Brian Solis
PR 2.0 is about putting the <public> back in Public Relations said Brian Solis on the foreword page he wrote for Deirdre Breakenridge’s book- PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences. Later on, the two authors published the book Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.
Just having a look at these two titles -PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences and Putting the Public Back in Public Relations- we can see a message is sent to us: excellent PR is always about speaking the public’s language, understanding and interacting with it.
Who is our public?
Turn your head to the right, then to the left and you’ll observe London’s diversity derives from its multicultural inhabitants- they are our public.
Of course a way of reaching them is by effectively using the right social media channels, but you should be aware that sometimes there are hard-to-reach communities who little know about Facebook and even less about Twitter.
What to do in this case? How to better interact with the afore mentioned communities?
I could give you the answer to the above questions myself but it would be as if I revealed the end of a movie you are longing to see. For this reason I leave it up to you to discover how to effectively deliver PR programmes to our mosaic Londonese public.
Yes, as stated in a previous post, I am keeping my promise of informing you about the Rich Visions‘ next opportunities for you.
How to Reach and Engage with Diverse and Hard-to-Reach Communities Rich Visions’ next seminar will take place on the 13th of May from 9.30am to 1.00pm at the CIPR Centre, London.
Image taken from http://howtoreachdiversecommunities.event
The event is for free and is designed for a wide range of PR people (juniors, practitioners, managers, students, and teachers). Besides getting a better perception of London’s multicultural public, the seminar represents also a great chance to network and learn new social media language.
Here I had the great delight to meet Michaela O’Brian, Senior Lecturer at University of Westminster, for the second time. She is the first academia PR representative I talked to here in London, the one who also brought the passion for PR within me to an international level. At the previous Rich Visions’ event I also met Kahil G St Aimee who is currently intern at Black Neighbourhood Renewal and Regeneration Network. From his Tweet, he indirectly taught me what tweep means. Thank you, Kahil.
To put it in a nutshell, the seminar is great because of several reasons:
- you enrich your “public” knowledge when it comes to London;
- great place to interact;
- the event is for free;
- possibility of expanding your networking horizon;
- why not, enriching your Tweeter vocabulary as I did: tweep
For more information about the seminar click here.
Image taken from http://www.sodexocareersblog.com/2010/08/are-you-sodexo-tweep.html
PRobantur by Ana-Maria Leonte is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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@Mike
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@Tempie Leomiti
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I ll be looking forward to hear your opinion on the forthcoming posts as well.
Best Regards
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@Manuela Jameel
Thank you very much, Manuela. I am definitely writing with love for my readers and I also do my best to improve my blog more and more so that every reader can have a unique and enriching blogging experience once “ending up” on one of PRobantur’s pages.
Best!
Hi! I understand this is somewhat off-topic but I had to ask. Does managing a well-established website such as yours require a lot of work? I am brand new to running a blog but I do write in my journal every day. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my personal experience and thoughts online. Please let me know if you have any kind of suggestions or tips for new aspiring bloggers. Appreciate it!
@Kristin Kolenda
As a student I had firstly started a personal, private blog which I still have. I use this one exclusively for my assignments as I find it so easy to work with it. I used e-Blogger as it was for free and it was very easy to manage.
The one I have at the moment is a WordPress blog, Mocha Theme with Genesis Framework. I bought it for @ 70 dollars from http://www.studiopress.com/themes/mocha.
Now honestly giving you my advice based on my own experience..If you re a beginner, if you blog for the very first time, I suggest you to start with e-Blogger because it saves time.
However, if you want a fancy one, in terms of designs and widgets, I recommend you to go on WordPress site and choose from the wide range of themes they provide..though you ll have to pay for them. I think is worth it as blog formats are designed for the specific theme/area of interest a blogger is talking about: photography, business etc. You find more info going on this link http://www.studiopress.com/themes.
Another advantage of buying a WordPress theme is that even if you re a beginner you have access to an online forum where people @ the world will help you find an answer to each question you might have.
Just to underline a very important aspect of blogging: should you use a WordPress theme, don t forget to include your post under Categories, where you re allowed to actually “post”, rather than creating a page. A page won t allow you to use tags, whereas a post will. This is a mistake I learnt from when blogging.
