Posts Tagged ‘social media’

I continue to see the trailer for an upcoming movie based on the founding of the social networking website Facebook, called “The Social Network.” It is already earning huge buzz from the movie moguls of the world, making its way to the front of the Oscar pack. But is the movie based on fact — or is it purely fiction — or does it matter?

What makes a good movie? Drama, action, adventure, love? If you feel an emotion, from shedding a tear to a pulse-pounding adrenaline rush, does that make the movie a winner? And does distorting the facts matter to the audience when the entertainment value is high?

Wanting to understand more about the movie, I read several articles in anticipation of its October 1 release. One article says, “Any film about real people, real companies and public disputes are always going to come under some scrutiny. There will always be a ‘he said, she said’ no matter how documented the events appear to be. Therefore, it’s no surprise that one of fall’s most anticipated releases, The Social Network, is being criticized from its subject matter: the founders of Facebook.”

Many accounts detail that co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former Facebook President Sean Parker are cast in a very negative light and that some of the scenes are completely untrue. Others say details in the movie are “horrifically unfair.” Zuckerberg is even quoted as saying, “Honestly, I wish that when people try to do journalism or write stuff about Facebook that they at least try to get it right. The movie is fiction.”

But is it? Who will ever know the truth? The movie’s producer, Scott Rudin, says the movie is about conflicting truths, as recalled by Mr. Zuckerberg and his associates, largely in a pair of court cases that ended in settlements. “There is no such thing as the truth,” he says.

Well, with a movie drawing up so much controversy — and one that seems to be packed with excitement, friendship, betrayal, drama, money and action — maybe it doesn’t really matter if the movie is based on the “truth.” Right now, Facebook is trying to ignore the release of the movie. However, “Facebook might be forced to deliver a forceful rebuttal once the film has its premiere, especially if it turn(s) out to be a hit,” says another insider. The truth will set you free — or will it?

If you haven’t at least heard of Facebook and Twitter, you have probably been living under a rock — or in denial. But as quickly as you get used to the ins and out of the most popular social media sites, more are on the rise. And these sites want to know where you are, where you’re going and where you’ve been.

Welcome to the location-based social networks, such as Foursquare — which I have previously discussed in another post. I tried out Foursquare — and I while I’m not super familiar with it, I can see the appeal. You “check in” to businesses and other locations in real time, and many places are now offering special perks for their most frequent visitor — called the “mayor” — and others who check in.

But what about Blippy? Customers can tell their friends about the products that they buy through this site, which links merchant accounts to broadcast members’ purchases to the world. Blippy lets you communicate about and share purchases with friends by syncing already existing e-commerce accounts to Blippy such as iTunes, Netflix, Woot, eBay and more.

And then you’ve got TagWhat, which takes a leap into the world of Augmented Reality (AR). It allows people to tag real-world locations and attach information, reviews, links, photos, videos, notes and so on to those particular spots, whether tied to their current location or not. Users can also follow other people and merge their respective ‘markers’ together in an effort to build a global network of augmented reality hotspots.

A little overwhelming, right? Well, maybe it’s best to start with a toe in the ever-changing social media pool instead of taking a flying leap headfirst. But whatever you do, start swimming!

I really can’t believe it’s 80 degrees outside in the middle of April. Things are starting to bloom, allergies are starting to annoy, and construction is everywhere. It’s also the time for a new crop of students to graduate college and enter the workforce. And when I found a very interesting blog post from the Council of Public Relations Firms dealing with new hires and tech-savvy Millennials, I was intrigued. (as I am considered one of those tech-savvy Millennials:)

Do you know into which generation you fall? According to most sources, the following applies:

Silent Generation [born 1928-1945]
Baby Boomer Generation [born 1946-1964]
Gen Xer [born 1965-1980]
Gen Yer/Millennial [born 1981 or after]

Millennials are known for being confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and receptive to new ideas and ways of living. But they may not be as loyal to their employers and companies as past generations. This post brought up some great tips on how PR agencies can attract, and keep, their new talent, including offering career advancement opportunities and a greater focus on state-of-the-art technology and social media.

And just because I’m on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and send a mountainous number of texts and e-mails a day… I don’t know that that necessarily makes me tech-savvy:) — but I try!

Is change a good thing? Or maybe is TOO much change a good thing? I just listened to a Webinar about a change in our e-mail distribution system. And there have been several re-designs to the almighty Facebook, from an added newsfeed to a new layout to countless new applications. New blogs are started daily. The list of social media and social networking sites is seemingly endless and continues to grow.

How can you keep track of it all — and do you want to? As soon as you learn the ins and outs of one site or one blog or one technology, it seems a re-design is right around the corner or a new product is on the horizon. And then you have to re-learn something new all over again. Many users don’t like change, and as a product becomes more popular, users may grow ever more resistant to change.

An article in TIME said, “Perhaps what civilization needs is a NOT-SO-FAST button. In the aging population of the developed world, many people are already tired of trying to keep up with the latest cool new tech. The market for change could dry up, and lock-in might again become the norm.”

Try telling that to the 300,000 customers that purchased the new iPad on the very first day they went on sale. And you won’t hear that from the 500,000 users on Foursquare, which some label the “new Facebook.”

So I guess if you can’t beat em, join em — or get left behind in the flurry of new technology.

Indiana-based SteadyGRO has named Daniel Shinall as the company’s social media marketer. Shinall is responsible for the daily maintenance of the SteadyGRO Web site, the company’s activities on Facebook and Twitter and implementing SteadyGRO’s online marketing strategies.

Originally from Savannah, Ga., he served as an intern in the Information/Technology department at SteadyGRO’s parent company Syndicate Sales Inc. during the summer of 2009. Prior to joining SteadyGRO, he was a sales specialist at Circuit City in Savannah and a landscaper at Cottonwood Homebuilders in Richmond Hill, Ga. He graduated from Richmond Hill (Georgia) High School and is attending Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah.

