Lesson 2.2 Social Media and Me: The Magic of twitter.com

Hey guys. It's been a while since I've posted but that's the side effect of being a communications major; too much to do and no time to do it. So, let me ask, how many tweets have you sent in my absence? Who have you followed lately? Who is now following you? Yes, as promised in my last post, today we will be discussing the magic of Twitter.

Now I know most of you guys are not history fans, but for those history junkies like myself, here are a few interesting links about how this wonderful site was formed:

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-History-of-Twitter&id=3789420

http://gigaom.com/2009/02/01/a-brief-history-of-twitter/

http://www.140characters.com/2009/01/30/how-twitter-was-born/

First things first, what exactly is Twitter and how does it work? According to Wikipedia, Twitter is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and microblogging service enabling its users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default; however, senders can restrict message delivery to just their followers. Users may subscribe to other users' tweets – this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers.

Now that we have gotten the text book definitions out of the way, let us discuss how twitter.com can be a magical tool in the hands of a PR professional. Here are a few ideas on how to use Twitter for PR.

Ideas for How to Use Twitter for PR

1.     Engage your CEO in social media.  Social media is a great way to have a conversation with your market and make and mange connections with prospects, customers, bloggers and other influencers.  But for a CEO, the typical routes to social media can be hard.  Especially if you are a larger or global company.  A CEO typically has little time to write a blog or answer lots of messages and friend requests on Facebook. But, Twitter is limited to 140 characters per update, so it is all about short thoughts and comments.  If your CEO can send a text message, they can use Twitter from anywhere in the world as a PR tool.  Twitter is actually perfect for the CEO or founder who is always on the road meeting with people and who has some interesting opinions on your market.

2.     Keep in touch with bloggers / media.  It is really easy to follow someone on Twitter. And you'll be surprised how often they decide to follow you as well.  There are many "famous" people in the marketing and PR worlds waiting to follow you.  In my opinion, this is an easier way to connect with influential people in the media than calling and emailing them.

3.     Announce specials, deals or sales.  If you are a retailer or anyone who often has special offers, you can use Twitter to announce these deals instantly to a large audience.  Dell has done just this with a lot of success.

4.     Live updates on events or conferences.  If you participate in a large trade show or run your own corporate event, you can use Twitter to announce last minute changes, cool events that are happening. It is a great last minute public relations tool.

5.     Promote blog articles, webinars, interesting news and more.  Its really easy to post a link to something in Twitter.  A good idea is to post articles on other websites that are relevant to your business, like a customer success story or other PR coverage.  If you have other content that is appealing to your audience like a free webinar, post links to those too.

Adapted from: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4034/How-to-Use-Twitter-for-Marketing-PR.aspx#ixzz1FEce3F6I

As the saying goes, old habits die hard, so you know I also had to include a slideshow packed with everything you need to get your organisation's Twitter profile up and running. Enjoy!

PRSSA Twitter Workshop

http://www.slideshare.net/corinnew/prssa-twitter-workshop

Now you have everything you need to become a tweeting professional.  So take out your smartphones, thumb fingers poised; get ready, set and tweet away! Until next time, School's Out and Learning's In!

"Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue."-Unknown

Lesson #2.1 Social Media and Me: The wonder we call facebook

       Welcome back to class everyone. I know it's the weekend so please put away your books and pencils, and take out your Smartphones (BlackBerry, iPhone etc.), your notebook computers, laptops, and your tablet PCs and sign in to facebook!

As young and upcoming Public Relations professionals we need to realize the potential of such a powerful social networking tool. Before I get into how we can use facebook to our advantage as PR professionals, let us look at a brief history of the wonder we call facebook.

The History

Okay, no complaints please. I know most persons find History boring, but without knowledge of our history we are prone to repeating the mistakes of the past. Do not worry, I’ll be brief! 

