I have been writing and teaching most of my life -- and have enjoyed both vocations. However, the advent of the Social Media Revolution has turned my life around in the most exciting fashion. Rather than think about retirement, I want to help change the world -- particularly the business world -- into a "kinder," more ethical, transparent, and authentic place to help solve people's problems.
SFSU student Justin Fong puts his Social Media lessons to good use
More than 100 marketing students in the College of Business at San Francisco State experienced All Things Social Media from classroom activities, influential guest speakers, and their own individual research.
Justin Fong was one of a half dozen students who had a double-dose, taking both my PR and my Advertising courses. After the semester ended, he began working for Scoreloop and here is a report on his internship activities:
Hey Shari,
How’s the summer going for you? My internship is really tough. Long hours and pretty much a non-stop day, but it’s a lot of fun. There is a lot going on at once.
The first thing I do in the morning is troll through the news for stories about our company and our competitors. I look through Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and other social media sites to see if anything’s new. If something does comes up, I e-mail it to my team and we try to de-position our competitors.
I also take care of all of our social media profiles. I made our Facebook fan page, our Linkedin company profile, monitor our Twitter account, etc. There are so many different things I do.
One thing that I helped the company with was the idea of creating a wikipedia page, which we discussed in a phone conference.
We had a big press release yesterday. It was a hit and got picked up by a lot of big companies, Google, Yahoo, CNBC, MarketWatch, and so many more. We do both traditional PR and PR 2.0. I’ll update you when more things happen for the company. We’re getting ready for Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference so we’re really busy this week. Have a good rest of summer!
Best Regards, Justin Fong
Hey guys, if any more of you are “out there” doing social media activities, please send me your reports and maybe we’ll have a host of guest hosts.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment or sharing it with your followers on Twitter! You can also subscribe by email for more cool interviews and articles from Sharisax is Out There.
Sharing and commenting is the “name of the game” in the Social Media World, so I’m re-distributing a great post I read Monday morning by Erik Qualman and including my own comments on each maxim.
Like the structure of a blog — where you read the most recent entry first — I’m starting with number 15:
15. The overall achievement of individuals and companies will be largely dependent on their social media success.
Genuine success usually comes to those who work, and work diligently. towards a worthwhile goal. Marketing on New Media, whether it is your personal brand — or a company brand — will not lead to overnight success. Even our new celebrities Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert paid “offline” dues taking lessons and performing in front of audiences before their meteoric rise to fame.
The Social Media are NOT a fad, folks. The sooner those who want to offer goods, services, and themselves to others, the sooner they need to discover the right platform(s) [i.e., Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Ning, LinkedIn, etc.] to reach the right people and then get “out there” and Do It.
Online search has revolutionized the way we hire — and get hired
14. The information exchanged in social media in relation to job searching and recruiting has rendered it unrecognizable from the information exchanged 10 years ago. Appropriate matches between employer and employee have increased as a result of an increased information flow.
My students at San Francisco State are learning this lesson on a daily basis. Those who’ve recently graduated know that so many new jobs require social media knowledge, experience, and skills. Plus prospective employers are checking LinkedIn pages for connections and endorsements and, even, personal blogs. Savvy employers are Googling prospects rather than spending much time with resumes.
And savvy job seekers, whether fresh out of college or fresh out of a job, are discovering a myriad of ways to research employers in even more depth than a company website. One great “trick” is going on LinkedIn, clicking the “Company” link on the top menu board, selecting a company of interest [e.g., Microsoft] and checking out tons of information opportunities you couldn’t find anywhere else, like “former employees” who might be able to offer great strategies for landing a job or avoiding pitfalls.
Engage in conversations that are already going on
13. If you’re a large brand, you can rest assured that there are conversations, pages, and applications constantly being developed around your brand and by the community at large. The social community is “doing” social media even if your company chooses not to.
