Monday, September 24, 2012

Who is the Queen of Twitter?


     In a world where big numbers mean big business, the size of a celebrity's Twitter following is of great interest to fans and advertisers alike. Nearly four years after joining the social networking site, Lady Gaga is the first Twitter user to reach 20 million followers mark on twitter, and up to now, she got 29,685,558 followers!!! Gaga even dubbed herself the “Queen of Twitter,” and has retained the title ever since. She also called those follower and all her fans "Little Monster".

    I am among those over 20 million followers and after closely scrutiny of her tweets for one week, I found that unlike some celebrity and politicians’ Twitters, which are largely maintained by their management team, Gaga seems personally maintain her Twitter account and regularly uses it to interact with fans, share original pictures and make announcements. For example, Lady Gaga announces her new album tittle via twitter: “@ladygaga make sure when writing about my new album/project ARTPOP that you CAPITALIZE the title, *its all in the details* good morning twitter!” The reveal of album title through twitter has received warm responses from those "Little Monsters" on Twitter. Also, once Gaga has posted a picture of herself naked, reclining on an armchair, for her nearly 30 million followers on Twitter. The “Bad Romance” singer is seen hugging her knees to her chest in the snap. Although this tweet was very controversial on the Internet, it arrested many eyes.

    Bur recently, a research about Lady Gaga’s twitter has aroused heated discussions. Some people questioned how many Twitter followers does Lady Gaga really have? Most people with Twitter accounts will have been bombarded with indecipherable messages apparently sent by “spambots” who don't exist. A British Company has developed a tool to expose the fraudulent accounts that inflate follower numbers. And this new social media tool that verifies whether followers are real or not shows that more than half of Lady Gaga's near 29 million followers aren't actually people.

    Beside Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, who owns 13,991,183 followers is also an active Twitter user. Since joining Twitter in 2009, the “Queen of Talk” has played nice with her nearly 14 million followers. Although the amount of her followers is not as many as Lady Gaga’s, she wrote 4323 tweets since she created her twitter, much more than Lady Gaga’s tweets which is 1948. By closely scrutinizing her tweets for a week, I found she actively interacted with all her fans and frequently responded to her followers’ questions. It seems that Oprah Winfrey is a more real, practical and interactive Twitter user.
    
    But Oprah Winfrey also met with some troubles with this social media platform, and finally our “Queen of Talk” defended herself on twitter! Once Oprah Winfrey showed that she is not one to be messed with by “arguing” with one of her followers. At first, Oprah was confronted by one of her followers, @Awalkdatalk, claiming that she does not give back to the ghettos in America. “@Oprah when are u going 2 give back 2 the ghettos in america?” he tweeted. Oprah then snapped back “@awalkdatalk when are u? I’ve put 500 African American men thru college. And u sir?” Oprah’s response received thousands of retweets and within moments became a viral sensation. "Yes Oprah, yes," one person tweeted. "Preach. We're all on your side." Another person questioned if "Awalkdatalk" was attempting to get famous off of the popular media proprietor. "Why is this dude trying to get famous off of a heated debate between him and Oprah," the person questioned. Actually, for the record, Oprah is the largest individual donor to the all-male HBCU Morehouse College since 1989. During the Oprah Winfrey Show farewell spectacular in May 2011, two hundred Morehouse students that had benefited from Oprah’s generosity marched with candles and surrounded her on stage. This “battle” is a shinning example of how celebrity using public opinion and social media to defend their own images.

    Overall, it was those celebrity’s participation that made Twitter a unique and charming platform. It is hard to say who is the “queen” of “king” of Twitter, because both the size of followings and the amount of tweets can’t decide anything. Whatever for promotion or for fun, I believe the most important factor of celebrity’s twitter is the real and sincere engagement with their audience

Monday, September 17, 2012

This is our time to engage!


    We are at the beginning of something new and incredible. Social media enable us to earn experience, connections and prominence through engagement and interaction. When you engage, you converse; when you engage, you inspire advocates; when you engage, you create movements. 
So what many brands, companies and organizations are trying to do is engaging their audiences. That’s also what this week’s reading of the book Engage! try to tell us: we should be fully aware that this is an era of engagement!
    Social media has created a new communication bridge between companies and customers, which reshaped the relationship between them. The days of “hear no evil, see no evil speak no evil” have passed without lament. Today, companies and corporations are not in control of their brand or message anymore. Today, they share it with their customers, with public, who can make or break them!
    To engage in the social media and even take the advantages of them, companies have a lot to do. First, companies should build their images and reputations through social media. Social networks are hubs between the company and its customers, so companies should spare no effort to give their customers and the public something to believe in and give some information to let them know that who the company do through social media. Doing so builds an active collective of participants, powered by influential voices. Then, companies should arm their employees, who will help to shape perception, steer conversations, and provide information. Employees should be fully aware that social media is about speak with, not speak at people, and people just don’t speak or hear things in the same way companies speak about their products and services. The truth is that there will be negative commentary. How to deal with different voices and commentary is a compulsory course for all employees. What’s more, companies should also learn from success and mistakes from their peers. Social media also provide a platform between different companies for them to know about and learn from their competitors. Some companies and organizations have created an influential, effective and community-focused social media platform that engages stakeholders while other companies seem behind the times. So, every company should learn from competitors and improve themselves.
When it comes to engagement, Weber Shandwick, a global public relations firm has once pointed out ten rules of engagement for the communication society for our reference:
1.     Get a job: In a world where information comes at us from endless sources, it’s no   longer just about engaging people with a story. Today, we engage people IN the    story. It’s an important distinction.
2.     Get Over Yourself: You are not in control of your brand or message anymore. Today, you share it with your audience. They shape your story, how others see you, and what people say about you. In short, they can make or break you.
3.     You’re drop in the Ocean: People are drowning in content. Be bold and original and be the drop that’s drunk.
4.     You’re Probably on Something: Your audience is constantly engaged with the information, entertainment, conversations and people that matter to them. Your message needs to be where everyone is.
5.     Ask What’s the Insight: The insight is the creative idea at the heart of every campaign. As more and more people participate in it, share it, and advocate it, insights spark movements and transform businesses, brands and issues.
6.     Follow Directions: Every brand, company and organization has a positioning in the marketplace. The content we create is carefully designed to move a brand’s story forward towards a distinct goal.
7.     Be Contagious: To inspire, delight, entertain, shock, captivate and illuminate – whatever it takes to create emotional experiences that drive participation.
8.     Pay attention: Our secret weapon is our Engagement Index. This proprietary tool allows us to monitor the level of engagement, so we know how it’s affecting the awareness, perception and health of your business.
9.     Caffeinate: You can’t go to sleep, not in this world. You must be ready to react and respond at a moment’s notice. Answer, project, update, and argue. Whatever you do, don’t close your eyes.
10.  Hire Us: It’s the engagement era and we practice what we preach. Public relations firm should always believe passionately in engagement, and believes in the power of ideas that grow.
    Engage or die? That is not a question.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Where Should We Draw the Line?


