Guest post by Louis Gray, @louisgray Credit: ShutterStock Social media can be an incredible tool, both for producing and consuming incredible amounts of information. Over the last few years, there is no question that an unprecedented change has taken place, putting tools for publication and discovery in the hands of everyone – from simple text to photos and video. Social media tools are changing businesses in terms of how they can connect with customers, partners, peers and even the competition….
Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is Now Back in Stock
Credit: Frank Gruber via Flickr When Deirdre Breakenridge and I initially heard that book stores were reporting that Putting the Public Back in Public Relations was out of stock, we suspected a distribution hiccup was at root of the issue. While it’s never good news to hear that customers cannot get their hands on the very object in which we dedicated and invested over a year of our lives, Deirdre and I were elated to learn that the month-long dry…
ESPN takes Social Media Guidelines Just a Bit Too Far or How to Stunt Your Employeeâs Growth
Today’s guest Op-ed contributor is Serena Ehrlich, Co-Founder, StartUp Army; Past President, NIRI Los Angeles Chapter, Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter Credit Recently ESPN established new social media guidelines banning their employees from discussing anything related to ESPN or sports on any social network. Some see this as a clever move for ESPN to save their intellectual property. I see this decision as detrimental both to ESPN as well as their employees. This sweeping decision has two tragic consequences. Not only does…
Using Twitter to Connect PR Students, Educators, and Professionals
Credit: Shutterstock I recently participated in #PRStudChat, a recurring discussion between PR experts and those looking to learn on Twitter. I found it enthralling. The interactive forum was created by Deirdre Breakenridge, my co-author for Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, and Valerie Simon in response to an ongoing series of questions they received from students seeking advice or insight into how PR was changing in the face of the “now” or real-time Web. In one such interview, PRSSA…
Fallacious Celebrations of Facebook Fans
Guest Post by Dr. Mark Drapeau â read his blog, follow him on Twitter Source: Shutterstock Images Publishing “top 10” lists is unfortunately a staple of modern journalism. But alas, writers must drive readers’ eyeballs, even when discussing serious topics like the government. And so we find a new list that mixes Web 2.0 with the government: “Top 10 agencies with the most Facebook fans.” For the record, this list is topped by the White House with 327,592 fans, followed…
Facebook Tags Now Connect People, Pages and Groups Through Updates
Credit: You can actually buy this lamp. I’ve long believed that the “@” sign carried with it great power on the Web. In definition, it is the representation of “at” which evolved from the phrase of “at the rate of” in accounting and commercial invoices. Over time its ubiquity was solidified with its use as the buckle linking names to domains in email addresses. Now Internet culture, specifically Twitter, has evolved and popularized @ conjuring a powerful and poignant symbol…
Is your PR firm ready for digital marketing? Use these 10 questions to assess their SEO and social media readiness
Guest post by Lee Odden: Follow him on Twitter | Read his blog 6 Questions to Assess Your PR Vendorâs SEO/Social Media Readiness Recently Jason Falls made an insightful comment on his blog about PR professionals being âsocial media readyâ. In that post, he cited the need for specific social media marketing skills to be assessed for companies evaluating the effectiveness of their PR efforts. The state of the PR industry is in flux with increasing emphasis on the digital…
Implement Social Media Guidelines, Now
Guest post by Dan Schawbel: Follow him on Twitter | Read his blog Source Technology has united our professional and personal identities into one. You are no longer just the financial analyst, doctor, lawyer or âsocial media guruâ during work hours. People all around you, sitting in cubicles, in offices and even the secretary can find out more personal information about you, with a single search in Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. There is no hiding anymore and our identities will…
The Dichotomy Between Social Networks and Education
Einstein Chalkboard: Source Recently, I discussed the validity of whether or not social networking (the verb) and social networks (as a noun) were impairing our ability to learn. A Stanford study suggested that this might be the case. It seems that the initial research and its supporting data is now emerging to help us further analyze whether or not this is indeed true or merely hypotheses based on the various samplings of individuals who may or may not serve as…
Proactive Social Media: Filling the Information Space With Great Content
Guest Post by Dr. Mark Drapeau â read his blog, follow him on Twitter Source I recently gave a talk titled Free the People! at the Potomac Forumâs Government 2.0 Leadership, Collaboration, and Public Engagement Symposium in Washington, DC that generated enough interest for me to post my slide deck and write a summary for a wider audience. These thoughts constitute some of my early ideas about âoffensive social mediaâ for organizations (this talk was particularly geared towards a government…
