• In case of emergency… update your Facebook status?

    Last month, I read a post on Webware about two Australian girls who were trapped in a storm drain. Instead of dialing the Australian equivalent of 911, they asked for help by using their cell phones to update their Facebook profiles. Nearly a month later, I’m still floored by the absurdity of the situation. Thankfully, the girls were rescued, but I continue to wonder why, with a perfectly good cell phone in hand, they didn’t think to dial for help the conventional way.

    I’m quite certain that in the case of an emergency, my first instinct would be to dial 911; but the post did get me thinking about my own reliance on Facebook and other social networking tools. Am I, like the two girls, becoming too dependent on social networking sites? Are we, as communications professionals, turning to Facebook, Twitter and the like too often for research and pitching? (more…)

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  • Facebook, You Got Your Own Thing Going

    “I hate turkeys. If you go to the grocery store and you stand in front of the lunch section too long, you start to get pissed off at turkeys. You see, like, turkey ham, turkey pastrami, turkey bologna… Somebody needs to tell the turkeys, “Man, just be yourself!””

    That’s right, I just opened a post with Mitch Hedberg. And I’ll tell you why. Today I was reading about the official launch of Facebook’s @Mentions, and the quote immediately came to mind. In fact, I’ve thought of the same joke several times over the past couple of years as Facebook has (shamelessly?) scrambled to hijack some of Twitter’s monumental success. It’s not like Facebook is desperate for users. They’ve long been one of the front-runners in the social platform marathon, but their repeated attempts to encompass the essence of Twitter have always felt like the bitter behavior of the cool guy who got turned down for a date for the very first time. (more…)

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  • Managing personal vs. professional social media interactions

    There is an ongoing debate in our offices about whether it is best for us, as professionals, to maintain one, unified social media presence, or to draw a distinct line between our personal and professional interactions, particularly when it comes to Facebook profiles.

    It makes for interesting discussion because, as communicators, we strive for transparency in our work. We build relationships with our colleagues, our clients and the media based on open and honest interactions. But do our clients need to see pictures of us with our family and friends? And do our college friends want to hear about the latest campaigns we’re developing in the office? (more…)

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  • NYT on the gray areas between blog reviews and paid endorsements…

    There’s been quite a bit of buzz lately about the FTC’s proposed guidelines regarding marketing and endorsements related to bloggers and online media in general. We’ve been closely tracking it since many of our clients pursue coverage on blogs, especially since consumers increasingly rely on third parties and their peers to give no-nonsense product reviews before they make a purchase. (more…)

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  • How can journalists use Twitter?

    How can journalists use Twitter?

    I was on the phone recently with a senior reporter from one of my client’s top-tier trade publications, and we were talking about Twitter. It turns out that his publication has a Twitter feed, but the reporter doesn’t have his own account or contribute to the pub’s feed. He claimed that he didn’t know what he’d use it for, but was still a bit intrigued by the communication medium. I saw the opportunity to offer him some information and suggestions outside of the normal thought leadership and company news I would normally pitch, and I promised to write up a list of ways he could use Twitter.

    So I sat at my computer , unsure of what to say, and getting increasingly agitated at the unmoving cursor as it blinked away, mocking my inability to come up with the ideas I promised. Eventually, I figured there were a few basic things he could do, like tweet about his articles to drive traffic to them. I mentioned sending out appeals to his PR followers for sources for upcoming stories (I suggested this one rather selfishly – I thought it’d be clever to respond to one of his first tweets with a source). I also suggested he use Twitter to provide sneak peeks to upcoming pieces, and announce new webinars that were scheduled for the pub’s Web site.

    And while I feel like my suggestions were helpful, especially for a person who wants to use Twitter but hasn’t before, he still hasn’t signed up and used it. Naturally, being the neurotic PR guy that I am, I worry that what I provided wasn’t creative or specific enough for him to become a full-fledged Twitter-freak like so many other journalists.

    So I ask the larger PR community: How can journalists use Twitter to make their jobs easier? What are some of the ways we, as PR and communication professionals, would like the media to use this tool.

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  • Earned Attention

    Earned Attention

    Greg Verdino recently blogged about the apparent differences between “earned media” and “earned attention”. The former garners a great deal of coverage on the world wide web, including its own entry on Wikipedia. (more…)

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  • Profits vs. Benefits

    When discussing the effectiveness of social media, we always prepare ourselves to answer the ultimate, decision-driving question – “When will we start to see a difference in sales?”

    That, of course, is the wrong question to ask. Naturally, the strategy behind the entrance to the social media realm can be customized to influence sales as much as possible.  Promotions and activities can be designed to drive traffic to homepages and online stores – coupons and codes can be awarded that can be brought right into retail locations.  Success in social media, however, can’t be completely summed up in a rise in sales. (more…)

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  • Twitter – you’ve officially won me over

    When I first heard about Twitter, I quickly dismissed it.

     

    In college, my friends and I all religiously updated our “Away messages” on AOL Instant Messenger, providing a constant stream of FYIs to our friends about where we were, what mood we were in, or what we were doing at any given moment. In those days, it was unheard of to simply sign off when you were done chatting, and even if you were going to leave a funny quote or a set of song lyrics, you were still expected to include a quick blurb at the bottom – something to the effect of, “at class ‘til 11:30…then lunch?”

     

    As Facebook came to prominence, Away messages became less important and everyone’s attention turned to status updates. Having a profile without entering a status was like admitting you hadn’t logged on in a few days. It was definitely not cool…and borderline social suicide. (more…)

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