When it comes to measuring social media, I believe there needs to be a section concerning mentions/interaction within target public and outside of target public. If a social media channel is very popular with a lot of page views and interactions, but most of the people participating are not in the target group, it means that something is wrong with the content or the way it is being shared. Combining the idea with measurement for monetary gain, if the site is very popular but not reaching the target public it will receive a lot of traffic and mentions, but not with the segment who will be spending money on the end product.

With the proliferation of multiple social media channels it is easier for PR professionals to segment their content to the minutest quality in an attempt to directly connect with their target public. The gift and the curse of social media lies in the ability to spread a lot of information to a lot of people, but also trying to focus and hit the exact public in which your product/ service is best for.

Paline, K.D. (2007). How to Measure Social Media Relations: The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same. Institute for Public Relations.

On October 5th I attended "LinkedIn Webinar Series: Leveraging Linked In for Your Career Search," hosted by Steve Green and presented by the Toppel Career Center. The webinar focused on more advanced ways to use LinkedIn when looking for employment opportunities outside of the regular notion of adding connections to your network. The most useful piece of advice dealt with making sure you join the variety of professional organizations either within the field you are currently in or one in which you wish to enter. Green also touched on the importance of adding and connecting to alumni, who are the ones most likely to directly help you in your job search.

The webinar also provided basic advice along the lines of insuring that your profile had a 100% completion rating to have it look more attractive to recruiters. Green also touched on little features such as making your experience portion look presentable, along the lines in which you would present it in a resume. Since this was the second in a four part series, the suggestions were along the intermediate side, but not too deep into the inner working of LinkedIn. It was still a good presentation whether for a beginner or advanced user of the platform.

With the variety of social networks and apps currently available for kids and teens to use, it is more important to ensure that they know how much personal information is becoming available online. Just as parents had to teach their children not to give away their personal information in online chats and message boards, they now need to make sure they aren't giving away other information along the lines of location data.

It can be easy to blame the companies for making products that track users, but a lot of the responsibility should fall on the parents also. Although corporations have the options to make users "opt-in" instead of "opting-out," it is very unlikely that they will go that route. Parents need to take the responsibility of making sure their child knows about how much of their personal information is available online. Social media that tracks users personal information isn't going away, it will only multiply.

Kang, C. (2011). Parting with privacy with a quick click. The Washington Post. Link

When it comes to mobile apps there are two main schools of thought: that they either simplify or complicate life. Although they can take a while to get used to, I feel that mobile apps aid in making life simpler. In a nutshell, an app just allows you to access a select number of services directly from your phones main screen. It may not be cutting out a lot of steps in terms of connecting to the service, but it does weed out a lot of the "fat" that comes with having to search through a web page to find exactly what you are looking for. The apps are either pre-built with the most used services already accessible, or allow you to add and decide on which features you need the most.

The only way I seem mobile apps becoming complications is for those who rely too much on them. The people who keep their entire lives on their phones and the minute something crashes, it's the end. Mobile apps should be used to simply life, not to replace what is already being used. People need to realize that mobile apps are meant for what they say: to be used mobile. There should be no over-reliance or prompted complications brought about by thinking your iPhone is the only tool you'll need to manage your life.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be seen as a gift to the individual and a curse to the target public. It allows fort the underdog, the small blogs and citizen journalists, to attract a piece of their target public that may otherwise go to the larger chains. On the other hand, it also leads to a flood of spam and websites that attempt to infiltrate and large amount of topics they have no business being around.

It is impossible to properly police SEO, making sure that websites market themselves in the correct arena and allowing for the websites that are in the correct arena to publicize themselves. The scenario of SEO is a balance between what people should do and what the reality is. The best way to combat the problem is to market your product in the online arena so precise that you will come out as the top option for the search. Trying to entire too many fields or fields you have no business being in, will do nothing but clutter the search results and complicate finding your target public.

Sometimes it is just as important for a product to have good design than it is to be functional. Google has learned this lesson recently with a slew of user backlash from redesigning many of its popular services. The first one, GMail, receives a fair bit of grumbles about the new look, but overall discontent was kept at a minimum. The floodgates opened this week with the new version of Google Reader.

Google Reader became a hot topic due to its random design, along the same lines as GMail. The backlash has been almost ten times the amount that GMail has received, although both pretty much look the same. The strange part is, none of the backlash has to do with functionality. Google Reader functions the exact same as before, with the same buttons and organization, just a different design.

This is a perfect example of how much users become attached to the way companies brand their products. Almost along the same lines as Gap, who randomly decided to change their logo and received a mountain of backlash, every complaint is on a truly aesthetic basis. No matter how well your product functions, you can't just through redesigns out to your target public. Users become attached, and thus don't feel comfortable when the environment they have known for years is suddenly changed.

Ulanoff, L. (2011). Mashable. Google Interface Designs: Welcome to Dullsville. Link.

When it comes to PR and Wikipedia, it can at times be a nightmare. The ability for users to (previously) add comments and changes anonymously could lead to a corporate scandal that never actually occurred. With the new changes of requiring users to register before becoming members, there is still the opportunity for scandal, but many of them have proper origins.

Some people see it as a bad thing that Wikipedia will quickly transform from a stock bio of a company/person to scandal. In my opinion, having the transparency of Wikipedia keeps PR people on their toes about scandal and controversy. Information may leak that is better left unsaid, but chances are it would have found its way to the press either way.

The channel of Wikipedia is a great source of information and will continue to be treated as such. It may not be as reputable as the newspaper, but journalists and bloggers will still take the information and add it to their columns. This new scenario means that PR people will need to be more alert and more in-the-know than ever before. Nothing should appear on any channel (whether online or off) that the PR person is unaware of. Wikipedia should also never post any type of new scandal, rather just be a "storage" of past grievances the company had endured.