Social Media Releases: The New Press Release?

As an education major, I don't have much experience with either press releases or social media releases, so before I began writing this post I did some research. I was curious about the differences (if any) between press releases and a social media releases. Here's what I found...

According to http://www.entrepreneur.com/, a press release is "a public relations announcement issued to the news media and other targeted publications for the purpose of letting the public know of company developments." That seems simple enough. In other words, it's a concise way to let people know about important news that pertains to your company or organization. The same website where I found a definition also offered some tips about developing a press release:

1. Make sure you have a reason for sending a press release.

2. Make sure your release is targeted for the publication you're sending it to.

3. Limit your press release to one to two pages.

4. Follow standart format (typed, double spaced, white letterhead with a contact person's name, title, company, address and phone number in upper right-hand corner).

5. Add a brief, eye-catching headline in bold type.

6. Don't embellish the information.

Those seem like simple rules to follow.

Now that I've learned all about press releases, I want to know what a social media release is and how it differs from a press release. According to http://webprpro.com/prglossary, a social media release is "a new format of writing press releases that incorporates web-based tools for people to share and discuss the information of the release with one another." That makes sense to me. Instead of catering to traditional journalists and news outlets, social media releases are developed for web-based news outlets. The rules for social media releases seem to be similar to the rules for press releases (and I guess they would be because they're basically the same thing only in a different format). Several websites even offer templates that you can follow when developing a social media news release.

So, the confusion has been made clear!

YouTube: The New How-To!

I have to admit up front that I'm not a good cook. At all! Usually when I try to make something (anything really, including those stir fry meals you can get in the freezer section of the grocery store) I end up screwing it up. I can't cook well. Just the other morning I tried to make some cinnamon rolls for a late Sunday breakfast. All I had to do was turn the stove on, place the rolls (the kind that come in a can of course) on a baking sheet and cook them for 10-12 minutes. Well, I ended up with cinnamon rolls that were gooey on top and black on bottom. Obviously cooking is not my forte.

But the other night I was starving and all I had in my refrigerator was cheese and eggs (I am a poor college student after all!) so I started thinking about what I could make with the ingredients I had on hand. I finally decided that I wanted an omelet. Well, you can probably guess from my previous descriptions of my cooking skills, that I had never cooked an omelet before. I knew what I wanted to go in my omelet, I just wasn't completely sure about how to get started. Then I thought of YouTube. Hey, it was worth a shot. Surely somebody had put a video on YouTube about how to make an omelet. Guess what? Somebody had! I found a great video that gave a quick demonstration about cooking omelets. I'm a visual learner, so I needed those visual aids to help me. If you're interested, check it out below!

Previously, I had only thought of YouTube as a place to find funny videos that other people had posted, but now I realize YouTube can now take the place of all those How-To books that used to be so popular. You can learn anything from how to make a paper airplane to how to make out. So the next time you have a question about how to do something, before grabbing a book, check out YouTube. You might be surprised at what you find!

Podcasting and Foreign Languages

When I was in the ninth and tenth grades, I was enrolled in Spanish 101 and 102. I did well in the classes, but I can't say that I remember much about Spanish...except my chosen Spanish name. (I was Catalina!) I didn't have a bad teacher, and I didn't dislike the class. I just never really had an opportunity to use all the Spanish that I had learned, so I forgot it. Well, little did I know that I had a ready made, free, review tool at my fingertips...a podcast. I admit when I use iTunes, I generally download music and don't pay much attention to the rest of the things offered there, but after learning about podcasts, I was curious. In case you didn't know, there are TONS of free podcasts available on iTunes and they cover every topic imaginable from learning a foreign language to discussions about books and authors. It was great!

Just so you know, here's the podcast that I listened to: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/coffee-break-spanish/id201598403

For those of you who are like me and have some trouble with technical terms, here's a definition of podcasting. According to podcastalley.com (which is a great source of information pertaining to podcasts; they even offer links to certain podcasts) a podcast is: a way to get audio content out to publics using an audio player that supports an mp3 format. So for those of us who are learning all these new technical terms, it's like a combination between an RSS feed and an audio file. The best thing about a podcast is it's convenience. If you have an iPod or any other mp3 player, you can listen to a podcast while doing almost anything else. So you're getting information while at the same time, you're getting things done (such as cleaning or exercising). I have to say, I'm beginning to like this idea of podcast!

Forums are "Full" of Information

When I was growing up, one of my favorite TV shows was Full House. I loved it! And I still love watching reruns of the show now. So what does my favorite 90's TV show have to do with our topic of discussion this week: forums? Well, there's a Full House forum that keeps you up to date on what the stars are doing now, how to purchase full seasons on DVD and even games you can play testing how much you really know. Actually there are forums for almost any TV show you could imagine...a few of my other favorites include The Golden Girls and Designing Women. Before I began doing research for this blog post, the only experience I'd had with forums was discussion boards that were required for classes in which the teacher generated discussion topics and we were required to post our thoughts and ideas about the topic. So I guess I was thinking that all forums were like that. I had no idea that forums covered so many topics. I you have an interest (in almost anything), there's probably a forum out there for you.

I like the fact that forums give you a chance for discussion. With most technology, I don't feel like I'm interacting with other people, but forums are different. They offer you a place to express your opinion, but also a place to talk with others about their opinions. I also like that each forum has it's own set of rules. If you read the rules beforehand, then you know what is acceptable to post and what isn't acceptable. That's helpful if you're new to the forum.
Overall, I like the idea of forums and I wouldn't mind re-discovering my old favorite TV shows!