Basically what happened was that Mark Zukerberg, while a sophomore at Harvard, came up with an idea to use juxtaposing photos of his college-mates and allow others to rate who was hotter. He did this by hacking into the school's computer system to retrieve pictures. The site was called facemash. After being banded by the University he transformed the idea into a social study tool where his classmates could share their notes online. By the following semester the idea transformed once again as the system was opened up to persons from other Ivy League colleges such as Yale and the name was changed to thefacebook.com.  With a little help, that idea was expanded, and by September 26, 2006 the newly named facebook.com was opened up to everyone ages 13 and older with a valid email address. That was the really condensed version so for those of you interested in knowing the full story, here are a few interesting links:

http://personalweb.about.com/od/makefriendsonfacebook/a/whatisfacebook_5.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-was-founded-2010-3

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/feb/25/in-the-world-of-facebook/

Facebook and Public Relations

Now on to business!  Do you remember our first lesson, where I defined Public Relations? Let me refresh your memory a bit:

Personal definition: Public Relations

The process through which mutually favourable relationships are maintained between an organisation and its publics (those persons the organisation caters to).

Therefore, facebook is an important tool for building those mutually favourable relationships between an organisation and its publics. In the world of social media, facebook is important for positioning and building a particular brand image in the minds of an organisation's publics. It is very effective in keeping customers informed through status updates, events calendar, notes section, advertisements and the posting of videos. Most importantly, it provides an avenue through which instant and constant feedback can be given to the organisation from its publics and vice versa. I could write on and on about how to use facebook effectively in the realm of public relations, but why write when I found the perfect slideshow to do the job for me? Take a look!

Facebook for Public Relations - PR Daily Presentation

Slideshow taken from: http://www.slideshare.net/ScottMeis/facebook-for-public-relations-pr-daily-presentation

So now you are ready to conquer the facebook public relations landscape! Please remember to ask questions on whatever you need clarification on. In our next lesson we will discuss the magic of twitter.com. That's all for today guys, until next time, school's out and learning's in!

"It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see." -Henry David Thoreau 

Lesson #2: Social Media and Me: Effectively Using Social Media in Public Relations

Hey guys... welcome back! You know the drill, put away all books and pencils, get comfortable and get ready to learn! Today we will be discussing how as PR professionals we can use social media to advance our public relations campaigns.

While researching this topic I found an overflow of information, too much to hold in one blog post. I therefore decided to make this lesson into a series where I will breakdown how to effectively use the most popular social media sites to benefit your organisation. Let us first start with an introduction to social media.

Social Media: An Introduction

Definition: Social media

Social media refers to the activities, practices and behaviours among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge and opinions using conversational media (definition brought to you directly from my class notes). 

Basically, social media are the different online communities through which people worldwide interact and share their experiences with those with whom they are connected (friends or followers). The ones we will be covering in this series are facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There are others such as Digg, LinkedIn, Skype, Flicker, Blogger (which I am currently using), WordPress and many more. We may look at those in a part two to the series but that is yet to be decided. 

Now how exactly does all this tie into public relations? As stated in the previous lesson, public relations is all about communication and establishing mutually favourable relationships between an organization and it's clients. What easier way is there to establish relationships and communicate with persons globally than social media? We have all used it to connect with lost friends and family, separated from us by time and distance, now we can connect with potential clients and customers from all over the world! As I stated earlier, while researching on the topic I found piles of information that I found quite interesting. Let's examine a few!

Social Media and Public Relations: The Link
The first thing I want us to look at is just how online public relations work by watching this YouTube video that packages it quite nicely.

Next I'd like you to browse a few articles I found about social media and public relations today. They are easy to read and very informative. 

http://www.nytimes.com/allbusiness/AB11702023_primary.html

http://www.suite101.com/content/socially-accept-pr-online-networking-a70655

http://ezinearticles.com/?Social-Networking---The-Public-Relations-of-the-Future&id=2385586


Luckily, I also found a slideshow that gave some good tips on how to use social media to enhance your public relations efforts.

Social Media and Public Relations

Slideshow adopted from http://www.slideshare.net/

Lots of information, right? I told you so, and I only scratched the surface. So now that we have been efficiently briefed, to conclude the lesson I want to share with you 5 tips when writing for social media. 

Writing tips for social media

1.     Be concise and clear: Generally, the longer you write, the less you hold a reader's interest

2.     Use catchy and bold headlines: This is very effective in pulling in readers of your social media

3.    Be conversational: Enquire about what is happening around your audience community. People want to feel like you care about what is going on in their life.

4.    Watch your tone: People can determine your mood from the word choices used. Remember, in most cases they can only see what you are saying, not hear it.

