Author Archive
By Guest Author
By Brent Carney, @BrentRCarney
Social media has become the norm on the campaign trail, and is quickly becoming entrenched on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress and their staffers alike have taken to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and any number of other social media sites to interact with constituents, sway public opinion and counter political opponents.
Social media is even pushing traditional media aside as the venue for politicians and political parties alike to attack their opponents – often harshly. In recent months, both sides of the aisle have been engaged in an ongoing battle for women’s votes. Speaker John Boehner took this fight to Twitter, disputing Vice President Joe Biden’s recent claims of a Republican “war on women.” This month’s disappointing jobs numbers opened the window for yet more attacks by Republicans with Speaker Boehner tweeting to his 300,000 followers that “today’s #jobs report is more evidence President Obama’s policies aren’t working for families & small businesses.”
With new political battles being waged daily on social media, and political parties fighting to gain the upper hand, new opportunities are being created for citizens, companies and non-profits alike to engage legislators and their staffs through these same platforms. Because of security screening and volume, most mail and emails are not opened on Capitol Hill until well after a critical vote is taken. The immediacy of social media gives it an edge, and with so many Members and their staff taking part, this has become one of the best ways for getting your voice heard. It’s also increasingly effective because members of the media are now following Twitter discussions on Capitol Hill and watching discussions taking place.
For local citizens who need immediate assistance with an issue in their community, there has never been a better way to directly interact with their Senator and Member of Congress – and the same is also true for companies and non-profits who are looking for new ways to amplify their voice, or in the case of some small businesses, join the conversation. By interacting with elected representatives and their staffs in social media circles were they walk, companies are influencing media coverage, opinions and votes on legislation, and in some cases – election results.
In person meetings, mail and email will always play an important role in political offices. They remain an important way for constituents to get the services they need and deserve. However, those who adapt to these changing times effectively and adopt social media as a new tool will find new successes – while those who do not may pay the costly price of being left behind.
This article originally appeared in Racepoint Group’s Capital Ideas Newsletter. If you would like to receive subsequent issues, please use the following sign-up form.
May 24th, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Alicia Kennedy. Follow her on Twitter @leeshy_b. Good luck, Alicia!
Last summer, I found myself skimming LinkedIn for any and all groups PR related. Less than a week later, I had accepted a position as an intern here at Racepoint Group. My role as a PR intern has been a natural fit for my skills and interests and I’ve enjoyed every minute of the last eight months here. But all good things must come to an end. In just a few short weeks I will be embarking on the next leg of my journey and I’ve realized just how important the skills I have developed at Racepoint are to post-grad life.
Here are five:
Time Management
It’s true that all of my experiences up to this point in my life have taught me a thing or two about time management. High school was a juggling act of basketball practice, music lessons and homework. College challenged me to balance office hours, research papers and club involvements. But until eight months ago, I had only one other job that kept me working against the clock. In my time here at Racepoint, I’ve learned to prioritize tasks under tight deadlines. No other experience in my life has challenged my time management skills quite like this. It is a skill that I am very proud of and one that will no doubt come in handy down the road.
Be Proactive
Some days are slow. Some days I finish my assignments in half the time and it can be tempting to waste away the final hours on Facebook or just pack up to beat the rush-hour traffic. But taking initiative and offering to help has allowed me to meet more people in the office and jump on new accounts. I’ve had the chance to learn about new industries that I had never been exposed to in the past. Most importantly, I’ve had the pleasure of helping Mary stock the “snack shack” on more than one occasion – a true honor! Being self-motivated is an important trait that will allow anyone to climb the career ladder quicker.
Work with Objectives
I’m not talking about page limits on a research paper or keeping a tweet to 140 characters. In PR, there are objectives and metrics tied to everything you do. Each task is measured and quantified. It took some getting used to at first, but I have grown to appreciate working with concrete objectives instead of lofty goals. Now, the goals I set for myself are more measureable and I like being able to see the returns from my efforts.
Be Concise
In PR you only have so many words or lines to get your point across. Nobody wants to read anything – even an email – it it’s full of fluff. Write clearly and write well. Speak clearly and speak well. Communication skills are something my generation lacks. I think I have a leg up on many of my peers!
