It is not only survival of the fittest, but it is also is the person that can forecast what is in store for the future in the profession. Several leading experts in the social media realm have already discussed what are the up and coming trends in social media for the upcoming year. However, what will be the current trends in social media research? Or, what should we be doing as public relations educators in the classroom in 2010? After reviewing some of the previous articles and posts on current trends, I came up with several of my own:
Social media research – more focus on the meaning behind the tweets, status updates, etc: Everyone seems to be asking the same question – what does it mean to have 3 million tweets mentioning your brand product? What about those word clouds? Or, how do we keep track of all of the conversations out there? Well, the answer is simple – there is a lot of discussion going on, and for us as public relations professionals – we need to be aware of these conversations and be able to explain to our clients what all of this means, and determine if we were successful or not in our campaign. Instead of focusing on the number of key words – we need to focus on the relationship that these messages how to those that are creating them. What is the relationship between this customer and this corporation? What does this tweet mean? We as researchers should be asking these questions when conducting social media research – and we still have a ways to go about it. However, I believe that 2010 will be a great year for research in public relations and social media. There needs to be more of a bridge between what is being published in the trade publications and the academic community. From where I stand, I believe that the PR professionals are up to speed, but the academic literature has a ways to go – but this is due to the fact that it takes a while for articles to be published due to the number of submissions.
It is not all about you – it is about an entire community: Social media is all about establishing networks online – but more people are going towards using social media in niche communities and getting their information from mobile applications. We have to take a moment and realize that the world is not circling around us, but we are part of it. In other words, we do have to be our own public relations professional in managing how others perceive us, but we also have to recognize that we belong to a larger global community. Also, make sure that you are getting the full picture of what social media is. There is more than just Facebook or Twitter – what is key is to look at where people are going to and getting their information from. In 2010, I believe that we are going to see more individuals go to more niche communities and rely more heavily on social media influencers for their information on social media.
Integrating social media in all aspects in the classroom: This is absolutely critical to do for our students in public relations. Some scholars are only using Twitter or YouTube for their classroom, but this is not enough. We need to use all aspects of social media and incorporate this into assignments, case studies, and interaction with others. For example, in my PR Cases class this semester, I wanted to have both a Twitter and Facebook account for my class so my students could get exposure to how it is used. In addition, I would go over the traditional case studies in class for the week in relation to the topic (ex. Employee Relations) and then add on a current case of a corporation that is using social media proactively in their employee relations (Best Buy & Twelpforce). The point is, we as educators have to connect the dots for our students by providing them the historical perspective on the traditional case studies that they must know (ex. Tylenol, Exxon Valdez, etc) and bridge that with current case studies.
Creating new partnerships with local social media clubs: For researchers and academic professionals, we have to be on top of this more than ever! We have to make sure that our students are up to the task to be the best professional they can be at their first job. This can be done by working with local social media clubs and inviting students to come to them and network with fellow PR professionals. Not only that, the social media clubs usually have guest speakers and panels that discuss some of the current issues that are happening in social media. I have done this with the Social Media Club – Knoxville with some of my students. Being part of the SMC-Knoxville has been very beneficial for me – I have gotten the chance to meet some amazing PR, Marketing, and Advertising professionals and make some new friends along the way. The club has been a valuable resource for my students and I – and I greatly appreciate it. 🙂 I am looking forward to the upcoming social media events for next year. 🙂
Anyway, these are just a few of my thoughts on the subject. Overall, I believe that the biggest thing that I would suggest for those that want to succeed in 2010 is to be open to all of the new possibilities, explore what others are discussing about social media, and be willing to put in the extra effort to stay ahead of the game. If you all do this, I think that you will be successful! 🙂 Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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