SteadyGRO is an inert, sterile product that optimizes soilless plant growth. Used by home and greenhouse gardeners, professional gardeners and hydroponic growers and available in plugs, sheets, blocks and slabs, SteadyGRO helps growers maximize their results when growing food crops including cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, popular flowering plants, woody ornamentals, vines, ivy and more. SteadyGRO is eco-friendly and can be reduced from its original form to a mass of less than 11 percent or incinerated for bio-mass purposes. SteadyGRO is manufactured by Syndicate Sales Inc., a 60-year staple in the international floral industry that manufactures, imports and distributes more than 1,500 floral-related items in the U.S. and overseas.

Recently, Purdue University research concluded that SteadyGRO outperformed rockwool, a soilless product that has been a mainstay in the industry for decades. Overall, the study concluded, SteadyGRO H+ was the best-performing soilless growth medium in terms of average grams of fruit harvested per plant in tomatoes and cucumbers. SteadyGRO H+ produced 47 percent more cucumber in terms of fruit weight per plant than rockwool, according to the study, and both SteadyGRO and SteadyGRO H+ outperformed rockwool in promoting the growth of tomatoes by a 23 percent gain in harvested weight.

Like many companies, our fax machine has been pretty quiet lately.  No, it’s not dead.  It’s just not being used.  Email is our number one means of communication, along with cell phones, land-lines (yeah, still) and social media. 

And speaking of social media, this article’s headline by Sam Brace, special for Inside Tucson Business, states 2010: The Year Social Media Comes of Age for Businesses.  There are some interesting facts in the article.  Below is an excerpt.

– KRC Research, based in Washington, D.C., found that 88 percent of 200 executives of nonprofits it surveyed experimented with social media in 2009, and 85 percent plan to actively use it in their organizations this year. MarketingSherpa, a research firm specializing in tracking marketing efforts, reports that most industries are increasing their budgets for social media marketing in 2010.

Behind these increases is a booming population of new users of social media. Statistics show that 66 percent of global Internet users have visited social networks and that more have used these sites than traditional e-mail. Facebook grew to more than 300 million users in 2009. Twitter grew by 1,382 percent in February 2009. These sites are where people are gathering and there’s little to indicate they will leave for greener pastures in 2010. –

So here’s my question…will email be the next to die.  If you read this article by Dave Rosenberg at the CNET Blog Network, you might think we heading down that path.

Perhaps it’s too early to kill the fax machine (or email… how do you kill email?) with a baseball bat, as seen in the movie Office Space.  But I don’t think that day is too far away.

It’s a trend that is taking over the local news in every market–going interactive. No longer is that anchorman or anchorwoman such an unreachable star. It seems that every person you see on the air these days broadcasts their e-mail, Twitter information and more.

Facebook and Twitter are now helping local stations connect with their audience and tap into new viewers. And not only is social media being used as a way to interact with on-air talent but also as a way for viewers to help shape the news content for the day. “Tweet in your opinion on this topic.” “E-mail us about what’s going on in your neighborhood.” “Send us in your pictures.”

According to an article in the Boston Globe, “As local stations lose viewers and advertising revenue, they are turning to social networking Web sites for help. In recent months, news directors have used such sites as Facebook and Twitter to generate stories and, hopefully, boost ratings.”

Eventually — will the news become only what we make and want it to be?

As part of our ongoing professional development here at Coles Marketing Communications, we subscribe to a host of industry publications and share highlights from stories — relevant either to our clients’ industries or the improved practice of our craft — at our weekly staff meetings.

One of those publications is “Public Relations Tactics,” a monthly publication sent to members of the Public Relations Society of America.

As you can imagine, the conversation this past year has often turned to the world of social media: why it’s so important, what works, what doesn’t, what to do, what not to do, etc.  Here is a partial “don’ts list” aimed at those in the PR world, but I think everyone could take a lesson from it. These points come courtesy of PRSA and Twitter expert Sandra Fathi with some of my own thoughts intertwined:

• Hashtag hijacking: Taking advantage of popular trending topics (those words in Twitter posts with a “#” in front of them that make conversation topics easier to search) such as, say, the Indianapolis Colts,  to interrupt the conversation with your unrelated agenda such as, say, advertising your band’s gig on Friday night, is kind of like going to a dinner party and summarily inviting everyone to leave and come to your house … for a softball game. Not cool.

• False mentions: Including someone’s username in your tweet with an “@” in front of it will make that tweet show up in the person’s “mentions” tab in an attempt to grab their interest. PRSA calls this an “Ah! Made you look!” approach to marketing that makes people feel tricked. Also not cool.

• Misleading links: In the offline world, this goes by the name of “false advertising.” If you get people to click your link, look at a photo or watch a video by giving them false information (think of the subject lines in your e-mail’s spam folder … and then think about what’s actually in some of those e-mails!), you will anger your followers pretty quickly. Coolness factor: none.

• Mass follow: I’m reminded of  a line from Adam Sandler’s movie, “Funny People,” which I saw last weekend. I’m paraphrasing: In general, the more friends you have online, the fewer friends you have in real life. People use this tactic to try to amass a lot of followers in a short period of time. It’s not a good idea, in general, Fathi writes, to follow or be followed by a person advocating illegal activities or, if you’re a brand, controversial topics.

• Twitterns: Just because someone is a teenager/early 20s and knows how to tweet doesn’t usually qualify them to speak on behalf of a professional organization! Tweeting for a professional organization requires good judgment, understanding of company messaging and strategy, and representing the organization to the public in an appropriate manner consistent with those strategies.