So as not to leave current and potential readers out of the loop, I've decided to conclude my overall message in this, my last required blog post of the semester.
What I set out intent on writing when this semester started and I was assigned this project was to educate, but mostly to convince readers that social media is not only important, it is also necessary. While I feel that I have mostly succeeded in writing about topics in an effective way, I feel that I have learned much more through being assigned this project than I could ever hope to teach someone else.
I have learned, first of all, that social media is a deeply-seeded interest of mine and not just a passing phase. Nearly every article that I came across were all intensely interesting to me and I read every single one in their entirety. It is exciting to me to find something within public relations that I'm passionate about because up until this point, I had not felt that way about public relations at all. Maintaining this blog throughout this semester has given me hope that there is a chance that, if I find a job that requires me to use social media, I will be extremely satisfied and happy with my career.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
What are the strengths of social media?
I've discussed previously in this blog that social media provides many strengths to individuals and companies that use it; however, I have not thoroughly discussed what a lot of these strengths are and what they can mean to those who utilize it.
- Relationships and Conversation
- Sharing
- Creativity
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Social media professionals
It is Journalism Week this week at WVU and I was lucky enough to be able to experience two of the speakers that were brought in to share their stories. The first speaker whose lecture I was able to attend was the social media director of the American Red Cross. As I have mentioned frequently throughout the course of this blog, a future career that involves utilizing social media marketing and PR is something I'm extremely interested in. I was very excited to hear her story and to learn something from her.
One of the main things that I took away from listening to her speak for around an hour was that it can sometimes be a very big struggle to get people to believe in the power of social media. She said that when she was hired by the American Red Cross, her initial task was to silence the bloggers. Around the time she was hired in 2006, bloggers were mentioning the American Red Cross around 400 times a day and most mentions were extremely positive. When she found these things out, it became her task to convince her supervisors that it would do no good to try to take down the bloggers, so they should instead work with them. She went on to say that, initially, everyone she approached within the organization was unconvinced about the usefulness and effectiveness of social media. In order to prove that social media could work for the American Red Cross, she wound up purchasing a professional blog with her own money. Eventually, the organization began to fund the blog on their own and they now even feature it on the homepage of their main website.
The one thing that sticks out to me about social media is the need to be persistent. I've previously talked about the need to be persistent with social media when you're attempting to utilize it within a company or and organization, but it's just as important to be persistent when attempting to convince others within your company or your organization to be more open-minded about embracing social media instead of attempting to silence it.
One of the main things that I took away from listening to her speak for around an hour was that it can sometimes be a very big struggle to get people to believe in the power of social media. She said that when she was hired by the American Red Cross, her initial task was to silence the bloggers. Around the time she was hired in 2006, bloggers were mentioning the American Red Cross around 400 times a day and most mentions were extremely positive. When she found these things out, it became her task to convince her supervisors that it would do no good to try to take down the bloggers, so they should instead work with them. She went on to say that, initially, everyone she approached within the organization was unconvinced about the usefulness and effectiveness of social media. In order to prove that social media could work for the American Red Cross, she wound up purchasing a professional blog with her own money. Eventually, the organization began to fund the blog on their own and they now even feature it on the homepage of their main website.
The one thing that sticks out to me about social media is the need to be persistent. I've previously talked about the need to be persistent with social media when you're attempting to utilize it within a company or and organization, but it's just as important to be persistent when attempting to convince others within your company or your organization to be more open-minded about embracing social media instead of attempting to silence it.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Social media and world events
Though this topic is not quite in tune with the topic of public relations, the impact of social media on world events such as natural disasters, is difficult not to focus on for at least one post.
The recent events in the world, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in New Zealand, and the turmoil in Libya and other areas of the middle east, are broadcast much more loudly and frequently through social media channels than in typical news formats.