THIS IS HUGE, especially for HUGE companies. We know that none of us can “control the message” online. I’m reminded of a student who was blasted on Yelp because a bank customer blamed her personally for his frustrations. She came to me crying because every time anyone Googled her, this nasty Yelp comment was the first thing they saw. We’ve learned that there’s no technology to erase bad comments; there’s even something called the Streisand Effect where companies have learned what happens when you try to.
What do you do instead? THIS IS EASY. You put your own good stuff online, and the nastiness is buried on page 54 of Google [or now the new soon-to-be popular search “Bing”]. As they say, the “cream rises to the top.”
12. Making multiple mistakes within social media is far better than doing nothing at all.
Picasso said, “I am always doing that which I do not know how to do in order to learn to do it.” An art instructor of mine once told the class that we all had 1,000 bad paintings in us, so we’d better get started to get those out of the way. An English professor once said that if we read everything written by Thomas Hardy, we would think he was just a hack, but it is his masterpieces that continue to be read, studied, and remembered.
11. Marketers’ jobs have changed from creating and pushing to one that requires listening, engaging, and reacting to potential and current customer needs.
For years we’ve heard that “The Customer is Always Right” but we haven’t really listened to them, and THAT is what is so powerful about online opportunities. When your customers have questions and concerns, you can shape your products and services to respond to real needs and wants RATHER THAN simply producing things and trying to manipulate people to want and acquire them.
“Content is key” is MORE than the message
10. Companies that produce great products and services rather than companies that simply rely on great messaging will be winners in a Socialnomic™ world. The social graph is the world’s largest and most powerful referral program.
Why have testimonials always been so sought after by marketers? Because people like to hear how wonderfully products and services have worked for others — and also when those products and services have NOT worked. The better mousetrap works well , people will use it, and so will their friends and neighbors.
Focusing on core strengths leads to leadership
9. Being “well-rounded” as a company or individual is less beneficial. It’s more productive to play to your core strength. This differentiates you from the competition.
Rarely is a jack-of-all-trades in the League of Superstars. We like doing what we do well: when we focus our efforts on our strengths, we build a trustworthy reputation and retain loyal followers.
8. The transparency and speed of information exchanged within social media mitigates casual schizophrenic behavior. Having a “work” personality and having a “party” personality will soon become extinct. People and companies will need to have one essence and be true to that essence.
Back “in the day” when I studied journalism, we were taught objectivity, i.e., keeping ourselves out of our stories. But just as the news”papers” themselves are disappearing, so is the way we’ve communicated with audiences. Neither preaching nor more subtle manipulation works anymore. What does is honesty, authenticity, sincerity, and friends helping friends.
Figure out which platforms work best for your community
7. The most successful social media and mobile applications are those that allow users to brag, compete, or look cool by passing it on.
Today’s social media landscape is burgeoning with a vast variety of platforms to share opinions, insights, and graphic contributions — the most useful will become the most popular, and the most popular will become the most powerful. Experimenting with many of them will help you figure out which are most likely to build your community of engaged customers, clients, and friends.
6. With the increasing popularity of e-books, there will be new digital media placement opportunities for brands. This is very similar to product placement in movies, only this is for books, and the placements are clickable and measurable.
A great feature of new technology is the opportunity to modernize the tried-and-true: longer stories and lessons are being published online in the form of e-books, which offer readers an additional layer of credibility but with the ultimate in ease-of-use. When businesses find appropriate ways to sponsor these applications, the ROI will be evident.
Fun and games is more than fun and games
5. Successful social media marketers will function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners rather than as traditional advertisers.
Tradition in marketing has meant treating customers in an “impersonal” way that just won’t work anymore. As entertainment options increase — and our ability to discover and access them online grows — our expectations are necessitating new traditions. We audience members are putting ourselves “out there” with our likes and dislikes broadcast on Facebook, Twitter, etc. All of this will make it easier for “producers” to create appealing, targeted, winning communication strategies. As one commenter to Erik’s post put it, “Every company will be a media company.”
4. The old adage that you can only have two of these — cheap, quick, or quality — doesn’t hold true within social media. It’s possible to have all three.
