so this is mass communication?

Given social media’s recent history with breaking news events and providing snippets of information as full news stories develop, social media represents a key opportunity to communicate during crisis events.

Heck, many people turn to social media for first-hand experiences of people on the scene.

The structure of social media also benefits in times of crisis as it creates a better opportunity for information to spread, through reposting of content on blogs or re-tweeting information.

There are best practices gleaned from industry performance and academic research on this topic – none of these are new ideas but they’re put all right here for ease of review:

• Use existing accounts with established readership, avoid the temptation to create a new special account. New accounts will segment your brand. If you use existing accounts then when the crisis posting subsides and you return to regular content you may have readers stay on.

• Post information in a consistent and timely manner. Make a decision to either post information as it is confirmed, when a release is sent out or at a special time of day.

• Answer questions as much as possible. Avoid one-way communication, which is what press releases are for. Be prepared to have people ask questions and treat those like media queries and respond back as quickly as possible through the most appropriate means of communication.

• Monitor conversations regularly and correct inaccuracies. This is the best way to stop rumors before they run rampant. Use search engines and other monitoring tools to track discussion on the topic.

• Encourage on-scene and first-responder personnel to engage via social media. You can do this by having them either use their personal accounts or feeding you information to post on the official company social sites. Regardless, the company site should promote this content when appropriate.

• Promote the social media content on outgoing materials like press releases, e-mail signatures, links on the home page and even in conversations with reporters. The social media content isn’t helpful if it isn’t discoverable or people don’t know about it.

• Use the best tool for the job. For example, breaking news can be broken on Twitter, then a press release or multimedia posted on the company Web site which can be social bookmarked (Digg, Reddit), shared on Facebook, discussed on the company blog and sent to previously engaged bloggers.

• Analyze success of social media after the crisis by looking at click throughs, conversation, replies and reactions to postings, etc.

I actually did a research study a few years ago about using social media in crisis. It came down to the fact that the more an organization communicated via social media during crisis, the less its publics thought that the situation was a crisis.

What are your best practices for using social media in a crisis?

I’m advising Grady’s 2010 PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition team and looking for 5 great PR students to serve on the UGA team.

The client this year is the U.S. Census.

Interested students should complete the application (.doc) and return it to Journalism 223-C (my office) no later than 5 p.m. on Sept. 21.

I will conduct interviews:

• Wednesday, Sept. 23 from 1:30 – 3 p.m.
• Wednesday, Sept. 23 from 5-6:30 p.m.
• Friday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. – noon

Let’s continue the great tradition of Grady excellence!

One of the most noted aspects of social media is that it highly encourages interaction and two-way communications. For organizations, this can be tricky because while they want to operate according to the community norms, they also want to be personal and add a human voice — and perhaps face — to their brand.

In today’s transient workforce, employees operating social media accounts may want to leverage that activity to not only promote their own company, but to build a personal brand. There are several examples of companies that have had an employee blog or Twitter on their behalf, and as the popularity of that account grew, so did the credibility and personal brand of that employee (think Ford’s Scott Monty). If that employee leaves that company, the employee is able to transfer his or her personal brand but the company has to start over in building that online persona.

Companies like Graco Baby Products and Ford both benefited from the growing personal brand of their social media managers (see Lindsay Lebresco interview), but recognized their overall online brand would be in danger if they lost the blogger/Tweeter.

The pros of the company brand (leaving the person behind it out of the picture) is the added credibility of the content posted, ability to transition with manpower turnover and it is easy to identify the official voice. The pros of using a personal/organization mix are that there is increased transparency and the posts can be more human.

Many people have blogged about this before, so this is nothing new but I thought I’d compile a quick best practices list to deal with mixing brands and employee persona.

