Social media has exploded over the past few years. It's rare to encounter someone who either does not use social media or who is not aware of it. The question on many people's minds is, "Where is social media going to go from here?" Many people, especially people in my generation, already use social media sites almost daily and business are starting to get their feet wet too. So what happens next?
Honestly, no one really knows where social media is going and what is going to be the new hot thing in the coming years. It doesn't take long for a social media outlet to take off and be on everyone's radar. Twitter is a prime example of that. Twitter only launched about 4 years ago and now everyone from private individuals to celebrities to huge corporations are using it to connect with people. In class we talked about a few things that we thing are going to really take off in the next few years in regards to social media.
I personally think that the use of smart phones to engage in social media is going to be huge in the next year or so. Smart phones are already very popular and I think there will be a big push for people who do not already have a smart phone to get one. With more and more people having phones with the capability to download apps and use the internet, I think we are going to see companies take advantage of that more and more. On my iPhone, besides games and apps of that nature, I have at least 15 that can be considered social media. Of course I have the basics like Facebook and Twitter, but I also have an app for Digg and ESPN. I think as more people get smart phones, companies are going to develop apps so people can connect with their company and products via their cell phones.
I also think social media is going to further integrate with smart phones with the developed of more social networking programs like Foursquare. These types of programs allow the user the "interact" with specific places by checking-in. Foursquare is now even partnering with some companies to give prizes or coupons as rewards for checking-in to a place a certain number of times. In the near future I think we will see more and more companies getting involved with things like this in efforts to connect more their their publics and better build positive relationships with them.
Social media is already a big part of today's society, and it is only going to keep growing. As PR professionals, we need to keep up with what is going on in the world of social media. We need to be knowledgable of these technologies so we can determine if they could be useful in furthering our companies goals. It's an exciting time for PR professionals and I an eager to see where social media will take us in the future.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Some of Hollywood's Biggest Stars Digitally Die
In hopes to raise money and awareness for World's AIDS day, some of Hollywood's most hottest stars "digitally died" on Wednesday. Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, and others agreed to not log into their social media sites until $1 million is raised for the fight against AIDS. You would think $1 million would be raised in no time, but on the second day of this campaign only about $190,000 has been donated (according to the Yahoo celebrity blog).
From a PR perspective this seems like a great idea. Why not have a bunch of popular celebrities with huge fan bases to get their fans to donate money in order to stay connected to them online all in support of a good cause? Obviously the campaign has some flaws or else the million dollars would be raised by now. Having all theses celebs with massive online presences not allowed to tweet or Facebook about the campaign while it is going on loses a ton of online marketing. Yes, the concept of the campaign itself has gained a lot of traditional media attention, but the media are not the ones who are going to donate money. The celebrities' fans are the people who need to be reached with this campaign, and the one of the best ways to reach them is through social media. This form of communication has been eliminated and that might be why the amount of money anticipated to be raised by now has not been raised.
On the Yahoo celebrity blog, the author suggested that whoever created this campaign should have made it to where there was a threat of the celebrities "digitally dying" if $1 million is not raised in a certain amount of time. I think that route might have gotten the more of the response people were looking for simply because the celebs could promote the campaign every day that it was going on, not just the days leading up to it.
All in all, getting famous people involved in raising money for a certain cause is usually somewhat effective. The campaigns just has to be developed and promoted in the right way for it to work the way it was intended. Kudos to all the stars to chose to participate in this campaign. Raising money and awareness for AIDS is an important cause that needs to be addressed on a regular basis. I think if the campaign was tweaked just a little bit, the goals that are set would be reached sooner rather than later.
From a PR perspective this seems like a great idea. Why not have a bunch of popular celebrities with huge fan bases to get their fans to donate money in order to stay connected to them online all in support of a good cause? Obviously the campaign has some flaws or else the million dollars would be raised by now. Having all theses celebs with massive online presences not allowed to tweet or Facebook about the campaign while it is going on loses a ton of online marketing. Yes, the concept of the campaign itself has gained a lot of traditional media attention, but the media are not the ones who are going to donate money. The celebrities' fans are the people who need to be reached with this campaign, and the one of the best ways to reach them is through social media. This form of communication has been eliminated and that might be why the amount of money anticipated to be raised by now has not been raised.
On the Yahoo celebrity blog, the author suggested that whoever created this campaign should have made it to where there was a threat of the celebrities "digitally dying" if $1 million is not raised in a certain amount of time. I think that route might have gotten the more of the response people were looking for simply because the celebs could promote the campaign every day that it was going on, not just the days leading up to it.
All in all, getting famous people involved in raising money for a certain cause is usually somewhat effective. The campaigns just has to be developed and promoted in the right way for it to work the way it was intended. Kudos to all the stars to chose to participate in this campaign. Raising money and awareness for AIDS is an important cause that needs to be addressed on a regular basis. I think if the campaign was tweaked just a little bit, the goals that are set would be reached sooner rather than later.
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