This is the end... practically

The journey through Social Media has been a weird, wonderful and sometimes dark one.  To finish, I went back (not really a future gaze?!) to the beginning to remember why I was doing this subject in the first place.  I am working in the ‘real world’ so how does Social Media fit into the communications/public relations aspect of business?

Here are few quick and simple notes about what I can take away from the various topics and use in a practical manner in my work.

Blogging

Blogging in business would require:

·         Expertise in the area and gaining trust from your audience

·         A real message for your audience

·         An interesting way to grab and keep your audience’s attention

·         Commitment to blogging on a regular basis

Some examples of successful business blogs:

http://www.manrepeller.com/
http://www.deloittedigital.com.au/

 

Mobile devices

Mobile devices are such a huge part of our lives now, people are rarely not ‘connected’.  Any business/communications strategy should consider how to reach and engage people on their mobile devices.

Twitter

The huge and swift take up of twitter has provided opportunities for celebrities to monetise their tweets, providing endorsements for products to a massive audience.  Twitter is also a great way to reach people on their mobile devices if you can encourage them to follow your organisation’s tweets – it helps you to stay at the top of their minds and the short message length can help with making it seem less intrusive than other forms of marketing.  mashable.com has great resources for business tweeters.

Digital Activism

Eeek… Well, in your work, digital activism will most likely be recognised in the customer feedback/ complaint management side and you should have resources in place to respond to it.  Target saw itself as the Target of digital activism when a mum spoke out online against young girls’ fashion.   It is also important to track what people are reacting to in the digital space when thinking strategically.  Berlei is currently running a sports bra campaign, using Facebook – the reactions from consumers on there has not been great and managing people’s negative comments has not been a priority, but this information should be used for future planning.

Politics

Watching politics unfold in the social media space is a great study of public relations strategy.  Lobbying opportunities in the social media space might also be something that needs to be considered in your business.

The Simulacrum

Commerce does flourish in the online worlds.  Matt Ende gives a pretty clear picture of its possibilities and pitfalls.  Should your business consider having a presence in virtual communities?

Produsage

Produsage has been a platform for people to get noticed and to find success - we all know about the likes of Justin Bieber.  User Generated Content can also be used for successful brand awareness campaigns, if managed well.  Advantages include cost-effectiveness, uniqueness and immediate engagement.  Just make sure there are resources to manage it and the legal boxes are ticked.

The dark side of social media?

As previously discussed, there can be a tendancy for people to be cruel when they are able to hide behind the relative anonymity of social media.  Make sure any of your business platforms have acceptable use policies and are properly monitored to shut down offensive or illegal posts.  Mamamia.com.au is a successful website that has included strict terms of use and is constantly monitored.

 

I would LOVE to hear your suggestions about how you plan to get the most out of social media in your professional life!

 

 

Image source: Author unknown, Walking backwards into the future, viewed 10 February 2013, http://creationrevolution.com/2011/05/%E2%80%98the-people-who-walk-backwards-into-the-future-%E2%80%99/

Let's keep things nice - only tweet if you love Cheezels too.

Oh, I’m tired.  I go over the readings, videos and posts this week and I feel tired.   And I feel so sad.  And if I don’t perk up I might get philosophical too.

A ‘Facebook friend’ of mine once posted something along the lines of:

‘Why on earth would a mum send their child to a kindergarten Christmas party with a box of Cheezels?My kids like healthy food. ‘

I got a bit worked up, and, with visions of her children at the last party with fistfuls of Cheezels in their hot little hands and sharing them with no one, I immediately composed a reply:

Five Reasons why a mum would send her child to a kindergarten party with Cheezels

1.       Cheezels are delicious

2.       It is a party

3.       It is Christmas

4.       The dad probably bought them

5.       There is no way that mum is going to try to compete with the mums who bring natural muesli cookies or homemade cupcakes individually decorated like Sesame Street characters

I never posted it.  I told myself it was not worth a fight and my response was unnecessarily passive aggressive.  I was being a bully.  She had her opinions and I had mine, and we actually shared others.  I simply exercised my ability to self-edit maturely and thoughtfully.

