Last week during my trip to Atlanta I drove over to Auburn University on Wednesday to visit Robert French and speak to one of his PR classes. As always it was great to put a face with a blog or I should say blogs since I also met many of the student bloggers.

I spoke to Robert's Intro to PR class (PRCM 3040). These students blog at the Auburn PR Group Blog. Quite a lively bunch, and all women. Where are all the PR men? Robert said the majority of his classes are female. A few of the students from his Style and Design class (PRCM 4020) stopped by to intoduce themselves. Those students all run individual blogs for class (a list can be found here)

I spoke for about 40 minutes to the students on a variety of subjects: how I got started, how I am working with PR firms, what blogs can and can't do etc. I think most importantly though I related to them the power of the knowledge and experience they are gaining by blogging. I told them that I speak to many PR professionals around the country and many know nothing about blogs. Their experience will give them a competitive advantage in the job market. Robert recently posted a Target job listing that required knowledge of blogs. His students have that experience.

I taught at a local college as an adjunct for a number of years, but stopped because of time commitment involved. What I miss though is the student interaction. Contributing to Marcomblog helps fill that void. The opportunity to get back on a campus such as AU and talk to students is also great.

Afteward, Robert and I talked over lunch. I asked him how the department felt about what he was doing with blogs. Robert said at first it was a bit of, "we don't know exactly what you are doing, but go for it."

Robert said the real eye-opener for the PR department was a PRSSA seminar held in March of this year. The topic turned to blogs and the Auburn students were the only ones to be on the Cluetrain. Some of the students blogged about this experience.

When blogs were brought up during the presentation, out of 3 other schools, only Auburn students seemed to know much about blogs or have them. There may have been a few exceptions, but few would be the key word. I really felt like it put me slightly ahead of the students from other schools.

Robert also told me about some of his previous blogging PR students and the projects they have pitched or started at their jobs. I am not sure if some of the plans are public knowledge so I will hold off on talking about them in detail. Needless to say some of them are big.

How long will this 'Auburn Advantage' last? We'll see, but right now Robert's students are reaping the rewards.

My time was limited, so I set off for Atlanta. My wife is an Auburn alum so we come up for football games in the fall. I told Robert that I'd see him sometime later this year, and would make it a point to have an extended weekend trip to visit a class in the fall.

I am glad I made the trip over.