We don’t have to pay to play, so the online world is accessible to all with an available computer. Information is readily obtainable and often in “real time.” Thus quality is never compromised because of cost or speed.
3. Social media’s ability to quickly disseminate information among friends and peers helps eliminate different people performing the same tasks (multiple individual redundancies), whether it’s researching the best vacation spot or smart phone. This results in a more efficient society.
No one likes wasting time, so online searching avoids the delay and frustration of waiting for postal delivery, a return phone call, or even getting past the button-pressing in a phone tree. Businesses can send personalized messages to a community — thus eliminating the waste of mass marketing and the expense of one-on-one promotion.
Quality goods and services lead to great word of mouth
2. Consumers are looking to peers for recommendations on products, services, health issues, and more via social media. Only companies that produce products and services of great value will be part of these conversations; mediocrity will quickly be eliminated.
Society as a whole will be improved as we help one another create and discover the highest quality products and services.
1. Successful marketers will be more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy; listen first, sell second.
Everything in this revolutionary world of Social Media Marketing begins with improving (a) the way we listen to one another and (b) the means to do it.
Let’s re-visit #15 and more fully comprehend that business growth and success in the future will be tied to mastery of opportunities offered in our Brave New World of Social Media
The Future is NOT just “in the future.” The Future is NOW!
Dive in!
Just after New Year’s, a friend told me she was spending three hours a day on Facebook. “How could you be wasting so much of your life!” I’d asked her — genuinely concerned that she was “stupid” for getting caught up in all the silly buzz.
How dramatically my own life has changed in four months!
That’s the purpose of this blog — to help my Baby Boomer generation, and my retired friends, and my career-contemplating students all discover how this major New Media revolution is changing Everything — and for the betterment of all.
Here are 10 reasons why we — Baby Boomers in particular — should “Dive In”
1. Something “out there” for everyone:It’s not just Oprah, Demi Moore, Dave Matthews, and Barack Obama on Twitter. Thirty million other Tweeters plus around 300 million users each on MySpace and Facebook . . . and the list of social media participants goes on. A host of different platforms with a variety of advantages for people from widely different walks of life with a huge diversity of different interests. There is something “Out There” speaking to you — if you listen.
2.“Fountain of Youth”: Ask yourself what you “want” — to make you happier, more fulfilled, more connected, more ________________ [fill in the blank]. If you are one of the “elder” Baby Boomers like me, then one possible response might be: “I’d like to feel younger and, perhaps, more hopeful.” After having spent these several weeks learning/experimenting/engaging with the New Media and the communities of folks using them, I can appreciate the “Fountain of Youth” properties associated with being a young person just embarking on a new, exciting adventure.
3. DO something New:Laziness is not next to Godliness. Get off the couch and do something NEW.
4. Get “famous”:Think about someone like Susan Boyle – a 48-year-old Scottish woman with a magnificent voice, who thanks to the magic of YouTube and Twitter is now known worldwide and will get a chance to bring joy to multitudes. You, too, can be famous if you’d like. Read my first blog post.
5. Find answers:Is there anything you don’t know? I’m talking here to the men (who occasionally don’t like to admit lack of knowledge) as well as the women (who usually do know “everything,” right, ladies?) Not only are answers to your questions all over the internet, but you can discover new friends who share your interests by asking questions on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms.
6.Be creative: Speaking of Twitter, it’s a very simple technology with tons of “applications.” That means any of us can shape the medium in creative ways. Lots of people may merely “text-message” friends and family, but some of us use it to discover new information available on the internet. It’s also a cool way to share personal insights that may be helpful to others. And its a great place to ask questions. On a more creative note, as an English teacher I found it useful in having my students frame a message of “substance” in 140 characters or less. I’d love to hear other creative uses people have for Twitter.
7.Keep in touch: Then there’s Facebook: you don’t have to spend three hours a day for this site to prove its value. Here are some of the ways it works for me: (a) keeping in touch with close friends and new acquaintances who don’t require phone calls; when you connect up with people on this site and they “update their status” you can make a comment and carry on a mini-conversation; (b) showing photos of your grandchildren; (c) letting family members know about the plays you saw on Broadway during your vacation — all at one time if they are on Facebook, too.
