Karen’s PR & Social Media Blog

We have seen a growing trend in 2012 as people shifting the focus on the voice of authority when it comes to media. Meaning, we are seeing more people using various social media platforms not just to connect and network with others, but use these platforms to be their voice that is directly targeted to their followers, instead of relying on the media to be the gatekeeper in this equation.

Athletes have been a particular audience who has used social media to communicate directly with their fans – in good times and in challenging times as well.  Individual professionals in public relations are establishing themselves as well on these networks to build their influence and expand their expertise in a particular area.  Look at how some of the leading professionals like Brian Solis, Mark Schaefer, Jason Falls, and others are building their communities and sharing their voice across multiple platforms?

So, the question arises – can professors also become the media as well?  Of course – in fact, I think this is going to be a growing expectation for those of us who are researching, teaching, and consulting in emerging media.  How can professors become the media exactly? Here are a few tips I have regarding this:

• Always have a mindset of being a student:  We have to continue learning and growing our toolkit and library of knowledge when it comes to emerging media because it is always changing and evolving.
• Establish your personality online and have a presence:  I always tell my students they need to find their own personality and voice online.  So many times we see students in the classroom try to write a blog to fit a “cookie-cutter” frame for their blog.  My advice is to write what you are passionate about and showcase your personality at the same time. Be interactive and share your perspective while noting what you can offer to the community that no one else has done yet.
• Know the tool that would be most helpful for communicating your voice in various circles: This means, you have to look at what platform and tool you can use for various communities.  For example, I am using Twitter for communicating a lot with my friends online who are active on social media, sports, and crisis communications – as well as for teaching purposes as well.  Facebook has been my primary platform for networking along with LinkedIn, but I have used Instagram for visual storytelling purposes and travel experiences are showcased on Ptch.  However, the ultimate hub for me with all of these platforms is of course my blog and website.  You have to think about what works best for you and your brand when it comes to your online presence and voice.
• Be active and consistent online with your interactions and conversations:  You want to make sure you have a presence on a regular basis on the platforms you have established.  Some of these are going to require more frequency than others, but this is something you have to think about and consider.  If people are relying for you for content whether it is for research, teaching, or consulting – you have to be aware of this.
• Share a variety of information that is useful and relevant to your online persona and voice: Whether it is interesting trends or  relevant articles in the field or even real-time updates from class / conferences / or momentous events, you should try to share these with your communities when they are relevant.
• Lastly, the best spokesperson for you is yourself: Whether you are reporting great and exciting news or addressing even a crisis situation – the best person who can represent you is yourself.  You need to take ownership of your voice and address your various audiences online in a honest, transparent, and authentic manner.

In summary, we are seeing the trend in the workplace and in other industries of professionals bypassing the traditional media gatekeepers by establishing their own network to communicate directly with their audiences.  This is going to be something professors and fellow researchers to take note of and be aware of for themselves.  If we are telling our students of these trends, one way we can establish credibility in this regard is to practice what we preach and follow through with these same practices as well.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas!!

Best Wishes,

Karen

Blogging has been one of the things I have really enjoyed doing not only as a graduate student, but also as an assistant professor now at the University of Louisville.  I started blogging back in 2006 after I competed my eligibility at USC in track and field.  I have had my own personal website since 1995, and so I thought this was a nice extension to my online reputation and presence online.

Over the years, I have been blogging not only on issues surrounding social media, reputation management, crisis communications, or public relations – but I have also written blogs on my travel adventures around the world, best practices for teaching, conferences, and many more.  It has been not only a fun activity for me, but one I have used for all of my classes and will continue to do so at the University of Louisville.

However, I have had several students and fellow professionals ask me what are some good tips on how to not only set up your own personal blog, but guest blog or even be interviewed for blogs?  There are some things you will want to make sure to keep in mind if you want to do a guest blog post:

