Within the blogging assessment, we have been asked to comment on the essential/further reading! so for this i have chosen the ebook article by Brian Solis and his essential guide to social media!

In this article, Solis states that social media is an important aspect in modern society, it is apparently essential within the workplace and is now how advertising industries generates its revenue.

A quote from the article explains that business marketing uses social media to engage “customers on their turf, in their way, in order to help them solve problems, find information or simply engage them in valuable dialog, in turn, they’re turning customer relationships into a powerful competitive advantage.” (Solis, p 03)

Businesses use social networking to generate relationships with new/existing customers and enhance the brand/relation in which you as a business are trying to promote.

in contrast to the traditional marketing or public relations, the aim of social media is to create a conversation with potential customers rather than promote a message and waiting for a reaction. User generated content is driven by marketers in communities which could further discuss the argument made, i.e a D.J could promote his music on Last.fm… other users could listen and discuss his product, promotion is generated as word of mouth is passed on between users, creating popularity but also attention for the D.J….. that is how Public relations works.

an interesting point which i enjoyed from the reading was the idea of linking social sciences to social media, as Media Studies students, we are encouraged to look at techniques used to understand audiences. Solis expands that idea by stating how social networking uses Ethnography and participant observation as a marketing tool within social networking, bt watching how users of these networks establish friendships, associations and allegiances around content, objects, products and services…. businesses and promoters can construct advertising campaigns to directly target the wanted audience for their product.

according to Solis this video displays how social media is used as a marketing tool, although this video is created for comedic effect, the point it tries to convey is that businesses need to be fully involved with the audiences/customers to achieve maximum profit.

The reading is simplistic and easy to follow, it offers the reader an insight to how social media can be used and fundamentally how public relations are incorporated into new media technologies. my blog does not do the reading any justice however it does highlight the main points in what Brian Solis explains, with a structured layout and easy to follow sections, this reading is essential to understanding modern public relations.

if you feel that my blog is wrong in any particular fashion please contact me or leave a message! thankyou for your patience

Concerning social media….. last.fm is all you need! From my own point of view, it combines aspects from social networking sites MYSPACE and FACEBOOK with the additional use of an internet radio to create an immersive, connected community which is not based on popularity…. but on musical taste.

Last.fm is a combination of websites which merged together to give audiences a music recommenders system which tailors the musical tastes of an individual, with recommendations of other artists a particular individual may like. Last.fm builds a profile for the user by recording the music that the user has already searched, but it also creates a database of music which is created by tracks which other users may have uploaded, tracks already stored on the Lst.fm database, tracks from other websites and viral videos such as youtube.

The two fundamental aspects of Last.fm was the use of ‘Audioscrobbler’ and the gradual integration of Audioscobbler.com with the website last.fm

‘Audioscrobbler’ was created in 2002 by a Southampton computer science student Richard Jones, his Audioscrobbler application allowed music to be recorded from registered computers…. in simpler terms! it allowed whatever tracks a registered computer played, it would be stored on a database, this database was accessable to other registered computers to view and listen to whats on this database.

Last.fm was created in 2002 by Felix Miller amongst others which offered an internet radio site and music community to users!

In 2003 both companies worked together to create a truly immersive internet radio site which offered users a unique experience in listening to radio but also socializing within a global musical community. in 2005 the website Audioscrobbler.com fully merged with last.fm to offer users the ‘full package’ and created what last.fm is today.

The uncharted success of last.fm is not un-noticable as many media outlets have commented and tried to integrate last.fm into their products… X-box 360 has a new last.fm application, Viacom wanted to buy last.fm, in January 2007 EMI nominated Last.fm as the best internet music website amongst many other achievements.

In my opinion, Last.fm is the best thing to happen towards social networking… it others music, community but most importantly discovery. Unlike the majority of other social networking sites, the search for things which users may possible like is not a tedious adventure wadding through shite and generic toss! it generates realistically similar music… which aint just through the same music label like MYSPACE and offers users a satisfactory experience.

