Posts tagged Social Media

The power to change the world

October 6, 2008 · Filed under Responses · Tagged , , ,

Thursday last week was hands down the best PR class we’ve had so far. For the first time ever I actually started to understand not just Twitter, but the point of all the different types of social media out there.

The reason it was so empowering to me was because I got to see, first hand, my voice being just as loud, if not louder than very prominent people in the social media PR world. The Golden Wall was crumpling right before my eyes. The idea of the Golden Wall as Dr.V explained it to us is that before, corporations were making decisions about our lives with little regard to how those decisions would effect us (with a huge wall around them). They were untouchable. However, social media has broken down that wall. The power lies within the publics. Now, the corporation is never the center of attention because everyone has a voice.

So what do I think that means? People previously in power need to learn to lose control- social media is dispersing the power whether big corporations like it or not. This is touched on in Cluetrain Manifesto in the respect that the way business is being done is changing and people need to change with it or they will be left in the dust.

Hardly anyone understands that better than Laura Fitton. Fitton is known in some circles as the “Queen of Twitter” and honestly, I would agree. While talking to her in class on Thursday she admitted to us that she only began Twitter a year ago and even at the beginning there she did not understand it. That’s such an inspiration. To go from confused ot guru in a year is something tangible I can aspire to. I really do want to get good at this, and she gave us many tips on how to be an effective tweeter:

  • Be human. Have conversations. The more real you are the more people will be interesting in what you have to say.
  • It’s not the number of followers you have- with the right five followers you could change the world.
  • Find people on Twitter whose interests line up with your own. It makes it more fun and interesting. Relationships and connections can flourish.
  • It is very important to LISTEN.

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BB Reading Assignment 3

September 24, 2008 · Filed under Responses · Tagged , , , , , ,

PR Measurement Blog

Before I could get any further in scanning Katie D. Panie’s blog, I was struck by the second newest post, Maybe Google will finally replace the clipping services.This caught my attention because just the other day in my Intro to Journalism class, the professor was discussing how the emergence of new technology and therefore new media has forced newspapers to change the way they present information and are published. My professor made a great point: people thought radio, then T.V., then Internet was going to render newspapers obsolete- but they were wrong.

Sure, the newspaper publishing industry is not the money-making business it used to be, but it is certainly still prominent in society. And now, it seems, that for once it’s not the newspapers that have to do the changing. According to Paine’s post, Google is expanding its news archive to include every newspaper story ever written. And not just that, people will be able to search for a story and be able to view it as it actually looked in the paper when it was published. Neat! But also pretty ambitious. Hey, if Google has the motivation, it’s a great thing to work for. The idea of preserving history is taking on entirely new meanings.

Charity Water case study

As a follower of Paull Young on twitter, I was able to witness first hand his birthday social media experiment. While reading the reflection he wrote on the experiment though, one this really hit me: this is great PR for Charity Water. Not only was he campaigning for donations and therefore getting their name out to many people who would otherwise never have heard of the charity (myself included), he was also linking to it repeatedly and therefore getting their mission out as well.

With social media on the rise, I predict that instances such as this will be occurring more and more. Simple acts such as someone blogging about an organization or tweeting about a great new product can have huge PR ramifications if done or viewed by the right people. Get opinion leaders, or Super Influencers to endorse something and their good graces can snowball into creating better awareness and therefore relationships between the online public and organizations.

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Pixton.com

September 15, 2008 · Filed under PR Connections · Tagged , ,

Pixton.com is a website that allows anyone with the desire to create their very own comic strip. My English class this semester is very technologically based and when I was given the assignment to create a book review comic strip the term “social media” jumped to my mind.

Is this another form of social media? I’d say so. The site connects people through their creativity. Just like a graphic novel is another way to write, a comic strip online is another way to blog.

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Blog Recommendation

September 8, 2008 · Filed under PR Connections · Tagged

I stumbled upon the blog of Chris Brogan today, a social media connoisseur. The first post I read was both thought provoking and funny. Check out the comments too, some of them are pretty insightful!

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