Web – Ellie Lovell

So it seems that a while ago I lost my blogging mojo – turns out it was just on holiday… in Austin! It’s now back in my possession (for the time being) and over the next few days, I hope to have a few SXSW related blog posts for you.

SXSW is a massive festival in Austin, Texas which includes interactive, film and music events. I was there for the interactive element (12th – 16th March) with a great gang of people from the West Midlands and have come back with a few things to say about the experience. I thought a good place to start would be a list of the sessions I attended (with links to the event details on the SXSW website)…

Friday

The Young and The Digital (Book Reading), S. Craig Watkins (details)
Content Strategy: What’s in it for You?, Margot Bloomstein (details)
DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (Book Reading), Anya Kamenetz
Understanding Content: The Stuff We Design For, Rachel Lovinger, Karen McGrane (details)
Wave and Communication’s (R)Evolution: Better Than Being There, Jay Cuthrell, Daniel Raffel, Jared Goralnick, Casey Whitelaw (details)

Saturday

The Era of Crowdsourcing: Guiding Principles, Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Scott Belsky (details)
Universities in the “Free” Era, Glenn Platt, Peg Faimon (details)
Mind Control: Psychology for the Web, Ben Scofield (details)
Opening Remarks: Privacy and Publicity, Danah Boyd (details)
BBC Digital Planet Live, Gareth Mitchell, Michelle Martin, Bill Thompson (details)
New Publishing and Web Content, Jeffrey Zedelman, Erin Kissane, Lisa Holton, Mandy Brown, Paul Ford (details)

Sunday

Africa 3.0: A Look at the Future of a Connected Africa (details)
Influence and Innovate: Transforming Media Education, Cindy Royal, Tyson Evans (details)
CrowdControl: Changing The Face of Media or Hype, Lila King, Pete Cashmore, Randi Zuckerberg, Joseph Kingsbury, Jason Rzepka (details)
Sunday Keynote with Valerie Casey (details)
Fans, Friends and Followers: Creating Your Own Cult (of the Non-Apocalyptic Variety), Scott Kirsner, Gary Hustwit (details)
Improving Social Media with Live Streaming Video, Brad Hunstable USTREAM (details)

Monday

Open Science: Create, Collaborate, Communicate, Tantek Celik, Natalie Villalobos, Ariel Waldman, Jessy Cowan-Sharp, Kirsten Sanford (details)
Indirect Collaboration: Collective Creativity on the Web, Tom Lillis, Joe Alterio, Andrea Grover, Joshua Glenn, Riley Crane (details)
Student Start-Ups: Entrepreneurship in the University, Hung Truong, Ellen Chisa, Ben Congleton, Rishi Naryan (details)
Gary Vaynerchuk Presentation (details)

Tuesday

UKTI Digital Mission Great British Breakfast
Pervasive Games and Playful Experiences: Rendering the Real World, Simon Johnson, Clare Reddington, Nina Steiger, Duncan Speakman, Toby Barnes (details)
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr (Book Reading) (details)
Interactive Infographics, Eric Rodenbeck, Casey Caplowe, Ben Fry, Shan Carter (details)

(The ones in italics were the most enjoyable/relevant to me and I hope to elaborate on them in a future blog post)

It was a rather packed schedule with so many sessions to choose from for each time slot that it was often hard to narrow it down. Sometimes I would find myself sat in a presentation watching the tweets from another session and having a bit of session-envy! Fortunately much of the content should be available online for me to look up but it doesn’t compare to actually being there!

Anyway, I hope to spend a bit of time over the next couple of days hunting for links to presentations online, reflecting on some of the things I learnt, and writing a few things down including the social aspects and some general comments on SXSW and things I would do differently next time… so please visit again in a couple of days (and hope that my blogging mojo is still with me!)

For a while now I have been thinking about the final assignment as part of my CIPR Diploma – the Personal Project. This is a piece of self-directed research into a specific aspect of PR practice and/or theory. It will be a 6000 word research document including a literature review, primary or secondary research, and hopefully some interesting conclusions/implications for public relations.

Over the past few weeks I have been toying with a few ideas that are of interest to me…

1. City Image and Identity: A Birmingham Case Study

How do people develop their view of the city? And how can this be influenced by PR? Who are the Gatekeepers? Who controls the messages – organisations tasked with PR or media? How is the image and profile of a city co-ordinated?

This idea translates the theory of corporate image and identity, organisational culture/structure, the cultural web of the organisation and the organisation’s paradigm (the overall reflection of the culture) would look at how these theories might apply to the wider context of a city.

2. PR2.0: The importance of the web in Public Relations

My original thoughts for this project were something along the lines of: “The pace of change of web2.0 technologies and the growing role they play in people’s lives means that public relations practitioners must really understand these new communications tools and integrate them into their communications toolkit.”