• To mix the personal and company account, make the user handle a combination of your name and your company. If you want to tweet as yourself but intend to focus most of the tweets on the company, feel free to start an account but make the username @DeltaTim or @TimatDelta instead of just @Delta.  This way you can put your own picture as the profile picture, feel free to post more personal things that would not be appropriate for a company voice and add an even more personal voice to that of the company. Great examples of this come from the Dell family of Tweeters like Lionel and Richard – both atDell

• Use brand images as avatars for the brand account. Avoid putting your personal photo as the identifying avatar for an official account.

• Consider putting your name in the profile bio as the voice behind the official company account for the company account. If you are tweeting for @HomeDepot, considering including the text “Tweets by Jane Doe” in the profile text so that while people understand it is the official account for the company, they can still have an idea of who you are. A great example of this is Boingo’s Twitter account where it is evident the voice behind the tweets is Jeremy Pepper.*

What best practices tips do you have to add?

* Update: Jeremy isn’t at Boingo anymore but the example used still holds true with idenification of the tweeter

There are a lot of great surveys about journalists’ use of specific social media tools, and some of social media overall. To add to the demographic and trend use data out there, here are some recent numbers looking at business journalists’ use of all social media in their reporting collected using good ole academic rigor. It’s a descriptives piece so don’t expect too much, but we have more theoretical stuff coming out soon.

Ruthann Weaver Lariscy, Elizabeth Johnson Avery, Kaye D. Sweetser, & Pauline Howes (2009). An examination of the role of online social media in journalists’ source mix [pdf]. Public Relations Review, 35, 314-316.

Using telephone surveys of business/financial journalists in the United States (n=200), this research investigates the agenda-building role of social media content in journalists’ work.  Understanding that more non-public relations content from user-generated and social network sites, like YouTube and Twitter, are fast becoming resources for journalists to get story ideas, break scandals, and find sources, we began this scholarly work to determine the frequency of such uses of social media.  Overall, findings indicate very little use of social media by these business journalists. Results and implications for public relations practitioners are discussed in detail.

This work was funded by a grant from the Public Relations Society of America Foundation.

This semester in my PR writing class at the University of Georgia, I tasked my students to create videos which we hope would “go viral.” The purpose of the assignment was put the students’ ability to:

• identify their audiences
• determine the correct appeal
• create a message that would resonate.

To ensure this wasn’t just a “cool YouTube assignment,” I had students turn in storyboards which I graded as an assignment & gave feed back on publics, appeal and messaging.

In preparation of this month-long team project, we welcomed Converseon’s Paull Young into our classroom via Skype to tell us the secrets of making videos so good that they just can’t help but go viral. (watch here and here.)

I invited our client for the project, UGA Admissions, to come in to talk about their admissions recruiting process, the distinctly different audiences (parents, high school students, transfer students, etc.) and what they’d like to achieve with the video project. I asked the NOT to tell us the content of the videos they’d like — let us creatively see what we can come up with — but focus on an end-project goal with us instead.

Student were promised bonus points if UGA Admissions picked their video for use in the recruiting efforts. I also held a “viral showdown” where all the videos competed against one another and the top two most popular videos (videos with the most views) got bonus points as well. Interestingly, there was some difference in the make-up of the winners for the Admission-selected videos and the most viewed videos.

In grading the viral videos, I created a standard rubric looking again at publics, appeal and message. Given Paull’s advice to the students, I also looked for whether there was a call to action. Additionally, I looked at the technical quality – could you hear the dialogue, were the transitions adequate, etc. All copyrighted material (music, images) was both acknowledged in the credits of the film and students provided me proof of permission for use for everything. (We don’t believe in stealing music or photos here & that was another lesson I wanted to teach.)

Because these videos were posted on my YouTube account, I was able to look at the YouTube InSights data for each video. Along with the graded feedback from the rubrics sheets, students received print outs of the InSight data on who was looking at their video (gender, ages, location), how they found the video (referrers & search terms) as well as the neat “hot spots” graph which I annotated to show where people might have rewound the video or at which point they abandoned watching it.

