With Facebook and Myspace, Do we need Twitter?

Twitter is one of the new sensational social media tools. It is more of a micro-blogging tool that allows you to post very short comments, updates and thoughts. Twitter has been designed to be compatible with most cellphones, so as to allow you to update your status through a text message from your cellphone. The inconvenience here is that, text message fees applies through your cell phone carrier ( unless you have unlimited text messaging on your phone)

Personally, I am not too excited about twitter-all that it allows you to do is updating, updating and updating! This is not to say that it does not have other essential functions, but compared to facebook and other social media, which allows you to do more (such as video uploading) than just updating, twitter has less features.

Notwithstanding, many PR practitioners and marketing experts insists that twitter can be a great tool. Hubspot, for example gives us great ideas on how to use twitter in PR and marketing

Lee Odden, also writes on Online Marketing Blog that, though it may seem silly to be writing stuffs like, "I just arrived" or "I missed my flight," those can be very crucial and much needed in times of emergency and business trips.

In conclusion, I think the use of twitter in PR and Marketing depends on what you want to do with it-your profession and social and business needs

Is Social Media the New Tool for University recruitment?

I think Missouri State have come a long way in recognizing the need or importance of using social media applications to advance the mission of the university. The university recently hired an Audion engineer, who was also given the added responsibility of developing Social Media to advance the cause of Missouri State.

However, after hearing from this guy in class about what he has done with social media applications since his tenure here, I came away with the impression that, as much as he is qualified in what he was originally hired to do, his knowledge and training on the use of social media does not match up to the demands of the school. This is evident by the fact that after three or four months that this guy has been at post, almost of the social media applications on the school's website are still in the inital stage of development. This guy should have a whole division under that should be responsibility for developing the University's social media applications.

I don't know if the univeristy authorities recognize the urgency of the situtation here. Social media is here to stay. Just like the internet itself, it is going to be the engine of communication in the second half of the 21st century. I have heard that some universities are now using social media as the tool for enrollment.

As a matter of urgency, the university should come out with a clear cut goal and budget to develop this sector of its PR activities. We should begin to employ these social media to recruit new students and enhance further the mission statement of the school. Just read this article by Nicholas Cifuentes, and you will know what I am talking about.

Will Broadcasting Survive the Podcast Onslaught?

Just as Tivo is for television, so is Podcasting for radio and video. Podcasting is simply an audio or video file delivered via RSS. Even though podcasting is new, it is becoming a mainstream communication medium. Many businesses and PR practitioners are quickly adapting to podcasting and employing it in many powerful ways.

Its many uses are in talk show, debates and educational training. Unlike traditional radio, podcasting allows it users to decides which programs they receive, listen to or watch. Its portability-that is, the ability to deliver it to your wireless handheld devices- allow its usage while on travel or business. The days of sitting down by your computer or radio to listen to news item are probably gone. Does that make broadcasting obsolete? I will leave the answer to the pundits and the media gurus to answer! For a more complete discussing on podcasting see PR News.

Customization vs. Standardization

Integrated Marketing Communication is defined as "A management concept that is designed to make all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation." Public relations on the other hand has been defined as "the management of relationships between your company and all the "publics" with which it must do business." We can clearly see the correlation between the two management concepts.

A public relation practitioner is the face of his or her organization. It is imperative that he/she keeps a consistent message. This is where Integrated Marketing Communication comes into play. This also means that the organization should adopt a more balanced approach to its public. There must be a balanced between adopting a short-gun approach and customization. This is especially important in our more global environment.

Traditional Press Releases, Gone 1 Gone 2

Reading about Todd Defren new version on Social Media News releases made me ask myself this question, "Is the traditional News Release dead or too much technology will ruin everything?" I am yet to figure out how this whole template work, but I already see this as revolutionary. Paperless news releases with RSS feed that is sent instantly to predetermined journalist and the News Media.

This sounds awesome. This will definitely make the work of PR practitioners easy. Gone are the days when you have to organize news conferences, and invite a whole set of journalist in order to get your message across. Just think of the amount of time that can be saved?

As Jason Kintzler put it, "Regardless of the size of your brand or client the tools are available now and the new Social Media Release Template is a great step to further educate each of us."

" 5 Ways that Social Networking is changing PR"

I must confess I had not done much blogging until i was "forced" to take this PR class. Two years ago, I was introduced to it by the nature of my job, but i abandoned it within a week. Not because i did not like it, but i came out with the excuss that I was too old for that. I felt coping up with the latest trend of technology was part of the teenage period-one that crossed my path many "centuries" ago. Granted, I am fascinated by it now. This renewed excitement for online social media began with my introduction to facebook. This PR class that I am taking right now has more so energized that interest. Many of you have or at least know someone who has a facebook, myspace, twitter etc account. Tell me, "how often do you notice an ad, be it political ( an Obama or McCain ad) or commercial in nature on your accounts?" Well, I check my facebook account at least twice a week and there seems to be someone trying to persuade me on how to vote and buy some stuff. So, my question is, "What role do Social Networks play in Public Relations?
I came across this piece of good information on a blog called overtones (Whoever you are, I thought that was a good piece of work) that suggested five ways that social networking is changing PR. The reasons that were given are worth noting or quoting here.

Flattened Hierarchy- The first step in how social Networking is changing PR is the idea of democratization in both internal and external communications. That is, it makes it easier for CEO's to easily convey corporate policy down the line.

Time shifting- Overtones further asserts that social networking has allowed a "transcendence of time and distance in the communication process." That is, barriers along border lines have been removed.

Virtual Connections- This suggest that the organizational structure of many companies is becoming more virtual with technology. Thus, corporate leaders do not have to meet in a physical places to transact business.

Digital Tools-Here the suggestion was made that, "Digital communications make possible the cost-effective advent of two-way symmetrical communications." That is, communication devices and forums such as such skype ( most of which are free) have made it cheaper and easy to communcate

Convergence- This, it was suggested that, the expectations for communication has been made easy by the fact that, there are tools to back such expections

It is little wonder that many corporate executive and PR practitioners now heavily rely on social media to reach their employees and customers alike. It has become one of the most transcendent and versatile means of communication.

Have You Heard about RSS?

RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. What is does is,it resolves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. This helps you to save time by not needing to visit each site individually.
One thing that a public relations officer do not have much is time-spending time constantly searching the internet for worthy news items. This is where RSS becomes a great tool for any public relations officer. It saves you a lot of time. You also ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. This protect your privacy and the constancy of coming up with passwords and remembering them. It also offers customers the simplicity of justing clicking on your RSS feed to get the latest news items that they want.
So, if you have not yet subcribe to RSS, it's not too late. Do so now and save yourself lots of time and protect yourself from constant subscribing to newsletter from many websites. Before i sign off, let me pose this question. Would you like to know how to subscribe to RSS? If the answer is yes, shoot me a comment! In any case shoot me a comment.