Tweet! Tweet!

Well, it's official! You no longer need to have any interaction with someone to know what exactly is going on every moment of there life. That is if they keep up with their Tweets. Twitter provides a service to its customers that allows for 140 characters to update all their "followers" on what they are doing.

Honestly, I'm having a really hard time getting into the twitter thing. It seems like just one more account to check. I'll give it a little while and see how it goes. I think part of the problem is that the only people I know that are on twitter are my classmates. To me, this raises the question, who else is on twitter? Well, let's see. I read an article on CNN.com that the Salvation Army is using Twitter to update people on money-raising events this holiday season. I thought that was pretty exciting. But who else is on there in Twitter land, what are they talking about, and how do I find out? Well, I went to my home page and scrolled down and clicked on "search." This brought up a page much like google search, but only searches with Twitter You could type any word and Twitter shows you the most recent posts about that subject. I never could figure out how to find businesses on Twitter by searching within Twitter, but if I googled it I could fine the orgainzation's twitter home page and then I could begin to follow it on Twitter. I think Twitter needs to make it easier to find new friends and organizations to follow.

Overall, it is a neat concept that I think has a lot of PR potential. Twitter obviously still has a lot of room to grow and a large potential audience. I just think it hasn't fully caught on quite yet. Good luck Twitter! I know you're starting to grow on me.

I Want Your Job!!!

Ok, seriously, does Brad Mitchell not have the coolest job ever!?! It sucks that he has to work such long hours, but that job would rock! I spend hours on social networks and blogs in my free time. So, the idea of getting paid for that blows my mind! I'm sure it's not quite as fun knowing that you HAVE to keep all those things up and running, but it sure beats my stressful work environment! It is such a great concept for the university as well. I can not think of a more perfect way to target that "possible future MSU student" population than through this perfect array of social media that Brad Mitchell is beginning to tackle.

Also, I thought the idea of ITunes U was very exciting! I would have loved to have that option as an undergrad and beyond if I were to miss a class. Also, I think it can be a great addition to online classes. Our lives are all so fast-paced these days that it would be nice to have the option to catch your missed lecture on the road! Also, what a perfect opportunity for student athletes who are forced to miss several classes anyway. They always seem to have earphones stuffed in the ears anyway. Why not get pumped up for the game with a little COM 115 lecture?

Overall, I am just so excited that Missouri State is embracing the new technologies of today's youth and beyond. Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go catch up on my Google Reader, check my Facebook account to see how my friends are doing, find a few more interesting articles for tonight's class to tag on Delicious, and update my twitter status to "Krissy is caught up on my COM blog." Thanks!

The Pod

When asked how podcasts can be applied I really had to stretch the imagination. Some of the other social medias we have discussed were pretty obvious, but podcasting was a bit trickier. Even so, I believe it can be done! A great article in PR news provides a clear explanation of podcasting and how it can be used within the public relations realm.

Contrary to this article, I tend to lean towards a more applicable place for podcasting is strictly within an organizaton. I have to give props to Margaret Orlando on the most creative idea I have found for podcasting in PR! She stated that she sees podcasting as a more internal communication tool by providing, "meeting debreifings, conference debreifings, things that people need to catch up on about their organization, this would be a great way to transform the hum-drum newsletter from days of old into the Web 2.0 world."

I absolutely love this idea! In my job, I don't have the time or desire to sit down for twenty minutes to catch up on my emails. If podcasting was provided by my department I could catch up on meetings I may have missed while I was away or just a simple general announcement that could be a critical policy change. In fact, I could even do this on the way to work! Thus, allowing less distraction and better patient care.

Why Do I Care?

Integrated marketing communication is to me just a way of saying, in today's society we must combine all forces to prove to a customer why they should should even care about your organization. This is critical because in today's society people are so constantly inundated with "Come Here!" and "Buy This!" or "We're the Best for You!" that it seems almost impossible to make your organization stand out so that the public will choose you to pursue. Thus, I believe it is necessary to combine advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing into one big ball of publicity genius to reach the full potential of an organization.
This tactic is already beginning to be seen online as well as some offline campaigns. An example of this would be the presidential election. The Barack Obama campaign used their online influence to help promote and educate others on how to use local offline tactics of marketing, promotion, advertising, etc. Thus, combining both online and offline PR and marketing.
The differences of these two areas, PR and marketing, are becoming increasingly blurred. I found an interesting blog with some great resources and interesting comments that address just that. Enjoy!

Release Me!

Online news releases are a recently rapidly growing trend in the media world. They provide an unlimited amount of information to anyone, not just the common news sources that decide to pick up the story. Before one could only get the news that was fed to them by major media organizations, but now it is as if every major or minute event in the world is screaming, "Release Me! Moreover, they can be thorough in the information provided such as pictures, videos, audio clips, etc related to the story.

This also allows for information overload. When looking at the proposed "New Social Media News Release Template, Version 1.5 by Shift Communications, I can't help but be totally overwhelmed and lost by all the information that can potentially provide. While it is great to obtain all angles of a news release, it definitely has the potential of turning those not interested in spending a lot of time reading for the key information away.


However, with all that said, I find it overall as a PR goldmine with the provided options to have the reader with continued information he/she can subscribe to for future news releases, feed, etc.

Social Networks and PR

This video clearly explains the process of using social networks in the PR world. It also goes on to clearly define what social networks are. It discusses how managers are very curious how this all works. It goes on to expalin just that. It gives examples of these social networks: Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, and Linked In. It also goes on to talk about how popular these social network sites have become as well as how successful using social networks to promote your organization is. I do agree with the tips the video provides to help brand your organization in a positive manner while social networking online. However, I do think some additional advice is needed on how exactly a social network profile is created. As well as, explaining some of the history of how and why social networks were started. Thus, helping better understand why this is such a great opportunity for an organization to get their name out there. Also, it should also be discussed how an organization can use social networking while still maintaining their credibility.

RSS feeds in PR

RSS~Really Simple Syndication. The key word here is simple. In today's world everyone is looking for an easier or simpler way of doing things. That has been the beauty of technology; It tends to make make things easier. But simpler? Perhaps not. Before RSS, one had to either wait for an email/newsletter or go to the website/blog for new information about an organization.

Now, PR professionals can provide journalists with new information continuously with their RSS feeds that the journalist may sign up for. It basically can bring the website to the RSS subscriber. Simple. Not only that, but it is confidential, has been said to be preferred by many journalists, complimentary, and up to the minute information, no old news. Also, this is still a relatively new technology and has so much room for growth and improvement. The possibilities are great and very exciting for those in the PR world.