You should also bear in mind that I bought my theme, whereas the E Blogger was for free. I would suggest you to create a private blog just to see how it is.
Towards the end is up to you what to choose. Is also important to know that the amount of effort we invest in wisely developing our blog, be it e-blogger or WordPress, is also a sign of respect we, as bloggers, show to our readers.
Hope my answer will help you take the best decision.
Should you have further questions, don’t hesitate writing to me again.
Best
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@alternative fuels
I am happy to hear what I share with people is something that will make them come back. I also had a look at your blog and I have to say is a subject I am interested in. May I ask you what are you studying?
All the best and keep up with your blog. Your blog definitely grips the readers’ attention.
An interesting thought has occured to me since first reading this article. Do you think Social networking has the power to fundamentally alter the way people interact in terms of social dynamics or social levels? This question is prompted by my little nephew now having his own Facebook page and wanting to be my friend. He is posting on my page and using the chat function with me. It seems to me that type of interactions, subjects discussed and level of conversation we are having are quite different, and probably more equal in terms of dynamic, than if we were sitting in a room together as adult and child. He’s also a keen Skyper and now appears to be updating via a new iPhone (which I resent hugely as I still don’t have one!
). I also have to consider that with this open interaction available – is everything I post or say appropriate for a child to have access to (haven’t discovered any issues as yet as I tend to be cautious on what I put into what is really public domain).
I’d be interested in your thoughts on this.
@Michael Braithwaite
Yesterday at dinner we had a discussion about my niece who is pretty young and is already on Facebook and yes..I definitely think social networks have definitely changed the way we communicate.
As you can see I used the term “change” rather than “alter” because for me and maybe for you as well, the use of social networks has given us the power of communicating in a quick and free way with people @ the world, therefore it has a positive connotation, rather than a negative one.
However, I fear sometimes for some people, I fear for my niece in terms of privacy and security matters and last but not least I fear for the mankind.
Why?
Because social networks were invented to help us keep in touch with friends and people from all over the world in a free and quick way. Therefore it brings economical and social advantages. Social networks are there to transfer the real discourse into the web world so you can share your experience with people otherwise you couldn’t due to various reasons.
But I wonder myself if there aren’t people who are tempted to totally succumb to this online temptation and alter their life, totally replace their real life with a virtual one.
For me social networks have definitely changed my life towards better but after my Facebook and Gmail account have been broken into 2 times, seeing my very young niece online rather than playing outside with her classmates, gives me goose bumps.
I think social networks are somehow oxymoronic: they encourage and discourage communication. We are better at sending emoticons (and you can see this trend especially among kids and young people) but unable to express the same gesture in real life.
This is why good actors are so much appreciated: they know to promote themselves both on social media and on real life through their expressivity.
Maybe Google motion will help us be more human while online because behind every Facebook, Twitter, Gmail account there is human being: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html
PS: I would really suggest you to protect you nephew against online scams…pay attention to the privacy setting and other online things which might help him. Wish him good luck in exploring new things- maybe one day he’ll teach you new social media trick and tips.
Well – I think I’m already learning new things from him. Kids are so quick to pick up on technology.
Actually I had already e-mailed his parents with suggestions for improving his online security againist scams, hacking and so on. They’re very good parents, but they’re not very tech savvy. So on to that one – particularly as he seems to have signed up for every game under the sun.
My overall attitude to things like FB. Gmail, Skype etc. is that they’re great as long as the correct servant/master relationship is observed. I’m the master – they’re the servant or tools. Then it’s fine.
Skype enables me to have face to face conversations with my family and friends any time I want for little or no cost. When I live 12,000 miles away from them that’s a huge gift. Without it I maybe wouldn’t find it possible to stay here, as family are very important to me. So it’s all positive as long as it’s approached in the same way.
Similarly Facebook was brilliant when my home town was devastated by an earthquake in February. Through FB I was able to check up on friends and also people were passing messages on e.g. ‘I saw X and he’s fine’ when I hadn’t been able to make contact. Just brilliant in such a time.
However – given a choice – nothing is better than genuine human contact and face to face interaction. Social networks only support these interactions once they’re already established.
