Open The Dialogue

With Twitter being the hottest thing since toasted bread (it is growing at a rate of over 1000%!), I’m not surprised to see a new Twitter story on CNN, The Daily Show, or even The View. However, I was a little shocked when ESPN reports on a Twitter story.  While I follow plenty of sports names on Twitter (like @the_real_shaq or @DavidCutcliffe) I didn’t think that any of them took it too seriously.  I guess Charlie Villenueva is different. He is such a Twitter fanatic, that he decided to give his followers an inside glimpse of the locker room. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that he did it at halftime of a game against the defending NBA champions, the Boston Celtics.  While this was great for fans (and reporters), the coach was not pleased and slapped down a during game Twitter ban.  Since we don’t want Twitter to become a problem, here are three other places Charlie shouldn’t tweet.

1.       The Courtroom: Jury duty might be boring but that doesn’t mean you can tweet about it.  Twitter is still public communication and that could have legal consequences

2.       In the Driver’s Seat:  Do you remember to drive with your hands at 10 and 2 (or 8 and 5 as I was taught in driver’s ed)?  Neither do I, but its much easier to steer with at least one hand on the wheel.  Texting (Or typing if you have a laptop desk) while driving is dangerous and in some states illegal.  Don’t do it!

3.       In the Hospital:    Twittering in the hospital is nothing new.  From surgeons twittering the procedure to Erykah Badu live tweeting the birth of her child medical tweets are nothing new.  But while social media is about transparency, is this being too transparent? I’ll let you decide.

Where else would you not want to see Twitter?  I asked Twitter and got response of funerals, bathrooms, and churches.  What do you think?

Or more importantly, are people communicating the same things in social networking websites as they are in email?

Mashable announced last week that social networking is more popular than email.  This was based on a recent study conducted by Nielsen Online which ranked “Member Communities” as “the fourth most popular online sector after search, portals and PC software applications” with personal email being ranked fifth on the list.

Arnold Zafra at RotorBlog delves into the reasons for this decline on his post: “Is the Death of Email Upon Us?” According to him, Spam is email’s main problem which, so far, social networking sites lack.  Spam is impersonal and violates the purpose of email.  I do agree that with him that comparing the two may be a bit unfair.  Email has matured over the last couple of decades with all its flaws showing, while social networking has just recently burst onto the scene and still discovering its true potential.

It is worth understanding what each of these channels provide.  Emails offer one-to-one communication with a degree of confidentiality not available if posted in a blog or social networking website.  Yes, you can set up a distribution list to let everyone know what you are doing right now, but that would probably be the fastest way of alienating your friends and contacts by “spamming” them and filling up their inbox with your life’s minutia.  It is impersonal and is best left to Twitter.  Likewise, would you want to post something meant for your significant other on your blog for the world to read including friends, family (mom and dad) and strangers?  Whatever it is, I don’t want to know it, though I’m sure some might.  Communication on social networking is impersonal, just as email is more impersonal compared to postal mail.  The channels we use communicate to the receiver the level of importance we give them.

Many of the social networking websites actually recognize this fact.  No wonder Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn offer email as one of the services available on their websites.  Some are closed systems, but essentially, they recognize the need for that level of privacy and the message it sends to the receiver about the value and importance we place on them over everyone else.

So, is social networking going to make email obsolete?  I am not ready to jump on this band wagon.  It is far more prudent to view these channels on a spectrum that measures the level of importance/intimacy accorded to the receiver merely from the channel we use to communicate with them.  Social networking complements traditional email, just as email complements fax service and traditional postal mail.  Unless a new medium is created that exactly replicates the purpose of email, I am afraid, email is here to stay.

Some facts/issues to keep in mind about the Nielsen study:

• Nielsen Online defines “member communities” as both social networking websites and blogging websites.  So, these would include popular social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn as well as blogging websites such as Blogger.com and Wordpress.com among many others.

• “The terms ‘Global’ or ‘World’ encompass the following countries . . . USA, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Australia. ( . . . Japanese data isn’t included in any global figures.)”  Interestingly, China and India are missing from the research, countries that are likely to make up a significant portion of Internet users.

