ATX Public Relations

Are Social Media Tactics Taking Over?

kathleen352 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:46:11 +0000

In our PR class we are being taught to use social media to help clients reach their audiences. At the same time if we are focusing on using social media and the Internet to push a message are traditional tactics being lost in the mix? If we are so focused on creating Facebook accounts and YouTube videos on specific YouTube channels will we forget to do traditional PR things that could still serve the client well. LIke creating and pushing social media releases. Or calling journalist to promote and event or contest. The field of PR is in a huge transition and we have to make sure to combine the old with the new and not lose the old in the speedy transition.

Newsweek-Sarah Palin

kathleen352 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:42:06 +0000

The Newsweek cover features Palin in short runners shorts with the headline “How do you solve a problem like Sarah?”. The photo used on the cover was actually from the August 2009 issue of Runner;s World and Palin expressed her dislike that the phot was used in Newsweek out of context. It has raised issues with conservative supporters of Palin and excited liberals. For Palin’s sake I do not think that what she needs right now is any additional criticism and she definitely needs to get her PR team to do a little damage control.

Would you pay for the news online?

kathleen352 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:28:37 +0000

A survey of 5,000 people showed that Americans are less willing to pay for the news online than people in other Western countries. The study was conducted by Boston Consulting Group and the results were no huge surprise. They found that of U.S. regular Internet users 48 percent would pay to read the news online. Which means that over 50 percent of Internet users in the U.S. will not pay to read their news online. In comparison to the U.S., in other Western European countries 60 percent of people said they would pay for online news. The research showed that charging in the U.S. wouldn’t bring newspapers a great deal of increased revenue considering that people surveyed said they would on average pay only $3 per month.

Help Samll Businesses Manage Twitter

kathleen352 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:05:00 +0000

There is a new tool out there called Monitter that is helping small businesses that are overwhelmed by Twitter. The problem when you are monitor your businesses mentions on Twitter is that you have to sort through tweets about other companies with a similar name or product. And if you are a small business with a small staff then that can take up a lot of you time that needs to be spent on other areas. Monitter lets you to a search on Twitter but then filters the results for only mentions from your geographic area. You only have to go through the result that are from a certain distance from a specified zip code. This is a free service that lets you see how your local target audience is responding to you over Twitter and look at comments on competitors in you zip code.

Press Releases: Gone Or Here To Stay?

kathleen352 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:53:45 +0000

I have had conversations recently with other Public Relations students about the fact that we are seniors and it has been almost a year since we have written any press releases in our classes. Is that normal? I don’t think that it is, but maybe it is not as horrible a thing as I had thought. According to Steve Rubel’s blog only forty-nine percent of communications professionals think that press releases are as useful as ever. Some professionals feel that they are a necessary evil that will not go away in the near future. With the explosion of social media it is hard for me to believe that press releases will not die out in the next ten years. I think that the condensed nature of information and news that appears with social media lends itself more to concise media alerts verses the more lengthy press releases. Despite this fact it does make me uneasy to be entering the job market looking for a Public Relations position when it was been so long since any professor or mentor has encouraged the use of or assign a press release.

Phone and Email are not Going Anywhere

kathleen352 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:40:08 +0000

With the introdction of so many new networking sites and technologies like blogs people have been curious whether or not email and phones will survive. I think that a good thing to focus on is the normal human interactions that beign with actual physical contact. Then the next best thing to that is the phone. You do not get the same sense of a person, whether personal or professional, from an online service like Twitter, Facebook or Linkdin. That is why I think that even with the uprising of these new systems the old ways will never truely die out. Nothing can replace the actual conversations that need to take place between individuals.

The iPhone In China

kathleen352 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:11:43 +0000

Apparently the iPhone has not had great success in China. The main reason would be because the price of the device in China is $1000 versus the $600 it cost in the U.S. Obviously the high price is keeping a lot of people from adopting the device but there is one other large problem that Apple is hoping will be able to change in the future. In additions to the high price issue the iPhone is not able to have WiFi. This is because the Chinese government’s restrictions on standards. This is obviously an issue that Apple will not be able to battle on their own and will have to hope changes in the future so that their product has a chance in the future in the China market. If Apple wants any chance of increasing sales in China they will have to at least consider lowering the price significantly.

Interactive Billboards

kathleen352 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:04:39 +0000

I wish that there were more billboards that you could take things from! That’s correct the new craze that hasn’t quite hit the U.S. yet is billboards that give people something. How the American Red Cross created a large outdoor advertisement on a huge blanket. The advertisement has about helping the homeless and the “advertisement”, which was a real blanket, could be taken down when winter hit to warm the local homeless. One of these great innovative ads even saved lives. The billboard had a real life raft attached to it that towered above the streets. When a monsoon hit India in the city where the billboard was installed people removed the raft from the large white billboard and used it to maneuver the rising waters. While this sounds crazy the company that sponsored the billboard, Aircel, had installed the life raft equipped with a rope to help in the process for the actual purpose of it to be used in case of emergency. You have to check out a few of these ads on the “Awesome Billboards and Outdoor Advertising” blog- http://billboardom.blogspot.com/2009/10/billboards-that-do-something.html

How will the Government Approach the 2010 Census?

kathleen352 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:43:09 +0000

I was just talking with a group of people today about the next Census. We were discussing how the 2010 Census will be different from the last Census and whether or not the Internet would be integrated into the strategy. It is hard for most college students like myself to get a sense of what the Census will be all about considering that the last time a Census occurred we were still in grade school. The US government realizes that the young and single demographics in the country feel this way so they have created a marketing strategy to build interest in the Census. The website offers answers to a variety of questions, which is a wierd role reversal. They approach visitors with a mix of social media like blogs and videos. The marketing campaigns goal behind this new site, which links directly to the official Census site, is to get people to fill out their Census next April. The real questions is will people even care enough to visit this new site?

How NBC is getting Ad Dollars

kathleen352 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:22:46 +0000

NBC’s newest strategy is to offers deals on packages of programming . NBS is offering marketers the chance to attach their products to shows that are promoting a cause or some health or social issue. One example is that Campbell’s soup is planning on taking advantage of this by sponsoring a multiday health segment on NBC’s the Today Show. Sponsors feel that this is a deeper way to target their consumers and a new way to hopefully break through the clutter.