• Before you even begin writing a blog post, know your voice: Every person has their own voice when it comes to both online and offline conversations, but you have to determine what your voice is going to be online.  What personality characteristics will come out with your writing?  How are you going to distinguish yourself from other bloggers in the same area?  What is going to make you unique compared to others and stand out?  Before even writing a blog post, you have to think about this and determine who you are and your voice online.
• Ask about the requirements for post: First, you will want to make sure you are aware of the requirements for the post. Is there a word limit? Can you use images or other multimedia in the post?  What are the requirements for citing appropriate works? Know the basics for the blog because there are some universal characteristics and requirements yet there are others that may be different.
• Know the deadline for the post: Blogs have to be updated quite regularly, so you have to be aware of when you have to submit your content in by.
• Get inspiration from the experts:  One of the things I look for inspiration in blogging is to look at the experts.  One person who I think does a superb job in Mark Schaefer with his {grow} blog.  Great insights with wonderful resources! Others who I think are really great at this include Brian Solis, Melissa Agnes, and Chris Syme.
• Be aware of why you are being asked for a guest blog post:  Writing a guest blog post usually means others would like you to share your perspective in a particular situation or case study, and this will help you understand your overall reputation in your particular area. Most of the guest blog posts I have done have been around social media and crisis communications.
• Share, share, and share some more:  When you are writing a guest blog post, it is not only going to be shared by the owner of the blog, but you should take this opportunity to share it with your audiences as well across the social media platforms as well.  You never know who may read the content and it can spark another conversation or even form a new professional relationship.
• Know the audience and what they want from the blog you are writing a guest blog for:  Understanding the overall expectations of the audience is key.  Research and be prepared to have the same materials and resources in your post like previous blog posts, but maybe have something different and unique that represents your perspective as well.

Here are some of the guest blogs I have given online over the years:

• Kristin Saling (December 17, 2012): Guest Blog Post on Delta crisis with disabled military veteran
• Business to Community & Melissa Agnes (August 27, 2012): Social media restrictions and monitoring among student-athletes
• Jeff Sheehan Marketing Strategies (May 20, 2012): Power of community and gaming principles in crisis communications

Here are some links to interviews I have done online over the years as well:

• Melissa Agnes (December 11 2012): Online Crisis Management Predictions for 2013
• Cision (May 25, 2011): Interview about Influencers and Personality Characteristics Part I & Part II

In summary, the best way to get started with guest blogs is to have one of your own.  Start writing content you are passionate about and willing to share your thoughts and ideas with in the social media community.  Invite others to guest blog on your site as well – it is great to have another perspective and share this with others as well.  Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,

Karen

In social media, there are always new buzz terms that we have to be aware of when we are teaching or conducting research in the area.  Newsjacking.  Engagement. Memes. Content Marketing.  Lead Generation.  There are many of these terms that are being discussed of course in the public relations and social media community. However, there is one that we are seeing more discussion on that would benefit individuals and brands who are managing their online reputation.  This term of course is transmedia storytelling.

What exactly is transmedia storytelling?  Transmedia storytelling, according to USC professor Henry Jenkins, is “Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.” I have gotten interested in this topic not only from a research perspective and adding to my social media research line, but also exploring this topic for my upcoming social media class at the University of Louisville this upcoming spring semester.

One book that I would recommend not only for my students in my social media class, but fellow professors interested in this area within new emerging technologies, is to look at “A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling” by Andrea Phillips.  Here is also a short video where Andrea Phillips discusses what exactly is transmedia storytelling:

What would be some examples of cases to look at for successful brands or merchandise who have been successful in transmedia storytelling?  Andrea Phillips has mentioned both online in various posts and in her book that Star Wars is a clear example of a franchise that has been successful in transmedia storytelling. However, when you look at some of the major brands who have done this very well – I would have to say Oreo has done this very well.  They have been present in not only traditional media of course (ex. television commercials), but have really taken their story to social media with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc – which has translated in coverage and other discussions related to their reputation and story effectively in various trade publications in the industry.

With this in mind, this perspective goes along the same line as what my grandfather always preached to all of us when it came to reputation and etiquette: One set of manners. When you think about this, you have to be consistent with your story as well as your character.  This will define you not only in one social media ecoystem, but it will help contribute to your overall reputation online. When you are thinking about your overall reputation, it is about telling your story, sharing your expertise and experience, and allowing people to get to know you across multiple channels of communication. We are actively engaged in making sure we are sharing our expertise in blog posts, posting interviews that come across via video, or share pictures of various events like conferences we have attended – and all of this is to tell our story consistently across multiple mediums.

This is what transmedia is – the seamless integration of multiple mediums to establish and maintain personal and professional stories. By understanding this perspective, this allows PR professionals and students to go beyond just knowing the tools of social media (ex. social networks, microblogs, video and photo editing apps, etc) and really investigate the core nature and strategies that are used in these emerging platforms.  One of the more recognized infographics that has been used to portray the social media landscape has been of course JESS3 and Brian Solis’s Conversation Prism – and the visual below shows how these communication tools and platforms focused on one particular thing, and that is the content (or other words story) behind the brand or individual and how they can use each of these platforms as way to articulate this story to various audiences:

In summary, for PR professionals and students, we have to understand how transmedia storytelling can not only be a good perspective to know for when we are working on social media campaigns, but also for taking these principles to heart when we are looking at managing our own stories and online reputation management.  We have to be consistent and present across these multiple platforms seamlessly by sharing our thoughts, opinions, and expertise in a consistent and transparent manner.  More discussion related to this line of thought needs to be incorporated into the classroom for social media classes.

