Posts Tagged with social+media
3
When you’re ready to launch a blog, rather personal or professional, it’s important to think beyond just “what am I going to blog about?” Your blog is a window into your professional life and what people see and how they see it is up to you. Have a strategy: Even if you’re creating a personal blog, have a sense of what you want to accomplish with it. Do you want your blog to be informational, to help you to define and explore your thoughts & ideas about working in public relations or maybe show your interest and expertise around a topic or issue? Think about functionality: Think about what you want the experience to be for your readers. Making your blog easy on the eyes and simple to navigate is the first step. But remember that window analogy – what do you want your readers to see? Do you want... Continue Reading
0
I’ve always been a multi-tasker. Admitedly, I get a lot done in a day. I don’t know how, sometimes. I really don’t. But the answer I always give is “get enough sleep.” I am only half-joking. I don’t pull all-nighters. Ever. Now that I’m involved in social media, I get asked a lot how to manage it all. Over time, I’ve been able to integrate social media tools into my daily routine. In fact, social media tools have replaced other less productive forms of communication and networking for me. But I thought I’d share some tips about social media time management – especially for those just trying to figure it all out. It takes time to create a new habit. Know that for a few weeks, you’ll have to work to make social media a habit. If you don’t check your feed reader every day, it won’t come naturally. If... Continue Reading
2
[this post originally appeared on my agency's blog. As I phase that blog out, there are a few posts worth reposting, this is one.] Social media means marketing departments, public relations people and CEOs have to let go. They have to let go of control. They have to let the conversation develop and dialogue take place. And that. is. hard. If your organization is not ready to open itself up to the world, but wants to dip its toe in the social media water, a couple of things will get your started. Start monitoring conversation about your organization, key people, trends and issues. The two primary places for monitoring are Technorati and Google Blog Search. Both services allow you to subscribe via RSS to a feed. I highly recommend Bloglines to manage your feeds. Lots of people would be just as adamant about Google Reader. The benefit to a feed... Continue Reading
1
Chris Brogan has written a social media starter pack post on his blog. His categories are: Listening, Speaking, Community and Rich Media. This is a terrific way to breakdown the tools that are available when using and participating in social media. Listening: In social media, as in life, listening is twice as important as speaking. Online, the tool for listening is a news reader. This type of software allows you to understand the conversation going on out there, and the best of them permits you to do a little more understanding of what you’re “hearing.” Speaking: As Chris notes, there are a ton of ways to speak in social media. His suggestions are for improvement. I haven’t created an RSS feed for this blog with Feedburner, but I will! Great tip. Bottom line, be findable. If people are interested in speaking back – make sure they have lots of ways... Continue Reading
1
The choices are numerous, and the opinions about which is best are diverse. LinkedIn: Touted as the “grown-up” MySpace, I’ve struggled to find a useful purpose for LinkedIn except to just build my list of contacts. There has been a rare occasion that I’ve used LinkedIn because I lost an email address… so I guess that’s good. Facebook: Not just for college kids anymore. I highly recommend making sure your Profile is up to date and you monitor your wall and news feed carefully. Lots of people are on Facebook now that it’s opened up to the general public. I read a great post here that got me thinking about how I could better use this resource. MyRagan: The PR social network, I think it’s got a lot of value, particularly in the forums and message boards. I’m not as active on it as I was initially, but on occasional... Continue Reading
1
I love labels. I dig categories. Classifications? Groupings? You bet. This is why I was so interested in Kami’s post about the seven categories of social media today on Communication Overtones. She has created seven neat categories to encompass everything from publishing platforms (Blogger, etc.) and social networks (MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn) to those with more “academic sounding” labels like democratized content networks (think Digg) and content distribution sites (like De.licio.us). Head over to Kami’s blog to check out the list. So I got to thinking about what tools I use and yep, most would cleanly fit in the categories that Kami has defined. The only thing that doesn’t fit is Stikkit. Stikkit is definitely social – although it’s by invite only. It’s just as “media” as Twitter. So I’m not sure where I’d fit it in. Maybe it needs a new category like Social Collaboration Tools?... Permalink
0
The Dells, the GMs and even the Marriotts are not the norm when it comes to corporate blogging. In fact, a small percentage of Fortune 500 companies have an external blog. Todd Defren at PR Squared posted recently about his chat with Fortune 500 marketers asking very basic questions about blogging. The good news, he says, is that they are interested and engaged… even cautiously experimental. Over at MicroPersuasion, Steve Rubel talks about the new Forester Research report from Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff called Social Technographics. Their research uses the analogy of the participation ladder that looks a little something like this: The majority of people are “inactives” (52%). This group does not read blogs, watch peer-generated video (YouTube, Google Video), listen to podcasts, use social networks (MySpace, Facebook), use RSS, tag Web pages, comment on blogs, publish or maintain a blog, upload video or publish a Web page.... Continue Reading
1
Erin Caldwell, a recent graduate and employee at Edelman attributes her hire at the agency in large part, to her PR blog. Here, at the Forward Blog (see the blogroll, it’s a great one for students!), she talks about the importance of understanding new media for new graduates. At Allen Hall PR, our student-run PR agency at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, my AE, Michelle Pera, and I talked about blogging specifically – giving students a step by step to get started.I credit Nedra at Spare Change for being my “seed blog.” I’m sure I was searching for social marketing for a presentation I was giving to the United Way Success by Six leadership team and came across her blog. She’s has a great blogroll. And the rest, as they say, is history. I’ve always been a little nerdy, but I know lots of students resist.... Continue Reading
1
Communication Overtones: Corporate PR 101: A Primer for Companies Interested in Social Media Kami presented to my class via teleconference this evening. Huge thanks to Kami for staying up late with us. As students head into their careers, they’ll certainly face these issues and now have a clearer road map to follow.... Permalink
1
Comments