8. Start a blog. Set up your own soapbox and proclaim your views and knowledge to the world — online and, even, offline about any topics that excite you.
9. Be an explorer:Then there’s Friendfeed, Del.icio.us, YouTube, Digg, Flickr, Ezine, Squidoo, Technorati and the entire Blogosphere to explore.
10. Make Great New Friends:I made a new friend on Twitter one afternoon, and she said something that rang true for me, as well: “Honestly, nothing as exciting as this social media revolution has happened to me in decades.” Try it, you may feel the same.
Readers, do us all a great service: write a comment and share some of the reasons you believe Baby Boomers . . . of all ages . . . should embrace social media.
TWO: Twitter creator Jack Dorsey has told us Twitter WILL one day [probably sooner rather than later] be as ubiquitous as email.
THREE: The only question, then, is HOW to use this amazing and “simple” technology to ReShape and ReVive Business in America [and all over the Globe]?
The BEST ANSWER is by Reading, Listening, Talking, Thinking, and DOING!
(A) Try search.twitter.com — put in “twitter for business” and VOILA! real-time URL’s to check out
(B) Study the Tweet Streams of progressive companies like @wholefoods, @jetblue, @homedepot, @SouthwestAir and “team” members at places like Dell, e.g. @ChrisBatDell
(C) For more company Tweeple, use Twibs or one of the other listings in Lee Odden’s 12 Directories
Twitter will help marketers get measureable results
Because Twitter updates in real time, you can reach an audience on the spot. It’s a great platform for asking for assistance, getting opinions, and answering questions. Much less expensive than a focus group — and so much more personal.
Twitter builds communities, and this will be especially fruitful for retailers — both local and global — as companies have the opportunity to tell customers about attractive sales and new products.
Use Twitter to engage with customers and create advocates. It really is all about People Helping People.
What’s so cool about Twitter is that there are NO rules: it’s like the “Wild West” where anything goes — as long as you use 140 characters or less.
Q: Why devote an entire post to this subject?
A: The 19th century poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “We are always looking for someone to tell us what to do” . . . and many typical Twitter users [see previous post] “forget” to Tweet.
So here are my thoughts:
1 – Jack Dorsey, Twitter creator, told my class that his mom likes to hear his day-to-day activities whether he’s meeting friends at a restaurant or getting off a plane in Iraq. 2 – Remember there are NO rules.
3 – That being said, you might want to consider WHY you are on Twitter: Do you really want the “world” to know you had a pizza for lunch? [Actually, I’m in NYC right now and called one of my brothers, whom I hadn’t told about my trip. He knew I was in New York because I’d put the word out on Twitter.]
4 – Personally, as someone who teaches public relations — and, thus, reputation management — I like to think about what my “Profile,” i.e. my Twitter Stream, looks like to someone who is deciding whether to follow me or NOT
5 – Therefore, in most cases I write personal comments using the DM [Direct Message] function — or simply send an email — so that my Tweets are more “thoughtfully” targeted to all my followers.
What makes a Tweet more respectful of your followers? Here are some of my suggestions:
(A) Passing along a cool blog entry or website I’ve come across, e.g., Adam Singer’s “What if? (B) Retweeting [RT] an informative link that I’ve read from someone I follow on Twitter — see the previous post to find out about Tweetdeck which makes Retweeting so easy.
(C) Answering someone’s question, e.g.,
Quipsandtips asked: I’m in a lull, waiting for mag assignments & book contracts. How do you know when it’s time to revamp goals or change action plan?
I answered: @quipsandtips how do you know when it’s time to make new plans? When you ask that question 🙂
(D) “Reading” a book and sharing a short insight from it, e.g.,
Reading Putting Public Back in PR by Brian Solis & Deidre Breakenridge #PPBinPR : PR 2.0 creating new toolkit 2 reinvent market conversation
(E) Sharing an insight that you got “all on your own” and were dying to tell someone, e.g.,
People are NOT numbers. When businesses fully understand this, their strategies and tools will adjust.