    In an era of knowledge updating and information exploration, people have exerted a tremendous fascination on various social media platform. However, a rise of social media also aroused heated discussion on ethic problem in this area, which is a complex and controversial issue.
    From the week’s reading materials as well as class discussion, I saw a dilemma in today’s social media. On one hand, protecting integrity and the public trust are fundamental to social media platform. On the other hand, lack of systematic rules and network security laws made social media always be blamed for unethical in numerous situations. Where should we draw the line is an issue worth thinking about for all social media participants.
    According to a survey conducted by The Ethics Resource Center, “active social networkers show a higher tolerance for activities that could be considered unethical,” from which we can see that although social media are challenged by a lot of ethical problems, sometimes people can “benefit” from or participated in those unethical behaviors unconsciously, that’s why active social networkers show a higher tolerance for social media. I myself have been a victim of unethical social network as well as a participant in some unethical behavior unconsciously.
    One of the core ethical values proposed by PRSA is loyalty, or protect confidential and private information. Nowadays, when we join a specific social network site, register for a E-mail or open an account for online shopping, we are asked to complete personal information online, such as our job, contact number and other details, and those information are promised to be confidential by those websites and online services. But when I received some annoying messages, callings and spam, I know that my personal information has been leaked. Some social-networking sites had "deceived" users by sharing personal data with advertisers that it had promised to keep private. That’s how I victimized from unethical social media.
    What’s more, when surfing online, we are likely to neglected the copyright issues and take it for granted that we could download something form the Internet for free. I was also keen on websites that offering downloading free mp3s, e-books and software without being aware of the intellectual property protection issue. I found in western world, people pay more attention on intellectual property issue than that in China, that’s also where we should continue to improve and move forwards. That’s how I also participated in unethical social media behaviors.
    To understand where to draw the line we should first understand the potential connection between ethics and social networks. Ethics is not a force that hinders the development of social network. On the contrary, it helps social media to develop in a healthy and orderly way. Ensuring both ethics compliance and social media success should be the eternal principle.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Social Media—— A World of Ideas and Ideals


    When Marshall McLuhan first coined the phrases “global village”, television hasn’t become commonplace, let alone the social network sites. No one could have predicted today's information-dependent planet. Today, the world that Marshall McLuhan foresaw is beginning to take place—social media is extending men in a global embrace. Social network sites, as the most popular and influential social media, provided a different way for individuals to communicate digitally, reshaping patterns of social interaction, politics, and economic activity.
    The social networks I use most often can be mainly classified into two categories refer by their function. One is for interaction and communicating, the other is for resource and information searching.
    For interaction and communicating, the social network I use most frequently is the “Renren” Network, China’s most influential social network equivalent to Facebook. In Chinese language, “ren” means “people”, so “renren” literally indicates "Everyone's Website". Just like Facebook, renren has become a platform for people to connect and interact. On renren website, I maintained and managed my own profile and I am keen on updating my profile with posting photos, blogs, music and personal information. Similarly, the updates of my friends are also available on my home page, through which I can interact with them or make comment the first time. My renren profile link is: http://www.renren.com/250026937/profile

    Another social network I favor is “Sina Weibo”, a Chinese microblogging website akin to Twitter. I update my profile with short messages (like tweet) about something new and interesting in me life as well as some sites I like to share with my followers and at the same time, I can also keep track of my following. The charm of weibo lies in that some celebrities also has their own weibo profile, from which their fans in reality can receive the twitterings of their favorite stars, political and business leaders. My weibo link is: http://www.weibo.com/xcck/profile
    For information-researching use, the social network I use frequently is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is a free, collaboratively edited Internet resource platform. Although I never contribute any content to the site, I use it for information and reference since I believe collective contributions represent a consensus view. 
    Now I began my journey of “Facebook” and “Twitter” since I came to U.S. The experience of engaging in social network is always enjoyable and addictive.
    Our generation is coming of age in an amazing time. We live in an information society and a global age of communication. I am interested in how people construct, use, and interpret messages across multiple channels to inform, relate, and influence each other across social media, and how social media will develop in the future. A study on how social media affect P.R and how it change the whole society is of practical value since I would like to be a PR practitioner in the future. The world of communication is made up ideas and ideals, of variegated phenomena that influence our social life. I am looking forward to learn more about the influence and future development of social media through this course, and that would be a challenging and rewarding process.