I hadn’t really thought this project through to be honest, I find continual talk of ‘Web 2.0’ a bit tiresome now. I work in online communications and I love my job (and I love the internet) but Web 2.0 is not a new phenomenon and I don’t want to produce a piece of work that is repeating old news. I’m not playing down the importance of social media tools, online community etc but I want to produce a more timely piece of work that will say something relevant in the medium/long-term, not the short term.

3. The Relationship between ‘Brand’ and ‘Reputation’ (in Higher Education)

My latest idea (and possibly my current favourite) would consider the relationship between ‘brand’, typically a tool of marketeers, and ‘reputation’, the concern of public relations. Inspired by Chris Chapleo, Portsmouth University and Justin Shaw, Communications Management, I might go further and focus on the higher education sector and University brands. They presented preliminary findings of some research into “Successful University brands and reputation” at the CASE Europe Annual Conference in Brighton. Their research so far has been qualitative only and I would need to find out their plans for the rest of their research as I wouldn’t want to steal their idea.

Doing a bit of online research on the idea I found an interesting blog by Elliot Schreiber, Brands and Reputation. He says: A Good Corporate Reputation Starts with a Good Corporate Brand

Most communications professionals do not recognize that building a good reputation is directly linked to the relevance their corporate brand has with key stakeholders. Too often, public relations and communications professionals try distance themselves from the term brand, arguing that it is related to marketing and advertising and narrowly focused on products and customers. This is not and should not be the case.

I do worry that my tutor will think this last idea is too marketing focussed so I will need to ensure there is good relevant PR theory considering the relationship between brand and reputation without it just being a discussion of definitions.

So they are my ideas so far. I obviously need to give them some more thought and consider the PR theory that will form the basis for the research and then the original research that I can undertake to produce some new and interesting ideas to contribute to the PR profession!

This afternoon I arrived home from a four-day conference in Brighton – the CASE Europe Annual Conference 2008. For those who don’t know, CASE is for Marketing, Communications, Fundraising and Alumni professionals in the Higher Education sector.

I haven’t got time to write about it all now (I need to catch up on some sleep and rest my brain) but I thought I would just list the sessions that I attended this week so that I could recap/reflect/review them in the future…

Why universities need to engage with the media
Tara Brabazon, Professor of Media Studies, University of Brighton

How do university leaders prevent the “wisdom of crowds” – of blogs, podcasts and social networking sites – from whimpering into mediocrity and banality? Since 9/11 there has never been a greater need for intelligent commentary by scholars to rebuild citizenship and a commitment to social justice. Join Tara to discuss the need to understand the impact of digitisation on the societies we serve.

Developing a brand-focused digital strategy
Helen Aspell, Head of Digital Marketing, University of Southampton; Dean Russell, Digital Marketing Consultant and James Souttar, Senior Brand Consultant, Precedent

Explore how the changing landscape of digital technologies will shape the agendas of brand development into the future. This session will present the results of the recent collaboration between Precedent and the University of Southampton, demonstrating how the adoption of technologies can be made easier with a consistent approach based on business objectives and audiences.

Consumer buying behaviour and the Higher Education decision-making process
Claire Brown, Director of Student Recruitment and Admissions and Matt Smith, Head of Student Recruitment Marketing, University of Liverpool

As prospective students adopt an increasingly consumerist approach to their decision-making in Higher Education it is important that universities understand their key choice criteria and how this may vary throughout the UCAS Cycle. Linking Kotler’s five stage consumer decision-making model to the UCAS cycle, this session reveals research which can be utilised to inform a recruitment marketing communications strategy.

Old school v new cool: How prospective students use traditional, modern and social networking media when picking their university
Eleanor Simmons, Associate Director – Higher Education, Opinionpanel Research

With the media available for prospective students to use when deciding which university to apply to ever increasing, this presentation looks at the role of modern and traditional media and the most recent addition: social networking sites.

CRM for student recruitment – A practical session on how to successfully select and implement CRM
Stephen Macdonald, CEO, Azorus and Susan Vercruysse, Assistant Register, Ryerson University

CRM can appear a daunting technology acquisition when in reality it is a platform to market your institution to today’s web savvy generation. Hear how Ryerson University, a Canadian university operating in an environment similar to the UK, has differentiated itself and gained a competitive advantage by delivering services over the web.

Crisis v “no comment” – how universities tackle the ethics of today’s media
Tara Brabazon, Professor of Media Studies, University of Brighton; Ann Mroz, Editor, Times Higher Education; Peter Slee, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student and Staff Affairs), Northumbria University; chaired by Ian Rowley, Director of Communication and Strategy, University of Warwick

Today’s media is 24/7 leaving Vice-Chancellors and their hard working press officers no let up from the constant demands for comments in newspapers, broadcast and online communications. In a world of no fixed deadlines three experts debate how to get the best out of the media and whether it is ever safe to turn off your Blackberry.

