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Social Media Monitoring Report :: PRCA 4330

For Prof. Nixon’s PRCA 4330 Public Relations Research Class:

This assignment gives you an opportunity to learn how to monitor blog and other social media content in a way that provides similar insight offered by more traditional environmental scanning methods.

Many people will discuss your client or organization and its products/services on their own Web sites or on social media sites, outside of realm traditional media. Just as it is important for you to know what the media and your community are saying about your organization and its products/services, it is important to know what is being said in social media sites like blogs, social networks, and message boards. For this assignment, you will

  1. monitor the online conversation that has occurred about an organization or brand of your choosing since November 1, 2009
  2. create a table for your data
  3. write an analysis of the conversation with suggestions for action.

You might find bloggers who are blogging about your client organization or brand, people who are creating Web sites about it, message board members who are discussing it in forums, Twitter users who are twittering about it, social networking users who are commenting about it, or online video producers who are posting YouTube videos about it.

Let me know by November 15 how you choose to complete the project (individual or in pairs) and which organization you are choosing using this Google spreadsheet. NOTE: The first person (or pair) to “claim” a Fortune 500 company “gets” the company. No duplicates, please.

For details on the report, see below.

Social Media Monitoring Report

Many thanks to Kelli Burns, from University of South Florida, for allowing me to slightly modify a project posted at her Social Researcher blog.

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Create Your Own Social Media Policy

How do you use social media?

Melanie McBride, a Toronto based writer-aggregator of education, technology, media and culture, wrote:

“Despite the popularity and widespread adoption of social tools, there’s little agreement when it comes to matters of our individual terms of use. Without a collective social contract for social media, many of us are left wondering: How do I define my own social policy? Until now, corporate social media developers are defining those policies for us. Some of us feel it’s time we defined social media according to our our own terms.

McBride posted a template, and encouraged her readers to “[Steal This] Personal Social Media Policy.” Since she has this licensed under Creative Commons, I’m sharing it with you here.

I challenge all users of social media, especially PR students, to adapt this template and create their own social media policies.

MY SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

[a work in progress]

1. Connecting: Introduce yourself and tell me why you want to connect

[Would you like an introduction from new follows? Would you like them to answer a particular question about their interest in connecting? Define it here]

2. Follow, add, friend: [your subhead here]

[Your polices around friending, following and adding. For example, if people follow/friend you do you automatically reciprocate? Or do you prefer to evaluate the value of a contact over time? State it here, loud and clear]

3. Privacy, boundaries and safety: [your subhead here]

[Define your privacy/boundaries for friends, coworkers and family. Everybody has different ideas about what’s “too much information.” Friends, family and business associates have different ideas about who you are. While you may not be able to control what’s said about you, you can certainly ask your network to be mindful of your limits]

4. Signal to noise: [your subhead here]

[Do you have any strong feelings about the kind of social media experience you seek (or don’t)? For example, do you have a problem with people using RSS in their Twitter? Do you get annoyed by multiple status updates? Make that clear here (so people aren’t surprised when you unfollow them – or vice versa)]

5. Personal data and sharing: [your subhead here]

[What’s all this sharing about? (for you) Are you looking to connect more deeply according to shared interests, ideologies, professional goals?]

6. My networking needs and uses: [subhead here]

[How is your use of Facebook different from your use of Linkedin different from your use of Twitter different from your use of MySpace? What are your specific networking purposes or goals for each?]

7. Your criteria here: [subhead here]

[your policy, feelings, arguments here]

8. Your criteria here: [subhead here]

[your policy, feelings, arguments here]


Photo Credit: The Conversation Prism, originally uploaded to Flickr by b_d_solis
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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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Sound Bites from the New Media Academic Summit 2008

Edelman and PR Week hosted the New Media Academic Summit 08 last month in Chicago. It was a fantastic opportunity for public relations educators from around North America to learn how new media is being applied and measured in companies around the globe. Below are some of my favorite soundbites from the Summit. For an almost-complete transcript of the dozen or so sessions, visit Edelman’s site where the sessions were live-blogged. Edelman has also posted video of all of the sessions.

Richard Edelman, President & CEO, Edelman

Weeklies (weekly newspapers) are in terminal decline.

Obama has surround sound; he is everywhere.

Google never forgets.

Conversational crack [view complete presentation]

Julia Hood, Publishing Director, PR Week

Pitching is broken art in public relations. [view complete presentation]

Alexandra Wheeler, Director of Digital Strategy, Starbucks

It’s not just launch and abandon; it’s also care and feeding.

Anyone with a keyboard has a voice. [view complete presentation]

Jim Kirk, Associate Managing Editor of Financial News, Chicago Tribune

The newspaper industry was in a recession before the recession. [view complete presentation]

Troy Mastin, Media Analyst, William Blair & Co.

You rule out a large portion of your potential audience if you force them to pay for content.

Most people will probably participate in a maximum of three social networks, one personal, one professional and one for their passion. [view complete presentation]

Neville Hobson, Blogger & Co-Host of For Immediate Release podcast

There is an educational need for the older audience in public relations because of the way we now share messages and information; the older generation helps the younger generation learn how the corporations work and communicate, and the younger generation helps with the new way their generation shares ideas and news. [view complete presentation]

Wolfgang Luenenbuerger, Director Europe, Edelman

The Internet is not yet 5000 days old and yet it’s this complex. [view complete presentation]

Marshall Manson, Director of Digital Strategy, Edelman

[There’s] a tension between language and geography in Europe. [view complete presentation]

Mindy Finn, Director of Finn Enterprises

Buzz is nice, but don’t do something for buzz only. [view complete presentation]

Mike Krempansky, Senior Vice President, Online Advocacy, Edelman

It’s happening whether you drive it or not. [view complete presentation]

Mark Monseau, Director of Corporate Communications, Johnson & Johnson

You don’t create communities; communities create themselves. [view complete presentation]

David Rubin, Brand Building Director, Unilever

We sell bottles of shampoo not entertainment.

No one really wants to visit a deodorant website.

The newer the new media gets, the more important it is to get back to communication fundamentals. [view complete presentation]

Marcel LeBrun, CEO, Radian6

The social medium is the message. [view complete presentation]

Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell

Listening, talking, energizing, supporting and embracing [view complete presentation]

Rick Murray, President, Edelman

Look to others for innovation; look to yourself for innovation in process.

(Regarding current college students) Social media is part of their work and part of their world. [view complete presentation]

 

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Ice Cream Social [Media]

Once again, the folks at Common Craft have provided a creative and simple explanation for us . . . this time, Sachi and Lee Lefever use an ice cream factory in the mythical town of Scoopville to demystify social media. Enjoy!

 

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

(PS — My current favorite ice cream is Bruster’s butter pecan, filled with tons of salty toasted pecans. What’s yours?)