In the end, the students loved the project and I feel it showed the professional approach PR can take with making social media content. Just because it is on YouTube does not mean that you can steal music to play in the background or that you should forget everything you learned about messaging.

I gave students a month to work on it outside of class. They were in teams of 3-4 people, self-selected. They were given full creative control of their content for the video & just received consultation-type feedback from me. They checked out my flip cams to record the videos (2-day check out for each of my 2 flip cams) & most of them taught themselves how to use iMovie to create the video. While I offered some level of tech support, few asked me any questions at all.

If you’re curious, UGA Admissions selected:
#1: Lessons Learned: Katherine Durham, Danielle Sender, Devin Zimmerman
#2: My UGA: Kristin Ballard, Ryan Barnes, Magan Cowart, Meredith Schneider

The viral showdown winners were (views as of April 28, 2009):
#1: My UGA: Kristin Ballard, Ryan Barnes, Magan Cowart, Meredith Schneider (1,922 views)
#2: There’s no place like home – UGA: Staci Dale, Katie Brown, Katie Holcomb (1,369 views)

You can watch all the videos, some admittedly better than others, at this YouTube playlist.

This was cross-posted at the PR Profs blog.

I was inspired by an idea from my former student, Lindsey Loughman, who once likened me as her capstone campaigns course instructor to her “PR Made Coach.” She was making reference to that show on MTV where  someone is “made” into something clearly out of her element – like a hiphop dancer, boxer or extreme skater girl.

And so I created a little video in the style of MTV’s “True Life” series.

This video interviews 5 Grady graduates a year after graduation. They talk about what they liked most about campaigns, least and how it was working with other people. They also take a look back at the class campaigns process from their current perspectives.

Even though students hate campaigns in the middle (& some still at the end), I could fill up my UGA inbox limit with the e-mail I’ve received from graduates saying that now that they are in the real world they totally “get” campaigns. And all the bull that went along with it.

Everyone is talking about social media in PR. And not just techies. Even the dinosaurs in VP-level PR jobs know they have to figure it out to stay relevant.

Juxtapose this to the next generation of practitioners professors like me have sitting in our classrooms right now. These students know the tools and want to use them professionally, but they just don’t really have the best grasp on the practice of public relations at this point to make it really work.

And so we’re in a gray area right now.

We have the establishment grappling with understanding the tools and the future work force fumbling to turn their playgrounds into professional PR places.

That’s where professors come in.

Perhaps rightfully so these days, a staple component of nearly every campaigns class capstone project includes social media.

But we have to be careful.

We have to try to bridge these two perspectives – the wise strategic capability of the establishment in how to practice excellent public relations with the understanding of ethical and quality integration of social media tools where appropriate.

We don’t use it just to use it, we use it when the research shows that is where the audience lives.We use it as a tool & tactic to meet our goals & objectives, we don’t create a separate strategy for it.

Here’s an example from my own teaching this week. Most everyone who knows me personally knows that I’m a total Twitter addict, but when my campaigns team this semester discovered that Twitter is not among the social media in which their key publics reside, my heart will just have to break a little & they’ll downgrade their Twitter engagement plans to focus on tool that really does hit the mark. Hurt as it may, Twitter isn’t the vehicle to successfully communicate this message.

Compare that with the research done by the most recent UGA Bateman PR competition teams, led by my colleague Dr. Karen Miller Russell. Last year her Bateman team did a video showdown on YouTube with local middle schools and this year they created meaningful testimonials of “people like me” from high schoolers who are just coming to realize how they can make their college dreams a financial reality. [Plug!! To see all the videos from this UGA Bateman team, visit their YouTube channel.]

As the bridge between today and tomorrow, PR professors have a big responsibility. We have to be able move beyond “shiny object syndrome” that captivate many with regard to social media, & we have to identify how the tactical use of social media fits into the overall traditional campaign strategy.

