Public Relations and Social Media Predictions for 2012

by Blake Brittain

In a Business Wire article published in December, Julia Gaynor presents ten logical predictions of situations to look out for in 2012 involving public relations and social media.

Gaynor predicts that the evolution of social media will have an affect on all aspects of branding, and that traditional PR tactics are to be replaced with new, innovative strategies for engaging target audiences.

A main prediction I found in the article expresses that the process of email pitching becoming obsolete will commence, giving rise to social media connections with journalists. Social media pitching has become a preferable place for journalists, and some think it could completely rid the email pitch in public relations.

Google will continue to thrive in 2012, even with the recession. It is predicted that in 2012, businesses will use Google+ as a strategic platform for communicating with users, and already has more than 50 million users.

Businesses started following the latest social media trends in 2011, and will continue to do so, and will also expect more brands to take a strategic approach. This should offer businesses the greatest return on investment, rather than trying to stay on top of every individual trend.

In 2011, publications like Forbes allowed CEOs to create their own web pages, profiles and regularly post content. It is predicted that CEOs will begin to work with traditional news media to position themselves as thought leaders, a win-win for media outlets and brands.

As in the past, media will still rely on sex, scandal and famous celebrities to sell stories. Gaynor advises us to stay cautious of journalists because they will try to find the most scandalous angle for every story.

I believe these predictions are highly likely due to the sufficient amount of information backing them up. I also believe we, as students, can take these scenarios and learn from them, and hopefully be able to use that advice as we transition into the profession.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/top-ten-public-relations-and-social-media-predictions-for-2012-from-affect-2011-12-12

Facebook Talks Politics

Facebook is giving its users an opportunity to appear on Times Square, as a part of the “What Matters Most” campaign. It will allow users to choose 3 issues of the 2012 election that matter most to them and share with friends. It will also give those who wish to share the chance of being featured on Times Square.

If utilized, this movement will show the biggest political involvement through the use of social media we have seen. The information Facebook will gather on the opinions of its users will provide as an important tool for politicians. Young adults are sadly known for low political involvement and will be able to express their concern for certain issues with ease.

I find myself at a crossroads. I’m fascinated and excited to see how direct social media engagement will effect the election, but far from convinced to share my own opinions.

Though intriguing, I wouldn’t be surprised if other users find themselves hesitant to take advantage of this campaign as well. Without much thought people share articles, music, interests and even the location of their whereabouts. Sharing opinions on political beliefs will throw users in a completely different and possibly uncomfortable ballpark.

I’ve witnessed many Facebook friendship breakups because somebody got his or her feelings hurt when a status about immigration or abortion got a little too heavy. My friends range from radical, Perry-loving republicans to the ones who claim to be the widely known 99%.

Needless to say, the last thing I plan on doing is airing my political laundry on the Facebook line.

Rebuttal to self: What is a world where we’re all too sensitive to share political beliefs with friends, acquaintances or family?

Mark Zuckerberg’s values include a heavy emphasis on sharing. This campaign will show just how far and sensitive it can become.

To read full article click here.

Landing a Perfect PR Internship/Job

By Staci De Leon

Since we are all seniors and are in desperate need of jobs after graduating (at least I am), here are a few tips from Kaitlin Doody's, How to land the PR internship of your dreams:

1. Know your audience
2. Build a portfolio
3. Prepare your "pitch"
4. Diversify your experience and
5. Develop a "specialty."


I find number four to be very interesting. Some people do not realize that they are experienced in more than one area. For example, I really enjoy writing press releases, but recently I have become increasingly involved with various blogs and major social media outlets. 
Just because you know how to manage your own Facebook and Twitter pages doesn't make you an expert; make sure your status updates and tweets are relevant, make an online brand for yourself. I usually blog (or reblog) about current events that interest me, not celebrity gossip, but real news happening in the real world.