I saw an article yesterday about a girl who is agarophobic and hasn’t left her house in 3 years – but makes music and posts it on YouTube. That’s a fantastic outlet for someone suffering from this condition. But having been out last night to play live in front of a room full of people I’ve never met before, share the music, draw their energy into the performance and then feel the appreciation – well no internet activity will replace that!
@Michael Braithwaite
Yes, I saw the article as well- I think it was in the Metro newspaper.
You re definitely right- social networks are great for the humankind as long as we use them as tools to enhance our communication.
Great blog Ana-Maria. It’s nice to see someone putting a point of view in plain language, but resisting the urge – to ‘dumb it down’. You struck the perfect balance of in-depth, but accessible information.
I’m still Twitter-resistant I have to say – although I use Facebook a lot. I’d certainly love to get a better idea of how Twitter can work – and particularly how to integrate all the social networks for messages being sent out i.e. so one message can go across several platforms without the need for endless repeat posting. I have a few mechanisms I use, but none of them seem perfect.
Great work though. Keep it up!
Michael
@Michael Braithwaite
Thank you, Michael. Is nice to hear opinions coming from people of different cultures: France (Thierry), Ghana (Williams) and from you (New Zealand&London).
From my own experience so far I know the more social media channels you use the more visible and, therefore, known you’ll be. Obviously you will need a good strategy when doing that as you want to avoid just sending messages which end up being deleted. (I am telling you that from my own experience- there is a person who is sending me constant messages like an automatic machine; all her messages end up being deleted).
Social media is not about automatic messages is about online human interaction, is about dialogue, not monologue. This is why is vital when using certain social media channels to actually understand them, to feel comfortable using that certain channel so we avoid any online fiasco.
Going back to a particular line of your comment “I have a few mechanisms I use, but none of them seem perfect.” All these 3 social media channels have different characteristics and they should not exclude each other but actually be used within an overall strategy. This is the reason why I advised Thierry to use Facebook, Twitter and Blogging (and for you I would mention Youtube, maybe Flickr as well). They are different social media channels with different features and, most importantly, with different users. Some people might use Facebook but not Twitter or vice versa, so is up to you how you want to reach your audience. I would actually say you have to adapt your strategy according to their needs, try to understand them.
You see, the charm of social media is embodied in this online human interaction within communities who change ideas and share information. Is an online space where we are both teachers and students. Therefore, if we want to make the best out of it, I would highly suggest you to use several social media channels to deliver your information. A personal advice I would give you in particular when using any type of social media channels would be to listen, act and interact.
If you need further advice for how to use social media channels I would highly recommend you to see this interview taken by Brian Solis -”globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders within (…) new media”- to Richard Jalichandra, CEO at Technorati Media.
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrianSolisTV#p/u/1/S7mtq8IZlZg
Great to hear from you, Michael.
All the best
Great feedback Ana-Maria. Thanks! What I meant on the subject of ‘different mechanisms though was more about the way I, as a user or communicator, intereract with different networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (etc.). On a separate note – do you think Myspace has had its day?
In short – does each network require a separate and differently thought out form of interaction? For the sake of debate (a) I’m busy or (b) I’m lazy or (c) I’m male and can’t multi-task i,e. I don’t have the time or inclination to write separate posts or feeds for my followers on FB, Twitter, YouTube etc.
I’ve experimented with Ping which claimed to update all sites simultaneously – but could never get it to work for FB. Lately I’ve been using Reverbnation (a music site) which claims the same, but still seems clunky.
Questions then being:
1) Is there a way to reach all followers on different networks via one posting &
2) Is this really desirable or should each feed be tailored to the network (bearing in mind my comments about time, inclination etc.) I can’t spend all day updating social networking sites.
Michael
@Michael Braithwaite
Dear Michael,
A while ago I was reading Kaven Brassard’s blog where he was actually listing the most popular social networks in 2011. (Here is the link if you want to read more. NB: is a French blog http://kavenbrassard.com/2011/03/24/les-16-reseaux-sociaux-les-plus-populaires-%E2%80%93-mars-2011/?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d9d99d8744bce9c%2C0 )
As you can see MySpace is on the 3rd place but what I personally think is that it’s going to lose its 3rd position due to ongoing developments at Facebook.