Internet search – the journey has only just started
Richie Jones, Creative Technology Director, Yucca

This session will deal with how people use search, how this has changed in the Google Age and what the future of search could be. We’ll survey paid search (PPC) and natural search (SEO), looking at how the two can be used strategically, and ways to rapidly improve your website.

Successful University brands and reputation
Professor Chris Chapleo, Senior Lecturer, Human Resource and Marketing Management, Portsmouth University and Justin Shaw, Director of HE Practice, Communications Management

What makes a “successful” brand in higher education? In this session Chris and Justin will present findings and discuss the implications of new Portsmouth University research into perceptions (within and outside the sector) of successful university brands. Delegates will also be able to explore reputation drivers for their universities as part of this session.

Harnessing technology to enhance your marketing and recruitment processes
Maggie Frantz, Head of Operations, Hobsons

This session will explore how universities in the UK, US and Australia are using technology to engage more effectively with prospective students. Maggie and a representative from a partner university will explore how CRM systems and innovative use of Web 2.0 technologies can enhance your marketing and student recruitment activities, to convert enquirers into enrolled students.

Closing Plenary
Leadership and team-building in a transcultural marketplace
J. Frank Brown, Dean, INSEAD

The ability to build teams is a necessary skill for a leader. In the international context, building teams with a global point of view is imperative. How do we help the people we work with to transcend the boundaries of discipline, context and country? And what results can we expect if we succeed?

So Twitter has been around for a while and I signed up to it over a year ago, not really understanding how or why to use it. A year on and I returned to my Twitter account as I heard more and more people talking about it.

A video introduction to Twitter from CommonCraft…

This is a very basic introduction to Twitter, and emphasises Twitter as a tool for keeping up with ‘family, friends and co-workers’ but it doesn’t tell us how we can use it to make new contacts, find out new information and other possible applications such as organisational twittering.

The best way to work out how to use Twitter is to start using it yourself. I’ve started using it to follow people in the Birmingham area with an interest in social media, web2.0, higher education, music – all the things that are relevant and interest me. I think your experience of Twitter depends a lot on the people you are following and how much you are prepared to interact. I have found my Twitter community very friendly and responsive and that is what keeps me going back to it. If you are experimenting with Twitter, I suggest you use Summize.com to search for things that interest you – for me it was ‘Birmingham’, ‘Warwick’, ‘University’, ‘PR’ etc. Then look at who they are following and you will soon develop your network. Any other suggestions on how to improve your Twitter network? How many people should you follow etc??

Commoncraft have produced a load of videos on different aspects of social media, social networking, podcasting, blogging etc. Think this one on social bookmarking is pretty useful – can think of many professional and educational uses of social bookmarking.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU

So it seems the weekend is catching up on me mid-week… this could be reinforced by the fact that I have spent the day in London at a CASE seminar (more on that another time) and last week was also busy with Custard Balti Comedy and Ideas Cafe at Warwick! Feels like I haven’t stopped lately so am quite impressed with myself for finding time to blog about it! I had a great (but busy) weekend…

On Friday night I went to see Into the Woods, a Music Theatre Warwick (student group) production at Warwick Arts Centre. It was performed in the Studio Theatre – an intimate little venue that I reckon held less than 100 people in the audience and the quality of the music, singing and acting was great! The best thing about the whole production for me was seeing members of the local community enjoying a Friday night out watching Warwick University students perform! Working in the Communications Office at Warwick, part of my job is in Community Relations and promoting the benefits of the University (and it’s students) to the local community so I really felt a warm glow when I saw some older members of the local community really enjoying the talents of our students.

On Saturday I had a night out in Birmingham for a double 26th birthday celebration – two old school friends (Lydia and Fiona) have birthdays on consecutive days so we went to the Yardbird jazz bar and Jamhouse to celebrate. A few of my friends now live in London so it’s great when there’s a birthday and they return home! What was even better was that I recently bumped into another old school friend that I haven’t seen for 8 years at a Comedy Club in Birmingham! I mentioned the night out to her and she came along with my old best friend from school! The birthday girls didn’t know about the surprise guests so there were shocks and smiles all round which was brilliant! I also had the opportunity to catch up with my friends families which is something I don’t get to do so often now that they live in London! It was really nice to catch up and reminisce about school days, sleepovers and Sutton Girls!

Finally, on Sunday I realised that my mate wasn’t returning to London until Monday so I made a flippant suggestion that Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong were playing Birmingham Academy in case she fancied it. At about 6pm on Sunday evening my mate called to see if I was still up for it and having seen them at Warwick University Students’ Union about a month ago I jumped at the chance to see them again (despite the slight tiredness from the previous night)! The support act, Beggars, were really great as well! Check them both out if you get chance!