So my plea to PR professors comes down to 3 easy requests:

• Don’t wing it when it comes to integrating social media into the curriculum. Approach it as you would any other serious topic in the syllabus.
• Ask yourself how integration of the social media tactic fits into the strategy, do research to find out which social media spaces your target publics are in, then most importantly understand the unique varying culture that occurs in different social media spaces.
• Know ethics backwards & forwards, & spend time talking to students about getting the lay of the land before jumping in.

Why am I writing this post covering the obvious? Well, simple. I’m seeing my peers teach their students “how to use social media” & they are getting it wrong.

So, professors, do your homework before you assign homework to your students. There is a lot riding on this & we need to get it right.

[This was cross-posted on the PR Profs blog, sponsored by the NCA PR Division]

You probably know all about the assignment I gave my PR writing students where I asked them to make a video that has the potential to go viral. Cool assignment. They are knee deep in shooting & production now. Soon YouTube will be full of student-produced videos all about how great UGA is (Admissions is our client).

This is probably the first assignment in the history of teaching that I can’t wait to grade.

But before you go thinking I sent these digital natives off into the wild world of YouTube uninformed, I want you to know we stole about 15 minutes of time from Converseon’s Paull Young recently as he Skype’d into my class as a guest lecturer to talk about viral video.

First thing out of his mouth is that “viral makes my skin crawl!” Then he told us you shouldn’t set out to make a viral video; just set out to make a good video. He walked us through considerations and best practices. I’d call this “Viral 101″ if I had written it on the syllabus. Very informative, even for the people who think they know it all about consumer-produced media.

Then he dove into two really great case studies about Graco Baby and Second Chance Trees. Solid examples of when video really becomes the best way to communicate.

My students were so impressed with Paull (though it could have just been his accent) & I know I certainly appreciated him taking the time to talk us at University of Georgia.

And just checking here … anyone else amused that I turned his lecture – delivered via Web video from his NYC office to my UGA classroom – about viral video into a video that has the potential to go viral? Oh. Just me? Okay, then. Whatever.

Every PR writing class touches on how to write PSAs, VNRs, radio scripts and other audio / video material. But when was the last time a real practitioner wrote a PSA? And if she did, how much impact did it really have?

Viral video is the new PSA. Only it’s cool. And people watch them. Then share them. Viral, get it?

So this reality meets my continued effort to integrate social media assignments into traditional classes and a new project is born.

This semester I’m charging my PR writing students (1st semester in the major) with creating videos that have the potential to go viral. You can’t make a viral video – the viewers make it viral. But you can create a video with the potential to go viral.

I partnered with a very willing client on campus, University Admissions. The videos will aim to showcase the campus for prospective UGA students. Admissions agreed to use the videos (any number they chose) they think will best help in their efforts. As a bonus, I’ll award extra credit for every video Admissions choses to use. Additionally, we’ll have a viral contest & the video with the most views at the end of the semester will get another dose of extra credit.

The students will have a month to create the videos. I will provide the video (flip) cam, but they need to work through how to edit it themselves. A week after we talk about the project in class, each team has to turn in a story board.

Ready to find out how I plan to do it? Here we go.

—

Objectives
Plan, shoot, edit and create a short video with the potential to “go viral” about the University of Georgia. The client for this project is University of Georgia Admissions Office. The video targets high school seniors (but appropriate for parents), and could be used as a recruitment tool for UGA. Students will work in teams of three each and have a month to complete the mulit-phase project. A story board outlining the concept, general script and scenes is due in class in one week.  Completed video is due in one month. Each member in the team receives the same grade earned for the video.  This project is worth 10% of the overall grade.