According to a recent WSJ article, now-a-days hiring agencies and companies are focusing more on LinkedIn accounts, video profiles and online quizzes to pick only a handful of the best candidates from hundreds of applicants.

In order to get the job of your dreams in this industry, figure out how to reach out to them through social media. Some people may think social media isn't that great for jobs, but when you use it correctly, you're promoting your online brand to potential employers to increase your network for possible job opportunities after you graduate.

Consumers Unhappy About New Privacy Settings

Google signaled its intent to begin correlating data about its users' activities across all of its most popular services and across multiple devices. The goal: to deliver those richer behavior profiles to advertisers. Likewise, Facebook announced Tuesday it will soon make Timeline the new, more glitzy user interface for its service, mandatory.

Timeline is designed to chronologically assemble, automatically display and make globally accessible the preferences, acquaintances and activities for most of Facebook's 800 million members.

Google and Facebook have repeatedly insisted that the changes are intended strictly to improve users' experiences. "Facebook works the way it always has," says spokeswoman Meredith Chin. "There is no new information on Facebook as a result of Timeline, and no privacy settings have been changed with the introduction of it. It's simply an updated version of the profile."

Both Google and Facebook continue to be dominant in their market, but these two social media sites are under pressure to increase sales and profits, which are some reasons for these significant changes.

"What these unilateral decisions by Google and Facebook demonstrate is a complete disregard for their users' interests and concerns," says John Simpson, spokesman for Consumer Watchdong. "It's an uncommonly arrogant approach not usually seen in business, where these companies believe they can do whatever they want with our data, whenever and however they want to do it."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-01-25/google-facebook-competition/52796502/1?loc=interstitialskip

Southwest Airlines and Airtran Airways Unite Flight Instructors

Since the merger between Southwest Airlines and Airtran Airways, the flight instructors from each company have been negotiating the ratification of their Seniority Intergration Agreement and have decided to intergrate the two companies lists. The vice president of flight operations spoke out about Southwest Airlines' pilots and flight instructors stating how proud he was that an agreement could be made among them. This is just one more positive advancement for Southwest Airlines image and reputation.

The PR team for Southwest Airlines most likely chose to highlight this small feat in the company to show how that it was a wise idea for Southwest to acquire Airtran. It also shows the public that the companies are growing together to better their service to the public.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/southwest-airlines-and-airtran-airways-flight-instructors-ratify-seniority-integration-agreement-138079358.html

Fashion and PR

Public relations company, KCD, announced that it will now be offering a new service where it will produce some fashion shows entirely in a digital format so that overtaxed editors can watch them online. Fashion week is already hectic enough being that there are around 300 shows scheduled within eight days which causes some designers to be forgotten. By KCD offering this new feature, editors and buyers do not have to drive all across town to make each fashion show. All they have to do is access the shows on their computer or mobile device.

Even though watching a fashion show isn't the same experience as actually being there, the live-streaming shows will offer runway footage and designer interviews which will be only accessed with a password. This also might be interesting to see how it can compete with other power house fashion designers such as Chanel and Burberry who already put an enormous amount of runway footage on their websites. This is also a great concept for the designers who do not have sufficient funds to create their own website. This way, they will be able to develop their own online shows fr people to view.

I think this is a great idea being that it makes almost all of the fashion shows accessible to everyone.

article :http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/now-online-only-fashion-shows-for-busy-editors/?scp=1&sq=public%20relations&st=cse

-MacKenzie Baker

Carnival CEO lays low

Fifteen people have been confirmed dead and 17 others are still missing while news continues to flow from the Costa Concordia tragedy that will challenge parent company Carnival Corp.'s PR efforts. One piece of news is that there were unregistered passengers onboard, an allegation that subsidiary Costa Cruises denies. The other news is that Costa Cruises' are offering 30% off future cruises to survivors, termed by one passenger as "insulting."

