Just Facebook Me.

Just Facebook Me.
By: Lynley Kees

Public Relations professionals use social media though out their every day schedule. It is used so much in our daily lives that most of the time people are not even aware they are utilizing social media. PR professionals use social networking to generate awareness, promoting products, to staying in contact with work and their clients with the click of a button. I have seen an enormous amount in trends in social media over the past years. I hate that the words “Facebook me” is amongst my daily vocabulary along with asking myself, “what should I tweet today.” It is amazing to see how much social media has affected our lives in how we proactively communicate with others with a click of a button. I have only been a member of Facebook for three years and I have seen numerous positive changes in ways to communicate with people around the world. Now with the invention of Twitter, Blogger and Delicious and many other social networking services, the ways to communicate is never ending. For instance, take a look at this class. We are using Blooger to post assignments on the web to be viewed by our professors and fellow students. Also this semester my campaigns group and I have been using all different forms of social media for our client Big Brothers Big Sisters as an outlet to reach our targeted publics.

It is weird to think about how the world used to communicate to each other. Today the accesses we have to these types of social media have only made our job easier. I see the use of social media excessively growing in the future. In the past few years alone I have seen a change in how the world is communicating with one another for the better and look forward to seeing what the future brings.

Image Information: Social Media
Web source: Social Media Sites

Give Your Facebook Status a Rest

Give Your Facebook Status a Rest

It seems like every time I hear the words “Public Relations,” “social media” follows them. While social media has become an essential component of public relations practice (and life), another trend is quickly growing. Only one difference; it isn’t anything new at all. In fact, many would refer to it as “old-school.” I am talking about the importance of establishing and building personal relationships.

Social media is splendid because it has the power to reach thousands of people whenever it is convenient. Your message is no longer lost if someone does not make it home for their regular television show. It remains in the Twitter or Facebook timeline whenever they are ready for it. On the flipside, though, this leads to an overload of information. Due to the fact that social media is often free, virtually limitless and incredibly easy, one person might receive tens of messages a week. This is why many companies are reverting back to special services, traditional mail, and personal contact in lieu of Facebook fan pages.

In 2008 Starbucks Corporation introduced their Gold Card program, which offered their loyal customers a 10% discount on purchases after paying a $25 annual fee. They also mailed coupons to try new products to these customers. The popularity of this program led them to create a new free rewards program with many of the same benefits. Following the introduction of this program their First Quarter FY2010 store sales grew 4%. They are taking the corporate coffee shop business and making it personal.

J. Crew, Inc. has a similar method of building lasting relationships with their customers through their Personal Shopper service. Personal Shoppers work on building clients for J.Crew stores through complimentary personal shopping appointments and personal communication. Their personal shoppers become friends with their clients resulting in higher sales. The J. Crew clients feel special and unique and treat shopping there as an activity rather than a chore. J. Crew is one of very few box retail stores that offers this service and is setting precedence.

In a research study Kristy Reynolds and Sharon Beatty found that “consumers select services on the basis of benefits they desire,” (Reynolds & Beatty, 13). The benefits could be product information or special services, for example. They also found that a positive and constant interaction with salespeople fulfills their human needs and results in “outcomes such as loyalty, positive word of mouth, and satisfaction,” (Reynolds & Beatty, 13).

I have found that while it is still necessary for companies to tweet, perhaps they should go old school and work on being personal for a while, give Facebook a rest.

New Starbucks Gold. Web source: www.pulpconnection.net

Sources:

Reynolds, K. E. & Beatty, S. E. Customer Benefits and Company Consequences of Customer-Salesperson Relationships in Retailing. www.sciencedirect.com

Starbucks Corporation. Starbucks Reports Record Quarterly Earnings. www.news.starbucks.com

The future of PR includes social networking.

The future of PR includes social networking.

By: Lauren Hale

Public relations is a profession that changes over time like a fashion trend. The way of doing something in the past may no longer be effective in the present or future with changing technology and a fast social pace. The picture above is from invisiblepr.com, a public relations site that describes and updates on new trends in society. A new trend in public relations that keeps growing and evolving is the use of social networking online. According to the dictionary, Social networking is defined as the use of a Web site designed to allow multiple users to publish content themselves. Let's use the example of Facebook. This allows you to contact people around the globe and post information for them all to see. The use of Facebook is broad and can be used by small business' to promote their product or by large corporations to show brand identity. Twitter is also a growing network that is used by many professionals around this world. This site allows you to follow people and "tweets" in a specific category. For example, Fitness magazine kicked off a campaign in February to promote their Web site by having people tweet a trend of "I love my body because.." comments. This was a way to market the magazine on social networking as an evolution of women's thinking.

I currently work for a Governor candidate for the upcoming election in Oklahoma. The use of social networking in political campaigns is half of the media and public relations practice. These sites are used to promote news and media coverage that can link viewers to articles and more. Volunteers and voters can follow the campaign on these sites which gives them an inside scoop that you can't pay airtime for.

Event promotion is also an outlet for social networking use. Social networking can be used like an online invitation. On these sites, you are able to send out invites and event awareness to target demographics at the click of a button. The campaign I work for uses this outlet to promote many events that would not get the same coverage if we bought air time or a television spot.

I think that these examples of how social networking is used in public relations shows the impact that it is having and the continuing trend we will see in the future. As long as social networking sites stay free for use and viewed by many, public relations practitioners will continue to utilize this outlet to reach their targeted publics.

Facebook helps companies seem more personable and easy to reach.

The world is fast changing and developing. As people often say, it is becoming a "global village." Several trends and practices stand out to me in today's worlds especially in the field of marketing, advertising and public relations. One trend that stands out to me especially is social media whether it be Facebook, Twitter, You tube, or blogs.

According the Facebook Web site under "press room," there are more than 400 million active users worldwide. Companies often use Facebook groups to generate friends and a public to target. On a smaller scale, campus organizations use Facebook groups and events to promote an event, and It also helps to estimate the amount of people that will attend the event.

Facebook helps companies seem more personable and easy to reach.

Another social media tool that I think is becoming more and more efficient is Twitter. It is amazing how status updates create awareness about an issue and motivate people to do a certain thing. Just like most social media aspect, status updates are really personable which is an important aspect in getting people to take action.

Another aspect of social media that can help a PR professional with a successful campaign is its flexibility. Social media messages can easily be changed if need be without worry of any confusion or miscommunication. More information can always be added if needed. An example is if a company releases a new product, and announces the wrong date, it can always go back to announce a change in the product release date if needed.

Another trend I am seeing more and more of lately is the videos on You Tube specifically make up and apparel videos. Companies are hiring young and energetic individuals to make videos talking about their products. I think the videos are very effective judging from the feedback and comments that people leave in the "comment section." Its is important for PR professionals to know how to use social media to a specific target public.