From the monthly archives:

April 2008

Who’s got the power?

by Helena Makhotlova on April 26, 2008

in Uncategorized

Yes, we live in the times of change. The web connected us all to each other, convergence of technology has led us into the age of multimedia, gave us tools to create our own content, and abolished boundaries of publishing costs.  Yet some things just don’t change. No matter how much social media manifesto’s call for businesses to start conversations with their publics, as Clay Shirky puts it, not everyone can participate in every conversation and not everyone gets to be heard.

In his controversial book “Here comes everybody”, Shirky raised the question not many of us thought of. Paradoxical enough, the very democratic nature of the web, which allows everyone to have a say in any matter, is turning into a boundary for the very conversation. He makes a great point in observing that the interactivity is in fact getting defeated by the size of the auditorium. While technology has no limits, it appears that human mind does. They are attention span limits.

On one famous blog, after a great post, which attracted many responses, the moderator had to close the discussion board due to the enormous popularity of the topic. Attention span? Yes, it can be argued, that the conversation can be continued other places (it obviously did), but Shirky’s point is demonstrated clearly by this example. We can respond to 20 comments, yet we can’t to 200.

There are around 200 millions of blogs out there, but very few attract millions of readers. Those which do, possess an enormous social power, which is now being exploited by businesses, which are turning these bloggers into their intermediaries. I’m not saying anything is wrong with that, I’m just confronting the fact. Gladwell’s law of the few at work?

I guess it’s all about acknowledging the weakness of the web and accepting that it does not represent an ideal public sphere after all. The social power will never get to be equally distributed among individuals, no matter what technology is on the way. But again I would like to point out, that power relationships don’t really have to equal in order for them to be mutually beneficial.

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To blog or not to blog

by Helena Makhotlova on April 19, 2008

in Uncategorized

The deeper I sink into the ocean of online of social media, the more I realise that blogging as a marketing tool is a big hype. For some reason, everybody seems to believe that engaging in social media relations is the answer to everything. This provokes interesting debates on what social media is, and what it is not.

For example, according to Geoff Livingstone, social media is not media relations at all, while Steve Rubel  calls for killing the term social media altogether  and says its all media now.

I agree with Steve Rubel in the sense that social media today carry the same functions as the traditional media:  disseminating the news, setting the agenda and influencing public opinion. Social media is just another channel to reach the publics, and decision to use this particular channel should be rational rather than sensational.

John Bell, the leader of 360° Digital Influence team at Ogilvy PR’s, defines social media as a set of tools, techniques and methods used to reach a marketing or communications goal - usually in the form of word of mouth marketing. I would guess many bloggers would lift their eyebrows and scream that social media is so much more than just another marketing channel. Well, of course, it is. Just like traditional media, which yet contains around 60% of promotional content.

However, social media is a different kind of media. It’s an unfriendly territory for a marketer, unlike the MSM. We don’t get to set the rules in this ultimate domain of the end user; the domain, which is created by them, generated by them and driven by them.

From PR-perspective, I think that social media is a second chance for us to make things right. We have screwed up our reputation using media relations, and still dragging the tail of spin heritage behind us wherever we go. Let us not repeat the mistakes of the past. Let us not run after the short term profit. And therefore, let us not use social media relations in vain. On the web, more than anywhere else, everything you say can and will be used against you. Yes, silence is fatal. But stupid talk is much more fatal than the silence.

 

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The old new rules for PR

April 12, 2008

I’m writing my dissertation about doing PR using the tools of social media, and frequently come across the notion that the rules for PR have changed. Since I started my research in the autumn 2007, I read many impressive case studies about multi-million success campaigns, started by the word of mouth and, as David Meerman [...]

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PR practice and theory: it’s time for unification

April 5, 2008

I am now writing my dissertation on use of social media to launch new technology products to the market. I find it difficult to write a proper academic paper, as my theoretical framework on symmetrical communication and relationship management is more often than not poses a barrier for my writing.
I think public relations is in [...]

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My first blog: my path towards blogging

April 4, 2008

As the first blog ever for almost everyone turns out to be a quite boring one, I will be traditional this one time. After almost a year of consideration, worries (does the world want to hear my opinions? Do I have anything interesting to say?etc) and a lot of urge I finally gathered courage to start [...]

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