Something a little different

Something a little different

So while doing my daily check of news events on CNN I found this great piece in the Tech section.
Something a little different in the social media world: Reality Tweeting. Mark Horvath, was once a high paid executive in California. However, he quickly turned homeless drug addict. After finally getting clean, he realized he needed to do something with his life so he roamed homeless tent cities all over and documented his experience via the web on his twitter stream @HardlyNormal.
His Bio section reads "Just a hardly normal guy trying to navigate through an abnormal world by helping others." All by spreading the word through social media. His Twitter brings awareness to issues about poverty and homelessness. It also tells of homeless people he has met. Sad truths in the world today. Twitter informs us of daily events, new products, people's mundane life updates, I'm happy to see it can also keep people updated on the not so great parts of the world and hopefully inspire people to do something about it.
Mark also takes his advocacy a step further. He tapes homeless people's stories and puts them on this website. To put a face to a story has so much more impact. These people are part of our community. Most have just hit a rough patch and are in need of a little help. Mark Horvath is trying to get people to notice that through this new thing hip thing called social media.

My Use of Twitter this Weekend and Other Things

This weekend, the organization I am working for our PR Writing Project held is largest event of the year, its fashion show. This year I wanted to implement something new, something that would allow for a greater audience and something that would allow a lot of interactivity, and my answer was Twitter. So for the show, I used our Twitter account to give updates of the happenings of the show, and used Twitter to provide links to photos that I posted online so that I someone who was not at the show and wanted to be there, could at least see what was happening. I thought my Twitter experiment was successful but could use some work. For the success part, I did get tweets throughout the show, ranging from asking questions to compliments of the production. As in Twitter fashion I would respond promptly to them. In addition, our charity, The Wisconsin Humane Society was a follower of my Twitter account and re-tweeted everything that I posted. In terms of what I would change is that I would have liked a lot more follower. I was not given control of the account till about two weeks before the show, and they had their Twitter account sent to private and that they had to accept you as follower. When I was given control there were about 20 people who were waiting to be accepted as a follower.

On another note, there was a death in the Marquette Community this weekend. Since last week, we talked a lot about crisis communication, I think this would be an example of such. How do you think Marquette has been handling the event?

And the winner is..........

SUETheTRex . Sue has the best Twitter I have ever seen. Sue is the largest, most complete T-Rex skeleton ever discovered. She lives at the Chicago Field Museum and I really can't get enough of her Twittering. The main reasons I love her Tweets?

1. Sue gives me updates about her life, like what she did that day or who came to see her. And a T-Rex's daily life is never boring.

2. Sue is funny. Whether is be her joking about her short arms or loving meat. Her Tweets always make me laugh.

3. The links she post are actually interesting. Like this one. And this one.

4. Sue makes me want to go see her at the Museum. I have actually seen before I started following her. She was cool then but now, even cooler. I can't wait to go back.

5. I imagine some 20 something PR girl writing these every day. She must have so much fun thinking like a T-Rex. It makes me want a job where I can Tweet all day. I never thought I would say that.

So when it comes to Tweeting, it doesn't all have to be informative, or selling a product, building your network, or showing off your stuff. Sometimes it can just be fun and entertaining, nothing more than that. This is the type of Twitter I like.

Does anyone else have fun Twitterers you follow?

jenny

How great is social media?

My daily routine for getting on the internet:
Facebook
Email
CNN
Twitter (ever since we had to for class)
Perezhilton.com
So while browsing CNN I saw an article on social media and class. Check it out here. After reading it it got me thinking. How affective is Facebook advertising, blogs, Twitter, Myspace. Certain demographics tend to be on Facebook and a different demographic is on MySpace, according to the article. Like any other way of advertising or getting media attention, you have to be aware of who you are reaching. I think the hard part of social media is that people assume everyone is a part of it. While I am part of the world that checks Facebook and Twitter daily, others are not. Maybe your key audience doesn't even know how Twitter works!
The point is, like with many other things, it sounds wonderful. A quick way to reach millions of people quickly, but according to this it is a very specific type of people. PR, advertisers, and marketers should be aware of the type of social media they use and the people they are going to be reaching. You might not be getting to all different demographics you want.