Just remember, there aren’t any rules Unless You Make Your Own, so TWEEPLE – please tell us your rules and share your favorite Tweets. The conversation is what Social Media is all about.
If you love getting organized, you’ll love Tweetdeck
Untangle your Tweets
Tweetdeck is the key that not only opens the door to greater accessibility but can make your entire Twitter experience so much fun — especially for those who love easy organization.
How Tweetdeck works:
1. Download Tweetdeck (TweetDeck runs on the Adobe AIR runtime. To use TweetDeck, you will need to install Adobe AIR first.)
2. Login and you will see THREE COLUMNS: One column is a list of the Tweeple you follow [ALL FRIENDS] with the most recent 100 tweets (including your own). The second and third columns are likely to be empty.
3. One of the empty columns is called DIRECT MESSAGES. When you SEND one of your followers a DM [direct message], it will appear in this column.
4. The other empty column is called REPLIES. Here you will see messages that mention your twitter name, i.e., @twittername, e.g., @sharisax. [An “advanced move” is to change this column, but that can wait for a later post from me or you can read about it within a blog called Twittercism.]
5. Now you are ready to take a look at the boxes that run along the top, beginning on the left above your columns. The first box TWEET will open up the text insert line that allows you to write your 140 character message. [The box turns red if your message goes over the limit.] The input line below the tweet line is used for shortening a long URL: simply type in the complete URL, click SHORTEN, and your smaller URL is inserted into your message. The TWITPIC box next to Shorten allows you to add picture files. When your message is complete, click your enter key and the message will be sent to Twitter.
6. Tweetdeck has many additional features, but you may want to play with just two of them before you begin further investigation. The sixth box from the left [after the Tweet box] is called GROUP. When you click on Group, another column pops up: ADD A GROUP. You are asked to name the group.
Many Tweeple use a column to separate the most interesting and important people they are following from the rest of the pack, so often this column is identified as A-List. You will see a “drop down” listing of ALL of the people you follow, and you click on those you wish to be in your “A-List” or whatever you choose to call the group.
When you are finished selecting group members, simply click on SAVE GROUP at the bottom, and then you will have a separate stream of tweets from group members. This makes it easy for you to “follow” a lot of people and not have to read through all their tweets to get to the ones you want.
7. The final “beginner’s tip” is the box to the right of Group. This is TWITTER SEARCH. When you click here, you will get an input box asking what you are searching for. You can try any topic, even your name. When you hit enter, another column is added with the Tweets mentioning the word or phrase (just as if you had gone to the Twitter Search site.
HINT: When I set up my first additional group and search columns, I thought some had “disappeared” because I couldn’t see them. Then I discovered the movable bar below the columns that allows you to move to the right or left to access all your columns even when they extend past your screen size.
FINAL SUGGESTION: These tips listed above are just to get you started. The Real Fun begins when you discover some of the functions on your own — So Download Tweetdeck and Enjoy!
The REAL, intrinsic, not-so-secret value of social media in general — and Twitter, particularly — is the desire to help others by sharing information.
Expertise, whether in the form of “raw knowledge” or super-research skills, is on the Net for the taking and, of course, the giving.
Lesson TWO: How to find people to “follow” on Twitter
1. Your first step, of course, should be your “plan” for Twitter. Is this platform just another way to text-message friends and family? If that’s the case, you don’t need my help. Simply convince your friends and family to get on Twitter and then you all follow each other.
2. HOWEVER, if your desire is to Explore the Technology and the Web at the same time, you will want to find Tweeple [i.e., Twitter users] who (a) know what they are doing on Twitter, (b) “tweet” about subjects of interest to you, and/or (c) have the kind of celebrity that you want to get close to.