In terms of public relations…. Last.fm is a huge success! it started as a university project and a pretty weak networking site into a globally renowned social networking tool. if anyone has to comment on last.fm or thinks my points are wrong please comment! THANKS

The Levrone report is a blogging post by bodybuilder Kevin Levrone, He used the blog hosting platform WordPress.com to launch the respectably on-line forum offering individuals advice and infinite wisdom towards body building.

The Levrone report was launched on March 25th 2009 and has inevitably gained a huge following within the weight lifting community, his views, advice and knowledge have generated enough popularity that he has now has his own separate URL address which directs participants directly to his wordpress blog… the reason why that i have decided to use The Levrone Report is to discuss blogging and how blogs are a useful attribute in generating public relations.

http://kevinlevrone.wordpress.com/

The initial wordpress blog by Kevin was used until June 31st 2009, this blog offered audiences an on-line journal showing how his personal fitness regime has created a transformation in his size, appearance, strength and overall effect on his life. He uses the blog to offer viewers a direct in sight to the life of a professional body builder and creates a direct channel of communication (in a shape of a forum) for audiences to comment and further more provide their own content (in the shape of comments and viral videos) to generate popularity and publicity for the host Kevin Levrone.

The reason why i have waffled on about what this particular blog provides is to illustrate how blogs can generate publicity, revenue, and more popularity in comparison to traditional media public relation outlets.

1 point is that Levrone is the author of his blog, no intervention and to a degree he has sole control of what is said, traditional media has the scrutiny of being processed and assessed through gate keepers and authoritative figures. so how The Levrone Report generates a following is due to how Levrone publicise his product.

To articulate what im trying to say….again, i have used an internet information provider called ALEXA.COM to illustrate how much traffic (how many people view his site) his blogs has generated.

In the wordpress.com blog (last used in June) Levrone had boasted that he generated 20.000 views. i have used Alexa.com to compare how much attention/popularity his blogs has generated from the initial wordpress blog to the updated Levronereport.com

The WordPress document was ranked according to the Alexa.com infomation provider as 2,093,173 viewed site globally. although this isnt a number to be very proud off it still offers an insight to the popularity as this is a dis-used site since june. Also Alexa.com only illustrate in-depth research to the top 100,000 sites which obviously this particular blog is not.

In comparison I wanted to show that the Levrone report has generated a more predominant fan base since the switching the URL. i have used Alexa.com again to further clarify this point.

http://levronereport.com/

Levronereport.com has a Alexa rank of 206,704. that is a huge contrast to the previous blog, however, it also illustrates how public relations is about self promotion and communication techniques…. the more effort made towards promotion and generating fans.. the more advantages the author/creator of the blog will create.

Blogging is a powerful tool in relation towards public relations, as the blog author is the creator of a personal brand. In this example of blog posts, Kevin Levrone took the opportunity to demonstrate his product and built a representation through leadership, value and expertise.

referencing link
- http://www.alexa.com/

- levronereport.com

- kevinlevrone.wordpress.com

- http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/

An issue constantly pressed towards media studies students is the issue that newspapers are constantly dumbing down and focus on human interest stories, so what interests ‘HUMANS’! If you a newspaper editor for ‘The Sun’ (u.k) its apparently X-factor or some other truly shocking event in the socio-reality calender we call television schedules.

However being realistic, a way that journalists can generate human interest stories is by actually contacting these apparent humans…. and in todays society that involves social networking sites.

For arguments sake we will talk about ‘Twitter’ and how this social network can generate NEWs!

Since the arrival of twitter on the social networking scene in 2001, People from all over the world use this networking tool to communicate with friends, groups and professionals in which they can share ideas and conversations. This is very useful for the budding journalist in search for the stories fast, they can now go direct to the source…the people.

Considering the many facilities available to twitter users; the most useful in relation towards journalism and creating contacts with institutions and professionals….. ‘TWEETMINISTER’ is the communication channel where politics enters the digital revolution.

http://tweetminster.co.uk/

‘Tweetminister’ is a live feed of politically connected people which offer traditionally exclude members of society (like everbody who aint a professional) an invitation to political culture through social networking, the site offers messages from MPs, Parties and officials with a means to get in direct contact with them ( if uve been vetted amongst other things), you can also directly specialize what your in search off…. Using tweetminister you can follow MP’s in certain geographical areas and using twitter search engines you can also direct a search on a particular topic.