Accept Criticism
My fatal flaw: I’m a perfectionist. I don’t just like to do things right, I also like to do them well. College and PR have both taught me that your first draft is never perfect. I’ve appreciated every piece of constructive criticism that has come my way during this internship. Accepting that you make mistakes shows willingness for self-improvement, a trait that will no doubt take me far in my career.
A big thank you to everyone I have had the pleasure of working with here at Racepoint this year. I hope our paths cross again in the future!
May 7th, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Geri Butner. Follow her on Twitter @geributner.
Today, the senior editor of a prominent technology blog announced that he is quitting the Internet for an entire year. Paul Miller of The Verge claims an Internet sabbatical has appealed to him for a while, and now he’s making it a reality. My initial thought? Paul Miller is crazy.
As someone who spends a lot of time working with social media and online publications, my heart skips a few beats when I think about not having access to the Internet powers that be. Not only will Paul be blocked from social media sites such as Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook (hasn’t anyone told him you’re not a real person unless you’re on Facebook?), but he’ll also lack everyday resources that we take for granted, like search engine capabilities and online news.
The fact that Paul is the senior editor at a technology blog only further heightens the impact that his hiatus will have on him, as well as those around him. Social media wouldn’t be social without the hundreds to thousands of people you connect with on them, so imagine the confusion that will be caused when all of Paul’s friends and followers realize they can only reach him by phone or traditional mail. Venturing outside of the confines of how this experiment will affect just Paul, the communication patterns of his family, friends and colleagues will be affected, as well.
With that being said, my second thought was this: maybe Paul Miller is not so crazy. In fact, maybe he’s even onto something here. If Paul is able to complete his self-imposed, Internet-free sentence, then his experience will provide interesting insight into the evolution of modern communication. Questions will be answered, such as: can a person successfully function as a professional in today’s society without the social networking, on-demand information and sharing capabilities of the Internet? Are we so dependent on the Internet that we’ve forgotten how to communicate in more traditional ways?
The Harvard Business Review would even go so far as to ask if the Internet is stifling innovation in communication. “Compared with the staggering changes in everyday life in the first half of the 20th century wrought by electricity, cars, and electronic communication, the digital age has brought relatively minor alterations to how we live,” writes Justin Fox, editorial director. “Electricity is still electricity, and still generated mostly with fossil fuels; cars are better but not all that much better, and still propelled almost entirely by fossil fuels. Only communication has been truly transformed, but is the transformation really as profound as the advent of telegraphs, radio, and TV?”
It does seem that Mr. Fox may have a point here. While the Internet has opened up the floodgates for creativity and an unprecedented exchange of ideas, have we allowed it to distract us from true innovation? Will Paul make discoveries about the ways we communicate and innovate that are possible only after he has released himself from the confines of the Internet? This has yet to be seen, but I, for one, am very interested in what Paul will have to say about modern communication at the year’s end.
What will you want to know about Paul’s Internet-free experience?
May 2nd, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Sam Hamilton. Follow her on Twitter @SamJHamilton.
Recently I was fortunate enough to be asked to sit on an alumni career panel at my alma mater, Roger Williams. As a former political science (and communications) major, I was put on the Government/Political Science/International Relations panel. Because of some of the work I’ve been doing with our public affairs practice, I felt comfortable talking about alternative, private-sector applications for a political science degree.
Here I was, sitting on a panel with a congressional candidate, a director of government affairs for a university, and a state government staffer and talking about the importance of networking to find your first job. While some of my fellow panelists were talking up the merits of networking events, cold calls and resume drops, I found it astounding that they were all missing SOCIAL networking. Traditional networking methods have strong merits, and I’m not knocking them, but for the current generation of entry-level job seekers, social networking has a tremendous value. A value, I found, that is greatly UNDER-valued in fields other than PR.
Time for a trip down memory lane. A year ago I was a college senior, completely terrified of joining the real world and completely lost on how to effectively look for a job. Sure, my school’s Career Center offered advice and training, but traditional methods just weren’t working for me. The prospect of graduating without ever even getting a response to my inquiries scared me to death.
So, I started job hunting my own way. I continued scouring job boards, attending networking events, and responding to advertisements. But on the side I digitally stalked every company I had an interest in (it’s less creepy than it sounds, I promise!). Then, I started following their employees and, ultimately, connecting with them (okay, this might have been a little weird). Within a month of employing this new strategy, I had connected with an employee of Racepoint Group and struck up a conversation. Ultimately, she passed along my resume and the rest, as we say, is history.