A great weekend all round!

I have recently booked to go on a couple of interesting conferences for work:

The Web: A Powerful Recruitment and Communication Tool
Date: Tuesday 20th May 2008,
Organisers: CASE Conference

New Challenges, New Opportunities The Role of New Media in Crisis Communications
Date: Friday 6th June 2008,
Organisers: CIPR Education and Skills Sector Group

The second looks particularly interesting as a guy from Virginia Tech University will be attending to talk about how they dealt with communications around the shooting on the campus in April 2007.

So for our first practise assignment for the CIPR Diploma, we were asked “What contribution does public relations make to modern society?”. I kind of turned this question on it’s head, and instead I discussed “What contribution does modern society make to PR?” Admittedly not the assignment we were given, but something more interesting and relevant to my area of work…

“PR is a relatively new discipline and its role in society is a constantly evolving one. So to are the theories that guide its practice. The profession is continually facing new challenges from developing modes of communication in the Web 2.0 era to an increasingly complex and diverse society who need to be communicated with.

Previous dominant theories that have guided PR practice are becoming less relevant as new approaches are needed to respond to this changing media landscape.

In systems theory, the idea of PR practitioner as ‘boundary spanner’ between organisation and audience is harder to understand as boundaries become more flexible. Cutlip, Center and Broom (2000) emphasise the presence of an ‘established boundary’ between organisation and audience but with increasingly abundant channels of communication across the boundary, the PR practitioner can no longer be was viewed as ‘gatekeeper’ and must become facilitators enabling flow of information.

The 21^st century has seen a massive rise in the number of people publishing content online. Access to new technologies and the availability of web publishing has introduced two fundamental changes for communicators and audiences: who provides information and how audiences get the information they need (Holtz, 1996).

New communications channels such as blogs, social networking sites, RSS feeds, video-sharing sites, wiki’s allow publics to become more discursive and find their own voices and communities who share their voices. The dialogue’s that user-generated content allows is in keeping with more recent rhetorical perspectives.

Heath (2001) supports the rhetorical approach as the primary perspective through which PR should be viewed: “Through statement and counterstatement, people test each other’s views of reality, value, and choices relevant to products, services and public policies”.

Skerlep (2001) also advocates the rhetorical approach as it allows multiple viewpoints to be given on situations, allowing the PR practitioner and audiences to arrive at the truth; “The ‘truth’ can only be reached through argumentative dialogue that reveals which of the participating parties has better arguments” (Skerlep, 2001). By rigorously questioning and challenging statements, we can arrive at the ethical truth. For this approach to be truly ethical, the PR practitioner must be responsive to these multiple viewpoints and not ignorant to them.

As new challenges are emerging for PR practitioners, Mackey (2003) suggests that more traditional PR theories are left wanting. In the globalised world, we are witnessing a more “plural society that is becoming even more postmodern and difficult to stereotype”. New theories of communication are needed that help map the apparently teeming and far harder to see and understand lateral communication between targeted publics and others (Mackey, 2003)

PR practitioners are required to continually address the challenges that are encountered as society evolves, re-evaluating the boundaries of the profession. Whilst this is necessary for its practice it can also confuse the publics understanding of the profession. PR practitioners must continue to look at new challenges to communications whilst re-enforcing the role of the PR professional in society as a facilitator of information exchange.”

References

Cutlip, S. M., Center, A. H., and Broom, G. M. (2000) Effective Public Relations (8^th ed) Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall.

Heath, R. L. (2001) Handbook of Public Relations, London: Sage

Holtz, S. (1996) Communication and technology: The complete guide to using technology for organizational communication. Chicago: Lawrence Regan Communications.

Mackey, S. (2003) Changing vistas in Public Relations theory. PRism 1(1)

Skerlep, A (2001) Re-evalutaing the role of the rhetoric in public relations theory and in strategies of corporate discourse. Journal of Communications Management 6(2) 176-187

Crowstone Dental Care have a great photo on their homepage of a smiley, blonde girl, with really great teeth – a good image for a dental practice… But visit their website, right-click on the image, ‘save image as’ and look at the filename…

Not very professional although rather amusing. Not sure it would be quite enough for a lawsuit for defamation?

There is a chance that when you read this, the image on the Crowstone Dental Care website will have changed (if someone is nice enough to warn them of their error and reprimand the webeditor!) so just in case you missed the joke, the filename was ‘bimbo.jpg’

Lesson: think about what you name a file before uploading it to your website!

I am just reading about the use of blogs in public relations and there are references to ‘clogs‘ (corporate blogs) and ‘flogs‘ (fake blogs).

No one really uses these terms do they?

Ellie Lovell

Bad practice: Bimbo

Too many ‘logs’

Category Archives: Web