The End Week 10

In a way, it is sad to read the final chapters of our 'textbooks'. I would never normally use that sentence. But it is true, like most people in our class agree, these books were thought-provoking, insightful, and intriguing. With social media being a new topic to study, I was excited to read each week and learn what the knowledgeable, experienced authors had to say--especially since all of their ideas can be applied directly to PR and where the profession is headed.

In the conclusion of New Influencers, Gillin says, "Social media is simply an electronic version of interactions that have been going on for a long time." I completely agree with his statement. The concepts and ideas behind social media aren't fabulously new and innovative. At its core, social media is communication and interaction between people. What has changed is that people now know how to communicate/interact electronically and instantaneously. This allows companies, organizations, and individual people to interact with the public in a more effective manner; a manner that follows the evolution of technology in our culture and uses it.

Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba stress the importance of loyalty and transparency in this social media phenomenon. Loyalty is the goal and the backbone of citizen-created content. People blog and share because of their passion and desire to do so. It isn't (normally) out of monetary motivation. Self-motivation is what makes the communication credible, honest, and transparent. Investing time and thought into people and engaging in transparent communication is social media at its finest.

RSS Week 6

Due to this class, I have really delved into the whole RSS concept. I always saw those three letters on Web sites but they simply annoyed me because I had no idea what they meant. I always considered myself pretty Web-savvy too; guess I was mistaken. In the New Influencers, Paul Gillin says that earlier versions of RSS were confusing and difficult. I think it just hasn't recovered from it's bad reputation yet.

Gillin writes, "RSS is an extremely powerful but somewhat clumsy technology that is central to the blogging movement." After playing around with it, I definitely believe it. Since the other week when I started subscribing to feeds of some of my favorite sites and blogs, I've been amazed at how efficient and easy RSS is. I save an adequate amount of time since I only need to click one button to get to the feeds and choose the one I want to read. Then I receive the instant info! I find myself searching for the little orange icon at the top of the pages I visit.

In the same chapter of the book, Gillin says that, "Most blog search services also let you save your search terms as RSS feeds." I find this technology to be extremely advanced. Right now I don't have a need for it, but I'm sure someday I will. Corporations have got it made with these media tools. And they are free! There isn't any reason why every organization shouldn't start tapping into these resources.