While I am lucky to be surrounded by people who get social media and are able to help me sort things out, I am finding there are a lot of PR professionals out there that know social media’s impact on the industry but don’t know where to start in trying to get a handle on all there is to know to about the subject to put the new tools to good use.

So this post is a tribute to all the social media neophites out there, because I feel your pain. Wikipedia is my new best friend, that and Mozilla Firefox, because right now I have searched Wikipedia for about 10 different terms and have three different firefox browser windows open, each with about 5-7 tabs.

Why?

That’s what it takes it seems to keep track of, or just start to understand, what is really going on with social media these days.
Josh Hallett wrote a post recently called Defining Social Media that helps to express the frustration in keeping track of all the conversations and new developments in our social media world.

The developments and changing ideas in social media turn over so fast it will make your head spin. And to top it off, it turns out, everyone who loves social media also LOVES them some jargon. And jargon being tossed around never helps a learning situation.

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Don’t get me wrong, this is not going to be another jab at facebook. Personally I love it. I’m addicted to it for all of the silly reasons people use it: leaving fun messages for your friends, posting stupid pictures, starting and maintaining friendships, inside jokes, etc. And I can honestly also say that it has helped me keep in touch with people that I’m not sure I would have been able to as easily if it weren’t for this bit of social media.

But, facebook obviously has its downsides as we know, and Paull brought my attention to yet another. Groups on facebook are not helping pr’s cause for keeping its image clean.

When you search groups on facebook with the terms “public relations” you will find all kinds of stuff. There’s the always classy, “I make out In Public to Protest Other People Making Out in Public” group, or the sotally tober “Ain’t No Party Like a Duplex Party” group, and the, well just plain weird “Aaron Carter FREAKS me out!!!” group. Take your pick!

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The whole point of this site is to act as a springboard for young PR professionals and students. So we think that when major issues come up in the field of public relations, this should be the first place you want to come to get the issue spelled out in plain terms. So, here goes for a major topic of interest in the PR blogosphere right now. But first a little background for those who might want it:

Background on Uses of Social Media

One thing that may be hard to understand until someone really spells it out like this is how exactly companies are trying to use blogs and other social media. One trend we are seeing, is a movement away from advertisements which some companies feel consumers can see right through and are not effective, to a more consumer-engaging way of communicating positive ideas about your company. That’s where blogs come in.

Granted, this idea is not catching on at lightening speed and is having a kind of slow adoption rate, but many people feel that it is the way of reaching consumers in the future, or any target audience for that matter.
(For some, this might be old hat, but who knows, this might be helping others…)

So some companies are looking to have conversations with their publics instead of sending one-way messages through advertisements that they can only hope the consumer will respond to positively. Some companies are responding to new media by having a customer service function which goes out and responds to complaints or queries about products posted on various consumers’ blogs. I have had that happen to me personally. Orvis did a remarkable job of finding where I had complimented a program of theirs and the company wrote me personally saying they were glad I enjoyed a particular program they were doing. I was impressed, heck I am sitting here still talking about it on this site, and that’s what other companies are trying to do: reinforce positive images or get rid of negative opinions of their company that are showing up in blogs for the rest of the world to see on the Internet.

Other than customer service, word-of-mouth campaigns are being started through blogs to reach audiences, and Wal-Mart is one company who has begun similar efforts.

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How would you like to see that nice sentence in the grocery store line?

Okay fellas, how about “Smoking can cause low blood pressure and impotence.”

And just to name a couple more: “Protect your children: don’t make them breathe your smoke” and “Smoking clogs arteries and causes heart attacks and strokes.”

While I was in Europe, I noticed these labels all over cigarette and tobacco packages. As you can see in the picture, they dominate the outside of all of the packages and grab your attention a lot more than the General Surgeon’s Warning on packaging and adverstisements in the U.S.

The European Union is taking a very active role in the social responsibilty of creating awareness of the harmful effects of smoking. The labels are unavoidable, which probably doesn’t make many tobacco companies happy in the E.U., but the labels do show the E.U.’s commitment to making people aware of the hazards of tobacco. Go here to see Wikipedia’s description of various other countries’ warning labels for tobacco.

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Blogs are surprisinlgy powerful little suckers.