3. WARNING: In the beginning, you ought to be as selective as possible in choosing people to follow. The more people you follow, the more messages you will receive — and, consequently, the more confused you may become. [Stage One of Twitter Use is Confusion. See previous post.]
4. NOW FOR MY FIRST SUGGESTION: Access a Twitter Directory. You can Google “Twitter Directory” and find pages of directory listings, but for starters, why not go to Twellow, the Twitter Yellow Pages.
Look at the categories. Want a newspaper or reporter or blogger who Tweets about current events, for example? You’ll find hundreds.
Find a name that looks familiar or interesting and click the word “follow” on the left side of the listing.
The next screen will show you the latest Tweets from this source. If you want to follow this person’s tweets, you will need to be logged on to your Twitter account. If you forgot to log-in first, No Problem, simply go to the login box on the upper right, put in your name and password, and you will be returned to this Tweeter’s page.
Then simply click on the word “follow” below the photo or icon. And so forth . . . add as many people as you want, but as I suggested above, you might want to be choosy at first.
One “surprise” is that many people will automatically follow you when you follow them, but not everyone. I got a charge when Barack Obama followed me, but neither Hillary nor Al Gore did. You live and learn.
5) SINCE YOU’VE GOTTEN THIS FAR in today’s post, your next step might be to follow me.
You can see the kind of comments, i.e. “tweets” that I make BUT you can also see whom I follow. In the right sidebar where it tells you how many people I am following [353 today], click on the word following. Your next screen shot will list those Tweeple and you can follow the advice above to see any of the tweet “stream” of any of these people.
6) LAST TIP OF THE DAY: Try search.twitter.com. When the search box appears, write down a word or phrase like “dogs” or “future of advertising” or “project manager” or “employee engagement” or “Adam Lambert” — what or whoever interests you. Up will pop ALL the Tweeple who are Tweeting about your topic in Real Time, i.e., who may be posting about that subject right NOW.
If you like what you read, you may click on their icons and check out their tweet stream. If you like the stream, click follow.
Stupid is such a loaded word: you never know how someone else will react if they hear the word
It's all in how you look at it
So let’s begin TWITTER WEEK 101 with an agreement that 10 million+ users can’t be All Wrong. They’ve learned it’s all about How You Choose To Use The Power of Twitter. [BTW, as of Dec 2009, the total Tweeple is now at 68 million!!]
Start by acknowledging that as “simple” as Twitter is to use, to really understand its power will take time and participation. I recently read a post on the Four Stages of the Average Twitter User:
(1) Confusion — and the feelings that it is “stupid” to read about someone going to get a pizza;
(2) The first “AHA moment” when you realize there’s more to this than first meets the eye, e.g., for me, it was when I thought about using the technology to have my English students write something of substance to me in 140 characters AND THEN when I found out how easy it was to gather tons of information on the future of marketing;
(3) Remembering to Tweet was listed as a stage when users simply keep reading and reading without adding their own content. Actually this didn’t happen to me exactly. Rather, I was so excited about the things I was reading, that I immediately “RETWEETED” — in other words, copied the link and broadcast it to my followers.
. . . which reminds me that these “Stages” did not include the All Important Terms: Update, Followers, and Following:
UPDATE: Your Home page begins with the question: “What are you doing?” When new [and old] users simply answer that question, you do find out personal info that may or most probably won’t be the “Best of Twitter.” However, most people do NOT answer that question; they simply disregard it and write about an interesting discovery online, in the news, OR BEST . . . to my mind . . . is a personal insight they want to share.
FOLLOWING: These are the Tweeple [i.e. people who use Twitter] you will choose to follow because you either know them, know of them, or have found out that they like to talk about things of interest to you. More about Who To Follow in next post.
FOLLOWERS: This is “cute.” Either you can invite people you know to receive your Tweets [that was how I first got on Twitter] or people will simply find you in cyberspace, and that can be Really Cool — when absolute strangers all of a sudden start following you, it’s a real charge! You’ll learn that there are myriads of ways to collect 1000’s of followers — but the jury is out on whether that is a good or bad thing.
