The crash of a Turkish plane this morning illustrated, once again, the increasing power of social media such as Twitter over traditional media outlets.  Just moments after the Turkish Airlines flight crashed at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport on Wednesday morning, Twitter broke the story through users’ status updates from the crash site.  Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to send and read other users’ status updates, known as “tweets.”

Twitter gained attention during the attacks in Mumbai, India, where people were able to post to their website from the hotel rooms.

Similarly, after the crash Wednesday morning, civilians flocked to the wreckage to take pictures and post to their Twitter page.  Once media outlets, such as CNN, saw these photos and updates they worked quickly to confirm the incident with Dutch officials and investigate further.

Eyewitnesses were able to post pictures and comments about the shock of seeing the plane dive out of the sky and seeing the passengers walk away from the wreckage.  In fact, the first image available to the public of the wrecked plane was snapped by an eyewitness driving past on the highway.

This incident proves that social networking sites are the future of media due to their speed in covering breaking news and gathering eyewitness accounts.  However, with this fast-paced coverage comes less accountability.  Relying on civilian reporters versus professionals does provide some concern about the reliability of reports, so readers are encouraged to use caution when reading these accounts.

Despite that, the unprecedented speed of breaking news through social media is undeniable and paints a clear picture of the future of media.

Governor Purdue Discusses Stimulus

Note: The Council for Entrepreneurial Development and The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences are both clients of MMI Associates, Inc.

In a speech at North Carolina’s Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s Biotech 2009 event yesterday, Governor Bev Perdue said she would appoint a “Czar” to monitor and invest money the state receives from the $789 billion stimulus bill passed by Congress. Gov. Perdue also said she wants to double the size of our state’s biotechnology industry. Let’s hope the Czar she appoints looks with a friendly eye toward biotech.

The Congressional stimulus bill provides $10 billion for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which in turn awards grants to startups, research universities and investigators at nonprofits all over the country. In North Carolina, NIH has awarded grants to multiple startup companies, universities such as Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, and nonprofit organizations such as The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. But the NIH funding needs to be supplemented with biotech initiatives on the part of state leaders.

Political leaders in our state need to formulate pro-biotech policy decisions, provide expanded funding for biomedical research and tax relief for individual or corporate investors who back biotech. We face strong competition in this area from California, Maryland and Massachusetts. The new Czar can either make it difficult for biotech to expand in North Carolina or be proactive. Biotech has brought billions of dollars into our coffers and has the potential to lead the state out of recession. The impact of biotech employment in North Carolina is huge. Lawmakers need to do all they can to cultivate and protect the industry.

Will A Name Change Help Security Company Repair Its Tarnished Image?

Most North Carolinians have probably heard the name “Blackwater” more times than they can count. The private security company, headquartered in Moyock, has come to embody many of the tribulations associated with the war in Iraq through its mishandling of government-contracted operations in the post-Hussein country.

Companies rebrand all the time, and for a variety of reasons. Most don’t have to erase a public image problem that deals with civilian loss of life — an obstacle Blackwater seeks to overcome with a new name change (to “Xe”, pronounced Z, or zzzz if you aren’t buying it). It’s the ultimate litmus test for brand awareness; I can’t think of a stronger case. (Share one with us in the comments if you can.)

Blackwater’s reps — and yes, I’m still calling them Blackwater for the purpose of this post — have made a clear connection between the new name and the company’s deliberate shift away from providing private security services. It’s not exactly clear what it will be offering now, but still: This is a pointed move toward legitimacy for a company tainted by a cancerous brand.

What else should Blackwater be doing to go along with its rebranding efforts? I’d like to see senior management conduct a “road show” media tour touting the brand, but also willing to answer questions that inevitably are going to arise. They might reveal some harsh truths, but people are going equate that honesty with the new brand.

Photo via Flickr

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Wake County Public School System must reach out to stakeholders

It seems like every day a new headline announces more job layoffs, budget cuts, and hiring freezes. Unfortunately for us, North Carolina isn’t immune to these nationwide woes. Earlier this month, Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), a nationally-respected public system, announced that it was implementing an immediate hiring freeze effective through June 30.