For example i will demonstrate how social networking can be used by search for the topic B.N.P in twitter search;

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=B.N.P

This search directed me towards additional sources to continue my research

http://twitter.com/glenoglaza

This is one off many ways journalists can collect and direct data in constructing a story, if you have any other suggestions towards how journalists are using social networking websites to generate stories please comment. thanks

Yougov……. what on earth is that!

Yougov is a globally renowned internet – market research firm, dealing with qualitative and demographic research. Traditional data collection methods have now been dated with insufficiency and time dwindling, they have now been replaced by a new, efficient method of large-scale data collection…done from digital technology.

The methods are cost effective in comparison to telephone interviews and one to one interviews, the ‘net’ based researcher conducts its research from an invited groups of internet users… These internet users are often invited members of society whom have been invited to participate in a online survey/ questionnaire in exchange for cash ( 50p – £2) . From when Yougov have collected their data, they will conduct an analysis and distribute the information provided.

Since may 2000, Yougov’s creditability has grown from strength to strength as it has expanded its qualitative data collection facilities to a global audience.. generating clients such as ‘ The Guardian’, Sky News and many media and industrial firms.

- http://www.legalsupportnetwork.co.uk/index.php/news/details/employers_fail_to_communicate_business_plans/

Yougov is a pioneering qualitative researcher provider, the majority of media institutions which incorporate statistics within their work/products use data collected from yougov to emphasise the point in which they are trying to elaborate.

An example of this is British Politics, Since the general election of 2001, yougov has provided a more accurate statistical evidence of what the opinion polls towards political parties are! Traditionally results from opinion polls often favoured the governing party as a biased point of view was ‘ if their already ruining the country, the general public will favor them’ – However with an internet based opinion poll… It gave the public a power to have an opinion which would be apparently fairly counted and recorded with a vastly more accurate method of data collection.

For media students in particularly…. Yougov is a great website into understanding how qualitative research is undertaken in modern society, However dont just take my word for it….follow the link and find out/join yourself ‘because your opinion matters……..somewhere ha’

www.yougov.com

Public relations was based on the principles and theories purposed by pioneering psychologist, Sigmund Freud – He is best known for his theories for the unconscious mind and the psychoanalysis of the unconscious desires. His nephew Edward Bernays is the denoted as the ‘father of public relations’, after incorporating the concept of mass psychology towards political, corporate and domestic spheres.

As the founder of public relations his infamous quote came from his 1928 book called ‘Propaganda’ where he announced that Public relations was about engineering social responses to organisational needs.

So in relevance to todays society, public relations in about constructing communications between organizations and the public.

There is many ways in which public relations affects the social sphere as every organisation in some way uses public relations to generate interest, attention and credibility.

As the demise of the traditional media publications inevitably occurs during the new media ‘take-over’ , newspapers and television articles have been replaced with individual blogs and comments – un sanctioned and un edited, a complete contrast to what traditional communication channels offered its audiences. Public relations is generated from social media, word of mouth has replaced the archetype dictator that is still used within the media, however, the question is…. does this social media deter collective thinking or does it create a popular way of thinking as many blogs are directed to audiences in the same fashion.

My proposal towards blogging is that it is an individual statement, commenting on a variety of issues offering individual views and engages other participants into conversations about the discussed issue. This is a term called participatory journalism as active members of society take part.

Traditional public relations, in my eyes, has negative connotations linked towards it as many people think of public relations they think of politics.

Politics is renowned on its deception towards the public, spin, and creating a domesticated representative of values apparently constructed towards the public. In many cases the new ‘Blogging’ era has become a liability due to defamation, Political parties and organisations have actually sued individuals for the post they write.

This is where my argument came from… what is the difference between public relations and propaganda! due to the nature of the world today, individual statements can be restricted and even punished if they touch on certain political – internal matters – in my eyes this is in a certain degree ‘propaganda’, as it allows individuals to have their own opinion – as long as it dont conflict with the state view.