I mentioned in my last post that I operate another blog on a different blogging website that I use primarily for personal and entertainment purposes, but during these last few weeks and any other time there is a large scale event somewhere in the world, that blogging site erupts with news and updates about each event. Every single person that I follow on that website comes together to give each other as much information as we can. We don't hold anything back, we tell each other when some information has been proven to be incorrect, and most importantly, we tell each other every single thing that we know.
Social media gives normal people the opportunity to be the news for people when actual news sources fall short. For many days before the news in America began covering the events in Libya, I knew more about it than anyone else I know because of the blogs I follow and the information they had gotten from someone who had gotten it from someone who had gotten it from someone who had experienced it firsthand. Social media puts so much power in the hands of people who typically stand in silence. It gives the world a chance to have a voice, instead of resorting solely to the news for all information. When people come together through social media, the information may not always be 100% correct, but it is always immediate and important. Even if the information spread around through social media is incorrect, it will quickly be dispelled and corrected, often even before the news began to report on the events.
There are many people who do not consider social media to be a viable place to receive and transmit information, but I challenge this belief wholeheartedly. It is my opinion that social media is an extremely powerful informational tool, and if more people chose to utilize it in this way, it would most certainly become more powerful and even more reliable.
The recent events in the world, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in New Zealand, and the turmoil in Libya and other areas of the middle east, are broadcast much more loudly and frequently through social media channels than in typical news formats.
I mentioned in my last post that I operate another blog on a different blogging website that I use primarily for personal and entertainment purposes, but during these last few weeks and any other time there is a large scale event somewhere in the world, that blogging site erupts with news and updates about each event. Every single person that I follow on that website comes together to give each other as much information as we can. We don't hold anything back, we tell each other when some information has been proven to be incorrect, and most importantly, we tell each other every single thing that we know.
Social media gives normal people the opportunity to be the news for people when actual news sources fall short. For many days before the news in America began covering the events in Libya, I knew more about it than anyone else I know because of the blogs I follow and the information they had gotten from someone who had gotten it from someone who had gotten it from someone who had experienced it firsthand. Social media puts so much power in the hands of people who typically stand in silence. It gives the world a chance to have a voice, instead of resorting solely to the news for all information. When people come together through social media, the information may not always be 100% correct, but it is always immediate and important. Even if the information spread around through social media is incorrect, it will quickly be dispelled and corrected, often even before the news began to report on the events.
There are many people who do not consider social media to be a viable place to receive and transmit information, but I challenge this belief wholeheartedly. It is my opinion that social media is an extremely powerful informational tool, and if more people chose to utilize it in this way, it would most certainly become more powerful and even more reliable.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Social media education?
As I sat thinking about what would be an appropriate blog post for this week, I thought the best first step would be the review what I had already written. I realized that I had written about what social media was specifically, why it is important in general, and given some examples of it in action. I believe all these posts to be important, but what about the students?
It's easy to talk about social media in a very general way. It's easy to assume the people using it already understand how to fully utilize its potential. It's not easy, however, to understand how to fully utilize it without being educated. I'm sure there are some people who believe social media to be a simple device and something that can be learned as a person goes along, however, I believe that social media is a skill and a tool and like every other skill and tool that someone is expected to use, it needs to be taught.
Students who are in school learning about various avenues of communications are expected to learn at least a little bit about many different ways of communicating. Students at the school of journalism at WVU all take reporting courses even if they have no interest in reporting or in pursing news writing as a career. I feel as though social media should be included in this list of various skills that a communications student should be given the opportunity to tune while still a student, so that they aren't thrown into the work force without at least a basic knowledge about how to operate social media effectively.
For example, consider the course that I'm writing this blog for. I'm a public relations major with a minor in professional writing and editing and I'm writing this blog for a minor course. I have a blog now on a different blogging website, but I use it mainly for entertainment and connecting with others who share similar interests. I would have almost certainly never started a blog of this sort unless I was obligated to for a class. Being forced to blog for a grade may seem silly, pointless, or even annoying and I will admit, those were some of my first impressions of it, but you would be surprised at how quickly those feelings change once you begin to appreciate what blogging for a purpose can do for you intellectually and personally.
