS’s post-Super Bowl premiere “Undercover Boss,” I thought, “This is great.” But I also realized how this show just proves how much of a problem internal communication gaps are! Can you imagine working for a company and not knowing what your CEO looks like? I would like to think that if I were working in a large organization, I would recognize the CEO if he/she came to me pretending to be a new worker bee.

Then I think that if this guy…

walked into one of my classes pretending to be a professor, I wouldn’t think anything of it. When he didn’t understand students’ weekly schedules, I would shrug it off and chalk it up to him being another academically-minded teacher. This is Boston University’s President Robert Brown, and I have never seen this man before in my life.

I don’t want to make him out to be the bad guy. I’m sure he wasn’t the only one making the printing decisions. His university is just another victim of current management trends.

I hope “Undercover Boss” draws some attention from executives. The first episode featured Larry O’Donnell, COO of Waste Management cleaning toilets, driving garbage trucks, and learning “a heck of a lot” in the process. When his undercover stint was over, he said “I didn’t realize the impact [I had]. [These policies] came right from my office…I had no idea.” He vowed to fix the problems he witnessed. Maybe the “faces” of these large organizations will become more recognizable someday soon.

1) What was the most favorable surprise you had, this semester, about the field of public relations?

I was very pleased to learn about the upward mobility in large PR firms. At least the way firm-structure was presented to the class, advancement for an entry level employee in a large firm directly correlates to how much he or she works and how many billable hours he or she logs. When I am breaking into the professional field of PR in a few years, my life will be flexible. I will be able to—and I will want to—work a large number of hours for my clients. At the PRSSA Advanced Conference, Gary Sheffer, executive director of corporate communication for GE, spoke about how some large firms and large corporations will hire several young recruits with the intention of keeping only one or two after the first year and a half. That says to me if I work hard enough and produce enough, I will be appreciated and eventually promoted. I like the idea of being in control of my career to at least that degree. Learning about this aspect of PR firms excited me about my future.

2) What was the most unfavorable surprise you had, this semester, about the field of public relations?

The cultural differences in ethical expectations for media relations were unsettling to me. Studying the ethics of PR, I learned journalists in the Middle East almost never write a favorable story without payment or gifts from a public relations practitioner. In other cultures, the ethical lines are blurred. In America, Dr. Wright said at times PR professionals fear buying a journalist so much as a hotdog because they don’t want to be accused of bribery. At other times, our text book says, some advertising purchases in publications are accompanied by an understanding that a favorable article will be written about the advertised product. The biggest unfavorable surprise came to me upon realizing as the world shrinks and becomes more interconnected, inter-cultural media relations will be very confusing in terms of who owes what to whom in exchange for press coverage. This confusion is one of the main reasons why I would prefer, if possible, to work in the private sector exclusively on the domestic front. So while it was unsettling to me, it also helped me narrow down what type of PR I would like.

3) Why is public relations the art, science and business of manipulating of audiences–and is therefore unethical?

Public relations by nature is unethical because it is conducted by advocates who are paid to represent a corporation, government or organization. Regardless of how they try to persuade an audience into changing attitudes and behaviors, the sheer fact that they are being paid to do so makes the information they present unbalanced and slanted. They portray their client in a positive light because they are hired to. It does not matter whether or not that positive light is deserved, because since PR practitioners have monetary incentives to convince audiences, their words cannot be entirely honest. They are not expressing neutral unbiased opinions; therefore they are consciously manipulating audiences. They are intervening on the naturally formed attitudes that would not otherwise change. Honesty is ethical, but public relations will never be truly honest because it presents biased information to the publics.

4) Why is public relations more than the art, science and business of manipulation of audiences–and is therefore ethical?

Public relations serves a higher purpose, making it more than the art, science and business of manipulation. There may be a science to delivering messages and an art to crafting the perfect press release, and some people could say aiming to change audience behavior is manipulating. Those people would only be looking at the tactical elements of PR, failing to grasp the overarching concept. Public relations fosters communication and establishes meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships. Connecting people with those whom they can help and who can help them is an ethical act. There are a lot of regulations practitioners need to follow in order to keep their methods as ethical as their ends. Provided PR is executed in an ethical manner, its higher purpose will be fulfilled.