My One Year Twitter Anniversary

As a fairly active Twitter user (paigemichele), I did not have any problem tweeting for class. And to evaluate my past two weeks on Twitter, I decided to go about it from a third party stance. I found an article on Twitter etiquette by Fast Company, a magazine dedicated to entrepreneurs written by blogger/ PR agency CEO Norman Birnbach. There are tons of articles on Twitterquette but I felt Birnbach's really encompassed a wide variety of Twitter topics.

Read Birnbach's article here.

Where I dropped the ball was number 8.1 "Do not use 'I am.'"
I am finally reading the @mutribune and excited to see they printed Baucus' name... yes I am a nerd
I am wearing my favorite pashmina in hopes it will brighten my day
Tweets are supposed to answer the question "What are you doing," and Birnbach believes its a given that you are doing something, hence no need to say "I am." I understand where he is coming from, but out of normal conversational English, most people would start their sentences with this phrase.

I am happy to say that according to these 10 rules, I did excelled at 6. quality over quantity(A great team RT @MUSG: off-campus Senators are Bill Doerrer, Kate Gregory, Kevin Lefeber, Carly Nusser, & Holly Peterson) , 7. interesting links (Question would you pay a tax on pop? @adage American Beverage Association Launches Campaign Against Soda Tax: ttp://bit.ly/2mSDRR) and number 4. stream of consciousness tweets (most of the time).

I am closing in on my one year anniversary of my Twitter account and have passed my 1,000 tweet while sitting in Gee's class. It has been a long year and my motives for Twitter have changed from testing it out, to using it for news sources and finally using it to search for a job. I am a Twitteraholic, but I did not start that way. I have learned two things from Twitter that I would like to share.
1. It takes time to adjust your Twitter account to what you want to see come of it.
2. "Facebook is where I connect with people I know, Twitter is where connect with people I want to know." ( I stole this from different tweets)

Dear Twitter....

Dear Twitter,

How I love thee. You keep me informed of things I never even know existed, direct me to sites I've never seen before, and communicate with all different types of people. I'm currently following people around the country, from my class, friends, groups, you name it. The quality posts left by these people excite me. I can sit and follow these people and their links all day. In fact, last night you distracted me from studying for WAY to long. But man, was I loving you last night. The things I learn about PR, new products, the news, and everyday happenings of people make me feel like part of the loop. I love being able to share things I have seen and heard about or done with my friends. The things you have done for PR are remarkable. Once something is on Twitter, it spreads like wildfire, which is usually good for us PR folk. You amaze me with the power you have over our lives. You are able to suck us in, convincing us to constantly check for updates from our favorite Tweeters. Most of the time I don't get why you work so well, how people have time to Tweet so much, posting such interactive Tweets, but its better to not ask questions in situations like these. Please don't stop amazing me. With me, you, and the rest of the world together, I know we can do great things.

Love Jenny.


Dear Twitter,
Oh how I hate you. Who has time to constantly check Twitter for updates and links. I have so many other things to do, but for some reason you think it's important for me to hang out with you for hours on end. It's like I can't get away from you. Everyone who's anyone has a Twitter. They want you to know everything they have seen, done, and heard all day, every day. Who cares? I don't want to know what you had breakfast, or that you're sitting in class. Sometimes the Tweets people tweet relating to interesting websites and posts on the internet are good, but then I get sucked in. I end up spending WAY to much time surfing the 'net because of you. You will probably be the reason for my poor test grades this week. Are you going to make it up to me somehow?
To be recognized, to get a job, to sell an idea, I have to have you? What happened to good old face to face contact? What happened to tradition interviews and resumes? What happened to regular word of mouth and email.
I don't want my future boss to have to read about my daily doings. I don't even want to have to read that. Please stop making me feel like I have to be a part of you. I want out of this relationship but you are making it very hard. Maybe someday we can be friends, but not just yet.

Jenny.

My Twitter Experience...So Far

I LOVE Twitter. When I first got Twitter last semester I hated it, and I deactivated my account after only 3 hours. (True story, ask Paige! haha.) BUT, now that I have started using Twitter more frequently I have come to value the benefits that it brings.

