Is you is or is you ain’t: Social Media Expert

I recently happened across a blog post by Dave Fleet where he reviewed eight general questions he would ask a social media expert, here’s a run down of the questions:

1. Can you give me an example of social media work you’ve completed for a client recently?

2. How do you go about pitching bloggers?

3. How do you monitor what people are saying about you?

4. Where can I find you online?

5. Can you write my blog for me?

6. How do you measure results?

7. How would you define social media?

8. Can you just pretend to be me online?

So why have I found this particularly interesting and pertinent to me as a student? Well, I have put on my resume, along with many of my other classmates I’m sure, that I am experienced in social media.  But if I get asked one of the above questions in an interview do I know how to respond correctly and am I really as experienced as I think?

Fleet gives what responses you should look for a social media expert to say or to not say.  Many are pretty humorous like his response to number one:

1. Can you give me an example of social media work you’ve completed for a client recently?

If you hear anything other than “yes, here’s a good example” then back away slowly. Or not so slowly.

What I have taken from this post is that just knowing social media is not enough.  You must also know how to apply the social media techniques that we have learned.  You must also know before going into an interview how your skills can specifically help that company.  For example, I learned from an interview with Bunny Richardson that BMW does not engage too much in social media but they do monitor what is said about them in social media.  So, for this particular instance, one would need to know how to search blogs, twitter, articles etc.

I hope this helped my fellow students think about what to do with your knowledge of social media.  So go on out there and strut your stuff, but just do it a little more tactfully.  Leave some other suggestions and ideas I would love to hear them!

BB Readings: Sept. 25th

The first blog that I checked out for our blackboard readings today is Katie Paine’s blog on measuring PR.  I think one of the main posts that interested me the most was the post linking me to the information on how social media is used by nearly 70% of adults.  I found this post very interesting because it points out that there are so many different forms of social media out there today.  I was thinking with a narrow mind because I was only thinking of the new arenas that I have learned about in class such as twitter, blogs, and PROpenmic. Outside of these outlets are facebook, youtube, and even ebay that I was not even considering because I participate in them so regularly.

On that note, we also read Paull Young’s post on his Charity:water social media case study.  One point that Paull noted was that facebook was far less effective than twitter and I think the very fact that I took facebook for granted as social media in the before paragraph is a good indication why this outlett was uneffective for the case study.  To embellish, I go to facebook every now and then, maybe not even every day just to see if someone has written on my wall or posted pictures of me etc. because I do not recieve emails, or I might visit the site for a specific reason, like to message someone for example.  The only time I look at birthdays is if I have some free time and see the link on the side. More particularly, on the new facebook it is even harder to find the birthdays so I am not as accustomed to this.  With twitter, on the other hand, all it is composed of is the statuses of different people so that is what I am going there to find and to view, plus it is not complicated and is updated regularly for me.  Therefore, I enjoyed this post and the information found between facebook and twitter. Lets hope all social media does not grow this “lazy” with me…

Found: PROpenmic helps with Internships and so much more!

Being that I have not dedicated much of my time to PROpenmic thus far, I decided to try and figure it out by browsing through the different areas a little more. One of the most interesting finds of the day for me has been the group Jobs & Internships.  I just posted on some collected tips acquired from two different sources on internships. I wish I would have discovered this sector of PROpenmic before I posted the blog because it is a great discussion board where students and professionals can go to post, for students, seeking “ad’s” where they can upload their resume and sample writings and link to their blogs and twitter accounts so that companies looking to hire can easily access their work.  For professionals, they may upload a brief summary of their company and what they are looking for along with links to their blogs or websites.

On a side note, one of the companies that I checked out through this group is Affect Strategies located in New York. Their company interested me foremost because of their location and this lead me to look at their website where I found a very interesting press release they did on twitter and the ten reasons why a comany should use this form of social media.  This particularly interested me because I am so new to twitter myself that it was good to see why it is important for companies, who in the future will hopefully be hiring me, to use this outlet. It even lists other “micro-blogging” sites that could be useful to a company such as Pownce and Plurk.

Now, go check everything out, I hope you find it interesting as well!

“I’m only brave in text”

Lately I have been noticing a trend… whether good or bad I will let you decide. Here is what has been on my mind on the subject of bravery in text.

Whether it be through blogs, facebook, instant messaging, twittering, or even text messages people are becoming “brave” through these outlets. Many feel able to express their “true selves” and ideas through the sources listed above. Why? Maybe we are more willing to address someone if we cannot see how they can physically and emotionaly react… or maybe we’re just tired of being in a bubble and these are our vices?

Now, how does this begin to affect PR I’m beginning to wonder? Are companies going to be more willing to say in text and blog they are one way but truly be a different company when they come into contact with a human being?

Let me know your thoughts, I’m finding this topic very interesting…