4) Final of Four Stages: You’re hooked. And I was — to the point that I could barely pull myself away from my Twitter Page, to the point where my husband called me Tweetie Bird.
. . . two more points in Stage Four:
Tweetdeck – an application that you can download to help you categorize your actions on Twitter [more about this only after you’ve had some initial experience.[ See my Tweetdeck post]
The power of search.twitter.com – where you can look up just about anything whether it is “future of advertising” or “Adam Lambert” or “dog grooming” and find out what people are saying about that subject Right Now — it’s also a good way to find people to follow who like the subjects you like.
5) My Stage Five: I learned that I can still get a lot out of Twitter even if I happen to miss an “important” Tweet. Most of the good ones are Re-Tweeted. And I, personally, am ready to find out how to Use Twitter for Business.
So, if you are a budding Social Media Marketer like me, stay tuned for reports on Hints, Tips, Tools, and Strategies for using Twitter for Business.
The REAL SECRET is Just DO it! And if you have any questions and/or good tips for beginners and/or your own great Beginner’s Stories, please add them to this post.
The last class of the semester will not be the end of studies for many SFSU marketing students.
What a wild ride –
Jumping off the PR 1.0 trail and on to PR 2.0!
And I’m happy to report that many of my 90+ students will be continuing our trek down Revolutionary Road. Below is a sampling of their semester wrap-ups:
Consumers create the buzz:
“I learned that people are changing the way information is given and received. Today Social Media is influencing all of us in ways never thought possible 5, 10, 20 years ago. Websites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are evolving into powerful tools. And companies are seeing this as consumers are now the ones creating buzz about products and places.
Today we all have the opportunity to use the Web to tell stories, to educate, to entertain, and, most importantly, to engage in conversation. We are only beginning to explore the many ways to communicate.” — Alice Ng
Social Media is our future:
“It is not only a way for people to connect and maintain relationships, but the Future for marketing and business, as well. Most of the population has hit their limit with mass advertising. People have figured out that everything is a selling gimmick and they have become immune. Marketing has become Word of Mouth — and what better way to facilitate the discussions than through social media.
If I am interested in a new TV, I want to hear real-life reviews and opinions — and with just a few clicks I can find them with Twitter. Or, if I want to know more about a person or organization, I simply go to LinkedIn or Facebook. As more people are realizing that everything is available online, more companies and people are adding valuable content to be discovered.” — Natalie Leadbetter
What’s just a fad?
“The number of social media websites id mind-boggling. The question is which ones are here to stay, and which ones will be merely fads. It’s frustrating that more and more aspects of life are moving to the Web. Personally, I find that staring at a computer screen for longer than a couple of hours at a time can induce headaches. Also, social media is killing privacy, and I have always considered myself a private person. I haven’t felt comfortable putting myself on the Internet for anyone to Google.
One of our speakers told us, ‘If I Google your name and nothing comes up, then you can forget about a job1’ I still have a hard time getting myself to put my name out there and start the multiple social networking profiles that are required for this class — and what now seems, required for life in general. Is there another niche out there for me to avoid this whole Web 2.0 thing? I DOUBT IT. I guess it’s time for me to bite the bullet and join the massive conformity that we call Social Media.” — Emilio Siqueiros
Personal Branding 101:
“I’m personally appreciative to have been immersed in the New Rules of PR. Communication has been revolutionalized and one of the most important lessons for me has been about Personal Branding. From everything I post online to my contributions to others’ web conversations, being Proactive is the Key. I now understand the importance of contributing to other people’s blogs as well as creating and maintaining online profiles — to connect with others and to contribute to the Worldview of Knowledge.” –Alvin Lee
Be careful online:
“When I first began this PR class, I hadn’t known what to expect. All I’d ever heard about PR were statements about making a company Look Good. But now my understanding has changed to the view that PR is more of a process of having a company do the kinds of things that will make it look good and earn that good reputation. And I can see how the internet — and everything we post online — can affect our reputation for the bad as well as for the good. Before this class, I’d tried Twitter when it wasn’t all the rage. I thought it was interesting, but it would fade away.