This hiring freeze came on the coattails of an $11.2 million dollar budget cut by the Wake County Board of Education on December 2, 2008. On top of that, school budgets for instructional supplies and classroom materials were reduced by $7.25 per student.

“Although Wake County’s economy is in a better position than most, our state and county government still expect a serious shortfall in revenue,” Superintendent Del Burns said. “We are positioning WCPSS for anticipated decreases in revenue based on trends in the economy.”

Wake County is extremely proud of its top-notch schools but they wouldn’t be so great without all the people who put their time and energy into them. Parent volunteers pour thousands of hours into their success every year by tutoring, gardening, attending meetings, and making phone calls. Students study hard and go above and beyond levels of expectation to win awards and get accepted into the nation’s best colleges.

These schools are home to 120,504 students, with more than 6,000 new students every year. Can the school system continue to provide children with the level of education that Wake residents expect? It’s a big task being faced by school systems across the country.

WCPSS now needs to reassure all of the people who have put so much into their schools that, with less money and teachers, they can still provide the state’s best education to citizens. In such a highly scrutinized issue, WCPSS needs to effectively communicate with its vast group stakeholders in order to retain confidence and good-standing among the public.

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The Mad Scientists at Google Labs Do It Again

I am consistently impressed me with the programs and applications being developed by the mad scientists at Google Labs.  For those of you who don’t know, Google Labs is a testing ground for programs that are still considered beta or in development by the Google team.  Veterans of the Labs include Google Reader (Google’s RSS solution), Google Maps (ruining our excuse for being late) and Google Docs and Spreadsheet (free competitor of Word and Excel).  So why should you care?  Beyond the usefulness of the programs themselves, it’s a great way to stay ahead of the curve and to learn the newest online tools.

The Labs are currently working on several interesting projects that you can test.  Looking at it from a public relations standpoint, I’m most interested in  their Experimental Search Options, Google Trends, and Google Audio Indexing.  Experimental search options are pretty self-explanatory.  Google Trends is interesting because it allows you to see search trends in Google.  How many people searched the term “rhinoceros” in the past day, week, month?  Google trends will tell you.  The audio indexing project may be the most promising and difficult project in Google Labs.  It lets people search the audio in YouTube videos. If this takes off and audio indexing is available for all YouTube videos than the search will no longer be reliant on tags and titles; Google will be able to search each video for what is actually being said.

For anyone interested in how people communicate online, Google Labs is one of the best places to find trends, experiments and maybe even “the next big thing”.  At the very least, it’s an open window into Google projects; really, it’s a way to stay ahead of the curve and test some of the most useful tools on the internet.

Does your company need a public relations firm? MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm located in Raleigh, NC. Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information. Any questions? Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

For Some, PR Efforts A Matter Of Safety

A murder last month at Virginia Tech brought back heartrending memories from the 2007 shooting tragedy for many in the university community.

Only a day after classes began for the Spring 2009 semester, Xin Yang, a 22-year-old graduate student from Beijing, was decapitated with a kitchen knife at a campus café. Haiyang Zhu, a 25-year-old graduate student from China, is being charged with first-degree murder.

As the case unfolds, it will be important for the university to maintain constant communication with students and their family. The role of public relations at the university level will be especially crucial during this time, considering past events at Virginia Tech.

What Virginia Tech will need to highlight are the changes it has made since the last incident on campus. One of these reforms, a text messaging, e-mail and telephone alert system, was fortunately a success. University spokesman Larry Hincker said messages were sent to 30,000 subscribers after Zhu was taken into custody.

The implementation of a university alert system via text messages and e-mails, has been one positive contribution made by Virginia Tech officials. Similar systems have spread to other universities across the country including many of our local Triangle schools. Virginia Tech has a public relations crisis on their hands, but by remaining transparent and encouraging honest conversation, the Hokie community has a good chance of remaining a tight-knit family.

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