Technical Notes

• Flip video cameras loan available from professor – remember the rest of the teams need them too (plan)
• Length must be between 1-4 minutes (no more, no less)
• Obscene material prohibited – push the envelope but keep in mind the public relations purpose of video
• Prominently mention/show UGA so viewers know what the video is about if unfamiliar with UGA
• Credits somewhere in the video must list all the names of the team members
• Any music or material used must be done so legally (permission from artist) – provide credit for work used
  o Review Creative Commons licenses on images on Flickr or other image sites
  o Find music at http://is.gd/fqao, http://www.jamendo.com/en/ and http://www.podsafeaudio.com/
• Turn in all files – the exported .mov/.avi file plus the source file (e.g., iMovie file) if appropriate
• Write a short description and provide key words to accompany video when it goes on YouTube

Tips

• Understand the audience – inside jokes are good, but not so much if it leaves majority out
• Be informational while entertaining, consider a humorous or musical approach
• Use other videos as inspiration, but do not completely copy content or concept
• Save and back-up all project files often

Turning the Video In
Write the video files to a CD ROM. If the team used a video editing program to edit the video, the team should turn in that project (e.g., iMovie) file as well on the disk. The disk must have the final movie exported as a .mov or .avi. The short description and key words should be on the CD ROM in a text file.

Sample Viral Videos
There is no “right way” to do this project. Be creative. Do it well.

Popular viral videos can inspire (not copy):

• Dear Gossip Girl
• UNC Chapel Hill Library Flash Mob
• Clarkson University rap
• Georgia Tech YouTube rap
• Snellebrate UGA rap about Snelling
• Go Green Alliance campaigns teams’ videos
• Navy flight squadron Sun Kings sing Hey Ya
• Dove “Evolution” campaign
• Motrin Moms ad (note: this one backfired)
• Smirnoff tea party and response Green tea party

Bonus Opportunity
Each video will be posted on YouTube channel.  UGA Admissions will review the videos, and the creators of each video they select to use in recruitment efforts will receive .25 bonus on top of their final class grade.  There will also be a class competition, with the winners determined on the last day of class. The video that receives the most views on YouTube by the last day of class will get +2 points of adjustment to the viral video project grade. The video in second place with the second most number of views will get a +1 point adjustment to the viral video project grade.

Research, as I tell my students at the University of Georgia, bookends every public relations campaigns. That is, every campaign begins and ends with research. Whether your acronym for a four-step campaign process is RPIE or ROPE, you very clear see formative and evaluative research surrounding the process to a successful campaign.

As such, we educators need to get it right when teaching research methods. We need to make sure that while the majority of our students will go straight into practice, not graduate school, that they each understand the importance of rigor in their approach. And maybe, if you’re lucky, along the way your infectious love for research might rub off on them.

My way approaching this in the undergraduate PR research method course at UGA has been to have students work in teams and conduct a real academic study over the course of the semester. The students come up with their own research topics, which often range from crisis to social media.

They find quality instruments, obtain IRB approval and in short conduct ethical, high quality research.

After teaching 3 semesters using this method, I am now proud to have racked up some impressive stats of my own:

• 2 student project papers presented at academic conferences (AEJMC & NCA)
• 2 student project papers published in Public Relations Review
• 4 undergrad PR student teams’ end-of-semester presentations received more than 1,140 views on YouTube (combined)
• 9 press releases from the college announcing the results of their studies

I held the students to a high academic standard, and the promise of presenting their research at a conference or later publishing it kept me focused on ensuring their projects were of the quality to reach that level.

The students’ research now has a greater audience than the 30 people registered in the class, as it lives on digitally and ascends to the next level of academic peer-review.

If you want to have the same results for your research methods students, consider my tips:

• express your expectations (conference-quality research) at the beginning of the semester
• be prepared to help the students along the process, letting them find their way but never allowing them to get lost
• have each student group separately over to your house one weeknight to run their SPSS results (pizza party!)
• video the student presentations then post on YouTube
• post pictures, audio and/or video of student presentations on your own Facebook page then tag each student – it will attract the interest of each student’s friends & let them see what the student has been up to all semester
• offer bonus points at the end of the semester for students to write a press release you can then edit & submit to your college’s PR person to distribute to media (or post on the college Web site)

Happy researching!

This item is cross-posted on the PR Profs blog.