by: Mallory Pfeffer

Animal rights have always stirred up some sort of controversy (think PETA and its avant garde campaigns). The killer whale who just recently killed a trainer at Sea World has certainly ignited debate regarding the captivity of animals, so organizations such as PETA and Friends of Animals have  been given something current to talk about. Well, to add to the recent drama in regards to animal protection, an animal shelter in Robeson County, N.C. is receiving national attention and a multitude of negative publicity.

ABC11 Eyewitness News reported on the situation surrounding the Robeson County Animal Shelter and its treatment of animals. The situation all started when a video was found on YouTube which showed animals being “brutally euthanized” by shelter workers. The catch is the video was recorded 13 years ago and, according to current shelter director Jeff Bass, the facility has undergone drastic changes since then to ensure humane sedation methods.

The public isn’t buying it. Animal rights activists and organizations alike are lashing out against Bass. One group, MJ’s Animal Sanctuary, is even calling for an investigation on the grounds that they have evidence proving the shelter’s continued wrongdoings. Individual animal advocates are the ones who seem to be lashing out the most however, Governor Beverly Perdue’s Facebook wall has been taken over by complaints.

Thousands of people have posted comments about the situation and are urging her to take action against the shelter. Some have written extensive paragraphs regarding animal cruelty and actions the state should take to prevent such incidents, and others are simply asking Perdue to “please do something.” The governor responded to the outcry by assuring the public that her office has contacted the Commissioner of Agriculture’s office and the Robeson County Sheriff.

It seems like a huge mess at first, but there is actually a lot of good public relations at work. It is empowering to know that current trends in social media allow the public to voice their opinions directly to the people they think should hear. Concerned animal advocates were able to flood the governor’s office with  their grievances via Facebook and actually receive a response, however minimal it may have been.

On the other side of the issue, Bass has done well to maintain his composure and respond to the situation. He has calmly stated to reporters that “he keeps detailed records…and will gladly share them with animal rights advocates if they ask him and not accuse him,” but he refuses to have his face shown on camera because he has already received countless threats. Even though he is remaining somewhat anonymous, he is not keeping quiet. He is not pointing any fingers or trying to duel with the opposition, he is simply telling the facts as he knows them.

It’s certainly refreshing to see public relations tactics used appropriately.

Photo Source: garrardhumanesociety

by Minette Yao

Today’s generation is often criticized for having a short attention span.  According to some psychologists and neuroscientists, the explosion of social networking sites like Facebook, instant messaging, and blogging (especially compacted micro-blogging tools, like Twitter), is a detriment to society. The conventional complaint goes: with more and more people at their computers or in front of the television, we are quickly losing the ability to have real life conversations, and certainly not conversations about anything of substance. But wait.

Tonight in downtown, an event called Ignite Raleigh might just prove the experts wrong. Ignite is a sort of variety show—an evening of inspiring, creative, interesting talks and presentations—from members of the very generation accused. The idea is a bit like TED, another online draw that provides streaming videos (often around 20-30 minutes) of “riveting talks by remarkable people” (TED’s motto). The difference is that Ignite is local—attended, presented at, and lead by people interested in hosting and participating at one in their city or town. More importantly, the talks only last five minutes.

Individuals are allowed to share their passions at an Ignite event informed by the motto, “Enlighten us, but make it quick.” Presenters are given five minutes to talk, with 20 slides up for 15 seconds each. Talk about a short attention span!

This will be Raleigh’s second Ignite event, with a total of 15 presentations given within 2 hours (from 7-9pm) by community speakers and featured speakers alike (including a WRAL meteorologist and Miss NC USA 2010). The topics range from “20 Rules for Start-Ups”  to “Why the Triangle is America’s Hotspot for Way Cool Houses” to “NerdGirls Unite! Fact: Women Don’t Have to Be Lame.”

For those interested in opinions from the social media savvy, a few of these talks might catch your attention:

“What happens to your digital identity after you die?”; “All media is social. You are no expert. Go read McLuhan”; and “Anti-Social Media: Breaking Connections for Fun and Profit.”

… even if only for five minutes. The @Ignite Raleigh event is also all over Twitter (#igniteraleigh), if you just can’t focus for that long.

Photo source: Ted Leung

By Preston Kelly

Following the footsteps of social media giants Facebook and Twitter, Google has just released a social media tool of their own:  Google Buzz.  So what’s the hype about?

