Using Twitter for Business

In research class we were asked to read 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business by Chris Brogan. This piece was very helpful because it gave me ideas of how I can engage myself into the social media world. Almost every high school and college student has set up or seen a MySpace or Facebook account, but really that is one small branch of social media. I feel that Twitter gives any person interested, a chance to belong to a community individuals, where you can discuss and learn from each other. From a business standpoint, it allows a company to follow, read and react to positive or negative images cast on the business. It also allows you to follow competitors.

Mr. Brogan split up the 50 ideas into sections. The first section discussed the steps to take in order to get started. Of the 10, I felt these were most important:

• Listening always comes first.
• Build an account and start searching for your name, your competitors names and words that relate to your space.
• Share links of things you or your followers may benefit from.

The next section gave ideas for things to tweet about.

• Instead of answering the question, "What are you doing?", answer the question, "What has your attention"?
• Ask questions. Twitter is a great place for opinions.
• Follow interesting people and see who they are following. Then follow those people as well.
• Re-tweet others material. If you thought it was useful, chances are someone else will too.
• When you do tweet your own material, make it useful by giving advice, posting blogs and offering pictures.

In every social media networking site you will find positives and negatives. You have to weigh both to see if they will benefit you. Here are a few positives Brogan discussed.

• Twitter can help organize meetings and can direct people's attention to good things.
• Twitter can break news faster than other sources.
• Twitter brings great minds together (depending on the people you follow) and gives you daily opportunities to learn.

Although many feel that twitter has no negatives, the naysayers of twitter feel that it takes time. People may feel twitter takes away from other productive work.

I thought this article really opened my eyes and made me think of twitter in a different way. When I was first introduced to the site, I felt it was a place that I would tell people I don't even know, what I am doing. It didn't really appeal to me until I realized all the other capabilities and learning opportunities it had to offer. If I can offer one piece of advice about twitter, it would be to sign up and search for stuff that interests you. Take a dive into the endless pool of knowledge and see what you find.

Women and Spirituality Conference

MANKATO, Minn. - Minnesota State University, Mankato will host the 28th Annual Women and Spirituality Conference on Oct. 31 in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom.

The Keynote speaker is Dr. Vandana Shiva, who is described by Time Magazine as an "environmental hero." She will discuss "The Gendered Politics of Food," beginning at 11 a.m.

Shiva founded Navdanya, a national Indian-based movement to protect resources and promote organic farming. She is the author of many books including, "The Violence of Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology, and Politics," "Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology," and "Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply."

The conference includes more than 100 workshops and discussions exploring a variety of topics.

For more information on the conference and the workshops, visit MSU's Gender and Women Studies Web site.

Blogger Relations

Blogger relations is an important aspect of social media because bloggers and readers feed off of each other. While reading "Blogger Relations is a Two-Way Street," a guest post by Tamar Weinberg on Brian Solis's PR 2.0, I began to think about how I could approach my own blogspot.

I feel a relationship is essential because it allows you the chance to update viewers with new information immediately. The free flow of information and the endless learning opportunities create the two-way street between the blogger and the reader.

Blogger relations is also important because you are competing for the readers time. You need to create new, organized work to attract a large following. Keeping up to date with the news and social media tools will allow you to produce unique, relevant and credible information which will only strengthen the relationship between the blogger and the reader.

I feel the most important message was provided in Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge's book "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations." Blogger relations is all about people and relationships, and sometimes the greatest influencers are those who are already among the customers you hope to reach.

Traditional and New Skills/Attributes for PR Professionals

The evolution of Public Relations is inevitable. The article "14 Key Skills and Attributes For New Public Relations Professionals" was interesting and helpful. I liked the breakdown between traditional and new skills because it discussed where we are now and where we are going as PR Professionals.

I feel the traditional skills we all have are most important. Writing and communication skills are key because that is the "cornerstone" of our careers. Written and verbal communication skills are very basic but very important.

I think it is great that we are blogging, using social networking tools and learning how to use RSS readers. Each of these are going to be essential tools in our PR careers. Take the time to learn about each one of these tools and you will be a step ahead.

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations

Currently in Research we are reading a book called, "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations" by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge. They discuss what is wrong with PR and how we can fix it. "PR is evolving quickly, from the technology used, to the changing market dynamics, to the increased demands and empowerment for the twenty-first-century consumer," Solis and Breakenridge said. I feel that the evolution of Social Media has giving us the opportunity to network more and reach a wider audience.

I really liked the chapter, Traditional vs. New Journalism. In this chapter they discussed how traditional journalism is fading away and opening a gate for new journalism. Journalist are not searching for news as much these days because technology has allowed everyday citizens to capture news for them.

The chapter, "PR is About Relationships," was also interesting. I liked this chapter because it talks about how PR is about building relationships. Building relationships is extremely important because in PR, people need people. PR influences consumers and consumers influence PR.

"PR is evolving into a hybrid of communications, evangelism, and Web marketing, strung together by the teachings and benefits of sociology, anthropology, and psychology."

The Classy vs The Classless

I read an article on mashable.com titled, "300,000 Kanye West Tweets Interrupt Twitter." I thought this article was interesting because I happened to be watching the VMA's when Kanye "BIGHEAD" West interrupted Taylor Swift as she was thanking everyone for her VMA. He felt that Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time and felt everyone should know. His ego is bigger than Radio City and his mouth is even bigger. If there is anything that I learned from that situation, it was that being humble shines more than being egotistical. Later that night, one of musics biggest stars, Beyonce, received the award for "Video of the Year." She really impressed me when she invited Taylor Swift up on stage to continue her thank you speech. That was a great way to turn that situation around and a very classy thing for Beyonce to do.

Ethics in PR

Today in class we discussed ethics. One area we covered the most was PR research. There are five rules that all PR practitioners need to follow in order to complete a successful research project. I feel the main message dealt with confidentiality. If the research isn't kept confidential, you probably won't have many people willing to participate. You will also lose credibility as a reliable source for information. Another topic we talked about dealing with confidentiality was in the work place. If your boss or supervisor came to you asking for confidential information involved with the research you have done, what would your response be. I feel the best way to get out of that situation would be to turn the question around on them. Ask them the same question and put them in your shoes. Would they want you leaking confidential information about them? I think ethics is a touchy subject because I feel there is a big difference between the code of ethics PRSA follows and my personal code of ethics.

The machine is us/ing us

We watched a short YouTube video for class today and it was really interesting. I felt the fast pace of the video reflected how quickly the web has evolved. It took me through a virtual tour of many different applications that I didn't even know existed. There are so many ways to gather information on the Internet its amazing. I thought the most interesting point the video made was "we are the web." The fact that the web uses each click, search, post and tag to learn makes me think that it is only going to get smarter as it expands. You can run a business, talk to people on the other side of the world and buy almost anything at the click of a button. Whats next?

Social Media Revolution

Here is a video on the social media revolution.