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.

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

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.

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.

When it comes to communicating crises, social media stands as a platform with wide reaching opportunities. Before, unless someone is near a radio or television, they would not be able to follow what is going on in the world. Now with social media and improvements in mobile technology, updates can be sent directly to smart phones, laptops or tablets whenever something major is transpiring in the world.

The "social" aspect lies in the ability for the everyday citizen to provide updates and information, usually before traditional media can get to the scene. An excellent example of this is CNN's iReport, a curated collection of images, videos and personal accounts of what is going on in different parts of the world during various crises.

When thinking of crises in the past, it can be interesting to wonder how they would have developed with the ability to use social media. The Cuban Missile Crisis, Hurricane Katrina or even 9/11 would have become much different events if even the smallest change, such as the ability to tweet, was included in their respective timelines.

I don't listen to many podcasts, but one that I semi-regularly keep up with is Tech News Today on the TWIT.TV network. TWIT stands for "This Week in Tech" and was started by Leo Laporte after Tech TV was shut down and made into G4TV. Tech News Today is a show that airs weekdays and is recorded live. Each episode covers the latest updates in the tech industry and is hosted by Tom Merrit, Sarah Lane and Iyaz Akhtar.

One of the best parts about Tech New Today is the ability to see and hear the show being recorded live. The video feeds runs all day, so all podcasts on the TWIT network are recorded live and available for the public to see. There is also a chatroom feature that allows viewers to interact with the host while they are recording. It adds more of an interactive behind-the-scenes aspect not seen in many other podcasts.

There are probably a variety of podcasts with more bells and whistles than Tech News Today, but I feel they provide a good and entertaining product. Many of the hosts and guests were on Tech TV, so it feels like an extension of the network. Tech journalists also have guest posts on the show, making for entertaining exchanges with the regulars. All-in-all I think Tech News Today and the entire TWIT network are a good representation of how to make an interesting and informative podcast.

Branding yourself on social media is the same as branding yourself in the real world except that what you say stays around longer. Its true that the message may need to become more casual in an online scenario, but its not like you need to start from square one to get your image out there.

The main problem with also forming a brand on social media is keeping your various identities consistent across multiple platforms. What you present on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and in real life must all be proper representations of who you are and what you want your brand to be. You can't be outspoken on Facebook and overtly serious in real life. The duality of presentation works if you are in high school, but when you are forming a brand to be a reflection of yourself in all aspects of communication, it needs to remain consistent.

I believe the article is the best representation of how companies should form their online voices. Instead of being overly proper and business-like, the Internet provides the foundation to loosen up and speak to consumers in a lax voice. The Internet is a casual form of communication and should be treated as such.

In comparison to other forms of communication, the rise of social media provides direct contact between the company and consumer. Traditional Internet communication focused on speaking casually with the consumer, now social media is about speaking one-on-one with the consumer. Speaking overly-professional makes the company come off as uneducated in Internet "etiquette."

A proper PR blog should be one that interacts with the consumer and provides information that is interesting. Just listing a steady stream of accomplishments and shiny press releases is boring and defeats the entire reason of having a blog. If a user is interested enough to search and read through a blog, that means they want new material that isn't available through a Google search.

Too many PR blogs bypass the fun factor and just regurgitate information. Consumers like exclusive information, content formed outside the box. The blog should be an extension of the product, bonus content.The information doesn't need to be 100% on topic in a way that will bore people, but should come from different angles. You are already getting the consumers attention by having the blog in the first place, so you know the interest is there. The idea is to keep the interest through creativity and factual information.

Foursquare is a popular social media platform that rewards users for "checking-in" to their favorite places. This episode of Foundation involves Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley describing the beginning stages and subsequent development of Foursquare.

Since it's inception PR has been an intricate promotional tool for many organizations. "Mayors," users who have the most check-ins at a particular establishment, are rewarded with discounts and other perks offered in token of their patronage. For a company to set-up on Foursquare they just need to register an account and promote themselves to customers in real-life.

Foursquare moves beyond traditional promotions by adding in the social aspect of allowing users to link their Facebook and Twitter pages to their Foursquare accounts, allowing their friends and followers the chance to see where they normally are. Minus the complete departure away from security for the user, the company is provided with lots of free promotion that they don't have to work towards.

Foursquare allows for the user to be in a promotional stand-point for companies without blatantly asking for promotion. The only downside to Foursquare would be the security aspect of letting the world know where you are. As of right now, that doesn't seem to be a large concern for most users, and if it stays that way, will only continue the cycle of free promotion at no cost: to the user nor the business.

Source: Foundation - Dennis Crowley

The fifth point in Kaplan's "Five points about being social" mentions that you should "be unprofessional" when it comes to interacting on social media channels. Since the article was targeted towards business professionals, asking people to act unprofessional is pretty counterproductive. I can understand what Kaplan is getting at, how social media is not as serious business communications, but his choice of wording is poor. A better way to address users is to say something along the lines of "be informal" versus unprofessional.

To me, acting unprofessional includes lying, manipulating, and generally going against everything considered as good practices. Telling someone to be informal comes off as saying "remove the barriers seen in normal business communications." At the end of the day, although social media is a new and more relaxed form of communication, it is still a channel used between businesses and customers. Thus, it may be okay to speak in a common fashion, but it is not okay to completely disregard status and position.

When Twitter first began to gain popularity, every human being who has ever come in contact with Strunk and White cited it as the downfall of communication and one of the worst tools for proper language. The way I look at it is: although by limiting the user to only 140 characters communication can seem constraining at time, it does not mean the downfall of proper language. As an exercise in originality, 140 characters can actually be the catalyst to promote more creativity in the field of communications to get an idea across.

With the increase in communications channels the message can easily get lost within all the noise. One of the greatest features of Twitter is the ability to get snippets of news. Instead of reading a two-page long article to get to the point, a user can easily go to a news organization's Twitter feed to get the main point. As a recreational tool, yes, it is possible that more and more abbreviations will enter the English language, but for those who are professional communication will at its current level. Unless the apocalypse is on the horizon, it is highly unlikely that CNN or the BBC will begin using the number "2" instead of "to" to prove their point. There will always be professional use and recreational use. The only addition that Twitter and its character limit is adding now is that the professional will need to become more creative to stay ahead.

Source:
Tirado, B. (2011). Communicating within 140 characters. Psychology Today. Link.