5.    Maintain a professional stance: Remember, you are a communicator and you have to establish some level of credibility so always back your communiqués with figures, newspaper articles and feedback from experts.

Anyone else feeling the information overload? I know its a whole lot of information but the good thing about this class is that you can take your time to process. So go grab a soda, catch up on the new episodes of "How I Met Your Mother",  and check your facebook to see if anyone commented on your pictures. When you are ready come back, ask questions and leave your comments. Until next time, school's out and learning's in!

"The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say." -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lesson #1: Clearing up some misconceptions about Public Relations

          I would like to welcome everyone to our first class. Put away your books and pencils, let down your hair, stick a piece of gum in your mouth, and get ready to learn!

Today we will be clearing up some misconceptions about Public Relations; after all this is a PR blog so I figure this would be a good place to start. 
To begin, lets watch a video I found on YouTube that summed up the public's general perception of PR.

Did you share the sentiments of those persons in the video? Let us now identify what Public Relations really is all about. It would be easy just to rewrite the text book definition given in schools, but what good would that be? So let me break it down in my own words. 

Personal definition: Public Relations

The process through which mutually favourable relationships are maintained between an organization and its publics (those persons the organization caters to).

If that was not clear enough, here are a few links that might help:

http://www.prca.org.uk/Whatispr

http://www.google.com/search?

Now let us move on to examine 5 common misconceptions about the Public Relations field.

Misconceptions

#1: PR and Advertising are the Same

While PR and Advertising may work together to achieve organizational goals, the process through which they do this are quite different. With advertising, you have total control over the message being sent, because you pay for it. For example, when Digicel (the Caribbean equivalent of Verison Wireless) places an advertisement on TV or radio, it pays the media house. It can therefore dictate the length of the message, the times it is shown along with the frequency, and the content of the message.  PR campaigns on the other hand are persuasive and often communicate messages through third parties, such as news media, which are not paid. The messages of PR campaigns are often deemed more credible in the public eye because a third party, such as a media house, has to willingly publish the information without paid incentives.

#2: All PR Professionals are Publicists

          Publicists manage the reputations of individuals or small groups in the media. A really good PR campaign does much more than publicize what is happening with its clients in the media. A really good PR campaign will use multiple communications strategies including media relations, social media, public speaking engagements, crisis communications and employee relations to communicate messages to their audiences. Remember our definition of PR? It is maintaining mutually favourable relationships between an organization and its publics. 'Mutually' there is an important word. So it is not just about bombarding the public, telling them how great your organization is. It is also about making the public feel as if they have something to gain from placing their trust in your organization.

#3: PR is Just about Sending Press Releases

          Issuing a press release is one method of reaching out to the media, but it generally represents a small portion of the planning and strategy involved with a multi-faceted PR campaign. In many cases, press releases are not even needed to reach an organization’s target audience, and the communication strategies involve avenues outside of media. For example, you might need to lead seminars, put on competitions, host customer appreciation events and much more in order to achieve those mutually favourable relationships we are aiming for.

#4: PR Professionals Make up News or Distort the Truth

          Many describe PR professionals as 'spin doctors'. However, organizations that distort the truth will find it difficult to regain public trust once they are exposed. What PR professionals do is present the truth in a manner which poses the least disruption for the organization and the public. As my lecturers always tell us, it is not what we say, but how we say it that makes the difference in the public eye. We are taught NEVER to lie to our publics, as it might ruin or careers. 

#5: PR Practitioners Don’t Need Social Media

          Social media leverages online tools and applications for communicating on the Internet. This includes blogging, micro-blogging (such as Twitter) and social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Communication through social media outlets is often open to all Internet users – or at least very large networks of “friends” – which gives consumers a greater voice about brands they do and do not like. With hundreds of millions of social media users worldwide, these can be quite loud and powerful voices, spread quickly through viral channels. PR professionals can use social media tools to reach their target audience directly, in addition to monitoring the buzz about a brand or company. We will elaborate more about this in my next lesson.

Adopted from http://www.suite101.com

Further reading:

http://www.canadian-universities.net/Careers/Misconceptions_about_Public_Relations.html

Please do not be afraid to leave your questions, queries or comments. While I am not yet an expert in the field of PR, I am training to be one so I welcome the challenge of meeting your needs. Until next time, School's Out and Learning's In!

  

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever." Chinese Proverb