A bunch of us younger students all joke about how shocked we were when we were told we were going to start blogging for class. In fact, I would say that look of amazement is what I get everytime I tell someone that I am a blogger. I can’t say exactly what I thought a blogger was all about before, but I guarantee that anyone who could understand how influential they can be would wipe that little look of shock off their face.

Here’s a little perspective on what the blogosphere has done for me:

On paper, I’m a good student. I’ve got a good GPA, and I am double majoring in Spanish and PR. So maybe I am a good candidate for some jobs out there. At the end of the day though, I’m just one of a billion people out there, so who’s to say I am more worthy of a job than anyone else?

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Immigration is a touchy subject these days. In fact, for the past two weeks in my Intercultural Communication class, we have had assignments dicussing some of the issues related to immigration and how our government should respond to the influx in hispanic immigrants in recent years.

Now I know I have a knack for stirring up controversy in my posts which is not usually intended. So for this post I am really just wanting to ask how the government should handle worldwide and internal PR as criticism will be flying about any action our country takes against illegal immigrants, or in situations enforcing English as the only national language.

In many cases, and for instance with forcing foreign citizens to take a driver’s license exam in English, the U.S. is no different than the majority of other countries toward non-native speakers. If I moved to Italy and wanted to be able to become a citizen and drive in that country, you better bet that probably all of the paperwork and tests I would be completing would be done in old italiano.

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That is the sub-headline for an Associated Press article by David Bauder I found called, “Fox News handles PR like it’s a contact sport.”

Catches your attention doesn’t it?

The gist of the article is that Fox News has a very unconventional way of responding to attacks on their network.

After very negative comments from Ted Turner, calling the network propoganda and relating its popularity to that of Hitler’s in Germany before World War II, a Fox spokeswoman, Irena Briganti replied, “Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind. We wish him well.”

In a reply to George Clooney’s criticism of Bill O’Reilly, the network responded, “We are disappointed that George has chosen to hurt Mr. O’Reilly’s family in order to promote his movie. But it’s obvious he needs publicity considering his recent string of failures. We wish him well in his struggle to regain relevancy.”

Ouch, huh?

Bauder says at the beginning of his article, “If someone at Fox News Channel wishes you well, watch your back. The seemingly benign sentiment is a creative signature of Fox’s public relations, usually accompanied by a kneecapping. It’s something like a kiss from a Mafia don.”

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I am currently studying in Salamanca, Spain for the month of July, and there have been several times when I felt that a little dose of PR would help anyone traveling abroad.

Americans have a little bit of pressure I think when they go over seas. While everyone I have encountered over here has been very nice, there are a select few who I can tell are expecting all the Americans they encounter to fall into a particular stereotype.

For instance some students, while here, have been asked how many hamburgers and french fries we eat every week, because many people think that is all that Americans eat. I have also heard that many people think Americans are very loud. So knowing that there is a certain percentage of the population around the world that feel this way is what makes me think that, when abroad, every American should think as a PR professional would.

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I heard once from a marketing teacher what seemed to be a very true fact about car commercials: that you never seem to notice them until your “in the market” for a car. I don’t know about everyone else, but that’s pretty accurate for me.

Car commercials seem to all be one in the same. They show the car driving on a road with a voice in the background describing the car’s features. Well, actually I am sure that’s probably NOT how all car commercials are, but the point to be made here is that is how LITTLE car commercials have gotten through to me. (Granted, I am broke and 21 so maybe I’m not their ideal target.)

But one commercial did get through. One for a Mercury Milan, and I have a few thoughts on maybe why it did.

If you haven’t seen the commercial, it features an energetic beautiful woman (who most women are watching with envy) addressing the audience.

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I have been at plenty of stores before where I wanted to ask that exact question to the sales clerk at a checkout counter.

It comes from the general attitudes that some employees have. You know what I am talking about. Perhaps they are just having a bad day, you might say, but I have worked in plenty of people-jobs and have had plenty of bad days just like everybody. But I never let it come through to customers to the extent that the expression on my face conveyed utter disgrace.

Honestly - I have been helped by folks before and they seemed to make it quite clear that their apathy was either a result that they absolutely hated their job, or that having to even speak to me, much less scan my item, was the biggest annoyance of their life to date.

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