Social Networking...And All My Secrets!

I admit it! I check my Facebook account as often (if not more often) than I check my e-mail account. I'm always anxious to see what my friends are up to today, or to see how someone's day is going or even to vent a little steam. Sometimes, if I have a bad day, it makes me feel better to update my status and hear my friend's encouraging remarks. And Facebook is the only way that I keep in touch with a lot of my friends from high school. But I don't think I'm addicted to it. I could live without facebook, and the other popular social networking sites. I know I use Wikipedia for everything, so I'll use it again for this post too. On Wikipedia I found a list of well over 100 social networking sites...I had no idea that many existed! Needless to say, I'm not familiar with most of these sites. I have a Facebook account and a Myspace account and I've heard of Twitter, but I haven't set up an account yet for that site, so by social networking standards, I guess I'm falling behind!

I do think that social networking sites are a great way to keep in touch with friends and family that you don't get to see that often. I know it makes me feel good when a friend that I haven't seen in a while writes on my Facebook wall, just to let me know that they're thinking of me. And I like keeping up with what's going on in my friends' lives. Actually, Facebook is one of the only ways that I keep in touch with many of my high school friends who all scattered after graduation. But I also think that you have to be very careful about how you present yourself on a social networking site and what you allow others to see.

For example the other night, my car was towed from my apartment building because I had forgotten to put my hang tag back up after I had taken it down the night before. So, when I walked outside and realized what had happened, I was very upset, and I posted my feelings in my Facebook status. On the following Sunday, my grandmother asks me "What happened to your car last week?" First, I was upset that she had found out about it (because her and my grandfather have a tendency to worry about me, so I had taken care of the car problem and not told them anything about it). Second, I was stunned that she had found out (unlike some of my friends, my grandparents have not yet joined the social networking world). It turns out one of my friends of Facebook is a church friend of my grandmother, so at church, the lady had asked about my car. So really these social networking sites just work like one big gossip chain.

I guess my grandmother finding out about my car wasn't such a big deal, but what if it had been something more serious? What if a potential employer had seen my angry status about my car being towed and because of it, refused to offer me the job? I guess what I'm saying is that you never really know who is reading your Facebook posts or status updates, and therefore you have to be very cautious about what you write. Because even if someone isn't reading what you post on your social network site, they may have a friend, acquaintance or collegue who is.

Is RSS really useful?

Really Simple Syndication or RSS is defined by Wikipedia as "a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format." So, you're basically attaching yourself-even more so than with cell phones, twitter and facebook-to a constant stream of information and news. Honestly, I rarely watch the news on TV, much less do I spend time looking it up on the Internet, so I'm not sure that RSS would be very useful to me, but I can see how it would be useful to some people.

If you're a journalist, in order to keep up with the fast-paced, ever-changing world, you need to be constantly plugged in to what's going on not only with your employer but also with rival companies. RSS would definitely be a helpful tool for someone in this position. One example is The New York Times website. It offers RSS feeds from all the different sections of the paper. So, if you work as a rival journalist for the sports section of Newsday, you might be interested to know what the sports section of The New York Times is offering that day. One important aspect of keeping ahead of your rivals, is knowing what they are actually writing about.

RSS would probably also be useful to politicians who need to keep up with judicial decisions, election results and other politicians' political moves. A local politician would probably benefit from subscribing to an RSS feed from the local or state news section of the Montgomery Advertiser.

As a future teacher, I can also see using RSS in my classroom, for projects or essays. Students would be able to have a constant stream of relevant information at their fingertips. As for me personally, I think I spend enough time on the computer without adding a constant flood of information. E-mail is quick enough for my tastes.

A World of Blogs

I should admit that I don't have much experience with blogs. This is the first blog that I've ever created on my own, and the only other blog that I have any knowledge about was created by one of my teachers. I was only expected to post comments on the blog. I had nothing to do with the creation of it. So, when we were asked to blog about blogging, I decided to start with a definition. Wikipedia defines blogging as "a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary." There are no limits about what can be discussed on a blog. And there are no guidelines that have to be followed (as far as content goes, I'm sure blogs are monitored by website managers for inappropriate content, but the creator of the blog can talk about whatever they feel like discussing that day). Blogging is open and available to the world and the world is taking notice of blogs.
After finding this quick definition of blogging, I then decided to search for more information about blogs, and I found a website called DailyBlogsTips that offers information about blogging that is broken down into categories such as blog design, blog projects and blogging basics. I thought this site offered a good overview of the basics of blogging (especially for someone new to the blogging experience).
So what's good about blogs?
One aspect of blogs that I like is the fact that you can blog about anything you want. I love watching movies, so I found a blog that offers reviews and news about upcoming movies: The Movie Blog. But if I loved watching baseball or college football or even learning about the latest fashions, I could find a blog to meet those needs too.
What's not so good about blogs?
Well, one thing that's a little scary about blogs is that anyone can blog about anything they want. And you don't have to be an expert to impart your information (correct or not) to the whole world.
So, if you have something to say and you want the world to hear it, blogging is a great starting point. Those of us who are reading blogs just have to remember that we need to read with a critical eye in order to know what's true information and what should be considered someone's opinion. Overall, I think blogging is a positive thing.