5 thought provoking questions in relation to social media

1. In Deirdre Breakenridge's article PR 2.0, Brian Cross discusses how changes in technology will change the function of PR practitioners. In what ways do you think public relations will change and what role will PR professional's play in these changes?

Public relations is greatly affected by advancements in technology. It is a PR practitioners job to stay on top of these advancements, because these are the tools we need to succeed. Social media applications are introduced regularly, and it is our job to utilize the most effective ones, as they prove to be useful for reaching your target audience.

Mankind has always been involved in social networks, but it was not until the release of the copious amounts of online social communities that our networks became more prevalent. Therefore, as a PR practitioner, we have this great tool to reach a vast audience in a short amount of time. These social networks also enable us to take out the middle man- the media.




2. In Wikipedia: The Truth in Numbers the message seems to be: no longer do the victors write the history books, we do: you, me, and everyone else. How is social media (twitter, blogs) forwarding this idea? What gives someone authority to "write history" and why should we listen to them? Is there a hierarchy of authorities? ie. is what someone like Seth Godin says more important? What should be taken as canon?

Social media is something that we all have access to, and that a great number of us partake in on a daily basis, therefore we may all be contributing to history writing in a minimal sense. There is so much out there, that I do believe there has to be a hierarchy. However, I don’t believe that most of our ‘history’ through social media should be taken too seriously. There is far too much content out there that is irrelevant. It is our job to filter out what we believe to be irrelevant, and what is important.

3. McLuhan used a model with four elements surrounding the term MEDIUM. Touching on the four elements, describe how this model can help us in interpreting social media.

The four words in McLuhan’s model are: enhances, reverses, retrieves, obsolesces. We can further explore these words and relate them to social media.

Social media 'enhances' our personal brand, and enhances our communications levels. If you check out Microgeist, he breaks it down into seven areas that are enhanced by social media.

‘Reverse’ refers to social media consuming every moment of our days. Social media causes the line between personal life and work to blur.

It ‘retrieves’ by offering feedback, and acting as a two way line of communications.

Finally, social media 'obsolesces' because the notion of having a personal life kept personal is almost extinct.

4. Who is Jamie Zawinski? How is the role he played & are design principals he helped spread important to you?

Jamie W. Zawinski (born November 3, 1968 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), commonly known as jwz, is a former professional American computer programmer responsible for significant contributions to the free software projects Mozilla and XEmacs, and early versions of the Netscape Navigator web browser. He maintains the XScreenSaver project which provides screenblanking for Unix-like computer operating systems using the X Window System.

Zawinski is currently the proprietor of the DNA Lounge, a nightclub in San Francisco.

I don’t know a whole lot about being a programmer/hacker, but I’d assume that what he did paved the way for our ever so beloved social networks. I use Mozilla on a daily basis. And that is why jwz is a very important person.

5. What kind of conversational patterns can you expect to encounter using social media as a PR professional? What will consumers of your content expect? How can you level these expectations?

As a PR professional, and social media user, I can expect that conversations will be more succinct. With the various methods of communication readily available to us now, it is easier to multi-task, thereby making many small conversations. For ‘consumers of my content’ this means that I need to mean what I say, so I ensure that every tweet, wall post, blog, etc. is deep and meaningful.

BONUS! Who is the most successful Canadian public relations professional? What makes you say this?

I think that David Alston of Radian6 fame is the most successful PR professional. Maybe I'm biased because I am a fellow Frederictonian, or maybe I'm just saying this because I thoroughly enjoy his blog TweetPR. Or maybe it's because he is the VP of Relations for a company that does social media monitoring and analysis designed for PR agencies. Or maybe it's a combination of all of the above.