Bonus question answer

BONUS: Who is the most successful Canadian public relations professional? What makes you say this?

For this question, I'm choosing Dan Tisch.

He's the president of Argyle Communications, a well-respected Canadian firm that's been in business since 1979.

I'm choosing Tisch because he started small and he's done a lot of notable things in his career.

He began working for the Federal government and cabinet ministers before working with Environics Communication, then moving to Argyle in a merger.

I chose Tisch mainly because of his current thoughts on the industry. He's re-shaped thinking during a recession. With companies cutting budgets, he's out to prove that PR makes more money for the company than other departments. He's been able to measure economic success for initiatives in his industry. This is important in keeping PR firms open and keeping jobs open.

He also offers sound advice to people trying to break into the industry, telling them to get an education in PR first. That's information I want to hear.

Tisch started small and moved on to big things, to me that's a success. The fact that he's been recognized by his peers in the industry means I'm not the only one who likes what he's doing.

Midterm Question 5

5. What kinds of conversational patterns can you expect to encounter using social media as a PR professional? What will consumers of your content expect? How can you level those expectations?

Social media has done a few interesting things to conversation patterns. For one, Twitter and Facebook statuses have made sentences shorter and statements more direct.

Social media also relies on the master of the interview type of conversation pattern. Media users engage different platforms to test the messages spread by companies, politicians and traditional media. Social media allows them to test the messages by posing questions designed to break down anything that is untrue.

Social media is also designed to get people talking. There are less two-way, engaging conversations because users rarely know each other outside of the Internet. Social media encourages conversations based on short, impersonal comments.

Consumers of our content expect one thing. As Mitch Joel said consumers expect consistency. Be consistent in the message. Now that there are so many messages floating around from so many sources, consistency leads to trust, this leads to you developing an audience.

The only way to “level” the expectations consumers have of us is to use a conversation pattern that involves compromise. Read what is being written about your product or brand and adapt to the needs of the consumers. Social media is based on the exchange of ideas and, for PR practitioners, understanding what the public is asking is the key to a successful career.

Midterm answers. Question 4

4. Who is Jamie Zawinski? How is the role he played & are design principals he helped spread important to you?

Jamie Zawinski is the creator of Mozilla Firefox and other free software projects. He also worked on programming for the earliest versions of Netscape.

He also came up with the idea of software bloat. Basically, he says that internet sites start off as great, small applications that do something really well. Attitudes and the founders try to expand the sites and they become bigger, but not better.

Zawinksi is also important because of what he tried to do with Mozilla. He opened the program’s code up to the public. Users could then make improvements on the program they are using.

Zawinski's opinion of software bloat, in a way, explains social media. The design principle that applications are at their best when they are on a smaller scale. I believe in this, a site like buzzword, which has one major application, is more useful to me than Myspace, which does a lot of things, but none of them particularly well.

Social media can also be judged on this type of principle. Hugely popular sites like Facebook begin as something small and grow into behemouths. This can have a negative effect on user satisfaction and it often convinces its consumers to look use different applications.

Zawinksi also gave the consumers access to the product, and they brought forward the ideas that shaped it. In public relations, practitioners will soon have to work directly with consumers because the consumer is gaining more control over the market every day. Zawinski is a pioneer of the idea that things can be improved if they are put in the hands of the people that use them.

It’s also interesting that his drive to make everyone able to modify source code led to his eventual disillusionment with the computer industry.He gave it all up to open a night club. Zawinski also serves as an example of the problems that can occur when too many people have too much of an opportunity to contribute.

Aside from that, without this guy, I wouldn't be able to post my answers on Squidoo.

Midterm answers Question 3

3. McLuhan used a model with four elements surrounding the term MEDIUM. Touching on the four elements, describe how this model can help us in interpreting social media.

Does the medium enhance a personal trait
Social media absolutely enhances a personal trait. People's sense of community is enhanced through the use of social media. Look at our class, we came in as strangers, and now we're a community of students. This was enhanced through our use of ning, wiggio and other social media as a form of early communication. What interpreting whether or not a social media application is useful or effective, the first thing I look at is whether it helps create a community.

What medium does the new medium make obsolete?
Unfortunately for me, a former journalist, social media is making broadcast news and newspapers obsolete. As I said earlier, anyone can create news. (Even this guy)

The other disappointing part of social media is that it has eliminated the need for face-to-face contact. I can keep a close relationship with people I've never met without leaving my house. This is great for networking, but having to create a personal brand online, rather than having people associate your brand with what you do on a daily basis seems like humans are taking a step backwards.