The more I continue to write this blog and constantly think about new topics or take mental notes about something worth mentioning, I gain so much as a student and as someone who will soon be searching for a career in public relations. I realize that this blog was an assignment for a course outside of the journalism school and was meant to be a tool through which the class would be able to tune their writing skills in a current format. I believe that I'm not only gaining experience as a writer, but I'm gaining even more experience as a future PR professional. Being able to become comfortable talking about public relations issues all while using a tool I will very likely have to use at a job some day, is an experience I am very thankful for and believe that all other communications students should have.
It's easy to talk about social media in a very general way. It's easy to assume the people using it already understand how to fully utilize its potential. It's not easy, however, to understand how to fully utilize it without being educated. I'm sure there are some people who believe social media to be a simple device and something that can be learned as a person goes along, however, I believe that social media is a skill and a tool and like every other skill and tool that someone is expected to use, it needs to be taught.
Students who are in school learning about various avenues of communications are expected to learn at least a little bit about many different ways of communicating. Students at the school of journalism at WVU all take reporting courses even if they have no interest in reporting or in pursing news writing as a career. I feel as though social media should be included in this list of various skills that a communications student should be given the opportunity to tune while still a student, so that they aren't thrown into the work force without at least a basic knowledge about how to operate social media effectively.
For example, consider the course that I'm writing this blog for. I'm a public relations major with a minor in professional writing and editing and I'm writing this blog for a minor course. I have a blog now on a different blogging website, but I use it mainly for entertainment and connecting with others who share similar interests. I would have almost certainly never started a blog of this sort unless I was obligated to for a class. Being forced to blog for a grade may seem silly, pointless, or even annoying and I will admit, those were some of my first impressions of it, but you would be surprised at how quickly those feelings change once you begin to appreciate what blogging for a purpose can do for you intellectually and personally.
The more I continue to write this blog and constantly think about new topics or take mental notes about something worth mentioning, I gain so much as a student and as someone who will soon be searching for a career in public relations. I realize that this blog was an assignment for a course outside of the journalism school and was meant to be a tool through which the class would be able to tune their writing skills in a current format. I believe that I'm not only gaining experience as a writer, but I'm gaining even more experience as a future PR professional. Being able to become comfortable talking about public relations issues all while using a tool I will very likely have to use at a job some day, is an experience I am very thankful for and believe that all other communications students should have.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Social Media Internship
This week I thought I would get a bit more personal with you guys and talk about something that effects me and people like me who are or will be pursuing careers in public relations.
It can be hard for people with a degree in public relations to be able to fully describe to others what it is that they do or what kind of job they hope to have. There are many things that can be done with a public relations degree. PR graduates do not have to work in agencies like many assume. You can work in hospitals, you can work for a drug company, you can work for a museum, you can work for an individual, you can do event planning - the list goes on. However, before graduating and getting your degree in public relations, it is recommended that all students participate in an internship that relates to their field. PR students get internships in a variety of places doing various jobs that may or may not relate to what they might do in the future. I didn't want to get stuck in the position of wasting my time in an internship that wouldn't benefit my experience, so when I got an e-mail from Disney telling me that they had posted their summer and fall professional internships, I was excited to check out the ones available in the Communications section. The very first internship listed had the words "social media," front and center in the title - I was ecstatic. I love the idea of blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking for a purpose. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect opportunity to put many of my interests into action while expanding my knowledge on a topic that greatly intrigues me. I altered my resume and cover letter in order for them to be more specifically geared towards the position and Disney in general, and sent them away hoping for a positive response.
About two weeks later, I received an e-mail thanking me for submitting my resume but they had found someone to fill the position whose background better fit the desired qualifications. I wouldn't call what I felt sadness exactly, but I was definitely disappointed.
