readings in social media and pr for march 16 2011

A reprint of my publication in Public Relations Review!!

Here is what I am reading today!

• zynga gamers and tsunami relief

“n Friday, social gaming giant Zynga joined tsunami relief efforts by enabling in-game donations through virtual goods in Zynga games like FrontierVille, FarmVille and CityVille. Today, the company announced that — in just 36 hours — Zynga gamers donated more than $1 million to relief efforts.”

• 31 pr definitions

“Here are thirty-one definitions of public relations from experienced PR practioners. The list starts with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA.) As the professional public relations organization, PRSA’s definition was a starting point for several of the respondents. Following PRSA’s explanation of public relations, the PR definitions have been organized in alphabetical order by source.”

• more people on-line than read newspapers

“As of the end of 2010, more people get their news from the Internet than from newspapers — and more ad dollars went to online outlets than to newspapers, too. In surveys conducted by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, 34% of respondents said they read news online within the past 24 hours (as opposed to 31% who favored newspapers); and a full 41% said they get most of their news online, 10% more than those who said they got most of their news from a newspaper.”

• who is the worst brand in America?

Here are some of the teams competing this year:

Bank of America
Citibank
DIRECTV
Dish Network
United Continental Airlines
Delta
GameStop
Walmart
Ticketmaster
PayPal

• catastrophe!

“Most people think of “near misses” as harrowing close calls that could have been a lot worse—when a firefighter escapes a burning building moments before it collapses, or when a tornado miraculously veers away from a town in its path. Events like these are rare narrow escapes that leave us shaken and looking for lessons.”