Category Archives: Digital (Social) Media
Do We Really Need Large-Scale Publications Anymore?
The internet has changed the way that media is consumed. It’s more fragmented, more specialized, and being created by a larger number of people than it ever has before. While a sick 19 year old boy was able to create a media giant from his bed, more traditional publications have struggled keeping readership afloat.
At the #BrandPanel event on Tuesday, I asked Bostinnovation‘s Chase Garbarino what he thought the future of journalism was:
The new world of media isn’t about the authority of the publication, but about the authority of the writers for the publication.
We used to to look at outlets like The New York Times and trust everything that was written (and we still do), but online, anything and everything should be looked at with a critical eye. How often have you seen a guest post on Mashable and questioned the authority of who wrote it? Read the rest of this entry
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5 Tips to Develop Your Own Blogging Voice
The way to distinguish yourself in the vast and diverse blogosphere is to develop your own unique “blogging voice.” The best way to go about this is to choose a topic and just start writing. The development of a voice or style is a process that takes time and trial and error.
You can try out the snarky route, like that of the writers for the scathing gossip blog gawker.com. You can take a more educational and informative route common with subject-specific blogs such as the culinary blog, Cooking With Amy or the Wall Street Journal’s health blog. Whatever direction you decide to take, here are a few tips to help you along the way.
1. Be concise
According to the site Blog Traffic Exchange, which is dedicated to studying how to build and maintain traffic to your blog, the attention span of the average online reader is only about a minute and a half. Thus it is best to aim towards keeping your entries to 400-600 words. Read the rest of this entry
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How To Use Twitter Personally and Professionally: Five Tips from Meghan Ross
This a post from our weekly series, Mentorship Month, appearing Tuesdays and Thursdays where BUPRSSAstudents interview mentors in the PR field.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Meghan Ross, technology editor at The Next Great Generation and Associate Media Buyer for National Broadcast at Mindshare. Meghan was kind enough to share some tips on how to divide your time between personal and professional tweets on Twitter.
- Follow Accounts That Are Relevant to What You Are Interested In. If there is a certain field of PR that you are interested in, make sure you are following the most successful professionals and influential people in that field.
- Tweet About Relevant News Articles. Since many professional organizations consider your Twitter page part of your job application, you want to make sure that they see you understand the field. Don’t devote your Twitter solely to posting about articles, but make sure to incorporate at least one posting about relevant news per day.
- Definitely Don’t Be Phony. Even though professionals can see your Twitter profile, don’t let that discourage you from tweeting things that come to mind. Use the type of language that you are accustomed to using, even if you feel that it might not be considered professional. One of the worst things you can do with social media sites is keep your voice stiff and solely professional. It is better for your Twitter page to show your true self instead of the persona that you feel will get you hired. Read the rest of this entry
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4 Reasons Youtube is a Great PR Student Tool
Justin Bieber: just one of the various musical artists found on YouTube, and now he’s one of the top singers in the world.
Along with supplying the world with music videos, tutorials, how-to’s, and news clips, YouTube is a great tool for Public Relations. As a PR student, learning how to use your own channel can come with various benefits:
- Widespread Audience: More than 100 million views are accomplished in one day, which implies that even more than 100 million people are on Youtube daily. Utilize not only the number, but the worldwide coverage to your advantage. President Obama made a 37.7 minute long campaign video during his run for the White House. Though he didn’t necessarily have to reach every country to get his message across, he certainly reached a grand audience. For your own personal benefit, use YouTube to broadcast what you learned as a PR student, a trend you found interesting, or just a few tidbits from the news.
- Quick, Easy, Detailed: A Tweet might be a quick and easy way to get news out about a certain update, a Facebook post might give you space for a few more details, but a video gives the audience a chance to listen, watch, and understand a situation more in depth. Using YouTube could give potential employers a look into who you are as a person, and it might even give them an opportunity to interact with you before an interview is even scheduled. Read the rest of this entry
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5 Social Media Guidelines from Mashable’s Meghan Peters
This a post from our weekly series, Mentorship Month, appearing Tuesdays and Thursdays where BUPRSSA students interview mentors in the PR field.
Recently, I seized the opportunity to interview Meghan Peters about her job in social media. She works as Community Manager for Mashable, a news website and Internet news blog whose primary focus is social media and technological news. She oversees social media strategy and reader engagement projects.
A job working with social media is relatively new and the industry is continuing to grow. With plenty of experience under her belt, she urges words of advice regarding the social media realm.
Here are 5 straightforward tips from Meghan for achieving success through social media.
- Get experience as early on as you can. Internships are definitely helpful for a number of reasons. You are able to learn a lot from internships about the career field. Also, you are able to establish connections within that organization which is vital to finding job opportunities. When trying to create a network, you never know who someone may know.
- Utilize all social media outlets. To succeed in social media, all platforms must be effectively operated. Engage with anything that is social media. Mashable largely utilizes Twitter, Facebook pages, Tumblr, Foursquare, and StumbleUpon. This creates a large following from all network possibilities and attracts more potential viewers. Read the rest of this entry