Much like Twitter and Facebook, Google Buzz allows space for the expression of thought.  Twitter, however, places a limit on length, allowing a mere 140 characters at most.  And while Facebook is wildly popular among all ages groups, its interface is confusing to many new users.

Google has taken social media a step further and created the perfect mixture of the two.  The most obvious advantage of Google Buzz is its ease of access.  What better way to gain users than to automatically connect it to their Gmail accounts?  I know that as soon as I saw that colorful little circle appear under my inbox, I clicked to learn more.  And here’s what I found:

1. Instant friends - Google Buzz suggests following the people that you most often connect with on Gmail, making it easier to find people that you already know.

2. Easy linkage – Though you can’t link to Facebook to Buzz, other sites are widely accepted, including Twitter and Flickr.

3. Buzz for mobile – The Buzz mobile app uses GPS to find your exact location, enabling you to connect with other Buzz users in the area to find out what’s going on.

4. Simple design – Unlike the confusing looks of Facebook and Twitter, Google Buzz uses a clean design, allowing for conversations to begin that feed directly into your Gmail.

With all of these capabilities and more, Google Buzz has opened a new door in the realm of public relations possibilities.  Practitioners have already begun a working list of PR tactics using Google Buzz, ranging from mobile abilities to search engine tags to easy sharing.

Mashable claims that this buzz-worthy site has already changed the name of the game, warning companies that ignoring it could be a “costly mistake.”

Of course I love my Facebook and Twitter pages, but with all the recent hype after only two weeks, I can’t help but think Google Buzz might be something worth looking into.  As Google continues to correct privacy issues and add newer and better features, Buzz has real growth potential in the PR world.

One question remains: how will Facebook and Twitter respond?  (read: PC World)

Photo Source:  Matt Hamm

by Mallory Pfeffer

Let’s face it, Facebook is practically unavoidable nowadays. People are using it to stay connected to friends and family, play games or form groups. Companies are using it to advertise, raise awareness or network. I personally use it to peruse through albums my old friends from high school have posted to see how much they’ve changed. One thing is certain–it’s a fabulous PR tool and almost everyone is either using it or talking about it.

As we all are beginning to see more and more, Facebook has a darker side. You’ve heard the warnings, be careful what you do, say or put on Facebook because somebody somewhere is watching. Even President Obama has warned our nation’s youth to be weary of Facebook. Well, for one Apex teacher that “somebody” just happened to be a disgruntled parent, and what she said on the Web site has her in a bit of trouble.

The situation started after Melissa Hussain’s lesson on the theory of evolution to her eight-graders at West Lake Middle School. After the lesson a student allegedly placed a Bible and note that said Merry Christmas, with “Christ” underlined, on Hussain’s desk. She wrote of the incident on her Facebook page, also including how she considered the performance a “hate crime.”

The parent who was interviewed for the story by WRAL stated that Hussain also said that she has “a meeting with the (possible) Bible boy on Monday…Heaven help him, [she is] still so mad at that child!”

Hussain is now suspended with pay while Wake County Investigates the situation, and she is left with no one to thank but Facebook. While she had every right to be upset about the note and Bible, perhaps she should have been more careful about posting her feelings. Unfortunately, it seems as if the absurdity surrounding political correctness has filtered into social media. Hussain was just a person, on her own personal page, commenting on something that happened during her day.

Is it possible that Facebook has become so widespread that regulations need to be established within organizations to ensure employees are using it appropriately? Could it be that our freedom of speech is about to be met with even more limits? Well I certainly hope not. While Facebook is credited with the power to connect us all, it seems that it also has the power to disconnect us and rupture our communication.

Students, professionals, employers beware, somebody somewhere is watching you so be careful with what you do, say or post.

Photo Source: jelene

As Twitter Shuts down, The Truth Comes Out

By Kathleen Mongero

Just when a recent study by the folks over at LinkedIn and Harris Interactive had branded social media sites such as Twitter an “ineffective marketing tool” based on lack of U.S. consumer interest in the Web site, the blasphemous words caused the gods to part the skies and send a message of wrath from above.  On August 6, the world froze in horror as they failed to log on to favorite social media sites, mainly Twitter, due to a “denial of service attack” caused by hackers.  The alleged Russian-based cyber assaults left the online community baffled as to how they were going to get to the bottom of the Twitter mystery without consulting Twitter, and forced them to resort to prehistoric methods of gathering news and information such as media outlet Web sites, television – and dare I say– the newspaper.