CEO, Micky Arison's management style is to let his business units' leadership do the crisis response heavy lifting. Arison's public responses have been limited to some Twitter posts and via statements in press releases expressing condolences. Some have questioned this stay-in-the-background strategy, given the scope of the accident.

Larry Berg, VP & GM of media and marketing company Valassis, says that the CEO should be front and center in a crisis. "The CEO should be a company's representative to the community, acknowledging the key issues, apologizing to the affected families, telling what is known about the crisis so far and giving a commitment to not letting such an incident happen in the future," says Berg.

Arison and his advisers have chosen to let Costa Cruises CEO Pier Luigi Foschi be that representative. So why hasn't Arison visited the scene? A visit from the CEO would be about more than positive PR—it would be a symbol of the humanity of the company.

The Hilarious Downfall of Ocean Marketing

Ocean Marketing Delivers the Biggest PR Fail in History

Paul Christoforo of Ocean Marketing singlehandedly destroyed his reputation and career over the Christmas break and in such a way that the whole world could watch. Christoforo was hired to do marketing and customer service for the Avenger, a video game controller created to assist the disabled. But Christoforo threw all standard ethical practices out the window and did things his way, which turned out to be hilariously awful. Christoforo wrote abusive emails to a customer who had legitimate concerns and complaints. He wrote such things as, “you got told bitch,” and, “no one cares what you think,” and proceeded to list a number of big-named companies he claimed to have contact with and the tech and video game conventions he would be attending, including PAX East. But in this day and age, all it takes is one little email. The customer emailed the entire conversation to the man behind PAX East and the popular website Penny Arcade, Mike Krahulik. Shocked by such poor treatment, Krahulik assured that Christoforo would not be at his convention. Krahulik then published all of the emails, including some between him and Christoforo, on his website. People on the internet went nuts with anger. The companies Christoforo had claimed to know came out on twitter saying otherwise. Later in the day, Ocean Marketing was fired by the Avenger controller creator.

Christoforo is the reason PR has a bad reputation. But with social media, it’s easier to keep the bad guys in check. Not only did his actions wreck his career, but his lack of GSP knowledge made him look like an even bigger idiot while doing it.

13 annoying communication habits

PR Daily's David Spark posted an article listing the top 13 annoying communication habits that must end in 2012. I'm sure most of us can agree that as public relations majors we wouldn't dare commit any of these grave communication faux pas, right? Well, not necessarily. Although most of the annoying habits on the list came as no surprise to me because they are among my biggest social media pet peeves, I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm guilty of a whopping three out of these 13 communication transgressions. Here's the condensed version of the list:

1. Shortening someone's name right after you've been introduced
2. Not remembering someone's name right after you've been introduced
3. Tagging objects as people in Facebook photos
4. Tagging people in a Facebook article to get them to read it
5. Opening a panel discussion by allowing the panelists to first talk about themselves
6. Asking a blogger, "Can you blog something for me?"
7. Stringing people along
8. Attaching videos and uncompressed photos to emails
9. Not understanding what Bcc is
10. Sharing without consumption
11. Cross posting all tweets to Facebook
12. Wishing "happy birthday" on Facebook
13. Facebook pages that require you to hit the "Like" button just to see the content on the page

The bulk of the list seems to be common sense. A few habits on the list, namely tagging people in a Facebook article to get them to read about it and not understanding what Bcc is, have been imposed on me countless times by friends, colleagues and employers who should know better. I'm sure this sounds familiar. Other annoying communication habits on the list occur alarmingly often also, such as not remembering someone's name right after you've been introduced and wishing someone "happy birthday" on Facebook, which are two of the habits I'm guilty of committing. The article suggests repeating someone's name several times after you've been introduced to help with memorization and accompanying "happy birthday" wishes on Facebook with a personalized message.

Hopefully I'm not the only public relations major guilty of one or more of PR Daily's 13 annoying communication habits that must end in 2012. I encourage everyone to check out the article. It is a very informative, quick, comical read.