The first benefit that I have experienced from using Twitter is staying in contact with my friends throughout the day. Sending a quick tweet to a friend takes just a few seconds, and it's very easy to reach many people in a short amount of time. Part of this positive experience has been having the convenience of having twitter on my phone. Now I can send my friends a message when I'm on the go.

I have also used Twitter to tweet my thoughts, ideas and complaints. I am a big fan of quotes (especially Story People) and I tweet them frequently. The quotes I tweet usually reflect my mood. I also find myself complaining on Twitter. Haha. Just today I tweeted to @MarquetteU about construction noise in my classroom and they responded to me wanting to know where my classroom was. This could mean good (or bad) news for customer service! A friend of mine tweeted about her cable not working and the lack of response from the company. They contacted her after seeing her tweet and fixed the problem that day!

I love Twitter!

Twitter!

The class Twitter assignment taught me a lot about the many uses of social media. People may assume that social media outlets, like Facebookor Twitter, are simply fads used by the younger generation to keep in touch or share stories, etc. This assignment really opened my eyes, though, and now it's clear that social media tools can be used for much more. From spreading the word about fashion blogs to learning about internships to following your favorite sports figure, Twitter allows people to keep up with news and sports and just about anything or anyone else you can think of.

I found it difficult to make time to Tweet essentially four times a day. I mean, I'm a student and I'm swamped, so I'm impressed by all those who are able to keep on top of things. And, "expert tweeters," all those people who really make connections and grab attention with Twitter, are even more impressive. Plus, given the limited number of characters (140- that's less than a text!), you really need to make what you say count for something.

I think what most people don't realize is that sites like these are probably here to stay. Social media is not a fad. It's amazing that people can troll for jobs or promote a company on Twitter, but it's happening! Now that I'm more aware of these benefits it will be easier to use them to my advantage. I look forward to seeing where Twitter will take us!

Twitter, PitchEngine, LinkedIn...Oh My!

I am very pleased with the various social media sites we were introduced to this semester in Gee's class. I feel our experience with them has put us a step ahead of others in our field who have not interacted with them as frequently or at all. I was not sold on Twitter in the beginning. However, after continued use it has grown on me! I am also finding use in reading others' 'tweets' ... constantly updated news as well as Marquette news. Regarding PitchEngine, I enjoyed using this site. It was especially exciting when I noticed the other day that my social media release received over 13o views! And finally, I know we didn't LinkedIn in this class, it was Gee who introduced many students to this site. I have found great benefit in posting a profile on there, and I will continue using it during the remainder of my college experience and then into my professional career

Negative PR in advertising travels fast online

This article discusses how negative PR for advertising travels fast by using online sites like Twitter. The article discusses how Dr. Pepper said they would give a free Dr. Pepper to every American if Guns 'N Roses released their new album Chinese Democracy. They failed to do so and people spread the news around by using online blogging sites.

The article goes on to mention that this is true for any industry. Using online blogger sites like Twitter, help spread good news as well as bad news. It seems that negative publicity always travels faster than positive because negative publicity is more interesting to people.

There are also more examples of how negative PR for advertising spreads faster through bloggers. They go on to mention the Motrin ad campaign as well as others.

Online blogging is definatly the wave of the future in terms of spreading news and keeping in touch with people. This article just goes on to show the power that online bloggers have.

Twitter

Using twitter has been an interesting experience. It is a great tool to get information out to a lot of people at one time and I wish more people knew about it. As I was using Twitter, you definatly have a wide variety of people using it. For those who use it as a professional tool, it is a great way to spread information about their jobs and what they do.



I think that more people should use Twitter because it is a good way to advertise for their business or get out information about a cause. Twitter could be an important part of the future for PR as well. It is an easy way to tell people to check out what is new with a client or to share new product information.

The only thing that bugged me about Twitter was the people that update every second of the day. I got really annoyed when my whole screen was convered in posts from one or two people. I think that some people have too much time on their hands.

Overall this was a good experience and I will continue to use Twitter.

Marquette Joins Twitter

I know we talked about how Marquette joined Twitter in class but the Marquette Tribune wrote an article about it.  They talk about the advantages Twitter could have for the University.  It could alert everyone on campus to an emergency or to events that are going on.  I think Twitter could be a valuable asset to the University if it is utilized.