http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/ Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:13:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU hourly 1 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15492 Bill Sledzik Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:56:00 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15492 I can see value in knowing about the "most emailed" stories, as it tells editors which stories were strong enough to prompt us to share with friends and colleagues. It tells editors about what readers want, and that's useful information, and posting the stats could lead readers to "popular" stories they might not otherwise notice. That's smart marketing. With a publication as large as WSJ, it would be hard to perpetrate fraud. But if I'm a reporter at, say, the Louisville Courier-Journal, I might try to establish a broad network of friends and supporters who would post comments and email stories just to help me get a raise. If it works, beer -- or in the case of Kentucky, bourbon -- is on me. http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15491 Rich Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:32:08 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15491 Bill, Yes, agreed. I'm also suspicious of the WSJ publishing on the inside page of the Marketplace section the "most emailed stories." I, too, reacted to Chris' post. My point was probably similar to your reaction. While it was harsh in practice, it's up to us as PR leaders to educate the junior level staff. If we don't do our jobs on that front, we'll be just as guilty as the staffer who hits the send button. Rich http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15488 Bill Sledzik Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:18:52 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15488 That's useful insight, Rich, and I plan to follow up on that one point. I'm not much a student of media relations, as it ranked among my least favorite tasks when I was in the business (special events was at the bottom of that list). But I was not aware of the practice of compensating reporters based on reader reaction to stories. That's a horrible idea, as it opens the door to fraud and unethical behavior. It would be like rewarding bloggers for their Technorati ratings (which we essentially do). It leads to all sorts of shenanigans to attract links in a shameless ploy to build the authority number. It's why I don't do memes, but then again, no one ever invites me to, since my numbers are so low! As for the Chris Anderson case, I -- along with half the blogosphere -- <a href="http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/no-need-for-media-relations-not-when-you-make-the-blacklist/" rel="nofollow">weighed in on that one.</a> While I consider Chris's reaction to crappy news releases a bit extreme, it got the message across very, very clearly. As an aside, I just wish he'd redesign "Wired" so I could tell the difference between a story and an ad. It drives me nuts. http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15480 richkyoung Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:08:13 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15480 Hi Bill, Really interesting post. A couple of things to consider over the course of the next few months: - reporter compensation being turned on its head in the Web 2.0 world - the more emailed, or comments, the better they're compensated. it's all about entertainment in both the online and offline media world - a subset to the blogger relations should discuss the infamous Chris Anderson whack a flak post from Oct: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/sorry-pr-people.html - ironic that you're putting quite a bit of emphasis on the online newsroom and planning topic as it's an area we're working on with all of our clients - large and small. Rich http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15474 Bill Sledzik Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:53:59 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15474 Thanks, Randi. I had signed on to "Slide Share" back when it first began, but don't go back often. I'll link from UGAConnect. Rest assured, however, that we will offer a balanced view of social media. Great tool, but it can be dangerous. http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15472 Randi Mason Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:14:08 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15472 I'm sure you've been through the UGAConnect resources (http://ugaconnect.blogspot.com/); but you might not have seen a few of the Slide Share presentations on the topic: Brett Atwood's "Dangers of Blogging for PR Professionals" (http://www.slideshare.net/Brett509/pr-475-dangers-of-blogging-for-pr-professionals/) and Karen Russell's "Social Media for PR Students" (http://www.slideshare.net/KarenRussell/social-media-for-pr-students/"). Hope these are useful! http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15469 Bill Sledzik Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:21:09 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15469 You are right, Tim. We must cover all this material and more. Our challenge is to spread the content across all four of our "skills" related PR classes. And we must do it quickly -- a language our our mega-university bureaucracies don't speak. Love the idea of demonstrating social media to senior citizens. Just last week I tried to explain Facebook to my father, who will turn 80 this year. It is, as John Sebastian put it, "...like tryin' to tell a stranger about the rock n roll." Dad's a very smart guy, but social media simply are not in his frame of reference. Each year the students do seem more savvy when it comes to social media. They don't view it as a strategic tool, but, rather, a strictly "social" one, since that's all it's ever been to them. I also have noted a divide among the millenials -- those who were in high school or college when Facebook launched and those who were not. My 25-year-old son never had a Facebook page. My 22-year-old has over 600 friends in his network. What a difference 3 years makes. http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15464 Tim Shisler Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:54:37 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15464 Hey Bill, Great class you have there. As for thinking it’s too much—don’t. Entry-level jobs don’t know the phrase “too much,” and the Internet world changes so fast, that if you can’t comprehend it once, you most likely aren’t going to get it at all. One exercises that might help, is to bring in a group of senior citizens that have little to no experience with computers and the web. Pair them up with your students and have them get a hands on tutorial of blogs, Google and social networking sites. If the students can explain them quickly and simply they are sure to be able to pitch the idea to CEO’s and Account Managers. I would also stress, and this sounds doomsday but seems to be the case, that kids in high school know more then them and if they don’t adapt soon the jobs won’t be there in five years. I know you only have a semester, but after working in the entry-level PR world for 20 months I learned quickly clients listen to new media ideas first and then traditional ideas second. (Even if the traditional ideas were better) Anyhow, good luck and hope all goes well. http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15438 Bill Sledzik Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:17:01 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15438 Hi, Corinne. And thanks for your thoughts. As to ROI, we do address evaluation and measurement in this course, but we don't provide any real answers. As you point out, absence of solid metrics may be what is holding back social media efforts. But even gurus like Katie Paine are cautioning us not to be too "bottom line" in our view of SM. It's about relationships, and the metrics to gauge something so intangible are pretty soft. I'm still trying to get to Katie's book, but I'm swamped. We use Shel Holtz's "Blogging for Business" as our text, since it's a great how-to for the students and addresses key items. I like "Citizen Marketers," but if you read this blog you know <a href="http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/why-i-dont-trust-marketing/" rel="nofollow">my concern about defining PR as a "marketing" function.</a> It troubles me deeply. I also think we can draw a lot of the content and themes of "Citizen Marketing" and "New Influencers" by linking students to blog posts by the authors and others. We recommend Scoble & Israel's "Naked Conversations," but once again, much of that content can be introduced by linking students to online content. Not sure where to go with the video component. We have tons of expertise in broadcast production in our school, and I will find a way to tap it. http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15437 Corinne Weisgerber Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:54:42 +0000 http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/i-need-your-help-this-semester-so-chime-in/#comment-15437 Sounds like a great class! Your list of course topics looks like you're covering way more than the basics. What about metrics and measuring ROI in social media? It seems like the problem with measuring ROI is what's keeping quite a few organizations from embracing social media as a strategic PR tool. Do you have any textbooks you use for this class? I use Citizen Marketers and the New Influencers and therefore have a course segment where we discuss how to identify new influencers/citizen marketers. I guess that would fit under blogger/social media relations in your curriculum. I've had the same hesitations about including web video in a class that already seemed overwhelming and that didn't require video editing as a pre-requisite. That's why I introduced it as an extra-credit assignment last semester. I used iMovie to teach my students the basics of video editing and to make the learning curve less steep. It worked out really well. So well, I've turned it into a graded assignment this semester. Good luck with your class!