Though I did not get the internship that I wanted, I remain very excited that an internship focused on social media existed at all. I think the fact that a company like Disney has created social media internships for communication students lends credibility to the fact that expanding your knowledge of it and improving your skills with it, is extremely important for all communication students and professionals to do.
Also, I found this image very interesting.
It can be hard for people with a degree in public relations to be able to fully describe to others what it is that they do or what kind of job they hope to have. There are many things that can be done with a public relations degree. PR graduates do not have to work in agencies like many assume. You can work in hospitals, you can work for a drug company, you can work for a museum, you can work for an individual, you can do event planning - the list goes on. However, before graduating and getting your degree in public relations, it is recommended that all students participate in an internship that relates to their field. PR students get internships in a variety of places doing various jobs that may or may not relate to what they might do in the future. I didn't want to get stuck in the position of wasting my time in an internship that wouldn't benefit my experience, so when I got an e-mail from Disney telling me that they had posted their summer and fall professional internships, I was excited to check out the ones available in the Communications section. The very first internship listed had the words "social media," front and center in the title - I was ecstatic. I love the idea of blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking for a purpose. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect opportunity to put many of my interests into action while expanding my knowledge on a topic that greatly intrigues me. I altered my resume and cover letter in order for them to be more specifically geared towards the position and Disney in general, and sent them away hoping for a positive response.
About two weeks later, I received an e-mail thanking me for submitting my resume but they had found someone to fill the position whose background better fit the desired qualifications. I wouldn't call what I felt sadness exactly, but I was definitely disappointed.
Though I did not get the internship that I wanted, I remain very excited that an internship focused on social media existed at all. I think the fact that a company like Disney has created social media internships for communication students lends credibility to the fact that expanding your knowledge of it and improving your skills with it, is extremely important for all communication students and professionals to do.
Also, I found this image very interesting.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Think Before you Tweet
Hey guys! As some of you may be fully aware because of a personal struggle with it, censoring ourselves on a daily basis can be a bit of a chore. Sometimes our thoughts and feelings or a witty little remark just seems to flow out of our mouth without much filter. Many people would say that a constant filter is necessary for all of us in order to live a more respected life, but I feel slightly differently.
There is some spice to life that saying what you feel brings. Dumbing yourself down for the sake of others makes life considerably less exciting and less humorous. However, there is one situation where I feel as though censorship (maybe more like censorship in being more aware of others emotional states) should not only be a suggestion, but a requirement.
Can someone make a big mistake when all they're doing is stating their opinion or crafting a funny statement in response to something? You bet. Kenneth Cole knows this lesson all too well. The fashion designer sent a tweet out into the interwebs a couple of weeks ago that sent a shiver down many readers spines.
There is some spice to life that saying what you feel brings. Dumbing yourself down for the sake of others makes life considerably less exciting and less humorous. However, there is one situation where I feel as though censorship (maybe more like censorship in being more aware of others emotional states) should not only be a suggestion, but a requirement.
Can someone make a big mistake when all they're doing is stating their opinion or crafting a funny statement in response to something? You bet. Kenneth Cole knows this lesson all too well. The fashion designer sent a tweet out into the interwebs a couple of weeks ago that sent a shiver down many readers spines.
Ouch, Kenneth. Now, if I have to be perfectly honest, I've said some things in private conversations with close friends that could have been taken much worse than this little tweet. The difference? My remarks were private and made around only those people who I trusted totally. Cole chose to take a crack at a serious world issue through one of the most public venues in the world. There are some people on Twitter who sit and wait for tweets like this. These people live for the juicy, the mean, and the mistakes. The instant they see something that could potentially be made fun of shamelessly or used against the tweeter, they take a screenshot and post it everywhere they possibly can.
Cole deleted the tweet in the same day that it was posted because of the negative response he began to receive. However, as you can tell by the picture of the tweet above, his words will never totally be gone. Everything and anything you chose to put on the internet has the potential of being around forever. Any word you type, any audio file you record, and any photo you upload are no longer totally yours alone.
