Social Media & PR

I have genuinely enjoyed taking this course online this summer. I have found a lot of the assignments relevant and useful as well as enjoyable. Social media is always something I have been involved with since I joined AIM and Facebook “back in the day.” I love to communicate with friends and share my interests as well as observe what is going on in other people’s lives. After taking this class I have learned new ways as to how social media is emerging, and how to market future clients and myself through various social mediums.

Social media is important in Public Relations because it is a platform that allows ourselves to communicate our identity and share our interests with the world. It is important from a PR professional standpoint to know how to both represent and market your client. Social media will help gain optimal awareness for your client. It has been interesting to follow a client during this course and take note of strengths and weaknesses the client may have.

Social media is used every day and can be used to campaign for any client of yours or yourself. Social media is a tool that can enhance public relations effectively. We have been taught effective ways through this class and it has been interesting to know and practice those ways. 

I plan to keep the Twitter account I created for this class. I had created one about a year ago for a previous public relations course, however I deleted it because I didn’t set the account to private and I had followers I didn’t want on the account. I think any professional account should be kept private as to why I made this one private. I enjoy my personal Twitter account more though, and I share more personal tweets there. I think I will keep the account for this class around until I graduate college. If I am not using it much I may delete it. I just mainly enjoy my personal Twitter. However, I intend to keep my blog and try and post about different things. I have learned to enjoy blogging through this course and hope to keep it up.

Online Activism

Social mediums are a powerful way to promote a cause or get people involved in something. Social media allowed for voices to be heard over a large audience. I personally have not participated in any type of movement online. I have joined groups, “liked” pages, and promoted people/places/organizations I like and am involved with. However, I have not actually been a part of a movement. 

I think is it easy for social media users to join a movement online. That I believe is most of the reason as to why. It is so simple for people to join movements online by just the click of a button. Whether it is a like, share, comment, today it is extremely easy to instantly become part of a movement via social media.

In the future, I can see myself becoming part of a movement. Until now I have not come across one that appeals to me that I feel like I need to be a part of online. I do use social media to express myself but I try to do it in moderation. Unless it was something I feel extremely strong about, I’m not going to join it and promote it online. Joining movements allow organizations to grow and gain awareness. If a movement pertains to a certain organization, I think it is great for the organization online.

Examples like the Invisible Children and KONY movements on Facebook have become global. These are huge movements that have grown thanks to social media. A simple trend on twitter can snowball into a movement. 

Social Media Oops

Shutterfly is a popularly used website to create greeting cards and other related items. They have a large mailing list that they are responsible for and being in charge of that is a big job. Due to the unfortunate “oops” in the company, they received a lot of flack from customers. This was expected and is expected behavior of those living in this age and social media booming. 

Shutterfly was able to publicly apologize via Twitter and e-mail for the oops in the system. I think the apology was appropriate and meaningful. However, I think Shutterfly should have handled the matter same-day rather than next-day. I’m not exactly sure how you handle a situation like this within a company and how many people you have to go through to get an apology created, approved, and sent out. Although, I feel like this still could have been handled same-day. They could have also apologized to individual users via Twitter depending on how many tweets they received on Wednesday/Thursday.

An apology is always necessary when an oops or glitch occurs in the business. I think Shutterfly handled it well, but it could have been slightly better. 

Social Media & TV

Using social media regarding TV shows is a great way to gain publicity and awareness of the broadcast. I remember first noticing a hashtag at the bottom of the screen while watching a show on TLC. It a great way for TV shows to connect with their fans and create a larger fan base.

I have engaged in live tweeting before. I simply tweet a comment about the show that is on, and complete my tweet with the show’s hashtag or other trending hashtag regarding the TV show. It creates instant publicity for the show and gets your followers involved. Tweeting is a huge promotional outlet for TV shows, and it’s free! My friends can indulge in the show via tweeting and we can share our opinions. A huge part of ABC’s Scandal success was to social media and Twitter. My friends and I tweet a lot about Scandal! I probably tweet 5-10 times during each showing.

Unfortunately, I have never personally received a response tweet from a celebrity. I wish I could say I have but I haven’t, yet! I tweet celebrities probably once every two weeks just to share a compliment or ask a question. I have friends and family members that have received tweets from celebrities. I follow celebrities from my favorite TV shows (Scandal, One Tree Hill, Friday Night Lights). I also follow some of my favorite musical artists (Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Zayn Malik). Most of whom I follow and who follows me are friends.