This little reminiscing interlude has a point, I promise. Networking through social channels really works and I’m living, working, RPGing proof! I’m also advocating, strongly, that social networking for your job hunt doesn’t have to be limited to just public relations. Don’t believe me? Here are 25 Twitter Chats that prove it. It’s also true that there are employers from every industry included in LinkedIn’s over 100 million users. So is your job hunt stagnating? Put yourself out there on social networks to rejuvenate your search.
What are your thoughts on using social networks for job searches?
April 12th, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Monica Weber. Follow her on Twitter @monicaweber88.
It’s that time of year again. Screw studying for finals, college seniors have something else on their minds: the job search. That’s right – cue the long lines at resume workshops and career services at colleges, a new pool of applicants is about to graduate. What’s worse is the constant stream of information telling job seekers just how hard it is to find employment. Add this with student loans and new expenses, entering the real world can seem like a nightmare.
But never fear, there is light at the end of the tunnel. LA Times recently reported on a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which found that businesses expect to hire 9.5 perecent more college graduates this year than last. Furthermore, unemployment among college graduates up to age 24 dropped from 9.8 percent in February 2011 to 8.1 percent last month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So what can you do to make sure you’re not moving home to Mom and Dad? Why not try social networking? C’mon, we all know that Facebook is the ultimate procrastination tool ever, so why not put it to good use? Twitter can be easily monitored on your iPhone, so rather than napping in the back row, why not search a few hashtags such as #job or #pr (feel free to insert your desired industry here) and see what pops up? LinkedIn? Godsend. Along with the added bonus of already having alumni and networking groups in place, LinkedIn houses a plethora of job opportunities. I should know – it’s how I found my job here at Racepoint Group.
So don’t fret, social media can come to the rescue. Go live up your last few months of fake life, and give #job a whirl.
Did you use Twitter (or other social media) to find your job? Tell us about it in the comments!
April 5th, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Evan Siff. Follow him on Twitter @Stairway2Evan.
While everyone is drooling over the recently released Hunger Games, I really couldn’t care less, as I have already seen it many years ago when it was called the Running Man (Katniss would never have made it past Subzero).
However, being a huge fan of Ridley Scott and the original Alien series, I absolutely can’t wait to see Prometheus on the big screen. I have watched the trailer close to 25 times and wouldn’t be surprised to find myself with the rest of the geekdom, camped out for tickets with a plush, Alien “Facehugger” pillow.
It remains to be seen whether Prometheus will be one of the best films of 2012, but in terms of marketing it has already demonstrated a great deal of media savvy with its website, teaser and viral video campaign, including:
Stunning stills from the film are being unlocked one by one via ProjectPrometheus.com, which was unveiled last weekend, and you can follow them on Twitter here. With three more months until its release (June 8), we can expect some serious hysteria among fans. Will you be going to see Prometheus this summer? What is your favorite viral marketing campaign?
March 29th, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Shelly Runyon. Follow her on Twitter @shelly_runyon.
I’ll admit it – in a fit of teenage angst, soon after I turned 18, I went to a tattoo parlor, and to the great disappointment of my parents, I got a tattoo. I have no regrets, I love it – it’s a snapshot of a moment of time, reminding me always to “do me” as they say on the Jersey Shore. It hurt. That was the end of that phase for me.
But with recent news of the patented technology by Nokia that would allow cell phone alerts to be felt through magnetic pulses resonating in tattoo ink, reported by Fox News, I’ve found myself once again pondering the idea of a tattoo. But would I feel the same way about a tattoo that connects me to my cell phone?
In the long term, when I’m 85, will I feel the need to be as connected to my smartphone (if they even exist then) as I do now? Or will I be forever branded with an out-of-touch piece of technology embedded, literally, into my skin?
Now I’m not 18 anymore, and these days I worry about what I’m putting on or in my skin. The active, or should I say, reactive material in these tattoos will likely be metal. From iron to magnetite to neodymium, which is used in computer hard drives, the range of possibilities is pretty wide. It’s also safe to say that the effects of those metals against cellular walls, muscle tissue and blood may be pretty wide.
Luckily, besides a tattoo, Nokia is also toying with a temporary solution – their patent also allows for “temporary magnetic spray, stamp, sticky decal or perhaps a wristband,” reports Fox News. I’m much more apt to put a patch on my arm than metal in my skin – but even then, vibrating uncontrollably – I can’t imagine the feeling.
