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Corporate social media during times of crisis or even just any negative social media in general, needs to not only be taken seriously but receive an individualized and personalized response to in order for it to be taken care of. In the article, "Social Media Can Damage Corporate Image" by Rick Nauert of Psych Central News, business's responses to these issues are not only cause of concern and interest to public relations practitioners but to he business world overall.


Public relations practitioners are extremely concerned with how negative social media can effect their PR efforts, but it is important to step back and also think of the lasting impact it has on the consumer and the reputation of the brand in general and not just to them specifically. Nauert makes valid points when he states, "negative messages created by victims significantly increased the negative reputation of an organization, and were more likely to result in boycotts against the organization than when it was sourced to unaffected individuals" in a study published by the University of Missouri. 


User-generated content is such a valued aspect of social media given its ability to offer the feature of feedback and for the brand to give a response based on their consumer's feedback. However, that valuable feature is lost and could ever turn sour when not responded to in an appropriate way. Although it is rarely acceptable to delete a post made by your audience (unless it is spam or irrelevant), sometimes it is absolutely crucial when the user is making obscene, violent or threatening comments. Unless the feedback going to an extreme like that, it is important to leave up all responses you or your client gets, even if it is negative, so other visitors can notice that not only do you respond in a timely matter but that you have the consumer's best interest in mind. 


By offering personalized responses to your visitors feedback encourages for more so take place, and provided that you appropriately respond to any negative outcry, encourages even more positive posts to be shared. 

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Business's social media outlets can become extensive to monitor for a public relations practitioner. However, constantly being in the know of what is being published about your client is essential for its social media success. Open forums and community edited pages, like Wikipedia for example, allow virtually anyone to publish something about your client, no matter how true or false it may be. 

Not only is is crucial for you to monitor websites like Wikipedia, it is equally as important to edit the content to make sure it is as accurate and truthful as possible. Since Wikipedia has only recently become recognized as a reliable website given its open forum nature, it is in everyone's best interest to keep it unbiased and accurate instead of creating content for your client that is not even true. 

Since Wikipedia and other open forum websites can be edited by anyone, they give visitors a sense of trust since it could have been created and written by a peer. By practicing effective public relations, you can edit and monitor a site like Wikipedia as it pertains to your client, while still using the voice and language of a consumer. 

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Producing viral social media campaigns is a challenging task. However, the most difficult aspect is creating something with potential to be easily shared and turn viral, like a short video. Viral videos are most common, because of the accessbility they offer. Anyone can share them with a click of one's computer mouse to copy and paste it to an entire mass e-mail of family and friends.

Viral social media has a domino effect on people, and once it gets going, can easily become a huge sensation. According to the article, "New Theory Explains What Makes YouTube Videos Go Viral" by Natalie Wolchover points out a major way to get your video to go viral is to play on one's emotions. While videos of cute animals are sweet to share, the most intriguing ones are often disturbing and shocking.

In addition to playing on one's emotions, it needs to have content which many can relate to. An example of a widely successful viral video is the "Ouch Charlie" YouTube sensation. In this video, Charlie (a young boy) is playing with his baby brother who proceeds to stick his finger in the baby's mouth which it then not let go of. It is shocking and amusing because you can tell the baby is hurting his older brother and plays on our emotions because while the audience is laughing the brother is in pain. Additionally, the baby then giggles after he lets go, adding an additional laugh to the viewer. Since this is a fairly basic video content, it speaks to many since we all have that young family member who has probably bitten us/peed on us/grabbed a hold of us and will not let go/etc. While it's cute and endearing, we call all relate to how painful it can be.

While Charlie and his younger brother were just an innocent home movie, it still can teach public relations practitioners what can easily go viral and attract such a large number of viewers. Something short, playing on our emotions, and of general and yet interestingly relatable content.


The article referenced can be found here: http://news.yahoo.com/theory-explains-makes-youtube-videos-viral-184013005.html

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Social media is a major tool in times of needed crisis communication. Given its real-time feature, it can help businesses, government and other large entities reach key publics with appropriate messages in the quickest way possible.

Breaking news can be shared via tweets, as well as important messages to aid in damage control. What makes social media updates successful crisis communication is when they are short and brief, summarize main points, aid the overall message and are not created separately for social media (to ensure consistency in your messages), tap into all available resources, as well as allow for public feedback in the form of comments and responses.

The same way a funny video can go viral or breaking news can spread crisis communication can and should be shared just as rapidly. The key is to make the information available across all social media platforms and to all your various audiences. In addition, by exhausting all ways possible through partnerships, you can ensure your client's message is being received. For example, if it is a health related crisis, by targeting organizations like the Red Cross or doctor's associations, you can reach a wider audience than just through your social media outlets alone.

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Podcasts allow listeners to take their interests and passions on the go. Being able to download and listen to a podcast is such an easy way to keep one's mobility in tact while still tuning into a channel to keep up with new/events/etc.

An example of a podcast I've enjoyed listening to is, "The Nutrition Diva: Quick and Dirty Tips to Eating Well and Feeling Fabulous." The Nutrition Diva posts around 25 minute podcasts about nutrition and significant topics regarding health and fitness. Being able to download the podcasts and take them on the go with me through my ITunes on my phone.