• The study focuses only on “personal email”.  Organizational use of email is not included.

• Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, and virtually all the other social networking websites incorporate email as one of the features.

Has the economic crunch kept you from attending this year’s South by Southwest Conference in Austin? Don’t fret; Open the Dialogue’s got you covered with 5 ways to follow SXSW.  

1. Twitter:  Twitter’s reach has grown stronger by the minute and it won’t slow down on Sixth Street. The downside? Anytime a large group of first-adopters get together watch out; the amount of information will be staggering.  There are easily over 1500 (100 pages of search terms x 15 tweets on a page) tweets in the last 40 minutes.  Make sure to set up an RSS feed if you don’t want to miss anything! And make sure to follow Dialogue Media’s Blake Robinson and Joe Becker who are live on the scene.
2. Delicious: With over 16,000 SXSW tagged bookmarks so far, delicious makes it easy to see what other people are reading.  Add more tags to quickly find what you are really want to see. 
3. See Scenic Austin:  Reading all about SXSW is great but wouldn’t it be nice to see it?  Well now you can by using Ustream or Flickr. Flickr’s photo tagging allows you to quickly find the best photos or explore some of the official groups to easily get the photos you really want to see. Like video better?  Then head on over to  UStream’s Studio as they broadcast live music  from the Belmont in Austin, TX. 
4. SXSW.ning.com- The best way to see any event is from the inside.  Here at SXSW’s Insider’s guide you can easily find out what’s going on at SXSW. With plenty of pictures, videos and discussions going on, it should be easy to find something that interests you. It’s also a great place to find people to follow on Twitter, that way you don’t have to dig through all the search results.  
5. Alltop: Need to see all of the best information in one quick glance? Don’t forget about Alltop.com.  The SXSW page features all of the official and unofficial SXSW blogs, tagged stories on delicious, imeem.com, Twitter and Wordpress and even featured blogs from SXSW.ning.com. Easily the quickest way to get a lot of information.

There you have it; an easy way to stay informed about all the hot news  in Austin without having to leave your cubicle. Hopefully you’ll be there next year! Until then, how else are you staying informed?

I attended a Corporate Communication International (CCI) Symposium on reputation last Friday at Pfizer.  The title of the event was “Trust Me? Rebuilding Business Credibility” but the picture painted by the speakers was quite bleak.  “Trust has evaporated” said James E. Murphy, Chairman & CEO of Murphy & Co. and PR Coalition, Chair, and has been exasperated by the sinking economy due to fraud and lack of transparency.  Matthew J. Harrington, U.S. CEO & President of Edelman, presented data that showed that the decline in trust in US corporations mirrored the decline of the US stock market.  The trend was across all economic sectors and all media outlets, including social media channels.  The only organizations to suffer the least were non-governmental organizations (NGO).

The figure below, pulled from the Edelman Trust Barometer of 2009, shows a decline in trust in various social media channels.  The relevant ones are highlighted below and chart a dramatic decline in trust over the previous year.

Trust in Corporations Through Different Channels

This should not be surprising especially when companies like Belkin are accused of trying to game the system for the company’s benefit.  Some of the key suggestions in weathering this depression in trust and reputation include:

• Adhering to strict ethics both internally and externally.
• Transparency – being open and honest in dealings.
• Engaging with both government and NGO’s.
• Mutual social responsibility – integrating social causes that both benefit the communities and the corporation.
• Shared sacrifices – making sure that all levels in the corporation share in the profits and losses.
• Continuous conversation – engaging in dialogue with all stakeholders through all channels including social media. (Johnson & Johnson and Cisco websites were cited as examples.)

Despite these sobering numbers, the emphasis on social media as an effective tool to rehabilitate the trust between an organization and its publics was significant.  For more insight on the subject, I would definitely recommend Matt Rose’s blog on corporate reputation here.