From my experience thus far I believe Facebook is the ideal platform where we can interact with people in different ways.
Just to give you an example, now Facebook has some Twitter functions as well. Do you want to write sth about Ana-Maria Leonte? Is simple just write @Ana-Maria Leonte when posting the message and it will appear on my wall as well.
Now answering to question no1, I think that’s not possible yet.
Let’s take the example of Facebook: no matter the ongoing developments, you still can’t reach people from Twitter or other social networks. Every conversation within the Facebook bubble will reach only your friends/fans. But, as mentioned before, Facebook is developing at a rapid pace, a reason why we might see further changes quite soon. Who knows? I would still recommend you to stick with it.
Answering to question no2, I think sometimes we must “obey” the social media norms. For example on Twitter we must adjust our message to 140 characters. It has to be short and to grab people’s attention.
From my point of view is better to adjust your message according to each social media channel we use. People who use Twitter communicate differently from those using Facebook or other social media channels.
In order to get a better understanding of why we have to adjust our message according to different social media channels try to imagine the following situation:
The amalgam of social media channels can be perceived as different languages. However, in order to efficiently communicate in these various “languages” (social media channels) we have to learn different “alphabets” (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc) so we could reach people of different cultures (Facebook/Twitter/Flickr/Youtube people) though the means of their own language.
(I definitely believe that as a singer with such an international experience-UK, USA, Ireland, Australia & New Zealand- you acknowledge the importance of adjusting your message according to your people’s culture).
However, as in the real world, as English- after Mandarin- is the most spoken language, maybe we would witness a similar trend with regard to social media channels.
We might see the tendency of using one social media channel as an international “language” spoken in the social media world.
Dear Michael, hope my answers will help you effectively engage with your social media public.
All the best with your performance in Soho on Friday!
NB: Should anyone reading these comments know more than discussed above, please feel free to share your opinion with us. We are here to learn from each other.
I’m not an expert in the field – at all – but I found this entry both interesting and easy to understand, so I guess that’s a good point. I think that’s exactly how it should be : accessible to mostly everybody but detailed enough to enrich our knowledge and interest even the experts. You’re definitely a good PR
If I need advices for my company I know who to ask !
Hi Thierry,
Is nice to hear what a French person thinks about my blog. I think our “raison d’être” is “to communicate in a simple but not simplistic way” as our Qualitative Research Methods teacher was saying.
An advice I would give you regarding your PR arsenal is don’t underestimate the use of Twitter. It has a great potential and is easier to work with than blogs or even Facebook. I also know that “time management” is a big challenge for each of us…but my advice for you is to use Facebook, Twitter and Blogs interchangeably.
You have great photos but you have to let people know about you, about your work. You have to use, as I like to call it, the Social Media Troika: Facebook, Bogging and Twitter.
For those who are curious to find out more about what Thierry does, you can have a look at these 3 photos I particularly liked.
http://www.jett-photo.com/galerie/Bretagne%20-%20Juillet%202010/_TEJ7343.jpg.php
http://www.jett-photo.com/galerie/Tiznit-FICMT-1/20012011-15h22m05s693_TEJ5183.jpg.php
http://www.jett-photo.com/galerie/Paris-Decembre-2010/26122010-171545-8079_TEJ3579-2.jpg.php
Dear Ana Maria,
this is the second time i am coming into contact with your work electronically.
For me, this is some of the opportunities and information that the youth all over the world and particularly Africa are lucking.
the exposure and the information will go a long way to benefit participants.
i will only suggest that you post after events so that those who may not get the chance to attend can access the discussions on your site.
sorry am not able to access your video but all the same GREAT WORK!!
Dear Williams,
Thank you for your feed-back and for keeping an eye on my posts.
Indeed access to education is a privilege and hope those who have it know how to effectively benefit from it.
I hope to create an online platform where we can learn from each other . I strongly believe that sharing information is essential for everyone’s professional growth.
This is why, both as a PR Master Degree student representative and as a student I want to bring my own contribution to the industry of Public Relations by adding to it that spice of cultural diversity which derives from the wide range of multicultural students the UK has.
I ll do my best to help you set up a WordPress blog for your organization (I suggest you choosing WordPress because is more elegant)
Keep in touch on Facebook
Best