Podcasts are so easily accessible and a fun alternative to listening to music in the car or while traveling. They bring information to various demographics and can connect others through similar interests. Podcasts are a new tool that can help spread information and educate interested, key publics on specific topics.


http://www.podcast.com/Health/Fitness-and-Nutrition/I-2358.htm

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Social media campaign videos can bring a public relations campaign to life. Taking a company and exhausting multiple media outlets with a campaign can help if its one that attracts the viewer in a unique way. For example; Old Spice launched their campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa as the "the man your man could smell like" targeting women for a man's body wash. The concept may seem odd but Old Spice has the right idea since women hold most of the purchasing power within the typical household.

The "Old Spice Guy" campaign was funny, unique and capturing the attention of audiences all over thanks to social media. By incorporating short videos of the commercials via social media, it allowed the campaign to go viral and aid Old Spice's television component.

Not only do videos within social media campaigns engage the viewer in a different way than just reading text or looking at pictures, it also opens a gateway for responses in the same medium as well. Video responses and parodies of the Old Spice commercials were shocking in numbers, yet just as entertaining and amusing at the original as well. Individuals took it upon themselves to create video replies and posted them on YouTube, gaining even more notoriety to the campaign. Old Spice was able to post the responses and their own videos across various social media platforms, thus furthering the amount of attention their campaign was able to achieve.

The responses can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD1WqPGn5Ag&feature=player_embedded

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Social media bookmarking and RSS feeds are an easy way to organize one's social media tabs stay up to date on favored sites. Unfortunately, most people not only do not take advantage of how simple these functions are to use, but do not not even know of their existence. PR-Squared's "Social Media Tactics" Series clearly outlines the advantages of using the social media bookmarking website, Delicious.com.

The concept of organizing all major new releases through their own account would make obtaining them easier and give others a way to simply reference them as well. In addition, by encouraging others to take advantage of the 255 character space to add a description for each link also allows others to easily find what they are looking for.

In addition, giving the option to "tag" pages can not only help for personal reasons to remember which pages were helpful, but they also give you the option to act as a moderator. By giving the option to tag a page as incorrect or useless, there ensures that the only gatekeeper of information is the public.


http://www.pr-squared.com/index.php/2007/09/prsquareds_social_media_tactic

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Personal branding via social media is a way to express yourself online to share with others. Since it is up to you who your audience is, (for example: friends and family versus potential employers) the direction of a personal brand is entirely up to you. Discovering and creating your personal brand should be based on how you want others to perceive you. According to the article, "Personal Branding 101" by Dan Schawbel, when deciding on your personal brand, your goal should be to set yourself apart by fulfilling a niche which has yet to be filled.

Making yourself stand apart from others can be difficult, but no one knows you better than yourself. With any brand, you need to establish consistencies. For example, anything you produce like a blog, business card, etc should follow the same design elements and focuses. In addition, wherever there is an opportunity for you to share your brand, use it. Don't ever leave an "about me" or "bio" section blank. Think up of a short blurb consisting of no more than two sentences which sums up you and what you want your brand to convey. Just because many social media outlets have character limits does not mean you need to sacrifice creativity for word count.

Similarly, in order for you to obtain fans/friends/followers/etc you need to make the first move and put your brand out there. By engaging via social media with others that have value to your brand showcases that you are interested in expanding and encourages others to engage with you as well.

http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/personal-branding-101/

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Social media is an extremely useful tool used to communicate and interact with others, whether it be friends, family, significant others, colleagues and to some even students? When friending others on Facebook, the protocol for who to accept, who to deny, and who to have on a limited profile can get a bit fuzzy at times.

The article, "Student Facebook requests: Accept of Decline?", Karla Pasos, a physical education elementary school teacher at the time, recounts when she began getting friend requests from students. At first she did not take any action in accepting or declining, instead she surveyed her fellow colleagues to get their advice on the matter. She found that most educators did not accept their students friend requests, however, the older the students got, the most willing the teachers were to allow their relationships with students to go cyber.

High school teachers were typically more likely to be friends with their students, especially when they were able to incorporate their social media outlets into their learning calender. For example, teachers would post supplemental references for further reading, remind students when projects/papers/assignments were due, and engage their students in online discussions. These are prime examples of how social media can aid the classroom even at a young age. However, in Karla's case, at an elementary school level especially in a physical education class, there are not many ways in which an educator can use social media as a learning tool. Which is exactly what prompted her to decline students' friend requests.

As someone who highly values their privacy, I do not think it is necessary or even appropriate for an educator to engage with their students via personal social media pages, regardless of the school level. That being said, of course there are exceptions such as connecting via LinkedIn. However, I think if a teacher wants to engage their students in a unique way that they can relate to, they should create "student friendly" user pages specifically restricted to classroom or appropriately relevant materials. Additionally, I do not think it is appropriate for the same boundaries to be crossed in regards to an employer/employee relationship as well.

The debate of these relationships becoming cyber are gaining attention of others as well when this summer Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed a state-wide bill prohibiting the most teacher-student communication on social networking sites. The state becoming active in voicing their opinions makes a strong statement on what is and is not appropriate in the revolution of the education field as young students are becoming active users of social media and advanced technology in general.



http://mat.usc.edu/student-facebook-requests-accept-or-decline/