Applications and Arguments

Social media and the professional communicator

http://mediapunk.net/2010/06/nicholas-carrs-argument/

Applications and Arguments

Applications• Media & communication

professionals can not afford to be outside the social media space

• Social media is grabbing attention and eyeballs

• Social media represents an important set of new communication channels

• Digital Natives are in this space (our students)

Arguments• We all need some critical

perspectives on social media• Too much of social media

hype is marketing-driven• For too long the digital

utopians have led the charge• Now it’s time for a backlash• The ‘digital sublime’ has

become the digital ‘mundane’

Journalists think social mediais important

Pew Center data and Cision Research 2010

However, with 84% most journalists use information delivered via social media rather cautious as they think it is less reliable than information delivered via traditional media.

http://us.cision.com/news_room/press_releases/2010/2010-1-20_gwu_survey.asp

2008 data on journalists use of social mediaNearly 75% follow at least one blog regularly, compared with about 70% a year ago.

More than 75% of journalists say they use social media to research stories, compared with about 67% last year.

Nearly 38% of journalists now say they visit a social media site at least once a week as part of their reporting, compared with only 28% last year.

More than 53% of journalists now say they visit a social media site such as FaceBook or YouTube at least once a month, up from about 44% last year.

Nearly 19% of journalists receive five or more RSS feeds of news services, blogs, podcasts or videocasts every week, compared with only 16% a year ago.

About 44% receive at least one regular RSS feed.http://www.marketingcharts.com/print/journalists-use-new-media-more-than-pr-pros-think-6900/

Social media in PR practice

• Business to Business• Brand loyalty• Authenticity• Client connections

“There are so many uses — conversational marketing, reaching influencers — that PR is able to participate in conversations and answer questions, be a support system for clients and companies, as well as empowering customers and power users to be a de facto resource for your company, a champion for your products.”

http://mashable.com/2010/03/16/public-relations-social-media-results/

Christina Warren – mashable.com

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/190207

Social media marketing for SMEs75% have a company page on a social networking site

69% post status updates or articles of interest on social media sites

57% build a network through a site such as LinkedIn

54% monitor feedback about the business

39% maintain a blog

26% tweet about areas of expertise

16% use Twitter as a service channel

Nearly 20% of Marketing Dollars Will Go to Social Marketing in 5 Years

Improving brand awareness2. Increase site traffic3. Increasing lead generation4. Improve Customer Service5. Generate new sales6. Generate repeat sales

http://gorumors.com/crunchies/social-media-online-marketing/

Cognitive SurplusFor the first time in history, the amount of television being watched by a younger generation is decreasing rather than increasing annually. Why? Because time is being poured instead into interactive media, and above all into online activities.

Harnessing this cognitive surplus leads to the generation of new content and therefore new real social relations

More than one trillion hours can be harnessed in this way

But: does it lead to better lives and more real interaction

Shirky celebrates the cult of the amateur and the wisdom of the crowd

Shirky does not mind that the clickstream monetized without the amateurs being rewarded financially

"we live, for the first time in history, in a world where being part of a globally interconnected group is the normal case for most citizens".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/27/cognitive-surplus-clay-shirky-book-review

‘In the quiet spaces opened up by the prolonged, undistracted reading of a book, people made their own associations, drew their own inferences and analogies, fostered their own ideas. They thought deeply as they read deeply.’

‘Like our forebears during the later years of the Middle Ages, we find ourselves today between two technological worlds,’ writes Carr. ‘After 550 years, the printing press and its products are being pushed from the center of our intellectual life to its edges.’

Mathia Dempsey

http://www.fancygoods.com.au/matthia/2010/07/09/learning-to-balance-nicholas-carrs-the-shallows-atlantic/

The Shallows

• navigation & evaluation of links distracts the brain from interpretation

• ‘pancake people’ (wide & thin)

• reliance on external memory

• we need data collection and reflection

‘ ‘Try reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle; that’s the intellectual environment of the internet.’

You are not a gadgetJaron Lanier directs most of his ire toward the "anonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks, and lightweight mashups" that flit through our browsers and Twitter feeds. But he's also critical of bigger Internet landmarks, such as Wikipedia, the open-source software Linux, and the "hive mind" in general.

Michael Agger, http://www.slate.com/id/2239466/

The only thing I criticize is the confusion of people with machines. This happens as a side effect of certain designs that depend on all of the above- designs like Web 2.0/Creative Commons/etc. And even in those cases, I have tried to make clear that I am not saying you shouldn't ever use any of the tools I criticize. Jaron Lanier http://www.jaronlanier.com/gadgetcurrency.html

So what?

Social learning• Digital native learning

habits are different

Curriculum• Can we ‘teach’ this stuff?• What are the critical

content areas?• What are the learning

outcomes we’re after?• What is the role of the

academic guide?• How do we need to change

or respond?

today's students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. These differences go far further and deeper than most educators suspect or realize.

Mark Prensky http://www.twitchspeed.com/site/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.htm

Social learning refers to the acquisition of social competence that happens exclusively or primarily in a social group.

Social learning depends on group dynamics.

Social learning promotes the development of individual emotional and practical competence as well as the perception of oneself and the acceptance of others with their individual competencies and limitations.

"I Googled It"

During the study, one of the researchers asked a study participant, "What is this website?" The student answered, "Oh, I don't know. The first thing that came up.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/so-called_digital_natives_not_media_savvy_new_study_shows.php