Hope you all are having a great day.

Best Wishes,

Karen

Online reputation management is a key factor for many professionals and businesses presently in 2012.  More employers are looking online to see what is posted about prospective employees and others are looking online to evaluate the overall personality and character of individuals they know and are associated with.  In many ways, managing your online reputation is becoming more integrated with our daily lives.  There are various ways to approach this – from creating your own hub of information with a personal website or have a presence across social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube to name a few.  In 2012, personal branding and online reputation management has become one of our primary roles and duties as individuals in business and society.

One of the strategies I tell my students to do is to not only make sure to Google your name on a regular basis, but also check out sites like Social Mention or Samepoint to evaluate what is posted on you in terms of updates, comments, pictures, and videos.  However, there is another site that allows you to see who has searched for you on Google or Bing. The new site is called Brand Yourself, and Mashable just did a post related to its features and how it works. The site allows you to decide what are links that are positive, negative, and neutral.  This is determined by search engine optimization (SEO) and can provide you with some IP addresses, but not all of them.  Check out this video from CNET on the new start up.

There are of course some ways to handle this proactively – the easiest way is to have one set of manners. If you do not want to have everyone in the world to know it, then do not post it online.  If you wouldn’t feel comfortable having your parents see a post, update, or photo – again, don’t post it.  However, with these new sites dedicated to look at who has been searching for you online through these various search engines, the issue of privacy again comes up.  We have to take responsibility for our search engine optimization results – not only do we need to have a platform to serve as a hub for our information, but we have to take action and control the search results people are using to come to our websites, blogs, and other official social media platforms.  PR professionals can take action to this not only for their clients, but also for themselves as professionals.  This is also a site for students to be familiar with as they get ready for their first internship, job, or graduate school application.

The Internet is not a private place – and as technology advances – the more this becomes apparent.  Personally, I feel that you have to treat the Internet and social media sites like you would in person.  Only difference is that Google and other search engines and sites now remember what you have said and this stays online forever.

Hope you all are having a great day.

Best Wishes,

Karen

Within every industry, there are going to be times where you have to deal with an unpleasant situation or a crisis.  One industry that has had to deal with this occasionally has been the fashion industry.

I have always loved fashion and I had the opportunity to work in the Fashion PR industry when I was working in South Africa with some designer accounts as well as their fashion weeks (Cape Town and Joburg).  Within fashion – it is like any business where you have to take the time to prepare your staff and employees about some of the potential situations they may be faced with and how to respond to their audiences appropriately.  Leah Eser (PR student at Leeds Metropolitan University) wrote an interesting blog post about the role of crisis communications particularly in the fashion industry.

We have seen some recent crises involving some high profile designers in what they have been reported to have said in the media. Of course, there is the Kenneth Cole crisis that occurred on Twitter during the Egypt crises, which also raised the issue of what designers can say via social media that can immediately be reported in the traditional news as well. Each case has given crisis communicators some best practices and how to be proactive when it comes to conversations emerging in traditional and social media.

However, we have also seen some discussion related to the fashion industry on what they need to do to avoid their own version of FoxConn, which was the factory in China that was related to Apple products. Workers at these factories were showcased in various investigations reported in the traditional media related to Apple, so this was a situation happening in another industry that made the fashion industry think about they would need to do if this happened to them.

In summary, in a time where everyone has the power to record a conversation, film an event from an eye witness account, and report an incident through just a couple of taps on a keyboard on a smartphone to share the information with global community, we have to be prepare ourselves for how we conduct ourselves.  We have to be aware of the latest emerging technologies and how others in the industry are using these to share, communicate, and curate information.  In addition, we have to be aware of the potential situations we may be facing with each of these new platforms, and form a strategy to address each of these situations in a timely manner.  This is the role of the emerging strategic communicator for the fashion industry for the 21st century.

The fashion industry has had its recent crises, but the way to make sure to not do these again is to learn from these experiences and form good proactive reputation management practices.

Hope you all are having a great day.

Best Wishes,

Karen