I beg of you, think before you tweet. Are you saying something that you would say to a room full of complete strangers? If not, you should probably think again.
Monday, February 7, 2011
KFC piggybacks The Apprentice
"If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks." -Leo BurnettPeople magazine story on KFC and The Apprentice
Back in 2004, KFC was planning to unveil a new type of chicken to its customers. They were going to begin to serve oven roasted chicken and they needed consumers to notice this. Now, personally, fast food ads aren't the most long lasting as far as memory is concerned. You see the commercial, you think about it for, maybe, 15 seconds tops, and you rarely ever think about again. KFC needed this new type of chicken to be successful in a bad way, so they needed a really good way to get people talking about them - even if they weren't talking about their chicken directly.
At the time, the reality show The Apprentice was relatively popular. Most people who were at least mildly aware of the goings-on of the entertainment world had some knowledge about the show and what was happening with it. As the show began to come to a close and it was winding down to the last two remaining competitors, KFC decided to swoop in and jump on the back of the awareness of The Apprentice.
KFC began to advertise something a little unconventional - money and a job waiting for the runner-up of The Apprentice. KFC was offering them $25,000, a years supply of KFC (yuck) and the title of Chief Sales Officer for a week.
Many people consider what KFC did a bit of a trashy spectacle. I chose the quote at the top of this post because it is the exact opposite of what KFC chose to do. People definitely noticed KFC because of this but it was not in a natural way - KFC force fed awareness to every single person who monitored the progress of The Apprentice.
In many ways I consider what KFC did to be brilliant. They spent almost no money to advertise and they still got the attention of millions of people all over the country. It is hard to fault a company who can spend next to nothing and still be able to effectively advertise.
Whether I agree with the way KFC went about spreading the awareness of their new company and their new product, it could certainly not have happened without the indoctriation of social media into the world of PR and advertising. KFC picked the brains of all the bloggers and Facebookers of the world and saw that they were all talking about The Apprentice. What better way to utilize that free information given to them through various social media outlets then to turn it right back at them and use it for their own benefit?
Monday, January 31, 2011
What is social media and why is it important?
“This is no longer a gimmick. This is how the American people want to receive their news and want to hear from us.” – Nick Schaper, new-media representative for House Minority Leader John BoehnerSocial media is an ever-expanding tool used by many different types of professionals through various ways. However, the goal of all of these professionals is almost unanimously the same - to reach their customer or their consumer in a meaningful and lasting way.
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and various blogging sites were created innocently enough to allow people all over the world to connect with others on the internet and share their thoughts in 140 characters or more depending on what site they utilize. Gradually, many communication professionals recognized the ease with which they could access new and existing customers. These professionals chose to go where the people were and made their companies visible and accessible to millions of people all over the world simply by creating pages for them on social media websites.
Social media is important because it is what the vast majority of young people globally spend most of their time doing. It is very hard to find someone these days who doesn't at least have a Facebook account (it's also becoming much more likely that they're parents have accounts too). People who rely on social media become addicted to how easily it allows them to access updates on anything and everything. These people come to expect that and it becomes quite a chore to force themselves to acquire information from any other venue. Social media is important because it incorporates all things that our technologically focused generation enjoys.
Utilizing social media sites allows companies to access the likes, dislikes, and current happenings of those people who chose to follow the information about their company. These companies can then use this information to gather data about forming trends among those existing customers. Companies with information about the interests of the people they are attempting to attract, have a great way to do just that. They can use this information to develop ad campaigns, either print, web, or both or to just help them get a general idea about the type of person who is interested in their company.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Starbucks attemps social media
Mobile Commerce Pitfalls
I'm pretty sure that this doesn't entirely fit into the grand scheme of this new found blog, but it's lists like these that really get me interested and thinking about things that I normally wouldn't consider.