Will it be like a bee-sting or self-induced electroshock therapy? And when your arm is wet, say, in the shower, will the tingling spread to other parts of your body? I’ll be waiting to find out!
March 28th, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Nate Towne. Follow him on Twitter at @Fancy_Lad.
LinkedIn: it’s not just for job hunting anymore!
Think LinkedIn is only for finding jobs? Think again – this leading online professional network was recently found to be a whopping 277 percent more effective than Facebook and Twitter in generating leads for businesses. If that statistic didn’t just reach out and slap you in the face, you’re not paying attention – to your business.
If you’re reading this blog, you probably already use LinkedIn for connecting with other professionals. But is your company maximizing all the bells and whistles LinkedIn provides to help you promote the business? Like washing a media list, we think it’s important to kick the tires of our favorite tools every six months – to see what’s hot, what’s new, and what we all could be doing to work smarter by leveraging the power of social. This week we turn our sights to LinkedIn, highlighting some new features as well as reminding you about existing features that you could, and should, be using to promote your business.
But first, let’s get down to business by looking at the numbers. According to LinkedIn:
- As of February 2012, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 150 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
- LinkedIn members conducted just under 4.2 billion professionally-oriented searches in 2011.
- More than 2 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages.
- Every minute an estimated 120 new members join LinkedIn (if you do the math, it’s more than two per second.)
So how can your company benefit? Make sure your LinkedIn presence is everything it could be. Here is a quick checklist of six simple steps you can take today to maximize your company’s profile on LinkedIn:
- As of February 2012, LinkedIn offers a “Follow” button for company websites, making it easier for anyone to connect with your business on LinkedIn. Be sure your company website features this button–it’s a no brainer.
- Activate your company status updates! This relatively new feature (October 2011) allows your company to post updates on LinkedIn so your followers can see the status updates on their LinkedIn homepage.
- Spread the good word – your news – via the LinkedIn news module. This feature pulls any news mentions of your organization online and places them in the right hand column of the Overview tab on your organizations’ LinkedIn page.
- Sell yourself by promoting your organization’s mad skills through a customized Products and Services tab. Building this tab into your LinkedIn company page is a great way to let other professionals know what it is you’re selling – because we’re all selling something, am I right? Of course I am! Offering the functionality found on your professional page, LinkedIn allows your followers and existing customers to recommend any of the products and services you list on this tab – bonus! And if it’s a fit for your company, you can even add videos to this tab to visually drive home why other companies or professionals can’t do without your products and services. So remember that executive video you shot of your CEO where she describes your organization in vivid detail? Load it up to LinkedIn: you’ve already done the work so spread it like it’s buttah.
- If you have a company blog, be sure to set up an RSS feed on LinkedIn to maximize the spread of your smart thinking. Racepoint Group has an RSS feed – you should too.
- List your job openings on the Career tab – let’s face it, since the fastest growing population on LinkedIn is college students and the newly graduated, many of the eyeballs checking out your page are doing so to scout out job opportunities. Don’t disappoint these eager beavers, be sure to take full advantage of this feature – you might just save a few bucks on classifieds (Remember those?).
Is your business already doing all six? If so, pat yourselves on your collective backs – and hit the links! After all, LinkedIn will run the business while you’re out. Kidding! But we’re sure they’re working on it…
March 26th, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Geri Butner. Follow her on Twitter at @geributner.
Several years ago, before the social media craze that is Pinterest was even conjured up, I scoured the internet for a picture to post with a blog at my internship. I had just taken Media Law in college and made an A, so naturally I thought I was prepared to carefully navigate the web to find the perfect, legal fit.
Flash forward to today, when a stock photo company has sent the business I formerly interned at a bill for thousands of dollars, because one of those images was unknowingly posted after someone else had picked it off the stock website 730 days prior. Was there any warning? No. Was there any notification that allowed them to take it down without a fine? No. But, was it legal? Yes.
Welcome to the world of image copyright infringement on the web. It’s a dangerous one, and even seasoned professionals who take the proper precautions can find themselves coughing up some major dough as a result of an honest mistake, or face a legal battle against corporate giants. The most recent wave of copyright infringement battles reminds me of the good ole’ Napster days, when students and professionals alike found themselves under fire for utilizing what initially appeared to be an open resource.
