This week I had the privilege of being the moderator for #soloPR, a weekly chat with independent public relations professionals and consultants. The chat happens every Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EST. (I want to thank Kellye Crane for the opportunity to fill in her shoes while she was traveling. Thank you!) I have been participating in this chat for a little while now, and I can not tell you how much I learn from this group of pr professionals each week. I always say it is the fastest hour of my week.

I wanted to take the opportunity to share with my blog readers some of the things we talked about this week.

First question was about building media list on a pr solo’s budget. Let me just tell you, I go about it the old fashion way. I make and keep my own of media contacts. I found this question interesting because I just taught my PR Writing students how to create media lists. A great tip that came out of the conversation, and seemed to be an occurring theme, was teaming up with other solo professionals to share accounts with Cision or Vocus. I love that as public relations professional we count ourselves as a member of a community. We are willing to share resources and contribute to each others success.

We also talked about mentors, do we have them and how did you approach and build a relationship. I was inspired by this dialogue. First, it made me realize that social media has opened up a world of mentors for me. They may not know it, but I follow, watch and keep track of what they are up to through Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Second, I reminded my students yesterday that they never know who is standing in front of them teaching their class. Class work is just as important as any internship or network that they have. Kelli Mathews, a professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communications, wrote a great guest blog post yesterday on Lindsay Olson’s blog. Don’t forget your professors!

I am not sure why I think I never have anything to blog about. This chat gives me tons of topics every week. I encourage you to join us. You don’t have to be a pr pro, you can just be interested in what we do. Stay tuned next week. I am writing two new blog posts. One on our third question this week on how much pr do we really do, and another on the fourth question on all the resources that we use.

By the way, Happy Halloween!