What does the medium retrieve?
Keeping in line with what I said above, social media has helped people retrieve their own voice. Without the internet, average people had a tough time having their ideas heard. Now, with the social media explosion, there is almost an overflow of opinion. You can find opinions of all sorts, with the click of a mouse. To me, that's what social media should do.

What does the new medium reverse?
Social media has changed the way people communicate with each other. All communication used to be top down and linear. Not anymore.
Now, since everyone has a voice, communication comes from all sides, all levels of people and through all mediums.
This is a great way to analyze if a social media site is working. If people are communicating in various ways, on various topics and there is no heirarchy, then that site is probably worth checking out.

Midterm question 2

2. In Wikipedia: The Truth in Numbers the message seems to be: no longer do the victors write the history books, we do: you, me, and everyone else. How is social media (twitter, blogs) forwarding this idea? What gives someone authority to "write history" and why should we listen to them? Is there a hierarchy of authorities? ie. is what someone like Seth Godin says more important? What should be taken as canon?



Social media champions the idea that anyone can write history simply by giving anyone and everyone that very opportunity. Now, if a major event happens, anybody can write how they feel and post that into cyberspace. It used to be that history came from newspapers, broadcast accounts or literary records. Not anymore. Social media users are recording history without really knowing it.







I agree that everyone should be able to voice their opinions, but I don’t think anyone should have the license to write human history. The authority to write history should come only after meticulous research and reporting to ensure all angles are covered. I’d rather read an encyclopedia than hear Buddy from next door tell me about recent historic events.


The beauty of Wikipedia is that there is no heirarchy of authority. The opinions are anonymous and that's why it works. No one is better than anyone else. As I said, I don't think Wikipedia should be considered exact history, but I like that people have the chance to give their own two cents.

As far as if there is a canon. I think it depends on the issue. There are recognized experts in every field, and they have the experience and have earned their legitimacy. The work of these people, like a Noam Chomsky, will also be more authoritative than any average person's take on things.


Some additional reading I found interesting when forming my opinions. Click here and here.

Midterm question 1

1. In Deirdre Breakenridge's article PR 2.0, Brian Cross discusses how changes in technology will change the function of PR practitioners. In what ways do you think public relations will change and what role will PR professional's play in these changes?

"Today's online audiences will target your brand. PR professionals can go directly to the public. Or better yet, they'll come to you" - Brian Cross

The rise of social media will create a major change in public relations. Essentially, the consumer is gaining more power. Twitter, blogs and other social media are making newspapers and broadcast media less important. Public relations practitioners need to change their approach. No longer will there efforts be squarely designed to work with journalists. Public relations efforts will now be aimed directly at the consumer. Selling a brand now means selling it to single audiences, not disseminating messages to a mass audience through large media.

Public relations officials will be important in helping company’s adjust to this change. Not only are PR professionals the people who will spread the message, but they will also determine who needs to be reach. Scouring industry blogs, relevant internet personalities and social media sites will be required work for those in PR. They need to know what the public is saying in order to figure out who they should target.

Basically, the audience for public relations is changing. Public relations practitioners need to enter this on the ground floor become engaged with social media and target the audience that will be most interested in the message being spread.

This is what Brian Solis says about the idea.

Social media for the sports fan

Did you happen to catch the score of last night's ball game?

Unless you stayed up until all hours of the night, not likely.

Major League Baseball is well into its playoffs and sports fans are treated to at least a game a day right through October. While this sounds good, it's got a downside.

TV schedules and timezone changes mean most playoff games aren't starting until 8 p.m. Throw in games that continuously go well over three hours and few games wrap up before every day fans are in bed.

What does this have to do with social media, you ask. The answer: A lot.

The rise of Twitter, blogs and streaming video means sports fan can know exactly what's happening without watching the games. If you're tired by the seventh, you can get an inning-by-inning breakdown of the action without getting out of bed the next day. Quick hashtag searches mean you don't even need to visit Google.

Social media has changed sports fandom in another big way. All of a sudden, regular fans have new access to the players. Athlete's blogs, twitter accounts and ning posts (just kidding, they don't use ning) let us know exactly how our heroes are feeling. (and apparently who they like to win the Daytona 500).

On a side note. NBA players seem to love Twitter. So much so, it got some of them in some trouble.

It used to be that newspapers and television were the only gateways into a team's games and especially the players. Not anymore. With social media, anyone can be a sports columnists and anyone can post news.

But, what does this all mean. It means you don't have to be glued to your television for your sports highlights. Like never before, the answers are all around us.

I suggest using the time you save to go have a milkshake.