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Groundswell: Will It Blend?

 In my Corporate Public Relations class this fall, we’re reading Groundswell. Teams of students will present the five objectives of the groundswell: listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing. But for a little fun before we dive into the book, I thought it might be good to share this YouTube clip. What happens when you try to blend all the technologies together? Check it out on Will It Blend.

Interested in the story behind the Will It Blend video? Josh Bernoff shares the details at Forrester Research’s Groundswell minisite.

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Google Reader in Plain English

Lee and Sachi Lefever, otherwise known as the fine folks from Common Craft, have produced yet another in their “In Plain English” series. In this latest installation, they explain Google Reader, in plain English, of course.

I’ve been a user of Google Reader for about a year now. It helps me by consolidating all the RSS feeds of blogs that I like to keep up with. Here’s a very short list of some of my favorite blogs:

And for some background, you may also want to watch one of Common Craft’s first paperworks explanations: RSS in Plain English.

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How to Find Cheap College Textbooks

[Cross-posted from Making Connections: Facebook & Beyond :: a blog for my First Year Experience students at Georgia Southern University]

With the cost of college textbooks spiraling upward, it’s good to know that there are still some good sources of (relatively) inexpensive textbooks. Christopher S. Penn, host of the Financial Aid Podcast, shares his best tips for finding these books in the appropriately titled “How to Find Cheap College Textbooks.”

 

Thanks, Christopher S. Penn and Edvisors, for providing these ideas for students — and their parents!

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PR Profs Who Tweet

Twitter LogoIf you teach Public Relations at a college or university and are also a user of Twitter, I’d like to hear from you. Let’s collect the addresses of the Twitter home pages for all the PR profs who use Twitter. I’ve found it incredibly helpful and interesting to follow other people who are teaching the same subjects I am. It’s great reading their different perspectives.

Please respond with your Twitter home page address (to make it easy for others to follow you), where you teach, and what classes you teach.

I’ll get us started:

Name: Barbara Nixon

Twitter Home Page: http://twitter.com/BarbaraNixon

College/University: Georgia Southern University

Courses: PR Writing, PR Publications, Corporate PR

Thanks!

(Image Credit: http://www.culturefeast.com/graduating-from-myspace-to-twitter/)

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The Conversation Prism

Many thanks to Brian Solis & Jesse Thomas for creating The Conversation Prism, a wonderfully visual way to think about how we communicate using social media. According to Brian:

[The Conversation Prism] is a living, breathing representation of Social Media and will evolve as services and conversation channels emerge, fuse, and dissipate.

If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?

Indeed. Conversations are taking place with or without you and this map will help you visualize the potential extent and pervasiveness of the online conversations that can impact and influence your business and brand.

I encourage you to read the complete article at the PR 2.0 blog.

Photo Credit: To see the full version of The Conversation Prism image, visit Flickr.
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Chris Brogan Shares Links to 20 Free e-Books on Social Media

Earlier this month, Chris Brogan, VP Strategy & Technology at CrossTech Media, shared 20 links to free e-books on social media. With Chris’ permission, I’ve reprinted his list below. Thanks Chris, and thanks to all the authors, for sharing this content with us.

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

  1. The New Rules of Viral Marketing – David Meerman Scott
  2. Marketing Apple – MarketingApple.com
  3. Masters of Marketing – Startup Internet Marketing
  4. Podcast Marketing eBook – Christopher S. Penn
  5. Google Adwords Secrets – SEOBook
  6. Get Viral Get Visitors – Stacie Mahoe
  7. Marketing With Case Studies – Dynamic Copywriting
  8. How to Write a Marketing Plan – Geisheker Group
  9. SEO for WordPress blogs – Blizzard Internet
  10. Social Web Analytics – Social Web Analytics
  11. Geeks Guide to Promoting Yourself With Twitter – Geekpreneur
  12. The Zen of Blogging – Hunter Nutall
  13. What is Social Media – iCrossing
  14. A Primer in Social Media – SmashLab
  15. Effective Internet Presence – Effective Internet Presence
  16. Introduction to Good Usability – Peter Pixel
  17. Increasing the Response to Your Email Marketing Program – CRM Transformation
  18. We Have a Website. Now What? – Craig Rentmeester
  19. Blogs & Social Media – PRSA
  20. The Podcast Customer Revealed – Edison Media Research

Photo credit: “30 Free e-Books to Learn Everything About Personal Finance,” originally uploaded to Flickr by  Mint Software

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A Twitter Lexicon

Twitter is my favorite microblogging service. There are many, many glossaries of Twitter vocabulary on the web. So many, in fact, it’s almost overwhelming to a newbie to Twitter.

Let’s come up with the top 10 words that someone new to Twitter should know. Here are eight that I came up with quickly. Can you help round out the list?

  1. Tweet: Your 140-character (or shorter) message
  2. Twittering: The act of sending your tweet
  3. Followers: People who receive your tweets
  4. Retweet: Forwarding a tweet to your followers
  5. @ : The symbol that precedes the name of a person you’re replying to
  6. Tweep: Someone you know on Twitter
  7. Tweeple: See “tweep”
  8. Twoops: Accidentally sending a direct (private) message publicly

(And if you’re wondering “what’s Twitter?” see the clear and concise description from Common Craft, the company that specializes in explaining complex things in plain English.)