Reading Summary Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Internet and Social Media 

• Characteristics of the new media system: widespread broadband, cheap and easy to use online publishing tools, new distribution channels, mobile devices, and new advertising paradigms
• Internet was first created for academic researchers in the 1960s, widely used in the 1990s by the public 
• How the internet helps public relations
• information is updated quickly without having to reprint materials
• allows interactivity
• readers can dig deeper into subjects that interest them
• no space or time limitation
• cost effective way to spread news
• you can reach markets without having to go through editors
• accessible from anywhere and 24 hours a day
• Social media considered Web 2.0
• “one of the most dramatic, if not revolutions, in history, exploded in 2007
• Blogs- used by people to post opinions or diary like entries, virtually no costs
• Three types: organizational, employee, and third party blogs 
• Facebook and Myspace are essential for PR because they gain consumer insights, build brand awareness, and create customer loyalty 
• Youtube: second most popular search engine after Google, streams about 40 percent of all online videos
• Flickr: photo sharing website that allows individuals to share photos of vacations, personal photos and even their birthday party
• primarily used personally 
• companies are strongly discouraged to sell products on the site 
• companies can use it to generate population and involvement on the consumer side
• Texting: a message sent through a cell phone
• 75 percent of mobile users send texts on the daily
• 90 percent of college students send a text on a daily basis
• Companies uses three levels of texting:
• Broadcast text: send a brief message to all employees at the same time
• Subscription: users sign up to receive tests from groups or organizations 
• “One-off”: cell phone user can send a text message to a source to get an answer
• Twitter: social networking and microblogging site that allows users to post messages of up to 140 characters in length 
• Tips for PR use of twitter:
• Think outside the box: create ways to engage with public 
• Avoid bulletin board syndrome: use it to engage in conversation with followers
• Don’t be a “twammer”: limit the number of tweets you post
• Be committed to updating: good idea to post once a day 
• Use twitter in a crisis: ideal form of communication when there is a crisis or fast breaking news 
• Wikis: collection of webpages that enables anyone to access them and provide input and modify content 
• Podcasts: digital media file that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers 
• Advantages: cost-effective, ability of users to access material on a 24/7 basis, portability 
• Uses for organizations: news about the company, in-depth interviews, features giving consumer tips about products, training materials for employees 
• Web 3.0: researchers predict mobile phones will become mini-computers, news releases will be modified to be read on mobile devices, cost of mobile enabled content will go down which will allow consumers to send and receive vast amounts of information