I was bullied sometimes when I was young.  And it hurt.  And I got over it.  And I don’t really think of the people who did it.   I also acknowledge that, sadly, some people never get over it and I cannot pretend to understand how it can affect other people or their families.  Thinking of my bullies now, what they could have done with the anonymity and freedom of new social media makes my skin crawl.  I would hope that with age, generally, people realise when they are horrible - and perhaps why – and start to modify their behaviour.  However, social media is a pretty easy place to hide and be mean… Here is a quickand easy-to-find example that took me no time to find.

People like Rheingold dream of a utopian online society, where communities form to the benefit of real-life communities; sharing ideas, making plans, figuring out issues and developing new relationships.  Rheingold does acknowledge though that ‘the fundamentals of Human Nature always scale up.’  This here is my problem – that damn human nature getting in the way – the need for power, the ability to hurt someone for your own purpose, your own survival instinct kicking in.  These always show up alongside the best parts of human nature – even online!  Many people come to recognise them and manage them better as they get older. 

Unfortunately, I do not know how to predict the behaviour of younger people, who’s technology is a vital part of their being (Turkle, 2011), in their online communities.   I do not know how to protect them from the things they might do or experience.  I just want them to be resilient.  As I stand over the stovetop, making my still-small children a lentil curry with organic spinach and brown rice (yeah right), I also start devising strategies to make my children resilient, as well as decent members of society and the human race, as they face a digital-rich future.  All good!

 

References:

Turkle, Sherry 2011, Alone Together : Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, e-book, accessed 3 February 2013, http://swin.eblib.com.au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=684281.

 

Image source: Mayer, P, 2010, Desenhos, viewed 5 February 2010, http://concentrado.tumblr.com/post/718745543/pablo-mayer-desenhos-bullying-digital

Please let me win this one argument, my husband is a lawyer.

You will probably agree, the last couple of weeks have seen me a little bit demented trying to understand, maybe find perspective on, how people use digital media in ways that I have not exploited, or even tried.  Contentious, divisive, unresolved...

Now, Produsage – again, complex, but for me, there is some fun in this!  Where do I even start picking hilarious YouTube clips or photos from blogs where someone has taken something, made it into something else that is meaningful to them and posted it for people’s entertainment  or comment.  Too many to choose from.

 ‘These produsers engage not in a traditional form of content production, but are instead involved in produsage – the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement.’ (Bruns, A 2007)

I do have some questions though. 

Like, how do we assess the knowledge being built – how do we decide what to believe?  Bruns (2007) discusses that the paradigm shift from ‘Industrialist’ information provision to the information age means that we have to make way for and prepare for information to be produced in a collaborative and participatory manner.  To what end?  Do we become a people who says – “I saw on YouTube that it takes 30 times as much energy to boil an egg as to drive your car to McDonalds to buy one.”  Just as I championed the journalism profession, so too will I now champion academia!  I know that academia is adjusting to this new collaborative information age, but there must be checks and balances.  

I am sure everyone else has wondered, as I automatically did – who has the legal rights in the produsage process?  Who owns what?  Who gets credit for what is prodused?

Now I am no lawyer, but I am married to one.  I know…

Aaannnyhooo…  one of his team, a lovely and brilliant technophile, Leanne O’Donnell, who does much work on Social Media, Intellectual Property and Copyright law in Australia and overseas, told me that in the legal profession, produsage is often termed ‘User Generated Content’ (UGC) and says that this topic is under current review in various jurisdictions. ‘Canada for example last year introduced a UGC exception into their copyright law that allows for non-commercial ‘mash-ups’ etc.’

Google’s submission in November 2012 to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) review of adequate copyright exceptions and statutory licences advises that new laws have to include a flexibility and future proofing ‘to ensure greater availability of copyrighted material in socially and economically beneficial ways’  and claimed that the current Australian Copyright Act is ‘blocking creative and transformative uses of copyright works, such as mashups and innovative maps layers.’

This transformative use of all peoples’ content to create, what appears mostly entertainment, is certainly being taken seriously and will be an important part of law reform. 

One last thing. My husband is really lovely!  Oh and it would be great if you could tell me - is this post, with its links to other sources and little pictures embedded in it, produsage?  Is it teaching anyone anything?  Created some value?  You know, I must say, it has been a way to help me learn.  Uh – oh… sorry, it always comes back to that – it is all about me!

References

Bruns, A 2007, Produsage, Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity & cognition, pages 99-106, ACM New York, NY

Image source: Author unknown, viewed 4 February 2013, http://themetapicture.com/when-you-use-a-meme-in-real-life/