If anyone is in the mood to join the debate about consumer interest in social media, now is the time.  Evidence of the impact that the 5-hour tweetless eternity had on the public is being made clear through news reports, the popular topics hashtag #whentwitterwasdown and the blogosphere with post titles like “The Day The Social Media Stood Still.” If you look closely, the August 6 events actually served as a true revelation of what social media has come to mean to people, and how reality contradicts the current critics.

We know about the networking aspect, being able to connect with more people and getting a glimpse at those we only get to see on TV or read about in magazines.  What is less examined is the fact that these outlets have come to provide us all with another measure of self-worth and importance.  The integration of that personal aspect presented by this new form of two-way transparent communication is the marketing tool – not the social media Web sites themselves.  As we found out this week, people invest hours each day building and maintaining relationships using resources such as Twitter.  As a result, which business do you think is going to build the better relationship with their consumers; organizations like news networks that give its publics 30-second periods of fame each night when they feature local tweets on primetime TV, or the company that only allows you to contact them through their controlled feedback form via their Web site? What’s more, who does not think that direct, honest and timely feedback from consumer interactions is more effective than taking the time to put together surveys with questionable validity and the risk of poor response rates?

Companies have entire departments dedicated to finding the most effective ways to reach their audiences, and even as it is handed to them with a bow on top, some still refuse to accept it.  Most of what we hate about marketing and advertising is the fact that it feels inhuman and impersonal, however, outlets like Twitter and Facebook are revolutionizing the tired salesman act  by allowing organizations to  interact with their consumers through the creation of content and reawaken their motivation.  Instead of looking at a company’s use of social media as a mere marketing attempt, we are all being forced to look at the bigger picture.  Sure, social media betters your brand by participating in conversations online, but it also builds a brand relationship and allows you to get valuable information from and about your consumers – did I mention it was free?

“Changing Of The Guard” Spells New Frontier For Next Generation Of PR Pros

This post has been brewing for quite some time but recent events in the tech world have finally got my fingers moving on the keyboard.  Both social media and open source are red hot topics right now.  Companies embracing the technology of open source code and the community of social networking are on the rise.  The battle lines are being drawn and the old guard (read: Microsoft)  won’t give in easily.

On one side, we have Microsoft, Apple and other companies that see the future of computing as being program-based.  This is the cash cow model.  Create a program people are willing to purchase and provide licenses (did you know you don’t actually own your copy of Windows?).  It is the control of the source code that provides the value but it comes with a host of problems:

1. Time to market- Only employees can work on the code.  This is time consuming and lends itself to a lot of coding problems that cannot be easily fixed.
2. Loss of Control – Pirating of licenses and software is common place.  It costs money and significant manpower trying to police and challenge software being used illegally (this goes for the RIAA as well).
3. Value Issues - If a similar product on the market is free individual users will likely use the free product.  This is a bit different in business because organizations still largely rely on paid software.

On the other side we have open source and social media.  The best new media applications rely on open source code.  A company builds a web-based program or service and releases it out to public (or at the very least an API).  If the idea is good enough, coders from the open source community will identify uses for the web-based application beyond the original intentions of the developer (Twitter is a perfect example). By following this model, companies are more agile, can bring a product or service to the market much quicker and have a true value proposition to present to individuals and businesses.

It should come as no surprise than that companies like Google and Red Hat who are building services (some paid) using open source code are killing it, even in a down economy.  The basic question on the future of computing is web-based apps vs. traditional programs and for my money, I think the web-based apps are going to win.  If the web-based apps win out so do social media and open source.

So what does this have to do with PR?  Well, a lot, actually.  Public relations, at its core, is all about communicating effectively and relationships.  Social media relies on the open source community to be relevant and agile in identifying needs and creating products and services to fill the needs.  In turn, the best social media websites and apps foster collaboration, communication and building relationships.  If you are a student interested in a career in PR, marketing or advertising its worth getting started on a few social networks and it is worth taking a basic HTML class.  A bit of underlying knowledge will go a long way in the high tech future of PR.

In a blatant @chrisbrogan end of post rip-off…  What do you think?