Now, though, I’m surprised that I’m Tweeting on my final — social media has grown so powerful that wherever I look, someone is bombarding me with some sort of advertising cleverly disguised as Tweets. Every action we take, we have to know that a potential client or contact is watching, and what we write online can make or break us in the Business World.” — Victor Atilano
Share your experiences with us. How has your life changed? Most of us believe that ours has improved? How about you?
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“Write your own blog post everyday, but spend twice as much time reading other people’s blogs — and comment”
We had Sleepy Blogger, aka Robyn Tippins, come to PR class at San Francisco State, Tuesday, May 12, on the second last day of our exciting adventure into the World of All Things Social Media.
In addition to being a very popular and influential blogger and mother of four children, Robyn is Community Manager for Yahoo Developer Network. I read about her in a chapter of What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging by Ted Demopoulos.
Since she lives in the Bay Area AND a student group planned to tell the class about blogging, Sara Peterson (student in the group) and I Tweeted and Emailed. It worked for Jack Dorsey — and it worked for Robyn Tippins.
WOW, did it work!
The students loved her “down home” story — at 21, Robyn started a cloth diaper business from her home in Georgia, and the rest is history for another post. But what impressed Sara and so many of the students is how Robyn decided to make things happen, and she made them happen!
Here are some of the comments students wrote after her presentation:
“It was cool to learn how Robyn created a business on the Internet at such a young age, and now she works for Yahoo.” — Stephanie Mereau
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“Once you get out there, people start to refer to you and this is how you become influential.” — Mita Mahida
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“No job is Too Small!” — Alice Ng
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“It’s important for your blog to create a niche so that the right people can read the right blogs and leave the right comments for the benefit of the overall conversation.” — Stephen Giusti
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“Word of mouth has a lot to do with success in the blogging world as it is for business in general.” — Rafael Silla
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“Paid advertising on your blog can hurt you rather than help you because of all the clutter and distraction.” — Ann Marie Pawlicki
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“Research is essential — it makes you credible and relevant.” — Marie Belhomme
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“Key words and meta tags make it easier to find your blog.” — Gabriela Acevedo
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“Spend more time visiting other blog than writing your own.” — Theresa Rix
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“Moderate comments: know what your strategy will be.” — Brian McGuinn
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“Get your ideas out there and personalize some of your posts to keep yourself real.” — Orly Macabi
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“All in all: One of those classes that makes it all worthwhile.” — Shari Weiss
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To Be or Not to Be . . . ahead of the social media curve
Sharing is the Name of the Game
. . . that’s a Big Reason why “we” blog AND why books get written and read.
Several people recently have asked What I’m reading, and I have to smile . . . laugh, in fact.
The answer is EVERYTHING! Everything I can find to help me “catch up.”
Sometimes it is hard to realize that MOST OF THE WORLD is still in the dark about the power and value of Social Media – especially when I see online, in traditional media, and from the speakers we’ve brought to class that there are so many Experts out there.
Answers:
#1: I check Twitter for blog and article suggestions, and I read them and copy for future reference. In fact, I plan to review some of the best ones for future posts.
#2: Every day my email box is filled with articles from the blogs I’ve subscribed to — as well as group discussions — and I read as many of them as I can.
#3: I go to my local library and look at all the books cataloged 006.7. To name a few of the memorable ones I’ve read: The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging, Blogging for Dummies, Corporate Blogging by John Cass, and What No One Ever Tells you about Blogging and Podcasting edited by Ted Demopoulos.
#4: Open books around me now that I’m taking turns with: (a) Putting the Public Back in Public Relations by Brian Solis, (b) Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, (c) The Google Story by David Vise, (d) WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson, and (e) Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.
All of that is why I’ve been getting up at 5 a.m. and some of my SM friends/colleagues are getting up even earlier.
NOTE TO STUDENTS: We’re not even being tested on this . . . or are we?
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