I always tend to view any kind of innovations as a good thing. What harm could technological improvements possibly have on anyone or anything? I always, rather stupidly, assume that every improvement or addition to an already technologically driven world, will always be for the better, even if it doesn't happen right away. However, this newly created app that allows iPhone and Blackberry users to purchase their coffee before entering a Starbucks location, is something that I looked upon with complete disbelief right from the get-go.
I understand that we live in a world attached to any and every device we can possibly get our hands on. Our computers and our cell phones are our libraries, our encyclopedias, our social connections - our everything...almost. Do we really have to throw away one of the last remaining forced human interactions that we all usually get on a daily basis for something that doesn't even seem like it would be all that more convenient? Can we all just agree to take an extra minute or two and purchase our coffee from a live person?
Now that my opinions our out of the way, the fact is that this is simply the way that Starbucks has chosen to use a venue of social media. The fact that they've decided to create an app like this one, shows that they clearly recognize the importance of such things in it's customer's daily lives. Though it's hard for me to see something like this catching on too much, I can see how the stereotypically technologically savvy Starbucks customer might enjoy being able to purchase their venti chai tea latte on their Blackberry while sitting in the parking lot.
It's easy for companies to assume that because the world around them is typically a pretty tech savvy place, their customers will be the same way. I still know many people who barely know how to use Facebook, would never dream of attempting to download any kind of app on their iPhone, and certainly would not even try to purchase a coffee on their cell phone. People like this get frustrated easily and additions like this can be a real turn off to customers who would rather their world get a little bit more personal and little less tech-focused.
This grasp at social media by Starbucks brings up the fact that using social media to sell your product is not something that is always going to be successful. Simply, some things just don't catch on. Things that sound great in theory sometimes just don't work out like you've planned when put into practice. I respect Starbucks and any other company that attempts to nurture our need for new toys to play with and gives us new ways to live in our technological world, but sometimes I just don't understand the things they create.
I'm pretty sure that this doesn't entirely fit into the grand scheme of this new found blog, but it's lists like these that really get me interested and thinking about things that I normally wouldn't consider.
I always tend to view any kind of innovations as a good thing. What harm could technological improvements possibly have on anyone or anything? I always, rather stupidly, assume that every improvement or addition to an already technologically driven world, will always be for the better, even if it doesn't happen right away. However, this newly created app that allows iPhone and Blackberry users to purchase their coffee before entering a Starbucks location, is something that I looked upon with complete disbelief right from the get-go.
I understand that we live in a world attached to any and every device we can possibly get our hands on. Our computers and our cell phones are our libraries, our encyclopedias, our social connections - our everything...almost. Do we really have to throw away one of the last remaining forced human interactions that we all usually get on a daily basis for something that doesn't even seem like it would be all that more convenient? Can we all just agree to take an extra minute or two and purchase our coffee from a live person?
Now that my opinions our out of the way, the fact is that this is simply the way that Starbucks has chosen to use a venue of social media. The fact that they've decided to create an app like this one, shows that they clearly recognize the importance of such things in it's customer's daily lives. Though it's hard for me to see something like this catching on too much, I can see how the stereotypically technologically savvy Starbucks customer might enjoy being able to purchase their venti chai tea latte on their Blackberry while sitting in the parking lot.
It's easy for companies to assume that because the world around them is typically a pretty tech savvy place, their customers will be the same way. I still know many people who barely know how to use Facebook, would never dream of attempting to download any kind of app on their iPhone, and certainly would not even try to purchase a coffee on their cell phone. People like this get frustrated easily and additions like this can be a real turn off to customers who would rather their world get a little bit more personal and little less tech-focused.
This grasp at social media by Starbucks brings up the fact that using social media to sell your product is not something that is always going to be successful. Simply, some things just don't catch on. Things that sound great in theory sometimes just don't work out like you've planned when put into practice. I respect Starbucks and any other company that attempts to nurture our need for new toys to play with and gives us new ways to live in our technological world, but sometimes I just don't understand the things they create.
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