As a college student who has spent the last four years of her life toiling over the subject matter of Communication Theory and various public relations courses handed down by prestigious and respected former members of the media, I was faced with contradicting feelings of disheartenment and hope after reading a Tom Foremski article suggesting that the old PR model is dead.

The reasoning behind this statement is rooted in the very trend that has crazed the 21st century to begin with — social media. The problem, according to Foremski, is that many PR agencies are not adjusting their visions to coincide with the new digital business world. Sure, they have all hired young, desperate, tech-savvy college graduates to deal with the chaos of the ever-expanding world of social media, but it is not enough. Here are a few basic points about the current evolution of the PR world that will take the implementation of some digital Darwinism:

To begin, all media is social media. There should be no distinction between the two and everyone should be an expert in it. Who in your PR firm is responsible for handling “social media” and networking sites for the firm itself and its clients? The answer should be, to at least some degree, everyone.

Secondly, firms need to get cozy with the concept of measuring outcomes, not outputs. As Foremski points out, “so what if you e-mailed 50 journalists today?” How many of them actually showed interest through a response? This tactic of output-only is going to hurt many firms in the new era, where PR gurus predict that charging by a monthly retainer is a thing of the past and will soon be taken over by a project-by-project model.

On a related note, using newswires to put out press releases has been proved to be outdated – once again, output-focused. The people in your firm should be doing two things: contacting journalists and others directly and on a regular basis, and figuring out how to drive traffic to news stories and client Web sites.

Over the next several weeks, Foremski will be watching all of us in the PR world closely for signs of change and reporting his findings through his blog. Check it out for the latest PR topics.

Photo via Flickr/Intersection Consulting

Something Is Technically Wrong. (Duh!)

Looking back through recent posts, I realize that many of them have discussed some aspect of Twitter.  This post is no different, except that I will be griping instead of singing Twitter’s praises.

I am tired of all the “fail whales” (#fail) and “Something is technically wrong” messages!  Everyone is thrilled with Twitter because of the interesting conversations and interactions that take place there.  To quote from, well, someone (I can’t find the video),  “Twitter as a platform sucks!  There are no options and it’s always breaking.  The value is in the conversations and relationships.”

So, Twitter administrators, I beg you to please be aware – you need to stabilize your platform!  We understand that you have grown by 1382% this year and that there are growing pains, but waiting two months for a response from customer service or not being able to upload a custom background for two weeks is unacceptable!  Please hire some more people or delete some of the spam accounts to return customer service and technical difficulties to an acceptable level.

As I re-read the last two paragraphs, I feel as though this post is shaping up to be one long rant, and I’m not sure that’s the intent here.  There are many good things happening on Twitter!  Money is being raised for charity, people are spreading the word about Amber Alerts and countless acts of kindness occur everyday due to Twitter.  Karma and paying it forward are a large part of the Twitter experience.  Ultimately, you can’t expect the company’s exponential growth to develop roadbump-free — to some degree, Twitter has been in a constant “startup” phase. When technical difficulties foil an otherwise excellent Twitter experience, everyone loses. When it happens often, people get frustrated.

P.S.  If you work for Twitter, please don’t delete our account (@MMIAssociates).  Thanks!

What do you think?  Please tell us with a comment.

Related articles by MMI and Zemanta

• Customer Service: Why a Twitter Presence is a Necessity | The Lost Jacket (tsurch.com)
• Twitter is currently down for unscheduled maintenance (chrisabraham.com)
• Twitter Gets A TV Commercial For Free As New Users Get Their First Taste Of Fail Whale (techcrunch.com)

Skittles Experiments with Twitter

In what many have dubbed a giant social experiment, Skittles changed their website last week into a glorified Twitter feed. The branding scheme relinquished any control Skittles had over their brand, allowing users to post comments or tweets directly onto their homepage.

In the end the experiment “failed” and Skittles took changed their homepage first to their Facebook page, then to their Wikipedia page.  The Twitter feed is still available on the Skittles site but it is no longer the homepage.  It is difficult for me to call the branding decision a failure.  Why? It was a bold move for such a large brand to make and while the implimentation was not spectacular, the idea was so kudos to Skittles for the courage to try something new and for starting a new conversation.

It is clear that social media and online branding will be a big part of any company’s marketing and public relations in the future, and Skittles’ social experiment, whether hit or miss, may just have been a bit ahead of the curve.

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.