Instead of my usual postings today I have a podcast interview performed by myself, ashley, and stephanie (fellow classmates) with Laurent Perdue, a social media professional with Peer Buzz here in Austin.

This interview covers the topics of social media, reasons for using it, and aspirations/cautions that companies should have when engaging in social media.

Interview with Lauren Perdue

(0:15) Introduction
(0:45) Lauren's introduction
(2:35) Social media as a valuable tool for companies and organizations
(4:00) Social media etiquette on a business and personal scale
(5:00) Social media and the economic status
(5:50) Businesses' social media goals and interests
(7:50) Closing

The Hoax Twitter Premium Accounts

Last week BBspot release a hoax article about a possible twitter premium account set up which had the twittersphere writhing in anticipation and talk about the possibilities of such a service.

While ultimately the article was revealed as a hoax, for alot of users premium accounts have been a long been asked for. Not to mention the need for Twitter to begin to make some form of money has long been an issue that the company has had to deal with.

However, while there are no premium accounts just yet, the question as to what this type of service would have is interesting.

Twitter has always promoted itself as a micro-blogging service so for the most part I can't see them offering more characters for premium members. However, what would make the service "better" would be some form of tracking or analytics tools that aren't inherent to the service. This is some above and beyond to the current service that adds an entire layer of information and usability for business and individuals with alot of followers.

What are your thoughts on the premium accounts?

Video Blogging at its Best.

With South by Southwest starting I'd figured I'd take a look at some of the new information coming out of it. Of the panels at SxSW, one of the interesting ones chronicled by Megan Garza at Austin Chic was a panel on Video Blogging, which uses video recording and tools such as youtube and other video hosting sites to create your own video feed on the topic of your choice.

The panel talks about being successful in video blogging and in particular I believe the points discussed in the panel can be applied to the use of video blogging for business as well.

Uniqueness, originality, transparency, and overall being true to the character of the company and the representative of that company are cited as means of succeeding in this form of social media. As well, it is interesting to note how many of the uses of podcasting can be applied to video blogging. Video blogging allows you to communicate to your audience numerous forms of communication and is really only limited by the time, money, and effort spent on the project.

As the panel tells us, look towards creating a unique experience for your consumer.

Tools of Tracking and Why You Want to Track.

This past week we discussed the various ways that one can track and monitor information either about specific topics or your own blogs. One of the main tools discussed in our lectures was that of yahoo pipes. Yahoo pipes aggregates information from the web and can be arranged to present it in a fashion easily readable by any user. One of the main forms of tracking that we examined was through the use of search engine RSS feeds in order to keep an up to date record of events on social media sites such as twitter and blogger.

One of the things that I believe we should further examine is why one should want to track all this information? In order for social media to be a valuable tool for the PR community we have to have some method of calculating a return on investment for your client. Simply put, tools like Yahoo pipes help to analyze and create metrics to see how effective your social media campaign can be. Without being able to present this information in a clear and concise fashion, the actual presence of a client's social media campaign becomes hard to judge.

While tracking tools offer great flexibility in finding out the opinion of the populous at large from various locales, being able to measure the impact of your campaign also strikes me as an important use of this technology, one that can greater bridge a gap between client and their pr representatives.

I believe the continued development of metric/tracking tools will allow for the greater introduction of social media campaigns to new clients. What better way to show them the effect social media can have than by showing a business man what he understands the most; numbers, evidence, and ROI.

On The Topic of Tracking/Metrics!

While I was searching the cloud for various pieces of information on tracking, I came upon this interesting article at The Social Organization blog. The article presents some of the more common metrics that can be used to track social media campaigns and ROI.

While some of these are pretty common and will be used by many there were a few that stood out as unique and may deserve a bit more attention.

One such metric was that of "Ratios: Member to contributor; Posts to comments; Completed profiles to posts" which focuses on the actual interactions that a person does within blogs, profile sites, and other similar services. If you are using a campaign that works to have people connect and contribute this particular metric should be one of the higher priorities.

The individual metric sections also looks at examining how users are interacting with one another over a specific period of day.

Any thoughts on other interesting metrics or things worth tracking?

The Power of the Podcast

One the topic of the week was that of Podcasts and their use for PR practices. Podcasts are essentially audio (and/or video) shows that are produced and made available through the Internet for users.

The main topic that I wished to discuss in relation to podcasts is the various ways one case use podcasts for PR practices. In our lecture, some of the few uses presented to use included using podcasts as a form of communicating new information such as;

-company news
-product launches
-financial results
-with internal publics

However, I believe any company can really tailor podcasts to really fit their consumer. For example, Wizards of the Coast, the main publishing company behind the Dungeon and Dragons series in conjunction with webcomic gurus Penny Arcade produced a podcast of their game in order to introduce their consumers to the new version of the game. This gave their consumers a chance to experience the content and, from a pr stand point, communicate a new and specific message.

Before venturing into podcasting companies and organization should look at what unique information or venture they can provide for their consumers that can enhance their experience such as Wizards/Penny Arcade.

Participating with the consumer on user review sites

On the topic of blogging relations and dealing with the social media scene, Pr-Squared presented an interesting post on how companies can participate in user review sites.

One of the interesting features is how many of these tips can relate and be used for blogger relations. Being transparent, non-defensive, and listening to the consumer are largely the main lessons to learn from these experiences of which can grant companies a new insight into the way people respond to their products.

Being honest, open, and communicative is certainly a fresh perspective on the forms of communication we experience.

Corporate Blogging: the new arm of PR?

This week, one of the main topics of discussion was the notion of corporate blogging. Corporate blogging is exactly as it sounds, blogs managed and run by organizations. Of the many organizations out there some great examples of corporate blogs include blogs such as the WholeFoods Blog, the Coca Cola Blog and Google's blog.

Our discussion touched upon how these blogs can be used to create a new form of communication between the business and the consumer. Mainly by opening a line of communication rather than just simply using the blog to announce new products.

One such example is the way that wal-mart handles its corporate blog, whose posts by and large focus on presenting new products and pitches instead of content that introduces a new angle on information that helps both the company and their consumers understand one another.

In essence, when entering the blogging world there should be a greater concern that the content provided to readers is original, creative, and overall interesting to your readers.

This week we had a discussion on twitter. Twitter as most people know is a micro-blogging service that allows people to communicate through 140 character updates usually focusing on what people are doing at the time.

What largely interested me about our discussion was the large number of possibilities that the service offers to people. From status updates to blogs, press releases, live blogging, the simple service allows for a large potential of actions and really creates an interesting new channel for communication.

As the service develops, it'll be interesting to see how people develop the tool and how it is used by people.