CHAPTER 4: SOCIAL MEDIA AND YOUR TARGETED AUDIENCE—BLOG QUESTIONS

11)      Briefly define each of the following types of social media sites:

a.       Social networking:sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn help people cultivate a community of friends and share information.

b.      Blogs: personal websites written by somebody who is passionate about a topic, provide a means to share that passion with the world and to foster an active community of readers who provide comments on the author's posts.

c.       Video and sharing: sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Vimeo greatly simplify the process of sharing and commenting on photos and videos.

d.      Chat rooms and message boards: serve as online meeting places where people meet and discuss topics of interest, with the main feature being that anyone can start a discussion thread.

e.      Listservs: similar to chat rooms, send messages out by email to a collection of registered members.

f.        Wikis: re websites that anybody can edit and update.

g.       Social bookmarking: sites like Digg and StumbleUpon allow users to suggest content to others and vote on what is interesting.

h.      Mobile applications: with GPS-generated location services like Foursquare add the component of identifying exactly where each user is in the world. (The new rules of marketing&PR chapter4)

22)      Compare and contrast the concepts of social media and social networking. Which is a subset of the other?

  

      Social media provide the way people share ideas, content, thoughts, and relationships online. Social media differ from so-called mainstream media in that anyone can create, comment on, and add to social media content. Social media can take the form of text, audio, video, images, and communities.

a    a  subset of social media is social networking, a term I use to refer to how people interact on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, and similar sites. Social networking occurs when people create a personal profile and interact to become part of a community of friends and like-minded people and to share information. You'll notice throughout the book that I use both terms. This chapter is about the larger concept of social media, while in Chapter 16 we dive into detail about social networking.

33)      Outline how the author depicts the web as a city in the context of social media.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
        If you follow my metaphor of the web as a city, then think of social media and the ways that people interact on blogs, forums, and social networking sites as the bars, private clubs, and cocktail parties of the city. To extend the (increasingly tortured) analogy even further, Twitter can be compared to the interlude when the girls go to the ladies' room and talk about the guys, and the guys are discussing the girls while they wait.


(The new rules of marketing&PR chapter4)

44)      Outline the various ways people interact using social media when it is viewed as a cocktail party. 

• Do you go into a large gathering filled with a few acquaintances and tons of people you do not know and shout, “BUY MY PRODUCT!”?
• Do you go into a cocktail party and ask every single person you meet for a business card before you agree to speak with them?
• Do you listen more than you speak?
• Are you helpful, providing valuable information to people with no expectation of getting something tangible in return?
• Do you try to meet every single person, or do you have a few great conversations?
• Or do you avoid the social interaction of cocktail parties altogether because you are uncomfortable in such situations?

55)      How was Facebook utilized to drive 15,000 people to a tattoo show in Singapore?

P                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Peters used Facebook as a way for people to connect well before the physical event. He established a Facebook group called Tattoo Artistry.  three months prior to the show. The group grew very quickly, securing a place as the center of tattoo artistry for the region. In a sense, the physical show started with a virtual group. Note that Peters's brilliant choice of the Facebook group name (Tattoo Artistry) was not the name of the event (The Singapore Tattoo Show). That way, the group could build momentum independently of the show and live on beyond the first year.
T     The Tattoo Artistry Facebook group quickly reached 3,000 members and was an important reason that more than 15,000 people attended the first Singapore Tattoo Show—that's three times the expected number of attendees.

66)      Suppose you are recently unemployed and looking for a job. How can social media help?


Y     You also begin a networking campaign, emailing and phoning your contacts and using networking tools like LinkedIn, hoping that someone in your extended network knows of a suitable job opportunity.As people engage with each other on social media sites, there are plenty of opportunities to network. Just like a physical cocktail party, if you are unemployed and looking for work, the people you meet may be in a position to introduce you to that perfect employer. Of course, the opposite is also true: Smart employers look to social networking sites to find the sort of plugged-in people that would fit in at their company or in a certain job. In fact, on the day that I wrote this, a friend asked me to tweet a job opportunity. Had you been watching my Twitter feed that day, perhaps you'd have a new job now.(The new rules of marketing&PR chapter4)

77)      Specifically, how did social media facilitate David Murray’s and Lindsey Kirchoff’s job search efforts?

Murray then hit on a creative way to use Twitter Search in his job search. ‘Social Media Jobs,’ ‘Online Community Manager,’ ‘Blogging Jobs,’ and so on. I then pulled the RSS feeds of these keyword conversations into Google Reader and made it a habit to check these first thing in the morning every day.”

Bingo. Murray came across conversations related to his keywords, and if something sounded like a good fit for him, he took the liberty of introducing himself via Twitter. “Many times when inquiring about the open positions, the jobs had not been officially posted,” Murray says.

How cool is it that on Twitter you can express interest in a job opportunity that hasn't even been announced yet? It's like getting inside information!

Hired. It didn't take long for Murray to land the ideal job as assistant webmaster of client services for the Bivings Group. Several months later, he was promoted to director of social web communications.

88)      Why should companies participate in interactive forums? Are interactive forums good for just when the news about your offerings is bad?

  

        Interactive forums were once seen as insignificant backwaters by PR and marketing people—not worth the time to even monitor, let alone participate in. I've heard many marketers dismiss online forums with disdain, saying things like “Why should I worry about a bunch of geeks obsessively typing away in the dead of night?” However, as many marketers have learned, ignoring forums can be hazardous to your brand, while participating as a member allows you to reap rewards

99)      Why should message boards and online forums be considered a critical part of a company’s marketing and communications strategy?
    
        What's important for all organizations to take away from this incident is that it is critical to respond quickly to situations as they unfold on the web. Reacting quickly and honestly in the same forums where the discussions are taking place is essential. You may not be able to completely turn a negative situation around, but you will instantly be seen as a real person who gives a name and a personality to a large, seemingly uncaring organization. Just by participating, you will contribute to making the situation right. The web's power of linking should ensure that participants who see your posts on one forum or blog will link to them from other forums and blogs, so you don't have to worry about contributing to multiple places. What's important is first getting out there; after that, remember that authenticity and honesty are always paramount.(The new rules of marketing&PR chapter4)

110)   Why should marketers participate in interactive forums?
  
        you can't just stand on the virtual sidelines and post only when you have something for sale or comment about your products or services. The most successful companies come in and provide ideas and advice on a wide variety of subjects and topics in their field. They are full and active participants in the community. Then, when people complain or want specific product advice from a company, they trust the community member more. Active participation can pay off exponentially for companies who are treated as members of the community.
(The new rules of marketing&PR chapter4)

111)   How does collectSPACE facilitate the efforts of collectors of space artifacts?

  

      The collectSPACE community has grown into a network of collectors around the world who share their knowledge of the pieces that they own. The site counts 35,000 registered users (about 5,000 actively post on the site) and about 250,000 unique readers each month. Interestingly, collectSPACE also includes many people who worked in the early space program; they participate in the forums and talk about the history of the artifacts that they had a hand in building. Pearlman says many astronauts read the forums because they are able to get a sense of the market for the memorabilia that they may have amassed over the years and to find out what fellow astronauts are up to on the lectures and appearances front. Astronauts also use the forums to monitor the history of the space program and protect their legacy.