Behind the Java Soundslides by D.Boller

Creating a Soundslides project was a memorable experience. I had a chance to work with a wonderful group of women in interviewing Roberta 'Bobbie' Gluck and Melissa Brown from Java Junction. Group member Tara and I also took photos of the cafe. That was the easy part.

Now the honeymoon was over and the real work lay ahead. I edited and converted interviews and photos into an mp3 format. Next I recorded the narrative and painstakingly edited my voice to the interview and ambient environment soundtrack. Almost finished.

Then I brought the master recording back home to be dropped into the Soundslides program and arranged the photos to fit the track. I saved my finished work and proceeded the exporting and embedding process.

Sweet Baby Jesus!!! Trying to put this project in Google Drive and on Blogger drove me crazy. After about seven emails to Professor Young with what I thought was the correct link, I had to stop and say a prayer over my computer before I had a nervous breakdown.

Lastly I was able to save something to Google Drive.

Is it correct? 

I have no idea. 

However I was able to get updated instructions (Thank you Professor Young!) redo the latter half of the project and post it to this blog. I tested it and thank God, it works!

The Importance of Networking

Networking is essential in every professional field. The ability to meet, greet, converse, and exchange information helps further educational and career opportunities. However, not everyone is comfortable networking.

1.Research the event, the more informed one is about speakers, workshops, and event attendees.
2.Plan ahead, target who speak with, paying attention to job title and company/organization.
3.What is your goal in attending the event? What would you like to get you out of attending?
4.Setting a goal of talking to five people, giving out and collecting five business cards, and finding out three things you didn't know before about the various companies/organizations that interest you.
5.Think about what you will say during the networking event. Have relevant questions to ask others, current topics of interest, local or national news (relating to the theme of the event).
6. When attending a networking event project confidence, smile and make eye contact. Many times extroverts will see your self-assurance and initiate the conversation for you.

Lastly, relax and enjoy yourself, attending a successful networking event can be the fist step you make your way up the career ladder.

Planning a Successful Interview

The interviewing process a be exciting or nerve wrecking. Below are four great steps to a successful interview.

Research the subject. Nothing is worse than asking an obvious question. Asking questions that are considered general knowledge is not only embarrassing to the interviewer but potentially annoying to the interviewee. Collect all available background information on your subject to craft intelligent and sharp questions for the interview.

Outline the angle/focus. Not having an outline based on the angle or focus on the topic is like cross country driving without a map, one will get lost very quickly. The writer will lose track of the message and overwrite and the reader will lose interest.

Develop impactful questions. Ask a great question and your subject will be an open book, telling you everything you want to know and then some! Open-ended questions ask for explanations, details, advice and opinions on the subject matter. Great questions also pithy quotes that in turn create a great article.

Establish rapport. An interviewee never wants to feel interrogated. Diving into a barrage of questions creates tension and receives short and many times curt answers. Making "small talk" eases the interview process and allows the interviewer time to connect with the subject, discover similarities and personality. Again a subject at ease shares more information, gives great detail and doesn't mind taking time to explain a complex idea.

Using My Resources

Creating a message specific to your business target audience is important in advertising and public relations. The target audience needs to connect with the product or service, but how?

Words.

 The words used to describe a product or service can create or destroy a campaign. While working on a Strategic Marking Plan, for a local coffee hotspot, my team and I used words like warm, intimate, affordable, and healthy to describe the business.

Descriptive words used in  radio or television advertisements help sell product and services to the businesses and organizations. When discussing food a writer uses words associated with taste, hunger and flavor.

Knowing the target audience helps craft the ads message. If the target audience is tween girls, writers will shy away from the topic like sex, taxes and alcoholic beverages.

Using keywords your target audience uses will not only draw attention to an advertisement but earn the trust of your audience as you "speak their language".

Stority Article

Great quotes

Week three of class we created news releases. I sent an email to my contact in week two with five questions concerning the event and it's headliners. 

Several days later I received the answer to my questions, however I realized the answers to two of the five questions could be found online. One question received an answer that was not relevant my topic, leaving me with only two usable quotes for my news release. 

This assignment reinforced the need for proper research. Good fact finding leads to thought provoking questions and relevant "pithy" quotes.

Describe this room...

This week, or really last week our class needed to write a one paragraph descrption of our classroom. Some of the descriptions were literal reflections of the room. Other descriptions of the room were and lyrical  and poetic. The exercise forced us to think critically and creatively about writing. 

When creating copy for an organization it is important that we remember to paint a picture with our words in a brief, professional and engaging way.