I have had the privilege of knowing Robert French, PR professor extraordinaire at Auburn University, via his PR social network, Auburn University, via his PR social network, PR Open Mic, and Twitter. Robert was kind enough to share his experiences as a PR practitioner and PR professor and how the world of social media is shaping the lives of his students. You can find Robert on Twitter at @rdfrench. – AB

The transition from PR practitioner to PR educator is an interesting one. My background is in PR work for nonprofits, government organizations and student affairs/activities. In those areas of practice, you’re often forced to work with small budgets and insufficient resources. Sadly, those skills fit nicely with higher education teaching, too. You’ve likely heard the phrase, “Higher education politics is the dirtiest form, because the stakes are so low. People are fighting over staples and paper clips.”

Of course, the greater stakes, the real stakes, are very high. The education of our children. Sorry if it seems trite to some, but that’s the real challenge we face.

This lack of resources is one reason I embraced emerging digital media in our classroom activities. The costs are so low, it is a remarkably effective way to expose students to writing, online publishing, networking, video/audio production and much more.

Our first dabbling in online class activities started in 2000. We had our own intranet content management system and wrote stories about Auburn and the surrounding community. Then, we started dabbling in blogs at LiveJournal and used some other platforms. In December 2004, we began the group class effort, Auburn PR Blog. Then came individual b2 cafe/WordPress blogs for students and one of my favorite student / PR practitioner efforts – Marcomblog.

Marcomblog.com allowed us, for years, to involve students with remarkable practitioners around the world. From November 2005 to April 2008, hundreds of posts and comments involved students in Marcomblog and took it to the AdAge Power 150 list. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone, but we haven’t posted in almost a year and the blog is still ranking in their overall list at #521.

If we aren’t in Marcomblog anymore, where have gone? Social networks.

We started PROpenMic on April 1st of 2008. Yes, I actually had to tell people it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke when we launched.

On that day, I wrote of my long suppressed dream of a PR higher education network. “One place for all PR students and faculty to meetup and mashup ideas about emerging digital media. That’s been my dream. Sure, we’ve been creating our blogs and podcasts. We’ve been following each others writings and media. All fun. All good. But, there really hasn’t been one place for everyone to do a meet and greet … until now.”

Let’s face it. The other PR oriented social networks and publications just did not pay any attention to PR higher education and students. We had nowhere to go.

Since that launch, we’ve seen students and faculty interact with practitioners from around the world. Real world examples of people networking and finding jobs and internships are taking place. Exchanges of class initiatives are helping other educators adapt their curricula.

It works in the job search, too. Michigan State University alumnae, Allie Osmar, credits PROpenMic with landing her a job at Edelman Digital (see video).

My own students have seen PROpenMic, and all their digital network experiences, lead to jobs. Elizabeth Richards found herself blogging for the law firm of a former Lt. Governor/Attorney General in Montgomery. Todd Stacy is now implementing social media for Alabama’s Governor. Lacey Updegraff took her social media experience and built the blog and RSS feed of news releases for Auburn University. She is now blogging and implementing networks for an international Christian organization. I’ve seen students share in the network how their connections have led to internships and scholarships, as well as jobs.

Technology has enabled all of these new opportunities. Podcasting and blogs made video and audio blogs possible. We did that. Still do, in fact, with PROpenMic and our hyper-local site – The Loveliest Village.

Still, it is the people that make it happen. PROpenMic has just under 3,900 members today and its activity level and membership ranks in the top 1,000th percentile of Ning.com’s 800,000+ social networks. PROpenMic membership comes from over 50 countries and over 300 colleges and universities. The network is about 50/50 practitioners and students/faculty.

I ask you, when would something like this have been possible in the decades before online technology and access? Well, never – unless you had an enormous budget. That takes me back to our beginning.

The emerging digital media scene is certainly having a transformational effect upon public relations practice. It is also changing the landscape of public relations higher education. More and more colleges and universities are weaving digital media into their curricula and starting their own niche social networks. We have one just for our current students and alumni in the Auburn University PR program.

This is both scary and exciting for us in education, too. We empathize with your nervousness about the future. Where will it go? At least you can take some comfort in the knowledge that higher education is working to prepare your future PR practitioners for online life, as well as the traditional tried and true practices in public relations. Quite often, our students leave school to become the innovators and teachers in their new jobs. How’s that for turning the tables?

-Robert French