This is not a regular blog post that you are about to read. With the following I want to share with you one of the proudest moments and biggest achievements of my life that just confirms my passion for social media and PR and my drive and motivation to have a stellar career in the industry.

What am I talking about? Well, I am mentioned as a student pioneer in building a personal brand online in one of the most awaited books of the year on social media and PR.

The book in question is the follow-up of the best-selling Share This, published by The Chartered Institute for Public Relations – the UK’s professional body for PR practitioners. The sequel, Share This Too, is a practical book, written by 24 public relations professionals to address the use of social media for PR and offer guidelines for various areas such as online media relations, measuring and monitoring etc., which practitioners can apply in their work. The foreword of the book was written by Brian Solis – a pioneer in the field (whom I am a big fan of), which only shows how important this book for the industry is. Furthermore, the book is already a best seller being the number 1 in Amazon Hot New Releases as well as among the top 20 PR books. It is also attracting a lot of online buzz.

I am proud to be part of one of the book chapters,

I don’t think I’ve told you this before, but I am a big fan of Brian Solis. He is a well-known thought leader in the area of social media, communications, technology and business and I have so far learned a lot from him. I follow his blog and I’ve also read all of his books, apart from the latest one, which is on my reading list. I have quoted him a few times in previous posts, but now I thought I’d share with you my favourite Brian Solis quotes.

Here we go:

"Social media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism, one-to-many, to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers."

"Social media is less about technology and more about anthropology, sociology, and ethnography."

Here’s some thrilling news for all Foursquare fans – from now on you can request and visualise your entire check-in history and you can even have it in the form of an infographic! Foursquare calls this the Foursquare Time Machine! Isn’t that cool?

Indeed, it is a tool that will probably be appreciated only by real Foursquare addicts – those who more or less check in everywhere they go – but it still offers a great check-ins overview in an interactive and visual form as well as some interesting suggestions of new places you should discover. The best thing about it though is that it’s a really cool trip down memory lane allowing you to re-live moments of the past.

So, just for fun

To be totally honest with you I cannot wait to graduate! September is quickly approaching and I'll be incredibly happy to finally have a full-time job. I have so far had the study and the practical experience and I must say I do like work life a lot more than being a student. Which is why I am utterly excited about the next few months so that when I came across Arianna Huffington’s commencement speech at Smith College I made sure I got myself a nice cup of tea and sat down to carefully listen to her talk.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed her speech! It was so honest and also so, so funny, but it most importantly provided some great advice based on the personal experiences of Arianna Huffington. For those of you who do not know much about her, she is one of the most influential people in media and is best known as the creator of the very successful Huffington Post. Her career is a true inspiration to me because as a foreigner living abroad it gives me hope that I too am going to have a stellar career regardless of my origin.

In her speech Arianna urges us

As some of you know I served a five month internship at Montpellier Public Relations – a PR consultancy in the UK – between September last year and February this year. This was an invaluable professional experience. It not only taught me a lot, but it also proved that I have made the right career choice, which is why I decided to share with you what I’ve learned and what I would advise others who want to work in PR.

While serving this internship I gained firsthand insights into how exactly a PR agency functions and how relationships with clients are being established and maintained. I developed thorough understanding and appreciation of the management and business model of a full service PR and marketing communications consultancy operating across a range of clients from various sectors – from healthcare, facilities management, professional services to recruitment. This helped me realise that really comprehending client expectations is the first and probably even the most important step towards meeting client needs.

First of all, I am glad that I chose a smaller agency, because I was given a lot of work, which I very much enjoyed, and I had the chance to learn a lot both on my own and with the supervision of the team. Working in a smaller rather than a large consultancy has allowed me to take on more responsibilities, be in a direct contact with clients and the media and so progress faster and develop a set of essential PR and marketing skills.