“I don’t know what Facebook is going to look like a week from now because, you know, we move pretty fast,“ said Andrew Noyes, public policy communications, Facebook, at the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA-NCC) event on the Changing Landscape of Social Media. The tools we use now are ever changing and new tools and platforms are always emerging.
Panelist Ricky Choi, social media strategist for LivingSocial, reminded the audience, “Social media should be visual, personal and conversational.” He noted that social media will be a better marketing tool than email in three to five years and that social media engagement is the sum of interaction and content. Communicators should try to include context without being salesy.
The evolution of the media is happening, but questions remain regarding the best way to translate personal use to the big picture, Noyes reiterated. Choi suggested more education as one possible solution. Facebook is trying to educate younger users on how to be good digital citizens and understand that reputation is important. The social media giant is working with outside thought leaders to encourage people to use their privacy settings effectively. (more…)
We were all saddened about the passing of visionary Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, last week. (Apple, Inc. is a BurrellesLuce client.) His creative innovation will continue to affect us for generations to come. I once saw him “in real life” (IRL) at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA. Of course, it was in passing, but my husband still thinks it was the coolest celebrity sighting I have ever had. It may have been.
Many of the posts were posted via Apple products, and the re-tweeting of this fact, probably helped to stall Twitter. There were several trending words and hashtags, but the most poignant was #iSad.
Some of my favorite posts were:
@Peter_Max: Remembering Steve Jobs 4 more than computers & iPhones. His concern for the environment & the idea to Think Different were his true gifts!
@libbykober: “Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple” #RIPSteveJobs
@wobiwan: Three apples changed human life; Adam’s apple, Newton’s apple and the Steve Job’s apple. #RIPSteveJobs #iSad
@ladygaga: From his own invention I open my browser to it’s homepage. Today it took my breath away. #ThankYouSteve. Going to eat Apples all day.
@claiirebearclaiirebear: My life has been changed and impacted by a man i’ve never met. Such dedication and brilliance. RIP. #ThankYouSteve
@rene: #ThankYouSteve for all the products you’ve made for Apple. I can’t live without my iPhone 4, iPad 2, & Other products. RIP Steve Jobs! #iSad
@Vegas__Paul: Steve Jobs: born out of wedlock, put up for adoption, dropped out of college, then changed the world. What’s your excuse #thankyousteve
@debhalasz: All I know is 10 years ago we still had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope, and Johnny Cash and now we have no Jobs, no Hope, and no Cash. #isad
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and I’m here at the PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference. I’m here with Keith.
Keith, will you please introduce yourself?
KEITH BURTON: I’m Keith Burton. I’m with Inside Edge, and our company is an internal communications global consultancy.
BURKE: Great. Keith, you just did a session on helping PR professionals manage their career. For those people that can’t be here, could you give a couple of those tips on the next steps they need to take to be able to effectively manage their career?
BURTON: Happy to do it, Johna. It’s a huge topic and one that I’m asked about regularly. I made the point that today we have more intern candidates than we’ve ever had in our history of our business. We have about 800 candidates that normally come in, as an example, in the entry level to the Chicago office of Golin Harris, which is our firm, as a part of Inside Edge in the work that we do. And in addition to that, we have a lot of mature professionals who’ve been in the business beyond those who are emerging, who are looking for advice on their career development today. And I tell them all the same thing, it starts first and foremost by understanding that we live in a world today where our clients expect us to be more strategic. So that means we have to go beyond what we know about the craft that we practice, the disciplines that we work in, and understand how those discipline—this discipline influences the work that is being done in organizations.
We’re here with the travel/tourism section of PRSA and, you know, my conversation today focused around work that they may do in their outreach to communities that are served by the companies that they are a part of, understanding how to reach those consumers in new ways. So being smart inside of the organization and outside by looking at a more strategic focus as opposed to simply doing what we’re asked to do is a very important part of managing your career. Also, giving back into communities. I say often when I look at men and women who are coming in as candidates, I first look at their resume and see what did they do on the college campus? What did they do in their communities in terms of their volunteerism? Are they showing leadership there? If they’re doing those things, it really in my mind establishes them as someone that I’d like to talk to before I may talk to other candidates. Doing the basics well. Being a good writer, being able to understand how our profession is changing and, frankly, the new tools that are being brought into it with Web 2.0 now being an active part of our profession for many years, but how that will evolve in support of some of the classic things that we do with event management, for example, in media relations. So, you know, doing the basics well, being able to demonstrate leadership, certainly being more strategic as both the business case for PR under the PRSA model will demonstrate for us, and then above and beyond that, knowing how our discipline will change in the future and how we can help our clients be smarter in those in our organizations that we serve, be smarter in their work.
BURKE: Great. And where can people find you on the web, Keith?
BURTON: www.insidedge.net, and that’s insidedge spelled with one “E” between the “inside” and the “edge.” Also, I have a blog that’s a part of our work known as Intake that they’ll find on that insidedge.net site.