Enter our beloved Pinterest. The beauty of this tool is that it can be very useful for both individuals and businesses, leading many businesses to consider adding it to their social media campaign. But is it too much of a liability? According to Digital Trends writer Molly McHugh, it just might be.
“At the heart of everyone’s inner ‘to pin or not to pin?’ debate lies the question of citation. While Pinterest has made attempts to address this … the site’s viral nature means it’s not entirely able to avoid copyright issues. No matter what, passing around images without properly attributing them is far, far too easy,” says McHugh.
As a result of the major Google copyright infringement case five years ago, technically, Pinterest’s current repinning, reposting model is legal. But detractors argue that because Pinterest circulates full-resolution images (much larger than the thumbnails that were OK’d in Google’s case) there should be new legislation requiring references to the source.
Pinterest does give the public a way to report copyright infringements, but as I learned through my recent experience, some copyright holders simply do not care to give warnings before taking more extreme action.
With this in mind, it seems that the only fool-proof way for businesses to safely utilize Pinterest would be to pin only original images they have taken themselves. Sticking to uploading and pinning original images would still allow businesses to showcase their products, but it does take away from the social, in-the-moment pinning experience that the entire platform is built around.
Do you think it’s safe for businesses to use Pinterest? Would you recommend it?
March 21st, 2012
By Guest Author
This is a guest post by Evan Siff. Follow him on Twitter @Stairway2Evan.
Social media users are most likely familiar with the name Joseph Kony as of early last week, or perhaps they’ve already watched the 30-minute documentary by Invisible Children that has been reported to be the most viral video of all time. My Facebook news feed was bombarded by friends telling me how much I had to watch and share the video and, admittedly, it was hard not to get choked up when the loveable Jacob Acaye is on screen, as the filmmakers did a terrific job playing upon the viewer’s emotions.
I remember reading about the Ugandan Civil War (which has been going on for over 25 years), Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) for the first time in 2006, when I used it as a current events lesson in an English class I was teaching. It was among the most disturbing reports I had ever read, children abducted in the middle of the night and forced to beat their parents to death and/or kill their siblings if they refused to join.
While Invisible Children attest that the purpose of the Kony 2012 campaign is to bring a sociopathic war criminal to justice, it has also drawn some skepticism. The blog Visible Children provides a very critical perspective of the campaign and its founders, and raises some issues that are very… interesting, to say the least.
I believe that Invisible Children is legit and they truly want to bring Kony to justice and raise awareness of the situation in Uganda, but shouldn’t the Ugandan story be told by the people living it every day, and not through Western eyes? Wouldn’t it make more sense to channel efforts into teaching and training people in these situations and under these circumstances, giving them the tools to tell us their stories, empowering them, enabling them to easily and directly communicate with the rest of the world?
By no means am I suggesting that people shouldn’t support or donate money to Invisible Children, but wouldn’t we be better off putting the power of social media and digital communication into the hands of the people we want to help? Groups like Barefoot Workshops, a New York City-based, nonprofit organization founded in 2004, teach individuals and organizations around the world how to use digital video and new media to transform their communities and themselves.
A long-time friend of mine, Ranjan Roy, participated in one of the workshops in South Africa and has nothing but stellar things to say about it. “Barefoot Workshops has the seemingly simple, yet extremely powerful goal of helping teach people how to tell their own stories. They provide filmmaking workshops that are fee-based for those who can afford it, with revenues covering basic costs, but more importantly, they help fund scholarships for South Africans and Ugandans to learn to tell the world about their experiences through video.”
Social media is a useful tool for people to raise awareness of a situation and start a global conversation, but slacktivists tweeting about the Arab Spring and sharing videos on Facebook didn’t foster social change or topple regimes – it was the brave souls who were living under those regimes, risking mutilation and death to organize protests and share what was happening with the rest of the world. Kony hasn’t been active in Uganda since 2005 and has evaded capture to date, while what’s left of the LRA is supposedly scattered around the DRC, CAR and South Sudan. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be brought to justice, but Kony 2012 almost seems ‘too little, too late.’ Perhaps if the Ugandans had had the training and means to capture and share their story in real-time through new media channels, the world’s attention would have been grabbed when it was needed the most.
March 19th, 2012
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